Missouri livestock producers love their cows and never want to sell them, even when grass and water dry up, says University of Missouri Extension agricultural business specialist Wesley Tucker. Instead of culling cows, they will go to great lengths to find alternative feed sources, including growing and buying things they’ve never used before.
Maybe it’s time to take a hard look at our operations and ask how many cows our fields can sustain going forward, Tucker says.
Tucker, himself an Ozarks beef producer, and other MU Extension specialists are speaking to producers across the state at drought meetings about farm economics and surviving until better days arrive. He discusses the emotional attachment producers have to their livestock and the reluctance to let them go even when they are costing them money.
But even before the drought began, we were already facing higher input costs, including fertilizer, fuel, equipment, labor and interest expenses, he says. “With the rapidly changing environment, we simply can’t sustain the same number of cows we used to. My recommendation from the start has been to drop one-third of your cows.”
Source: missouri.edu
Photo Credit: istock-heebyj
Categories: Missouri, Business, Livestock, Beef Cattle, Weather