1. Balancing cattle and land
in the heat of the drought
Cassidy Woolsey for Progressive Forage Grower
According to Henry Giacomini,
a successful beef operation is
founded upon the principles
of balance – economics, cattle
management and land health. And
like the classic three-legged stool,
Giacomini says one can’t be without
the others.
Giacomini, a beef producer in
northern California, says, “With this
analogy, it is interesting to visualize
ourselves and our employees sitting
on the stool. If one leg gets short, we
all fall off. It is a constant balance we
have to maintain.”
Depending on the year,
Giacomini’s operation, Hat Creek
Grown LLC, ranges anywhere from
150 to 500 stockers and grass-
finished cattle, about 500 brood
cows and spreads over 60,000 acres.
Of those acres, 500 are irrigated,
and only 200 are family-owned.
Giacomini says maintaining that
balance hasn’t been an easy feat,
especially in the midst of the
statewide drought. So in order to
keep his three-legged stool analogy
from teetering, he has had to lean
his management focus toward land
health and productivity.
“I have realized as the drought
progresses that the cattle come and
go, but the land is forever,” he says.
“It is important that we protect the
land no matter what.”
After toying with the idea
of staying on his family’s dairy
operation, Giacomini and his wife,
Pam, returned to the Hat Creek
Valley in 1989 to take over her
family’s operation. Since then, the
couple has progressed through
trial and error and adapted to their
circumstances. Fortunately for
them, land management and holistic
approaches were already a priority
long before the drought – some just
needed a little tweaking.
Each property has
its own prescription
From November to about
the middle of May, the cattle
are wintered in the foothills of
California, a 60-mile distance from
the irrigated base property in the Hat
Creek Valley. In the summer the cow
herd is moved to a Forest Service
allotment while the yearlings are
sent back to the irrigated pastures.
Because each allotment has its
own distinct conditions, Giacomini
says he has to manage each as if they
had their very own prescription.
For example, little management
is required on the winter pasture
because of its green-up period
during the fall and rapid growth
cycle in the spring. Essentially, this
property provides a near-perfect
approach to minimizing feed costs.
However, it isn’t totally exempt from
management, he says.
To better utilize the winter
pasture’s unique growing season,
Giacomini began moderating the
number of cattle he wintered on
the pasture. In doing so, he has not
only lengthened the amount of time
the cattle are able to stay, but he has
also seen a substantial shift in the
amount of residual dry matter left
over for the cows to come back to in
the fall.
Like others who value land
management, he has noticed an
improvement in ground cover and
the addition of perennials into
what had been a primarily annual
location. He says this transition
in management has reduced the
amount of time in the fall the cattle
have to spend on the irrigated
pastures, allowing him to maximize
their production in other areas.
“It’s all about matching the
growth of the grass to the number of
cattle we have,” he says.
Moving the cow herd on
Giacomini’s summer leased
pasture Photo courtesy of Pam Giacomini.
24 Progressive Forage Grower Issue 6 • June 1, 2015

2. Pressing through the drought
When looking at his Forest
Service allotment, Giacomini has
incorporated something similar to a
rest rotation but on a larger scale. He
keeps the cattle concentrated as much
as possible in one pasture and moves
them throughout the season into new
pastures. If at all possible, he tries to
leave one pasture ungrazed and tries
to vary the time each pasture is used
every year.
Because of the drought,
Giacomini has also started hauling
water to different points on the Forest
Service allotment. He has noticed
he can distribute the cattle to areas
where they normally wouldn’t graze
just by changing the water point.
What started out as a solution to a
negative influence (combating low
water conditions) has essentially
turned into a positive way to
maximize the use of his land. He
believes hauling water to different
points will remain a critical part of his
management even after the drought.
Most of Giacomini’s land
management is spent on the 500 acres
of irrigated pastures. Because a good
portion is family-owned, he is able
to manage it more extensively than
some of his leased properties. Those
cattle are moved to a new pasture at
least every other day and are kept in
bunches of 150 to 300 head. He says he
has noticed huge improvements in soil
health and the overall quality of feed.
“We are continually watching
the grass and observing how the
conditions are changing, and then
we match that change to how we are
managing the pasture,” he says. “It’s
all about being prepared for times
like these where we are caught in a
drought.”
Giacomini points out they have
used this type of grazing system
since moving back to the operation.
But over the years, it has evolved as
they have continued to learn and
make necessary changes to fit the
environment.
Depending on how long the
drought lasts, Giacomini believes
these management approaches have
given him a good footing to make it
through. He has already eliminated
his hay and custom-grazing
enterprise, but he predicts he will also
have to adjust his cattle herd. Since
calves are so valuable right now, in
a worst-case scenario the best thing
he could do is maintain the core cow
herd, he says.
Giacomini hopes it won’t come
to that, but he is prepared to adjust
his weaning scheme and the number
of cattle on certain pastures. He
looks forward to the day he can focus
entirely on improving his grazing
management rather than getting
through the drought.
“To us, they are all a balance
we have to maintain. We do spend
quite a lot of time managing our
cattle but not on a real hands-on
basis. We feel it is better to manage
our cattle on a herd basis, breed
them so they can calve on their
own, have them genetically adapted
to the environment so they don’t
need extra feed or attention and so
on. Then it is their job to perform
under those conditions,” he says.
“But we have a lot of work to do to
make sure that happens. It all has to
be matched – your calving season,
when you will finish cattle on grass,
when you’re trying to put the most
pounds on yearlings – it all has to
match the environment.”
At one point, Giacomini had close
to 21 landlords. He says it takes effort
to make sure everyone knows what
is going on and is satisfied with his
management.
Ideally, Giacomini would like to
own his own land one day, but for
now he has to ask himself, “Are we
in the land business or are we in the
ranching business?”
Giacomini plans to continue
his management scheme on leased
lands. He says the leases provide
him with the flexibility he needs
to run this type of an operation.
He understands that in order to be
successful one part of his operation
can’t be managed independently of
the other. It is all about integrating
and matching the cattle to the current
conditions. He attributes his 25 years
of success to the holistic approaches
that continually improve the land year
after year. FG
Cassidy Woolsey is a freelance writer
based in Logan, Utah.
June 1, 2015 • Issue 6 www.progressiveforage.com 25