Cattle Producers Dealing With Desperate Situation

Jun 08, 2021

Dry conditions continue to create challenges for many cattle producers.

Allan Munroe is owner of Killarney Auction Mart.

"We're getting these little shots of rain that green things up and give us a little bit of optimism but the crops are slow emerging, the pastures are very slow, there's a lot of guys still feeding their cows, not wanting to throw them out on the pasture and damage what is there. The rule always was 'a day in the spring can give you a week in the fall' as far as grazing. Guys are being very cautious but it's just very, very slow coming and we're seeing a lot of action at the market this June that we normally wouldn't."

He notes it's a little bit of survival mode right now, because the feed is not out there.

"You can't just go buy a load of round bales right now. The grass isn't growing. There's a lot of these guys that have been through this before, with talk of 1988 and going back to 1959. You talk to some of the older fellows and it's just a matter of making sure you don't run out and moving some cattle and making those tough choices and those deep cuts early and a head of time so you don't end up completely against the wall with no feed for your animals at all."

Munroe says they plan to put a sale on June 28th because of the high number of cattle booked for the 14th.

Click here to see more...

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER AND GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to hit 10,000 subscribers, and when we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn. Sign up for exclusive access to tickets and details.