Harvey County

Tag: Cattle

KSU Cattleman’s day

On Friday, March 2, 2018, the Department of Animal Sciences & Industry at Kansas State University will proudly continue its tradition of the Cattlemen’s Day program. This program is designed to provide producers, allied industry and individuals with information about new developments in the beef industry.

The entire day’s program will be held at Weber Hall. Weber Hall is located at 1424 Claflin Road which is in the northeast corner of the K-State campus on Claflin Road on the K-State Campus in Manhattan.

Cattlemen’s Day 2018 will begin with the morning program, including featured speakers from Kansas State University followed by the “Focus Sessions” in the afternoon. The program will be held in various rooms throughout Weber Hall. The outstanding Cattlemen’s Day program will be coming soon to our web site at: www.asi.ksu.edu/cattlemensday.

The day will conclude with the Legacy Bull Sale and a social after the sale at the Stanley Stout Livestock Marketing and Learning Center. All commercial exhibits will be housed in Weber Arena.  We heard very positive comments last year and are looking forward to an even bigger and better Cattlemen’s Day 2018.

Winter Cattle Water

With winter weather approaching you should not forget to make sure all of your cattle have access to fresh drinking water. Even though with these cold temperatures it might not seem like they need to drink as much water as normal, it is vitally important that they can get to water.

The water needs of cattle are influenced by a number of factors such as: rate and composition of gain, pregnancy, lactation, physical activity, type of ration, diet salt content, dry matter intake and environmental temperature. This time of year cattle are trying to stay warm so they won’t be doing a lot of physical activity.

A study done by Kansas State University showed that in January, on the average, water intake with calves weighing 600 lbs. was 5.0 gallons per day and 1000 lbs. it was 8.5 gallons per day. If you fall calved and have cows milking right now they will need to have access to around 11 gallons of water per day.

A good way to keep the water thawed is by putting a water tank heater in the water tank. If you do that you need to check it often to make sure it is not shorting out in the water. A good thing to look to tell if a short does happen is the cows will congregate around the water tank but will not be drinking. Keeping a close watch on your cattle should tip you off fairly quickly to a problem.

Winter Cattle Water

With winter weather slowly approaching we should not forget to make sure all of your cattle have excess to fresh drinking water. Even though with these cold temperatures it might not seem like they need to drink as much water as normal it is vitally important that they can get to water.

The water needs of cattle are influenced by a number of factors such as: rate and composition of gain, pregnancy, lactation, physical activity, type of ration, diet salt content, dry matter intake and environmental temperature. This time of year cattle are trying to stay warm so they won’t be doing a lot of physical activity. A study done by Kansas State University showed that in January on the average water intake with calves weighing 600lbs was 5.0 gallons per day and at 1000lbs it was 8.5 gallons per day. If you fall calved and have cows milking right now they will need to have excess to around 11 gallons of water per day.

A good way to keep the water thawed is putting a water tank heater in the water tank. If you do that you need to make to check it often to make sure it is not shorting out in the water. A good thing to look for if a short does happen is the cows will congregate around the water tank but will not be drinking. Keeping a close watch on your cattle should tip you off fairly quickly.