We live in the south. These past two years we have been experiencing the worst droughts. Our first three years we had such beautiful grass/pasture. We worked so hard putting out grass seed and clover. And then the droughts. We and about 60% of the nation have watched our pastures dry up. I know a farmer that sold 100 cows last summer, leaving him 10 breeders. He could not afford to feed them over the winter. We don't run that many and can rotate them through the pastures as the grass grows. Also we put in four ponds in the past three years with the help of our state agriculture center, NRCS. They help pay for cross fencing, ponds and watering systems. They are a farmers best friend. They are helping pay for replacement seeding this year. If we qualify.
So this winter we had a white christmas with 9 inches of snow!! and we have had a couple inches of rain this past month. And now most of our ponds are mostly full and this one is going over the spillway! This one is fed by the mountain ridge to the south. We could not make it through the drought without the ponds. We had to fed the cows hay in August. About a bale a week. That helped them through as the enced off pastures had a chance to grow some.
No comments:
Post a Comment