Lessons Learned

This past year’s drought opened the eyes of people who thought droughts were only summer events. At our ranch, the drought started Aug. 26, 2024, when the last measurable amount of rainfall fell. It wasn’t until November when two tenths inch of rain was recorded. Our ranch did not get a full inch of rain until December. Fall grass recovery grazing did not occur and winter grass growth was delayed.

The drought effectively stopped fall grazing of green grass and forced many ranchers to feed hay and cubes much earlier than expected. And after the previous two years of drought, this one was neither expected or anticipated by many in the ranching community. People who had lost money on cattle the previous two years now lost money for a third year. So, what lessons have been learned?

Ranchers who had an abundance of grass in August had land stripped of green grass by grazing animals in late September. By October, most remaining grass was brown and soil moisture extremely low. Stock tanks were going dry and cows were dying, many getting stuck in the mud from lowering water levels. Depressing.

Fortunately, hay prices were down. And cattle prices are high for those selling cattle and will likely be for a year or more. But if you were buying cattle, you probably found it hard to locate good deals. Ranchers who bought high price cattle after seeing favorable rains and lower hay prices were deciding in November whether it was a good idea to carry hungry cattle through the winter. What is our lesson here?

The reality is that feeding hay or supplements cost ranchers profits that are already slim at best.

This should make us all look at our grazing operations. Do we have enough pastures to rotate cattle and build a deep forage? Are we rotating cattle through pastures to allow grass to regrow before it is grazed again, or are cattle eating the grass too low before moving on to the next pasture? Is there one herd or several animals spread across several pastures?

I am amazed that ranchers still think that they should be grazing multiple herds in multiple pastures. When cattle are continuously grazing all the pastures at one time, grass does not have time to regrow before the second or third bite reduces the plant by over 50%. A plant that has over 50% of its top growth grazed off, over 50% of its root system dies. The root system dies because the top growth can no longer support it.

Continuous grazing also causes soil compaction. This reduces the oxygen level of the soil so that roots cannot survive. And trying to get water into a compacted soil is very difficult.

After the first inch of rain in December, I dug some holes to see how far the water had penetrated the soil. Under bare soil there was less than an inch of penetration. Under thin bermudagrass, there was 2-3 inches of water penetration. Thick bermudagrass from 4-8 inches tall had a 3 inch water penetration. Bahia grass had a 3-5 inch water penetration under thin grass but a whopping 6-8 inch penetration under thick grass. Now how much water is available to the plants under these conditions?

We all make mistakes in a drought situation. Overgrazing is just one of them. A mistake I made was breaking one of my primary rules. And that rule is “never mow in a drought”. I had a pasture with some tall weeds that I really wanted to mow down. My mower was at the farm, so the weeds were not mowed earlier in the year. I brought the mower to the ranch in early October. With an 80+% predicted precipitation, I mowed the pasture the day before. Then of course, it did not rain, and the mowed land burned up earlier than the pastures with weeds and tall grass.

Mowing during a drought to “clean up” a pasture is dumb – and I did it. Like overgrazing, it will not produce positive results when it does rain. It will be harder for rain to penetrate the ground and soil erosion will be greater. Less water will be available once it does rain. Lesson learned.

By late October, the entire pasture was brown. The field looked like scorched earth compared to other pastures where the tall weeds shaded the unmown and lightly grazed grass. I soon began watering areas where I could. The blessing of irrigation was that the area grew winter grass long before any other area. While it was not much, it was a head start on growing winter grass that would not appear until mid to late December in other pastures.

I try to learn from my mistakes. Planning forward is one way to keep money in your pocket. That we have good rainfall now does not mean that we will continue to have good rainfall come late summer or fall. I’m building more paddocks and digging more water lines for troughs.

I’m hoping for a great summer while planning for a variety of future conditions.

David E. Will is a local rancher and consultant. He can be reached at 830-6299876 or by email at dwill207@satx.rr.com.