Drought: Case studies

The Lasker’s run a self-replacing cattle breeding operation comprised of a Santa Gertrudis based herd. Ben and Bindy credit attending a Hold ‘Em or Fold ‘Em – Risk Based Decision Making and Resilience workshop in Surat, amongst other learning opportunities, for helping them change their management practices during tough, ongoing drought conditions. Read the Lasker’s story.

Documenting some of the changes made by landholders is a component of the GrazingFutures Livestock Business Resilience program. The case studies below describe the outcomes of the changed…
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Prior to 2019, Jim and Jenny Cross and their daughter Rebecca, weaned from March to April when the calves were 6-9 months old. The Cross family found the FutureBeef resources particularly useful during the severe drought in 2019, when they were forced to make some tough decisions to get their cattle through the tough time. Rebecca recalled, “There was a lot [of discussion] about early weaning around that time. There were some specific articles around nutrition of cattle as well as managing water.” She recalled how every time the FutureBeef emails came out, they triggered discussions. “We would go through, read them and then have a chat about the different things that could be implemented. Using FutureBeef, we would read an article or a case study and view webinars that were going on and we could then take it to our cattle nutritionist and our vet and say we are thinking about doing this, what can you recommend. We went through every scenario and all the options for feeding those calves.” The combination of the FutureBeef resources, the input from their service providers and their own discussion gave them the confidence “… to make a good decision.”