Drought raises nitrate risks in forage, boosts costs for ranchers

Drought has reduced pastures to dirt. UADA photo by Ronnie Horn

By MARY HIGHTOWER | University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture

With ponds starved by rainless skies and reduced to thick mire by 100-degree heat, some Arkansas ranchers are having to find other ways to keep their herds hydrated.

“Water has become a concern for many producers,” said Ronnie Horn, Washington County extension agent for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. “A number of stock ponds are extremely low, and some have dried up completely.

“Several producers have had to find alternative water sources such as rural or city water for their livestock,” Horn said.

In White County, Extension Staff Chair Brian Haller, said the water woes go beyond simply short supply.

“I’ve heard from many producers saying they have never seen their ponds so low. We have had producers having problems with cattle getting stuck in the mud trying to get to what water is left in the ponds,” he said.

“I have had a report of fatalities of cattle from drinking pond water that has blue-green algae,” Haller said. “Blue-green algae produces a toxin that is deadly to cattle.”

On a more positive note, Horn said, “some farmers are taking advantage of the low water levels to clean out existing ponds and deepen them to improve their water storage capacity for the future.”

For Dana Martin Stewart’s cattle operation, bringing additional water means roughly doubling what she pays to keep the water tanks filled in an already expensive year. The city water supplements what the farm draws from its wells.

Stewart, of Martin Cattle Co. & Livestock in White County, raises Gelbvieh, Balancer and Hereford genetics and competitive show goats. Like other ranchers and farmers throughout Arkansas, Stewart is coping with the persistent and intensifying drought that has not only emptied stock ponds but has also cut hay yields.

The drought impacts are complicated by higher prices for fuel and fertilizer as conflict continues to restrict shipping through key Mideast passages.

“Drought comes at a significant cost,” Stewart said. “As input costs continue to rise and margins get tighter, the financial cost of drought is significant.

“We’re already feeding hay and supplementing cows well ahead of when we typically would during the winter,” she said. “We are paying for water from our local water department to fill livestock water tanks. This can be an additional $1,000 per month for our operation,” Stewart said.

“For our operation as a seedstock producer, our cost of feeding cattle has increased by about 75 percent as drought has forced us to spend more on hay, water, protein tubs and range cubes well before winter.”

Drought

The Oct. 13 U.S. Drought Monitor map shows 94.55 percent of Arkansas with some form of drought. More than 70 percent of the state had extreme or exceptional drought. A year ago, less than half of the state was in drought. At the start of 2026, nearly 70 percent of Arkansas had some form of drought.

To eliminate drought, Arkansas needs between 13 to more than 17 inches of rain, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Jonathan Kubesch, assistant professor and extension forages specialist for UADA, fears the drought may be worse than the maps indicate.

“Unfortunately, drought is under-reported relative to what even the CMOR system is showing,” he said. “We are moving from just concerns with forage production to the availability of clean stock water.” 

CMOR is Condition Monitoring Observer Reports, which provide on-the-ground observations to help build the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Pastures

Horn said that most producers began feeding hay in August, and many were feeding at the same rate they normally would during the winter months.

“Pastures were grazed down, leaving very little forage available,” he said. “This has put additional pressure on hay supplies and increased concerns about having enough feed to get through the winter.”

In eastern Arkansas, Greene County Staff Chair Lance Blythe said that “grass is in short supply.”

“Warm season grasses just stopped growing and cool season grasses are off to a slow start due to the drought,” he said. “Many producers started feeding hay in September.”

Horn said that one of his area’s “biggest challenges has been high nitrate levels in drought-stressed forages, particularly Johnsongrass.

“I have conducted more nitrate tests this year than I have in the previous five years combined,” he said. “High nitrate levels have limited producers’ ability to graze certain fields or harvest them for hay. This has been especially frustrating because some producers have forage available but cannot safely utilize it.”

Johnsongrass is a good quality forage, but when stressed from drought, it can produce prussic acid or can accumulate nitrate, both of which are toxic to livestock. However, unlike prussic acid, high nitrate levels do not dissipate when hay is cut and remain high even in dry hay.

Hay quality and quantity

With so much of the state being without rain, hay meadows struggled through spring and summer. However, “right now we have plenty of hay,” Haller said.

“There was concern earlier in the year, but most producers had two cuttings which is down from a norm of three cuttings,” he said. “Many have been feeding hay for the last two months.”

How long that hay supply lasts “will all depend on how bad the winter will be. If we have a very cold and wintery winter, then more hay will be required,” Haller said.

The warm weather and dry conditions have allowed hay producers to get all their baling done,” Blythe said. “The bad part is that any cool season grasses that have been planted just aren’t growing.”

“I am concerned about hay quality as much as quantity this year,” Kubesch said. “Hay nutritive value seems to hover around 6-8 percent crude protein and 50-55 percent total digestible nutrients with a lot of tests I’ve been sent. Dry cows — those that not producing milk — will be alright, but cows in late gestation and lactation will require supplementation.”

Fighting back

In addition to his extension work, Simon also runs cattle on his family’s farm. He practices what he preaches.

“I travel the state educating producers on how to extend their grazing season,” he said. “I’m fortunate to live on our family farm and can implement many of the recommended practices.

“We utilize electric fence and tire tanks to rotationally graze, as well as plant winter and summer annuals to complement our perennial forage base,” Simon said. “I strive to still be grazing when others are feeding hay.

“This year, using a combination of the best management practices, we’ve been able to survive the drought better than others that are continuously grazing,” he said. “20-plus years of rotationally grazing and resting our pastures has really paid off.”