In the Southwest, dry conditions are the name of the game for cattle ranchers. But something about 2025 feels a little different.
With haboobs shoving dust into the air so heavily that nearby airports must force shutdowns — along with only a fraction of the average yearly rainfall thus far — Arizona producers are left hanging on by a thread. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 65% of the area has been in drought on some level.
It’s a feeling David and Tina Thompson of YY Ranch know well. Their generational ranch sits in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert of Cochise County, near the Chiricahua Mountains. Tina grew up on this land. She knows that rains come and go.
But this year’s monsoons were not showing up. Left in the wake, the Thompsons were forced to make some tough decisions for their 300-head Angus cow-calf and seedstock herd.
“Our NRCS stocking rate says we should be able to run about 400 cows, but Tina and I, over the years, have cut that back to about 350 on our own because of water and resources,” David says. “Due to drought, we’re down to about 300 currently.”
Managing the Water
In the summer, Tina says she plans for each cow-calf pair to drink about 30 gallons of water a day.
“It’s life or death for them,” she says. “They are just like people. If they don’t drink enough water, they’ll die.”
But, when the water doesn’t come from overhead, it must come from underground — and sometimes even that is tricky.
“Our water at the house is only about 20' down, but you get to other places on the ranch, and it can be 400' to 500' down,” Tina says. “When you do find a good water source, you pipe it to the places that don’t.”
They have invested in their water management infrastructure to ensure they can pipe enough water for their herd, no matter where they are grazing.
But, with nearly 18 miles of pipeline, there are a number of vulnerabilities. And water loss can be catastrophic.
“Maybe you just checked everything and then a bear comes along and breaks your float, or you have a float break and you’ve lost 12,000 gallons of water in a single day,” Tina says.
With just the two of them on-ranch full time, the Thompsons were wearing themselves out just staying on top of their water. With the help of their local retailer, they found technology that could take the stress out of that water monitoring and place it right in the palm of their hands.
“Every morning, that’s the first thing I do when I wake up,” David says. “I check my Ranchbot on my phone and make sure everything looks good.”
For Bain Wilson, rancher education and outreach manager, this is precisely the on-ranch pain point the Ranchbot system is designed to alleviate.
“We know a lot of ranchers don’t think about what their hourly rate is,” he says. “They know they pay it out to their crew, but their time is money and we help them save that by not having to make as many of those trips out to check all those water points.”
That maintenance, Wilson says, does more than just cause stress. It impacts the bottom line.
“With Ranchbot, there’s a tremendous amount of time, money, labor savings and reduced wear and tear on vehicles. That’s really helping drive profitability along with the better management of that water resource,” he explains.
Forage Management
The Thompsons know there are two things they need in order to sustain their herd health throughout the year. Along with sufficient water, they need forage. But, the forage is struggling too in the drought.
It helps, Tina says, that they have been on a generational mission to break their land into smaller pastures.
“My dad started making the pastures smaller,” she says. “When I was a kid, we had a pasture up there that was 4 or 5 square miles and, of course, the cows would always congregate in the favorite areas with the ice cream grasses.”
Now, they run 18 different pastures over two non-contiguous ranches. Tina says it’s basically like running four mini-herds.
Their smaller sections allow them to rotate their herd more and let grasses rest. Rested grasses have a greater potential for bounce-back when the rains come.
“We’re fortunate to have hearty varieties of grass,” David says. “I believe with our rotational grazing we can protect those small plants when we need to.”
At a recent Trust In Beef Sustainable Ranchers event, Hugh Aljoe, director of ranches, outreach and partnerships at Noble Research Institute, praised YY Ranch’s forage management.
“When you get rain, it makes everybody look smart,” he says. “But when you get into severe drought conditions like they deal with here, you find out who really knows how to manage.
“Knowing the severity of the drought, I was delighted to see that their forage is holding everything together. There are a lot of positive signs out there — it’s just waiting for a rain. You don’t get that without managing correctly for a long period of time.”
Herd Management
Just 50 miles north of the Mexico border, YY Ranch has a front-row seat to the epicenter of many of the issues facing America’s cattle ranchers. But, they aren’t wondering how limited cattle inventory will impact their ability to rebuild their herd.
This year, they had to cull strategically, especially given their business as a seedstock producer.
Tina says they sold their calves a few weeks earlier than normal.
“Our first move when we’re in a drought like this is sell those calves earlier than normal to get them off the cows so that the cows can recover,” she says. “If we do get rain, they’ll have a better time recovering if the calves aren’t on them.”
And, they made the decision to cull 70% of one of their mini-herds.
It’s something they’ve had to do before, and Tina knows the ramifications of a hard cull can last for several growing seasons.
“The thing about selling your herd is a cow that’s been on your ranch is worth more than just the price of beef because she’s learned how to graze and survive in this country,” she says. “There’s a learning and evolution that you have in your herd that you lose.
Tina continues: “If you suddenly get rain, it’s hard to bring in new cows that will survive as well on your ranch.”
Fortunately, recent rains mean YY Ranch can keep their herd size steady for the moment, a move that is critical with cattle inventory prices skyrocketing across the nation.
Trust In Beef works to secure the future of American ranching by providing the information ranchers need to make the decisions that impact the resiliency, profitability and resource management of their working lands. Learn more about Trust In Beef and their 2025 Sustainable Ranchers Tour by visiting www.trustinbeef.com
