Drylotting Cows As A Drought Management Strategy

 

 

Matching livestock inventories with available forage becomes the primary management challenge during drought conditions. Some decisions are fairly straightforward, such as marketing yearling cattle early or culling cows that might be old, open, or ornery.

 

 

If drought becomes severe enough that productive cows must be removed from pastures, making the best decision becomes much more complex. Culling solves the problem of not enough forage, but at a cost to the long-run financial health of the ranch. All the fixed overhead costs such as family living or labor expense, loan obligations, or long-term lease expenses remain, only with fewer calves to sell. Replacing the culled cows almost always costs more money than their value as culls, especially if large numbers of cows are being shipped.

 

 

Feeding pairs in a drylot setting is one alternative management strategy that may be worth considering. Drylotting allows ranchers to hold on to productive cows until it rains again and pasture conditions improve. Drylotting also facilitates early weaning, which saves additional feed.

 

Research data from a number of universities shows that cow-calf pairs do well on a wide variety of diets, either by limit feeding or by allowing unlimited access to feed. Table 1 provides examples of diets used by North Dakota State University and by the University of Nebraska. These diets rely on relatively cheap sources of roughage combined with grain or by-product feeds.