Overall feed and forage will be favorable and provide more flexibility for feeder and feedlot cattle operations. Potentially emerging drought conditions are a threat and may reduce production and marketing flexibility.
No matter how cow-calf producers judge the past year – good, just okay or disappointing – there is value in taking some time to analyze the reasons for the outcome.
Drought persists across much of the west and has extended into much of the Great Plains, with several states showing the impact of the drought on hay production and supplies and the challenges for cattle producers.
The vast majority of the 1.6 million acres — nearly 2,600 square miles — that burned in Oregon, Idaho and Washington this year are federally owned, data show, with large swaths of that public land used as rangeland for livestock grazing.