A central Illinois cattle producer says his hay supplies are holding up through the winter.
Chase Brown, who raises Hereford cattle in Macon County, tells Brownfield, “We had a pretty good year making hay, putting up good quality hay.” He says, “Our cows, they’re on some just high-quality hay. If it gets really cold, we might supplement a little bit of corn.”
He says that’s despite the fall drought minimizing his available forage.
“Cover crops were hit or miss.” He says, “It just depended when you got them put on. Some guys got to utilize them. For us this year, we didn’t get to utilize them as a feed source like we would have liked. Mother Nature didn’t cooperate with application.”
Brown says there are other options available if he needs them.
“Of course, here in central Illinois, we are kind of blessed in that we’ve got a lot of options for feed with some of the corn processors locally, a guy can get wet gluten or dry gluten,” he says.
Brown says lower commodity prices have equated to lower feed prices and a profitable period for most cattle producers.
