How to really manage a ranch during drought

Drought can be devastating. Forages stop producing, making it difficult for ranchers to make food. Drought can make things seem bleak.

With all this difficulty, it can be easy to fall into a ‘survival’ mode during this time. This mode often involves taking extreme measures such as selling off a large portion of your herd or drastically reducing feed, just hoping that things will turn better. This ‘survival‘ mode is a state of mind where the immediate crisis takes precedence over long-term planning, and the focus is on short-term survival. However, these measures can lead to long-term adverse effects on your operation. But what if I told you there was a different option?

While you may be unable to stop drought from happening, all is not lost. The one thing to remember is that eventually, the rains will come back, so you will need to look ahead. There are things that you can do during this time to ensure that your pasture will bounce back once the rain does return; here are some things that you can do in the meantime:

Plan for drought

The best strategy for dealing with drought is to have a plan before it even starts. As the saying goes, “The time to plan for drought is when the rain is falling.” Waiting until it happens may cause you to be too emotionally attached to make the correct decisions.

This plan should contain steps to take in the event things become too dry. The procedure can be triggered by something like not getting enough rain on a particular day on the calendar. Depending on how little rain you have received, the cuts you will need to make will be severe.

The critical thing to remember with any plan you make is preserving the pasture. The condition of your forages and pastures is the bedrock of any livestock operation. Producers should manage pastures for adequate long-term cover and production. How you look at it is that you are a grass farmer, and your livestock are just another means of harvesting them.

Develop plan correctly

Producers should make any forage decisions at least one season ahead. For example, summer plans should be made during the spring. Planning a season ahead will give you enough time to gather any needed material. It would be best to have more time to arrive before the last minute.

A well-developed plan can protect you from the most critical effects of drought—such as water and feed shortages. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln has a lot of information available on how to develop a drought plan. It provides seven steps that you can take to improve your chances during this trying time.

Grazing Management

Proper grazing management is not just a strategy; it’s a powerful tool in your hands. It’s the key to maximizing your forages’ potential while ensuring their regrowth.

Letting your grasses have enough rest between grazing is a significant factor in success or failure. If plants have enough rest, then the root system will stay healthy. Keeping the roots healthy will determine how well the plant can take in moisture and nutrients and grow back.

Let them rest

Depending on the species of the forages, they need to grow to 8-10 inches before you let the animals back onto the field. Types like Bermudagrass can handle more grazing because they have above-ground and below-ground runners. Getting to this height can depend on conditions, so avoiding a set schedule is best. Once they are on the pasture, you will want to take them off once they have grazed the forages down to about half of the original length.

You can take various steps to reduce the demand for your forages. One such technique is to remove a certain number of animals or destock. However, you will need to take specific steps to do this without affecting your overall productivity. I reviewed these steps in a previous post, ” How destocking can ease your pain.”

The time you return the animals to the pasture can also affect their overall health. A good rule of thumb is to turn them out when the range has had about 5-6 weeks of new growth. If they have been severely overgrazed, rest the pasture until growth stops in the fall.

Soil fertility

The two best measures of pasture recovery are stand thickness and forage height. An excellent way to achieve either of these is to improve soil fertility. The first step in doing this is to perform a soil test and then follow the instructions on your results. Pastures with lower fertility will likely have more significant damage from drought than pastures with good fertility.

The type and amount of fertilizer that you put out will also play a factor. A good recovery approach is to treat this as a “new seeding.” What this means is that you should focus a little more on putting out enough Phosphorus. What this will do is improve the root production of the plants in the pasture. Depending on your recommendations and the overall damage, you may need to apply 20-75 lbs of P per acre.

In order to prevent any of it from being wasted, it is vital to know not to apply any Nitrogen until adequate moisture is present. During or right after a drought, you should only put out enough for a 30-day production period in the presence of proper soil moisture. An example would be applying 75 lbs of N per acre per month at most.

Drought weed control

Aggressive weed control is necessary during this time. Weeds tend to recover quicker, and they can choke out any potential new growth you could get. So, to improve the chances of recovery, you will need to get them under control.

The key to this step is to remove any competition with your forages. Once the rains return, water will be at a premium, and you do not want anything taking that away from your recovering forages.

While reducing competition for water and nutrients is essential, this is not the time to get overzealous. The timing of your herbicide application is more important than the total amount. In order to be most effective, you will want to apply when the weed is growing. Depending on the type, that can be in the fall or even in the spring of the following year.

The type of weeds that you have will determine what kind of herbicide you will need. The best method for controlling broadleaf weeds is a timely post-emergent herbicide application of something like 2,4-D. Applying a glyphosate product can do the trick for any winter annual weeds. The key to remember is first to identify what you have. Identifying first is knowing what you will need to eliminate them.