GRAZE: Drought leaves few places for the cattle

Roland Ball speaks with the unaffected drawl of a farmer who was raised by farmers. Ball's parents homesteaded about four miles west of Briggsdale in 1914. Today, he lives in the same home, on the same land, doing the same work as his father. Ball grows a bit of wheat and has about 200 head of cattle to his name -- a number that has dropped in recent years as the forage covering the nearby grassland continues to suffer in drought conditions.

"It's the worst I've seen at least since the '50s," he said.

Ball was forced to sell 100 cows last year and 100 in 2002, which helped pay for hay as pastures became too sparse to continue grazing. With a lack of rain this year during the pivotal growing months, Ball and other ranchers pray that moisture will come, and God willing, things will be better next year.

"At least we are hoping for some summer rains and to revive it for future years," he said.

Like his father before him, Ball grazes his cows on Pawnee National Grassland. His father became a member of one of the two cooperative grazing associations in 1937, allowing him to keep his cattle on an allotment of the grassland for a portion of the year. Ball joined in the 1950s and has brought his cows to Pawnee annually ever since -- grazing them on the U .S. Forest Service land between mid-May and mid-October.

But since he's joined, he's never seen drier conditions, especially as the impact of several years of drought are now compounding. Others agree, and despite attempts to mitigate the detrimental impacts of drought on Pawnee -- such as reducing the number of cattle grazing, moving cattle to vacant allotments and turning cattle out to the prairie later -- the effort have not been enough with the given moisture shortage. In fact, little can be done to learn the drought's impact on the forage, especially on bluegrass and blue gramma grass.

So now, Pawnee National Grassland is once again shortening the grazing season, requiring some ranchers to move their cattle to their own land prior to the end of the permitted grazing season.

As of last week, the Forest Service had vacated six of its allotments and one more will be cleared by the end of the week.

Water rights and irrigation are a significant issue for many farmers, but ranchers who graze their cattle on Pawnee are simply at the whim of Mother Nature. If the almost 200,000 acres of grassland does not see more rainfall soon, the impacts could be detrimental: More allotments will be cleared of cattle and more ranchers will be forced to move their cows to different land, much of which contains the same limited amount or even less forage.

Consecutive years of drought are taking their toll: 2002 was considered one of the worst for rainfall and the years following have seen below-average rain and snow, causing an absence of desirable forage for the cattle.

Pawnee's 60-year average for rain and snow is just more than 13 inches. The rainfall in nearby Briggsdale was measured at 7.2 inches last year.

Many consider this spring and summer to be worse. While December precipitation in Colorado was above average, that moisture did little to help vegetation growth. Forest Service officials say the rain has not come during the primary forage-production months -- May through July -- when plants need moisture most.

"A lot of precipitation we are receiving is coming but just not at the right time," said Rhegan Cloudman of the Forest Service.

The Forest Service is continuing to monitor Pawnee's different allotments for residual forage an soil moisture retention. Clearing certain parcels they hope will help leave enough vegetation to mitigate soil damage and to leave cover and food for other plants and animals.

"There's a lot of wildlife that we have to manage and we still have other wildlife that we have to be aware of," Cloudman said. "We look at providing forage for them and providing cover for them.

"We're keeping (grazing cattle) out as much as we can without doing as much damage."

Forest Service officials expect that the majority of the grazing land will be cleared by the end of the month -- unless there is a significant amount of precipitation.

"It all depends on the rain. We did get some last week and we are seeing some green. But if we get another three weeks of drying, we will have to clear most, if not all," Cloudman said.

That creates a grave situation for many ranchers who have a permit to graze their cattle on the grassland.

Pawnee Cooperative Grazing Association Director Robert Hill said in a prepared statement that the drought and the shortened season on Pawnee is having a list of impacts on ranchers.

"We have to come off early because there is no grass out there and move cows to pastures that are the same or worse than the government pastures," he said. "Also, we have to start feeding, and some people to sell cows. It has a great economic impact on us."

Gary Dollerschell knows that impact first-hand. Last year, his cows were taken off Pawnee in July, almost three months early.

"That was a bad, bad year for us," he said.

"Because he sells his "calf crop" as soon as he takes his cattle off the Pawnee grazing land, last year, he was forced to sell the calves when they were at 500 pounds -- 200 pounds less than normal.

"Even some of the hearty ranchers, you can see them starting to sweat. We've been in this for seven or so years," said Dollerschell, who also is the secretary for Pawnee Cooperative Grazing Association. "When I see some of my friends, you can just tell they are worried, and me too. Your blood pressure goes up and the doctor asks why. You just gotta tell them it's been fairly stressful out here."

When Dollerschell took his cattle off Pawnee last year, he at first brought them to his private land, "but it was so dry that what would normally last me two-and-a-half to three months lasted two weeks." He was lucky, though, and was offered some land with the Conservation Reserve Program.

This year, he once gain considers his situation lucky.

"I'm on a fluke pasture. It happens to be one of the better ones (on Pawnee)," he said. "So far, we are pretty good and we hope we can make it to October."

He said that most of the ranchers -- though they continue to worry about the drought and its impact -- are not angered with the Forest Service for shortening the grazing season.

"When there isn't much grass, they won't make the gains they want," he said. "You don't want a bunch of scarecrow cows."

Forest Service and Pawnee personnel are working with ranchers to keep them updated about changes on the grassland. They also continue to work with them to provide extra days of grazing or move their cattle to vacant allotments. Cloudman said those permitted to graze cattle on Pawnee have been taken on field visits to understand how and why each allotment is being cleared.

"It's understandable that they are not happy with the situation and many of them are facing some of the same situations on their own land," Cloudman said. "When there is nothing to eat, you can't do anything about it. We have to find a balance and do what we have to do for the grassland."

Roland Ball's cattle have not yet been cleared from Pawnee -- but, he said, much depends on "the luck of the draw if you are under a thunderstorm or not."

He does have nearby reserve pasture and feed ground when his 200 head are not on the Forest Service land. But the sooner the cows begin grazing on his land, the sooner that forage will be eaten up and Ball must then buy hay.

For all the ranchers on Pawnee, a shortened grazing season means they have to make some decisions. Ranchers can either graze on their reserve land, find alternative pasture or buy hay to feed the cattle. But because hay prices are more than $120 per ton, Ball said many ranchers will have to sell some of their cattle to pay for feed.

"Being in the ranching business all my life, I would sell older cows and keep the youngest ones hoping that it will rain next year," he said.

Because he has bee forced to sell cattle in the past five years, Ball has basically cut his income in half.

"If I sell half, then I would have 100 less cattle," he said. "If you do it long enough, you won't have any income at all."

Taking those hits begins to add up, intensifying every year, month and day it doesn't rain.

"Sometimes it makes you think it just can't rain," he said. "Then you have neighbors who will get some rain and it makes you drool a bit. I just don't know ho long the smaller rancher can hang on."