Crop surplus expected this year
Summer is quickly coming to an end, which means harvest season is right around the corner. Here in Mid-Missouri, there is some great news, following the rain that has fallen this summer.
There are nearly 100,000 farms in Missouri, according to farmlandinfo.org. These farms produce anything from cattle to the crops we eat. For these farms to be plentiful, the right ingredients must come together. Valerie Tate, a regional agronomy specialist for The University of Missouri Extension, says that this year has been one of those years where crops are expected to exceed expectations.
“We’ve had adequate rainfall over most of the state,” Tate said. “There are parts of northern Missouri that still are extremely dry; the rainfall has been quite variable across most of the state. Aside from some areas that were flooded this summer, the field crops look like they are doing very well this growing season and we are expected above average crops.”
Tate says the only downfall to this year’s crop is that there is some corn that is suffering from Fallow syndrome, due to the flooding last year, along with the quality of hay suffering from this year’s wet summer.
“Some corn field especially are suffering effects from the 2015 weather still, but for the most part, crops in Missouri in 2016 are doing quite well unless they have been flooded,” said Tate.
As for the hay, Tate encourages all livestock producers to have a hay quality test done before feeding it to the cattle. ABC 17 News reached out to numerous farmers Wednesday to ask them how this year’s hay supply has directly or indirectly affected them, but we never heard back.
