Connect with Range & Pasture:
Navigating the New Normal
Something went wrong. Please try again later...
Jason Abraham, owner of Mendota Ranch in Canadian, Texas, can remember a time when things like this didn’t happen.
“These big fires haven’t always been with us,” he says. “Before 2006, this ranch hadn’t burned for 70 years. But I remember telling people in late 2023 we were due for a fire that would beat what we’d seen in 2006 and 2017. Two months later, there it was.”
The “it” Abraham refers to is the Smokehouse Creek fire of February 2024. Over the course of three weeks, the fire burned well over 1 million acres in Texas and Oklahoma, causing at least two fatalities, destroying hundreds of structures and killing thousands of cattle. While the exact cost may never be known, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service estimates the economic damage to Texas agriculture at over $120 million.
image courtesy of John Haley
Abraham, who also operates a helicopter service, had a literal bird’s-eye view.
“This fire blew through pretty quickly. Ninety-nine percent of what burned was within 24 hours. Folks don’t realize how fast a million acres will burn. When the fire hits these junipers and other invasive species, they just explode. From the ground, you can’t see it, but fires like this move at 75 or 80 mph.”
When a fire reaches that point, Abraham says, there’s only one thing to do.
“We try to forecast as much as we can,” he says, “but there’s nothing you can do except get out of the way. We have spots on the ranch where we can take shelter and let the head fire blow over; we’ll come in after and save what we can. That’s all you can do. We saved all the structures, but lost tons of equipment — all the horse trailers, hay equipment, tractors; they all burned. We did pretty well at the house. We’re prepared. We have everything ready to roll.”
Grazing Program, ‘Water Lots’ Help Save Cattle
Among the ironies of the fire cycle the Plains and Western states find themselves in now is the fact that as ranchers adopt measures to boost grass production and improve overall land stewardship, the amount of fuel available to an advancing fire has increased.
“We’ve become better stewards to our native grasslands,” says John Haley, Haley Bros. Cattle Company, also located near Canadian.. “We’ve learned to graze better, to rotate and rest our ground, and that’s good for it. But there are multiple reasons for the fires being more frequent, and only one of those is better stewardship. I don’t think we should throw out our stewardship. We just need to adjust and account for the new reality.”
At Mendota Ranch, Abraham is also reluctant to give up on practices that have improved soil and forage quality.
“Ranchers graze differently now,” he says. “Now we do rotational grazing, so we have more fuel to burn. Plus, a lot of the farmland around here went into the Conservation Reserve Program, so we don’t graze it and the fuel just builds up. The ranchers are doing a better job, but the problem is getting worse. So this is kind of the new norm.”
Abraham says he was fortunate to only lose a handful of cattle in the blaze; he credits his grazing program and the establishment of what he calls “water lots” for keeping the losses low.
“We do a simple rotation,” he says. “We’ll rest two pastures and graze one. We have pens with shared waterers and multiple gates, so the cows can move from one to the another and still use the same waterer.”
The gates and shared waterers provide an easy and fast way to move cattle to areas where vegetation has been grazed and trampled — and, therefore, have no fuel to feed the advancing fires.
photo courtesy of John Haley
Haley uses a similar strategy to protect his herd.
“We have a small field of winter wheat behind our headquarters. Maybe 80 acres total,” he says. “But that little bit of ground has saved our headquarters and our livestock. We don’t get a ton of use from it, but it’s been about the best piece of insurance we’ve had.”
The critical consideration, Abraham says, is a lack of fuel — and fences.
“Essentially, we’re just looking for an out-of-the-way place where there’s no fuel,” he says. “That’s what gets all these cows. They get stopped by a fence, and the fire overtakes them. Every cow that’s left behind after a fire like this tells a story. You see where they were when the fire overtook them — where the cow took her last breath. It’s heartbreaking.”
And while both Abraham and Haley accept fire as part of the “new normal,” neither are willing to be a passive victim.
“Being a helicopter pilot and fighting a lot of fires, I’m always thinking about ‘what if,’” Abraham says. “So when I talk to groups about managing risk and rebuilding after a fire, I ask, ‘If we have to build new fences anyway, why not build a few of these water lots?’”
“These grasslands were made from fire, and they’ll continue to burn,” Haley says. “It’s destructive, but we’re used to dealing with challenges and fire is another challenge. We place our livestock where we can get to them easier. We plan our grazing rotations so the cattle are more accessible during February, March and April. We watch the patterns and we act on what we see.”
Risk Reduction Through Weed and Brush Control
Beyond grazing rotations and water lots, there’s one element critical to minimizing the risk of fire: weed and brush control.
“If you have a lot of invasive species,” Abraham says, “it just gives that much more fuel to the fire. So we use products like Spike 20P herbicide to control the woody species like sagebrush and skunk bushes; those are big contributors to the fuel load.”
Proven products such as Sendero® herbicide help take care of his other big problem species: mesquite.
“Sendero gives us a good kill,” he says, “but we’re watching the mesquite we’ve recently treated. Usually, we don’t want to touch that mesquite for three years after treatment; we like to let Sendero do its thing. So we’re anxious to see what effect the fire had on the treated mesquite and on the treatment itself.”
‘Overwhelming’ Community Support
In the aftermath of an event like the Panhandle fires of 2024, much of the talk understandably centers around the human, animal and economic losses. But there’s a bright side that touched nearly every rancher and farmer impacted by the fires.
“Once the word got out,” Abraham says, “we couldn’t believe how much hay, feed, money, water, everything just came pouring in. We had every empty barn full of donated items. I don’t know how much hay we received, but it was thousands of semi-loads from as far away as Canada. They were bringing me so much hay, we had to turn away loads. It was pretty overwhelming.”
photo courtesy of Jason Abraham
Haley remembers a group of ranchers from Nebraska making the 400-mile drive to Canadian to help rebuild fences.
“They could’ve sent money or loads of hay, and that would’ve been great,” he says, “but they took time away from their own operations to come help.
“If people from outside our community could’ve seen the outpouring of support, it would restore their faith in humanity.”
Corteva Agriscience supports the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers’ Association Disaster Relief Fund in providing financial assistance to ranchers in Texas and Oklahoma who are victims of a natural disaster. For more information, visit TSCRA.org/disaster-relief-fund/.
™ ® Sendero is a trademark of Corteva Agriscience and its affiliated companies. ® Spike 20P is a trademark of Nutrichem used under license. Sendero is not registered for sale or use in all states. Contact your state pesticide regulatory agency to determine if a product is registered for sale or use in your state. Always read and follow label directions.