Maintaining your pasture during the summer is a crucial task that requires your diligent attention. In a matter of minutes, it can transition from adequate moisture to extremely dry. As a manager, your role is pivotal in preventing your pasture from suffering too much.
Though I don’t know how it is where you are in West Texas, keeping pastures productive can be challenging during this time. Mother Nature seems to have not wanted to cooperate with you for most years and has held back the needed moisture.
While you can not control the weather, you can take steps to give your forages a fighting chance. Practices like rotational grazing and maintaining the correct stocking rate can significantly improve your pasture’s health. Here are some strategies to consider when facing another dry summer and hoping for a more productive season.
Breeding season preparations are crucial for any cow/calf producer’s bottom line. Their steps will determine if they will have a good calf crop. Good quality calves to sell are the defining factor between a successful and a not successful rancher.
There is one constant in the livestock industry: If you have animals, you will have to build a fence. Fencing is a barrier to keeping your animals where you want them and keeping predators out.
Feed costs remain the single most significant expense for any cattle producer. Depending on different factors, this expense can easily be half of the total annual expenses for a rancher.
Trying to control flies on your cattle can be a very frustrating endeavor, to say the least. It can often feel like an uphill climb with no rest in sight. No matter what you seem to do, they keep coming back year after year.
Breeding season is a crucial time on the ranch. We begin with the hope of making a new calf crop to keep the ranch going. In order to have a good calf crop, you will need to ensure that all, or at least 90%, of your cows will be bred.
Having suitable replacement heifers is vital for the long-term profitability of any ranch. It is necessary to be able to rotate the breeding stock out to improve the overall genetic gene pool. Also, cows will get to a point where they will be too old to breed anymore. When this happens, you must have new stock ready to take their place.
Knowing when to assist with calving can be a very tricky matter. It requires a delicate balance between not acting too quickly and not reacting too late. Finding this balance requires a lot of experience and a little bit of luck.
A new year is approaching for the cattle industry. Though we have had our issues this past year, like the current market, new opportunities are bound to return. It may not look like it, but there are always positives to be found if you know how to look, even in our yoyo industry.
As sure as the turning of the world being in winter means having to buy feed. The reason for that is that during this time, forages go dormant and provide less for animals. Though they do not like it, producers must buy supplements to feed their animals during this time.
