N RANCHING
atural Resources Forage quality will be of concern heading into fall
and winter. Monitor the body condition of your animals and get the forage quality analyzed to adjust supple- mentation appropriately. Wildfi re potential will be high this winter with
abundant standing vegetation. Pastures and sensitive areas can be protected with fi rebreaks by blading, disking or planting cool-season annuals.
South Texas Jose de la Luz “Pepe” Martinez, rangeland management specialist, USDA-NRCS A building El Niño phenomenon in the eastern tropi-
cal Pacifi c Ocean brought abundant rainfall to South Texas earlier this year. With all the moisture in the ground, winter weeds
had fi rst-pick early this year, but when the weather warmed, forage was produced at an aggressive rate. I have never seen a better looking spring and sum-
mer for range-produced quantity and quality of forage. The year 2015 will be remembered as a time of
abundance in South Texas, but it is also a time of re- covery. Range managers who would like to harvest the extra production are also limiting the reclamation
of desirable species of the land and in the seed bank. To harvest rainfall properly, the land has to have
proper soil health that only strong root systems will provide. It is okay to have more forage than what your cows can eat, especially in recovery years. If scattered rainfall continued all the way to this
publication month, we will have plenty of standing forage throughout the area and will have the best pre- scribed burn season in 5 years. It would be wise to plan a prescribed burn on your
property to increase forage quality or to prevent a wild fi re.
I have never seen a better looking spring and summer for range-produced quantity and quality of forage.
MORE
46 The Cattleman August 2015
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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