Pastures have never been brown for so long, Iowa cattleman says

Since the dry summer of 2023, drought conditions have covered almost every acre of Iowa, resulting in brown pasture conditions.

Mike Cline, a cattleman and corn farmer in Elgin, Iowa, has been farming for over 50 years. He says it’s been a while since he’s seen drought conditions as bad as they’ve been this year. He can’t remember a time when the pastures have been so brown for so long. 

The latest drought monitor map shows that nearly 100% of Iowa continues to face drought conditions—something that has persisted since the beginning of June 2023. The Dec. 5 drought monitor map shows over 27% of the state is in D3 extreme drought. Nearly 35% is facing D2 severe drought conditions, 22% is in D1 moderate drought, 15% is abnormally dry, and just over half a percent of the state is drought free. 

Although the state has been incredibly dry throughout the growing season, Cline says his corn crop did surprisingly well this year. “We were concerned all summer long with the dryness, and concerned it might be our worst corn crop ever,” Cline says, “but it was above average.”

In fact, Cline says he even finished harvest ahead of schedule this year because of how dry things were. “The crops were ready to harvest quicker.” Cline says he wrapped up corn harvest in mid-November.

While his corn crop yielded above average this year, Cline says the real concern this summer was just how little precipitation there was to keep his pastures from turning brown. “Our pasture conditions dried up as bad as I’ve ever seen them,” Cline says. “The cows were eating brown grass.”

In July, Cline says some good rains came and improved pasture conditions a bit before they got brown again in August. Over the fall months of September and October, Cline says he actually had better grass than he did throughout July. “It was a roller coaster ride,” he says about watching his pasture conditions change throughout the summer and fall.

Despite the brown pastures, Cline says his cows were “getting by okay,” and he didn’t have to cull any more cattle than usual. Cline says he’s seen more cows than normal headed to market, but explains, “we’ve been lucky enough to avoid that.” 

Cline says he was concerned all summer long when it came to determining whether or not he could keep from culling his herd any more than he normally would. He wondered whether or not he would need to chop corn silage to keep his cattle around. 

Thankfully, though, Cline says his hay crop actually was pretty good this year. “Hay supply was fairly normal with how much we need to get through the winter,” he says. He even says he has a little bit of a reserve. 

Having enough hay will be helpful, Cline says, because the body condition on his cattle has dropped half a point due to the challenging pasture conditions. Luckily, though, Cline says he hasn’t noticed any effects on his cows’ pregnancies. 

“We’ll need a little heavier feeding this winter,” Cline says in order to keep his cattle healthy. 

“Hopefully, long term, we’ll be able to come out of this and get into a normal weather pattern this summer,” Cline says.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig offered hope in a late November press release saying, “Following three consecutive La Niña winters, this winter is expected to be impacted by a moderate to strong El Nino, which typically means warmer temperatures and more variability in precipitation. As we head into the 2024 growing season, replenishing soil moisture will be of utmost importance.”