Don Curlee: State's cattle wait for rains
Although California cows are known for their "happiness," a significant portion of the state's cow population was extremely distressed by mid-January and growing sadder each day that rain was delayed.
While dairy cattle continued to smile, their cousins being raised for beef were finding familiar grazing sites barren of grass. Cattlemen who hoped to fatten 500-pound yearlings to 700 pounds on native grass are probably going to end the season economically saddle-sore.
While rain is the answer to the need for grass, a two-week sprouting and growing period is required after the moisture falls before the grazing cattle can find anything they can get their teeth into.
To complicate matters, California rangeland is well-populated by cattle from other states as well. Some Texas cattle are here because of earlier drought conditions in that state. The rangelands have a lot of mouths to feed.
The alternative to fattening cattle on the state's ample and usually-green ranges (in the winter and spring) is to feed them hay. The high price of hay, which has hit dairy producers in the pocketbook in recent years, shrinks profit margins to unacceptable levels.
Cattleman John Lacey of Paso Robles, who has run cattle in the foothills on both the east and west sides of the San Joaquin Valley for years, has found this year that the Owens Valley and areas on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada range show the most grass-growing potential. Underground streams and moisture there provide some potential, but it's not nearly enough.
In Ione in Amador County, cattleman Duane Martin looks back at 47 years of raising cattle and can't see a drier winter stretch than this one. "It's not just the cattle business," he said, "but the whole picture of food is at stake."
Another cattleman who had attended several brandings in the past few weeks attested to the deteriorating condition of the cattle he saw. "They are beginning to show the stress of not having adequate feed," he said. Also, he pointed out that some of his cattle which are normally on mountain rangeland by this time of year will remain at valley feed locations, where food supplies are growing sparse.
"It will rain," he said, "we just don't know when." Cattlemen are stretching the time their animals spend on existing, low-elevation ranges and pastures as long as possible. "A lot of cattle will have to go into the feedlots early, reducing the price cattlemen receive for them, and putting more of the burden of feeding and fattening them on feedlot owners. That means an increase in the price of beef to consumers.
This year's weather phenomenon has reminded cattlemen how cruel the elements can be. California is considered perhaps the most desirable location in the entire country for raising beef cattle — as long as rain falls on schedule. Never mind the Texas reputation and the high number of cattle there or the Marlboro Man riding the range in Montana or wherever.
Ione's Duane Martin has an enviable perspective. He runs cattle in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska and Colorado in addition to California. This winter's dry spell has not altered his preference for California as ideal cattle country, even though he will be severely impacted by the lack of rain in more than one location.
It looks like the majority of California's 350 commercial crops will be touched by this winter's unusual dry spell. Consumers are sure to feel it as well. Cattlemen know they are not alone in absorbing the punishment.
If they can just pass that resignation along to their herds, the cows might not be so envious of their happy dairy cow cousins. But the real smiles are not expected to return until grass is growing vigorously again. Then their major concern will be that age-old truth that it's always greener on the other side of the hill.
CONTACT Don Curlee at agwriter1@sbcglobal.net
