How’s your grass?

Help Support CattleToday:

Ouachita said:
After last year drought in the summer and fall, and then the brutal cold spell at Christmas, I'm surprised at how good the grass has come on. I ran out of hay first week of March. The grass started to green and I am under stocked, so I was lucky.

By July last year, I had a mess of undesirable plants encroaching. I've always used chemical weed eater on the perimeter fences and certain other areas, but I've never sprayed an entire field.

Drought changes things and introduces new plants. I've managed the forage thus far with pH balance and nutrient. After the last 10 months, I'm changing my tune. Nothing against chemical methods, I've just never needed it.

I'm thinking I will spray soon.
Click to expand...
Define "drought". Starting last summer, we're in the worst drought since the Dust Bowl in the 1930's. Supposed to get at least some rain from tonight through Wednesday morning, but not optimistic and predictions are 2" max.
 
TCRanch said:
Define "drought". Starting last summer, we're in the worst drought since the Dust Bowl in the 1930's. Supposed to get at least some rain from tonight through Wednesday morning, but not optimistic and predictions are 2" max.
Click to expand...
You know better than I do what a real drought is.
I've read your post, Murray's and others and I know that I'm blessed. I'm not rubbing it in, I promise.

The storm systems have been tracking south of you. We have been inundated with rain in the last several weeks. Some folks describe it as a deluge, or a frog choker……….others say it's a turd floater.

I am fortunate to be in this position. You need to start paying the preacher more!:ROFLMAO:

On a serious note; I do hope you guys get some rain.
 
Katpau said:
The last two months have seen temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees below normal. The grass is way behind where it should normally be now, but we are running out of hay so the cows will go out on grass in a couple days anyway. It has rained or snowed almost every day since mid February and the sun has only peaked out a few times, which doesn't help to raise the temperature or encourage the grass to grow. I should be happy after the drought we have experienced over the last years, but that drought helped to damage the roots of the grasses, so the mud is worse than I've ever seen it. We had some sunshine and temperatures in the 60's for the last two days and I started to feel encouraged that maybe we might start growing some grass. We drove the RTV out into one of the lower pastures to check grass growth and this is what we saw. I could count over 50 elk in this group. I have been cutting the numbers of cows because of drought, but it looks like we will need to cut even deeper. We lived here almost 30 years before ever seeing an elk on the place, but in 2020 the Archie Creek fire burned 131,580 acres just to the east and that seemed to have moved the elk down onto the ranches in the valley. Now in addition to a healthy deer population we are competing with them for grazing. The temperatures are projected to drop back into the low 30's at night and maybe hit low 50's in the day next week. Very depressing.

View attachment 28906
Click to expand...
Sorry did not mean to "like" this….lol learning the buttons. I sympathize…we do not have elk at our place YET but we are one fire or one disaster away. The elk are brutal to some of our neighbours. Everything is so slow coming here too…too cold at night. And lots of snow this year but the moisture disappeared in a blink. 😔
 
Farm Family said:
Sorry did not mean to "like" this….lol learning the buttons. I sympathize…we do not have elk at our place YET but we are one fire or one disaster away. The elk are brutal to some of our neighbours. Everything is so slow coming here too…too cold at night. And lots of snow this year but the moisture disappeared in a blink. 😔
Click to expand...
You can just click it again if you want to unlike a post.
 
The bottom fell out here this morning...rains hard for a bit then slacks off then rains hard again...supposed to move out by the end of the day...I think...wish we could have gotten the chicken litter out before this hit...oh well
 
The reservoir is 96% full and there is a ton of snow in the hills that is starting to come off. Sunday they were dumping about 125 cubic feet a second. Today it is nearly 500 CFS. It is 70 today and was over 60 yesterday. The snow level has risen a lot on the hills. Plenty of moisture in the soil and we are finally getting some warm weather to help the grass grow.
 
We finally got .75" this week -- .5" Tuesday and .25" yesterday. Things are perking up with a full week of sunshine and 60-70 degree weather. Branding this weekend so we can start rotating pastures as soon as there is enough grass. Will be fast rotations for a couple weeks to get things going and still have to feed hay to keep the dry matter up. Can still salvage the "sacrifice pasture" by moving out in the next couple days but have to balance that with the condition of the rest of the place. Every bale they have to eat probably grows 3+ days of grass.
 
Not much grass yet . Hopefully that will change after the predicted warm up next week. Many areas of the intermountain west have had record or near record snow fall. Lake Powell is expected to raise 50-90 feet in the next few months.
But it is a double edged sword. Started feeding early and feed later . Hopefully the warm up will end that and all the moisture can be put to use growing feed.
 
We are about to get hit again late tonight or early in the morning. As soon as I said I was going to go ahead and bale the rye grass, the rains came...sigh...need a window of dry weather to get it cut, dried, and baled and get the chicken litter put out...then it can rain as much as it wants. As it stands now, the rains are coming at intervals that are a smidgen too close together...but I am not gonna complain.
 
maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch over the last 10 days. pasture and hay field greening up a little, not much growth with the cold nights near or below freezing until over the weekend. sunny today and mid-fifties and forecast for a little rain this coming weekend. Not really different than normal years for this far north and forecast highs in the 60's this weekend so still feeding hay. could use some thunderstorms and then some sun days.
 
DNelson said:
maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch over the last 10 days. pasture and hay field greening up a little, not much growth with the cold nights near or below freezing until over the weekend. sunny today and mid-fifties and forecast for a little rain this coming weekend. Not really different than normal years for this far north and forecast highs in the 60's this weekend so still feeding hay. could use some thunderstorms and then some sun days.
Click to expand...
Your profile does not say where you are located, would be great if you could add that.
 

Similar threads

ClinchValley86
Grass ID
2
Replies
25
Views
584
kenny thomas
K
B
Questions on Drilling Grass
Replies
6
Views
939
BC
B
Mountaintown Creek Ranch
What's this grass ?
2
Replies
22
Views
1K
snakegap1
S
T
Grass Advice
Replies
7
Views
722
tsellars
T
Mountaintown Creek Ranch
What type of grass weed
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
504RP
5

Latest posts

Top