@BA Deere wrote:
This from Our Wyoming Life. Figuring culling cows or buying hay after hail. I once read an article about a small southern rancher that concluded it was better to sell his hay equipment and buy hay, using previous hay ground to pasture more cows. But that entails "writing checks", sometimes on paper it says one thing but in practice it feels better to put your nose to the grindstone and not write checks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT9Mikm58gY
Back in the drought of 1988, I cut down elm trees and let the cows eat the 21% protein leaves. I did that all summer, saved most of the good pastures to graze into winter, then the few bales that I had were used during deep snow.
I culled the bottom 20% of the cows. That is how I made it through a horrible year, without going into a hole. I also cut up the trees and sold the firewood for cash. With the trees gone, it made better pasture later on.
