In general, pasture and range conditions around the US appear to be better than normal and certainly better than last year, but for some this may not be such a good thing.
Anecdotal reports say continuous rains have meant that nutrients have been leeched out of the grass or alfalfa, first cuttings have not been harvested or have lain out in the rain before it could dry and have been spoiled or at least damaged.
The problem is, hay markets are so disjointed it is difficult to get a good idea of just how much damage has actually taken place.
NUMBERS CAN BE DECEIVING
On Monday, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service listed the average pasture and range condition as 68% good to excellent, compared with 49% last year. However, comparing the amount of good-to-excellent pasture with previous years is not the way it is done, and failure to adjust can produce a false reading from looking at a graph.
Instead, pasture conditions are tracked in just the opposite manner, by measuring the percent of poor and very poor pastures and ranges in the weekly reports. Such data is collected from the NASS reports and compiled by the Livestock Marketing Information Center.
On Monday, the percent of US pastures and ranges that were rated as poor or very poor was 8%, up from 6% the previous week but down from 20% in the same week last year and down from the previous five-year average of 14%.
The weekly uptick in the amount of pasture and range that was rated as poor or very poor should be seen as normal for the week. From here on, the percent of US pasture that is rated this low grows into about the first week of October.
LEECHED NUTRIENTS
Some agronomists have issued advisories to farmers and ranchers to test their new-crop hay for nutrient levels this year. The high moisture environment in which the crops have grown this year may have produced bunk-busting volumes but also may have leeched nutrients from the soils and from the plants.
It can be like taking a normal amount of nutrients and spreading them out over a larger plant. The nutrients may be there, but diluted to the point that cattle can’t get enough of them when they consume the forage later as hay.
Farm publications also have reported that some farmers have had to harvest forages at a later stage of development than is optimal for nutrient capture. Wet fields and/or persistent rains have kept them out of their fields. There even have been reports that first cuttings were so high in fiber that they have been advised to chop it so cattle could utilize what nutrients were there.
In addition, there are reports of weather forecasts being wrong and freshly cut hay getting rained on.
This bears watching.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Cash cattle trading was reported last week at $110 per cwt on a live basis in the Plains down $2 to $4 from last week, and at $182 to $183 on a dressed basis, down $2 to $3.
The USDA choice cutout Tuesday was down $0.10 per cwt at $219.64, while select was down $0.86 at $198.95. The choice/select spread widened to $20.69 from $19.93 with 123 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
No contract delivery notices were served for the Jun live cattle futures contract Tuesday.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Monday was $131.46 per cwt, up $0.05 from the previous day. This compares with Tuesday’s Aug contract settlement of $131.32, down $0.45.