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Kansas cattle producer searching for new feed sources amid drought, input costs

A Northeast Kansas cattle producer says drought and record input costs have her thinking outside of the box for alternative feed sources.

“Turnups and radishes are the main ones.”

Tara Fountain raises 150 cow/calf pairs, operates a small feedlot near Manhattan and tells Brownfield a tight hay market has limited her options. “The main one that we’re really trying to focus on and praying for some rain later this fall is the cover crops because it will cover us until the first of the year.”

She says there are other options, too. “Other ways we are trying to bail some straw right now with wheat harvest in full tilt and looking at ways to enrich the straw bales and make that a more viable feed source potentially.”

Fountain with Brownfield at the 2022 American International Charolais Association Junior National in Grand Island, Nebraska.

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