Feeding, Culling Are Main Drought Considerations

When you live in Oklahoma or Texas, drought management should never be far from your mind. Last year was about as good of a rainfall year as you could ask for in most of the Foundation’s service area. Unfortunately, 2003 does not seem to be following the same pattern. Even though some of Oklahoma received above average rainfall in May, the state is well below normal for the year (see table). The two main considerations for cattle producers in times of drought are drought feeding management and culling strategies.

Drought Feeding Management

• High nitrate levels are a significant concern when any hay, but especially sorghum-type hay, is subjected to moisture stress. Before feeding these hays, have a nitrate test performed.
• Prussic acid accumulation can be a problem in grazing drought-stunted plants such as Johnson grass and sorghum/sudan varieties. If forage for hay is allowed to cure thoroughly until any bright green color is gone (typically three to five days), prussic acid should not be a problem.
• Utilize an energy-based supplement when forage is limited and make sure the protein is of an all-natural source. When supplements containing urea are used by cattle in a forage-limited situation, urea toxicity can occur.
• Cattle grazing short pasture are more likely to consume toxic plants.
• Be aware of the potential for hardware disease. In times of drought, hay is harvested anywhere there is standing forage, including roadsides, abandoned pastures, etc. The likelihood of the hay containing metal objects such as cans, wire or other objects is greater than in normal years. These foreign objects can pierce the rumen wall resulting in the death of the animal.

Culling Strategies
One of the hardest management decisions for most producers to make is to cull potentially productive cows. However, in times of drought, to ensure the long-term viability of the operation, culling may be a necessary decision. Therefore, utilize a systems approach to making this decision.

• Cull any cow that doesn’t have a calf at her side. If a cow calved during the last calving season and lost a calf, sell her regardless of age or pregnancy status. Additionally, cull any virgin heifers. These heifers will have the highest nutritional requirements over the next two years, rebreed at the lowest rate and wean the lightest calves.
• Accurately assess the status of your remaining herd. This should be done by palpating and identifying cows by stage of pregnancy and evaluating the physical condition of each individual cow (feet and legs, teeth, udders, etc). Cull the cows in this order: any cow physically unable to produce at the average level of the herd, any open cow, any short bred cows (relative to the rest of the cow herd). Remember, this is not an “all or none” situation. Remove the identified cows in the above order until the remaining cow herd can be supported with available forage, hay, leased land or supplemental feed.
• If you have culled the previously identified cattle and are still facing a forage deficit situation, the situation becomes tougher. Attempt to identify those cattle that have the highest likelihood of producing above average calves for the next few years. A sound record keeping system will greatly simplify this activity. Without adequate records, this may require a crystal ball to predict accurately, but producers can use body condition score as a good estimator. Cull any extremely thin (BCS 3 and under) cows of any age and then cull any thin to moderately thin (BCS 4 and under) younger and older cows.
• Culling the cowherd further is akin to pulling teeth, however, in some extreme situations, it must be done. Cull all 8-year-old and older cows and any cow younger than four years of age. This will leave you with the core of your productive cowherd with which to try to survive the drought.

We all hope that rainfall will be adequate this year and you will not need to implement any of these management strategies. Unfortunately, some time in the future our area will see drought again. It never hurts to be prepared to make the hard decisions ... Just in case.