Your post-drought pasture plans

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Ruark

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Evant, TX
I'm here in upper central Texas looking at my pasture, or what's left of it, and the other grazing areas on my property. The amount of bare-dirt area is slowly but steadily increasing. Soil consistency is about like talcum powder. Some areas have spiderwebs of cracks up to 6 inches across and deep enough to stick your arm in. There is NO green grass. The only thing green is some scattered western ragweed that is coming up and getting ready to seed; I need to shred it before it does. There's not enough moisture to germinate seed.

Most of you guys experiencing this drought know what I'm describing. Last I read, the La Nina is returning, and the drought is predicted to extend through next summer.

If you're in this situation, I'm just wondering what your plans are for your pastures. Just let it go until the drought's over? Disc? Spray with 2-4D or pre-emergents? I'm not sure what I'm going to do; there just isn't much left to work with out there.
 
I'm in NE Texas and my long term drought strategy will heavily involve my local salebarn. I went through the 1997-98 and 2005-06 drought and tried buying the extremely expensive hay and feed to hang onto as many cattle as I could. Yeah, not doing that again. I have no grass, little hay, and no desire to start hauling truckloads of feed. I agree that the La Nina appears to be rebounding and since there will be no disaster assistance from any source, I decided to eliminate mouths to feed.
I don't think spraying herbicides or any other inputs during this drought would be effective and probably a waste of money. I'm just going to mow the weeds down and work on cutting out some brush in areas. I'm concerned that many in this state simply will not be financially viable enough at the end of this drought to still be in the cattle business. I think huge amounts of cattle ground in this state will simply be taken over by the wealthy weekend warriors and hunting clubs. Too many severe droughts too close together in time for the average rancher to stay in.
 
the plan is to wait an see what the pastures look like after this drought breaks,an go from there.there will an prolly is alot of land coming up for lease in the future.i know of some that want to start buying back cattle in dec or jan.
 
Salebarn is my plan, too. Get rid of the mouths to feed, sell the farm, move to Tennessee, and live the good life. Here in Texas, if you don't do cattle or hay or some other ag activity, taxes are such that you can not afford to own any land.

In other words, I surrender!!
 
Those are all good replies, but let me point out that I am talking about your PASTURE plans, not your cattle management plans. What do you plan to do about refurbishing, replanting, whatever, your pastures, after they're turned into giant sandboxes?
 
Jim62":17vyzgkn said:
Salebarn is my plan, too. Get rid of the mouths to feed, sell the farm, move to Tennessee, and live the good life. Here in Texas, if you don't do cattle or hay or some other ag activity, taxes are such that you can not afford to own any land.

In other words, I surrender!!

Jim, I sent you a PM that I hope will answer the question you asked me the other day.
 
bigbull338":14o0zvzm said:
the plan is to wait an see what the pastures look like after this drought breaks,an go from there.there will an prolly is alot of land coming up for lease in the future.i know of some that want to start buying back cattle in dec or jan.


Can't figure that out....sell out because of drought then start buying back in 4-5 months latter in the middle of winter when there is still no grass and still extremely expensive hay and feed. Haven't had any winter pasture to graze in 3 years.
 
Ruark":h4y1cyve said:
Those are all good replies, but let me point out that I am talking about your PASTURE plans, not your cattle management plans. What do you plan to do about refurbishing, replanting, whatever, your pastures, after they're turned into giant sandboxes?

Probably didn't talk about the pasture because we aren't going to do any thing. When the rain comes back so will the grass. Some aeration might not hurt if you feel like you need to do some thing. :D
 
TexasBred":3umicbu2 said:
bigbull338":3umicbu2 said:
the plan is to wait an see what the pastures look like after this drought breaks,an go from there.there will an prolly is alot of land coming up for lease in the future.i know of some that want to start buying back cattle in dec or jan.


Can't figure that out....sell out because of drought then start buying back in 4-5 months latter in the middle of winter when there is still no grass and still extremely expensive hay and feed. Haven't had any winter pasture to graze in 3 years.

i've heard the same thing "cows are going to worth 2000.00 next spring"...but it still hasn't started raining and how long will it take for pastures to recover ?
 
TexasBred":1ex059k0 said:
bigbull338":1ex059k0 said:
the plan is to wait an see what the pastures look like after this drought breaks,an go from there.there will an prolly is alot of land coming up for lease in the future.i know of some that want to start buying back cattle in dec or jan.


Can't figure that out....sell out because of drought then start buying back in 4-5 months latter in the middle of winter when there is still no grass and still extremely expensive hay and feed. Haven't had any winter pasture to graze in 3 years.
i guess they want to get some cows then because they figure they be at the bottom of the price by then.an try to buy them before they go sky high again.
 
Plans? Not making plans till the drought breaks...even then it will be minimal intervention...Not really about surviving a drought, it's surviving the economics of agriculture...
 
1982vett":1frpkywh said:
Plans? Not making plans till the drought breaks...even then it will be minimal intervention...Not really about surviving a drought, it's surviving the economics of agriculture...
Most correct answer of them all
 
bigbull338":2fa5z2qz said:
TexasBred":2fa5z2qz said:
bigbull338":2fa5z2qz said:
the plan is to wait an see what the pastures look like after this drought breaks,an go from there.there will an prolly is alot of land coming up for lease in the future.i know of some that want to start buying back cattle in dec or jan.


Can't figure that out....sell out because of drought then start buying back in 4-5 months latter in the middle of winter when there is still no grass and still extremely expensive hay and feed. Haven't had any winter pasture to graze in 3 years.
i guess they want to get some cows then because they figure they be at the bottom of the price by then.an try to buy them before they go sky high again.
They'll then be feeding $2000 cows instead of the $1000 cows they sold. No wonder we make so much money. :cry2:
 
i just did some quick figures at what it would cost to put in 50acs of winter pasture,an come up with $100ac.an with no rain in sight id rather save my money.an feed the cows through this drought.
 
Maybe they were smart and sold the cattle before using up all their hay. They could jump back in... probably Jan or Fed... and eliminate feeding all those in between months. I doubt cattle will be high by then. There is going to have to be grass on the ground for them to hit $2K.

We contemplated a simular plan early on. If you think you are going to buy hay or wait until your pastures are dirt it will not work.
 
I was reading some info from TAMU it is going to take two years for our pastures to recover. I plan on keeping my numbers low 1 cow to 5 to 6 acres versus a cow to the acre. If we get the rain I will have the custom baler bale the pasture. Won't have near as many cows which is fine by me, one is too many for me this morning but this will pass.
There will always be opportunities that come along to buy cattle got have grass and hay to take advantage when they knock.
 
Caustic Burno":w88l2ejq said:
I was reading some info from TAMU it is going to take two years for our pastures to recover. I plan on keeping my numbers low 1 cow to 5 to 6 acres versus a cow to the acre. If we get the rain I will have the custom baler bale the pasture. Won't have near as many cows which is fine by me, one is too many for me this morning but this will pass.
There will always be opportunities that come along to buy cattle got have grass and hay to take advantage when they knock.
I think 2 years is a bit optimistic but at least someone is letting poeple know that a drught breaking doesn;t mean that the droughts affects to forages are over.
 

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