County Backs Ranchers’ Declaration of Disaster

Back-to-back years of late rains have dried out local pastures, making conditions bad enough that cattlemen asked the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to approve a state of emergency declaration.

Instead of grazing their cattle on the land, representatives of the California Cattlemen’s Assn. said, they’ve had to spend up to $4,000 a month on feed for the 5,000 head of cattle in Ventura County, where raising cows is a $2-million-a-year industry.

“My profits are gone already for this year because I’ve had to buy so much hay,” said Robert Frost, a Santa Paula producer and president of the California Cattlemen’s Assn. “I’ve spent in the neighborhood of $30,000 in hay and mineral supplements. If it gets bad, history will tell you what drought can do to the cattle industry in the past. You just go out of business.”

Supervisors approved Frost’s request to declare Ventura County a drought disaster area for 2000.

Sheriff Bob Brooks must make the official declaration, which would then allow ranchers to apply for federal disaster-relief funds.

If ranchers are allowed to receive aid, they will be able to submit their receipts for the additional feed to the U. S. Department of Agriculture for at least partial reimbursement, Frost said.

Late rains have hurt local ranchers for the last three years. They’ve asked for a disaster declaration before and been turned down. One reason, Frost said, is the federal definition of the grazing season, which specifies January as the beginning.

Four consecutive months of drought during that season allows cattlemen to qualify for relief funding.

But Frost said ranchers in coastal areas start their grazing season in October to coincide with the rainy season. Ventura County cattlemen depend on up to 4 inches of rain between October and January, which helps grass grow through the winter and spring.

In 1999 and 2000, however, less than 2 inches fell in that period.

For the past year, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) has worked to help change the Department of Agriculture’s time frame so that local cattlemen can qualify for relief funding.

It’s not that the county hasn’t had normal rainfall, Frost said, but it has come at the wrong time. Most rains came after January, which left too long a time between the summer and winter months.

Buying high-quality hay through the dry months places a greater burden on local ranchers because it’s also when they are struggling to feed pregnant or nursing cows, they said.

Calf season in Ventura County is typically through December and January.

“These cows got to have good nutrition to feed these babies they’re having,” said Frost, who has about 700 mother cows.

“If she doesn’t have adequate grass available, she starts robbing from her own body fat to make milk, and it causes her to lose a lot of weight,” cattleman Bill Adkins added. “And if she’s not in good nutritional condition, she’s more susceptible to disease, to colds, to pneumonia.”

Linda Sloan, who owns Sloan Ranches in Santa Paula, said that bringing in the additional feed adds to the workload of an already heavily burdened rancher.

“Instead of using natural resources, our beautiful green hills, we do it ourselves,” Sloan said. “We load up our trucks and do it all. It’s an incredible amount of work.”

She said it costs between $8.50 and $10 for a bale of hay. She usually uses about 35 bales a day to feed her 260 cows.