tex452
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How’s your grass?
- Thread starter Hogfarmer10
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Help Support CattleToday:
Its still too wet to shred most places around our ranch. Hunters with hunting plots are not going to know what to do when they come out in Sept to get their feeders ready....lol... I mowed over some 6ft pigweed, in a place i mowed a month ago. I've been watching one guys place down the road go from, that needs baled to holy crap. It has a great stand of a locus forest.
We're baling the solar farm again, but was contacted yesterday that they'll be in full construction soon. So, we'll be done with most of it. We'll get a lot of hay and surprisingly, most of it has sold before we've even baled it. This year its really good hay. We drove through it the other day and it was so good to see good stuff..
We're baling the solar farm again, but was contacted yesterday that they'll be in full construction soon. So, we'll be done with most of it. We'll get a lot of hay and surprisingly, most of it has sold before we've even baled it. This year its really good hay. We drove through it the other day and it was so good to see good stuff..
1982vett
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Not near that bad here although we haven't had any rain since June 11th. We've had 26.7 inches this year. That's almost double what we got in 2011. We got the entire 2011 rainfall amount in April alone. I'll say the temps may be worse but I kind of remember it being HOT in too.
Problem with 2011 is we were short 12 inches of rain coming out of 2010.
We got 11 inches of rain 2011... I have PTSD from that year....lol
Caustic Burno
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We got rain early in 2011.
We went into this dry now Hardin to the south and Angelina to the north have gotten several rain events we haven't. It has just split and went around.
May and June are two of our wettest months, been bone dry both.
Don't know about Lufkin but Nac hasn't faired too well...rained a bit today in eastern Houston County (about 20 miles east of Crockett)...don't know if any fell in my neck of the woods yet (about 50 miles east of here)
Texas G@l
Well-known member
We had a bit over 4 inches of rain the first half of May. Then, it was like the tap was turned off..... 2/10 here, 3/10 there and 6/10 last Sunday. We've had one cutting of hay- about 95% of our normal first cutting. Local sale ran 2300+ head through on Monday (600+ were cows); normal volume is 1300-1500 head.
It's sure is a lot more fun when the grass is deep and the tanks are full.... just saying.
Pray for rain.
It's sure is a lot more fun when the grass is deep and the tanks are full.... just saying.
Pray for rain.
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tex452
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I remember that very well.
I planted tifton sprigs that spring, it failed.
Caustic Burno
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I'm in brown on the drought map y'all still in yellow.
It's not good either way, unfortunately this is the kind of pattern that gets broken by something tropical.
My husband spent all 2010-11 winter getting a field all ready to seed fescue. He plowed, and fertilized, and we went out every day to look to see how much was sprouting. He had a good amount sprout and thats as far as it got. Was bare dirt all 2011. What happened though, after a drought, bare ground will sprout volunteer rye grass. 2012, he was able to bale that field in April. It was the craziest thing. So this last year, any field that had scraps in it, (we were feeding hay anyway) I scalped the ground bare. And sure enough, bumper crop of rye this spring. Not like 2011, but enough to graze all winter.
tex452
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That's the way it is after a drought, nutrients aren't used up, and if the following spring is wet, there's good growth.
greybeard
Well-known member
Yep. 2011 was not just 'a drought year'. It was the peak of a longer 'drought period' that began earlier.
I remember 2011 we went into the year dry, ended up with just one pond left and i was pumping water twice a day. This last drought we did not go into dry, our ponds were full all winter but in 2011 we dug out old ponds and built new ones. And, we were getting pop up storms just in the right spots. Got 3 cuttings off some places for hay last summer. 2011, not only was it dry, but very hot, 115 at times. I remember the heat coming from above and below because the ground was very hot. Husband says 2005/6 drought was worse, but i dont remember it being so. We got lucky that year also and baled the indian nation land. It was tough, we had to have someone stay the night out in the field because people were running off with hay. I do remember that... but, in 2011, we had to grind that hay up just so the cows could eat it. It was all over ripe switch grass. Ruined a lot of tires on our equipment. Baled it both times and swore we'd never let us get in that situation again. In my lifetime, droughts always come after a winter weather event, either one or two years after. Texas always has 10 yr droughts, but sometimes its less than 10 years, (like2005 to 2011)
Yup…and that something tropical thing ain't gonna happen unless the jet stream does some serious shifting….the only good thing is that it's preventing hurricanes from developing in the gulf…
Incidentally, I didn't get a drop of rain yesterday…plenty of clouds and thunder but not one drop of rain…a little disappointing to say the least…accuweather showing no rain for the next two weeks…feeding what's left over from last year's hay now but that ain't gonna last long…
Caustic Burno
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Me either not a single drop.
Have started supplementing the cows. If I don't get some serious rain by the end of growing season my remaining girls are going to Jack in the Box! Not many left, the do serve as a health benefit by keeping my blood pressure up.
If a cow can't tear it up they will crap on it.
I tried feeding 35 head through 2011, ended up holding on to 15. Took over a year for the pasture to recover.
I have been sentimental in holding on to these girls, first rule of owning cattle is ruthless culling of the herd.
This drought is in its second year here and more severe this year than last. This is the pattern on 2011 and 1956 droughts.
Texas G@l
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We've started supplementing since the forage is mostly dried up; thankfully, we still have the forage. We've set a mid-September deadline for making a decision on who's leaving for town. We sold the older girls this spring; everyone left is 3 - 5 year old with some replacement heifers.
We'll probably start liquidating sooner than that, though.
Put out two round bales last Monday…two more and some cubes today…cows didn't leave the hay all day…just hung out in nearby shade and walked over to eat some hay…back and forth all day…the next few weeks are about to get expensive…I've got three bales left from last year…will have to start buying hay and cubes and feed like I do in the winter…sigh
EasTex
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I'm with you buddy. Put my first bale out Saturday. Put it in the shade not too far from the water trough. Hopefully they don't burn to much energy. I did not get a single drop of rain this past weekend either. Looked like it went through Lufkin.
We had 1.5" a couple weeks ago but the grass was smoked this week already. Sunday we caught some stray showers and got another 1.5". Just buying time a week or two at a time.
