Chris Nykoluk doesn’t know when the next drought will happen.
But there’s no question that drought will occur sometime, said Nykoluk, who helps manage community pastures run by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration.
In Saskatchewan, farmers can expect two or three years of drought in every decade, said Nykoluk, a range management biologist with PFRA in Regina, who spoke at a recent grazing workshop.
But ranchers can prepare for drought in good years so they don’t have to choose between damaging pasture or drastically reducing stocking rates, said Nykoluk.
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The goal is to get pastures in good condition, which will produce twice as much forage as pastures in poor or fair condition. Ranchers must also plan for minimal pasture damage.
Pushing pastures too far during drought can have dire consequences for the business in years to come, warned Nykoluk. Moving cattle more often between smaller pastures gives grass a break.
“Plants are just like horses, cattle and people,” said Nykoluk. “We can use them, but they do need a rest.”
Keeping records of forage growth on pastures helps producers calculate stocking rates during drought.
They should try to estimate how much standing forage on a pasture is available for grazing to set stocking rates, she said. A helpful forecasting tool is when rainfall from August to October is down 30 percent, forage production will also be down 30 percent.
In good years, Nykoluk recommended leaving some plants ungrazed. These will eventually die on the pasture surface and the litter will lower soil temperatures and reduce water loss, helping the pasture produce more forage during drought.
One PFRA pasture manager makes sure the same cow herd is never in the same pasture year after year, she said. The manager mixes up the cattle so they don’t get stuck in grazing patterns and “camp out” at their favorite spots.
During drought, farmers should delay grazing pastures that were heavily used the previous year. Rested pastures should be grazed first.
Drought stunts plant growth just when longer roots are needed to reach deep soil moisture. Nykoluk said grasses and legumes need deep roots to reach the available moisture.
Some soils do better than others during drought, she noted, advising farmers to know the limitations of their soil and be prepared to reduce stocking rates if it won’t handle drought.
Native forage species tend to survive drought better, said Nykoluk.
Farmers need to develop a long-term secure water supply. She suggested pumping water from dugouts into troughs to protect quality, and putting caps on storage tanks to avoid evaporation. Snow fences can help trap snow in dugouts, said Nykoluk.
Farmers should have a written destocking plan in case of drought. Easily dispersed animals should be sold as early as possible in a drought cycle to get the best prices, and so pasture is left for the breeding herd.
Farmers also need a plan for buying forage, if needed, in the early part of the drought cycle when it’s cheaper.
The drought worksheet website is at www.agr.ca/pfra/drought
