In central Alberta it is dry! Some of the canola has not emerged and the grass is slowing down to a standstill. Hay crops look poor. And yet the calves look good and the cows are getting fat and sassy! I have always suspected in a dry year the grass has more bang for your buck than in a wet year. Any thoughts on this? Maybe it is because we are rotating them faster...thus they are always on new growth?
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Dry!
Collapse
Logging in...
Welcome to Agriville! You need to login to post messages in the Agriville chat forums. Please login below.
X
-
I have no hard data to support this but it make sense that the less moisture that is in the forage, the more concentrated the nutrients. Wet spring grass never seems to put the glow on cattle that you see in August. Dry! We are 'extremely' dry in west central area. Water is disappearing fast. Crops are shrinking and high ground has little or no growth. We have lost at least six weeks of production. Where are you going to get your winter feed?
-
I have a quarter of sub-irrigated grass that actually does better in a dry year. I intend to sell the cows this fall or early next year before they calve so will have hay to sell.
Selling out partly due to poor health and partly due to the fact I am sick of making no money on my investment.
Comment
-
I suspect the transportation costs would be prohibitive. I am going to put it up in small square bales if it doesn't get rained on, if rained on into round bales. I use a Heston soft core baler and they don't transport well over long distances. Don't get too worried yet. A lot of cow herds are going to slaughter and there is a lot of export timothy around. If it gets a rain it becomes instant cow feed. I also suspect there could be a lot of greenfeed on the market. The hay supply could be tight this year but I think a good number of people are on the brink of quitting. So hang in there and keep your eyes and ears open. There will be some good deals on feed.
Comment
-
Out here in Sk. hay land is from a disaster to bumper.
I am down sizing my cow herd due to mounting debt from the last couple of years and will be selling some hay myself.
Today here the temperature is pushing a 100F and that is putting a strain on the grass and crops even with the moisture we have had. I figure some areas that had no rain are now finished from this heat.
Comment
-
yes we are dry as I hide in the basement and recover from the heat. Today was only 36 and yesterday was 41 in the shade and all with a wind which is just sucking what little moisture we had left in our ground. We are fighting gophers,grasshoppers, and fire which burnt up half of our pastures to start the spring. I have only had about 3/10 of an inch of moisture since the snow left and our crops are done like dinner. I don't know how we will fare as we have never had a drought in our area before and are just coming off of a bumper crop. I thing that worries me is with a bumper crop last year and still no huge bank account what will our account look like at the end of this year.Maybe its time to seek other sources of income not related to our ag industry that is in big trouble!
Comment
-
We don't have any grasshoppers but the gophers are ferocious! I thought I had them pretty well shot out this spring but I think every momma gopher must have been working overtime! The poison that you can get doesn't work all that well and the good stuff is unavailable. If you soak the poison in anti-freeze for a couple of days it gets a lot better.
Comment
- Reply to this Thread
- Return to Topic List
Comment