RANCHING Business
Saving Family Lands Seminar Land Conservation & Tax Planning For Landowners & Their Advisors
San Antonio March 25 Fort Worth March 26
Learn how to use the voluntary
conservation easement to conserve farms and ranches and
keep cherished lands in the family. Register
www.txaglandtrust.org (210) 826-0074
Enjoy sun,
fun and get a little Cattle Raisers work done on the beach at
initial stocking rate is 32 cow-calf units per 640 acres of open land (or a cow to 20 acres). For good condition bermudagrass with appropriate fertilization and weed control, use the same calcula-
Consider reducing stocking
rates to improve gross margins because of the associated
reductions in production costs.
tion and multiply it by 3 for annual stocking rate, he says. Therefore, at 32 inches of annual rainfall the initial stocking rate is 96 cow-calf units per 640 acres, or 6.67 acres per cow-calf unit on a yearlong basis, which includes harvested/baled bermudagrass that is fed during the winter. “These stocking rates may appear to be conserva-
tive — and they are,” Ellis says. “Conservative is an ideal place to start because it’s easier to add cattle to graze an abundance of forage than it is to improve productivity on land that has been damaged by long- term overstocking.” These numbers may be increased if there is a history
of good management or if the land and forage resources are of higher quality than the regional average, he says. “Ideally, producers should build fl exibility into the
stocking rate,” he says. “As a general rule, I would advise producers to stock conservatively and then be prepared, in years with abundant forage, to add a complementary enterprise, such as retaining owner- ship of all or a portion of their calf crop for a season.” Producers searching for another gauge of stocking
TSCRA
Summer Meeting June 25 to 27
Watch
tscra.org for more details. 64 The Cattleman March 2015
rate can consider the height of residual forage and the amount of hay fed during the winter. On native range, the stocking rate is about right if at the end of winter the residual forage is 6 inches tall and hay feeding was limited to periods of severely inclement weather, Ellis says. On bermudagrass pastures, the residual forage should be about 3 inches tall at the beginning of the spring green-up and the hay feeding should be limited to less than 3 months, he says.
Decision-making In addition to keeping their eyes on the ground
to monitor forage, producers also have to keep their eyes on the rain gauge. Rainfall, or lack thereof, has
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