Livestock management after the drought

By Matt Reese

It may be a long winter for many livestock producers after a historically dry growing season in 2024.

“Pasture conditions are still mostly poor, especially in east central Ohio and further to the south. We did get some rain out of the hurricane and that greened things up a little bit. And as we look back at that second cutting hay crop in east central Ohio from Fairfield on over to Noble and Guernsey counties, it was anywhere from 20% of normal to a lot of hay that was never able to be baled a second time,” said Garth Ruff, Ohio State University Extension field specialist in beef production, meat science and livestock marketing. “The one thing we don’t want to do is beat our pastures up to a point where they struggle to recover in spring. Instead of overgrazing, look at sacrifice areas, trying to concentrate feeding those animals just to maintain whatever root system is left in the grasses.… Continue reading