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Angus Advisor

June herd management tips from cattle experts across the nation.

Mid-South Atlantic Region

June normally marks the conclusion of harvesting the first cutting of hay and hoping for rain to stimulate regrowth. Equal attention should be given to pasture management in an effort to minimize future hay consumption. Pasture management now can impact future forage growth and vigor. Research has repeatedly shown that rotational grazing that ensures a rest period can make grasses more productive. Generally, three to four weeks of rest is recommended. That means weekly rotation among four pastures can accomplish the desired rest period.


Rotational grazing does require some planning, time and inputs, but the return is 25%-33% more forage and cows that are at the gate when you rotate pastures. Other benefits include enhanced forage diversity, reduced cattle trails, better distribution of nutrients and improved ground cover of sensitive areas.


Although the official start of the summer isn’t until the 21st of the month, summer conditions have already made an appearance. Pasture rotation during the summer months will guarantee a rest period for forages, yielding a more productive, diverse pasture. Hot weather also signals the onset of fly season. Delaying fly-tag application in early summer extends protection into the warm days of early fall.


Spring-calving herds (January-March)

General

Nutrition and forages

Herd health

Reproduction

Fall-calving herds (September-November)

General

Nutrition and forages

Herd health

Genetics


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Southern Great Plains

Spring-calving herds

Fall-calving herds

General recommendations


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Western Region

Fall-calving herds

The main focus is to keep weaned calves healthy. Cows are on cruise control.


Reproductive management

Pregnancy check. Cows should be preg-checked, and open and problem cows should be culled. Avoid holding over open cows even if they have been excellent producers, as typically the problem will recur.


Nutritional management

Body condition. Monitor body condition of cows. The target level of body condition at calving is 5.0 for mature cows and 5.5 to 6.0 for 2-year-old heifers (scale = 1 to 9).


Heifer and bull development. The developmental period from weaning until yearling time and beyond to the start of the breeding period is critical in terms of influencing the future productivity of both bulls and heifers. Both sexes need to be developed at adequate rates so that differences in terms of genetic potential for growth can be exhibited. However, neither sex should be developed at extremely high rates as excessive fat deposition can hinder future reproductive performance and detrimentally impact foot and leg soundness.


Health management

Weaned calves. Weaned calves should be treated to control any internal or external parasites. Heifer calves should be Bang’s vaccinated if not already done, and both bulls and heifers should be PI-BVD tested if that is part of your animal health management program.


Pregnant cows. If late-term abortions have been a problem in the past, consider booster vaccinations for leptospirosis at preg-check time.


Spring-calving herds

The main focus is breeding season and suckling calf health.


Reproductive management

Breeding season. Depending on desired calving dates, the AI breeding period should be close to being concluded. Monitor return heats for any patterns that may arise in terms of low conception rates with specific sires. Also consider using GnRH injections with repeat inseminations. In addition, be sure that cleanup bulls have been semen- and trich-tested and are ready for use in terms of vaccinations and health, body condition, and foot and leg soundness.


Nutritional management

Mineral supplementation. Be sure that cows are receiving adequate levels of calcium, phosphorus and trace minerals that are deficient in your area. Minerals should be supplemented on a year-round basis. The period from calving until conception is the most critical in terms of influencing reproductive performance.


Many of the companies have mineral mixes that are available that have a higher percentage of chelated minerals. These products are more expensive, but we have had very good results feeding these during the breeding season. Many breeders also have experienced good results using injectable products such as Multimin® prior to the breeding season.


Energy balance. Energy balance has a major impact on fertility and, thus, it is critical that cows are in a state of positive energy balance or gaining weight during the breeding season. June is normally a month when cows will be grazing pastures that are of sufficient quality to maintain cows in positive energy balance without any need for supplementation.


Health management

Treatment protocol. Treatment protocols and products should be on hand for scours and pneumonia in suckling calves. It is well-advised to have first and second treatment options for both conditions. Early summer is typically the time of the year when we experience the most problems with pneumonia in young calves. Monitor calves closely and be quick and aggressive with treatment, as young calves will go downhill quickly.


General management

Castrate bottom-end bull calves. Producers should consider castrating the bottom end of their bull calves at 2 to 3 months of age when they receive their first round of vaccinations. Some producers are reluctant to do this because of the impact that it has on contemporary groups and performance records. However, there is typically more profit in selling a weaned steer calf vs. a cull yearling bull that has accumulated a significant amount of development costs.


Pinkeye prevention. The incidence of pinkeye can be reduced by clipping tall, mature grasses; controlling flies with dust bags, pour-ons, and/or fly tags; and treating problems quickly and aggressively. Our preferred treatment is an injection of approximately 2 cc (mixture of 90% penicillin and 10% dexamethasone) under the membrane that covers the upper portion of the eye and to then cover the eye with an eye patch.



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Midwest Region

As the grazing season progresses, forage managers transition from not enough to excess, then back to not enough forage. Balancing forage supply and demand can be addressed several ways depending on the operation’s goals.


From a supply standpoint, changing forage production curves is nearly impossible without adding different forage types to the grazing system. Cool-season forages grow primarily during late April, May and early June. Warm-season forages grow during late June, July and early August, extending the grazing season further into summer; however, few operations have significant warm-season pasture acres.


Producers commonly introduce warm-season forages as annual pastures. Annual pastures have increased establishment risk but can reduce forage supply risks later into the summer, provided pastures are planted early in the growing season to maximize forage growth. Producers often consider warm-season annuals as drought forages; however, during drought all forages are water-stressed, reducing yield. Water stress coupled with increased nitrogen fertilization to improve annual yield can also lead to high-nitrate warm-season forages.


Nitrogen fertilization offers the opportunity to increase forage supply in cool-season pastures, yet supply distribution is not improved. Fertilizing cool-season pastures in the spring increases KY-31 endophyte toxin while increasing forage production when supply generally exceeds demand. Inability to harvest or consume excess forage production in spring reduces forage quality for the remainder of the grazing season.


Balancing forage demand offers most operations more flexibility in improving forage-use efficiency. Hay systems are the most common forage demand management tool. Hay harvest “moves” excess spring forage to winter. Earlier hay harvest offers opportunities to improve summer forage availability by moving hayed pasture regrowth into early summer, which is typically cooler with more precipitation. Purchasing hay may be a better option for operations managing forage demand through animal systems.


Grazing forage demand is primarily influenced by animal number, weight and/or production stage. Beef cattle operations can modify these factors to address imbalances in forage supply and demand. Animal number or stocking rate is the easiest to change when increasing or decreasing forage demand. Cow-calf operations looking to expand without additional acres should consider purchasing hay supplies to increase grazing acres and time available to manage the grazing system.


Stocker operations have additional options for managing spring forage growth due to stocking rate and supplementation options. As forage availability begins to decline, marketing heavy stocker calves improves stocking rate with forage availability. Research data suggests stocker cattle performance declines significantly after early July due to forage availability and quality combined with heat stress.


While historical seasonal feeder-calf market highs are not until late July and August, producers running short of forage by mid-summer can market a draft of heavier, higher-maintenance calves offering forage savings benefits to calves grazing the remainder of the season.


Alternatively consider a supplement program focused on improved pasture management. For each pound of supplement offered to a stocker calf, forage dry-matter intake is reduced by approximately 0.5 lb. Providing supplements during the spring increases the forage imbalance as greater supplementation reduces forage intake. Alternatively, as forage growth declines and stocking rate is increased due to calf growth, increasing supplementation levels throughout the summer will match forage supply and quality to animal needs.


Changing cow herd production stage in concert with forage growth can be accomplished by adjusting weaning age or calving season. Weaning age is flexible, as once calves reach 60 days of age the rumen should be functional, permitting early weaning and reducing forage demand by the cow herd. When forage supplies decline in late summer, consider weaning calves to increase available forages to the cow herd. For weaned calves consider a drylot calf system or graze the weaned calves ahead of dry cows that have lower nutrient demands.


A long-term consideration is changing calving season to match forage demand and supply. In some operations, managing spring forage growth is challenging. In others, providing supplemental forage during the winter feeding period is the greatest challenge. Sixty days prior to calving, cows need adequate nutrition to accumulate condition prior to calving. Two months after calving is when nutrient demand is greatest and body condition is used to supplement forage supplies. Over time, evaluate forage supply relative to these critical periods of nutrient demand to guide long-term management decisions capable of improving efficiency of forage use.



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