Drought

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Joe Boy

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
692
I really feel for those in Tenn. and to the south that are selling their cattle due to the drought.

At the sale barn in Hollis, OK they were full on Saturday and some who arrived on Friday evening has not sold at 3:00 p.m. due to the large numbers of calves that were scheduled to run on wheat.

I will be selling some of my cows in two weeks due to a lack of hay and no pasture.  I will wean my late Spring or early summer calves and sell some of the cows in two weeks.  I have used over 1/2 of my hay and the winter has not arrived.  I sold most of my older cows in last years drought.  I have some registered 14 year olds, 4, a 10 and a 9, with the rest either heifers or with a second calf.  I will sell some second calf cows too.  My best cows are some I didn't register, as far as ransing show steer prospects.  I want to try and hold them together.  I also will sell all the cows with bull calves, most with AI calves.  I have kept 7 or 8 bulls to run on wheat pasture and have not planted wheat.  Most are AI sired Spring calves that I had hoped to sell as bulls next Spring or early Summer.  We thought about putting them in a feed lot but I really do not want to sell my bull calves after they have been with other people's bulls.  Dreams and plans do not always come to a pleasant ending.  We have not had more than 2 tenths in any rain since the first week of August here north of Vernon, TX.  Even those that have had up to 5 inches did not get any lasting good from it due to all the high winds and hot weather.  Some of them have half a stand of wheat to the east of Crowell.  It looks like we could have lots of sand storms.  I have been vaccinating the baby calves for pneumonia due to the dust their mothers stir up walking in the pastures.  I got more medicine from the vet lady today....

I know we are not nearly as bad as we were a year ago but are quickly approaching that stage.  I have 3 tanks dry and 2 really large ones that are less than a 1/3.  It does not look good as we seldom have much moisture in the winter.  By selling these cattle I will be able to buy some hay for the remainder.

One good thing about it I will not need as much semen as I bought and will have some carry-over.
 

knabe

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
13,639
Location
Hollister, CA
joe boy, out here in california, people have been switching to fall calves to avoid the respitory problems in calves,  anyone changing calving season out there to address this? (in normal years, not just because of the drought)
 

chambero

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
We pretty dry now an hour to the east of you, but really we are in pretty good shape going into the winter compared to past years. We stock our pastures pretty light though.  Our tanks hold water well and we can go about 18 months between big runoff events.

We haven't had any rain to speak of since August either but our wheat is up at least.  There was enough ground moisture to get it started.

We did have some pneumonia pop up last week on baby calves.  We are keeping out mineral with antibiotic in it that is controlling it for the most part.  We got lax with it on one group and sure enough we had some get sick.  Didn't lose any though.

Unfortunately we grew lots of weeds this spring and summer in some pastures instead of grass.  We are going to invest in a sprayer this summer.  Leaving too much "money" on the table.
 

aj

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Messages
6,420
Location
western kansas
I feel your pain. We are coming off a 7 year drought. You can't feed your way out of a drought. My advice is to not sell cattle off to buy feed. Some people here tried it and after 7 years they had no feed and no cattle. It might be a time to cull heavy and pray for rain. I know the drought deal here in kansas flat put some tough ole boys away for good. Last winters blizzard healed alot of us up. If mother nature decides to kick your butt it will. I wish you luck.
 

knabe

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
13,639
Location
Hollister, CA
Irony alert

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/20/lawsuit-asks-san-francisco-to-share-pain-on-green-/

People forget San Francisco has no water.

Hetch hetchy is essentially another Yosemite valley.

People really don't understand that the only way to conserve water is to not use it.

Environmentalists want to drain Hetch hetchy, but they live in areas that use the water and they refuse to build dams elsewhere or move somewhere else or just quit drinking water.  Some don't take showers, so that's a start. In general, progressives don't have children at replacement rate, so to recruit, they took over schools, and of course advocate for massive legal and illegal immigration for voters. On the other hand, conservatives are too easily baited into wasting time on social issues .  Of course the irony is that water is the biggest social issue of all, more than all the others combined. Instead, where do we as a society focus? Everywhere but water.

On the other hand, we choose how water is used by what we eat and buy, which is why some on the left obviously want to reduce meat consumption and horse ownership and other forms of activity which have large water use requirements, especially if it is easy to scapegoat particular industry who are vulnerable with regard to votes.

Obviously we are near a tipping point with cities now dominating the political landscape, and it's only going to get more intense as government encourages higher density housing, thus more homogenous voting patterns.
 

chambero

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
A huge amount of the water usage in a city occurs due to landscaping - at least across much of the U.S.  Arid places are just going to have to stop it.  You can do internet searches about the current Wichita Falls water crisis and see the huge reductions in water usage since lawn irrigation has been flatout banned.

Urbanization isn't the issue.  Cramming people into smaller areas is actually more efficient on water use.  The more people that don't have yards, the less water is used.  People are going to use the same amount "inside the house" whether they live in a city or out in the country.

As water supplies become tighter over time, a type of project called "direct water reuse" will become more prevalent.  Grey water systems - which are popular - are in direct conflict with water reuse.  We just have to using water on yards on cities.  Period. 
 
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