bigbull338
Well-known member
drove over some of the 150acs we have of pasture this morning.an its all knee to belly deep on the cows.an nice an thick.so the cows will have lots of good eating this year.hows yalls pastures doing this year.
pastures
- Thread starter bigbull338
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
LaneFarms
Well-known member
What pasture, we are still feeding hay. It is so dry I think it has killed the bahia grass.
bigbull338
Well-known member
heres hoping yall get the rain.i know yall are hurting like we was 3yrs ago.i hope we never go though a drought that bad again.an if we do i hope ive got 2 or 3yrs worth of hay to fall back on.
Central Fl Cracker
Well-known member
LaneFarms":2wswyvnx said:
I am also still feeding Hay. Hopefully we get some rain tonight.
gertguy
Well-known member
I need more cows. Got orchard grass and clover waist high (in grass not heads) and Bermuda and sorghum on its way
We are better at some places and not as good at others. We've had more rain this year than last but are still down from the average. It still ain't where we should be. We did some fall seeding to get to where we are.
I feel purty good that we just landed 70 loads of chicken litter that we hadn't been getting. That means we are in for next year as well as someone let it go.
I feel purty good that we just landed 70 loads of chicken litter that we hadn't been getting. That means we are in for next year as well as someone let it go.
grannysoo
Well-known member
What pasture? It has been so dry that we still don't have any to speak of. Glad I've got plenty of hay.
Hope you get some rain down there. Here we've had more than enough moisture, but it's just been too cold for things to take off. Cows are out on pasture and doing fine but usually this time of year the cows can't keep up with the grass; not the case this year at all. We are supposed to have several days in 70's and that will sure help but I think cold nights hurt worse than the cool days as far as growing grass is concerned.
But on the bright side, no flies, mosquitoes, or gnats yet!
But on the bright side, no flies, mosquitoes, or gnats yet!
TexasBred
Well-known member
Pastures are in good shape. Been getting rains "just right" so far :!: :!: Woke up this morning and at 5 am it was 80 degrees with 74% humidity....suppose to get to the high 90's today with a hard south wind blowing. That will dry things out in a hurry. Crops all look excellent right now.
Earl Thigpen
Well-known member
We're not doin' so well right now. I'm probably goina' have to start feedin' hay again. Haven't had any significant rain in about four months. All that rain that some of Texas got a couple of weeks ago went by on the East and West of us and we didn't get a drop. Glad somebody is gettin' some.
Haven't done much traveling, but in our little neck of the woods the pastures are pathetic. We have had unseasonably cold temps well below normal for 2 months now. Above normal rain, not much but a bit. This mix has made for a bumper crop of dandelions, and very slow growth on the alfalfa and grasses. It is amazing when you top a hill and look down across the valleys, and see a lot of dirt fields, corn planting is behind 2+ weeks also, and then a field of yellow! And I mean YELLOW.
We are still feeding hay, but hopefully we will check fences this weekend, and let the girls out. We now have 2 significant pastures to rotate to this year, so we are hoping to get some benefit out of that.
We have 4 girls left to calve, one had slipped her calf her first year, bred back and is now a fall calver. Of the other 3, one looks close a week (?) one raised the best calf of the heifers last year, I thought she held up really well, but does not look close (who knows) and the last one doesn't even look pg.... UGH.
But, I really want to get them out on pasture so it doesn't get overgrown. I will just have to walk a bit to check on them, no big deal.
Michele
We are still feeding hay, but hopefully we will check fences this weekend, and let the girls out. We now have 2 significant pastures to rotate to this year, so we are hoping to get some benefit out of that.
We have 4 girls left to calve, one had slipped her calf her first year, bred back and is now a fall calver. Of the other 3, one looks close a week (?) one raised the best calf of the heifers last year, I thought she held up really well, but does not look close (who knows) and the last one doesn't even look pg.... UGH.
But, I really want to get them out on pasture so it doesn't get overgrown. I will just have to walk a bit to check on them, no big deal.
Michele
bigbull338
Well-known member
sounds like all the nothern pastures are slow starting.due to the real low temps.an for you boys in the drought areas.heres hoping yall get rain soon.i know how bad yall are hurting.
Real cool and wet here. I love the field but we keep having rain and cloudy skies!!! As soon as I get a window I will start the cutting. I wish I could send some of our rain down to those that need it more than we do. Most of the crop guys were very late this year but I think most got the corn in. I am wearing a long sleeved shirt and a jacket the last weekend of MAY!!!
I have been rotating the cows around to take advantage of the OG that is going to head. They think they are in heaven.
I have been rotating the cows around to take advantage of the OG that is going to head. They think they are in heaven.
Jogeephus
Well-known member
Its just a shame I don't play golf.
ny_grass
Well-known member
Update: oops, I guess I should read all the posts in a thread before responding; others commented on how growth in the North has been slow because of the colder temps ...
I'm shocked at the variation, nationwide, in grass growth. gertguy has waist high grass and clover! I'm in my first year up here in upstate NY and I'd been told by everyone that "we can really grow grass up here!" yet my hay fields only have about 10" of grass (plus some plantain, clover, etc...). Of course, I'm sure they haven't been fertilized in years (the prior owner got a couple hundred dollars tax break each year by letting a farmer hay it). My pastures are doing much better but even there I've rotated my 6 cow, 5 calf herd through about 20 1/4 acre paddocks and I'm not quite ready to go back into the first.
Of course, they say it's been a pretty cold spring...
Endlessly interesting ...
I'm shocked at the variation, nationwide, in grass growth. gertguy has waist high grass and clover! I'm in my first year up here in upstate NY and I'd been told by everyone that "we can really grow grass up here!" yet my hay fields only have about 10" of grass (plus some plantain, clover, etc...). Of course, I'm sure they haven't been fertilized in years (the prior owner got a couple hundred dollars tax break each year by letting a farmer hay it). My pastures are doing much better but even there I've rotated my 6 cow, 5 calf herd through about 20 1/4 acre paddocks and I'm not quite ready to go back into the first.
Of course, they say it's been a pretty cold spring...
Endlessly interesting ...
C HOLLAND
Well-known member
Jogeephus":1b8u4vca said:
I use my bull for 200 yard target practice,,,it doesn't phase him, I hit him right on the head one time in 100 or so trys. My pasture is more like a big sand trap, the bahia is so spotty, I am going to re seed it if we ever get any rain.
Red Bull Breeder
Well-known member
Got some good some not so good. Mostly its pretty good had really good clover this year. Have to see how the warm season grasses come on.
1982vett
Well-known member
Pastures are doing pretty good. Daytime temps are low to mid 90's and the last few nights mid to high 70's so bermuda is trying to grow. Biggest problem is the wind is blowing about 10-20 mph just about all the time. The 7 - 8 inches of rain we got in the last 3 weeks is going fast. Still have some pretty good grass, but that can change pretty quick. Have about 80 acres left to spray for weeds, 50 of it has a lot of grass and few weeds so I want to graze it down first, rain stopped me on the other 30 and it has been to windy to spray. Got the land broke for this falls crop of oats. Forecast calls for 20% chance of isolated showers thru most of this week. Going to start second cutting of hay tomorrow. Ryegrass came back pretty strong after the first cutting and is going to get overripe if I don't.
mnmtranching
Well-known member
Rain is spotty up here, some places its to wet and other places the dust is blowing. Most of the corn is up, took 10-12 days. Pastures are green but growth is slow, just to cold. Should be able to get the last of the pairs to pasture today. 8 bales of hay left and it would be difficult to locate more until the new crop.
luke strawwalker
Active member
No rain here in 5 weeks. We got just enough of a shower yesterday to wet the pavement. The raindrops turned to dustballs as soon as it hit the driveway. Sandy spots burning up, the rest is green but SHORT. Not a thing I can do about it tho...
Could be worse... I could have crops in the ground. Everything around here was a little late, because it was SO wet back in January and February. Corn is tasselled out and the silks turned brown, but the stalks are only about 5 feet high and I've seen some already drying down on the bottom foot or so of the stalk. Sorghum looks fairly good on heavy soil, but rolling it's leaves on sandy soil already, most is in mid-bloom to finishing out blooming, with little exertion. Without rain tho that grain isn't going to fill out; be about like birdseed... Soybeans near here are about a foot tall, not growing much at all, and turning real dark green but you can tell they need water, or will real soon. Not wilting yet but showing the early signs... Most cotton here got planted right ahead of some cold fronts that came thru and dropped temps down in the mid-high 30's at night. Took forever to come up, and we had a COLD April here with several fronts pushing temps down into the high-30's low 40's at night, and cotton don't like that! I think it's got chilling injury because it just doesn't seem to snap out of it. We're hitting the mid 90's for the last couple weeks and the hi 90s are getting close (probably a week or two at most) and then we'll REALLY start to burn. These crops are getting to the high water demand phase and there isn't much to break the pattern. We're getting high pressure ridges and it's keeping the storm systems pushed north of us and preventing much in the way of thunderstorms. May take a Gulf storm to really get us some rain in here to break the cycle. With high pressure cells around though that ain't likely anytime soon.
Yall take it easy and be glad if you got rain... OL JR
Could be worse... I could have crops in the ground. Everything around here was a little late, because it was SO wet back in January and February. Corn is tasselled out and the silks turned brown, but the stalks are only about 5 feet high and I've seen some already drying down on the bottom foot or so of the stalk. Sorghum looks fairly good on heavy soil, but rolling it's leaves on sandy soil already, most is in mid-bloom to finishing out blooming, with little exertion. Without rain tho that grain isn't going to fill out; be about like birdseed... Soybeans near here are about a foot tall, not growing much at all, and turning real dark green but you can tell they need water, or will real soon. Not wilting yet but showing the early signs... Most cotton here got planted right ahead of some cold fronts that came thru and dropped temps down in the mid-high 30's at night. Took forever to come up, and we had a COLD April here with several fronts pushing temps down into the high-30's low 40's at night, and cotton don't like that! I think it's got chilling injury because it just doesn't seem to snap out of it. We're hitting the mid 90's for the last couple weeks and the hi 90s are getting close (probably a week or two at most) and then we'll REALLY start to burn. These crops are getting to the high water demand phase and there isn't much to break the pattern. We're getting high pressure ridges and it's keeping the storm systems pushed north of us and preventing much in the way of thunderstorms. May take a Gulf storm to really get us some rain in here to break the cycle. With high pressure cells around though that ain't likely anytime soon.
Yall take it easy and be glad if you got rain...
OL JR 
