"It's dead," Fiveash says of the grass. "Nothing there. It's like eating a paper sack."
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| Georgia cattle may have to go on strange diets, like pelletized citrus pulp from oranges and grapefruit, to make it through the harsh winter. |
The many days of subfreezing temperatures killed a big portion of his pasture -- grass he really counted on to feed his cows during the winter. "Even with good conditions," Fiveash said, "it won't produce but 50 percent of what it would have before the cold weather killed it back."
Creative Cattle Feeding
Fiveash, though, has been creative in finding ways to feed his cows. Besides feeding them all the hay he can find, he's trying something new: pulp from citrus farms in Florida. Leftover peel, seeds -- everything but the juice -- from oranges and grapefruits are put into pellet form to feed the cows.
If warmer weather doesn't come within the next four to six weeks, Georgia cattlemen will start selling their animals, said Robert Stewart, a cattle expert with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. They'll have to, he said, because the farmers won't have enough to feed them.
"They are not going to go hungry," Fiveash said of his cattle.
Stewart said last year's drought cut the state's hay production by about 25 percent, further complicating the problem. The best thing that could happen to for Fiveash and other cattlemen, he said, is for spring to spring early.
