The story of the summer, both early and late was the drought. We went into April & May very dry and it didn't get any better as it summer came on. In fact, we had to rethink our Annual Big Brothers/Big Sisters Cattle Drive because we needed to move cattle from the home ranch to summer pasture at the British Ranch way before the drive was scheduled to take place. We were flat out of grass here at home. We did get some rains in the spring, but then it turned cold and the prairie grasses just did nothing for a good first month of the season. When we finally got some heat, we REALLY got the heat and it became very hot & dry.
Hay crops suffered too with our meadows running about 40% of 'normal.' Concern for the condition of our range and our cows prompted us to early wean a good deal of our spring calving herd. We had built a large pen with high-tensile electric fence with the intent of having a place where we could fenceline wean regardless of the weather. We made sure the enclosure had plenty of shade so that if it was hot (and it was), we wouldn't have to wait for cooler weather. Thank goodness too, because if we'd waited for a cool down, we couldn't have early weaned! It ended up working beautifully. We weaned the main herd of spring calving cows about July 10. High's were right around 100 degrees. We moved the cows down to the weaning pasture 2 days ahead of time, then went out at daybreak on weaning day to gather them in. The cows were sorted off and we ran the calves back onto the surrounding grass. They could come up to the fence and talk to mom, but they couldn't nurse. Worked beautifully, although keeping up with the water demands of 300 cows in 100 degree weather taxed our little well for all it was worth. It ran round the clock for those 5 days the cows were penned up.
It all ended well. The calves are at the feedlot and have been since mid-August. Early weaning should also boost carcass quality of these cattle so we're anxious to see those results. Their mommas have gained a tremendous amount of weight and rains the last month have greatly improved the condition of the range. We've already pregged and worked almost all of the cows and the open cows have gone to town. Another not inconsequential benefit to early weaning is that we have nice, fleshy cows to go to market long before traditional cull cow marketing time. We received a good price.
Now we are tunnel-visioned on sale preparations. As always, it's a very exciting, nerve-wracking, stressful and yet enjoyable time of year. That date's November 3 if you've somehow missed that! ;-) I hope the interval for the next journal entry won't be as long as this one. Until then..... -Barb