A green drought

[Grassfarmer]

Here are a few pictures of the "green drought" we are experiencing this year. Sorry no cow or horse pictures - we are in the grass and solar conversion business and grass growth and management effects fascinate me.
It looks pretty good on my place and in our area in general compared to much of western Canada however it is still a record dry, record late season in this area. We have had around 6/10 inch in June(4/10 over the last 3 days) and had under an inch in May which is usually our wettest time of year. This is on top of a very low rainfall period beginning last July.

Typical regrowth on pasture that was grazed off as banked grass in late April.

A poor area on my place showing the amount of growth most folks with permanent grazing have in this area. Same land, same rainfall - different litter, different plant health.

Spot the difference - walking towards an area of abundance.

Close up - It makes me ponder what drought really is. It would appear that drought affects land that has poor fertility, poor organic matter, poor moisture retention and unhealthy plants(all inter-connected). It does not appear to affect land that is wealthy in the above assets. This area got the same rainfall yet yields maybe 5 or 10 times as much grass. I believe this was a winter bedding pack maybe 20 years ago that has been overgrown with quack grass.

A different pasture - we rented this quarter a few weeks back as a part of our emergency drought strategy. It was ungrazed last year and is a stand of pure orchard grass with volunteer quack grass filling in. Old orchard grass stalks are 5-6 feet tall. The green area behind is on a neighbors place that we aren't renting.

This closer up shot tries to show this years growth. I pulled one orchard grass plant out that measured 26 inches tall, 5 leaves and no sign of heading out yet. We are real happy to have picked up this extra pasture given that we buy our winter feed which by all accounts looks like it will be expensive. Hopefully grain/canola crops are so late that we will be able to get some salvaged ones for silage come fall.

 

[Silver]

Congrats on some great grass management. Drought in my area means hay crops fail to produce, and the best management practice is to keep up with your rejuvenation programme, and even that can only do so much for you.

 

[per]

Going to be a tough year Gf. The banked grass here is not regrowing, too cold. My drought strategy includes an extra couple hundred acres from the grain farm to cover crop and swath grazing. It is a lot like feeding my way out of a drought. Getting too late to destock as many will hit the market soon. The grass at our ranch looks good especially in the shade of the aspens. None has been touched yet this year. Will start hauling cows there next week. Never have I had to hit our tame grass so hard. Need heat and rain soon. Knowing a few folks that know you Gf, I would expect your place to look good for the conditions.

 

[Trinity man]

Here are a few pictures of the "green drought" we are experiencing this year. Sorry no cow or horse pictures - we are in the grass and solar conversion business and grass growth and management effects fascinate me.
It looks pretty good on my place and in our area in general compared to much of western Canada however it is still a record dry, record late season in this area. We have had around 6/10 inch in June(4/10 over the last 3 days) and had under an inch in May which is usually our wettest time of year. This is on top of a very low rainfall period beginning last July.

Typical regrowth on pasture that was grazed off as banked grass in late April.

A poor area on my place showing the amount of growth most folks with permanent grazing have in this area. Same land, same rainfall - different litter, different plant health.

Spot the difference - walking towards an area of abundance.

Close up - It makes me ponder what drought really is. It would appear that drought affects land that has poor fertility, poor organic matter, poor moisture retention and unhealthy plants(all inter-connected). It does not appear to affect land that is wealthy in the above assets. This area got the same rainfall yet yields maybe 5 or 10 times as much grass. I believe this was a winter bedding pack maybe 20 years ago that has been overgrown with quack grass.

A different pasture - we rented this quarter a few weeks back as a part of our emergency drought strategy. It was ungrazed last year and is a stand of pure orchard grass with volunteer quack grass filling in. Old orchard grass stalks are 5-6 feet tall. The green area behind is on a neighbors place that we aren't renting.

This closer up shot tries to show this years growth. I pulled one orchard grass plant out that measured 26 inches tall, 5 leaves and no sign of heading out yet. We are real happy to have picked up this extra pasture given that we buy our winter feed which by all accounts looks like it will be expensive. Hopefully grain/canola crops are so late that we will be able to get some salvaged ones for silage come fall.

We have some grass growing on our place and no one know what it is. I am going to take some pictures of it and see if any of you know what it is. Our Co agent don't even know what it is. Our cows eat it when its mowed off and comes back, but after it grows up they don't touch it. :???:

 

[Northern Rancher]

The places we've bale grazed look pretty decent there's enough of a mulch there that it takes alot for it to dry out-we haven't went to our native meadows yet but once we do our tame fields will have had about 80-90 days of rest. Cows aren't getting checked much but Shauna says that calving must be winding up alot of fairly new caves out there. Kind of bad when all the ropers can't rope lol-guess we'll get them tagged up at branding.

 

[Grassfarmer]

Going to be a tough year Gf. The banked grass here is not regrowing, too cold. My drought strategy includes an extra couple hundred acres from the grain farm to cover crop and swath grazing. It is a lot like feeding my way out of a drought. Getting too late to destock as many will hit the market soon. The grass at our ranch looks good especially in the shade of the aspens. None has been touched yet this year. Will start hauling cows there next week. Never have I had to hit our tame grass so hard. Need heat and rain soon. Knowing a few folks that know you Gf, I would expect your place to look good for the conditions.

I guess the difference between you and I per is that you are buying your feed at wholesale prices and me at retail by this policy!
It's looking better every day though - we have had 6/10ths in the last few days and the grass is jumping. Still under an inch for June and that is scary dry if it turns hot about the usual time in July. I see NR's crew got wet so hopefully the rain has got to many areas that needed it.

 

[PureCountry]

Up until this past week, we had received 3/10th's of rain since April when what little snow we had disappeared. Last Tuesday night we got a real downpour that gave us 1.5 inches in 3 hours. Since then we've had another 6/10th's in scattered showers. It's great for the pastures, but most crops in this area are already done. The ones that had come up early were either frozen in May, or burnt off here in June. The ones that didn't come up, still haven't. Went crop-checking with my neighbour in his wheat fields, and we could dig down and find the wheat still laying there, and in some areas, even the fertilizer was still there, after laying in the soil for 3 weeks. If any of these crops germinate, they'll be swath-grazing at best.

I haven't seen any auctions where I inspect turning pairs away. They're selling anywhere from $500-1250 in this area. We're selling 100 in July. If anyone's interested in Galloway pairs, let me know.

 

[3words]

I haven't seen any auctions where I inspect turning pairs away. They're selling anywhere from $500-1250 in this area. We're selling 100 in July. If anyone's interested in Galloway pairs, let me know.[/quote]
I was at a pair sale on friday,there was roughly 400 pairs there.The first few pairs sold for $1200,didn't take long though and they were selling for a $1000,and then they dropped between $800 and $900 and stayed there for most of the sale.Older cows with calves as low as $500.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

Trinity man...is it smut grass? Sounds kinda like it. Ours won't touch smut grass if it heads out. But if it's mowed, they'll keep the new growth ate.

 

[allen57]

Wish our's looked as nice as yours :wink:

 

[Grassfarmer]

allen57, your grass doesn't look that bad - certainly better sward density than we have some places. I'm guessing you are a lot further into your growing season than we are - our cows have only been on fresh grass grown this year for a month now. Before that it was carryover grass from last year.

Good luck selling some cows Purecountry it doesn't look like it will be a great year for it. The $1000+ prices sound good but really aren't enough. In reality it's no better than weaning a calf in the fall and shipping the cows as culls at last years values. We were working on a deal to sell a few young commercial pairs with early July delivery for $700 but we would retain the calves and pick them up at weaning.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Close to 4 inches here over the weekend-kind of went from a drought to a flood-I doubt the cows will cross the muskkeg to get to the big meadows-I guess the horses can winter back there this year. Still gonna sell the cows-I won't sell breeding cattle at auction I've done pretty well private treaty over the years.

 

[per]

Spread that 4 inches out and it would last all summer. Good for you, when a drought breaks it usually breaks something. Started hauling cows to our foothills ranch yesterday. It has had rain and other than being a little behind from cold it looks great. Used the tame grass at home harder than I wanted but needed to give the native the time it needs. Other than winter supplies we are in good shape here.

 

[Bward]

We didn't get any of the rain these last few days. 8 miles south of us the fields are swamped. All these clouds were nothing but a big tease. We'll have to put the cattle in the hayfields soon.

 

[allen57]

Grassfarmer, this is what it is supposed to look like this time of year.

This was just before starting our third cut.

 

[per]

Grassfarmer, I drove up to Edmonton today. Holy smokes. Going past Ponoka I have never seen it so dry or late at this time of year. It is like you moved down south. Sure hope you get rain soon.

 

[Grassfarmer]

I can't complain too bad Per, we are substantially better than the Crestomere/Ponoka area only 25 miles east of us. All looks green here for now but I suspect if the heat comes back we will struggle just about right away. The long range forecasts look bad - basically there is no substantial rain in the forecast and we will get into the usual July/August period of heat/dry weather. South of Red Deer they predict above average rain for July/August. Lets hope the forecasts are badly wrong and we get a deluge.