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2005 Annual Report

Livestock Management in a Whole-Enterprise Management System

Brian Kreft, Livestock Specialist, CGREC

Table of Contents

Calving Date and Length

Pasture and Forage Management

Cow Type and Selection

Creep Feeding

Marketing

Methods

Results and Discussion

A committee was formed and met to discuss and direct the management of the CGREC Model Farm. Participants of the committee shared many of their experiences and ideas at the meeting. This committee, after considerable discussion, came to a consensus on many management decisions. Some of the topics discussed were:

Calving Date and Length

The date producers start calving has a dramatic effect on the rest of the operation. It determines the amount and quality of feed required as well as facilities and labor needed. Early calving requires more feed and facilities to calve and shelter cows in inclement weather. It requires more labor to check and more cows to shelter after calving. For many producers, this may be a trade off. They want to complete calving early to have more labor available for their farming enterprise and these early calves are generally heavier at weaning. Early calving allows more flexibility in marketing. Early-born heavy calves are in great demand by feedlots at weaning to capture maximum fed-cattle prices in March and April. Each individual ranch has its own set of resources and no two are alike. The calving season must work for their unique situation.

The committee decided to keep the calving season we are currently using. First-calf heifers are bred to begin calving about two weeks before the main cow herd. They start about the last week of March, with the main group starting in early April. This allows us to calve the main group of cows in a pasture which is close to our main facilities. The cows calve on clean ground with enough area to provide them with some privacy to prevent cross mothering. They are checked about every two hours from dawn until dusk. The main group of cows is not checked at night unless we experience inclement weather. The first-calf heifers are checked every two to three hours and calve in a dry lot situation with access to barns for shelter. We limit the calving season to about 50 days to ease labor fatigue and to keep the calves as uniform as possible. Our calving season allows the cows to be rotationally grazed on very high quality pasture for about a month before we begin the breeding season. The cows are rapidly gaining weight prior to breeding which generally results in high pregnancy rates. The April born calves are weaned in early to mid-October when they can be sold, retained and backgrounded, or finished. The nutrient quality of pastures generally declines rapidly after early October. With the calves weaned, the cows’ nutrient requirements are drastically reduced. This allows the cows to recover some body condition before winter, even on lower quality forages. The cows are grazed on crop aftermath and stockpiled forages until late December or until inclement weather conditions force us to start supplemental feeding. The cows are fed on pasture with wind shelter away from the calving area. Hay is fed in a clean area everyday which scatters the manure and helps to fertilize the pasture. This practice greatly reduces manure handling and hauling expenses. The cows are brought back to the calving pasture prior to calving.

Pasture and Forage Management

Pasture management was discussed at great length by the committee. While there were many different ideas, it was generally agreed upon to maximize the grazing season. It is recommended that producers do not graze native pastures until almost June 1. Grazing earlier can drastically reduce forage yields on these pastures. To extend the grazing season, a rotationally grazed tame pasture (CRP) will be used for the model herd. The pasture consists of mostly tame cool-season grasses and alfalfa. The cattle are moved to a new pasture every twenty-one days. On July 28 the cows were moved to native pasture and rotationally grazed until weaning in October. It was recommended that the cows graze pasture and crop aftermath for as long as possible to reduce the need for harvested forage. The committee had considerable interest in swath-grazing to extend the grazing season and a separate study was initiated in October.

Cow Type and Selection

What is the ideal cow? Good question! The nation’s beef industry has many different kinds of cows that seem to work in different environments. There are many different breeds that come in all sizes and milking abilities that can work for ranches with different feed and forage resources. Generally, the cow type must match the feed resource. Ranches with low precipitation and limited forage supply may want a small, low milking female while those with grain, silage or abundant forage may want large, high milking cows. The committee recommended that we try to stay moderate with both cow size and milking ability. CGREC has been on the CHAPS program for almost 20 years. CHAPS is a performance testing and record keeping program that can help to identify poor producing cows within the herd. These cows hurt profitability and if performance is low enough, they should be culled. By selecting higher performing cows, ranch profitability can be improved.

Creep Feeding

Research performed at CGREC and other research facilities has shown creep feeding to improve calf weaning weights and help conserve forage for their mothers. In most situations, it is cost effective especially with home- grown diets. The model farm committee decided we should only creep feed for about 30 days prior to weaning to prepare the calves for the stress associated with weaning.

Marketing

Marketing is a key to ranch profitability. Calves can either be sold at weaning, backgrounded, finished, or wintered and run as yearlings. The size, age, and growth rate of the calf may dictate which path it should follow. High growth rate calves should be fed a higher quality ration to realize the best returns. Small or late born calves may be best suited to stocker operations. At CGREC, we generally background our calves after weaning at a moderate growth rate of 2.5 lbs/day until they are about 800 lbs. They are fed a ration of corn silage, alfalfa hay, barley and corn. The calves can convert these homegrown feeds efficiently and add value to these feedstuffs. After about 800 lbs, the calves need to go on to a higher grain diet and are either sold or finished at the Research Center. No marketing decision has yet been made with the model herd.

These are a few of the topics discussed and acted upon by the committee. Future meetings will focus on marketing and any problems encountered to date.

Methods

A herd of 100 cows was selected from the CGREC’s main herd. They consisted of four- and five-year-old cows. They were calved with the main group of cows and sorted to pasture on May 26 when they were processed. The calves were vaccinated with 7-way clostridial and 4-way viral vaccinations. They were dehorned and bull calves were surgically castrated. The cows were given a pre-breeding vaccination and de-wormed. All cattle were weighed prior to hauling them to tame grass pasture. They rotationally grazed three pastures and were moved every 21 days. Bulls were semen evaluated and introduced to the herd on July 1. The herd was hauled back to the Research Center on July 27. They were again weighed and a pour-on insecticide was applied to control horn flies. The herd was then moved to native rotationally grazed pastures. They were rotated every 21 days until weaning on October 10. We were advised to vaccinate all mature livestock at CGREC after a local outbreak of anthrax.

The cows and bulls received a vaccination for anthrax on August 1 and a booster vaccination on August 15. An unfortunate car accident killed five calves in July after a group of cattle got out on the county road at night. Luckily, the driver was not injured. One other calf was lost due to lightning.

After weaning, the cows were moved to aftermath grazing that included barley regrowth, hay fields, and corn stalks. As of this writing (December 15), they are still grazing. The calves are being fed in drylot. They are consuming a totally- mixed ration of corn silage, ground alfalfa hay, barley, and corn that were all produced at the Center.

Results and Discussion

Table 1 shows the weights from the cattle on the model farm. The calves weighed an average of 196 lbs at turnout on tame grass pastures on May 26. They gained an average of 2.01 lbs /day and averaged 332 lbs on July 27 when they were weighed and moved to native pastures. They gained an average of 3.22 lbs/day and averaged 570 lbs for this 74 day period until weaning on October 10. The cows weighed an average of 1328 lbs at turnout and averaged 1367 lbs at the end of the 62 days on tame-grass pastures (0.57 lbs/day). The animals were moved to native mixed-grass pasture on July 28. On native-grass pasture the cows gained an average of only 0.19 lbs/day and weighed 1381 lbs when the calves were weaned on October 10.

Pasture conditions were excellent for spring and early summer grazing with abundant forage. July, August and September were very dry and grasses became mature and dry. The low cow gains can be explained by the decline in forage quality. We may need to graze the native pastures earlier in the future.●