WAGONER COUNTY, Okla. — Jordan Eidson is a fifth-generation farmer who says his family has been farming his land in Wagoner County since 1903.
Eidson says this summer has been especially difficult on his livestock.
"The heat is causing them to stay in the shade all day and not much activity," he says. "Their grass quality is going down. Their protein in it is losing more and more every day, so that’s gonna affect their weight gain and milk production."
Eidson says his cattle need to graze throughout the day to stay healthy enough to produce milk, be sold at market, or used for breeding. But because of these temperatures, they’re laying in the shade. And he isn’t the only rancher facing this issue.
Charlie Coblentz runs a dairy farm with his family.
"There’s not as much weight gain on the calves that are out on grass and there’s not as much milk being produced when it’s this hot," says Coblentz.
This heat is also forcing both of them to take extra precautions when working with their cattle.
"This heat has changed my routine to where I'm getting up earlier in the morning and trying to work with them before the heat of the day," Eidson says.
And they both say the high temperatures has taken a deadly toll on some of their animals.
"We lost a couple of baby cows that we should not have lost if the weather was nice," says Coblentz.
They are also not only worried about their cattle… but their crops.
"We can already see hay production is half of what it was last year. So right there we are already getting set back on hay production feed our cows through winter," says Eidson.
Another challenge Coblentz is also facing…
"We cut out alfalfa for the third time and it was almost not worth cutting and the fourth cutting won’t even exist unless it rains," says Coblentz.
Rain and cooler temperatures are their best hope to get relief for their animals and grow their crops.
"That’s about all we can do here is hope for rain and shade for the clouds," says Eidson.
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