Taking Stock and Moving Forward

August is usually a hot but fairly easy time in the cow calf operation.  However, this year the dark clouds on the horizon don’t appear to have much rain in them.  The drought continues to expand and worsen in most parts of Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic.  This August is a good time to take stock of your resources and cattle.  Then use this information to make management decisions.

Taking Stock

Feed inventory is the first item that needs to be addressed.  Most pastures are in poor shape and first cutting hay supplies are short.  Prospects for an above average second cutting are not looking real good.  Here are some taking stock items to consider:

Estimate the total feed needs from now until April 2008.  Each cow or bull will need at least 30 to 35 lbs of hay or equivalent in pasture per day.  Pregnant heifers and developing heifers will need 20 to 30 lbs of hay or equivalent per day. Feeder calves will need 12 to 15 lbs. per day.  These numbers include some wastage of feed, but operations with excessive feed wastage will require more lbs per animal.  Then compare the feed needed to current feed available.

Here’s an example:

From August 1, 2007 to April 20, 2008 is 263 days.  Cattle inventory and feed (dry matter) needs for a 60 cow spring calving herd are shown in table 1.  Total tons of feed needed is 346.9 tons.  Current feed inventory includes 120 round bales averaging 1100 lbs, 160 acres of pasture, and 45 acres of hayland.  Each acre of grass contains 200 to 300 lbs of hay equivalent per inch of grass above 3 inches.  Utilization rate of rotated pasture is 50%.  In other words, cattle can only eat about half of the grass available.  The rest of the grass is trampled or soiled by urine and feces.  Grass is currently growing at about 3 to 4 inches per month.

Table 1.  Cattle inventory and feed requirements until April 2008.

An estimated feed inventory is shown in Table 2.  This inventory assumes pasture will continue to grow at 4 inches per month through October and utilization is 50%.  Second cutting hay will be harvested in September.  Current feed inventory is in essence all the forage available until mid-April 2008.

Table 2.  Estimated current feed inventory

Comparing the dry matter needs to current availability, it is easy to see there is a short fall of over 120 tons.  If we had to purchase this forage at $80/ton, then we would be spending an extra $9,600 or almost another $115 per animal to make it until next spring.  Of course, this is a worst case scenario with little expectation of improved moisture this fall.  Still we need to consider our options for making it through the winter.

Moving forward

Reduce cattle inventory.  One option is to sell all animals that do not have the potential to produce a quality calf to sell next fall.  In addition, this includes animals that can relatively easily be replaced.  Animals that fall into this category are open cows, old cows, weaned replacement heifers, and bulls.  If we take this drastic step, the forage shortfall is cut to one third to 40 tons (compare Table 2 and 3).  However, we still will have the same number of calves to sell next fall.  Decisions on buying replacement bulls and pregnant replacement heifers can be deferred to next spring when pasture and feed availability may be improved.

Table 3.   Feed needs for reduced cattle inventory.

Stockpile forage. Another possibility is to graze hay fields instead of making second cutting hay, and stockpile 45 acres of pasture.  To stockpile during this dry weather 40 units of N is recommended.   Utilization of stockpiled fields is higher than pasture at about 70%.  This reduces our feed shortfall to 30 tons (Table 4).  This would mean purchasing an additional $2,400 of hay (or about $2,000 worth of corn gluten feed) plus 1800 units of N.

Table 4.  Impact on grazing hay fields and stockpiling on forage availability.

What about rain.  If we get a good fall combined with reducing cow numbers and stockpiling, then things look pretty good (Table 5).  In fact, we end up with a surplus of about 20 tons of forage.  This may allow the operation to keep one of the bulls and still have hay to sell next spring.  By next spring, hay may be a very profitable commodity. 

Table 5.  Effect of adequate fall rain, grazing hay fields, and stockpiling on forage availability.

The bottom line

The examples above only consider the dry matter intake of the animal as met by hay and pasture.  In addition, these examples assume that forage quality is adequate to meet animal needs.  Producers should be very careful to obtain forage analyses and work with their Extension agent or nutritionist to make sure hays meet the needs of the animal.  It will not be uncommon for energy supplements to be needed in addition to hay, especially for pregnant heifers and replacement heifers. 

To continue to be a viable and perhaps profitable operation, producers will need to consider a combination of strategies to make it through the drought.  The first and most important consideration is to make a realistic inventory of feed resources and cattle needs.  Then producers should employ a combination of:

Producers should try to consider all the options, and should not be afraid to seek assistance from Farm Management Extension Agents or other Agricultural Extension agents.  Remember prayer never hurts either.

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