Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) has reported that western and southern Minnesota is experiencing severe drought right now. In fact, in some places herd culling is being done due to a lack of quality feed and farmers are making other operational changes to mitigate future losses in production.
âThere are resources available to farmers, ranchers, businesses, and communities impacted by this natural disaster,â Fischbach said.
On July 15, Fischbach and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) sent a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack urging the department to grant an emergency waiver for haying and grazing on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands in the state.
Dry, hot conditions are also fueling wildfires in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Written By:
Dan Kraker / MPR News | 2:00 pm, Jul. 16, 2021 ×
Corn plant leaves roll up in response to drought and heat as the plant tries to conserve moisture. Photo taken June 22, 2021, near Frazee, Minn. (Dan Gunderson / MPR News File)
Rachel Gray and her family raise beef cattle on their farm in Blackduck, in Beltrami County, in far north-central Minnesota.
Right now she says they re grazing about 500 heifers, along with 17 bulls. But she said that s not going to last much longer. We are currently running out of pasture even though we ve been very careful to manage those areas,” said Gray. “It is like nothing we have seen up here.
Goodhue County farmer forced to sell cattle because of drought
Unmute
The drought has some deciding to go into early retirement or sell their animals.
“These cows should be in grass that should be up to my waist and it’s down at my ankles. It’s just not growing,” said Katie Brenny, of Brenny Farms.
Brenny Farms has 25 cows, a bull and a donkey. She runs the farm with her husband, and the couple is fifth-generation farmers. They raise the cows for beef.
Farmer Katie Brenny
“We have the white cows behind me which are Charolais. And the black cows are Angus,” Brenny said.
We re to the point where anything helps : Drought hits Minnesota farmers, ranchers hard duluthnewstribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from duluthnewstribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
We re to the point where anything helps : Drought hits Minnesota farmers, ranchers hard dl-online.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dl-online.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.