By Patty Wilber
But by Monday we won’t have any cows…
If you look at the 1st map you can see that much of the state is in extreme drought and in the 2nd map (NM is outlined) the winter forecast is for continued very dry conditions, except at the northern edge of the state .
The cows were on a 1200 acre farm in Torrance County, NM from September 2010 until June 2011. This acreage had not been farmed or grazed in a number of years and there was plenty of forage. However, there was little winter precipitation, and soil moisture declined.
In January 2011, there was an unusual warm spell and sap began to run in some of my trees at my house in Bernalillo County. Some of the grasses and forbs tried to grow on the farm. Then in February we had a very rare (for us) and brutal cold front (-35F at night, sub zero in the day) that lasted for four or five days. That knocked back growth and killed quite a few plants. Still no moisture.
March to June : continued dry, so we had essentially zero spring green up. The standing forage plus supplemental hay got the cows through in good shape.
May 2011 at the farm--not green. (Sold this calf on Monday for 1.49/ lb. He brought over $500)
For the summer, we moved the herd to the high country (10,000 ft) in Rio Arriba County. Snow pack was close to normal there and in early June, it was still wet and cold. The summer was dry even at elevation, but there was plenty of grass and the herd did very well.
Snow still melting. June 2011!
Down south, the drought persisted. The summer monsoons skipped this year, and the warm season grasses, like blue grama, did not grow much–definitely not enough to support the group for the 2011-2012 winter. We found a second lease of 640 acres just down the road that we could use Nov. 1 to April 15. It had two pivots, one of “hay grazer” a sudan grass mix, and one of winter wheat. They wanted 100 cows but we talked them down to 80.
A pivot. The irrigation system pivots around a center point, thus producing a circular crop (or alien crop circle?).
But the winter wheat got planted late and didn’t come on. The lease start date got pushed back to Dec. 1. The dismal winter precip. forecast came out (see above). The number of cows required was not decreased. We worried we’d run out of forage before April 15.
That could mean we’d have to feed November, April, May and part of June, and if we got any deep snow.
Due to the drought, hay is scarce and expensive. 35 lbs of feed/ cow/ day * 35 cows * $ 250/ ton * 3.5 months + lease fees = a lot more money than we could hope to recoup with the calf crop. The auction barn looks like it makes the most ($ and) sense.
I found another lease, but it is 45 miles from me…too far to haul horses very often, trailer too small to move all my cows, my partners are selling, so I’d be going it alone…
Is it stupid to cry over selling cows I’ve only owned since March? My partners might say so, but, hey, they’re guys.
You need good partners and here they are.
But I really LIKED my cows. They were part of my program to go for dreams I have always wanted rather than letting my life drift down to some cold little end point. They were symbolic. Catalysts.
I liked riding out alone on the NM plains with the Manzanos to the W, Sandias to the NW and Sangre de Cristo mountains to the N when the snow caps were lit up in orange in the winter dusk.
I liked penning the cows and working them out one by one so the horses got practice.
I liked checking the fences and retrieving escapees.
I liked complaining about the fierce cold wind after I’d survived it.
I liked seeing a mama cow off on her own and then finding her new calf.
I felt brave and strong and invincible riding into the high country. I was proud my young horses could do such great job driving cattle.
We are still cow people. I am holding on to that.
(And hoping to restock in the spring.)
Patty,
I don’t know how you do it either (in selling the cows off), but my dad has done it for years. We visit his farm and see the same cows for a year or two, then new ones….. I’d get sooooo attached, but McDonald’s needs its’ beef!
Glad you’ll do it again! Good for you!!!!!
Patty,
This so sad. We had no idea you were going to have to give the cows & calves but it’s better than having to worry about them all winter. Sorry for your loss.
I tried really hard not to cry this morning at the farm while we were working on the chute…only a few tears leaked out! I HATE that we need to sell!
AURGH!
I hope you can restock in the spring, too!
Men….I say cry, it makes the cows as important as they were to you! Just don’t give up your dream….I live through your blogs..haha.You are an amazing woman! Take care and I will always have a box of kleenex ready and a shoulder to cry on…..Take care!
Thanks Lisa–It really sucks, but life goes on and I may take you up on the box of kleenex!!
Patty, it’s okay to cry. Growing up on a dairy farm, I got attached to several of our cows, and I’ve cried over them. Of course, dairy cattle are different from beef cattle, but still…there is a certain place in my heart for cows. Hence, all those Holsteins that I have in my kitchen. So I really understand where you’re coming from. But then, you’re on a different journey than I was… riding in the high country, building fences (oh yeah, I did have experience with that in another life), and then there are the horses…we never had horses.
Look forward to the Spring…
By the way, that Cometa is funny. What a bossy pants! Well, he thinks he is anyway!
Hi Sherry,
Well, they may be selling at this very minute… waaaa!
I really want more–look at cows and land all different now as I drive around!
Yes Cometa–he has quite the personality all right!
Patty–Sympathies. We had to sell ours last year…and yeah, it really sucks. When my little (very little) herd was growing, I’d pick out the best heifer every year, consider whether the oldest cow was still that good, etc. But we got hit with the serious drought stuff several years ago and finally last year…there went my beloved Streaker (Blondie’s best daughter), and One-Horn had gone the first year of the drought, and then Dark Rose, and then Blondie didn’t calve, it was so dry, along with some of the others, and so on. Cut the herd year by year for four-five years.
We did put a lot of meat in the freezer (along with Rancherfriend, where we kept ours on a calf-lease arrangement) the last year we had spare young bulls.
Hi Elizabeth–I only had the 5 but was going to hold back my one heifer. It was really interesting getting know the cows…The big red angus that liked to sneak away with a small group, the funny loiking Jersey cross that was really low key and a very nuturing mom (she is in the blog pic with her calf) and RedTop the angus jersey cross who had a really super calf…
Part of my sadness with selling is the postponing (fearing loss!) of that dream and part is the loss of those specific animals.
Moving forward! (Can’t go backwards!).
I totally understand, Patty. I had four adults and two coming heifers when the drought started here. I knew them all. One-Horn (my first cow), Cindy (hit by lightning early on), Blondie, Streaker, Dark Rose (all Beefmasters, but very different. The deal was that I traded half the calf crop for pasture lease, and bought a cow when I could. Big-Horn was a wonderful older cow, big-bodied, great udder, incredible mama. Easy to work on foot. We got a calf every other year–could trade for a bull calf if we needed the meat and got a heifer. Red was solid red, but didn’t last that long, what with lightning. Then I got Blondie (with 2, could eat, breed, or sell one a year.) Blondie had the first heifer I got to keep, and she looked somewhat like a Brown Swiss, almost as pale as a Jersey, but BIG. Her daughter Streaker had perfect conformation for a beef cow and her first calf, born six months before I had to send ’em both off, was a beauty too. Dark Rose was the least good of the bunch, a dark, dark red with black face and legs–a little too light-boned but a great mom. Her calves were better than she was.
Small place, no pasture to move ’em to (no mountains to ride up in) so we worked everything on foot, in a combination of beat-up old pens there when Rancherfriend bought the place and cattle panels wired into the gaps. Wild things went to auction early, esp. after some adventures with Quotes (a bad bull) and The Bad Bull (the REALLY bad bull.) Quotes destroyed a cattle trailer and some chutes and pens at the county auction barn; rumor has it he was bought by a rodeo contractor. The Bad Bull destroyed fences, bred the neighbor’s cows, and trampled the neighbor’s sorghum before falling to a bullet and turning into a lot of ground meat. He fed both families for a year. (“What’s for dinner?” “Bad Bull burgers/chili/stew.” “Good!”) High Horns was a problem cow, as were all her offspring.
Rancherfriend had grown up on family place in S.Tx, living with grandparents and uncles, but his mom gave up her third of the ranch to his uncles without asking him if he was interested–she’d married a college professor and didn’t care about ranching herself–so his dream was to have his own place, and this was the most he could get. He’s very grumpy about having had to sell the critters, so I feel like I can’t complain about mine.
Hi Elizabeth
Your Bad Bull story still cracks me up, along with what may have been High Horns, the jumping cow.
I just BET your RancherFriend was upset. Work so hard to get started and then POW.
I know just what you are talking about with that chute issue, too. We had really crummy pens at the Farm and had to do various things with wire, twine and panels to make it work. Duct tape doesn’t stick well. He he.
Do you think you will get more cows?
I just cashed my check…ugh. I am saving the $ for more, but I lost money as I paid too much for the girls in March. Learning experience.