Tag Archives: beef cattle

Burke County Brothers at Idlewood Farms Say 2026 Has Felt Like Survival, Not Farming

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Waynesboro, GA |

For Robert and Sid Prescott, two brothers who farm together in Burke County, the 2026 growing season has felt less like farming and more like survival. The Prescotts own and operate Idlewood Farms — an 850-acre Bermuda grass and beef cattle operation known for producing top-quality forage. But this year has tested them in ways they’ve never been tested before.

“Going back to last year, we lost our last cutting of hay — when it got dry in August, we didn’t even get that last cutting. Then we came into April this year with no rain, very little rain in March,” said Robert Prescott. “You start getting just a tiny bit of rain the first of May and see the grass start greening up. You fertilize, and you’re looking at the hay and it’s finally getting right. Well, then we get one more rain and it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re going to have the perfect cutting now.’ Then the last nine days of May, we had nine inches of rain. We had standing water in these fields. We couldn’t even get in them to make hay.”

A SEASON THROWN OFF COURSE

That drastic shift — from bone dry to underwater — threw off everything from cutting schedules to quality. A farm that normally aims for four strong cuttings of hay per season is now far behind pace.

“We try to get four good cuttings — we’d like to see five, but we really shoot for four. This year, we’re still in cutting one, so the whole timeline is off,” Robert said.

“We’re at least twenty days behind schedule — probably about twenty-two days, honestly. Our grass is getting longer, our quality is going to be lower because it’s going to be older hay,” said Sid Prescott. “We might get three cuttings this year, and our numbers are going to be short. We know that already.”

RISING COSTS, FLAT PRICES

That shortfall puts the Prescotts in a tough spot — not just with their own cattle herd, but with the customers who depend on them for hay. And rising input costs are squeezing margins on a product whose price hasn’t budged in years.

“Our fertilizer costs are up about thirty-one percent this year across the board, and our fuel costs are up about sixty percent from last year,” Sid said. “It’d be like spending three times as much money to sell a cake for the same price. Our hay prices haven’t moved in the last seven years. Our inputs are rising and our crop values are the same — so we’re going to start losing money if we can’t produce more yield.”

QUALITY BEFORE QUANTITY

Despite the pressure, the Prescotts say cutting corners isn’t something they’re willing to consider. For them, quality is a promise they’ve made to their customers — and themselves.

“We’ve got to stay true to ourselves. We’re only going to sell our customers products that we know are desirable,” Sid said. “We’re not going to sacrifice quality over quantity. We’re going to try to remain very optimistic and know that we’re selling a product that we would want to use ourselves.”

For Robert, the only way to get through a year like this is to keep moving forward — even when so much feels beyond their control.

“When you can’t control what’s going on, you’re just having to roll with the punches. Well, this year feels like you’re dodging bullets. So many things are out of our control,” he said.

For the Prescotts, the fields will dry out, the cuttings will come, and the season will eventually end. But 2026 has made clear just how much farmers can be asked to absorb before a single bale of hay ever leaves the field.

By: John Holcomb

New World Screwworm Threat Has Georgia Cattlemen on High Alert This Calving Season

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Thomaston, GA |

With the U.S. cattle inventory now at a seventy-five-year low, the industry has little margin for disruption. That’s why the recent detection of New World Screwworms in the southwest is raising serious concerns among cattlemen across the country. The last major outbreak — more than six decades ago — caused losses of as much as ten percent for producers. With calves being especially susceptible to the pest, Georgia cattlemen are keeping a close eye on their herds as spring calving season winds down.

“Getting towards the end of spring calving season, most of our cattlemen around here are seeing their cows every day — and we just need to continue to do that,” said Danny Bentley, an Upson County cattleman. “Once all these calves are born and on the ground, we have to be vigilant. We have to be good stewards. We’re looking for open wounds, navels on newborn calves. When we tag and band these calves — we band them now, we don’t cut them anymore — we try to do it in the first two days of birth so we can see the calf from one end to the other. We’re looking at those weak areas like the navel and the rear end, and checking for things like barbed wire cuts on cows to make sure there’s no infection, no worms.”

REPORT IT QUICKLY

If anything unusual is found, Bentley says getting it reported as quickly as possible is the top priority — starting with a trusted local veterinarian and then moving up the chain to state officials.

“We’d call our local veterinarian first — we have a good relationship with our local vets,” Bentley said. “And then obviously the next call would be to our state veterinarian through the Georgia Department of Agriculture, because they would need to know as well. Right now, this is strictly an animal situation. There’s no harm that could come to any resident of Georgia. Meat is still safe. We’ve got the safest meat in the world.”

A FIRSTHAND PERSPECTIVE

Bentley brings a unique perspective to the issue — he saw firsthand what the screwworm could do the first time around. While the Southeast was less severely impacted than other parts of the country, it wasn’t spared entirely.

“With the animal, you clean those things out. I don’t remember all the specifics, but you sprayed them and doctored on them real well,” Bentley recalled. “With the technology we have today it might be different, but as I recall, the sterile male fly program was what got rid of them — and that’s what made the difference.”

GEORGIA’S POSITION IN THE MARKET

As for the overall concern level for Georgia producers, Bentley says the state is somewhat insulated from the worst-case scenarios — largely because Georgia is a significant net exporter of beef cattle rather than a finishing state.

“So much of ours is going out. We’ve got twenty, twenty-one stockyards in Georgia, and with all the private sales, most of that cattle is leaving the state. We don’t have feed lots here — maybe one,” Bentley said. “So yeah, we’re not as pressed on that side as a lot of producers in other states are.”

Still, with the national herd at historic lows and the screwworm making its presence known again, Georgia cattlemen aren’t taking any chances. Vigilance, Bentley says, is the best tool they have.

By: Damon Jones

UGA Expert Warns Georgia Cattle Producers: Drought Is Threatening Herd Nutrition This Calving Season

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Tifton, GA |

Over the course of several months, much of Georgia has been gripped by drought conditions that have left pastures stressed and hay stocks stretched thin. Now, heading into the heat of summer, that pressure is landing squarely on the shoulders of cattle producers. According to experts, the concern isn’t just the drought itself — it’s the timing.

“If we don’t have rain, we won’t have grass. If we don’t have grass — the main source of feed for cows — it’s not there. So we have to look for other things to supplement or feed the cows,” said Pedro Carvalho, Beef Cattle Specialist with the University of Georgia. “We need to be watching not only the amount but also the quality. If you don’t have rain, the first thing that happens is we won’t have grass — and after that, the grass that is there is going to get worse. So we need to look for strategies and opportunities to feed hay, to feed byproducts.”

THE WORST TIME FOR A FEED SHORTAGE

For many producers, spring calving is either underway or just wrapping up — making this one of the most nutritionally demanding stretches of the year. Carvalho says the drought cut into forage quality and availability at exactly the wrong time, and if producers aren’t careful, the consequences can carry over well into next year.

“What we want is to have that cow pregnant again — to produce a calf every year. In order to do that, we have to make sure those cows have enough nutrients to not only produce milk for the calf they just had, but also maintain good body condition and enough weight to rebreed, get pregnant, and produce another calf next year,” Carvalho said.

TWO THINGS EVERY PRODUCER SHOULD DO NOW

Carvalho says every cattle producer should be doing two things right now: assessing the physical condition of their cattle, and taking stock of what feed and forage they have available — and more importantly, its quality.

“Assess the body condition of your cows during calving, because that’s one of the most important times to do that — and it’s going to determine the success of getting them pregnant again,” Carvalho said. “The other thing is to test what you have available to feed. Not just how much, but what do you have? Test your forage, test your feed, test your byproducts before you feed them to the cows.”

DON’T OVERLOOK WATER QUALITY

Beyond forage, Carvalho says producers should also be keeping a close eye on water sources. Even as some drought conditions have eased with recent rainfall, water quality remains a concern that can easily be overlooked.

“Right now, a lot of cows may have only a pond as their only source of water. Are we checking that as well — and the quality of it?” Carvalho said. “As ponds get shallow, the water is going to get dirtier and dirtier, and the quality is not the same. We need to make sure we are giving the cows enough water, and good quality water.”

For producers looking for additional guidance, Carvalho points to the UGA Beef Team’s online resources at beef.caes.uga.edu, where a range of tools and recommendations are available to help cattle producers navigate drought conditions and nutritional management through the summer months.

By: John Holcomb

One Family’s Love for Beef Transformed into a Thriving Business

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Bostwick, GA

In Morgan County, it’s truly a labor of love for Stan and Vanessa Nabors, owners of Faithway Cattle – a family run cattle operation that specializes in farm to table beef. It was journey they started a few years back when after wanting to make a change with their operation, which, according to the Nabors, turned out to be a great decision for their farm.

“We started with just beef cows, did that up until seventeen, and started then raising beef for consumers. The reason for that was there was just not enough money left over in the calf/cow operation to be able to sustain the farm and make it worthy to keep,” says Stan. “So, we started that in seventeen, and has really been good for us. My wife helped me a lot with that. She’s the one that does the marketing, and it has grown every year. It really has taken off. You know, from the first year we harvested one, to now we harvest thirty to forty a year.”

“We’ve had great reception, the public wanting to know where their food is coming from, they’re wanting to support local, they’re wanting to have that relationship and also there’s a lot of people outside of just wanting to support local and their local farmer, knowing where their food’s coming from, is about the health benefits, so I will say it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done because I didn’t grow up in this, however, it’s one of the most rewarding things that I am doing, and so I’m very grateful for that to provide a good product, a premium product that not only is wonderful in taste but just the health benefits behind it,” says Vanessa.

As they stated, their business has grown year over year, which of course can be attributed to having a great product, but it also has to do with their marketing efforts, which allows them to show their customers who they are as producers and also gives them a chance to share recipes, management practices, and other digital content that helps build relationships with customers.

“What’s important to me about that is to be able to provide a premium product to the customer, that can have a relationship with their farmer and know where their beef comes from and the quality of it that they can expect of it,” says Stan. “The public has really brought it to light, you know, that they need to know their farmer because of all the issues. I think they benefit from it, it’s a good thing for them and for me too.”

“Everyone deserves to have good food and if they choose to want to buy local and know their farmer behind it, I look at that as just an extra bonus too,” says Vanessa.

As for the future, the Nabors say that they have plans to take their operation to the next level but aren’t sure when those plans will take place – all they know is, just like in the past, they’re relying on faith to get them there.

“We definitely want to expand our herd and we are entertaining some agritourism to happen here on the farm and we both would like to have a retail store. Don’t know all the details of how that’s going to look, we both are firm believers and know that we all have a journey here and when it’s meant to be, in the perfect time it will happen,” says Vanessa.

By: John Holcomb