Angus Advisor
Our team of Angus advisors offer regional tips for herd management for the month of April.
Midwest Region
General comments
Calving season distribution is an underappreciated metric in cow-calf production. Cows that calve earlier in the calving season have older (and heavier) calves at weaning. They also have more time to become pregnant in the subsequent breeding season. If you keep detailed calving records, count the number of calves born in each third of the calving season. Aim for 75% of calves born in the first one-third of the calving season.
Meeting cow nutrient requirements will play a large role in this. Send cows into the breeding season gaining weight by matching peak forage quality with peak nutrient requirements, which occur approximately 60 days after calving. Fescue forage quality peaks in April/May. Unfortunately, the peak in forage quality is a narrow window, because of the “summer slump” along with a tendency for fescue growth rate to outpace grazing pressure during this period. When forage growth outpaces grazing pressure, forage matures and quality declines.
This is a leverage point for improved beef production on fescue, regardless of endophyte status. Intensify the management of grazing by having the ability to rotate cattle across multiple pastures. Keeping fescue grazed tight during the spring will improve cow diet quality. Defer grazing on a portion of the land to build a “summer stockpile” and consider seedhead suppression (chemical or mechanical) on the portion of pastures on which grazing is deferred.
The management described above is my preferred option to improve feed quality for cows during critical times of the production cycle (peak lactation and breeding), because improving forage management always improves cattle management. We commonly focus on improving cattle management and spend less time thinking about forage management. As beef producers, are we cattlemen or grass-farmers? I implore you to consider yourself both, as I see many who focus on only one or the other.
Management calendar for April
My assumptions: Spring-calving herd begins calving Feb. 1; fall-calving herd begins calving Sept. 1.
Spring-calving herds
- Although I generally do not encourage winter calving (January through March), if this is your planned breeding season, now is the time to evaluate bulls with breeding soundness exams if not already taken care of. Breeding season is right around the corner. It is time to think about replacement-heifer vaccinations if they are developed at home. Parasite and fly control should begin for the year in both spring- and fall-calving herds.
Fall-calving herds
- If weaning in late April, which might be a necessity in 2018 considering pasture conditions across Missouri, administer preweaning vaccinations to calves.
- Consider pregnancy-testing replacement heifers now and selling unbred females before the summer slump in forage production occurs.
- Parasite and fly control should begin for the year in both spring- and fall-calving herds.
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Southern Great Plains
Spring-calving herds
- Plan to implement heat synchronization systems for heifers and cows. An excellent resource for this planning process is the Estrus Synchronization Planner at https://beefrepro.unl.edu/resources.html
- Purchase AI supplies, acquire semen, and check facilities and equipment.
- Consult your veterinarian about vaccinating cows a minimum of 30 days prior to breeding, and prepare for spring turnout or branding, vaccinations and other herd health tasks related to the new calf crop.
- Conduct breeding soundness exams for all herd sires.
Fall-calving herds
- Determine your preferred timing for weaning, and inventory veterinary and feed/supplement supplies for the weaning program.
- If calves were vaccinated with modified-live virus vaccine products at branding, booster vaccinations can be administered at weaning. Alternatively, vaccinating two to six weeks prior to weaning and again at weaning is highly effective.
- A coccidiostat (feed or water additive that is effective in controlling coccidiosis) is an important consideration on properties that have a history of coccidiosis.
General recommendations
- New-generation ear tags are highly effective in controlling horn flies. Effectiveness is greater when tags are applied after a minimum of 50 flies per side are present, and delay of application until 100 flies per side is recommended.
- To minimize the buildup of resistance, rotate the chemical class of tags used annually. Justin Talley recommends a rotation consisting of abamectin (year 1), organophosphate (year 2), and pyrethroid (year 3).
- Follow label directions for number of tags per cow and per calf. In many cases, two tags per cow with no tag in the calf is the most effective strategy. Calves receive adequate product from the cow. Plan to remove ear tags as soon as possible once their effectiveness begins to decline.
- Insect growth regulators (IGR) to be used in free-choice mineral products should be initiated in April before the fly population builds. A high percentage of the herd must consume the mineral consistently in order for this strategy to be effective. Neighboring cattle with heavy fly infestations will reduce the effectiveness of this strategy.
- Introduced warm-season forages, such as Bermuda grass and Old World bluestem, should be fertilized in late April through mid-May. Approximately 50 lb. of nitrogen (N) is required to produce about 1 ton of forage. Efficiency of nitrogen use is improved with multiple applications (generally two or three).
- High-magnesium mineral supplements should be provided for cattle grazing cool-season forages through the month of April.
- A moderate- to low-phosphorus (P) mineral supplement (10% phosphorus or less) is recommended for most classes of cattle and forage types during the lush spring growing season.
- Check with your extension educator or forage agronomist to determine the most effective herbicide treatment to control sericea lespedeza. Be sure to read the herbicide label for the most effective rate and timing of application. Other tools to help manage this invasive legume species include late-season prescribed fire and management-intensive grazing with goats.
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Western Region
Main focus — cows and calves are on cruise control.
- 1. Start planning for preweaning vaccinations.
- 2. Continue your mineral supplementation program. Consider injectable mineral products in addition to loose, block and tub mineral products.
- 3. This is the time period of the year when fall-calving cows and calves should have very few problems with animal health.
- 4. Early spring is an excellent time of the year to work on general repairs, such as repairing and building fences and other facilities. If irrigated pastures are part of your summer pasture resources, this is the time to make repairs to irrigation systems before they are needed later in the spring.
Spring-calving herds
Main focus — prepare for the breeding season.
- 1. Decide on AI sires and get semen ordered early to avoid last-minute problems with semen delivery. The most important decision each year in a purebred operation is sire selection.
- 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, and feet and leg soundness.
- 3. Decide on a synchronization protocol if estrous synchronization is going to be used in your operation. Many excellent systems are available, and many of the timed-AI protocols offer very satisfactory results.
- 4. Heat detection is the key to a good AI program unless you are using a timed-AI system.
- 5. Don’t overlook the importance of good and precise semen handling.
- 6. Have bulls semen- and trichomoniasis-tested far in advance of the breeding season. Therefore, if problems arise, replacement bulls can be located.
- 7. Focus on becoming a better grazing manager. It can have a huge impact on your bottom line.
- 8. 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.
- 9. Try to maintain the optimum level of body condition through the calving and breeding season.
- 10. Normally by late spring, forage resources are at their peak from both an energy and a protein standpoint. Therefore, usually supplemental feeding is not needed at this time of the year.
- 11. Make certain that females and service sires are vaccinated at least 30 days prior to the start of the breeding season.
- 12. Treatment protocols and products should be on hand for both scours and pneumonia in suckling calves.
- 13. Late spring is a good time to spray fencelines and get irrigation ditches or lines in good repair if irrigated pasture or hay fields are parts of your operation.
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