Agricultural News
Serious Cow Herd Liquidation Happening in North Dakota Where Drought Blankets the State
Tue, 20 Jul 2021 08:54:15 CDT
While the southern plains has seen drought conditions be a non event thus far in 2021- cattle producers west and north of our area are caught in severe to exceptional drought at the midway point of the calendar year. One of those states where liquidation has been happening in the last few months is North Dakota- and Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays talked at the start of this week with Megan Overby of the Red River Radio Network from her ranch home near Binford, North Dakota. Overby is a farm broadcaster, but also a rancher with her husband Tanner and they have about 320 mama cows and also farm a couple thousand acres of crops. Their operation is not in the worse of the drought in that state- they are in Severe Drought at this time- but the near term forecast shows 90s to a hundred degree forecast with little chance of rain in the near term.
One hundred percent of North Dakota is currently in Drought- with a dark red spot adding up to about ten percent of the state in exceptional drought here in July.
Overby tells Hays that it has been mostly dry across North Dakota since last fall- pasture is extremely short and the opportunity to raise very much hay has been almost non existent thus far in 2021. On their operation in east central North Dakota, they have culled cows that likely would have been taken to town this fall- and also have not kept any replacement females- opting to only keep productive cows that have a calf by their side- using their feed resources for those animals.
She says west of their operation in central and western North Dakota- the situation is much more desperate. Many producers have had to cull some or all of their beef cow herd. One market that she pointed to was the Rugby Livestock Market, which sits in the bulls eye of the current drought where exceptional drought conditions exist. Several weeks, according to Overby, Rugby sold up to 4,000 cow calf pairs a week as producers had run out of grass.
Click here for a look at that Rugby Sale Barn and the cattle that were sold June 28th there- heavy liquidation being forced on producers in that region.
Today's Beef Buzz is part one of a two part special look at the conditions with Megan Overby. You can also hear our full converation with Overby by clicking here in Ag Perspectives Podcast section of our website.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear comments from Ag Broadcaster Megan Overby.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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