|
|
|
A sale barn made an appropriate backdrop for a drought management meeting presented recently by Oklahoma State University extension professionals, as hot, dry conditions persist across the Southern Plains and the cost to keep a cow climbs to historic levels.
In a scenario repeated at sale facilities across the south, runs of cows at Northwest Stockyards west of Enid have been unseasonably high in recent weeks.
“People cry out here unloading their cows,” said Otis Munkres, company vice president. “It’s a dramatic business right now.”
“At least producers here can still make some choices,” added Jeff Bedwell, the Garfield County extension agent and host of the meeting. “But this is information that they need now.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the area rated in poor or very poor condition has expanded in the last couple of weeks, and roughly 40 percent of the nation’s entire cowherd is now directly impacted by it, according to Greg Highfill, Northwest Oklahoma area livestock specialist.
Oklahoma’s western counties and the panhandle have received 30 percent of a normal year’s rainfall; last year’s August to July period was the driest 365-day period ever on record.
Texas is also experiencing the most severe drought ever in state history, and New Mexico and parts of Kansas and Colorado are in increasingly dire circumstances.
The situation is compounded by relentless heat. According to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, the statewide average summer temperature so far has been 87 degrees, easily outpacing the previous record of 85.2 degrees recorded in 1934. High temperatures in July averaged 103 degrees, making it the hottest month ever on record anywhere in the contiguous United States since recordkeeping began in 1895.
More than 400 producers gathered at two Oklahoma locations last week to hear the experts discuss drought implications and strategies. The biggest consideration is the rising cost per day to keep a cow, which is largely dependent on feed availability and price.
Hay supplies have been rapidly depleted across the region with some hay growers getting hundreds of calls a day, Bedwell said. He estimated current alfalfa prices were reaching around $300 a ton and prairie hay was going for nearly $80 a ton.
“We just don’t have any standing forage left,” he said. “At this point, we’ve just about exhausted our short-range sources. There is hay out there, but it is a ways away, and it costs $4 a mile to bring it in, so freight becomes a huge issue.”
A sale barn made an appropriate backdrop for a drought management meeting presented recently by Oklahoma State University extension professionals, as hot, dry conditions persist across the Southern Plains and the cost to keep a cow climbs to historic levels.
In a scenario repeated at sale facilities across the south, runs of cows at Northwest Stockyards west of Enid have been unseasonably high in recent weeks.
“People cry out here unloading their cows,” said Otis Munkres, company vice president. “It’s a dramatic business right now.”
“At least producers here can still make some choices,” added Jeff Bedwell, the Garfield County extension agent and host of the meeting. “But this is information that they need now.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the area rated in poor or very poor condition has expanded in the last couple of weeks, and roughly 40 percent of the nation’s entire cowherd is now directly impacted by it, according to Greg Highfill, Northwest Oklahoma area livestock specialist.
Oklahoma’s western counties and the panhandle have received 30 percent of a normal year’s rainfall; last year’s August to July period was the driest 365-day period ever on record.
Texas is also experiencing the most severe drought ever in state history, and New Mexico and parts of Kansas and Colorado are in increasingly dire circumstances.
The situation is compounded by relentless heat. According to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, the statewide average summer temperature so far has been 87 degrees, easily outpacing the previous record of 85.2 degrees recorded in 1934. High temperatures in July averaged 103 degrees, making it the hottest month ever on record anywhere in the contiguous United States since recordkeeping began in 1895.
More than 400 producers gathered at two Oklahoma locations last week to hear the experts discuss drought implications and strategies. The biggest consideration is the rising cost per day to keep a cow, which is largely dependent on feed availability and price.
Hay supplies have been rapidly depleted across the region with some hay growers getting hundreds of calls a day, Bedwell said. He estimated current alfalfa prices were reaching around $300 a ton and prairie hay was going for nearly $80 a ton.
“We just don’t have any standing forage left,” he said. “At this point, we’ve just about exhausted our short-range sources. There is hay out there, but it is a ways away, and it costs $4 a mile to bring it in, so freight becomes a huge issue.”
Oklahoma and a few other states have temporarily authorized trucks to exceed standard load limits in order to get more hay into drought-ravaged areas more quickly. Extended emergency haying and grazing on Conservation Reserve acreage has been authorized in approved counties in five states: Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Extension experts pegged daily feed costs at somewhere around $2.50 to 3.50 to maintain a cow, historically high levels. The spread between what it costs to sell a cow now and buy a replacement back later is also substantial and continues to widen as sale prices fall. Additionally, the figure is influenced by how large of a geographic area will be rebuilding herds at the same time, according to area economist Rodney Jones. Cowherd liquidation over the past decade was at a fast clip even before drought conditions accelerated it.
“My assumption is very high valued replacements when conditions improve,” Jones told producers.
The state’s drought declaration allows producers to qualify for tax relief from forced sales, such as deferral of income for tax-reporting purposes.
In addition, officials suggested several tools that could help producers cut their feed use and make scarce supplies go further.
Small steps can add up. For example, hay wasted by an open bottomed feeder (the cheapest and most popular model among the area’s cattlemen) is substantial compared to one with a sheeted bottom, according to OSU studies.
“I was shocked. The best we can tell after two years of doing this research is that standard feeders result in 20 percent waste,” said David Lalman, OSU beef cattle specialist.
Cattlemen can also reduce forage intake by substituting concentrates like grain or protein supplements. Early weaning can reduce a cow’s maintenance requirements from 25 to 75 percent, which is especially pronounced on heavier milking cows, Lalman added. Current economics offer some favorable opportunities to put those calves into a backgrounding program and grow them with relatively affordable feeds like dried distillers grains from ethanol production.
Feeding an ionophore such as Rumensin, while it may prevent cattle from qualifying for natural beef marketing programs, costs about 2 cents per cow per day and can provide a dramatic improvement in cow performance and conditioning, he added.
“I don’t know of any simpler, more practical or easier thing you could do today,” Lalman said. “This is why 95 percent of the feedyards in the country feed this, but the cows are missing out.”
While no one measure provides a silver bullet, by combining several strategies, Lalman said producers could potentially reduce hay needs by 15-20 percent.
While quantity of forage and stock water has become a huge concern, producers were also warned to monitor quality issues.
Failed corn salvaged for hay, sorghum and sudan grasses, pearl millet and even some weeds can develop high concentrations of nitrates when stressed. Corn kernels can develop aflotoxins that are potentially lethal to livestock. Prussic acid poisoning can occur in standing sorghum and sudangrass forages, especially if a rain shower spurs sudden re-growth.
The forage-testing lab at OSU is experiencing a 5-fold increase in the number of tests conducted this year, Highfill said. Some producers took advantage of the invitation to bring hay to the extension meetings for evaluation. Nitrate sampling costs $6, and tests to determine protein and energy content run about $12.
Fresh water supplies are also at risk during a season when a cow’s water intake spikes. In mid-summer, a lactating cow will drink around 17 gallons of water a day, Bedwell said. In recent days, Garfield County officials received two reports of cattle dropping dead due to blue-green algae poisoning.
“There is no fix for that problem, other than rainfall, cooler weather and better weather,” Bedwell said. “You have no choice but to remove the rest of the cattle, and then we have to find an alternative water source.”
He told producers to be on the lookout for water with a metallic cast or shiny lime green tint and dead wildlife in the vicinity. A diagnostic test can determine the presence of neurotoxins.
Farmers lucky enough to get a sporadic shower are in many cases hoping to plant early wheat for forage, said area agronomist Roger Gribble, but planting decisions need to be made with extra care.
Some wheat varieties have longer coleoptiles (the portion of the seedling between the root and the first leaf) and emerge better in warm soils.
“Be cognizant of seed depth” during planting, he added, so plants have a chance to germinate.
Producers were encouraged to limit tillage operations and avoid anhydrous applications that could further dry the soil.
“If you are looking at doing any tillage at this time, it needs to be very, very shallow,” Gribble said.
Dry weather forecast to continue
The experts’ advice was underscored by widespread concern that the drought will linger and even intensify in coming months. National weather observers gave official notice recently that signs are favorable for redevelopment of the La Nina weather pattern credited with bringing hotter, drier weather to the Southern tier of the U.S., compounding a trend climate officials in Texas have already compared to “a death spiral.”
Producers in Oklahoma will have another chance to learn about drought strategies in a couple of weeks when the Oklahoma Farm Bureau hosts a drought summit Aug. 30 at their Oklahoma City headquarters. The summit will feature speakers from OSU as well as the Noble Foundation, the Oklahoma Agriculture Mediation Program, the state Department of Agriculture and the state Farm Service Agency.
Meanwhile, agricultural consultants at the Noble Foundation have developed www.noble.org/drought, a website that serves as a repository for information to assist producers in managing their property and natural resources through the current crisis.
“This is a once-in-a-generation drought,” said Billy Cook, senior vice president and director of the Agricultural Division. “We haven’t seen this type of heat and lack of precipitation since the record-setting drought of the mid-1950s or even the Dust Bowl.”
