Land and Livestock Post

June 1, 2012

Herd Mentality

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE RESTOCKING BEEF CATTLE SHORT COURSE SET

PAG E 10

MEET THE BEETLES

58th annual event to be Aug. 6-8 at A&M.

Imported beetles may kill salt cedar.

LUMPY JAW IS NOT CONTAGIOUS

A LONG, HOT SUMMER

PAGE 3

Dr. Steve Wikse discusses cattle ailment.

PAGE 7

PAGE 12

Drought may continue in parts of Texas.

PAGE 16

2

June 1, 2012 âœŞ

The Land & Livestock Post

From the General Manager

F

By BLAIR FANNIN Texas AgriLife Communications

The 58th annual Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course, conducted by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, is scheduled Aug. 6-8 at Texas A&M University in College Station.

A variety of cattle production management topics will be presented at this year’s short course including a weather outlook, said Jason Cleere, AgrLife Extension beef cattle specialist and conference coordinator.

“Our topics this year will fit right into what Texas beef producers are experiencing with forage management, beef cattle management and beef cattle marketing,” Cleere said. “The long-term cattle market outlook is one of many other topics that will be discussed in the 22 different cattleman’s college sessions at the short course.”

The general session will fea-

ture a virtual tour of a U.S. feedyard and U.S. beef packing plant, a presentation on what consumers want to know about raising beef, as well as challenges and opportunities for ranchers in the next 20 years. Sessions will be at various locations on the Texas A&M campus, with the main general sessions at Rudder Auditorium.

“Planning committee members from around the state have met with us and helped us put together another outstanding program,” he said.

“The short course has become one of the largest and most comprehensive beef cattle educational programs in the U.S.” The cattleman’s college portion of the three-day short course provides participants with an opportunity to choose workshops based on their level of production experience and the needs of their ranch, Cleere said.

“These concurrent workshops will feature information on introductory cattle production, management practices in the areas of forage, nutrition and reproduction, record keeping, brush-busting, cattle handling, landowner issues and much more,” he said.

In addition to classroom instruction on Aug. 6-7, participants can attend one of the popular demonstrations on the morning of Aug. 8.

“There will be demonstrations on chute-side calf working, cattle behavior, penning, selection and brush-busting,” Cleere said. “These provide an opportunity for ranchers to see beef cattle production practices put to use.

“The goal of the short course each year is to provide the most cutting-edge information that is needed by beef cattle

June 1, 2012

take a look at ways to manage your herd and pastures after the drought. There is some helpful advice to help get you back on track.

We also have some advice from Dr. Steve Wikse on lumpy jaw, as well as a story about weed resistance.

There are many other articles and features in these pages to get you into the swing of summer. Hope you enjoy them. ’Til next time,

✪

olks in the ag industry are no strangers to the concept of getting back up when they’ve been knocked down, both literally and figuratively. After a blow like JESSE WRIGHT the one we suffered this past year and a half, it’s tempting to want to just lie there in the dirt a little while. But there is work to be done and we’ve been blessed with a wet spring, so it is the perfect time to dust ourselves off and get back in there.

In our cover story, we

Beef Cattle Short Course set

The Land & Livestock Post

News

• See COURSE/Page 9

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The Land & Livestock Post ✪ June 1, 2012

News

Expand weed control beyond Round-up tolerant

By KAY LEDBETTER Texas AgriLife Communications

Producers who rely on glyphosate-tolerant (“Roundup-resistant”) crops probably should be expanding their weed-control toolbox, said Paul Baumann, Texas AgriLife Extension Service state weed specialist.

“We have a critical issue arising, in that common water hemp in Central and Southeast Texas and Palmer amaranth pigweed in the High Plains have started showing signs of resistance to glyphosate herbicides,” Baumann said.

The common water-hemp resistance started showing up in 2005 with spotty infestations along the Gulf Coast and then it was hit or miss until 2010, he said.

Roundup Ready means the crop, in this case cotton, has been genetically modified to tolerate glyphosate applications made for controlling weeds, Baumann said. However, there are now biotypes of certain weeds appearing that are genetically different than others that may look the same and are tolerant to glyphosate.

“If all else is killed out but that one plant is different, that is the start of the prob-

lem,” he said. “One common water hemp plant could shed 400,000 to 500,000 seeds. So if that one weed is not killed, then later that year or the following year, there may be a whole patch of this resistant biotype of the weed.”

Baumann said he has been warning farmers for the past 10 years that they need to use a multi-herbicide program and not just rely on one product to do the job.

“We have to have more than one mechanism to manage the anomalies,” he said.

“The resistant plants have probably always been there, but when you eliminate the competition with a highly effective herbicide like glyphosate, they begin to flourish.”

The problem can be even worse for producers who plant back-to-back Roundup Ready cotton and Roundup Ready corn, if they continue to use only glyphosate herbicide on either crop, Baumann said.

His recommendation is for producers to return to using soil-residual herbicides along with the glyphosate products.

Trifluralin (Treflan) and pendamethalin (Prowl) are two of the available products that could be used in cotton programs. Some other approved

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Left, a small Palmer amaranth in the middle of two common water hemp plants. Right, in this field treated with glyphosate, some plants were killed while others were unaffected and suspected of being resistant.

The other option, he said, is products that also are soilactive herbicides are Staple, to switch to Liberty Link cotton, which is tolerant to the Cotoran, Dual and Warrant.

“All of those have a differ- herbicide glufosinate (Liberent mechanism of action than ty). This product has much of glyphosate and will effective- the same spectrum for weed ly provide substantial control control as glyphosate, but has of either species,” Baumann a different effect on the weeds said. “Roundup is too good on which makes it a sound altertoo many weeds to pull out of native to glyphosate.

The application timing on a program, but use it as one of the tools and not the only pigweed, however, is much more critical in terms of weed one.”

size for treatment with Liberty, Baumann warned, so treatments must be applied to small (less than 4 to 5 inches) Palmer amaranth or common water hemp.

“The big issue is, from a producer’s standpoint, by the time he recognizes or notices the resistance issue, he has probably already treated those weeds twice without any results and the weeds have gotten too big to treat it with any product,” he said.

“The only alternative at that point is plowing or cultivating the middles or handpulling those weeds in the rows.”

Baumann said producers should start with the mix of herbicides, putting out a soilapplied pre-emergent or preplant incorporated herbicide without fail, and it will be

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The Land & Livestock Post ✪ June 1, 2012

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‘Lumpy jaw’ is not contagious in cattle Q

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be condemned at slaughter.

Each animal is a unique case, so I can’t be sure your cow would not be condemned at slaughter.

You stated that the affected cow is a good producer. I think you can keep her unless she has a lot of pus draining from her jaw. If she does, the presence of the pus (loaded with Actinomyces bovis) contaminating the feed could make it slightly more likely for you to get another case of lumpy jaw. The chances of another case because of keeping her, however, are extremely low.

If she has pus draining from her jaw, it would be prudent to have your veterinarian examine and treat her.

Treatment of lumpy jaw usually will stop the disease from further progression, but

Photo courtesy of government of Queensland, Australia

The skull and one side of the grossly enlarged lower jaw of an animal that was euthanased because of a very severe case of lumpy jaw. The activity of the bacteria eats the bone away. will not reduce the size of the swelling. Lumpy jaw is much more complicated to treat than simple soft tissue abscesses which are easily resolved by lancing followed by flushing with iodine.

Standard treatment for lumpy jaw is for a veterinarian to carefully administer a 10 percent to 20 percent solution of sodium iodide intravenously at 7 to 10 day intervals until signs of iodine toxicity occur (runny eyes, cough, dandruff, loss of appetite and diarrhea). Three treatments usually work.

If there are open wounds that are draining pus from the lump, it will be important for the veterinarian to surgically curette the tracts and flush them with iodine.

One note of caution: sodium iodine is a very caustic chemical. Terrible damage will occur in the neck if sodium iodine is injected into tissues instead of intravenously. A big chunk of tissue can

June 1, 2012

and the area becomes painful. Lumpy jaw is usually sporadic, only infecting one animal in a herd every few years because it does not spread from one cow to another. Outbreaks involving multiple animals have occurred when cattle were fed hay that is tough and stemmy.

Abscesses of the soft tissue overlying the mandible or STEVE anywhere in WIKSE, DVM the head and neck area, but not involving bone, are very common and can be confused with lumpy jaw. They are not as hard and can be moved a little from side to side while the bone proliferation of lumpy jaw is immovable.

As long as the infection is localized in the head of your cow she would probably not be condemned if you take her to slaughter. The infection does spread to other areas in occasional victims, especially to the digestive tract and abdomen. Those cattle would

✪

uestion: Is lumpy jaw contagious from one cow to another? Also I have a cow with recurring lumpy jaw. She remains a good producer. My question is if I take her to a slaughter house will she be condemned? This is the reason I still have her.

Answer: Thanks for two good questions. First, lumpy jaw, also called actinomycosis, is not contagious from one cow to another. It is an infection of the jaw bone (mandible) caused by the bacteria Actinomyces bovis, a normal inhabitant of the surface of the mouth of cattle that usually causes no problems. Infection occurs is when sharp pieces of hay abrade or cut the lining of the mouth (oral mucosa) and allow the bacteria to invade the underlying jaw bone.

Infection less often results when erupting teeth break open the oral mucosa of young cattle.

The infected bone grows resulting initially in a hard, painless lump giving the disease its name “lumpy jaw.”

Later, skin openings develop with a small discharge of pus

The Land & Livestock Post

Ask the Vet

• See LUMPY/Page 9

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Lumpy From 7

Course From 3 producers, and this year is no exception.”

An industry trade show will be held during the event, featuring more than 110 agricultural businesses and service exhibits.

Registration is $160 per person and includes educational materials, a copy of the 600page Beef Cattle Short Course proceedings, trade show admittance, admission to the prime rib dinner, lunches, breakfasts and daily refreshments.

Registration information and a tentative schedule was mailed to previous participants in May, but can also be found on the short course website at beef.tamu.edu.

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June 1, 2012

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✪

die and slough. So, cattle must be securely restrained for the veterinarian to prevent the needle from slipping out of the jugular vein during treatment.

And, one note not to worry about: Contrary to what veterinarians and ranchers have believed for decades, treatment with sodium iodine will not cause a pregnant cow to lose her fetus. Researchers were unable to produce abortions by administering sodium iodine intravenously to pregnant cows.

Finally, of interest to my fellow fishermen: my most memorable case of lumpy jaw occurred back in the ’70s in a Jersey cow that belonged to a client named Ross. Ross made fly fishing reels out of small blocks of aircraft aluminum alloy in a small barn

behind his house. He called them Ross Reels.

Ross had several other animals including a horse, a dog and a couple of cats. On one of my trips to administer sodium iodine to his milk cow, he suggested that when his vet bill reached a certain amount he could just give me a Ross Reel to cover it.

They’re darn good reels, so I jumped at his offer. The cow did fine and that’s how I got my expensive Ross Reel.

It has caught trout all over the world and works just as good today as the day I got it.

Ross has a factory now and sells his reels and rods worldwide. You can see ’em in many of the fly fishing catalogs.

Good luck and thanks again for your great questions on lumpy jaw.

The Land & Livestock Post

News

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June 1, 2012

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The Land & Livestock Post

News

Skill sets

Good management, caution needed in restocking

By ROBERT FEARS Special to The Post

T

exas beef cattle producers experienced an extreme drought during 2011, but many ranches have received rain in 2012 and pastures are green with lush vegetative growth.

Most pastures are under stocked due to sell-offs ff durffs ing the drought and cattle prices are at all-time highs.

Input prices also have increased, particularly for feed and fuel. Current conditions require a good set of management skills and a cautious approach to restocking.

During the Cattleman’s Spring Clinic in Lampasas, Richard Machen, livestock specialist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service, talked about herd management for current conditions.

The following paragraphs are taken from Machen’s presentation.

Limitations Some ranchers may have significant financial limitations to livestock inventory recoveries.

Lack of rainfall and extremely high hay and feed expenses for the past one to two years

10

eroded bank account and investments.

Thirty percent equity is currently required by banks before they will loan money for buying cattle and a sufficient cash flow is necessary for maintaining the animals after they are purchased.

Availability of replacement stock is another limiting factor. It may be time to develop a “take a breath” attitude before rebuilding the herd.

Care should be taken to ensure that the price of a herd replacement will allow a positive return on investment. A systematic approach to determining how much you can afford to pay was explained in the April 15 Issue of Land & Livestock Post (www.landandlivestockpost.com). Record prices do not necessarily mean record profits.

Tanks and surface water impoundments went dry during the drought but have been replenished in many areas. Low water levels in wells across Texas are a concern and water availability may be a limitation to restocking the herd.

calves at weaning? Did they weigh 350 pounds or more or were they smaller? The size of the calf at birth and weaning will indicate the nutritional condition of the cow.

What are the body condition scores of the cows? They should be a 5 or 6 to raise a good calf and rebreed at the same time. Calculate the amount of roughage and supplemental feed the herd needs to at least maintain their body weights.

Is there enough difference in value to sell cow and calf pairs, pocket some dollars and buy bred cows? All of the options should be explored.

Challenges ahead Rain caused cool season weeds to emerge and warm season grasses now may be seen where pastures were not over-grazed prior to and during the drought. In deciding when to restock the herd, first determine when the next hay harvest will occur.

It is important to manage pastures and hay fields for recovery as quickly as feasible by letting the forage stay ahead of the

livestock. The herd should not be rebuilt until there is ample forage to sustain it.

If you still have a cow herd, you need to assess individual animal condition before drafti af ng future management afti strategies. How many cows are bred, open, pregnant or lactating? Reproductive stages will determine the appropriate nutritional program.

If your cows recently calved, what was the size of the

The greatest natural resource needed to raise cattle is forage and its recovery from drought is driven by soil moisture and weed canopy management. If it continues to rain, the waning cool season forage will transition to warm season grasses. Even with rainfall we need to continue supplementation with high energy feed

• See MANAGE/Page MANAGE 11

Cover and story pictures provided by Cathy Pendergrass

The Land & Livestock Post

News

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similar in herds with 5 and 6 body condition scores at 85 and 89 percent respectively.

There was a drastic reduction in conception rates when cows calved at body condition scores lower than 5. Cows at a 4 body condition score had a 62 percent rate and cows at a 3 body condition score had 38 percent conception. Only a 10 percent conception rate was obtained with cows at 2 body condition score.

A herd that calves at a body condition score less than 5 will not make the rancher a profit. One of the challenges that lies ahead is

Photo by Robert Fears

A cow needs good nutrition to raise a good calf.

• See HERD/Page 14

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explanations are presented in Table 1.

Data collected in the Florida study are shown in Table 2. Percent conception rate numbers are approximate because they were read from a bar graph. Only cows with body condition scores of 3 through 7 at calving were used in the study. Cows with body condition scores of 1 and 2 are too thin to conceive and those at 8 and 9 are too fat.

The study definitely shows the tremendous effect that body condition scores has on conception rates. There was a 98 percent conception rate in a herd where cows had a 7 body condition score at calving. Conception rates were

✪

to help animals rebuild their rumen bacteria.

If moisture is lacking, reduce forage demand to parallel availability. Replace reduced forage supply with hay and/or supplement. It is important to maintain body condition and weight on your cattle. Above all, develop a plan for recovering from drought or dealing with its continuation.

Kunkle, Sand and Rae conducted a research study in Florida on mature cows where they compared body condition scores with conception rates. Body condition scores are numbers used to describe the extent of a cow’s body fat. body condition scoress are explained in Texas Agricultural Extension Service Bulletin B-1526 by Herd and Sprott and these

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The Land & Livestock Post

News

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Salt cedar beetles released at the Lake Meredith Plum Creek site have emerged after overwintering and are expected to begin defoliating the "water-hog" salt cedar trees this summer.

Imported beetles appear to be working on salt cedar

By KAY LEDBETTER Texas AgriLife Communications

AMARILLO — Jerry Michels, a Texas AgriLife Research entomologist in Amarillo, is hopeful this will be the year major defoliation occurs on salt cedar that lines the banks of the waterways leading into Lake Meredith.

Plum Creek recreational area at Lake Meredith is the site of Michels’ biological con-

trol of salt cedar study. Lake Meredith is north of Amarillo and serves as a water source for 11 member cities of the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority.

Salt cedar is an invasive plant that uses a lot of water and degrades the environment that it is in, Michels said. It is usually found in

• See BEETLES/Page 15

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The Land & Livestock Post ✪ June 1, 2012

News

Herd From 11 to maintain the herd at a 5 or above even with a forage shortage.

With current cattle prices, every additional pound gained by a calf before it is sold puts a significant number of dollars in a producer’s pocket.

These additional profits can be realized only if enough forage is available to add weight to calves.

Table 3 shows the value of a day in a calf’s life or the estimated revenue loss in selling calves early. Different market prices in dollars per pound are listed horizontally across the top of the table and days fed are printed down the left side. The estimated market value lost per calf because of unavailable forage can be found in the body of the table.

19.95

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In deriving these values it is assumed that calf weight per day of age is 0.75 pounds or that a calf gains 0.75 pounds per day. The highest value in Table 3 is a lost value of $352.80 per calf at 84 days and a market price of $2.40 per pound. The lowest is $58.80 per calf at 21 days and a market price of $1.60 per pound.

A second challenge is determining if selling heavier calves will provide a better return on investment than buying herd replacements that will utilize the forage.

Management plans for dealing with current situations should have at least a 45-day horizon.

Our plans should include the herd worth at the end of the planning horizon and the cost to get it to that value.

For an example we use a mature Angus cow weighing 1,200 pounds with average lactation.

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Our goal is keep her at body condition scores of 4.

We estimate feed prices at: Mature grass hay $250/ton 20 percent cubes $400/ton Corn $360/ton We use two planning scenarios. In the first scenario, a cow calves on Nov. 1, which causes lactation late in the growing season. The daily nutritional requirements for this cow are 22 pounds of hay and five pounds of cubes. For the 45-day planning horizon, the cow will require one 1,000-pound round bale of hay and five sacks of cubes. It will cost $3.75 per day to feed the cow and $168.75 to feed her for 45 days.

In the second scenario, the cow calves son March 1, which causes lactation to

begin in late winter before warm season forage is available. Her daily nutritional requirements are 22 pounds of hay, three pounds of cubes and four pounds of corn.

Forty-five day requirements are one 1,000-pound round bale of hay, three sacks of cubes and four sacks of corn.

It will cost $4 per day to feed this cow and $188.21 for the 45-day period.

Once you have determined the cost of feeding a cow for 45 days, you then need to estimate her value at the end of the planning horizon so that net return on investment can be calculated. At the end of the planning horizon, will the cow be bred with a calf at her side that is ready to wean? Does she have a

weaned calf plus a new baby?

Is the cow bred without a calf? Each one of these situations demands a different value.

Determining cost and value of keeping a cow are essential for planning your way through and out of a drought.

Weeds From 4 more economical to management the weeds in the long run.

“I know farmers don’t want to spend more money fighting a problem they don’t yet have,” he said. “But my argument is, even if you don’t ever have the resistance problem, you are just ensuring that there is no competition to your crop from weeds from day one if you use a soil-active herbicide. Those first eight to 10 weeks are the most critical in keeping weed-free to prevent competition and yield loss.”

Beetles From 12

damage to the salt cedar trees in just one season, he said.

The adults and larvae girdle twigs, causing complete defoliation of even mature trees.

“Of course, if you have a big healthy tree, it’s going to take a couple years of defoliation to actually kill it,” Michels said. “But smaller trees and seedlings could be killed in the first season.”

Michels said while he is excited to see the beetles emerged for the second year in a row, he knows it is an ongoing process that will take time to see significant results.

June 1, 2012

Texas AgriLife Research photo

Salt cedar beetle eggs can be found on trees at the Lake Meredith Plum Creek site. said. “The latitude is one of the most important considerations that we have, because the beetles’ reproductive system is based on photoperiod.”

He said they have found that if there aren’t enough hours of light during the summer, the beetles will think it is going into fall and they will start to hibernate early by burrowing into the ground.

They starve to death during the winter.

“But we think we’ve got the right biotype now and it’s taken off here at Plum Creek and has done some extensive defoliation,” Michels said.

“This is the second summer they have come out of hibernation; they spent the winter here.”

He said even in last year’s drought, the beetles seemed to flourish. And now, they have emerged early this spring and are showing signs of mating.

If there are no hard freezes in the coming weeks, defoliation should begin in earnest.

The beetle can do a lot of

✪

riparian areas where there is a good source of water.

Kent Satterwhite, Canadian River Municipal Water Authority general manager at Fritch, said they have sprayed more than 20,000 acres of salt cedar along the waterways that lead into Lake Meredith, trying to control the invasive tree.

“We’re convinced that what we’ve sprayed so far has used more water than all of our member cities combined,” Satterwhite said. “So it is a huge water-hog, and the goal here is to try to help Lake Meredith and get some more water to the lake.”

The goal, with the water authority’s support of Michels’ salt cedar beetle study, is to maintain what already has been done, Satterwhite said. The beetles’ emergence and activity this

year is encouraging.

Michels said without the support of the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, he probably would not have gotten the project started. Not only was the funding important, but so was access to protected sites where “we knew we could release these beetles and they wouldn’t be disturbed.”

The project began in 2004 when Michels first released some beetles that feed on salt cedar, but he says he’s had varying degrees of success over the years.

“Some of our earlier releases may have been with the wrong species of beetle or the wrong ecotype — came from the wrong area of the world,” he said. “For some reason, they just didn’t sit well with this situation.

“Over the years, we’ve made various releases of the beetle around Lake Meredith and we think we finally have a good establishment of a beetle that came from Crete, an island off of Greece,” Michels

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The Land & Livestock Post ✪ June 1, 2012

News

Drought may not be over for parts of Texas

By KATHLEEN PHILLIPS Texas AgriLife Extension Service

A “coin toss” is how a Texas drought expert describes the forecast for rainfall across the state this season. But there are some actions farmers and ranchers can take rather than hoping for a stroke of luck.

“There’s a high probability that we’re going to have abnormally warm temperatures over the next six months,” said Travis Miller, Texas AgriLife Extension Service agronomist and drought spokesperson. “And there’s an equal chance of above or below normal precipitation. This drought is not over for large areas of the state.”

The National Integrated Drought Information System predicts that the drought will persist or intensify for more than half of Texas through July.

Miller said about one-third of the state has received enough rainfall this year to climb out of the drought that began in October 2010, but the remainder is in “significant drought.” That means even with normal or above normal rainfall in those areas, more is needed to end the drought there.

“The High Plains, much of the western Rolling Plains, and virtually all of Far West Texas remains in significant drought and is predicted to stay in drought,” he said. “We know that the areas of the state that haven’t had significant rainfall have to have a lot more rainfall before they can get back to normal. A lot remains to be determined, because it’s still very dry.”

In the eastern part of Texas, where sufficient rainfall has been received this year, producers are cutting and baling hay. In the western part

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He added that the East Texas hay supply is helpful for the western livestock raisers because it can be hauled

from a shorter distance than from the places it came from in 2011.

The drought specialist said that many Texas ranchers lost stands of perennial grasses from their acreages in the

drought and are encouraged not to restock if that grass has not grown back significantly.

“They need to go out and

• See DROUGHT/Page 17

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By BLAIR FANNIN Texas AgriLife Communications

Guoyao Wu, a faculty member in the department of animal science, part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University, has been named a Distinguished Professor.

Wu is one of five faculty members for 2012 who have received the title, which is bestowed in perpetuity and awarded to a maximum of five faculty members each year.

“University Distinguished Professors represent the highest level of achievement for our faculty,” said Karan L. Watson, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

A Texas AgriLife Research Senior Faculty Fellow, Wu’s research crosses both agriculture and human health. One of his specific research areas has been functional amino acids.

Wu’s discoveries, a result of His discoveries relate “thinking out of the box” are to the essential role helping find new innovations of amino acids and in solving obesity among the non-essential U.S. population as more than amino acids, which 60 percent of U.S. adults are are both important overweight. in formulating balHe has also done anced diets for livestudies on arginine, stock production an amino acid and human health. which contributes His research is tarmany positive bengeted at enhancing efits in growth and efficiencies in embryo developmeat quality ment in pigs, sheep toward the proand rats. Arginine duction of also aids in fighting more proobesity. Wu has identein to help tified this as an feed a growimportant area for ing populaexpanded research on tion. new amino acids and “We need to health. move forward Wu said that and capitalize humans need diets on the potential with balanced porof functional GUOYAO WU amino acids in improving tions of amino acids for carhealth and animal produc- diovascular and reproductive health. tion,” he said.

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evaluate their forage supplies,” he suggested. “They need to determine if the grass has begun to regrow and become well-established before they “pull the trigger on restocking.”

“That’s how the effect of one really horrific year of drought can affect multiple years,” Miller said. “If you can’t restock, then you can’t have income coming in from your cattle herd. And it trickles down from that part of the economy throughout the state.”

The lack of grass has a ripple effect in other ways as well, he added.

“A good stand of grass suppresses all kinds of weeds. If you’ve got a dense shade on your land, it discourages the germination of weeds. Many of the weeds in Texas have hard seeds that can last many years in the soil,” he said. “So when you have a major drought like that of 2011 and it kills your grass off, then you’re going to have weeds.”

Compounding that, he said, is the fact that thousands of tons of hay were transported into Texas from all over the U.S. to try to keep Texas cow herds in business.

“So we have brought weed

seed in from everywhere,” Miller said, adding that no noxious weed infestations have been reported yet.

“I’m advising cattle operators to look very carefully for weeds they don’t recognize, and to contact their AgriLife Extension county agent if they see something that doesn’t look right,” he said.

Miller said among the key places to watch are locations where hay was stacked and fed.

“And of course, cattle take the weed everywhere, so if you see unusual weeds where the hay was fed, you’re going to see it out in your pastures,” he said.

On the positive side, Miller noted, wheat producers are nearing harvest on perhaps one of the best crops in more than a decade.

“We have an excellent wheat crop through much of the eastern Rolling Plains and the Blacklands,” he said. “It’s a beautiful crop, if we can get it out of the field. One of the issues on wheat is that its harvest time coincides with the highest probability of rain, so whereas last year wheat farmers suffered with drought, this year we’re hoping we can get some of that beautiful wheat cut.”

The outcome of the remainder of the year for crops and livestock in the field will depend on water supply, Miller said.

The Land & Livestock Post

News

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