Grazing management, stockmanship clinic offers advice in times of drought
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IF YOU GO
What: Grazing Management and Stockmanship Clinic
When: Sept. 23, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Brackenridge Park Main Event Center, 284 Brackenridge Parkway in Edna
Cost: $25 per person or $40 per couple, includes lunch
RSVP by ...
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IF YOU GO
What: Grazing Management and Stockmanship Clinic
When: Sept. 23, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Brackenridge Park Main Event Center, 284 Brackenridge Parkway in Edna
Cost: $25 per person or $40 per couple, includes lunch
RSVP by Sept. 18 by calling Tim Reinke at 361-576-1129, Ext. 3 or e-mail tim.reinke@tx.usda.gov. People with disabilities who require special accommodations, such as Braille or large-print programs, should contact Reinke early with specific requests.
For cattle at DeWitt County's Blackwell Ranches Inc., things are a bit roomier than usual.
While each cow once had about eight to 10 acres to itself to munch on, that's upped to between 12 and 15 acres. And all the cows and calves cluttering up the place? Those have thinned out, too.
And it's all due to the drought.
"We've had to cull the herds to get back to productive, young cows only," said Bill Blackwell, one of the ranch's partners. "This is definitely the worst drought we've been through since the 1950's. Maybe the worst."
But Blackwell isn't alone.
A drought monitor map released on Sept. 1 on the National Integrated Drought Information System Web site showed the Golden Crescent region - and many areas surrounding it - sitting at exceptional level on the dryness scale.
Lack of moisture affects industry and other aspects of the economy, but farmers and ranchers are typically the first ones affected, said Stephen Diebel, a Victoria County rancher, who chairs the Coastal Prairies Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative.
And a few organizations are doing what they can to help.
A grazing management and stockmanship clinic will be Sept. 23, at Edna's Brackenridge Park Main Event Center. The clinic is hosted by the Coastal Prairies Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and Texas AgriLife Extension Service, according to a USDA news release.
The goal is to better prepare grazing managers to deal with the dry conditions now and to manage their land once the drought subsides, Diebel said.
Issues such as overgrazing the land can cause long-term damage, Diebel said, and can mean a longer recovery time.
"Managing our grazing lands in good times is easy, but it can be quite challenging when it gets as dry as it has been," he said. "We need to manage the resources we do have."
The event's discussion topics include low-stress cattle handling methods, post-drought grazing management strategies, managing beef cattle nutrition through a drought and issues such as trichomoniasis and the cattle fever tick, according to the release.
Blackwell said he's already taken measures to keep productivity up at his ranch.
He culled calves early to get them off the cows because it helps the cows recover more quickly. He also plans to purchase hay to feed the animals.
And he knows there are others out there in his same situation.
"It's affecting everybody," he said of the drought. "The only thing that would really solve it is a whole lot of rain. Keep praying for rain."
Comments
A "stockmanship clinic!" Hmmm! Perhaps the chief executive officer of the Independent Cattlemen's Association could find the time to attend that clinic and learn something about feeding cows!
September 8, 2009 at 5:07 p.m.