Even when rain is plentiful, harvesting and storing hay is expensive. This price includes fertilizer costs, mowing, raking, baling, hauling, storage losses, feeding losses and opportunity costs. There's another advantage for producers to plan winter pasture this fall. Doing so would allow them to stockpile the plentiful hay produced this season. Redmon recommends that producers stockpile 1-plus winters of good hay.
Droughts are inevitable in East Texas.
Redmon is one of the featured speakers of a six-hour short course on the establishment, economics, management and utilization of winter pasture. The program was planned with East Texas producers in mind, and is scheduled to be presented in Crockett Sept. 3 and in Luling Sept. 11. Extension has been promoting winter pasture for some time and given educational seminars on the practice for a number of years. The six-hour short course is the most complete program ever offered in East Texas, according to Redmon. Dr. Gerald Evers, a forage management expert with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, will speak on establishing winter pasture.