Drought cuts feed supplies for livestock in Styria

Ongoing drought has left many farm animals in Styria with significantly less feed, ORF Steiermark reports. Grass is growing more slowly and is less nutritious than usual, including on Alpine pastures, prompting more farmers to consider bringing their animals down early.

Sheep and cattle usually find enough nutritious feed on the Styrian pastures to return to the valleys well-fed in autumn. The animals also help prevent the pastures from becoming overgrown.

But much less feed is growing at higher altitudes this year, said Rudolf Grabner of the Chamber of Agriculture. “The animals will survive, but they will not gain as much weight,” he said.

About 40,000 cattle and 7,000 sheep are currently on Styrian Alpine pastures. So far, only isolated cases of animals being brought down early have been reported, as most have still found enough feed. The next two to three weeks will be decisive. If there is not enough rain, an early return to the valleys will probably be unavoidable.

Feeding the animals afterwards will also be difficult because drought has made feed scarce and expensive. Farmers must decide which animals to take into winter and whether to sell some of them. That is difficult because there is already a large supply of cattle for slaughter.

Marcher Fleischwerke, a meat-processing company in Graz, also reported above-average capacity utilisation to ORF Steiermark. The increased supply of meat has caused the price of beef, which had recently been high, to fall again in recent weeks.