What A Slinky Knows and What That Means to Our Drought Response
Here's why it's sometimes so hard of us to decide if we've hit a drought until it's on us and we're in trouble. Knowing this might help us act earlier, especially with a drought plan in our back pocket.
Drought Helps a Texas Rancher Turn the Corner to More Water and Forage
Need an example of what others have done to make their operations more resilient in the face of drought? Here's how a Texas rancher worked with the NRCS to develop more water storage and increase pasture forage.
Greg Judy’s Success Making it Through This Summer’s Drought
Hello From Green Pastures Farm! Things haven't been so green this summer thanks to very little rainfall this past winter, spring and summer. But what you'll see in this video is a lot of green grass. Why? As I describe in this video, we manage our pastures to get plenty of rest, and to leave [...]
Greg Judy Talks Drought and Silvopasture
Greg Judy takes us on a 4:16 tour of one of his pastures on a typical hot summer day in central Missouri with a heat index of 105. It's the second year in a row with a summer drought. While others are selling off their whole herd, Greg and Jan Judy are managing to keep [...]
What Happens To Your Pasture Lease in Drought?
Do you rent pasture? What happens if drought lowers pasture production below expectations? Specifically, what does your pasture lease say about drought? It’s hard to think about drought in at the beginning of spring, but drought can play havoc on pasture leases. All too often, pasture leases fail to include an appropriate plan to adjust [...]
Minimize the Effects of Drought
A few weeks ago, Troy Bishopp shared how lessons learned from the 2012 drought taught him to be better prepared when the 2016 drought hit. Here are ways that you can be as successful as Troy. How do you minimize the effects of drought? Start with a plan. Drought effects on pasture forages can be [...]
Making Good Destocking Decisions in Drought
What do you do if it doesn't rain so the grass doesn't grow? Your livestock are grazing along, not a worry in the world, because it's your job to figure out what comes next. Prices are still up, and you could reduce your herd. But you've spent years, maybe even a lifetime putting a herd [...]
Grazing Through A Drought: The first two years
Greg Judy is well known for his ability to graze profitably while managing to improve the soil and his pastures. In this article he describes how he has continued to graze through two years of drought while others in his area are looking at dried out, desert-like pastures.
Early Weaning – A Good Bet For Producers in Drought-Stricken Areas
Here's something to think about this winter as you're planning for next year's weaning. Who knew that early weaned steers gain better?! That's just one of the things ARS scientists found when they looked at early weaning as an alternative when forage is limited.