A southwestern Missouri cow-calf producer is looking to make every penny he can off his beef to combat rising input costs.

Tanner Clark tells Brownfield it’s very difficult to feed $800 worth of fertilizer through a beef cow and make a profit.

“You can’t not fertilize because, you know, you’re not going to have grass, you’re not going to have forages,” he said. “Well, I heard people say, ‘well I’m just not going to spend money in fertilizer, I’m just going to buy hay’ – my answer to them is ‘that’s fine, if that’s your management choice, but just understand, hay is going to be twice the price this year as well.”

The Douglas County Producer said a dry year would spike hay costs even further.

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