We are in a unusually dry area of SW Wisconsin. The NOAA drought map has us in a D4-Exceptionally Dry category. Pastures that I have not grazed since June have had nothing growing, except  of course thistles and some other inedible weeds. I've reduced my herd numbers but kept the remaining pairs and bulls in 2 groups in limited pastures with lots of trees to provide some cooler shade in the excessive heat. I'm in the dark red area of the map below. Hasn't been this dry here since 2012 or maybe earlier.

I've been feeding hay since early August, putting large bales of 1st crop hay in feeders. Now that May calves are trying to graze, I noticed they are not using the feeders much and yesterday unrolled a bale of hay by rolling it down the hill. Hard to believe I'm doing this on September 9th. I have more first crop in the hay shed but I'm probably going to have to try to purchase some hay to get through the winter. Then the decision will be how many and what type of cattle to keep over the winter. I'm leaning to saving my best heifer calf pairs, my best bull and selling everything else. We'll see.

I was glad to see the calves really digging into the unrolled bale, much more aggressively than they approach the same hay in feeders. Here are a couple pics.

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20230905_wi_NOAA drought map (full).png (89KB - 392 downloads)

PXL_20230911_231928286 (full).jpg (132KB - 258 downloads)