The Drought Monitor maintained by the National Weather Service shows the dry conditions that began in the southeastern US are expanding rapidly into the heart of the Cornbelt. While crops that need water are one issue, a beef herd that needs a drink and something to eat is another. With few immediate prospects for the drought to be washed away, many cattle producers are in need of relief.

Maintaining livestock in a drought can create a lot of questions. How do you feed the cows? What about the calves? What are the feeding alternatives? What can be harvested and when? Before you add more questions to the list, let’s get some answers.

Manage your pasture says Dan Faulkner, the Extension Beef Specialist at the University of Illinois by weaning your spring calves early and getting them on feed. Putting the calves on feed is more efficient for them and will reduce grazing pressure by 35%. Faulkner’s advice is to do that before there is no grass to extend the grazing period. Another reason for weaning the calves is to sell your cull cows while the market may be better than in the fall, and that further reduces grazing pressure. Cull the cows that had the small calves, the ones that are unsound, and the ones that are still open after the breeding season. You don’t want them grazing on scarce resources when they are not productive.

Faulkner says, “To maximize forage production under dry conditions, divide your pastures and rotationally graze. Even dividing the pastures into at least 3 or 4 paddocks (8 are better) will dramatically increase forage production under dry conditions. Don’t wait until conditions are dry to divide the pastures because there will not be significant growth at that time even with rotational grazing.” He says don’t let the grass get clipped below the two inch mark because that threatens the vigor of the plant.

Feeding calves
Livestock researchers Francis Fluharty and Steven Loerch at Ohio State University say 100 to 205 day old calves, that are fed high-concentrate diets, can convert 3.5 to 4.5 pounds of feed to a pound of gain. “With the current price of corn, some may be concerned that it's too expensive to feed. However, our data suggests this is not the case and there is no reason to sell light weight calves at a loss.” They calculate that with $4 corn and protein at $250-300 per ton, the feed cost per pound of gain is 40-50¢.

Feeding the cows
Ohio State’s Fluharty and Loerch say, “Rather than buying expensive hay to feed to the cow herd, consider limit-feeding corn and a commercial supplement with limited amounts of hay. Even today, corn grain remains the least expensive harvested feed per unit of digestible energy available to cattle producers in Ohio. Hay has only about half the energy value (calories) as corn grain. When corn is priced at $4.00/bu, it is worth $143/ton. This makes the breakeven price for hay on an energy basis about $72/ton.”

Faulkner’s suggestion is a blend of half and half corn and corn gluten and hay. “You can limit feed high quality hay at about 15-20 lbs. per day. It is possible to limit feed hay by limiting the amount of time the cows have access to the round bale feeder. With high quality hay (58-62% TDN) about 3 hour of feeding is sufficient to get the desired level of intake. With good quality hay (54-57% TDN) about 6 hours of feeding is sufficient to get sufficient intake for maintenance.”

Considering silage
A third alternative is corn silage, which may be available on your farm or from a neighbor. In a drought, Faulkner says, “This corn will produce silage that is comparable in feeding value to silage from corn with a normal amount of grain. The ensiling process will reduce nitrate levels by about 50%, which reduces the chance of nitrate poisoning.”
However, creating unintentional silage needs to be managed, and Dairy Specialist Mike Hutjens at the University of Illinois offers some answers to typical questions in feeding drought-stressed corn as silage:

When should drought-stressed silage be chopped? Ensiling should occur at the same dry matter level (30 to 35 percent dry matter) as normal corn silage, but without ears and kernels it is difficult to determine total plant dry matter. Chop up several representative stalks and conduct a dry matter analysis because it must be optimal for proper fermentation to occur.

What is the feed value to drought-stress corn? The protein, energy, and mineral levels will be similar to normal corn silage, but the dry matter yield can be reduced by 10 to 50 percent. Conduct a forage test for starch and soluble protein.

If drought-stress corn is good quality forage, should I buy from my neighbor? Without grain, the silage yield is 1 to 1 ½ tons of 30 to 35 percent corn silage per foot of barren corn stalk. Price it on a dry matter and yield base.

What about nitrates? Hutjens says, “Nitrate nitrogen (N-NO3) will increase with drought stress. The plant’s photosynthetic surfaces (green material) are reduced and nitrates are not converted to plant protein and growth. If animals are adjusted to high nitrate containing feed, health risks are reduced gradually increasing the higher nitrate feed in the ration over a two week time period.” Have a commercial lab analyze your fermented silage.

What about adding dry corn or other additives to stressed corn silage? Inoculate your silage to jump start the fermentation process, since dry matter is variable, and the inoculant will return $3-6 for each $1 spent. Adding dry corn is not recommended, because it will reduce the moisture level of the corn silage and that is a potential fermentation problem.

Using stressed alfalfa
Ohio State forage specialist Mark Sulc says this year’s alfalfa was first frozen, then dried out, creating significant stress on the plants. With a typical late May cutting, the plants have had to spend a lot of energy on regrowth, at a time when tap root reserves were low. He says, “Many stands don’t appear to be growing any more, but that does not mean the plants are sitting idle. Alfalfa stems stop elongating during the initial phases of moisture stress, but the plant continues to manufacture carbohydrates and protein that are stored in the root system since they are not being used to produce top growth. Allowing those reserves to accumulate a little longer will benefit alfalfa plant health and longevity.” He says let it get into the bloom stage before a second harvest. Alternatively, controlled grazing is an economical way to use it, but be sure to prevent bloat.

Summary:
With the drought area growing weekly, many livestock producers will need to increase their management of pastures and creatively feed livestock herds. Early calf weaning and early culling of cows will reduce demands on scarce pastures. Calves can be started on feed, and cows can use blends hay, grain, and corn gluten and DDGS when pastures are short. Drought-stressed corn can also be converted to silage with the proper tests and management, and alfalfa can also be grazed, as well as harvested, while caring for its own early spring stress.