– Garth Ruff, Beef Cattle Field Specialist, Ohio State University Extension (originally published in The Ohio Cattleman)
It’s hard to believe that it is August already. So far this summer it has been the Haves and the Have Nots with regards to soil moisture and rainfall across Ohio. Here at home in western Morgan County we are certainly in the Have Not category. While there have been some heavy rains across the area in the last week or so, it seems to miss us. This has been the driest we have been since 2012. Several farmers in the area are either hauling water or feeding hay.
While we are dry here and pasture conditions are deteriorating, we are not anywhere near as dry as parts of the west were in 2021-2022, when culling cows was the only option. I happened to be in Texas for the National Association of County Agricultural Agents meeting in mid-July and had the opportunity to visit with some ranchers while one a pre-conference tour.
I have been to Texas once before in college but had not a chance to see much of the state other than the Panhandle. This time, we went from Amarillo to Lubbock through Bowie to Dallas, where the conference site was. If you have never made a trip across the Lone Star State, let me tell you it is a whole different world for raising beef cattle.
One of our first stops was a feedyard with a 40,000 head capacity. With the cattle supply being tight as it is, they had 37,000 on feed. They were primarily a custom feeder, but any cattle that they did own, at that time were figured at $150 per head loss at the time of purchase. Every kernel of corn or byproduct that was fed in that yard was delivered by rail to an elevator in town, and then hauled five or so miles to their in-house feed mill. Feed trucks were running non stop. And did I mention it was 102 degrees that day? Between the lack of humidity and the elevation, the cattle didn’t seem to mind too much.
We also visited a dairy farm that was milking roughly 8,000 cows and 14,000 animals on site. Water conservation and electric generation were a couple of the big projects we got to see.
As we headed towards Dallas, we stopped at the 6666’s Ranch to learn about their quarter horse breeding program. But the best stop by far was the RA Brown Ranch where we spent an afternoon with the owner Donnell Brown.
There, they had 800 bulls being developed for a couple of production sales that were raised from a network of collaborating herds. They also had some cows that we could drive through, grazing under and around a wind turbines larger in number than I have ever seen. They were approximately grazing a single cow to twenty acres.
While there was warm season grasses in some pastures, most of what I saw along that ride were cedar and mesquite trees and some grass that looked about as tough as broomsedge, but their cows were in good condition.
Why am I writing a about a trip to Texas?
- I am a firm believer that we as cattle producers can learn a lot by seeing and hearing what other producers do. Sometimes we let our own practices, mindset, and fear of trying something new get in the way of making improvements to our operations.
- The American cattle industry is resilient. The average rainfall in Amarillo Texas is 17 inches, near the RA Brown Ranch some 23 inches of rain is a good year. Flying into Amarillo we could see the scars of the wildfires that torched acres of pasture.
- We are fortunate to be able to raise cattle in Ohio. We have our own challenges with land use, urbanization, real estate values and farmers we will gripe about the weather. At the end of our trip, I felt fortunate to be headed home our tall fescue pastures and leave the horseback riding to the real cowboys.
Enjoy what is left of summer and come see us at Farm Science Review later in September.