WVU Extension is hosting a “Drought Management” educational workshop on the ongoing drought here in the Mid-Ohio Valley next Tuesday, September 10th at 6:00pm at the Jackson County Regional Livestock Market in Ripley, WV. The market is located at 3907 Cedar Lakes Road.
The meeting is a cooperative effort of WVU Extension, Farm Service Agency, WV Conservation Districts, The Natural Resource Conservation Service and Jackson County Regional Livestock Market.
The Mid-Ohio Valley is struggling with drought conditions and feed shortages that are a result from prolonged dry weather. Due to the extended drought, there is little pasture regrowth and many producers are feeding hay.
In a normal year, this hay would be fed this coming winter. Unfortunately, local hay supplies are tight and prices will increase due to more demand.
“Hay will be in high demand this fall and winter due to the drought, and prices are already inflated compared to previous years” explained J.J. Barrett, WVU Extension Ag Agent in Wood County.
“There is little 2nd or 3rd cutting hay locally. Livestock producers can use shelled corn or by-products to replace some of that hay to feed their livestock” he added.
Barrett will be teaching about “Utilizing Corn and By-Products for Beef Cattle Diets.” If farmers are short on hay, one viable option is to limit feed cows whole shelled corn or by-products. Corn is a readily available source of supplemental energy. Limit-feeding a corn-based diet can be a cost-effective option for meeting the nutrient requirements of beef cows when hay is scarce.
By-products such as soy hull pellets, distillers grain, corn gluten pellets and wheat middlings can also be fed to livestock to replace some of the hay in the diet.
The summer of 2024 has been exceptionally dry. Since 1900, West Virginia has experienced several noteworthy droughts, including 1904, 1930–31, 1941, 1954, 1966, and 1988. During the drought of 1930–31, nearly 100% of the Mountain state experienced what currently would be referred to as D4, or “exceptional drought,” for 8 months.
Proper care of livestock is the highest priority when dealing with drought, but farmers should also take this opportunity to implement any needed management changes. Managed grazing practices such as pasture rotation, sufficient recovery periods, and appropriate stocking rates make pastures naturally more tolerant of drought conditions.
Continuously grazed fields will quickly become overgrazed and unproductive. In a rotational grazing system animals are moved through pastures utilizing available forage until no pasture is ready for grazing.
At that time animals are managed in a sacrifice area where they are fed hay. Once rains return well rested pastures will recover rapidly while overgrazed pastures recover much slower.
WVU Ag Extension Agent Daisy Fryman from Calhoun County will be discussing “Sacrifice Areas and Pasture Recovery”.
“Livestock farmers should select one sacrifice paddock or pasture field to feed hay to animals to give other fields time to recover until receive some rain” Fryman explained.
“If you open the gates to all the pastures and the animals eat the grass into the dirt, it will take much longer for forage plants to recover from the drought” she said.
The drought is having a major impact on beef cattle operations. Many local beef farmers have early weaned their calves and sold some animals from the beef herd.
“Many farmers have sold this year’s calves early” explained Daniel Mitchell, co-owner of Jackson County Regional Livestock Market.
“Due to the drought we sold 1,810 head of cattle on August 24th, and 1480 of those were feeder calves. It was the largest sale in our history” he stated.
At the Drought Education Workshop, Brandy Brabham from WVU Extension in Roane County will be discussing “Water Resources for Livestock”.
“Many producers are hauling water to livestock due to drying up of creeks, streams, ponds and slowing flow of natural water springs. High temperatures and heat stress are also causing animals to drink more” Brabham said.
“Farmer in the Mid-Ohio Valley should contact their Conservation Disrtict to sign up for water resource cost share programs” she added.
Due the drought this summer, the Little Kanawha and Western Conservation Districts in West Virginia are offering an Agricultural Enhancement Exigency Program to help livestock farmers. The Livestock Water Supply program covers water hauling tanks, portable water troughs, water pumps, connection/tap to public water, associated fittings and hoses. They will reimburse 50% of costs up to $500.00.
If you have saved receipts for purchased materials, they are doing retroactive payments from June 25. You need to fill out: 1.Cooperator Agreement 2. Ag Enhancement Exigency Program Application 3. IRS W-9 form. Applications are due by September 13.
Currently in West Virginia all counties in the Little Kanawha Conservation District (Wood, Wirt, Ritchie, Roan and Calhoun) and Western Conservation District (Jackson, Mason and Putnam) have been designated a D-3 area (extreme drought). Contact the Little Kanawha District and the Western District for more details.
The U.S. Drought Monitor depicts the location and intensity of drought across the country using 5 classifications: Abnormally Dry (D0), showing areas that may be going into or are coming out of drought, and four levels of drought (D1–D4). More information is available at the US Drought Monitor website drought.gov.
The D-3 designation qualifies livestock farmers for federal funding for USDA Disaster Assistance Programs, including Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP). LFP is administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
This program provides compensation to eligible livestock producers who have suffered grazing losses for covered livestock and who are also producers of grazed forage crop acreage of native and improved pastureland with permanent vegetative cover or acreage planted specifically for grazing.
Grazing losses must occur on land physically located in a county experiencing a qualifying drought during the normal grazing period for the county. D3 (extreme drought) intensity in any area of the county at any time during the normal grazing period is eligible to receive assistance in an amount equal to three monthly payments.
FSA will calculate LFP payments for an eligible livestock producer for grazing losses because of a qualifying drought equal to payment factors of one, three, four or five times the LFP monthly payment rate (payment rates). The LFP monthly payment rate for drought is equal to 60 percent of the lesser of either the monthly feed cost
The LFP monthly payment rate for losses because of a qualifying drought is calculated at 60 percent of the smaller of the monthly feed cost payment rate per head in the table above or the monthly feed cost based on the normal carrying capacity of the eligible grazing or pastureland acres.
Evan Wilson from WVU Extension in Mason County will be talking about “Strip Grazing Hay Fields”.
“Many farmers can use temporary electric fencing to allow livestock to graze hayfields. This saves on diesel fuel and equipment costs to let the animals harvest their own feed.” Wilson said.
Strip grazing involves utilizing a movable, electric fence to allot enough forage for a short time period and then moving the fence forward providing a new allocation. Typically no back fencing is used in this method, and thus grazing should start in the area nearest to the water source to reduce waste due to trampling. Strip grazing can increase forage utilization and decrease animal selectivity.
For more information about the Drought Education Meeting contact me at the Wood County WVU Extension Office 304-424-1960 or e-mail me at jj.barrett@mail.wvu.edu with questions.
