Dry conditions cause East Texas ranchers to put hay out early

TYLER, Texas ( KETK ) – As the climate continues to dry in East Texas it is now causing some ranchers to put hay out early for their cattle.

Normally, hay does not get put out until after the first frost but now that the grass is drying up, ranchers need to supplement.

“I’m about two weeks away,” said Malcolm Williams, East Texas rancher.

The clock is ticking for ranchers to start thinking about putting out hay for their cattle.

“The hay that we’re producing right now because it has been dry is about a third of what we produced earlier,” Williams said.

The grass provides the necessary nutrients for cows but when it goes dormant, the protein content goes down tremendously. In these cases, ranchers will need to supplement with hay, cubes and liquid feed.

“Nights are getting cooler. What they’re grazing on now, I’m already supplementing mine, so that they do have the protein and everything that they need, but it’s gonna start eating into your winter stock,” Williams said.

Williams said that if the drying trend continues, the demand will rise and the production quality will go down.

“There’s a lot of hay out there that’s low quality hay, but the cattle still needs filler. I mean, that would be a good filler base, but as it continues to get dry and if we go to a dry winter and then we turn around with a dry spring, next year, we will be in trouble,” Williams said.

Williams said East Texas experienced a wet spring and summer it was good on the front end for hay production, but its all dried up and now production is slow.

“The first cuttings when we had so much moisture and everything is hard to get in the fields. Then when we did get in, we got nearly double production of from what a first cutting would be, and then it turned off dry. Now we’re getting about a third of what we produced earlier,” Williams said.

Williams’ water sources haven’t dried up, but ranchers will need to get more supplements to keep their cows nice and healthy into the winter season.

He also expects the cost of hay to rise soon, forcing ranchers to spend more money. In the meantime they are praying for more rain.

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