Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The drought has reached the cattle shed. A single bundle of jowar straw in the district is now selling for Rs 50.
That is a figure from the fodder market, but it lands in a farmer's household budget. The daily cost of feed is set by the price of a bundle, and that price is now climbing faster than the price of milk.
Dry fodder stored from last year is running out. Households that laid in a stock are seeing their stores empty. Those who did not are left with the market.
Livestock-keeping farmers say the arithmetic no longer works. Milk prices have held, fodder prices have not.
The weather forecast offers nothing. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Beed, Latur, Dharashiv, Nanded and Parbhani are all expected to stay dry, with no rain alert for the region.
Dry weather pushes the next fodder crop further away. A crop that does not come up does not feed anything.
Jowar straw is the region's main dry fodder, and its price moves straight against the price of milk.
The squeeze falls hardest on small holdings. Large sheds can buy through the spike. A family with two or four animals faces a daily cost that behaves like a wall.
Selling animals is the decision that follows in this season, and it is the one that shows up a year later as lower milk production in the district.
No official information has come yet on when cattle fodder camps will open in the district, or how many animals they will cover. That is the question farmers are asking.