Market forces may tell beef producers to increase herd numbers. Experienced ranchers, however, approach that advice with caution, making sure they have adequate pasture and rangeland to support the cattle.
Taking care of rangeland is never so critical as when drought grips a ranch.
Throughout much of the High Plains, dry conditions are causing farmers and ranchers to evaluate their range resources. The more arid the climate the closer it has to be watched, and the more critical it is to have a detailed plan. Whether formal or informal, thinking and planning ahead is necessary, ranchers say.
Larry Lundgren, 72, a native of rural Gove County, Kansas, remembers too many dry years, including the past two years although rains after his wheat harvest have eased some of the pressure this year. He has 250 momma cows that are registered Angus and is in a partnership arrangement with a registered Red Angus cowherd. He owns about 2,000 acres pasture and rents an additional 1,200 acres.
Preparation is what a rancher can control and while Lundgren enjoys talking about his cattle he quickly pivots to say it starts and ends with quality pasture.
Each acre is valuable
He treats every acre as a renewable asset, the key to long-term profit for a cattle rancher. He recalls the important advice given by his father, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Larry said as he explained, “Cattle will tend to reach through poor fences even in good times. Hot wires all around the ranch minimize cattle getting out.”
Managing each acre is tough, he said, yet necessary in years of plenty or in drought. He offered advice that he considers his blueprint for survival.
First, sustainability, “…by keeping possession of land and keeping it in the family,” he said. “Second, be prepared ahead of time. Three, what you do or don’t do during plentiful years can have a huge impact on tough drought years. Four, stockpile grass, feed and money.”
In elaborating on his fourth reason, Lundgren said from experience he learned to stick with normal stocking rates even in good years. Living in western Kansas, he stocks at a rate of 10 acres per pair as a general rule. With feed inventory, if possible, he believes in carrying over plenty for the following year.
Lundgren offers sage advice on cash, an important piece to his range management plan.
“It can be very tempting to spend on luxury items during good years,” he said. “Save back funds because it can become necessary to purchase feed or rent additional grass and void excessive debt.”
Scripture provides a common sense reminder as he quoted Proverbs 22:7, “The borrower is servant to the lender,” to which Lundgren added, “Don’t be a slave to the bankers so in the event you do need to temporarily borrow, it shouldn’t be an issue.”
He advocates culling cows regularly, even in good times. In tough times, keeping cows that should be culled is counterproductive to a rangeland management plan.
“If you stick with normal stocking rates and save 50 heifers per year, sell at least 50 cows that are of average production or below.”
Lundgren believes having quality pasture and rangeland in place, even in tough times, gives the producer the best flexibility for managing his ranchland.
“There are factors you can control, but weather is something you cannot control,” he said. “If it becomes absolutely necessary sell some of them off if you have to. That’s the culling part of it.”
Water availability
Mike Collinge, Greenwood County, Kansas, said his career as a rancher began with a bucket calf project at age 8. Today, the 64-year-old rancher has a few cow-calf pairs but he mainly has yearlings and also owns and custom-grazes yearlings.
Collinge has seen droughts, including the 1980s and most recently 2012-14 when “it pretty well hit us hard.”
“We have tried to do a general-type plan,” he said about planning when Mother Nature does not cooperate. “Working with water is how it starts in the Flint Hills. In eastern Kansas and in the Flint Hills we usually have grass to get us through July. It does not happen every year but when it does at least you can get by the rest of the season.
“Right now the question is having quality water,” he said. “This is the situation we are under now. Since we’re on grass primarily we try to be conservative on our stocking rates.”
Part of his planning process is if it looks tough they will reduce stocking rates. So far in 2018, Collinge has not had to do that and are continuing with regular stocking and marketing.
“As far as the drought goes and having to sell (off some numbers) we are fortunate,” Collinge said.
He uses informal plans to address drought situations, believing a drought plan is a good idea.
“We don’t have anything set in stone but it is a flexible plan,” he said. “We cannot predict the future. If we have a problem we have to address it, we cannot afford to ignore it.”
Rotational grazing and the use of short term intensive grazing and spot grazing are all techniques Collinge uses. The Flint Hills is not a textbook case-study; it all depends on rangeland and grass availability, he said.
A marketing strategy with yearlings does provide flexibility. Stocking rate is determined by the quality of grass available. Another issue when drought conditions occur is the need to stay on top of invasive plants and noxious weeds as they can thrive when the ecosystem is stressed, he said, and the invasive species can into the following year, which can worsen if the drought carries over, too.
Further west ranchers have to deal with eastern red cedars. Collinge said they try to do the same. “With their habitat it is not as much of an issue but they can also drink the water if we don’t take care of them.”
Collinge buys a little bit of feed or hay to offset some rangeland shortage.
“All our feed is pretty much tall-grass prairie or we may have to buy some hay but it a local situation. We try to be fairly self-contained in our approach. If we take care of the water and grass it seems to lessen the problems we’ll have later.”
Collinge and Lundgren say they have never used a detailed plan; however, the principles remain.
Lundgren’s plan does not carry many bells and whistles as it offers common sense taught by his dad, “Old school thinking and action still works.”
Planning tool
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the National Drought Mitigation Center, Lincoln, Nebraska, have authored a planning guide for Great Plains ranchers.
Researchers said the key is to recognize that droughts are inevitable and their length is not known. A detailed plan should include communication and planning partners; ranch vision and objectives, understanding of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats during drought; an inventory of ranch resources; critical dates for making decisions; a schedule to monitor; management strategies before, during and after a drought; and an ongoing review of the drought plan.
The plan notes that lengthening recovery time occurs when excessive grazing pressure occurs during a drought—regardless of pre-drought conditions; lower average annual precipitation (in the western part of the Great Plains); and lower yield per inch of precipitation (in the southern part of the Great Plains.) The plan notes that attempting to increase yield responses to precipitation with fertilizer or other agricultural chemicals are likely to be ecologically disastrous.
The plan also notes that when a drought breaks key management points include restoring hydrologic conditions of rangelands, restore plant vigor and review animal production objectives. In general, do not graze weed invested pastures; restock based on the recovery of mid- and tall-grasses by looking a the cover and height of preferred species; delay entry of summer pastures by one to two weeks; restoration of hydrological conditions requires a reduction in spring and summer stocking rates; and rest pastures when air temperatures and soil moisture are simultaneously favorable for relatively rapid plant growth of preferred species.
The guide is available online at drought.unl.edu/ranchplan/.
Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].
