From the Barns: Drought a real concern

I just finished reading my Illinois AgriNews issue for Nov. 7. With Veterans Day approaching it was so appropriate to see the entire front page, and much of the newspaper, covered with articles recognizing the service of veterans now engaged in agriculture. My compliments to the authors of those pieces — mainly Martha Blum and Tom Doran. Well done, faithful patriots.

I am a proud veteran of the U.S. Army, by way of ROTC at the University of Iowa. Few remember that all able-bodied males were required to do two years of ROTC in land-grant colleges back in the day. That experience was a significant factor in shaping my life skills. I am ever grateful and, as expressed in several of the articles, during those times was very often thinking about life back here at River Oak. Just another time when life in agriculture that we treasure so much was always on our minds, whether we were actually in place or not.

Just glad to not lead off with a paragraph on weather again. Although, it is weighing heavily on our minds. All the row crops are long gone here and too much tillage has taken place again this year. I haven’t heard much about yields, maybe because they are very good and there is nothing to complain about. A bigger question is: does everybody realize how significant this drought is becoming? We have been in this pattern now for three years, not just 2025 — hot, dry periods with lots of strong drying winds and a lack of snow to make up for deficiency from the rest of the season.

We began stockpiling our fescue pastures for winter grazing on our usual schedule, beginning Aug. 1 and finishing not later than Sept. 1. But we have far less growth here in 2025 to winter graze. It seems to have been less and less the last three years. It looks like that grazing can begin after this next week as record low temperatures are forecast. I am writing about that because there is no better grazing scenario than stockpiled fescue in November, December and January, or even February.

Since last month’s report, a heavy frost on Oct. 17 ended our sorghum-sudangrass grazing for 2025. This timing was near perfect, as the remaining steers were just finishing off the last paddock. So, their movement to the sacrifice paddock for hay and distillers was right for grazing management and to prevent any problems the frost might have caused with prussic acid poisoning.

The only negative to report in those sorghum-sudangrass paddocks is that our rye and kale drilled in after the next to last third rotation hasn’t grown much. Maybe we expected too much to think we might get some fall grazing days, but I feel like our drought is the real problem there. Surely, the spring grazing may make up for that. Oh, and yes, I will be working on the numbers to evaluate our sorghum-sudangrass custom grazing project on our row-crop acres. It will take some time, but I hope to have that published by the end of the year.

Well, as I get ready to end this for another month, even though things seem to be in more turmoil than ever, we still have so much for which to be thankful. So, enjoy your family and friends and have a truly thankful Thanksgiving. And, most of all, stay safe and sane.