I drove like Rodney Atkins and took the back road to Grandma and Grandpa’s farm. The narrow gravel road seems only a step above a dirt path with a weedy center line. I love that invigorating, countryside drive. I see some of the most picturesque cattle pastures there.
But an unnatural sight hardened the view and stifled its energy. Black cows stood around a water hauling tank on wheels. “The pasture creek must have stopped flowing,” I told the kids. I drove farther and crossed the bridge. Yep. The cattle’s flowing water source rather resembled puddles.
In the same weekend, my husband and I drove to a movie for our quarterly date night. We discussed crops as we passed fields of ill corn plants. He turned bitter. “I just want harvest to be over. I’m tired of looking at this crop.”
This fall we remove the crop and attempt to make this droughty season history.
The general crop outlook across the Midwest proves disheartening. Corn is a grass. Anyone with a yard knows how 
well that grew this year. Yet, livestock may fare even worse. Imagine an animal trying to graze on your yard. Pasture conditions became poor enough that Grandpa fed his cattle their winter hay in July. Meanwhile, the drought deteriorated field conditions, which produces less hay to restock the winter inventory.
Even after the crop harvest, my relatives and friends who own cattle will witness the drought’s physical impact until it weakens. Short supply of hay. Limited water in creeks and ponds. Poor pasture quality. Drivers through livestock country can expect to see more round bales in harvested corn fields this fall. Cattle will need the baled stalks. The government even released parts of conservation lands to bale for roughage.
Meanwhile, pork farmers face struggles, too. Feed carries an expensive price tag, whether high-protein soybean meal or distiller’s grains from the ethanol plant. In fact, a farmer with pigs told me he struggles to make money, and he grows some of his own feed. An economist says some livestock farms will not make it through the financial losses.
At most, some farmers will get out of the livestock business. At minimum, farmers may sell pigs and cattle at lighter weights or reduce their herd size. But I know farmers prove resilient. This may be the worst drought in a generation. Still, the eldest generations strapped onto similar roller coasters before.
The age-old challenge of weather impacts most anyone’s life, from farms to town parades. And like parade tradition, we march on again next year. We will faithfully plant in the spring with hopes that favorable conditions return. The livestock farmers who weather the struggles will expand. I look forward to when that invigorating scene returns to farm country.
Joanie Stiers
Farm woman
Freelance writer from west-central Illinois
For the first time in my history on Schutz Farms (over 18 years) we are considering chopping silage to feed our cattle this winter. During non-drought conditions we utilize wet DDG’s as a part of our cattle feed. It is a by-product of the ethanol making process, it is a nutritional feed and it mixes well with straw. We have purchased the wet DDG’s for as low as $15 a ton with is usually running around $50 a ton. Yesterday we purchased two loads for $120 a ton and it is getting harder to get any loads at all. The dried version, which we use in our hog feed, prices are rising as well.
This year has been unlike any in the recent past. There are a many farmers and ranchers that are selling large parts of their cattle herds because they just don’t have any feed. Their fields won’t have any crops produced, their pastures have no grass, and it is too expensive to purchase enough to feed through the winter. We are lucky that we have corn that is able to be used as wet feed as well as shell corn this fall. Many farmers don’t have that luxury this year. We are trying out different feeding methods to feed our cattle.
Please keep farmers and ranchers in your prayers. We are trying our best to feed our families and yours. The prices of groceries will go up slightly over the next year, but remember even with the drought affecting our food supply, the prices will only go up 3-4%. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that much. It’s also really important to remember that even with the drought we have enough corn in the US to produce food and fuel. We can feed everyone and make ethanol. The by-products from the ethanol are a great feed source! In time the rains will return and a new crop year will begin. Everything will even back out and we will continue to produce the most economical and healthy food supply any country has!
This past week was one of record setting temperatures and traces of showers. Triple digit highs and low humidity was the norm for the week with 108 degree being the highest temp. Isolated showers passed through the region with only a lucky few receiving a trace of rain. Overall it has been another hot, dry week.
There they sat, rolled tighter than a homemade cinnamon roll, and quite larger than Grandma’s baked treats, weighing about 1,500 to 1,700 pounds at a 6-foot diameter.
Nowadays, most round balers are equipped with weather-proof netting, or “net wrap,” which replaces twine and eliminates the extra step of adding a plastic wrap to protect the bales from the weather when stored outside. My farming relatives use net wrap today, but as a kid, our round bales used twine and I remember helping slide those thick plastic wraps onto the bales. It was like putting a pillowcase on a brand-new pillow, except you can’t shake and squish a bale. 
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