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Posted on 06/19/2006 8:46:45 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
This is a horse chat thread where we share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories.
I always have a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!
I also have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and MissTargets will now be pinging everyone most mornings. Let MissTargets and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.
So... like the previous threads, this is intended as fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.
Previous threads:
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SIX
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread SEVEN
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread EIGHT
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread NINE
New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!
Mmmmmmm. Nothing like birthday cake!
Good grief, I just looked at the pony story on the farrier's website. What a story.
This is what's going on here. It's scary.
Ranchers seeing life's work dry upTo survive, Texas cattle raisers selling off herds
By BARRY SHLACHTER
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
COTTON
More photosDECATUR -- Mondays are now the saddest day in Wise County.
That's when ranchers who can no longer maintain their cattle in a prolonged drought deliver yet more animals to the weekly auction.
Painfully, they are selling more of their core breeding animals -- the fruit of hands-on genetics, representing decades of work. Although the bred cows represent a bigger investment, calves are fetching better prices, said Hugh Pegues, a rancher forced to cull a number of both.
"I've sold at least half of mine," said Pegues, 85, who has spent three decades improving his herd of Herefords since retiring from the Federal Aviation Administration. He's now down to about 70 head. "I'm trying to keep the seed stock so I can stay in business, if it ever rains again."
Some producers are folding their cards and giving up.
"We had a grown man crying because he had to sell his whole herd," said Kimberly Shaw, the Decatur Livestock Market's office manager. "He had no grass or water."
The desperation of cattle producers is being seen throughout North and Northeast Texas. Most cattle operators in the region are now "deeply culling" their herds, the Texas Cooperative Extension's agricultural news service reported Wednesday.
"There has been a big bulge of cattle going to feedlots during the last four, five months," said Travis Miller, a soil and crop specialist with the extension service who tracks the drought and its effects. "Ranches are culling and selling to stay alive."
Some parts of the state are experiencing the worst drought in half a century, Miller said. "It's a major catastrophe for agricultural interests."
While ranchers thin herds for economic survival, the long-term hot and dry conditions have forced some corn and cotton growers to abandon fields in the High Plains, the U.S. Agriculture Department reported.
Texas is far from alone. Parched fields stretch into North Dakota, the National Weather Service said. All 77 counties in Oklahoma were designated natural disaster areas July 31 by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. Extreme drought has also affected southern areas of Alabama and Mississippi.
On Monday, 2,276 head of cattle of all types were sold at the Decatur auction, up from 1,324 a year ago -- a 72 percent increase that reflects the dire situation. Over the past six weeks, the sale barn shipped more than 4,500 head of slaughter-weight cattle to packinghouses, compared with 1,200 usually shipped during the period, it reported, blaming "aggressive herd reduction."
Ranchers hold on until they can't afford to buy hay or until their water runs out. Twenty of the 22 man-made ponds for watering cattle, called tanks, have run dry on Preston Cocanougher's Wise County ranch.
"The hay barns are empty," Miller said. "They started feeding [hay] in July when they normally don't till November. The high fuel cost has only added to the problem."
The closest thing to affordable now is the hay of last resort -- bales of corn husks from farmers as far away as Collin County whose crop failed because the rains never came.
"The ones buying hay are trying to save their operations, save their genetics," Miller said. "They try to build a set of genetics that is ideal for their place, taking years to develop a cow herd that fits their needs."
Corn growers like Johnny Standefur of Prosper say they've never sold baled husks before.
But they're doing it now because of a rare convergence of factors -- the loss of the entire crop and a willing market for dry cornstalks, cut and rolled into round bales. The sales enable Standefur to recoup some of his planting costs. Even if their crops were insured, farmers still end up in the red.
"We're not going to make any money, but I'll be able to pay off my operating loan," he said.
Seventeen-year-old Gabe Cocanougher, Preston's son, arrived at Pegues' ranch Tuesday with a 44-foot trailer stacked with baled corn husks, unloading them in 100-degree heat with his customer's tractor. He repeated the process Wednesday.
"I've never bought corn bales before," Pegues said. "You can't get any more real hay. I'm forced to buy cornstalks from McKinney, $35 a roll, $10 each for delivery. There's nothing else available." By comparison, the livestock auction, which feeds cattle until buyers fetch them, says it's now paying upwards of $75 for a 900-pound bale of coastal grass hay, up from $35 two years ago.
Cow pastures in Wise County are scorched brown by the sun; some fields are blackened by fire.
"Everywhere you look, it's parched," Gary Clayton, the local extension agent, said as he drove his pickup through the county, pointing out where cattle used to drink. "That pond has been dry since last year.
"It might take four to five years for the pastures to bounce back. If it wasn't for the corn deal, I don't know what our people would have done."
Mitigating the situation are relatively high cattle prices, which ranchers pray will persist until grazing conditions improve. "True, the widespread drought has forced a movement of cattle" to market, said Paul Engler, chairman of Cactus Feeders, a large Amarillo-based feedlot owner.
"Why prices have stayed as high as they have is because there's still demand."
Ranchers are not the only ones hurt.
"In the five-county area along the [Oklahoma] border, the soybean crop has been lost, cut for hay," Miller said. "We had a very good-looking corn crop until the middle of May. Then it just ran out of water. The cotton crop is still hanging in the balance. Some areas of North Texas had a pretty good wheat crop. Some had none. It's been a bad year.
"The last time it was in this situation was the drought of the 1950s," Miller added. "It's pretty serious."
Says Pegues, the octogenarian rancher: "It's worse than the '50s. It's drier.
"But if it rains good next spring and I make some hay, I'll be OK."
LIVESTOCK AND CROPS ACROSS STATE
Cattle: Widespread reports of feed supplies shrinking quickly and stock tanks going dry. Herd sizes reduced by more than half. Bright spots in East Texas, coastal areas and South Texas, where recent rains helped pastures and water supplies.
Corn: Cut for silage and baled for hay in the Blacklands. Elsewhere fair to very poor.
Cotton: Fair to poor condition statewide, a complete loss on nonirrigated fields in some High Plains counties.
Sorghum: Nonirrigated crops almost nonexistent in some counties of the Northern High Plains and Southern Low Plains. Overall, fair to very poor.
Peanuts: Conditions mostly good to good to fair.
Sweet potatoes: Dismal because of drought in Northeast Texas.
I guess I need to go turn my TV on...
Just got in from riding. We rode about 2 hours, very easy. I think Harley is tired...he's going to get the next few days off.
Becky
Oh, man, that is scary. I know around here no one has extra hay this year. The places that usually sell aren't this year. They have to keep it for their own stock. The fields are just not producing much. I've heard it's going for $9 a bale...who can afford that...
Becky
The cheapest square bales I've found were $8.50 a bale from a new feed store in town. Round bales are nearly non-existent and when you do find them, they're expensive crap. $125 at the feed store, I paid $100 from my hay guy but he's out now.
Well, if you can get Purina feeds, and can't get hay, you can try the complete feed like I use...I keep expecting it to go up but so far it hasn't.
Becky
I could do that with all of my horses, except for tuffy. He has to stay in either a round pen or a stall and if he doesn't have munchies, he breaks down whatever he's in. He's broken down my round pen several times and busted the door out of his stall 2 or 3 times. He's such a butthead.
What's the name of the feed you use?
Becky
This is not a good summer for hay. Not even for us. A few years ago we had to start feeding hay in August. There was nothing for cattle to eat in pastures. It was the next May before we could quit feeding hay.
Since our herd was reduced in size last year the pastures are in better shape this year. There was not much hay but we should be able to squeeze by this winter.
I've been looking for a low starch/sugar complete feed for Tennessee because of his Metabolic Disorder and have found one in Triple Crown Safe Starch Formula, but DANG, you have to feed 1.5 to 2% of body weight of it per day, and that's 15 to 20lbs for a 1000 lb horse. It costs 17.50 a bag, and at that feeding rate, one bag would last about 2 and a half to 3 days, so that works out to be about 110 bags a year, which would work out to be about $1,920 a year. Sheesh! Who could afford THAT! So for now I'm just feeding about 5lbs of it to him per day as a carrier to put his supplements on, and making the bulk of his diet be 15lbs of hay, which works out to be about 4 flakes a day, which means that an average square bale lasts about 2 and a half days. So unless hay gets a LOT more espensive, or gets totally unavailable, I guess I'll be going that route, at least for Tennessee. I might be able to use the Horse Chow 100 for the others though.
I know there are some arab people on this board. There are a few arabs in a Texas rescue, some are registered. One is a straight egiption arab gelding and the others are only listed as mares
http://www.lser.org/horses/vaquaro.htm
http://www.lser.org/horses/snowbird.htm
http://www.lser.org/horses/kestrel.htm
The tag on this stuff reccommends 1.5 to 2 % of body weight too. But you've seen my horses, and I don't feed them that much. I think if you keep them wormed well, and if they have no other problems they get by on a lot less. I have cut Harley back to 12 lbs a day and I'm still not seeing weight come off him. I think he's just a tiny bit to heavy right now. The most I have ever fed him is 14 a day. IMO, the thing about it is it is highly, highly absorbable, all Purina feed is. For that reason I believe you get more for your money.
I am right now getting it for 7.50 a 50 lb bag. So it takes $15 a week per horse to feed this stuff.
If you need a higher protein it come in HC 200, and HC 300 formula, each one is a higher protein.
Becky
I stopped by the feed store today, save me a trip tomorrow. Anyway I asked the owner if he had any calcium carbonate. I decided with all the riding I'm doing and the amount of sweating Harley is doing, I might should be giving him some electrolytes. I was going to make my own, like the receipe I gave you all a while back.
Stan, the owner of the feed store, asked me why I wanted it and I told him. He said the calcium carbonate that comes in bulk, is NOT absorbable and would not work for what I want it for. He said I probably didn't need to give him any anyway, as the feed I use should be providing enough of everything he needs. I then mentioned that I had thought if he didn't have any for me to buy, I'd just pour a 20oz Gatorade into a 2gal bucket of water. He said that would be better then homemade mix I was going to give him, mainly because it would make the water taste good and he'd drink more, altho he is drinking alot now....
Becky
We usually have to start feeding hay about mid-july but we didn't have any rain over the winter or spring so I was never able to have a break on hay. The pasture greened up a bit in April and May but it didn't last long. I never even mowed once, except to knock down some obnoxious ugly weeds. I'll try to get some pics and post them.
Some thunderstorms just went through here. Best I can tell there was no rain at the farm. Hope Frog got a good shower though.
The streams of water are almost dry. So dry that we found a beaver that had been killed by a pack of dogs. They did not eat it, just killed it for the fun of it.
I hate that pack mentality, it scares me.
It's been so long since we've had a good thunderstorm, I probably wouldn't recognize the sound.
I was desperate for something to read and bought a trashy, tell-all book by a groupie named BeBe Buell. It's so trashy, in fact, that I'm going to get rid of it when I'm finished because I'm afraid one of my kids will pick it up. If anybody wants it when I'm finished, freepmail me and I'll send it to you. Be forewarned, the language, descriptions and pictures are raunchy.
Yep, if a pack of dogs can kill a beaver, they can kill a colt of calf also.
It sounds great, just would like to hear it more often during the dry months.
Thanks, but I do not read much anymore. Like to look at the pictures though..........
I wish that I could send you some of our rain. By bucket brigade if need be!
Let me know if he likes the water with Gatorade... that would be good to do after rides. :~)
We've been gone all day, longer than we intended, we got lost out drivin' around. :~)
I think I am going to scream. The Deuce roller coaster continues. Vet called yesterday afternoon and I thought it was just to move forward with scheduling surgery. It was but with a change in diagnosis.
Apparently the research he had done on exegenuous granulomas conflicted the the completly benign diagnosis of the first lab so he got a 2nd opinion. It stated that there was a possibility of carcinomous cells. Only the possibility (and a chance of the tissue returning after being removed) but it was like a kick in the gut after hearing benign with no chance of return.
Moving forward as originally planned and hope to get the OK to schedule today. I swear this horse is going to make me either a complete basket case or just give me hide tough as leather. Thank goodness I use Loreal already because what wasn't gray six weeks ago sure would be now!
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