Cattle and Pasture Drought Management Tips

August 2011 - South Texas Pasture

    As the drought continues, grass in our pastures is rapidly disappearing, and if you are one that adheres to the old range management practice of “take half and leave half,” referring to grass, it looks like you will have to take more than half before it starts to rain again, that is if you intend to maintain your cattle herd.
    If rotating pastures, continue, but slow down the rotation. It is harder on pastures but maybe one will catch a shower and get some regrowth. If you have very little or no grass, and have decided to feed your cattle, pen them up in a trap or one pasture and feed them there in troughs and hay them in rings (or unroll the bales completely). Feeding in troughs and rings reduces feed waste and loss due to trampling and defecating by up to 20%. Make cattle clean up unrolled hay, and move rings between hay feedings. Test your hay to determine quality and feed supplements accordingly.
    As you evaluate your cattle herd, selling nursing calves, very old or very young commercial cows can stretch your feeding resources and dollar by 1/3 or more. In a drought cattle will be deficient in all nutrients (energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and water). Water is the first limiting nutrient in many pastures. Cattle will require about 1 gallon of water per 100 lbs of body weight (plus 5 or more gallons if they are lactating) of good quality water. Water from ponds and dirt tanks will have significantly reduced quality (increased salt or mineral content) as they dry up. In addition there could be toxic algae blooms or poisonous plants growing near them. If possible these should be fenced off. Check water daily.
    The next two nutrients of importance are protein and energy. Cattle eat to satisfy gut fill and this is associated with their energy intake. Cattle can eat about 2-2.5% of their body weight (24 – 30 lbs) for a 1200 lb cow. When forages are dry, this limits their intake to less than 2% causing them to lose condition (weight). Supplementing these dry forages with 0.4 lb protein (from any source) can improve the digestibility of these forages and improve intake. Cattle usually require about 2 lbs of crude protein per day. Most dry grass is averaging 5% CP, so only about ½ of their protein is being supplied by grazing. The rest will need to be supplemented. Grain can be fed in small amounts daily to stretch or substitute for low hay supply or quality (1 lb grain = 2.5 lb hay).
     Cattle should be supplied vitamins (either injectable or fed) and a good mineral mix, especially phosphorous (8-12%) and salt. Some feeds have minerals and vitamins in them and these can be good sources if consumption is at the recommended level. Cattle should be monitored for dust pneumonia, external parasites, consumption of toxic plants and other nonfeed items (bones, plastic bags, etc). In the south and west, ranchers are burning prickly pear as a supplement but even the quality of the pear is much lower than in previous years. Cattle fed pear need a good protein supplement plus salt to keep from forming fiber balls. Cattle will eat 60-120 pads per head per day and need to be fed daily to keep them from eating unburned pads with spines. For more information on drought management (culling, feeding, water, etc) go to http://texashelp.tamu.edu/004-natural/droughts-animal-science.php