Livestock and Drought

Drought conditions greatly reduce the available forage for livestock. Drought also impacts forage and rangeland production across the state. Short and long-term ramifications will continue to affect the management of livestock. Livestock have been sold, or relocated out of county and the state; however, there are alternatives for the remaining population. Drought is a part of the normal production cycle. In Eddy County we are in a perpetual drought interrupted by moment of moisture. Dealing with these dry periods and decreased feed supplies needs to be part of the overall management plan of every ranch in South Eastern New Mexico. The big question cattlemen have been wrestling with the last two months is to sell their livestock or feed? This is made even more difficult with the long term forecast predicting more of the same weather we have had this year and the high price of feed. There are no easy answers or one shot solution for everyone. Here are some thoughts and actions to consider.

Wean calves early. Calves can be weaned at any age. However the earlier they are weaned the greater the potential for problems and the more intensive the management. The most common is when calves are 45 to 80 days old to take advantage of rebreeding cycle. Research has demonstrated that creep feed calves and early weaned calves with good management will weigh the same or more than normal weaned calves. There are some good publication on how to manage early weaned calves from Colorado, Texas, and Arizona Extension Service.

Input cost of cow running on native forage is typical around $0.50 to 0.85 per head per day. In most cases currently in Eddy County there is low quality forage still available but this forage will not meet the nutrient requirement for cow either Lactating or dry. A lactating cow requires almost 41% more total digestible nutrients than a dry cow. That is one of the reasons to wean early. A lactating cow will also need about 50% more protein, phosphorous, calcium and Vitamin A than a dry cow. Because there is little or no green forage to provide carotene which is converted into Vitamin A and stored in the liver and fat tissue, supplemental feed need to include at least 25,000 IU of Vitamin A for dry cows and 40,000 IU for lactating cows per head per day. Under normal conditions the liver can store Vitamin A for 4 to 6 months, but as of the writing of this article at least at my place we have not had any rain for 315 days which was sufficient to green up some grass. The cows have depleted their stores of Vitamin A, in their liver a long time ago. I recently recommended that one Eddy county rancher because his supplement did not have vitamin A to inject his cows to get them back up to where they should be so they can start utilizing the feed and putting on some weight and then make sure all his feed has vitamin A added. He called me because he was feeding a lot and his cow had dropped in body condition score. Because we don’t usually go this long without some green up it is easy to overlook the need to have vitamin A in the ration. Of course Quality hay has the carotene and the roughage to keep them healthy. Using body condition score method is an objective way of monitoring the condition of your livestock. We have an excellent publication HERE which explains how this works. It is a concept that came along after I graduated but it is easy to learn and apply. We have a tendency to look and say ah she in good condition for the year we are in. But if you will score your cattle once a week or so when you feed or check water it is a lot easier to prevent animals from decline in condition where it is going to cost more money to bring them back up then if you were just maintaining them at expectable level. To me the body condition scoring method is the best tool for long term management of your beef heard that you can learn. If there is an interest we can schedule a workshop to teach this tool. Call the extension office or e-mail me if you are interested.

If we do not receive adequate moisture in with in the growing season (next 30 days or so) of our warm season grasses producers have to make a lot of hard decision, to feed, to sell, or to rent pasture and ship, some are considering feed lots for their essential breeding stock. Because to the length of this drought make sure if you are feeding to include Vitamin A in your selection of feed.