Pray for Rain, Plan for Drought

By Jeremy Martin, Ph.D., Great Plains Livestock Consulting, Inc.

One has only to look at the UNL drought monitor (droughtmonitor.unl.edu) website to see that widespread drought in the High Plains, West, and South are a looming issue for the industry. While March rains alleviated the severity of drought in some areas and eliminated it for now in others, much of the nation’s cowherd resides in areas of concern. Most of us hope that drought plans fall in line with the old adage that plans are worthless but planning is everything.

Ideally, we would develop a plan that never has to be used – but better to put it into action too soon than too late. We often think of drought as primarily a cow/calf problem, but feedlots, backgrounders, and stocker operators are impacted greatly as well. With rising feed costs across the marketplace, now is the time to evaluate your target dates and actions should drought develop, persist, or worsen in your area.

The first step in developing a drought plan is to have a plan for when there is not a drought, including “normal” stocking rates and forage production. After that, determine in your region when moisture is most critical and identify target dates and actions that will occur at those dates. Target dates will vary substantially according to an operation’s resources. The first target date may occur from the fall prior to the growing season if your operation relies on winter annual pastures, to the late spring in areas where warm season grasses are the primary forage resource. If you operate a feedlot or backgrounding lot, your first target date may be right before planting season, when you have an opportunity to grow more forage crops. These decisions are best made by a team and team member discussions should include family, employees, financial advisors, veterinarians, and nutritionists.

From a cow/calf standpoint, no doubt reducing inventory has the largest potential to mitigate reduced forage production but can also have the greatest financial risk and tax liability. The obvious decision is to begin by culling cows that deserve to be culled prior to the grazing season. Particularly while cull prices are reasonably good, it would be a wise use of time to sort off cows with problem attitudes, udders, feet, and poor production, along with taking a hard look at the oldest cows on the ranch. Realistically, this is probably a small step in a well-managed herd but an important one. Further decisions on selling cows are dependent on the severity of drought, but certainly delaying turnout on summer pastures and improving grazing management should be the focus of any ranch facing drought. If your ranch has a yearling enterprise, the logical step may be to put yearlings in a feedlot to save grazing resources for your cowherd.

Early weaning calves will likely be a reality for many ranches this year to stretch forage resources and hold the cowherd together. Weaning early reduces the nutritional requirements of the cows by 25-40% and reduces forage use by 20-35%, depending on the stage of lactation at which weaning occurs. Planning your vaccination programs and feeding strategy for early-weaned calves is a must. Fortunately, there is an abundance of research and experience available to consult when making the decision. In terms of stretching forages, early weaning has a much larger impact than creep feeding calves because creep feeding does not impact milk production or cow forage use. Therefore, creep feeding only replaces a part of the forage consumed by calves, with minimal impact on total forage demand. In severe drought, the aforementioned steps may not be enough and supplementing forage or drylot feeding of cattle can become the only viable option. Again, much research is available to support this decision, and a variety of rations can be used successfully.

Along with grazed forage resources, harvested forage becomes a valuable commodity in widespread drought, and this is where backgrounders and feedlot operators need to focus. If traditional hay sources are limited by drought, consider whether you can harvest silage from row crop acres. Traditionally, most silage was grown by the end user of the silage, but today we routinely purchase silage. Accurate testing of the silage coming into the pit is critical to ensure the transaction is fair for everyone. Selling a crop for silage may be in the best interest of the grower for reasons other than marketing, for instance if irrigation resources are limited or costly. Now is the time to approach those growers in your area and secure your silage needs.

Byproduct feed supplies typically become costly and scarce in drought conditions as more distillers grains, gluten feed, and similar products are utilized for feeding cows or early-weaned calves. As a feedlot operator, now would be a good time to investigate summer contracts for these ingredients, and make sure you have access to grains if byproducts price out of rations. Additionally, managing lighter early-weaned calves in the backgrounding lot or feedlot presents its own set of challenges. Take the time to meet with your crew and advisors to have a plan in place before you place these cattle.

I realize it is early, and I hope developing a drought plan for 2021 proves to be worthless, but going through the planning process now, if you have not already, is important even if the plan never gets used. In the meantime, keep praying for rain where it is needed.

Jeremy Martin is a beef cattle nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting, LLC who consults for seedstock, cow/calf, stocker, and feedlot operations in the central Great Plains. Dr. Martin developed the desire to help producers make more profit while growing up at his father's veterinary practice, which led him to pursue a Master's and Ph.D. in ruminant nutrition and reproductive management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His home base is the family ranch near Wellfleet, Nebraska. Along with the cow/calf and yearling enterprises at the ranch, the Martin family are partners in a small feedlot and host an annual bull sale.