Farmers depend on Mother Nature to work for them and when it doesn’t, it can spell disaster. Minnesota dairy farmer Charles Krause is aware of this, especially as the summer of 2021 produced very little rain for his crops.
Krause, who owns and operated Krause Holsteins 45-minutes directly west of the Twin Cities, finished chopping corn silage on Monday, a month earlier than normal. Then again, 2021 has been far from normal for the Minnesota dairy farmer. The results of an early chopping season due to the extreme drought conditions in portions of the Midwest unfortunately caused Krause’s corn silage to yield two thirds less than normal. “This is the earliest we have ever finished,” he says. “The drought of 88 might compare, but generally we are chopping the middle to end of September, sometimes into early October.”
Milking 300 Holstein cows and raising an equal number of youngstock, Krause thought 2021 was going to be a promising year. “We had faith it was going to rain,” he says. “We planted in almost ideal conditions around the 28th of April, then we had very little rain.”
The day after they finished chopping corn, Krause received 1.5 inches of rain, which ironically was the total amount tallied during May through August. “We really pray this drought is not a long-term situation,” he adds.
The short-term plan for Krause was chopping their entire 300 acres all for corn silage. Normally, he would leave 100 acres for shell corn, but due to the dire situation, he not only chopped it all but also had to purchase an additional 75 acres of his neighbor’s corn silage. All because the Buffalo, Minn. dairy was in a small pocket that was crippled with little to no rain fall this summer. “20 miles east and south are dry, but will probably get an average crop,” he says. “We unfortunately just couldn’t catch any rain.”
Ironically, last year Krause had a record corn silage crop that averaged 32 tons/acre. A normal year for Krause would be around 25/ton acre and this year his yield average was 12-13 ton/acre. “Some ground only totaled 9 ton/acre,” he noted.
Coupled with rising feed costs, Krause knows all too well that his situation is far from ideal. He calculates the total devastation from lack of rain will cost his farm around $250,000. “The cost of what I’m going to have to purchase to replace what I could have had adds up fast,” he says.
Brian Vaassen, Midwest regional business manager with Standard Dairy Consultants was worried that the drought was going to be more widespread throughout the Midwest this year, although he says he has only heard of a few isolated areas, like Krause, that are impacted.
Vaassen offers the following five suggestions for those that find themselves in similar situation as Krause:
- Lean more on commodities: cottonseed, gluten, soy hulls, beet pulp. Try to find something affordable that can also bring in some consistency.
- Work with your nutritionist/agronomist. They will help figure yield estimates and determine what they have and the minimum of what they need. There are opportunities to approach grain producers and buy more.
- If hay is plentiful in some markets, buy hay!
- Look at all diets for dairy, heifers, steers, etc. Can other ingredients be increased and maintain health?
- In some instances, right-size your heifer population, sell steers at lighter weights, or don’t raise steers at all. Look for other ways to reduce your needs for silage, leaving more for the milk cows and their dominant income source.
