West Texas Livestock Growers

When Late-Summer Grass Stops Feeding Cows

August 16, 2026 / / 0 Comments
When Late-Summer Grass Stops Feeding CowsAugust pasture can be deceiving at first glance.
You might see grass still standing and looking green from the road. Cows may be spread out grazing as if all is well. But that does not always mean the grass has the nutrition your cows need.
By late summer, forage quality often drops. As grass matures and the heat continues, dry weather can lower both protein and energy. So, even if a cow is surrounded by grass, she might still not get enough nutrition.
If you notice cows losing body condition, calves looking a bit hollow, or cattle grazing longer than usual, pay attention. These signs may mean your pasture is not providing what it did earlier in the season.
This is why judging pasture from your truck can be misleading. Having a lot of grass does not always mean it is good quality.
In this post, we will cover what happens to forage in late summer, why cows might lose condition even when pastures look full, and how to decide if supplements are needed. The aim is not to feed just because it is August, but to understand what your grass is really providing before your cows suffer.

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How to Help Bulls Recover After Breeding

August 12, 2026 / / 0 Comments
How to Help Bulls Recover After BreedingWhen spring breeding season ends, most people are ready to pull the bulls, close the gate, and take a break. That makes sense. Breeding season is hard work, especially in tough country, hot weather, big pastures, and with cows that are not easy to find. But the work is not finished when the bulls leave the cows. For many herds in West Texas and the Southern Plains, this is actually when next year’s breeding season begins. If a bull comes off cows thin, sore, footsore, heat-stressed, or dealing with parasites, he needs care now—not next spring when it is too late.
Bulls cost too much to treat like spare equipment. They provide half the genetics for your calves, and one weak bull can be more costly than a bad load of hay. Taking good care of bulls after breeding protects their fertility, health, body condition, and lifespan. If you want your bull to breed cows again next year, do not just turn him out and hope he recovers on his own.

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Low-Stress Weaning Tips for Healthier Calves

August 8, 2026 / / 0 Comments
Low-Stress Weaning Tips for Healthier CalvesIf you’re planning to wean calves this fall, August is when you need to get started.
Don’t wait until weaning day or until the calves are already bawling at the fence. Start now.
Weaning can go smoothly or quickly become a problem. Much of it depends on what you do in the weeks before the calves leave their mothers.
Consider things from the calf’s perspective. In a short time, it might lose its mother, move to a new pen, learn a new feed, drink from a different water source, get vaccinated, and maybe even be transported. That’s a lot for one animal to handle at once.
When calves get too stressed, they’re more likely to get sick, stop eating, lose weight, or fall behind. Issues like respiratory problems, slow weight gain, and extra treatment costs can appear quickly in the first weeks after weaning.
That’s why low-stress weaning is important. It’s not just easier on the calves—it can also mean fewer sick animals, better weight gains, and less money lost after weaning.
The good news is you don’t need anything fancy to make weaning easier. You just need a plan that starts early, spreads out the stress, and helps calves know what to expect before weaning day.

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Protein Tubs: Smart Supplement or Wasted Money?

August 4, 2026 / / 0 Comments
Protein Tubs: Smart Supplement or Wasted Money?In August, pastures can be deceiving.
You might see grass still standing and cows out grazing. From your truck, the pasture might look pretty good. But that does not mean the grass still has the nutrition your cattle need.
Protein tubs are useful if you want a low-effort way to help your cattle during tough times. You just set them out and the cattle eat them as needed, so you do not have to haul feed every day. That is important when you have fences to fix, water to check, calves to watch, hay equipment to maintain, and not enough time for everything. But remember, protein tubs are not a cure-all.
Protein tubs can be helpful, but only if they match your forage, your cattle, the season, and your budget. Not every herd needs them. Not every tub is worth the cost. And not every product called “protein” fixes the same issue.
Before you spend a lot at the feed store, take a moment to ask yourself a few things. What are your cattle missing? What does the tub actually cost? Will they eat the right amount? Do the minerals fit your needs? Can you move the tub safely? And where should you put it to help both nutrition and grazing?
Let’s go through these points together.

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What Your Pasture Weeds Are Really Telling You

July 31, 2026 / / 0 Comments
What Your Pasture Weeds Are Really Telling YouIf you walk through a West Texas pasture in August, the grass will usually show you what is really happening, even if it is not what you want to see. Maybe the old bluestem is thin near the water lot. Maybe broomweed has popped up in a pasture that looked good back in the spring. Maybe ragweed is filling in bare spots, or silverleaf nightshade keeps returning, no matter how many times you thought you had it under control. Most ranchers see these plants and immediately ask, “What do I need to spray?” That is a reasonable question, but it should not be the first one. A better question is, “Why is this weed showing up here?”
Weeds in your pasture do not appear by chance. They show up because something in the pasture allowed them to take hold. It could be overgrazing, drought, bare ground, soil compaction near water, not enough recovery time, or weak forage. Some weeds are just annoying, but others are like warning lights on a dashboard. If you learn to read these signs, you can make better choices about grazing pressure, when to rotate cattle, when to control weeds, and whether your pasture needs rest more than another round of chemicals.

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Is Creep Grazing Worth It Before Weaning?

July 27, 2026 / / 0 Comments
Is Creep Grazing Worth It Before Weaning?If you could put more weight on your calves before weaning without having to buy extra feed every week, wouldn’t you want to try it?
That’s where creep grazing comes in.
Every cow-calf producer wants their calves to reach weaning with as much weight gain as possible, but without spending too much. Weaning weight is important, and so are extra pounds. But those pounds only matter if they pay for themselves.
Creep grazing lets nursing calves eat higher-quality forage while keeping cows out. Simply put, calves can get into a better pasture or forage strip that cows can’t reach. This gives calves more protein and energy, while cows stay on their usual pasture.
It’s similar to creep feeding, but instead of using grain or concentrate feed, you use forage. This can mean buying less feed, doing less labor, not having to refill feeders often, and giving calves a more natural way to grow before weaning.
Creep grazing isn’t a magic fix. It won’t solve poor forage, bad pasture planning, or a weak calf market. But if you set it up right, it can help add calf weight, save on feed costs, and make better use of your pasture.
By July, it’s especially worth considering. Spring-born calves are big enough to use better forage, native pasture quality may be dropping, and weaning is close enough that every extra pound counts.
The key is knowing when creep grazing makes sense, how to set it up, and what can go wrong if you don’t plan ahead.

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How August Can Actually Set Heifers Back

July 23, 2026 / / 0 Comments
How August Can Actually Set Heifers BackAugust really shows you how your replacement heifers are doing.
In May or June, your heifers probably looked healthy and on track. The grass was good, days were long, and there was time to make changes if needed. But when August hits West Texas and the Southern Plains, things change fast. Suddenly, the heifers do not look as even. Some are getting thin, some hang back at the water trough, and others spend more time fighting flies than grazing. The grass is still around, but now it is dry and stemmy, and it does not help them like it did earlier in the summer.
This is why August matters so much for heifer development. Replacement heifers are not just another set of calves—they are your future herd. If they fall behind now, you might see problems later like delayed puberty, poor conception, lighter calves, weak milk production, and cows that never catch up. August is not the time to guess. Take a close look, sort honestly, and make sure the heifers you want to keep are still doing well.

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Should You Start Protein Supplementing?

July 19, 2026 /
Should You Start Protein Supplementing?Late in the summer, a pasture might look better than it really is.
When you drive by, you see grass standing tall and cattle with their heads down, so nothing seems urgent. But if you take a closer look, things change. Stockers are grazing longer but gaining less. Calves seem to have stopped growing. Manure is dry and stacked. Cows still look full, but they do not have the same shine they did earlier in the season.
This is the challenge with July and August forage in West Texas and the Southern Plains. Just because you have grass does not mean it will support good cattle performance. Early in the season, grass feeds cattle well. By late summer, it often acts more like filler than real feed.
Protein supplements can help, but only if they fit your situation. Do not feed just because it is late summer. Feed when your pasture, cattle, and budget all show it is needed.
This applies whether you are running stockers on native range, keeping replacement heifers on track, holding spring-calving cows before weaning, or watching young cows lose condition after a tough summer.
Protein supplements in late summer are not a cure-all. They are just a tool. If you use them correctly, they help cattle get more from mature grass. If not, they can just add another expense without real benefit.

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Is Your Mineral Program Working in July?

July 15, 2026 /
Is Your Mineral Program Working in July?By July, mineral feeders can reveal a lot about your whole operation if you know what to look for.
In one pasture, cattle might go through minerals quickly, while another group hardly touches them. Some cows may empty a feeder after it rains, then slow down when it gets hot. If you move cattle to a dry pasture, mineral intake might suddenly increase. Sometimes, you might find a full feeder and wonder if the cattle are getting what they need.
That’s what July looks like in West Texas and the Southern Plains. Heat affects how cattle graze. Dry forage changes what they eat and what nutrients they need. Water quality can also make your mineral program less effective. Salt levels, where you place feeders, pasture rotation, fly pressure, and cow condition all matter. Mineral intake might seem random, but there’s usually a reason for it.
It’s a mistake to think, “They’re eating it, so everything’s fine,” or “They’re not eating it, so they must not need it.” Cattle don’t balance their mineral needs as neatly as we’d like. They eat minerals based on taste, salt content, what’s available, habit, water, forage condition, and other resources. So, free-choice mineral intake gives you clues, but it’s not a perfect report card.
A good mineral program in July isn’t about buying the fanciest product or just adding more to the pasture. It’s about tracking how much cattle eat, checking ounces per head per day, understanding why intake changes, and using mineral placement as part of your grazing plan.
If your mineral feeder could talk in July, it would probably tell you more about your forage, water, cattle behavior, and pasture pressure than you might expect.

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Can Your Cows Breed Back on Summer Grass?

July 11, 2026 /
Can Your Cows Breed Back on Summer Grass?July is when you find out if your cow nutrition plan is working or falling short. Grass might look fine from the truck, but that does not always mean it has enough protein, energy, or digestibility for a lactating cow during breeding season. This is important because after calving, a cow has a lot on her plate. She needs to raise her calf, recover from calving, regain body condition, and get ready to breed again on time.
Having a calf every year is not just a bonus—it is what keeps a cow valuable in the herd. With rising costs for feed, fuel, labor, and pasture, every cow that does not breed back costs you money. If a cow falls behind on nutrition during this busy time, you might not notice the problem until preg-check, when it is too late to do anything about it.
Here is the bottom line: cows cannot breed back if they are running on empty. A good nutrition plan starts with knowing what your forage really offers. Is the grass good enough to support milk and reproduction? Is there enough for cows to meet their needs? Are you feeding mature cows, young cows still growing, or thin cows trying to catch up?
Meeting these needs is more than just tossing out feed and hoping it works. You need to match forage quality, quantity, minerals, and supplements to each cow’s stage of production. When cows get the right nutrition at the right time, they are more likely to stay in good shape, breed back, and raise calves that make you money.

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