Czech farmers cut herds as drought triggers feed crop shortage

Exceptional summer drought has hit Czech farmers ​by reducing grain yields but also harming feed crops, ​leading to scarcity and skyrocketing prices that are ‌forcing ​some to rush to cut their herds, farm representatives said.

Low milk prices amid a surplus in Europe and high fuel and fertiliser costs caused by the U.S. war on ‌Iran have combined with the rain deficit, cutting into farmers' cash flow. Drought in central Europe has seen yields drop, emptying dams and drying wells, and emergency power plant shutdowns due to the lack of cooling water.

"In haylage, we are at about half of ‌the harvest we need to secure our feed stock," said Zdenek Duffek, board chairman of Agropodnik Kosetice, a farm with ‌2,600 hectares of land and about 2,900 cattle 90km southeast of Prague. "This year is very exceptional, because the drought is taking long. There is truly very little precipitation and when it comes, it comes by a millimetre or two, which is not sufficient to provide water for plants."

The cost of ⁠hay for ​Czech farmers has risen several ⁠times, head of the Czech Agriculture Association Chairman Martin Pycha said, adding that trimming herds was a wider response. "The shortage of hay is great. The ⁠price used to be around 500 (per bale), now it is 2,000," Pycha said.

Duffek said his farm - which has about 1,000 milk cows ​and about 600 bulls for meat, as well as calves and heifers - needs about 11,000 tonnes of haylage, which is ⁠made by fermenting forage, per year. Even with about 3,000 tonnes of haylage stock from the last year, the farm will still be short about 1,500 tonnes, ⁠and ​the current prices meant sending bulls to the slaughterhouse early and selling young calf was the best option to go.

Buying feed is not an economical option, Duffek said. "We have to secure the core herd, the milk cows, we have ⁠to give them all we have ... We are reducing rearing bulls, and we are trying to sell out this category so ⁠we do not have ⁠to feed them."

Pycha said the higher supply meant that beef prices were beginning to fall, following other commodities. The sector is facing about 20 billion crown ($968.10 million) drop in revenue for main commodities ‌this year, he ‌said. ($1 = 20.6590 Czech crowns)