Spring Grass

[Lee VanRoss]

I started feeding full time on February 28th. Always quit feeding on April 5th but had to go until the 11th this year.

Would normally be on grass.(rotational) Feeding mediocre hay and supplementing with ground corn and distillers.
Holding off on fertilizer until 15 May, sooner if the moisture situation turns around. After that ? Maybe put a ribbon
around the cows except creme de creme and bring the calves home and make pets of them. The calves will eat less
and should increase in value. The cows are in excellent condition now and will not eat much in the bank.
Better extra grass and fewer cows than more cows and and fertilizer on dry ground and no grass.
Greater is He that is in me........

 

[Stocker Steve]

Anyone else’s grass seems to be coming on a little slower this year than last few years?

Hard to tell. The ground is snow covered most of the time.

Spoke with the resident historian. We are tracking for a very late spring, but not a record yet. Kind of a problem due to low hay carryover and a lot of droughty over grazing last year. Carrying capacity will be below average this year. Perhaps down 30 to 50%.

 

[TominTX]

It’s green but no rain in 3-4 weeks….won’t be green much longer with it getting into the mid to upper 80’s later in the week.

We're looking at low 90's this weekend. We had a hail storm last week but I went out and checked the gauge after and we had less than a quarter inch. It's filling in nicely, green and thick but if we hit 90's and don't get an inch or two of rain soon to go with it, we're going to have a rough start to summer.

 

[Bob-s]

Slow here in Central TX as well. Winter grass is way behind and Bermuda is even slower. Since rainfall has eluded us as well, not sure what it will be like in a few weeks. I'm moving cattle into ha pastures to catch the winter grass so Bermuda can get sunshine.

I plan to fertilize after it rains this year. Put out some a couple of weeks ago ahead of supposed to be 1" rain that never arrived. Not even morning dew. OUCH

 

[ClinchValley86]

Definitely behind here. We keep getting a good frost every week or so. Was very dry until beginning of April too. Do have some grass though. Kept them on an old hayfield from February til Easter. Now finally get in to graze.

 

[EasTex]

Green here now, but need rain bad. There has been some rain, but seems to tip toe around my place…Been a surprisingly cool April, so that has helped, but the heat will be cranking soon.

 

[LocustDaleCattleCompany]

April is always a weird month weather wise. Been a little too cool for grass to thicken and take off but it gets hot other days and grass bolts on you. I’d expect the first cutting of hay yields to be down around the state here. Took this photo yesterday rotating a herd onto fresh grass.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

3-5" of snow predicted o er the next 24 hours and still "old" snow left to melt. Green grass is still a ways off yet.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Hard to tell. The ground is snow covered most of the time.

Snow is gone! Still freezing at night a couple times per week...

Rye is green but deer keep it trimmed ultra short.

 

[Walkerranch]

It's been a roller coaster through April and doesn't seem to be letting up. Some of the grass is getting taller, but is short for this time of year. Looks like the cool and cloudy days are going to continue right into May for us.

I'm a little worried about letting the cows out on the short pasture. I like the grass to get more of a head start, but the Hay is running low. Hopefully rotating them faster and just clipping the tops will buy me enough time for the weather to turn around.

 

[WFfarm]

85F Sunday, 40F by Wednesday.