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MO cattle producers weather the extremes

Weather extremes are top-of-mind as cattle producers meet at the Missouri Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show.  

Missouri Cattlemen’s Association President David Dick raises cattle in Pettis County. He says the late-fall rains have helped improve the extreme drought conditions and now, the frozen ground has some snow.

“We’re not as bad off as other areas of the state, but we’re not 100% by any stretch of the imagination.”

Dick says cattle are being fed expensive hay, corn stalks and silage.

“I think everyone got themselves as situated as economically as they possibly could,” says Dick. “Now, how long the winter lasts maybe a bigger telling tale. Can you get to March or through the middle of April? Certainly not to the end of April, but everyone is hopeful.”

He says the below zero temperatures have made it a harsh winter to care for cattle from frozen water tanks to calving…

“For the producers who have calving happening in January or February, it’s just not quite the weather they thought they were going to have I think.”

Conversations move beyond the weather as policy discussions begin Friday afternoon, followed by an update from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and much more over the weekend.