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
- Focus on forage management, cow nutrition and young-calf health.
- Manage first-calf heifers separately; give them the best forage and supplement.
- Cattle comfort should be monitored; ensure adequate shade and availability of clean water.
Nutrition and forages
- Continue feeding high-magnesium minerals to prevent grass tetany; may be able to switch to high-selenium mineral as grass matures.
- Complete harvest of first cutting of hay early in the month.
- Start grazing warm-season grasses.
- Implement rotational-grazing management system, which will provide a rest period for pastures.
- Cool-season grasses are now mature; if weather conditions are dry, delay pasture clipping until there is adequate soil moisture for forage regrowth.
- Make plans to store your high-quality hay in the dry.
- Collect and submit forage samples for nutrient analysis.
Herd health
- Implement parasite- and fly-control program for herd. Delay application of fly tags until a threshold of about 100 flies per side is reached.
- Administer mid-summer deworming and implant calves late in the month or early next month.
- Plan vaccination and preconditioning protocol for calf crop.
- Castrate commercial calves if not done at birth; consider castrating bottom end of male calves in seedstock herds.
Reproduction
- Finish AI; turn out cleanup bulls.
- Remove bulls from replacement heifers after 45-day breeding season.
- Make plans to preg-check heifers as soon as possible after bull removal. This will allow options in marketing open heifers.
- Use 48-hour calf removal for thin cows and first-calf heifers at beginning of breeding season.
- Monitor bulls closely during the breeding season. Observe frequently to confirm breeding performance and soundness, and monitor cows for repeat estrus. Avoid overworking young bulls (yearling bulls should be exposed to number of cows equal to their age in months).
Fall-calving herds (September-November)
General
- Plan a marketing strategy for open cows. Cull-cow prices typically peak mid-spring through mid-summer, and prices are generally stronger for cows in good body condition vs. thin cows. Evaluate forage availability and potential feed and management costs to increase BCS of cull cows, if warranted.
- Finalize marketing plans for calf crop. Time weaning, vaccination program and weaning management to meet operational goals. Calculate breakevens on various marketing options and consider risk-management strategies.
- Reimplant commercial calves.
Nutrition and forages
- Switch to high-selenium trace-mineral salt.
- Condition-score cows. Plan nutrition and grazing program based on BCS. This is the most efficient period to put weight and condition on thin cows.
- As calves are weaned, move cows to poorer-quality pastures.
- Use palatable feeds during the weaning period to bunk-train calves and minimize weight loss.
- Reserve high-quality hay and a pasture area for calves postweaning.
- Start grazing warm-season grasses.
Herd health
- Administer mid-summer deworming on replacement heifers and pregnant heifers.
- Implement parasite- and fly-control program for herd. Delay application of fly tags until a threshold of about 100 flies per side is reached.
- Consult with veterinarian on vaccination protocol for calf crop. Design vaccination and weaning program around marketing goals and objectives. Vaccinate, wean and certify calves to be marketed in late summer.
Genetics
- Identify replacement heifers. Utilize available tools, including genetics, dam performance, individual performance and phenotype. Restrict replacement-heifer pool to those born in defined calving season.
- Finalize plans for postweaning development and marketing of bulls in seedstock herds.
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Southern Great Plains
Spring-calving herds
- Follow the vaccine program outlined for branding time.
- Consult your veterinarian regarding the need to deworm young cows and calves in June. This investment will depend a great deal on the location of your operation, forage species, stocking density, previous internal parasite management and other factors. More information is available now regarding parasite resistance to specific products, and your veterinarian will be aware of products and programs that should be appropriate in your area.
- June mid-day temperatures can suppress aggressive estrous activity. Therefore, visual heat detection should be done in early- morning and late-evening hours.
- Turn bulls out with cows after the AI program is completed. The bull-to-cow ratio will vary depending on the number of cows or heifers serviced to AI and the age of the bull. A conservative rule of thumb is to expose bulls to about 10 cows per year of age, and up to 30 open cows.
- For breeders who choose to creep-feed calves grazing native pastures, consider using a limit-fed, high-protein creep beginning around the end of June. Locally, we refer to this approach as the Oklahoma Silver program, where calves consume around 1 lb. per day of supplement. Weight gain is improved substantially, and calves do not become fleshy compared to free-choice, lower-protein creep-feeding programs. The conversion of feed to additional weight gain is drastically improved compared to a traditional creep-feeding program.
Fall-calving herds
- Depending on pasture and range conditions, producers may need to consider weaning fall-born calves earlier this year. A dam’s milk production and calf performance decline dramatically in late June and July due to declining forage quality and summer heat. However, a dry cow’s nutrient requirements are substantially lower than a growing calf’s requirements. Therefore, a dry cow can graze lower-quality late-summer forage and still gain weight and body condition with no supplementation.
- At weaning, vaccinate calves according to your veterinarian’s recommendations, deworm calves, weigh and condition score cows, and weigh calves. Transfer records for your whole herd to the American Angus Association.
- A high-protein supplementation program, such as the Oklahoma Gold program, can facilitate around a 2-lb. ADG in weaned calves grazing native pastures with abundant forage.
General recommendations
- As of late April, the Southern Great Plains region has received very little precipitation through late winter and spring. Range scientists and agronomists continue to encourage judicious grazing management to prevent overgrazing and long-term damage. Relatively lower feedgrain prices provide some flexibility in terms of drylot feeding programs, allowing cattle to be removed from pastures as necessary. Drylot feeding a concentrate-based diet is not for everyone because it requires additional management, equipment and facilities.
- In Oklahoma, more foot rot cases are observed in June than any other month. Develop a plan for treatment with your veterinarian, and acquire the necessary supplies.
- Plan to harvest native grass hay during early July to achieve near-optimum balance between quality and quantity of hay. Harvest Bermuda grass hay, or graze at about 30-day intervals when precipitation is abundant. All else being equal (maturity, precipitation, soil fertility, etc.), Bermuda grass harvested for hay in June has higher digestibility than Bermuda grass harvested in the hot summer months of July and August.
- Begin grazing Sudan grass and Sudan hybrids when 18- to 24-in. high, and be sure to check the plants for nitrates, particularly if the plants are drought-stressed.
- Federal and state estimated tax payments are due June 15.
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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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