Start Date
10-30-2007 9:00 AM
Description
As all of you know, 2007 has been a devastating year for forage agriculture in Kentucky. The season started with an abnormally warm 7 weeks during late winter and early spring, which promoted lush vegetative growth. Normally this would have been a “good thing”, but it actually made forage plants more vulnerable to below freezing temperatures. Then the severe freeze occurred, with April 7, 8, and 9 the coldest 3 day period in April in KY history. Pastures were stunted for weeks and first cut hay yields were reduced by 35 to 100%. At this point we were still hopeful because topsoil and subsoil moisture was at adequate to surplus levels in most KY counties (Table 1). There was some reduction in pasture condition from April 8 to April 15 (Table 2) as a result of the freeze, but all indications were that pastures and hayfields would recover (Tables 1 and 2 - USDA Agricultural Statistics Service - https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Kentucky/Publications/Crop_Progress_&_Condition/).
Included in
Recovering from the "Freeze" and "Drought" of 2007
As all of you know, 2007 has been a devastating year for forage agriculture in Kentucky. The season started with an abnormally warm 7 weeks during late winter and early spring, which promoted lush vegetative growth. Normally this would have been a “good thing”, but it actually made forage plants more vulnerable to below freezing temperatures. Then the severe freeze occurred, with April 7, 8, and 9 the coldest 3 day period in April in KY history. Pastures were stunted for weeks and first cut hay yields were reduced by 35 to 100%. At this point we were still hopeful because topsoil and subsoil moisture was at adequate to surplus levels in most KY counties (Table 1). There was some reduction in pasture condition from April 8 to April 15 (Table 2) as a result of the freeze, but all indications were that pastures and hayfields would recover (Tables 1 and 2 - USDA Agricultural Statistics Service - https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Kentucky/Publications/Crop_Progress_&_Condition/).