Our drought, need help

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Joe Boy

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
692
We are in a very sad drought.  On 68 acres of oats I got 46 small round bales.  I have all my ponds and tanks that are dry and have been for 5 months.  I made 12 bushel's of wheat and none of my neighbors cut theirs or made hay of it, as it was too short.  You cannot mow my pastures as short as they are with any mower.  I have 37 mother cows on hand that are registered Maines, 9 bred heifers, three bulls, three young bulls going for a feed lot, 15 heifers that we have not registered yet, all 3/4 or PB, 4 bull calves that have not been weaned.  I have been feeding the cows round bales of grassburs, windmill weed, and a very little alfalfa that a neighbor baled a year ago.  I could not plant any hay as we did not have enough moister.  I got 9 inches the first week of July in 2010.  I have had 5.6 inches in a year since on my home place and 3 inches on my two other farms.  We are in a very dry cycle.  I have had a farm in Hardeman county for 10 years, my friend had it for 35 years prior to me.  He took his cows off once due to drought and had I not put in a well would have had them off 9 of the 10 years.  The well has to be choked down with only a stream the size of my little finger running in the tank, with the rest running back into the well or it breaks cycle.  It is the driest year on record, hottest June ever with only one day where it did not reach 100 (98), and windiest year to date ever.  There will not be any dryland summer crops, NONE.  Sand blows almost daily and fires where people have some grass.  I mowed the weeds in my yard once and the grass has never grown. 
Does anyone know where I might be able to rent a place that has pasture for my cows and heifers?
 

Jenny

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 20, 2007
Messages
223
Location
south dakota
how far are you willing to send your cows to grass?
in the upper midwest, we have had record amounts of rainfall; we have flooding; we have grass, grass and more grass; am pretty sure it would not be hard to find grass to send your cows to in the upper midwest.
there was just a discussion on this topic not long ago; I remember there was a person in Wisconsin that offered to take in drought cows because they had a pasture that was not being used. 

I am in South Dakota and I know exactly what you are facing.
It is so sad; depressing....seems never ending but it WILL end.  The rains will come but you have to figure out how to survive until then.
I saw that there are more than 200 counties in Texas that are declared disaster areas, so look into the very low interest disaster loans to assist you in surviving this disaster.

We got 14 inches of rain in 3 days about 10 days ago;
there has been much damage to crop land, extensive damage to roads, extensive damage to homes but I would take this any day compared to what you are going through.  there is just nothing more depressing than to have the hot dry winds day after day...nothing green, deep wide cracks in the earth; been there, done that.....

take care and hopefully the drought breaks soon
 

Joe Boy

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
692
Most of our cows are young, only one 10 year old, and one 9 year old.  Most will calf in September through November and are AI'ed to Gucci and Smokin Joe and a few others.  I would prefer to ship them no further than Kansas or Missouri.  I would be willing to purchase some good hay to feed them too.
THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTIONS.
 

chambero

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
Joe:

Give me a call sometime -we're in the same boat but I might have some ideas on hay in a couple of weeks.  Let me know how much you'd want.
 
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