Angus Advisor
Our team of Angus advisors offer regional tips for herd management for the month of March.
Midwest Region
General comments
A drier-than-average winter in Missouri has left producers scrambling for supplemental feeds as they began to feed hay earlier than normal this year. There are only two answers to this challenge, “feed less or need less.” Any mature cow that is not pregnant or lactating needs to be sold. A $5 pregnancy test could save a lot of money, especially if your cost to feed a cow is in excess of $1 per day. Early-weaning calves is another way to reduce forage demand, but lighter calves equals less revenue.
Feeding less means doing all you can to reduce hay waste. The very best way I have found to reduce hay loss is to feed one day’s worth of hay to your cow herd. It increases labor, but reduces waste.
I encourage producers to calculate weight of the bale, allocate hay at a rate of 3% of body weight and unroll bales. For example, a 4 ✕ 5 bale will weigh between 700 lb. and 950 lb., depending on the density. A cow weighing 1,400 lb. will need 42 lb. of hay per day. Thus, a bale will feed between 17 and 22 cows per day.
The assumption is that the hay is of reasonable quality. If hay quality is poor, consider that energy will be the first limiting nutrient. My recommendation is to feed a 50:50 blend of corn byproduct and cracked corn at a rate between 0.5% and 1.0% of BW per day.
Management calendar
My assumptions: Spring-calving herd begins to calve Feb. 1; fall-calving herd begins to calve Sept. 1.
Spring-calving herds
- We are in the latter part of calving. Cows that calved early are going to be nursing month-old calves and approaching peak lactation. Peak lactation is the time of greatest nutrient need. Do not skimp on feed to these cows. I recommend feeds with >11% CP and ~65% TDN (energy).
- Prevent grass tetany by feeding a mineral with >8% magnesium. Also, make sure cattle have access to salt, whether through mineral (>20% salt recommended) or have salt blocks available.
Fall-calving herds
- If forage is short and it has been dry throughout the winter, consider weaning calves early to reduce forage demand, especially if you have both a spring- and a fall-calving herd. The feed needs to be saved for lactating cows with calves younger than 60 days old.
- Calves can be weaned at 100 days of age with little challenge, other than keeping calves from crawling through fences. They will weigh less than average, but are very efficient converters of high-quality feed. Background for 45-90 days to recoup weight.
- Use your lowest-quality feed (hay, stockpiled forage) for classes of cattle that do not need to gain weight (mature cows that are not lactating or in the latter stages of lactation).
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Southern Great Plains
Spring-calving herds
- Continue supplemental feeding to maintain body condition during this critical period when early lactation requirements are high and grazed forage quality and availability is low.
- Continue to monitor first-calf heifers several times daily for possible calving difficulties.
- Schedule an appointment with your veterinarian to perform breeding soundness exams on your herd bulls. Include any recommended vaccinations, retagging, parasite control and other management steps that can be performed while they are in the chute.
- After calving and before the beginning of the breeding season (30 days preferably), vaccinate all cows and breeding heifers according to the herd health program designed working with your veterinarian. Generally, these will include IBR, BVD, PI₃, BRSV, seven-way clostridial, five-way lepto and vibrio.
- Monitor (weigh) heifers to determine if you are on track to meet your breeding target weight. Target weight is generally either 65% of expected mature body weight or 55% of expected mature body weight, depending on your goal (John Hall provides an excellent discussion of these different approaches at www.appliedreprostrategies.com/
2015/summaries/2015ARSBCJohnHall.html.
Fall-calving herds
- As of this writing, the Southern Great Plains region is dry with little wheat grazing available. Hopefully, precipitation will arrive, resulting in abundant March late-winter pasture during the traditional early spring flush of growth. Be ready to take advantage of creep-grazing systems for calves, along with limit-grazing winter annual forages with the mature cows during this period of lush forage growth.
- Continue supplemental feeding for the fall-calving herd until abundant forage is available (usually during the month of April).
General recommendations
- Consult a forage specialist in your area as you consider the fertility and management program for both native and “improved” cool- and warm-season grass pastures and rangeland.
- As mentioned last month, develop a plan for stocking density, grazing management, control of invasive plants with herbicide or prescribed fire and fertilizer use in introduced forages. Late March and early April are popular times for prescribed burns.
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Western Region
Fall-calving herds
Cows and calves are on cruise control.
- 1. The breeding period should either be done or close to being done. Hopefully bulls did their job.
- 2. It is important that minerals are supplemented on a year-round basis. Supplements should be formulated to meet deficiencies specific to your region or area. Although they should be provided year-round, the breeding season is probably the most important time period. Consider injectable mineral products in addition to loose, block and tub mineral products.
- 3. Most fall cows in the west graze native foothill pastures during the winter months. As is the case in any environment, timing and amount of rainfall are two of the critical factors that determine the pattern and amount of forage production. In most years in California, March is the start of our really good grass period in the foothills.
- 4. This is the time period of the year when fall-calving cows and calves should have very few problems with animal health.
- 5. Early spring is an excellent time of the year to work on general repairs such as repairing and building fences and other facilities. Also if irrigated pastures are part of the pasture resources during the summer months, this is the time to make repairs to irrigation systems before they are needed later in the spring.
- 6. I would encourage producers to spend some time in the office working on details such as development of a marketing plan for both bulls and females. In addition, cull-animal sales represent a significant source of income in most purebred operations. Development of marketing plans for all of these groups can have a significant influence on the profitability of the operation.
- 7. Development of an advertising budget and plan is another example of a business detail that can significantly influence the profitability of the livestock operation.
Spring-calving herds
The main focus is the calving season.
- 1. Continue to develop a list of potential AI sires. Focus on sires that will leave outstanding replacement females. Most times we focus on sires that are going to produce the most marketable bulls, and those are important. However, the female progeny are going to be in the herd long after the bulls are sold and gone.
- 2. Consider all information, and try to find the bulls that combine EPDs, genomics, phenotypic traits, and “old-fashioned” convenience traits like longevity, udder structure, disposition, mothering ability, feet and leg soundness.
- 3. Focus on becoming a better grazing manager — it can have a huge impact on your bottom line.
- 4. Make your cows “work for a living.” Don’t oversupplement or overfeed.
- 5. As I addressed last month, don’t overuse calving-ease sires on mature cows. No doubt we need calving-ease bulls, but we also need good stout high-growth bulls to use on mature commercial cows.
- 6. Mineral supplementation is extremely important at this time of the year. I have discussed in detail in previous columns all of the different options available in this area.
- 7. The target level of body condition at calving is a BCS of 5.0 (scale = 1 to 9) for mature cows and 6.0 for 2-year-old heifers.
- 8. The period from calving through the end of the breeding season is by far the most important period in terms of meeting protein and energy requirements of beef cows. Unless you are in northern areas that have still not “greened up.” Cows can usually meet their protein and energy needs at this time of the year without any need for supplementation.
- 9. As stated last month, the most practical way to monitor energy status (the relationship between energy consumed vs. energy requirements) is to evaluate BCS. The most practical way to monitor level of protein intake is to evaluate an animal’s fecal output. If the stool is loose and the cow pies flatten out on the ground, the animal is receiving adequate levels of protein. If the fecal output is extremely firm and the cow pies do not flatten out on the ground, then the animal is most likely protein-deficient.
- 10. Treatment protocols and products should be on hand for both scours and pneumonia in suckling calves.
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