October 30, 2007     

  

US southeast cattle farmers sell of breeding stock on drought

 

 

An intense drought that scorched the Southeast this year is going to cost US residents at the meat counter.

 

Weather wiped out hay crops across the region, forcing cattlemen from West Virginia to Alabama and from Maryland to Kentucky to sell large numbers of current and future breeding stock this fall. The region produces some 30 percent of the calves sent to US feedlots and experts predict it will take three years or more for the nation's beef supply to recover.

 

While the US Department of Agriculture doesn't keep regional statistics, market reports for Southeastern states show higher numbers of cattle are going to market this fall.

 

"We have people who are selling healthy, bred, four-, five- and six-year-old cows," says Tennessee Cattlemen's Association Executive Vice President Luke West. "That's their calf crop for the next seven or eight years that they're having to sell."

 

That's been the case at the Jackson County Regional Livestock Market in Ripley. Daniel Mitchell, whose father reopened the auction last April, says the family expected to average 200 to 300 head per sale, but estimates that figure's been closer to 500 to 600.

 

"Everybody's trying to get rid of their extras," Mitchell says. "I had several farmers sell clear out."

 

National Cattlemen's Beef Association spokesman Joe Schule says the sell-off of breeding stock will ripple through the industry until breeding animals are replaced.

 

"You piece all those small producers together, you've got, normally, a very vibrant cattle industry in the southeast region and really a big part of the cattle economy," Schule says. "It's definitely going to continue the stagnation of the cattle herd."

 

That will hurt consumers, Schule says, because supply is a big factor in the price of beef.

 

"The consumer is better off if this industry is growing," he said.

 

Just how much the drought will cost consumers is uncertain because of other factors, such as grain prices, Schule says.

 

The regional economy also is likely to suffer.

 

"You do the math - a nice weaned calf is 600 bucks and if you have 88,000 less of them, it adds up pretty quick," said Mac Stone, who's heading up drought response for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

 

The region's woes started late last winter when a hard freeze damaged hay crops. Then hot, dry weather scorched pastures and hayfields from Morgantown to Montgomery, Alabama.

 

Hay production is down, from as much as 80 percent in parts of Tennessee to 50 percent or more in Kentucky. Much of Virginia, which usually produces three cuttings, got only one this year.

 

Some producers are buying hay from as far off as Idaho, but agriculture officials around the region say most small operations can't afford prices that have doubled to about US$200 a tonne since early summer.

 

To make matters worse, drought dried up pastures, forcing producers to start feeding hay months earlier than usual.

 

Other options such as soy hulls and distillers' grain are available, but Stone says they provide enough nutrition, but lack sufficient bulk to make cattle feel full.

 

"The true full-time farmers, professionals if you will, they saw it coming. They made arrangements for hay, they sold cows," Stone said. "The part-timers, they're not as familiar with how much hay they might need for the winter or they don't have the ability to feed grains or byproduct feeds."

 

Joe Devilbiss Jr., who runs a 200-head beef farm with his father near Thurmont, Maryland, says their hay supply has dwindled to 250 bales - about a quarter of normal. They've stockpiled bales of leftover stalks and leaves, which is less nutritious, but Devilbiss figures he had little choice.

 

"You didn't get your hay like you usually get and you fed your winter hay during the summer because the cows needed something to eat," he says.

 

Virginia cattleman Junior Reynolds, whose cattle normally graze into December, is getting even more creative. The 77-year-old says he's felled two dozen trees to let his cows eat leaves.

 

Alabama cattle growers seem to be suffering the most, says Ron Sparks, commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Industries. While pasture dried up in much of the region, it simply died in Alabama and will have to be reseeded.

 

"We've been hammered here like we've never been hammered before," he says.

 

Some farmers even ran out of water.

 

That's the case on Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin's farm. "My pasture has never been dry before and it's dry now."

 

The region has received some rain this month, but farmers are wondering how they'll make it through the winter.

 

David Coleman, who raises 300 head on his farm about 30 miles southwest of Richmond, Virginia, and helps manage a livestock market in Blackstone, expects things to get worse.

 

"We've got long ways to go. What's going to happen in January and February?" Coleman asked. "All we can do now is hope you got enough to get through the winter."