In Mountain Grove, Mo., dairy producer Michelle Eilenstine is having a hard time finding the positives in the dairy industry. The high temperatures and lack of rain that face south-central Missouri have not only played havoc on Eilenstine’s mind, but also with her corn crop.
“The high temperature and lack of rain put a damper on a good corn crop this year,” she says.
Eilenstine owns and operates Ram-Elle Holsteins and Jerseys. The family grows 50 acres of corn and farms 80 acres in total. On a normal year, the Eilenstine chops corn in the middle of August. While she was able to plant corn on May 2, lack of rain and high temperatures didn’t spell success with Eilenstine’s corn crops. She reports that her corn stood only 2’ to 4’ tall. Knowing it wouldn’t make any grain, the family decided to move forward with getting the crop harvested.
Eilenstine attempted to chop corn last week but reports it was too thin and short to even go through the chopper.
“So now what do we do?” she asks. “We tried something totally off the grid and wet-baled the corn. Fortunately, the crabgrass undergrowth helped to be able to make it work.”
On a “normal” year, Eilenstine says she gets approximately 15 tons per acre of silage, but this year it was only 2 to 3 tons.
“That leaves a huge deficit in tons to feed the next year,” she says. “We are going to plant sorghum to try to get some tonnage this fall.”
The skyrocketing cost of feed worries farmers all over the U.S. Eilenstine reports that over the past two years, her purchased grain cost has doubled, fertilizer costs have tripled, and fuel has doubled.
“Even with $24 milk, our inputs have increased dramatically,” she says.
Severe Drought Unfolding
Beginning in early June, parts of the Midwest started to see well-below average rainfall totals paired with above-average temperatures leading to widespread drought conditions. South-central Missouri has now reached extreme levels of drought. Last week, Missouri’s governor issued a Drought Alert for 53 counties in the state in an effort to combat related issues.
Eilenstine reports that along with no measurable rain from June 1 to July 18 and unusually high temperatures throughout June and July crippled their corn. In May, the weather hummed a different tune, as Eilenstine reports of wet field conditions, forcing them to replant part of their corn crop.
“You have to be creative when it comes to farming to make a plan B and then a plan C,” Eilenstine says.
In the meantime, Eilenstine says that they won’t know the nutrient value of the wrapped corn until late fall or early winter when they begin feeding it.
“We still have silage from last year left,” she says. “We will feed that first.”
