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South Dakota rancher says hay supply is in high demand even with early spring rains

An Eastern South Dakota cattle producer says hay supplies are tight from drought across the Great Plains.

Alan Vedvei of Lake Preston tells Brownfield “Right now, hay supplies are really short all over South Dakota and Nebraska. We actually last year had to cut a little extra corn silage and then we put up whatever forage we could get like Sudan grass and put up some ruffage and baled some corn stalks and crop residue for feed.” 

He says he’s optimistic about hay for the upcoming winter. “Right now, we’re pretty blessed.  We had some rain last fall.  I know a lot of the country was pretty dry. We’re pretty blessed because we had some rain last fall. We didn’t have much snow through the winter but we had some good rains in April and May so we are in pretty good shape right now.”

Vedvei raises 300 head of Charolais cattle and farms about 800 acres.

He spoke with Brownfield at the 2022 American International Charolais Junior National in Grand Island, NE.