June/July 2025 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN 17 ing cows away to be fed in feedlots or adapting their grazing plans at home. “People who have access to a mixer wagon for ground feed can put together some sort of total mixed ration and can feed that out, either in bunks or in a line,” Wilke explains. “You can get kind of creative and use pivot corners, fallow ground, residue fields or sacrifice some pasture for the feed line in order to save other pastures from being overgrazed.” If you don’t have access to a mixer wagon but do have a bale processor, Wilke says that blowing out roughage on a feed line and adding a supplement is another option. A makeshift bunk line can be set up using an electric fence to help eliminate waste. “You have to meet those nutrient demands of lactation when you’re doing this,” Wilke adds. “The energy needs, or total digestible nutrients and measure of energy that a cow needs for lactation is just about double what it is for mid- to late gestation.” Supplements Forage quality during a drought can actually be fairly good due to the fact that the grass never has a chance to mature, so it is usually high in energy and protein. It is the quantity – or lack thereof – that creates the problem. When supplementing the biomass or feeds, it is important to supplement for lacking minerals as well. “The two most prevalent deficiencies, regardless of drought, are zinc and copper,” says Mary Drewnoski, Ph.D., professor and beef systems Extension specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). “It’s hard to generalize, but what we do see with pasture in drought years, especially with our Forage quality during a drought can actually be fairly good due to the fact that the grass never has a chance to mature, so it is usually high in energy and protein. Photo courtesy of Tressa Lawrence. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 warm-season grasses like in the Sandhills, are lower phosphorus levels in our pasture, so potentially supplementing that as well.” When cattle face a nutrition deficit, it can impact herd health long after the dry days of summer. “Cattle would normally get a lot of vitamins and minerals out of green grass,” Drewnoski says. “Vitamin A is a good example of that. Where you’re going to see the effects [of vitamin A deficiency] is in the long-term in baby calves the next spring where there are more incidents of diarrhea and respiratory disease because vitamin A is really important for their immune system. The time to supplement vitamin A is in their last trimester, after the summer of drought.” By implementing a mineral program, you are helping build a strong foundation of health, not only in the cows but in the current and following years’ calf crops as well. “I would make sure that, at the very minimum, always have salt and plenty of it, because salt makes everything else work,” says Chris Schuetze, scientist and owner of Tracer Minerals. “It’s an electrolyte that helps with heat and is important in metabolic functions. We like free or loose salt vs. blocks, because cows should really get about 2 ounces of salt per head per day, and it takes a lot of time to lick two ounces of salt off of a salt block when they could be spending that time eating.”
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