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Drought takes toll on Minnesota dairy

Drought has dried up feed on a central Minnesota dairy.

Charles Krause of Buffalo says his crop suffered greatly from a lack of rain between May and August.

“We harvested about one-third of a normal crop of corn. All of the (corn) we grow goes to cattle feed, so we ended up scrambling towards the end of the season and buying quite a bit of our neighbor’s corn to put up silage.”

He also bought sweet corn from a nearby canning plant.

“It’s going to be one of those years that we’re going to be pivoting and finding new ways to find enough feed for the dairy cattle to eat.”

Krause says margins will remain tight this year, but soil moisture for next year is being replenished with nearly 10 inches of rain so far this fall.