Dealing with droughtDuring last year\u2019s drought, Koppenhafer said, many operators thinned their herds because summer pastures had weak grass growth and operators didn\u2019t have enough hay to get them through winter.<\/p>\n
Farm and ranch management consultant Bob Bragg said ranchers mostly sold off cattle that were producing smaller calves or those that were hard to manage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe culling didn\u2019t go into the heart of the herd in most cases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some ranchers sent cattle to Kansas or Wyoming to maintain their herds and brought them back in fall, but that kind of management can hurt profitability, Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n
Ranchers often pay for pasture and management while cattle are outside the area.<\/p>\n
Fassett said he sent some cattle to eastern Colorado for August until February. It didn\u2019t make financial sense to feed them locally, but he wanted to maintain his cattle\u2019s genetic lines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of our ad hoc management tools we used to get through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He counts himself as fortunate because he didn\u2019t sell off a lot of his herd, he said.<\/p>\n
Koppenhafer said spring\u2019s mortality among calves was about double the normal rate for most ranchers because of colder-than-normal temperatures February through April. If calves couldn\u2019t be sheltered from storms, the heavy snowfalls contributed to higher-than-normal calf mortality.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime we get weather like this spring \u2013 it was cold, it snowed, it rained \u2013 you\u2019re going to have problems,\u201d Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n
A normal spring sees four or five relatively warm days that break up the storms, but this spring seemed to bring storms one after the other, and that puts a strain on the calves, Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n
He estimated normal losses during calving season are about 3%, but this year was about 6%.<\/p>\n
During calving season, Fassett\u2019s empty hay barns turned into emergency shelter for cows and calves to keep them out of the weather, he said.<\/p>\n
Some producers without tractors reached their cattle in the deep snow and lost some of their calves to the weather, said Beth LaShell, coordinator of the Old Fort in Hesperus.<\/p>\n
At the Old Fort, staff saved 20 calves in March by loading them into a trailer and putting it into an equipment shop, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the night we had freezing rain. We just don\u2019t think they would have lived,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Koppenhafer estimates cattle prices are between $10 to $15 less per hundredweight than last year, which means ranchers are getting from $65 per $75 less per head than in 2018. The lower prices comeat a time when they need to buy cattle to rebuild their herds.<\/p>\n Flooding in the Midwest might further hurt profitability.<\/p>\n Koppenhafer said Midwest floods and a wet spring have delayed corn planting to the point that he expects a vastly reduced corn yield this year. That creates a spike for cattle feed, which lowers the price ranchers get for their cattle.<\/p>\n \u201cCorn makes up the main feed at feedlots, and when the price of corn goes up, the price of cattle goes down. If you pay more for feed, feedlots pay less for cattle. They know their margins,\u201d Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n The status of Midwest corn likely means lower cattle prices throughout 2019, he said.<\/p>\n Frankhauser said the expansion into international markets such as China and parts of Europe could affect cattle prices because ranchers rely on strong exports to keep prices up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know when it\u2019s going to happen, but it does seem to be on the horizon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On average, $300 of product from every cow in the U.S. is sold abroad, and $1,500 is sold domestically, he said.<\/p>\n While the market seems more stable than it\u2019s been in recent years, it is impossible to know what the future holds, Fassett said. But right now, the quality forage is on the producers\u2019 side.<\/p>\n \u201cI have got a lot of happy cows right now. \u2026 They are in awfully good shape physically,\u201d Fassett said.<\/p>\n