Just like 2011. You need to build a hay barn and stock up when available. You can always put the used hay in the area you're watering to help hold the moisture. Shade cloth will also help make shade. We have been raining goats, chicken and sometimes cows for 20 years in west Texas. We are lucky if we get 20in of rain a year. We have learned how to garden and live in these harsh conditions.
Some one has hay that they will sale at a price you can afford or even trade for something you don’t even need any more . There is hay in the south East not a lot extra but there is hay for sale over here now . There want be any extra in the fall but it is available now
Oh bro, THANK YOU!!! We will make it through. I actually took the big girls for a walk back in the back today and they found some green vines that they hit hard. And they also are some of these green mesquite shoots too. So I feel like with the right effort we can make it through. Thanks a bunch Morgan!!!
Yeah, it's tough in Texas right now. It might be time to research what it will take to clear some more of your land so you can grow and produce your own hay should this situation arise again in the future. That would make some good content for you to share with the rest of us as well. I'd love to see a video on that from you guys!
From Texas here. I have 20 acres and can’t keep enough grass for any cows. The hay fields are barren this year unless you have some form of serious irrigation system to keep your hay growing. Cost prohibitive so that is not an option yet. People don’t realize the effect this will have in the coming years. Everyone I know is selling off cattle.
Y'all might try getting together with other small farms and call up north for a semi-truckload of hay from up in the Rockies. Probably Colorado or further to get out of the drought... but it might be doable splitting the cost several ways.
That's what i was thinking. Find someone with a 28' trailer willing to drive out of state, load up 5 bales of hay and drive back. Just a bandaid to get you through the drought. I just drove a 99' Chevy 1-ton crew cab with 24' trailer 500 miles to buy a 1991 Jetta + 2 spare engines for $500. It got shockingly good fuel mileage.
You may want to call your local feed store and get their suggestions on what you can feed your cows when there's no grass. That's kinda how we got our "plan" in place. Also search for Milo hay if you can't find regular hay. It's just baked surgum.
Oh no worries at all. Hey, if you did want to help you could buy a shirt from our Store. It looks like I am having to steal from my children’s college funds to pay for hay this year! 🤣🤣 TH-cam.Com/bettertogetherlife/store
Our oaks are overgrown so we've been trimming one large branch a da y and letting the cows eat the leaves. You can use the wood for firewood, mulch etc. It helps keep them off the grass so hard. We also pick up produce from a local grocery store that is not sellable. $3 per banana box and there's a nice variety of stuff for the pigs and chickens. If the tomatoes are too far gone we throw them in the woods and there's tomato plants with fruit in acouple months Lol
Ok, so cows will eat oak leaves? I haven’t seen mine eat them. Our pigs LOVE oak leaves though. I need to do some more of that for sure. THANK YOU for reminding me!!!
@@BetterTogetherLife .Oak leaves, palm fronds, and most tall grasses. Maybe a neighbor would allow you to let her graze in exchange for milk? Grab a scythe and clear someones lot for free? Do what you have to do to keep your girl ❤️ Now ain't the time to have less food availability friend.
Have you thought about a fodder system? Here in Florida, we are struggling with hay prices and hay shortages… and this is something we are going to work on for our 4 horses, goats, meat rabbits and chickens.
If you have the funds, I'd have hay hauled in. My home state (Minnesota) has alot for sale right now. Prices range from $2- 10 for small squares to $60‐ 145 for large rounds. Prices reflect type of hay and quality.
The only “waste” water that goes into our septic is the from the toilet The washer, bathroom and kitchen sinks all drain into the yard for the trees...which shade the house We also have a 3K gallon cistern that collects rain water (when we get rain) Praying extra hard to baby Jesus for a good soaking rain
@Better Together Homestead: Drastic times call for drastic measures. What if you created a migrogreens setup that was designed for your cow. Microgreens take 3-4 weeks to grow and cut. Maybe a fresh nutrient dense microgreen he cow would not have to eat as much. Every 3 weeks have a new cutting.
Praying for the rain for you. As global warming makes our Texas summers hotter, dryer, and longer, what are we gonna do to keep our homesteads independent and self-sustainable???
@@BetterTogetherLife of course brother. But seriously, should we start digging our own wells? how deep must we go? Are we gonna have to start combusting water out of hydrogen and oxygen!!? 😂😂
We had to stop rotation and let everyone loose. We absolutely hate to do it, but there isn’t enough grass in any one area, but they’re finding good food right now while we let them out.
Man I really wish I could help yall out. But I've been laid-off work a while and I'm feeling the struggle myself. Praying yall start getting rain soon.
We know it's dry when Houston is dry. We're northwest of San Antonio and I don't remember it ever being like this. We have nothing, not even naturally growing plants, in our garden. Quite a contrast from last year which was amazing.
this won’t help right now but have you heard of silvopasture? It’s basically having enough trees to provide shade and retain water in the soil but enough space between them to allow sun to peek through for grass growth. It would be super helpful during droughts.
Have a look at growing wheatgrass fodder, it can be set up on a fairly small scale and you get a harvest in around a week - 10days. Good luck, scary times.
tagasaste trees will help for future proofing and are used on many Australian farms to combat drought and lack of feed , in the meantime heres wishing you luck
Stay encouraged my brother. Sending prayers up for you, your family and your homestead. Believe. God specializes in miracles. ☺️ Keep trusting. It will be ok. Keep the Jersey.
Thank you! The responses to this video has actually given us lots of ideas. Plus some of our friends have seen it and maybe we are able to get a few bales. We shall see! Thank you for your prayers Liz!!
@@BetterTogetherLife Amen. Let’s thank God our provider. He will make it happen for you and all our homesteaders out there struggling with this heat. Just keep on believing. We stick together no matter what. We are Better Together, right? ☺️
We’re not *too* far north of y’all, and we prioritized animals when we started setting up and didn’t think to do swales and water storage first. We are hit hard and are having to transport 300gal per day, and selling some of the cows. We’ll make it through it. God will provide.
Oh no. Wow, I am so sorry y’all. That is hard for sure. We still have our rain tanks full (5000gl) but now I am afraid of rolling black outs here in Texas and not having water. So I have water to use, but no idea if I should drain the rain tanks or not. This sucks for sure.
Oh no. Wow, I am so sorry y’all. That is hard for sure. We still have our rain tanks full (5000gl) but now I am afraid of rolling black outs here in Texas and not having water. So I have water to use, but no idea if I should drain the rain tanks or not. This sucks for sure.
Did you guys ever do solar? I have solar on all my pumps for that exact reason. It’s real cheap and easy if you get it per use, rather than a massive array for the whole house.
How about growing your own grass? Some kind of Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumacher). They just need a few water and you can build a dipping water system for it. By the way cow and pigs can also eat the stem of banana tree too, try to chop up and adding some small amount of salt ( my mom used to do so and the animals LOVE it) How about digging some pond, reservoir for collecting some rain water ?
I'm in the same boat in the DFW area with our dairy goats. Look into tree hay. It might give you some extra time to figure things out. There are quite a few that can be used for hay. Mulberry trees are really good for that. We have some but I have started several more for in the future. We are irrigating the pastures from the creek but it's getting so low I don't know how much longer it will last. Praying for rain.
Haha, correct that is why we have our fodder trees for sure! • white mulberry • hybrid poplar • hybrid willow • banana leaves • sweet potato leaves • comfry It is helping, but our small little orchard wont last for ever.
Good thing you have bananas. You can plant more in other areas, they grow quick. Our goats and rabbits love it too. We also grow leguminous trees like leucaena. Maybe they won't survive in your area but you can try other trees. Dry hot summers here also turn green grass to brown and the trees and bananas are life saviors of our livestock. Hope you'll get rain soo. If only I could send some your way.
It’s not a bad idea….but we are on a conventional septic. So they grass over the septic field is doing “ok”. So all of the water from the house goes there anyway.
@@BetterTogetherLife let the toilet go to the septic - use all the sink water for the yard - just as a temporary step you can disconnect the drains under the kitchen and bathroom sinks and just put a bucket under, as soon as it is full, dump it into a barrel and then water the grass at night from the barrel - it is amazing how much water you can collect from the sinks...
I cut the crabgrass on my septic line and fed it to our 2 feeder steers that are our food security. I’m in Oklahoma. We finally got some rain and they are sounding hopeful that the pattern will break. I’m lucky and got enough hay to make it. I’m just a small operation though.
I'm sorry about Buttercup. We had plans on starting our rabbits but wanted to wait until we got back from our vacation over the 4th. Boy am I glad we didn't pull the trigger in early spring. We keep seeing little showers pop up around Houston but they haven't made their way to our little part on the west side.
Yea, rabbits are really hot to keep healthy in this kind of heat. It was a good idea to wait until the fall. Hey, since you are in Houston you should look up Cotton Tail Rabbitry on Facebook. Jeannie Cotton is a wonderful breeder to get bunnies from! 😁
Sorry to hear this. Just a thought what about putting the hot water from the water hose on a spot of the yard to let it start getting green. On a side note we live in Arizona and it is very common to see cows in pastures with few watering spots (we done have ponds here) and nothing but dead grass everywhere. They can survive/adapt a lot better then we give them credit for. But it is still scary with the unknown. Praying for y’all!
it was like this last year in Montana, our hay prices went up over 3x. it has been nice this year so prices are better here now. big bales were over 250 and we had to drive 160 miles round trip to get it.
We here in Australia have very hot conditions in summer 40d and then we have cold during the winter 5d, we have kikuyu grass that grows in hot climate. You may need to look for a hot climate grass you could get.
Are you diverting your grey water to water some grass? if you use biodegradable soap you can use your shower, sink, washing machine etc water diverted to water your grass. Just separate out your black water.
For winter forage I am going to be planting Hard Wheat and Oats mix on 20 acres, probably do another 80 acres just for winter forage. Right now I have 12 bales of Coastal (5x5 round), that I am saving. I just got 50 bales (5x5) of corn stalks. This will give them something in their belly, supplementing with 20% Protein cube, and a free feed tub of protein supplement/mineral. We currently have 50 head, 48 pairs, and 2 bulls. Probably going to sell all the calves as soon as they are weened. I feel you pain.
Have you considered an alternative to feed as of yet? I watch another channel called volt diving and they get a ton of veggies from stores for nothing. Lettuces and such, you could contact your local grocery stores and such and get their produce they are tossing out (which is usually in good condition or 2nds) use what you can for the animals and compost the rest!
I forgot to say that this is a super good idea though. I live in south Alabama within five miles of the gulf. I say this to say we are flush with hay here. If I was able I sure would love to drive some out to you guys!
Sympathy and empathy with the chores, hay, and dangerous heat. I started the season with 82 cornish cross, pastured broilers; 22 are left from the heat. Not enough hay for a 3rd cutting off the field. Butchered 2 of the cows but still it's very concerning. There are tons of great microgreens suggestions in the comments though and someone there in Tx is offering to give you a couple bales of lawn care clippings. How awesome is that?!
Plant more trees in pasture to avoid heat issues. Plant trees that produce fodder to avoid buying in hay. Mulberry produces a lot of early season food, honey locust produces in the late season.
Yup, that is certainly our plan. We already have: • white mulberry • hybrid poplar • hybrid willow • bananas But they are not yet available to be planted until the fall. But I think we will have some success here soon!
I don't know if this could help you out but we live in Wisconsin near Hudson and the past 2 years they've gotten at least five cuttings of hay, so I think there might be a surplus up here right now.. and we're getting some rain as well.
I remember when I was little my uncle would plant sugar cane and after using what he wanted the rest was cut and given to his cows and horses. I wonder if you would have enough growing season to plant now. I'm not a gardener or rancher just an idea.
Can yall get up into Oaklohoma or Louisiana? I know there's still hay in Arkansas, no idea on the price tho. I remember how bad 2011 was, praying for yall.
I live in North East Texas. Do lawn care. So this is starting to affect my business which is our livelihood. Also homestead don't have any livestock just chicken. Nut I do have several bales of old hay that I used for mulch at one time. But if you need o could give you 3 or 4 bales. Nor in great condition but if in desperate situations might could get you out of a bad situation. If you would like them you are welcome to them.
Guys I’m so sad for y’all. It’s so hot 🥵 I’m in Waco yards everywhere are so brown. I turn on the cold water to fill my dogs bowl and it feels like bath water. Continued prayers to y’all and other homesteads with animals and gardens.
Get yourself a wood chipper. Put a layer of wood chips on your garden. On top of the drip irrigation the soil will stay moist. You can use wood chips for animal bedding too so you can use less hay. It will also help you mush up roots of gnarly plants like brassica you can feed your pigs and birds. Also I don't know how cows do with comfrey but the roots grow really deep and its great for pigs and chickens for food. I'm not sure about cows but worth investigating
@@BetterTogetherLife really sorry to hear that buddy. Some other things that might help would be grey water collection from your house. The bath shower and washing machine water is all good for your land. I don't mean to tell you stuff you already know by the way when you clearly have troubles. One thing you might not have thought of is saving plastic bottles. Not much help now but it's an interesting way to collect water when it eventually does rain. You basically cut the fat end from one bottle as close to the top as you can. Then make cuts down the bottle to about half way. You can then open it out like a flower if that makes sense. Put another cut bottle under as a container to collect the water. Honestly if you get a decent amount of rain put a few of these out. You'd be surprised how much water you get. Get a few hundred and it would really add up. Plus you keep the kids occupied too!!!
Thank you David, you are totally right! In fact just by posting this video we’ve been motivated to get this land back in order. We have things we need to do, so why let the drought keep us from it!
Its miserable right now.... I have 4 acres in the back not being used AT ALL :/ No cows on it. This... sucks. Only certain areas on the property are getting "green grass" but nothing that amounts to being worth cutting. The donkeys are eating it anyway. Sigh... North Texas needs rain DESPERATELY. It's been TRYING to rain for like 2 weeks. We had an over 60% chance on Friday... now it's 10%.... I really dislike La Nina summers.
I’m just catching up on videos, life’s been busy. I’m sorry you guys are having to consider selling Buttercup. What if you could send her to someone else’s property that had some graze for the winter? Maybe just pay a boarding fee?
I went to the ‘general feed’ store today and he said the next round bales were going to be $225-$250 each. 😳 I about had a heart attack. Also, no eta on getting more bales. (Laura)
@@Junderbread if he has friends that also need hay you can split costs, you also don't pay as much when you buy in bulk. A good amount of the hay people buy from local dealers is not locally grown, it's common practice to buy from out of state and resell. But whatever, sorry I shed light on other options.
What about growing fodder for them? Would it be worth it to grow it for them? You're using the water for the grass, why not sprout fodder? Just curious! I hope things get better. 🙏
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Just like 2011. You need to build a hay barn and stock up when available. You can always put the used hay in the area you're watering to help hold the moisture. Shade cloth will also help make shade. We have been raining goats, chicken and sometimes cows for 20 years in west Texas. We are lucky if we get 20in of rain a year. We have learned how to garden and live in these harsh conditions.
Hang in there, you guys. I feel so bad that you're going through this.
Some one has hay that they will sale at a price you can afford or even trade for something you don’t even need any more .
There is hay in the south East not a lot extra but there is hay for sale over here now . There want be any extra in the fall but it is available now
Oh bro, THANK YOU!!! We will make it through.
I actually took the big girls for a walk back in the back today and they found some green vines that they hit hard.
And they also are some of these green mesquite shoots too. So I feel like with the right effort we can make it through.
Thanks a bunch Morgan!!!
These are good ideas. We are in Bell County right near you so I understand totally. Prayers for rain and cooler temps!
Amen!!!!
Water is everything. I just bought my small homestead in MT and chose the area bc it’s right by a large river and the property has a well.
It's raining every day in New Orleans . Will send some your way 🤠. God Bless
Yeah, it's tough in Texas right now. It might be time to research what it will take to clear some more of your land so you can grow and produce your own hay should this situation arise again in the future. That would make some good content for you to share with the rest of us as well. I'd love to see a video on that from you guys!
From Texas here. I have 20 acres and can’t keep enough grass for any cows. The hay fields are barren this year unless you have some form of serious irrigation system to keep your hay growing. Cost prohibitive so that is not an option yet. People don’t realize the effect this will have in the coming years. Everyone I know is selling off cattle.
So sorry you are having problems due to lack of rain. We are in Temple and are praying for rain for you and all of Central Tx🙏🏻
Oh Linda, THANK YOU!!! We will be praying for y’all up in Temple as well. 😁😁
Y'all might try getting together with other small farms and call up north for a semi-truckload of hay from up in the Rockies. Probably Colorado or further to get out of the drought... but it might be doable splitting the cost several ways.
That's what i was thinking. Find someone with a 28' trailer willing to drive out of state, load up 5 bales of hay and drive back. Just a bandaid to get you through the drought.
I just drove a 99' Chevy 1-ton crew cab with 24' trailer 500 miles to buy a 1991 Jetta + 2 spare engines for $500. It got shockingly good fuel mileage.
Sorry to hear about Buttercup! Praying for your family, and Texas ❤️
You may want to call your local feed store and get their suggestions on what you can feed your cows when there's no grass. That's kinda how we got our "plan" in place. Also search for Milo hay if you can't find regular hay. It's just baked surgum.
😂Bailed Surgum...not baked😂😂😂
I wish I could help you but I don’t have a farm or anything yet. So I am going to earnestly be praying for you guys. Blessings 🙏🏾☀️
Oh no worries at all. Hey, if you did want to help you could buy a shirt from our Store. It looks like I am having to steal from my children’s college funds to pay for hay this year! 🤣🤣
TH-cam.Com/bettertogetherlife/store
Praying for you and your farm🙏
I see Tree Fodder all over your video!! LoL!!
Yea, we are needing to grow and propagate all of those this winter.
I'm very sorry to hear this. I feel so bad for all of you down there. Praying for you and Buttercup. Hugs from Wisconsin. Karen 🙂
Our oaks are overgrown so we've been trimming one large branch a da y and letting the cows eat the leaves. You can use the wood for firewood, mulch etc. It helps keep them off the grass so hard. We also pick up produce from a local grocery store that is not sellable. $3 per banana box and there's a nice variety of stuff for the pigs and chickens. If the tomatoes are too far gone we throw them in the woods and there's tomato plants with fruit in acouple months Lol
Ok, so cows will eat oak leaves? I haven’t seen mine eat them. Our pigs LOVE oak leaves though.
I need to do some more of that for sure. THANK YOU for reminding me!!!
@@BetterTogetherLife .Oak leaves, palm fronds, and most tall grasses. Maybe a neighbor would allow you to let her graze in exchange for milk? Grab a scythe and clear someones lot for free? Do what you have to do to keep your girl ❤️ Now ain't the time to have less food availability friend.
@@dirtisbetterthandiamonds great ideas
Have you thought about a fodder system? Here in Florida, we are struggling with hay prices and hay shortages… and this is something we are going to work on for our 4 horses, goats, meat rabbits and chickens.
If you have the funds, I'd have hay hauled in. My home state (Minnesota) has alot for sale right now. Prices range from $2- 10 for small squares to $60‐ 145 for large rounds. Prices reflect type of hay and quality.
The only “waste” water that goes into our septic is the from the toilet
The washer, bathroom and kitchen sinks all drain into the yard for the trees...which shade the house
We also have a 3K gallon cistern that collects rain water (when we get rain)
Praying extra hard to baby Jesus for a good soaking rain
❤️. Sending prayers for rain. I dream to do this someday. Thank you for sharing
Thank you Wendy. Praying that most summers will not be like this.
@Better Together Homestead: Drastic times call for drastic measures. What if you created a migrogreens setup that was designed for your cow. Microgreens take 3-4 weeks to grow and cut. Maybe a fresh nutrient dense microgreen he cow would not have to eat as much. Every 3 weeks have a new cutting.
Praying for the rain for you. As global warming makes our Texas summers hotter, dryer, and longer, what are we gonna do to keep our homesteads independent and self-sustainable???
Thank you!!!!
@@BetterTogetherLife of course brother. But seriously, should we start digging our own wells? how deep must we go? Are we gonna have to start combusting water out of hydrogen and oxygen!!? 😂😂
Praying for my brothers and sisters in Texas and out west that our Lors will provide relief! In Jesus name! Amen!!
We had to stop rotation and let everyone loose. We absolutely hate to do it, but there isn’t enough grass in any one area, but they’re finding good food right now while we let them out.
Man I really wish I could help yall out. But I've been laid-off work a while and I'm feeling the struggle myself. Praying yall start getting rain soon.
We know it's dry when Houston is dry. We're northwest of San Antonio and I don't remember it ever being like this. We have nothing, not even naturally growing plants, in our garden. Quite a contrast from last year which was amazing.
this won’t help right now but have you heard of silvopasture? It’s basically having enough trees to provide shade and retain water in the soil but enough space between them to allow sun to peek through for grass growth. It would be super helpful during droughts.
Have a look at growing wheatgrass fodder, it can be set up on a fairly small scale and you get a harvest in around a week - 10days. Good luck, scary times.
We certainly are trying to grow as much fodder as we can. Thank you Erin!
No the feeling sold 10 nice young cows this past weekend, I live in North East Texas.
Oh man. That’s the worst. And the prices are now down. It’s just a shame.
tagasaste trees will help for future proofing and are used on many Australian farms to combat drought and lack of feed , in the meantime heres wishing you luck
Stay encouraged my brother. Sending prayers up for you, your family and your homestead. Believe. God specializes in miracles. ☺️ Keep trusting. It will be ok. Keep the Jersey.
Thank you! The responses to this video has actually given us lots of ideas. Plus some of our friends have seen it and maybe we are able to get a few bales. We shall see!
Thank you for your prayers Liz!!
Amen. Standing in agreement . 🙏
@@BetterTogetherLife Amen. Let’s thank God our provider. He will make it happen for you and all our homesteaders out there struggling with this heat. Just keep on believing. We stick together no matter what. We are Better Together, right? ☺️
We’re not *too* far north of y’all, and we prioritized animals when we started setting up and didn’t think to do swales and water storage first. We are hit hard and are having to transport 300gal per day, and selling some of the cows. We’ll make it through it. God will provide.
Oh no. Wow, I am so sorry y’all. That is hard for sure.
We still have our rain tanks full (5000gl) but now I am afraid of rolling black outs here in Texas and not having water. So I have water to use, but no idea if I should drain the rain tanks or not.
This sucks for sure.
Oh no. Wow, I am so sorry y’all. That is hard for sure.
We still have our rain tanks full (5000gl) but now I am afraid of rolling black outs here in Texas and not having water. So I have water to use, but no idea if I should drain the rain tanks or not.
This sucks for sure.
Did you guys ever do solar? I have solar on all my pumps for that exact reason. It’s real cheap and easy if you get it per use, rather than a massive array for the whole house.
How about growing your own grass?
Some kind of Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumacher).
They just need a few water and you can build a dipping water system for it. By the way cow and pigs can also eat the stem of banana tree too, try to chop up and adding some small amount of salt ( my mom used to do so and the animals LOVE it)
How about digging some pond, reservoir for collecting some rain water ?
Sorry to hear that…everywhere is getting rough…
I'm in the same boat in the DFW area with our dairy goats. Look into tree hay. It might give you some extra time to figure things out. There are quite a few that can be used for hay. Mulberry trees are really good for that. We have some but I have started several more for in the future. We are irrigating the pastures from the creek but it's getting so low I don't know how much longer it will last. Praying for rain.
Haha, correct that is why we have our fodder trees for sure!
• white mulberry
• hybrid poplar
• hybrid willow
• banana leaves
• sweet potato leaves
• comfry
It is helping, but our small little orchard wont last for ever.
@@BetterTogetherLife Awesome! I'm a fairly new follower so I didn't know that. 😆 Yes it definitely doesn't last forever but hopefully it will help.
Will pray for ya"ll in Texas,,wish I could send ya"ll some of this Florida rain we get every day this time of year
@@scottjames4470 Thank you. I wish you could too! It would be nice if it worked that way wouldn't it? LOL
@Wishiwuza Homestead. Sending prayers up for you as well. Believe. It will be ok.
Good thing you have bananas. You can plant more in other areas, they grow quick. Our goats and rabbits love it too. We also grow leguminous trees like leucaena. Maybe they won't survive in your area but you can try other trees. Dry hot summers here also turn green grass to brown and the trees and bananas are life saviors of our livestock. Hope you'll get rain soo. If only I could send some your way.
Our goats and cows love all the wild huckleberries on our property. I pray for you and your family and ask God to bless you and your land Amen
Glad all is well with y’all. There is hay at Strutty’s in the San Antonio area. No idea on price but in case you know someone who is looking.
We are in killeen and this heat is brutal. I have a suggestion disconnect the washer drain and run a discharge pipe outside to water the grass.
It’s not a bad idea….but we are on a conventional septic. So they grass over the septic field is doing “ok”. So all of the water from the house goes there anyway.
@@BetterTogetherLife let the toilet go to the septic - use all the sink water for the yard - just as a temporary step you can disconnect the drains under the kitchen and bathroom sinks and just put a bucket under, as soon as it is full, dump it into a barrel and then water the grass at night from the barrel - it is amazing how much water you can collect from the sinks...
Prayers for everyone... Heat problems everywhere.
Prayers that you get something from a tropical storm. It’s so sad 😞, praying for y’all ! Please stay safe and well . 🙏🙏
I cut the crabgrass on my septic line and fed it to our 2 feeder steers that are our food security. I’m in Oklahoma. We finally got some rain and they are sounding hopeful that the pattern will break. I’m lucky and got enough hay to make it. I’m just a small operation though.
I'm sorry about Buttercup. We had plans on starting our rabbits but wanted to wait until we got back from our vacation over the 4th. Boy am I glad we didn't pull the trigger in early spring. We keep seeing little showers pop up around Houston but they haven't made their way to our little part on the west side.
Yea, rabbits are really hot to keep healthy in this kind of heat.
It was a good idea to wait until the fall.
Hey, since you are in Houston you should look up Cotton Tail Rabbitry on Facebook. Jeannie Cotton is a wonderful breeder to get bunnies from! 😁
Hi..... Thank you for showing your video homestead 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 👕🐔🐓🐣🐥🐕🐈🐄🐖🐝🌱🏡🎥👍👍👍
California feels ypur pain, my man. Hope the rains come back soon!
Sorry to hear this. Just a thought what about putting the hot water from the water hose on a spot of the yard to let it start getting green. On a side note we live in Arizona and it is very common to see cows in pastures with few watering spots (we done have ponds here) and nothing but dead grass everywhere. They can survive/adapt a lot better then we give them credit for. But it is still scary with the unknown. Praying for y’all!
You are absolutely right. They are adapting for sure. Thank you so much Lazy E Homestead!!!!!
We have just started getting some rain here in Tennessee
it was like this last year in Montana, our hay prices went up over 3x. it has been nice this year so prices are better here now. big bales were over 250 and we had to drive 160 miles round trip to get it.
We here in Australia have very hot conditions in summer 40d and then we have cold during the winter 5d, we have kikuyu grass that grows in hot climate. You may need to look for a hot climate grass you could get.
We’re just outside of San Antonio, and this summer has been completely exhausting.
Sprouted fodder. Rain catchment. Grey water irrigation.
Are you diverting your grey water to water some grass? if you use biodegradable soap you can use your shower, sink, washing machine etc water diverted to water your grass. Just separate out your black water.
great advice! im learning something!
You can grow fodder with grow lights in the house and then feed the cows that way.
Hey we're are you located in Texas I'm 15 miles west of Madisonville, there may be last year's hay around here for sale.
For winter forage I am going to be planting Hard Wheat and Oats mix on 20 acres, probably do another 80 acres just for winter forage. Right now I have 12 bales of Coastal (5x5 round), that I am saving. I just got 50 bales (5x5) of corn stalks. This will give them something in their belly, supplementing with 20% Protein cube, and a free feed tub of protein supplement/mineral. We currently have 50 head, 48 pairs, and 2 bulls. Probably going to sell all the calves as soon as they are weened.
I feel you pain.
We are in Central Texas and have livestock also. I'm researching growing our own fodder - barley sprouts, etc. Have you looked into that?
I'm so sorry wejustleft Texas for Missouri to be near kids and grandchildren our cowsare gonna loose their minds when they see the grass here
Oh yikes, Rvonda those cows are going to LOVE IT!!!!
We are in San Angelo and this summer has been brutal here in Texas.
I feel ya Justin.
Pray for hurricane in gulf? That’s usually what breaks a Texas drought.
Oh wow, YES!!!!!
A gentle Hurricane 😅 I've been praying for a few tropical depressions 🤣
Florida had a drought 2 years ago, then last year historic rains. Get ready especially if you're Gulf side!
We are in middle Ga and our fields are needing cutting weekly. It's hot but we have rain thankfully
I am so glad to hear that. We are remembering that this is a season and won’t be forever.
Have you considered an alternative to feed as of yet? I watch another channel called volt diving and they get a ton of veggies from stores for nothing. Lettuces and such, you could contact your local grocery stores and such and get their produce they are tossing out (which is usually in good condition or 2nds) use what you can for the animals and compost the rest!
I saw a couple who uses beer mash leftovers from a brewery to feed their cows they seemed to love it.
I forgot to say that this is a super good idea though. I live in south Alabama within five miles of the gulf. I say this to say we are flush with hay here. If I was able I sure would love to drive some out to you guys!
Beer fed beef, I bet that will bring a premium ;-)
I heard some people are hiring a semi and buying hay from Tennessee and other states thatbare getting rain
I sold my goats yesterday. Pretty much half price. It's bad south texas.
Last year Alberta had to sell the cattle. This year they have a bumper crop of hay.
Sympathy and empathy with the chores, hay, and dangerous heat. I started the season with 82 cornish cross, pastured broilers; 22 are left from the heat. Not enough hay for a 3rd cutting off the field. Butchered 2 of the cows but still it's very concerning. There are tons of great microgreens suggestions in the comments though and someone there in Tx is offering to give you a couple bales of lawn care clippings. How awesome is that?!
Plant more trees in pasture to avoid heat issues.
Plant trees that produce fodder to avoid buying in hay.
Mulberry produces a lot of early season food, honey locust produces in the late season.
Yup, that is certainly our plan. We already have:
• white mulberry
• hybrid poplar
• hybrid willow
• bananas
But they are not yet available to be planted until the fall. But I think we will have some success here soon!
Not sure if you know! I’m a trucker. The government is paying the shipping for us to bring you hay from the dakotas.
🙏🙏🙏 you get rain soon! We give our pastured pigs Thorvin kelp for minerals? Is that good or should we do something like what you have?
I don't know if this could help you out but we live in Wisconsin near Hudson and the past 2 years they've gotten at least five cuttings of hay, so I think there might be a surplus up here right now.. and we're getting some rain as well.
It would be great if we all worked together
Hopefully the grass is just lying dormant and not dead. This happens over here quite often.
I remember when I was little my uncle would plant sugar cane and after using what he wanted the rest was cut and given to his cows and horses. I wonder if you would have enough growing season to plant now. I'm not a gardener or rancher just an idea.
I take it that you have community water available along with your rain collections?
Do you know anyone further east that would ‘foster’ your cows for you? It is an idea and better than selling if someone could help out.
Not a crazy idea!
Praying for rain for tx and those in need of rain.
Wow, THANK YOU Colleen!! We need it for sure!
I go to huston every winter and i was hoping to move a grow my farm but now i am thinking that should be so hard now
could you come up north and pick up some?
Can yall get up into Oaklohoma or Louisiana? I know there's still hay in Arkansas, no idea on the price tho. I remember how bad 2011 was, praying for yall.
When I was young , people would bail the side of the road
Yea….. but there is literally ZERO grass on the side of the road. Texas cattle land turned into Arizona.
I live in North East Texas. Do lawn care. So this is starting to affect my business which is our livelihood. Also homestead don't have any livestock just chicken. Nut I do have several bales of old hay that I used for mulch at one time. But if you need o could give you 3 or 4 bales. Nor in great condition but if in desperate situations might could get you out of a bad situation. If you would like them you are welcome to them.
Dang and Virginia has been swamped
I know, it’s so bizarre.
Guys I’m so sad for y’all. It’s so hot 🥵 I’m in Waco yards everywhere are so brown. I turn on the cold water to fill my dogs bowl and it feels like bath water. Continued prayers to y’all and other homesteads with animals and gardens.
There isn't a place to put their bowls in the shade? It would be worth putting up a little area with shade cloth to keep the water cool.
@@brightbeautifuldays I think Eva means that when the "cold" water is turned on it comes out lukewarm or warm because pipes are so warm.
It's to bad the upper Midwestern states that have extra hay couldn't do a hay drive to help you all in the south.
That would be a help for sure.
Get yourself a wood chipper. Put a layer of wood chips on your garden. On top of the drip irrigation the soil will stay moist. You can use wood chips for animal bedding too so you can use less hay. It will also help you mush up roots of gnarly plants like brassica you can feed your pigs and birds. Also I don't know how cows do with comfrey but the roots grow really deep and its great for pigs and chickens for food. I'm not sure about cows but worth investigating
Currently doing everything you spoke about.
It all falls apart when you hit 100+ degrees and zero rains everyday since May. 😞
@@BetterTogetherLife really sorry to hear that buddy. Some other things that might help would be grey water collection from your house. The bath shower and washing machine water is all good for your land. I don't mean to tell you stuff you already know by the way when you clearly have troubles. One thing you might not have thought of is saving plastic bottles. Not much help now but it's an interesting way to collect water when it eventually does rain. You basically cut the fat end from one bottle as close to the top as you can. Then make cuts down the bottle to about half way. You can then open it out like a flower if that makes sense. Put another cut bottle under as a container to collect the water. Honestly if you get a decent amount of rain put a few of these out. You'd be surprised how much water you get. Get a few hundred and it would really add up. Plus you keep the kids occupied too!!!
Thank you David, you are totally right!
In fact just by posting this video we’ve been motivated to get this land back in order. We have things we need to do, so why let the drought keep us from it!
Hope you have a backup for those freezers full of meat if Texas has another blackout.
We do have a generator and some fuel storage.
Maybe we stop weather modifications?
Look for purchasing small square bales if possible.
Its miserable right now.... I have 4 acres in the back not being used AT ALL :/ No cows on it. This... sucks. Only certain areas on the property are getting "green grass" but nothing that amounts to being worth cutting. The donkeys are eating it anyway. Sigh... North Texas needs rain DESPERATELY. It's been TRYING to rain for like 2 weeks. We had an over 60% chance on Friday... now it's 10%.... I really dislike La Nina summers.
We just bought big bales for 200.00 a bale! 125.00 would be a dream
Wow that hurts
Oh wow Michelle, that is horrible.
Can you use your gray water on your lawn from showers and sinks I know you don't use harsh soaps might give you more green
Cows love leaves. Cut some small trees and feed them to the cows.
You'll find a way.
Probably you needs to see how u can get out ground water. May be get a borewell drilled. This wil help u grow some grass.
Hi Beau ,I'm sorry it's come to selling. If you can save the money maybe you can re buy when things get better?
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏💝.
JO JO IN VT 😆💕
Maybe research Drought resistant plants like planting a acre of alfalfa. Or a fodder system my dad is using a totes of fodder to feed his cows
I’m just catching up on videos, life’s been busy. I’m sorry you guys are having to consider selling Buttercup. What if you could send her to someone else’s property that had some graze for the winter? Maybe just pay a boarding fee?
I went to the ‘general feed’ store today and he said the next round bales were going to be $225-$250 each. 😳 I about had a heart attack. Also, no eta on getting more bales. (Laura)
I’ll buy buttercup
Why don't you order hay from NY? You can contact either a hay dealer up there or find a shipper. Hay is moved around regularly.
I guess we are assuming this man is rich.. Normal TX ranchers can't make a living feeding cows hay all summer and trucking it down form NY state
@@Junderbread if he has friends that also need hay you can split costs, you also don't pay as much when you buy in bulk. A good amount of the hay people buy from local dealers is not locally grown, it's common practice to buy from out of state and resell. But whatever, sorry I shed light on other options.
@@dosdoggies alright then
@@dosdoggies This is a good idea. We were just discussing this today. Thank you!
What about growing fodder for them? Would it be worth it to grow it for them? You're using the water for the grass, why not sprout fodder? Just curious! I hope things get better. 🙏
He is growing some fodder trees but they are not very big yet