Kansas cattlemen face difficult choices with drought

WICHITA, Kan. -- Dighton rancher Don Hineman and his neighbors are doing everything they can to resist selling off their cows. The drought, however, may leave them with no choice.

"Pastures are brown, the grass is gone and the cows are wondering what is coming next," he said.

Drought has already wilted much of the state's wheat crop, dashing the hopes of farmers and many of the custom cutters hired to bring the harvest in. Now, the searing heat and lack of moisture is zeroing in on livestock farmers like Hineman and the land on which the herds feed.

Next week, Hineman plans to fence his wheat stubble field and put his herd there to graze, banking that it will be enough to sustain the cows and calves for at least another month, until he weans the calves off.

He also planted some fast-growing Sudan grass, a warm-season grass that can produce a lot of forage in years in which there's adequate rainfall.

But the rains haven't arrived.

"You keep watching the western horizon hoping to see a rain cloud," Hineman said.

He considered putting some livestock on the newly released Conservation Reserve Program acres, but said government rules make it unrealistic.

Hineman would have to pay the same amount per-acre to rent CRP as it would cost him for seasonal grass grazing, and then he could only graze about 25 percent of the land. He'd also be required to fence the land, and if the rains come the government could force him off.

"That is the kind of program that makes politicians feel a lot better than cattlemen," he said.

June rise in slaughter

While parched grazing lands across much of the Plains haven't yet forced large-scale cow slaughter, that could change this summer depending on how long the drought lasts, said James Mintert, livestock marketing specialist at Kansas State University.

Beef cow slaughter during June started to increase, rising 4 percent above last year -- an increase that could signal what's to come later this summer as producers start to cull even deeper.

The West and parts of the Plains have been dry for so long, Mintert said, that many producers aggressively culled cattle the last couple of years. Those cows, sold at auctions this spring, were young enough and in good enough condition that they were in demand by cattlemen in Corn Belt states where pasture and forage conditions were better.

But if pasture conditions continue to deteriorate this summer, beef cow slaughter will be larger than last year as cattlemen match their herds to dwindling feed supplies.

At Kansas State University, animal sciences professor Gerry Kuhl has already fielded a call from an Abilene producer who said corn there is doing so poorly that he wanted to cut it down as silage to feed cattle.

"Just blew my mind," Kuhl said of the call.

Making silage out of drought-stressed crops is a classic example of where farmers can jump the gun because, this early, such feeds often have too much moisture.

But the increasing concern over even spring-planted crops shows just how bad the drought is in Kansas -- with pastures suffering especially west of Salina to the Colorado state line.

It's so dry on the Cimarron National Grasslands in western Kansas that the government ordered all cattle off the range by the end of June, affecting 100 permit holders and the 5,000 cattle grazing there.

"In some parts of Kansas and the surrounding states it hasn't rained for so long that psychologically many producers have the feeling it will never rain again ... you throw up your hands and say it is never going to rain again," he said.

To help producers hang on to their herds, the Kansas Livestock Association plans a field day Aug. 19 in Wallace on drought management options. The program covers early weaning of calves, dry lot supplemental feeding and feed stuff alternatives. Kuhl will be the featured speaker.

And KLA has also redesigned its Web site to add a no-cost feature that matches ranchers who need pasture and hay with those who have those resources.

"They are looking for available pasture, hay, anything they can get their hands on to try to preserve the genetic base that in some cases producers have spent more than one generation building -- that is what is at stake here," said KLA spokesman Todd Domer.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, whose district includes some of the areas hardest hit by drought, said the government needs to focus on drought assistance for livestock ranchers.

"We are thought of as a wheat state, but the largest component (of the Kansas farm economy) is livestock," he said.

Reforms that gave farmers bigger government subsidies to pay for higher levels of crop insurance have meant wheat growers are facing this drought with some of the best coverage they've ever had. But no such program exists for cattlemen.

Garth Gardiner raises cattle in Ashland, about 150 miles southwest of Wichita. He's keeping his herd intact by letting them graze out the 2,000 acres of dryland wheat he normally would have harvested had drought not ruined the crop.