Managing Livestock During Drought: Grazing & Water Strategies for a Dry Summer

Is dry becoming the new normal? In many regions of North America, it feels like it. The combination of dry springs, low snowfall, and hot summers has made things tough for livestock producers over the past few years.

From dry pastures to water shortages, raising livestock during a drought has many challenges. Fortunately, there a many strategies to use on your operation to help reduce stress on you, your livestock, and your pastures during dry periods.

Keep reading to learn how you can better manage your livestock operation during a drought.

Grazing Management During Drought

Rotational Grazing

Rotational grazing involves moving your livestock between different areas of your pasture to graze throughout the season. When used as a long-term solution, rotational grazing can help the soil and forage in your pastures become more resilient to dry conditions.

Benefits of rotational grazing include:

• Increased pasture recovery: Plants have more time to recover and regrow after being grazed, which is especially important during dry periods.
• Improved soil conditions: When plants have more time to regrow, they develop deeper root systems. This increases the amount of organic matter in the soil, resulting in improved soil structure, water retention, and fertility.
• Prevents Overgrazing: By regularly moving your livestock to different grazing areas, you are preventing them from overgrazing specific spots. Again, this helps with plant recovery and regrowth.

Combine Groups

Another grazing strategy to use during a drought is to combine smaller groups into larger herds. This will decrease the number of pastures being actively grazed, allowing ‘inactive’ pastures to have more time to rest and recharge between grazing periods.

Increasing the stock density of your pasture can have other benefits during drought, including:

• More Uniform Grazing: Increasing stock density allows for the pasture to be grazed more evenly. This decreases the stress on higher-quality plants.
• Utilization of ‘Less Desirable’ Forage: Increasing stock density also forces your livestock to consume ‘less desirable’ plants, allowing other forage to recharge.

Note: When using this strategy, ensure you are not overstocking your pastures. While increasing stock density does have benefits, increasing it too much can have a negative impact on the soil and forage.

Watch for Toxic Plants

As mentioned above, during drought years, your livestock might be forced to consume lower-quality forage than normal, due to the slower regrowth of other plants. While most of these ‘less desirable’ plants are safe for your cattle to consume, some can be toxic to your livestock. These plants can cause issues such as:

• Decreased appetite/weight loss
• Reproductive issues
• Organ failure
• Death

Ensure you are regularly monitoring your pastures for toxic vegetation. If you do identify any toxic plants in your pasture, make sure you take the proper steps to control or remove the species and monitor your livestock for signs of toxicity.

Creep Feeding

Creep feeding is a strategy that involves providing supplemental or dry feed to calves before weaning so they can meet their nutritional needs. Creeping feeding helps promote normal growth in calves while there is a limited supply of forage available. This strategy also takes some pressure off of your cows, as milk production begins to decrease.

The type of feed you use to creep feed your livestock is determined by:

• The type of forage available in the pasture.
• Specific nutrient deficiencies in your animals.
• Feed availability.

Water Management During Drought

Fence of Water Sources

By fencing off dugouts and other water sources, you are preventing your livestock from entering the water source. This not only keeps the water clean but also prevents damage to the water source, which could result in a decrease in the source’s holding capacity.

Other key benefits of fencing off dugouts and using remote watering systems include:

• Decrease in disease transmission.
• Prevents over-grazing near the water source.
• Increase in gains.

Fencing off dugouts and using a remote water system to deliver water to your livestock is a proven strategy to maximize your resources during drought years and ensure your livestock always has access to clean water throughout the summer.

Haul Water

As water sources begin to dry up, many producers are forced to haul water for their livestock. If you want to put off hauling water as long as possible, it is recommended that you graze any pastures that have a water source available early in the season. That way, you can fully utilize the resources you have available to you.

A few things you can do to make hauling water easier on you include:

• Assess your water needs early in the season: This will help you determine whether or not you will need to adopt an alternative watering plan for your livestock.
• Have a plan in place in case you need to haul water throughout the grazing season: If you think you will need to haul water for your livestock, having the equipment ready in case of an emergency will help relieve some of the stress of hauling water when the time comes.
• Use a monitoring device to alert you when it’s time to haul water again: Instead of driving to the pasture every day to check water, you can use a monitoring device, like the HerdHand, to help you determine when it’s time to refill the trough.

Having a plan and a monitoring system can help you save time and reduce the stress of hauling water during dry periods.

Keep an Eye on Water Quality

Due to an increase in evaporation and a decrease in rainfall/runoff, water quality can quickly decrease in drought years. Water that is low in quality can cause:

• Weight loss
• Increase the spread of disease
• And even result in the death of livestock.

Keep an eye on your livestock’s water quality by regularly taking samples to your nearest testing facility or by using the HerdHand Water Quality Monitor.

Click here to learn more about maintaining water quality throughout the summer.

Monitor Your Troughs & Tanks

Whether you’re pumping water into a trough or hauling water to your cattle, it’s important to ensure your livestock has water available 24/7! Checking water can be a time-consuming job, especially if you have to travel long distances.

Using monitoring devices, such as the HerdHand, allows you to:

• Check the status of your remote water systems from anywhere.
• Receive alerts during low water and overflow events.
• Keep a close eye on water quality and TDS levels.
• Identify issues early, before they become bigger problems for your operation.

Want to learn more about the HerdHand Monitor? Click here for more details.

Using a combination of these strategies can help you build an effective, long-term drought solution plan for your livestock operation.