Farms still hope that sufficient rainfall will allow a good late-summer cut. But overall, filling feed silos is becoming increasingly difficult, the Federal Association of German Dairy Farmers says.
Germany’s Federal Association of German Dairy Farmers (Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter, BDM) fears a critical feed supply situation due to drought, Table.Briefings reports.
There is still hope that adequate rainfall could enable a decent forage cut in late summer and early autumn, BDM spokesperson Hans Foldenauer said, but the gap left by an unusually dry summer — when farms could barely fill their feed silos — remains.
No uniform picture can be drawn for Germany as a whole. While Bavaria classifies the drought as a catastrophe, Lower Saxony’s farmers’ association draws a broadly satisfactory balance. Foldenauer said significant differences can be found even within a radius of ten kilometres.
Overall, however, far less feed is available than in previous years, and those now buying in maize are paying a surcharge of a quarter or more.
The BDM has no evidence that farmers are carrying out widespread emergency slaughter. However, animals are being taken out of the milking phase several weeks earlier than usual and sent to slaughter.
“In many farms, herd sizes that had declined over years were expanded again. They are now partially scaling this back,” Foldenauer said.
Overall, dairy farmers need larger financial reserves to weather such difficult phases without public support — but with the current low milk prices, building those reserves is not possible.
Source: Table.Briefings
