Central and West Texas is bone dry. Our ranch is pretty close to the geographic center of Texas and we've received less than an inch of rain since last September a couple tenths at a time. With La Nina forecast to last until the end of June our realistic hope is for good fall rains. Our normal is 34 inches a year and we're "supposed" to have almost half of that by the end of May.
We feed 20% protein wildlife ration all-year round and 800 pounds "usually" lasts three weeks when the deer have other choices. As there's been virtually nothing else for our whitetails to eat they've been emptying the feeders about every ten days since the middle of December so that's our new feed schedule. Feed prices are going the way of everything else and this sure wasn't in the long-term budget.
Virtually all natural sources of water are gone now. My son and I have recently begun hauling water as well. About 100 gallons, in livestock troughs, every week near the three feeders. Our deer look a little better than most in the area and we're hopeful the water and protein will help the does make some milk.
We got the price of venison down to around $400 a pound I think. Doesn't matter as it's difficult to imagine not doing all we can to see them through this very rough spot. Plenty of fires around but so far we've been okay.
Tai waiting for Dad to fetch another bag
Notice all the lush green fodder?
Tai took this pic of the rising "blood" moon last night. Again notice all the lush greenery. Other than the cedar and mesquite it's virtually all dust. Quite a few game trails to this spot.
We feed 20% protein wildlife ration all-year round and 800 pounds "usually" lasts three weeks when the deer have other choices. As there's been virtually nothing else for our whitetails to eat they've been emptying the feeders about every ten days since the middle of December so that's our new feed schedule. Feed prices are going the way of everything else and this sure wasn't in the long-term budget.
Virtually all natural sources of water are gone now. My son and I have recently begun hauling water as well. About 100 gallons, in livestock troughs, every week near the three feeders. Our deer look a little better than most in the area and we're hopeful the water and protein will help the does make some milk.
We got the price of venison down to around $400 a pound I think. Doesn't matter as it's difficult to imagine not doing all we can to see them through this very rough spot. Plenty of fires around but so far we've been okay.
Tai waiting for Dad to fetch another bag
Notice all the lush green fodder?
Tai took this pic of the rising "blood" moon last night. Again notice all the lush greenery. Other than the cedar and mesquite it's virtually all dust. Quite a few game trails to this spot.
