Post-Drought Hay and Pasture Meeting                  

In the Summer and Fall of 2022 we experienced the worse drought conditions that we have experienced in over a decade. Calloway County stayed in a D-4 drought status for over 3 consecutive weeks and 6 weeks total according to the Farm Service Agency. This greatly limited most producers from harvesting an adequate supply of hay. Additionally, I noticed from visual observations that most producers had moderately to severely over grazed their pastures by mid-September and had begun to feed their winter hay reserves.

In the fall I started receiving multiple phone calls on this topic, after speaking with a few members of the Ag Advisory council it was decided that we needed to host an emergency meeting on this topic as soon as possible. I worked with the Ag Council members to develop topics, and select specialists to come speak. After booking the speakers and confirming the date I pulled in cooperating partners from River Valley Ag Credit and the Adult Ag Program to help with set-up and advertising. All of this was put together in less than 24hrs so that notices could be sent out with two weeks of warning. The meeting had excellent attendance and drew in producers from multiple counties and states.