Sometimes when you are farming you learn your lessons the hard way. This year it worked that way for me. Late last summer it was exceptionally dry here, instead of getting a second cutting for more winter hay I ended up grazing my fields. I still ended up feeding hay earlier in the year than normal. It was also an exceptionally dry winter.

I ended up not having enough hay to make it through last winter, and unfortunately I wasn’t the only one. I ended up having to travel long distances and pay a premium to get enough hay to make it to this spring. I thought I was out of the woods, as this spring we got some rains and the grass started growing great. I got my first cutting finished weeks ahead of time, mostly because it wasn’t as wet as it usually is here. I also picked up an additional 20 acres of hay ground, so the forecast looked good, even if it was a little dry.

I however didn’t expect a major drought, something on par with 2012. This time however I had a herd of 50 cattle. It is common operation for me to have a stockpile of hay. I usually have a couple thousand square bales in reserve just for a bad situation like this. However I fed those square bales in the 2016-2017 winter in anticipation of switching to round bales. I had planned on putting up a stockpile of reserve round bales on the second cutting in 2017, but ended up having to graze that ground instead.

So lesson #1, always, always have a reserve of hay if you want to run cattle. It can be the difference between breaking even in a hard year and loosing the farm. I am not in that kind of danger as I have other sources of income, but it can definitely put the hurt to your finances.

Since I started haying in 2011 I have always had more hay than I can use myself. I have been picking up additional hay fields and put up a pretty good amount of hay every year. I have been selling this additional hay and using the profit to build my small farm. I started out with one tractor, a Ford 8N and a sickle bar mower, baling with a Ford 530 square baler. In seven years I have moved up to a mower conditioner, a small fleet of tractors and a Ford 8000 with a round baler and a New Holland 310 Square baler. I have some regular customers who buy hay every year, and this spring I filled their barns and even sold some hay to new customers.

So that leads me to lesson #2, take care of yourself before others. I wouldn’t be in any danger if I had kept the hay I put up this spring. I have plenty of land to support my herd, I am not overstocked. I sold my surplus, which ended up not being a surplus after all.

I realized my mistake pretty soon as the rains quickly dwindled and I started feeding hay in July for the first time ever. I still have some grass but I don’t want to graze it into the ground, I am leaving it and hoping the rains will return and it will quickly rebound.

So what does a conventional cattleman do in this situation? Herd reduction, take the worst of your herd to the sale barn. That is exactly what I did, I picked the worst of my herd and loaded them into my trailer and went to the sale barn. Reducing my herd means I don’t have to feed as much hay. Amazingly this drought is in a bubble, the severe drought is in a limited area of Northern Missouri, areas close to me actually have wetter conditions than normal. So the price for cattle has not plummeted too bad. Only one problem, I am not a conventional cattleman, I raise Dexters. Watching conventional cattle go through I was pretty sure I could get $1.50 a lb for my cattle, however the weird cattle deduction was much worse, I ended up getting around $.80 a pound.

That leads me to lesson #3, if you are not a conventional farmer you cannot think like one. In the average year I make more money with Dexter cattle than I would with Angus or Herefords, but my price is the loss of some of the conventional easy to use markets.

So I must reduce my herd some more, there is a good chance we will get some rain late this summer and my fields will rebound, but I am not going to take that chance. I will sell some more cattle and reduce my herd to 30 head or less. So if you are looking for some inexpensive Dexter Cattle or grass fed beef, now is your chance, if you have the grass I have the cattle. All Cattle For Sale Currently