ISSUE DATE: 04/09/2012
By Doug Rich
Ranchers and landowners in the southern High Plains are faced with a number of challenges as their pastures recover from the drought in 2011. How they manage grazing, weeds, and fertility will be critical.
Last summer the combination of heat and dry was detrimental to a lot of plants in native and introduced pastures. Daren Redfearn, associate professor of forage and pasture management at Oklahoma State University, said the MESONET weather system recorded temperatures over 120 degrees on bare soil last summer. Even soil covered by turf reached 90 degrees.
"It is likely that those high soil temps actually cooked some of those plants," Redfearn said.
Redfearn is not aware of any pastures that were 100 percent killed, although some were in pretty bad shape. He said native and introduced forage plants are pretty tough and resilient. They are built for survival.
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