7 Best Grass Hay For Beef Cattle In Drought Conditions Old-Timers Rely On

When the rain stops and the ground starts cracking, the first thing you think about is water, but the second is always feed. Watching your pastures turn brown while your cattle look to the gate is a feeling no farmer wants. The old-timers knew that surviving a drought wasn’t about luck; it was about having the right kind of hay in the barn, grown from grasses that don’t quit when the weather gets tough.

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Drought-Proofing Your Herd’s Forage Supply

Building a drought-resilient farm isn’t about finding one "magic" grass. It’s about creating a system with multiple forage options that perform differently under stress. You want a mix of deep-rooted perennials that can wait out a dry spell and fast-growing annuals you can plant to fill an unexpected gap.

Think of it like a diversified investment portfolio for your fields. Relying solely on one type of hay is a huge gamble. By cultivating several varieties—a tough cool-season grass for stockpiling, a heat-loving summer grass, and maybe an emergency annual—you spread your risk and ensure you have something to feed, no matter what the season throws at you. The goal is resilience, not just high yield in a perfect year.

Coastal Bermudagrass: The Southern Standby

Down south, bermudagrass is king for a reason. When summer heat shuts down other grasses, bermuda thrives, its deep roots pulling moisture from where other plants can’t reach. It produces a tremendous amount of forage and handles grazing pressure well.

The key to good bermuda hay is management. It’s a hungry grass that needs nitrogen to be productive, so you can’t just plant it and walk away. If you let it get too mature before cutting, it becomes stemmy and loses nutritional value fast.

For the best quality hay, you need to cut it on a tight schedule, typically every 4-5 weeks. This keeps the protein levels up and the stems fine. It’s more work, but the payoff is a barn full of quality hay that will carry your herd through the worst of a dry spell.

Pensacola Bahiagrass: Tough and Resilient

If bermudagrass is the high-performance race car, bahiagrass is the old, reliable farm truck. It may not be the prettiest or the highest-yielding, but it will start every time and get the job done. Bahiagrass is incredibly tough, tolerating low-fertility soils and surviving intense drought by going dormant.

Its biggest advantage is its persistence with minimal inputs. You don’t have to baby it like some other grasses. The tradeoff is that its nutritional quality is generally lower than well-managed bermudagrass, but its reliability in poor conditions is unmatched. For a low-input system, having a field of bahiagrass is like having a rock-solid insurance policy.

Kentucky 31 Fescue: A Hardy Cool-Season Choice

Kentucky 31 Fescue is one of the most widely planted grasses, and its durability is legendary. Its deep, fibrous root system makes it remarkably drought-tolerant for a cool-season grass. This allows it to stay green longer into a dry summer and bounce back quickly when rain finally returns.

The real power of K-31 for drought management is its ability to be "stockpiled." You let it grow in late summer and early fall, then let the cattle graze it through the winter. This saves a massive amount of hay and reduces your winter feeding workload.

Now, we have to talk about the endophyte. Most older stands of K-31 contain a fungus that helps the plant survive but can cause health problems in cattle, like rough hair coats and heat stress. You can manage this by planting newer "novel endophyte" varieties, which offer the plant’s hardiness without the toxins, or by overseeding existing pastures with clover to dilute the fescue.

Don’t let the endophyte issue scare you away entirely. For decades, farmers have successfully managed around it because the grass is just that tough. Understanding the risk and having a plan to mitigate it is the key to using this valuable forage resource.

Crested Wheatgrass: The Arid Land Champion

For those farming in the dry, intermountain West, crested wheatgrass is a lifesaver. This isn’t a grass for humid climates; it’s a true arid-land specialist. It can survive on incredibly low rainfall and withstand harsh, cold winters.

Its primary strength is its early spring growth. It greens up and takes off weeks before many other grasses, providing critical feed when hay supplies are running low and native ranges haven’t woken up yet. This early production makes it an excellent choice for a first cutting of hay.

The catch with crested wheatgrass is that you have to be ready to cut it. It becomes coarse and unpalatable very quickly after it forms a seed head. Timing is everything. Cut it in the boot stage—just before the seed head emerges—and you’ll get decent, palatable hay. Wait too long, and your cattle will just use it for bedding.

Teff Grass: A Fast-Growing Annual Hay Option

Sometimes a drought catches you off guard, and you need to produce a lot of forage, fast. This is where Teff grass shines. It’s a fine-stemmed, warm-season annual that you can plant in late spring and get a first cutting of hay in as little as 45-55 days.

Teff is a fantastic "emergency" hay crop. It doesn’t require high fertility, and its fine stems make it easy to cure, even for someone with minimal hay-making experience. Cattle love it, and it makes beautiful, high-quality hay.

Because it’s an annual, you have to replant it every year, which means added cost and labor. But its ability to turn a failed field or a patch of open ground into a productive hayfield in the middle of summer is an invaluable tool. It’s the perfect gap-filler when your perennial pastures are struggling.

Sorghum-Sudangrass: High-Yield Summer Forage

When you need to produce the maximum amount of tonnage on a small acreage during the summer, nothing beats a sorghum-sudangrass hybrid. This stuff grows incredibly fast in the heat, often reaching over six feet tall. It can provide multiple cuttings of high-volume forage that is perfect for beef cows.

The yields can be truly impressive, making it a go-to for building up your hay reserves before winter. It recovers quickly after cutting and will keep producing as long as it has heat and some moisture. It’s a brute-force solution to a forage shortage.

However, you absolutely must manage it with care. Sorghum-sudangrass can accumulate two dangerous compounds under certain conditions:

• Prussic Acid: Can be present in young, new growth or after a non-killing frost. Never graze short plants or frosted fields.
• Nitrates: Can build up to toxic levels during severe drought, especially in heavily fertilized fields.

Always wait until the grass is at least 18-24 inches tall before grazing or cutting. If you’re in a severe drought, it is highly recommended to test the hay for nitrates before feeding it. This isn’t a grass for beginners, but with proper management, its production is unmatched.

Potomac Orchardgrass: Palatable and Persistent

Orchardgrass is the ice cream of hay for cattle—they love it. While not as aggressively drought-tolerant as fescue or bermuda, varieties like Potomac have been selected for better persistence and will survive moderate dry spells. It tends to go dormant in the summer heat but recovers very quickly with the first fall rains.

Its main advantage is its exceptional quality and palatability. If you are trying to put weight on yearlings or need high-quality feed for nursing cows, orchardgrass hay is an excellent choice. It also works wonderfully in a mix with alfalfa or clover, which helps fix nitrogen and improves the overall quality of the stand. For the hobby farmer focused on quality over sheer tonnage, orchardgrass is a top-tier option.

There is no single grass that solves every drought problem, and what works for your neighbor might not be the best fit for your soil or operation. The smartest approach is to build a system with a mix of these tough, reliable grasses. By planning ahead and choosing the right forages, you can build a farm that’s ready to weather the dry years and keep your herd fed and healthy.