To all the desert farmers, how do you do it? I’ve lived in central TX before, and there were cattle ranches everywhere, but how on earth do you do it? There is so little vegetation, almost no water for the animals and very little shade. How do you survive it?
How do you feed in the desert?
- Thread starter messybun
- Start date
Alaskan
Herd Master
You strategically place watering points and mineral blocks to get livestock to travel far and spread out their grazing pressure.
You have to have multiple pastures so that the cattle can be rotated and so not damage the range.
You have to have a sacrificial area (usually a lot around the barn) where you can keep them if you run out of grazable land.
You set up pastures so each pasture has a spot with shade.. can be just a scrub filled gully, or you can build a roof for them to get under.
The upside is that grazing out there is usually great nutritionally.
You have to have multiple pastures so that the cattle can be rotated and so not damage the range.
You have to have a sacrificial area (usually a lot around the barn) where you can keep them if you run out of grazable land.
You set up pastures so each pasture has a spot with shade.. can be just a scrub filled gully, or you can build a roof for them to get under.
The upside is that grazing out there is usually great nutritionally.
Alaskan
Herd Master
The joke though... is just get yourself some 2/40 cattle. Cattle with mouths 2 feet wide that run 40 miles an hour. 
