http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/

v 2.4.3.0

We have had quite a lot of impacts, especially in the northern part of St. Francois County, most of Ste. Genevieve, Jefferson and Washington Counties. I have also heard issues in Madison, Iron and Wayne Counties. Rains were extremely spotty. I would say I haven’t seen it this bad since 2012 but the spring rainfall did allow for good hay production whereas in 2012 we were not so lucky. - Reports of producers feeding hay in late August and early September. Most are still feeding hay because rains were not substantial enough or temperatures high enough to allow for fall grass growth. - Monday, Nov. 13 I had two producers tell me they had to move cattle because they ran out of water. One from a pond and one from a creek that was spring-fed. - Reports in September of producers hauling water or moving cattle due to low pond levels or no flow in creeks/springs. - 1 producer lost 20 head of cattle early October to possible nitrate poisoning from a weed in Wayne County. - 3 producers reported cattle deaths due to anaplasmosis (not sure this can be completely connected to the drought but cattle were confined to a smaller pasture in some instances). - Reports of little to no fall hay cuttings. Spring hay yield was normal to slightly above average but due to reduced fall yields and the fact that producers are feeding hay earlier there will likely be a hay shortage. Producers will likely feed lower quality hay and cows be in poorer condition coming out of the winter. That in turn will reduce future calf crop numbers. - I performed at least 15 nitrate tests on Johnsongrass in August/September and all were negative. I did have one positive test on sorghum sudan grass in September that hadn’t received a significant rain since July. From St. Francois County, Missouri on Nov. 15, 2017