REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- Drought conditions persist in southern Nebraska with areas seeing little or no rain during the past 60 days. For cattle producers, these conditions lead to tough decisions on weaning early, culling cows, and properly managing rangeland for future use.

Lori Hallowell, who owns HJ Bar Ranch near Palmyra, Nebraska, with her husband, Paul, said the conditions on their southeast Nebraska ranch returned to the extremely dry conditions they saw last year. "Last summer we had already culled 10% of our herd, and since then we had moisture in the spring which made us think about herd expansion, but then August came, and we had hot temperatures and really haven't had any rain since early summer." she said.

Karla Wilke, University of Nebraska-Lincoln range management cow-calf specialist, said it seems like cattlemen in many parts of Nebraska have been selling cows because of the drought since 2021. Drought paired with high prices has kept producers from any herd expansion in the past few years.

Hallowell said they have had 45 heifers at a heifer development center that feeds and breeds them for cattle producers. While they would like to be able to bring most of them back to the ranch, it likely won't happen this year because of the continued dry conditions. Some may be sold on a sale at the center. After pregnancy checking the cowherd in the coming days, they will make culling decisions and decide just how many cows to keep for the coming year.

MAKING MANAGEMENT DECISIONS

Hallowell said they decided to use stored feed and creep feed to get the cattle through the fall before weaning. Wilke said many producers with spring calving herds have weaned calves earlier than usual to help save some of the grass. "A cow's energy requirement is reduced when they are just in gestation and not also lactation," she said. "It's much easier to wean calves and add weight back on cows than to fight adding weight to cows in the winter months."

Wilke suggested analyzing the body condition score (BCS) of the cows to know just how much feed and/or supplementation they will need to get to a BCS5 by calving time. "Cows need to have the right kind of body condition before calving so they will do a good job raising a calf and rebreeding in the spring," she said.

The dry conditions led Hallowell and her husband to start feeding hay, hauling water and supplementing first-calf heifers in August, much earlier than they normally would, because of the lack of grass in their pastures. Thankfully, the early spring moisture helped their hay crop and due to many of their neighbors converting pasture or hay ground to crop ground and selling cows, they have access to purchasing hay from neighbors who would've normally fed it themselves.

When looking at fall calving herds, Wilke said it has been important to analyze if there is enough quantity and quality of grass to get cows through the hot dry part of the year or if supplementation or substitution feeding needs to occur.

DRY CONDITONS PERSIST IN HIGH PLAINS

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said there are some incredibly dry conditions in many areas of the High Plains with some parts of Wyoming and Nebraska not seeing more than a half inch and a few with less than 0.10 inch in the last 60 days.

The dryness has also been seen across parts of Colorado, the Dakotas and northern Kansas where less than a half inch of rain has been received in the last 30 days. (See https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

Drought on the U.S. Drought Monitor has grown during the last several weeks throughout most of the region outside of those pockets that had good rainfall. Moderate to extreme drought is seen in parts of this region recently. (https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/…)

Wilke said one of the biggest things farmers and ranchers need to have is a drought plan with trigger dates. "We are all eternal optimists. We can think it's going to rain, but if it doesn't, we need to have a plan," she said. "It's important to make hard management decisions to save the grass if we don't get moisture by a certain date."

When drought is seen in the spring months, she suggested feeding a mix of distillers grains with a lower-quality hay or cornstalks to help stretch out the time until some grass has grown for grazing.

In the fall, when the grass is gone, feed substitution won't be very effective and leaving the cows on the pastures can ruin the grass.

Rotating pastures and getting cows to cornstalk fields for grazing can give grass some relief. She suggested planting an annual crop for grazing in fields where irrigation is available.

"We also know that water can be limited, which means we have to make management decisions," Wilke added. "In severe drought situations, cows may need to be moved to a dry lot and be fed in order to provide proper nutrition for the cows and to let the pasture grasses recover."

KEEP CATTLE HEALTHY

Drought conditions can also lead to health problems for cattle. Wilke said the most common is dust pneumonia. "Cows are walking in the dusty dry areas and their calves are following behind breathing in the dust. This coupled with the heat stress seen in these areas can really cause some major problems," she added. "Any animals with a challenged immune system will suffer greatly. The unusually high temperatures this fall haven't helped the situation either."

Hallowell said the drought conditions have led to problems with pinkeye in their herd. "We'd go out one day and everything is fine and the next, we had several that needed treated. It spreads like wildfire," she said. "We use a pinkeye vaccine available from an animal health company and also an autogenous vaccine made to cover the virus in our specific area," she added. "The dry weather doesn't help for fighting flies and dealing with pinkeye."

FORECAST ISN'T PROMISING

In the short term, Baranick said the forecast is for overall drier conditions, with some opportunities for rain. Another chance for moisture comes in late October into early November.

"Since we're entering a weak La Nina state, the weather pattern usually favors more clipper-like systems for the winter. Typically, that means very little precipitation for the Plains," he said. "Drought expansion looks likely through most of the High Plains, though again the north could get some better chances from passing fronts with those clippers for at least some precipitation."

He continued that the spring forecast is somewhat neutral and unsure with La Nina being the driver. The DTN forecast is for a more chaotic March that could bring in more precipitation, but drier in April and May.

Hallowell, like all cattle producers dealing with drought conditions, said she hopes to see moisture soon. "On top of not having enough grass, now there have been several fires in our area. We are very careful in our pastures. We don't want to see that kind of loss," she concluded.

Jennifer Carrico can be reached at jennifer.carrico@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @JennCattleGal

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