Drought is nothing new. Throughout the past year, much of the United States and Iowa has been in some sort of drought conditions.

When there is a drought, producers are forced to decide the best practices for managing their herds to avoid economic loss. These decisions can be anything from dealing with high feed prices to herd size reductions.

Even with most of Iowa out of drought conditions, some producers are still struggling with the lingering effects of drought. To help these producers, Iowa State University Extension Beef Specialist Beth Doran says they are holding seminars in northern Iowa this week and next.

In the seminars, Doran says they will be helping producers manage through tight feed supplies and depleted pastures.

I've got our crop specialist coming in to talk about repairing pastures and establishing cover crops.  Realize that some of those pastures are very tired, very worn out, and even if we get them repaired, it's going to be maybe a year before they'll come back into their own in terms of growth and yield.

During the sessions, producers can also learn about available federal disaster assistance.

I have Farm Service Agency directors coming in to talk about what financial assistance is out there for cow-calf producers, this is from USDA. I know there's a filing deadline on two of those programs on January 30th and 31st, so we want to do these meetings ahead of that.

Sessions are happening Thursday, next Monday, and next Tuesday. You can find more information on these by visiting Iowa State University’s Extension Website.

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