Making the decision to destock

Drought is currently plaguing the Southwest. Climate change and desertification are real factors that effect ranchers every day. Our primary ranching operation is located in southwestern Medina County, and we are right on the edge of extreme to exceptional drought conditions. I have come to understand that unfortunately in brittle environments such as ours averages mean very little. Average rainfall years seldom occur, and typically the rainfall will either be higher or lower than the average. Most of our landscapes throughout the Southwestern United States and beyond have broken water cycles, which exacerbates the problem on a much greater scale.

Really hard decisions come with droughts. Beyond it’s effects on the landscape it takes a severe mental toll on farmers and ranchers. It’s really difficult to wake up each day to see the land and animals suffering. I don’t know of a single farmer or rancher, regenerative or not, that doesn’t care deeply for the land. Their intentions mean well, but are too often misguided. The hardest part is there isn’t anything we can do about it, or is there something that can be done? In the livestock business planning and decisions need to be made well in advance of drought conditions. This is where tools such as holistic planned grazing are crucial to ranchers. I have been using grazing charts for long-term planning for many years. Grazing charts paired with simple monitoring techniques and holistic planning can tell you when it’s time to start destocking your ranch. My grazing chart tells me that when it hasn’t rained for 90 days that it’s time to start taking a real hard look at my stocking rate and forage quantity and availability. If it hasn’t rained in 120 days then it’s time to start destocking the ranch. In these situations the sooner the better. Timing is everything.

Once you make the decision to destock the more difficult question for most ranchers is what to do with the livestock? There are basically a handful of options: 1) sell the livestock, 2) move the livestock to a sacrifice paddock and feed them until the land recovers, 3) move the livestock to another ranch that has received adequate rainfall. Unfortunately there really aren’t any other options. Let’s analyze each of these options.

1) Sell the livestock. In my opinion this is probably the easiest and best option for most ranchers. Unfortunately this is the hardest decision to make from a purely phycological standpoint. My great-grandfather would always make it a point to tell me “don’t fall in love with the cows.” He was right, because most ranchers love their cows and this makes it really difficult to sell them. It’s part of their identity. Walt Davis, rancher and author of How Not to Go Broke Ranching, said it best that “during times of drought sell the livestock and take a vacation.” Then you don’t have to wake up each morning looking at your bank account shrinking and the livestock getting thin. It’s sound advice for most ranchers.

2) Move the livestock to a sacrifice paddock and feed them until the land recovers. This is a common technique used throughout Australia, but not adopted well here in the States. It’s a bit of a double edged sword because on one hand your holding onto your livestock and giving the vast majority of your ranch the rest it needs. Unfortunately, this technique can deplete your financial resources. Government assistance for droughts and PRF insurance can help with the feed bills, but what happens if the drought persists for a longer period of time than you expected? It’s really easy to go broke feeding livestock. The margins are razor thin under normal circumstances. This decision really depends on the class of livestock you are running. For example, if your a cow/calf operation it makes zero sense to do this. If your a stocker/grower operation then it’s basically the same thing as putting them in the feedlot, but make sure you have a futures contract on these cattle ensuring a buyer when they are finished.

3) Move the livestock to another ranch. This is a great option if you have a strong relationship with a custom grazer or lease property in another area that hasn’t experienced drought. Unfortunately it typically means shipping the cattle hundreds of miles to escape the drought, which has it’s associated costs. The number one consideration in this scenario is it must make financial sense. Also, trusting that the the custom grazier will take good care of your livestock is essential. We destocked one of our ranches in Medina County in July 2020 and moved them to Northeast Texas. At the time I thought it was the best decision we have ever made. We run grass-fed stockers and hauling them to the auction barn is a last resort option for us. It ended up being a bad deal due to mismanagement and lack of communication. The hard lesson learned is have a good relationship with your custom grazier, make sure both parties are aware of what the goals are and check your cattle often.

These are some of the hardest decisions a rancher will ever have to make. Good planning, monitoring and taking action early is essential to surviving a drought.

If it looks like the top picture then you waited way too long! I know the feeling all too well. The top is a picture of where my journey began in 2011. I started my regenerative journey in 2010, going into a drought of record in 2011. Little did I know what was to come in my early years. It literally broke our finances and was hard on the soul to look at the land in this condition every day for the greater part of two years. The bottom picture was taken in 2017. This is the result of a little help from Mother Nature and better management. Would your rather leave your ranch looking like the top picture or the bottom?

Photo courtesy of Parker Creek Ranch, 2011.

Photo courtesy of Parker Creek Ranch, 2017.

Thanks for reading,

Travis Krause