Drought and frost

**ado089** · Jun 9, 2015, 17:58

Did you guys get any rain last week. I hear pairs are getting cheap. I've got the grass but hay is another thing.

**kato** · Jun 9, 2015, 21:46

Manitoba. We are good for rain so far. Well timed showers, but no big rains lately. Alfalfa got set back a bit from frost, but it's looking better now. Pastures are finally looking good.

**smcgrath76** · Jun 10, 2015, 07:44

17/100ths so far this year. We have grass, but a lot of folks around are feeding cows and their pastures have headed out. If we get rain this weekend as predicted we will hopefully be away, but from shopping around a bit, feed has already become near and dear.

**Horse** · Jun 10, 2015, 22:58

Hay is poor here and grass is pretty well dead on high land all that is showing on high hay is alphala.Grass on Low river land is real short and heading,also alpha is starting to bloom on high land , Cut it now and hope for 2nd cut??? Never hayed this early before.
This is north cent alta.

**grassfarmer** · Jun 11, 2015, 07:43

We've done a little better for moisture - sc****d just over an inch since May 1st and started to get little sprinkles from thunder storms this week. Really notice the difference management makes - pasture that has been overgrazed/abused in the past is terrible, the well managed stuff is looking a lot better.

Been very lucky in MB getting the good moisture in the far south. Cows will enjoy the change - sure glad we won't be moving cows from good grass into a drought area that would make the change tougher on them. 10 days till we start hauling cows!

**littledoggie** · Jun 11, 2015, 10:15

Horse - we have had to hay early before due to drought. Alfalfa had bloomed and there was no grass. It was about this time, maybe a little later. Worked out well, as after came some much needed rain and we ended up with a good crop where we had hayed - although we didn't get to haying it until the latter part of August.

**smcgrath76** · Jun 12, 2015, 07:20

3/10ths last night. We are almost to 1/2" for the year. Grass is not great, but we have smoked our tame grass on a quick pass to keep it from heading out. We also took the opportunity to fence out some buckbrush patches in the native and really target them with high density grazing.
Having litter makes a huge difference as we can occasionally graze pretty hard and still have the ground covered.
The rest of our crop may even germinate now.

**grassfarmer** · Jun 12, 2015, 08:08

Exactly Sean. We really hammered the banked grass this spring to give the rest of the place extra rest and it's amazing how much litter we left and how well it was trampled. With adequate rest that land will come back stronger than before.
Really reinforces the importance of root systems and healthy plants as you see the perma-graze pastures around that never get above an inch high suffer as their roots never get below an inch deep either.

Drought and frost