According the the most recent Drought Monitor most of the state is still abnormally dry or in moderate drought. The NNY CCE Team hosted two webinars, that are available for viewing. See note from Betsy Hodge, CCE-St. Lawrence County regarding videos and hay supplies. Bill Halfman, University of Wisconsin Extension provides a spreadsheet Estimating Winter Hay Needs for Beef Cattle that can help you calculate how much hay you will need this winter.

From Betsy:

We may be having a little rain but our pastures and forages are not out of the woods yet. If you missed the pasture drought management and feed inventory webinars we gave recently they are available to watch on-line. The links are here:

Part 1: Managing Pastures in Drought

Part 2: Stored Forages: Winter Feed Supply Beyond the Drought

A great collection of drought resources is in this shared folder: I don’t know how long this will be open to the public so look through and save the ones you want.

Many people have reported to me that they have made way less forages than usual with hay yields down 40 % in some cases. Second cut looks iffy or small so many people are short of feed. It would be a good idea to do a feed inventory and take stock of how many animals you will be carrying through the winter. You may need to buy hay or sell animals or a little of both.

Betsy