Texas Range Land Will Take Years To Recover From Drought
September 19, 2011
by: Andrew Schneider
The drought has taken its toll on a Burleson County pasture. (Texas AgriLife Extension Service photo by Blair Fannin)
Travis Miller heads the Extension Program at Texas A & M University’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. Miller says that a good month of rain would be all it would take to restore Bermuda grass used for hay.
The high energy range grass that ranchers depend on to feed their livestock is another story entirely.
“It might take three, four years to get a full recovery if we had normal rainfall.”
The drought and wildfires have decimated range grasses. Miller says overgrazing is killing whatever is left over.
“I would estimate a lot of the grass would have to come back from seed.”
The National Weather Service says La Niña conditions responsible for the drought should persist at least into early next year.