Drought and excessive heat could strain the nation’s agricultural industry. From Florida to California farmers and ranchers have already felt the effects in decreased hay production and waning grazing pastures.

“A big concern right now is hay,” said Sam Holland, DVM, South Dakota state veterinarian. With pastures starting to dry up, ranchers and farmers are already feeding hay to their livestock.

According a National Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS) report in mid-July, 60 percent of Mississippi’s pasture and hay land conditions were poor or very poor. The same conditions could be found in 83 percent of Alabama pastures, 63 percent in Texas, and 61 percent in Oklahoma.

“All the areas around the country that do a lot of winter grazing have been very dry,” John Anderson, agriculture economist at Mississippi State University Extension service, told the Delta Farm Press (deltafarmpress.com). “It’s going to affect the demand side of the market if at least some of these areas don’t get significant rain in time to establish winter annual pastures