Less acres with irrigation water. Flood or gravity flow, with no pumping expenses. The only way to go!Maybe more acres is the only solution
branguscowgirl":3j5juqx4 said:Less acres with irrigation water. Flood or gravity flow, with no pumping expenses. The only way to go!Maybe more acres is the only solution
Got plenty of hay, been feeding it for over a month. Cows do ok on hay even feeding calves but the calves just don;t pack on the pounds like they do on fresh grass.cowgirl8":2u9s7hsi said:We've had droughts 1980, 1995, 2001, 2005-6, 2011-12.(i know i'm missing a year or two)..Between, plenty of rain. 05 and 11 were the worst years. But, if you prepare you can struggle though it. We now keep 2 years of hay on hand. This year, we have 3 years of hay. Going to build a hay barn this winter to keep reserves in. Right now we have hay for sale at 39 a 1200 pound roll.....in Jan, it will go up. .
In 2011, we weaned in August and didnt have anything over 500..Most were 400 and under. And, they sold for almost nothing because no one could feed them.
A couple of years ago we had a horrible wet spring and summer. Weanings weight were off that year too. I think slow and steady growth of the grass is better for nutional value then the rapid growth washy stuff or the dried up so that it's dust when they walk through it. Just my opinion/uneducated thoughts.greybeard":lx9x3qr7 said:Last 5 months of 2006 was so wet here I didn't go a day without rubber boots on. A little dry the first 7 months but then one morning I woke up to rain, and it just never stopped--rained almost every day, including 18" in 14 hrs one day. Autumn 2008-spring 2009 was a repeat of '06. Lord was it ever muddy around here and I was trying to get a house built.
I have so much water impounded I don't think I could run dry, tho my ponds did get lower than I had ever seen them in 2011.
You probably right--it was so wet then, that most of the content of the bahia and bermuda here was water. They didn't have scour or dehydrate but the poop sure was thin and almost green most of that fall.dun":2cf2hd5s said:A couple of years ago we had a horrible wet spring and summer. Weanings weight were off that year too. I think slow and steady growth of the grass is better for nutional value then the rapid growth washy stuff or the dried up so that it's dust when they walk through it. Just my opinion/uneducated thoughts.greybeard":2cf2hd5s said:Last 5 months of 2006 was so wet here I didn't go a day without rubber boots on. A little dry the first 7 months but then one morning I woke up to rain, and it just never stopped--rained almost every day, including 18" in 14 hrs one day. Autumn 2008-spring 2009 was a repeat of '06. Lord was it ever muddy around here and I was trying to get a house built.
I have so much water impounded I don't think I could run dry, tho my ponds did get lower than I had ever seen them in 2011.
That's pretty close. Around here the saying is you're never more than 10 days from a drought.plumber_greg":3qmsi72z said:I would think in your country, with 3" of dirt then rock, you would be a week from a drought in any given year!!!
gs