The Western Beef Development Centre held its annual summer field day yesterday.
While the area had received some moisture most people were chatting about how dry it had been.
Dr. Paul Jefferson says April, May, and June rainfall generally drives forage and hay production but this year producers are looking at their options:
"Maybe looking at some annuals, things like a late-seeded barley or millet crop as an emergency forage, emergency hay - that could help," Jefferson said. "If we get some rain in July, they'll to that rainfall in July, whereas some of our cool season forages won't."
He adds producers shouldn’t delay cutting hay hoping for some rain in early July.
Keynote Speaker Jim Gerrish with the American Grazing Lands Services in Idaho says depending on your operation there’s options that may be a fit for you.
"Do not graze too short. Look at de-sticking now - cattle prices are real good," said Gerrish. "If you've got a heard of a couple hundred cows, this would be a good time to look at calling out. There's never going to be a better time to get rid of older cows, cows have a little bit a of defect in them that you don't like, or bad attitude cows that run you out of pasture when you have a calf."
Gerrish is with the American Grazing Land Services in Idaho and has over 20 years of commercial cattle and sheep production, as well as over 20 years of beef-forage systems research and outreach while on the faculty of the University of Missouri.
"For most of the types of pasture that would grow here in Saskatchewan, the appropriate post-grazing residuals are going to be somewhere in the 4-8 inch range. On the cool season, the brome, smooth brome grass, orchard grass-type are going to be down closer to 4 inches. If you do have some of the native grasslands with big blue stem, little blue Indian grass would be at the higher end or that, or out beyond there," Gerrish said.
Source : Discoverestevan