Preparing for drought
Droughts are a regular occurrence for ranchers throughout the rangelands of the United States. This was once home to vast grasslands, now much of it farmed. Most of the grasslands that do remain are located on ground that was deemed not worthy of tilling. It was either too rocky, too much slope or some other factor that made it unfavorable for farming. It’s important to understand that for most of us in the ranching industry we are starting off with land that wasn’t necessarily the most desirable for grass production. Beyond that centuries of overgrazing have denuded the soil so greatly that it will take decades or more to repair. We must also remind ourselves that a formative factor of grasslands is erratic moisture availability. In these rangelands drought is inevitable.
Drought is all within your context. Your ranch may reside in the desert where your average annual rainfall is only 12 inches, but if you receive 12 inches it may still be very dry but your not technically in a drought. On the other hand you might live where it rains on average 25 inches a year and if you have only received half of that drought is certainly knocking on your door. South Texas is an area that is very prone to droughts. I am beginning to believe that our average rainfall year only occurs every so often. In just my short lifetime I have witnessed it rain 40 inches and then it literally shuts off like a faucet and doesn’t rain for another year. Knowing the probability of a drought in your area is important. Equally as important is being able to recognize the early signs of a drought. My advice is to keep an eye on the United States Drought Monitor. It’s produced through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Learn how to read the the various maps that are available.
This National Summary map was released April 20, 2021. As you can tell most of Texas and the Southwest is in either an Extreme or Exceptional Drought category.
There is nothing you can do to keep a drought from occurring, but you can do a lot to reduce it’s impact on your ranching operation. The effect of the drought on your land is directly proportional to the health of your landscape. My number one rule is keep the soil and plants healthy. In other words prepare your land for drought. The best way to achieve this is to follow the five principles of soil health. A particular point needs to be made when talking about grasslands and soil health in regards to drought. I have watched time and time again shallow rooted exotic grasses and annual crop production absolutely fall apart under drought conditions. It is time to shift the paradigm and begin planting the land back into deep rooted native grass species. Can you imagine the soil and greater atmospheric impact it would have if we simply quit dry land farming all of this ground that hardly produces anymore and converting it to native grass prairie managed with holistic planned grazing? It would fundamentally change our ability to withstand dry weather patterns. We too often forget about all of this when the rains come again, but don’t wait until the next drought. As Walt Davis would say “start building your biological capital” now so that you can survive the drought that is surely coming. Beyond preparing for a drought through better stewardship a grazing plan is essential to the decision making process.
We all know the effects of drought on our land can be severe if we aren’t prepared, but what about the effects on our ranch business? Financial planning and preparation for bad times is crucial to any operation. If you aren’t profitable under normal rainfall conditions then the whole ranching operation needs to be re-examined. My recommendation (if you don’t already have it) is get an education in financial planning. There are a tremendous amount of resources out there these days including the Ranching for Profit school, Holistic Management International financial planning course, the Savory Institute and others I’m probably not thinking about. The best thing we can do during a drought is don’t purchase feed. Ranching is already a low-margin business. The moment you decide to buy feed those margins are gone. Regardless if you hold onto the livestock and attempt to feed them through the drought you will inevitably damage some if not all of your land. If your ranch isn’t profitable yet, don’t quit your day job. Make certain that your not overburdened with debt and if you do have debt that your debt to equity ratio is low. Don’t rely on the livestock as your sole source of income on the ranch. Perhaps diversify with hunting enterprises, other types of livestock and so on. The idea is to have a financial cushion to weather the drought.
Drought doesn’t destroy our land and ranch business. Our management during drought is what makes the difference between weathering the drought or possibly losing the ranch. One thing that is certain is ranch managers who have applied grazing management focused on profitability and ecologically sound land management will fare the drought much better than those who did not.
Thanks for reading,
Travis Krause
