News
Nebraska rancher selling part of his herd for the 4th time in a decade
A Southwest Nebraska rancher says he’s selling off part of his cow/calf herd because of a shortage of high quality grass.
Jacob Miller tells Brownfield he’s received two significant rain events since the spring of 2020 including one earlier this year. “This maybe as green as it looks for the rest of the summer and that’s not saying much right now.”
Miller says liquidations started in 2013 and have continued since 2020.
He says skyrocketing feed costs have also contributed to his decision to sell. “With the hay prices doing what they have and hay being more scarce then what it was, it’s just not feasible for us to feed them through. We’re at the point now where we don’t have a lot of other options to use if we want to try and preserve our grasslands and not damage them.”
Miller says he also grows his own feed, but that’s been a struggle, too. “We’ve planted dryland forage sorghum and, it’s maybe ankle high in the places it’s growing. It doesn’t look like we’re going to have any dryland feed unless we catch some rain here.”
He says there’s little, if any, relief in the forecast with highs in the 100s and lows in the mid 70s.
Jacob Miller:
