By Jason M. Warner, Ph.D., Extension Cow-Calf Specialist
COW HERD MANAGEMENT
- For spring-calving cow herds:
- Evaluate BCS in conjunction with feed/forage availability.
- Think through your plan if you anticipate early-weaning or needing to feed/supplement on pasture through the summer.
- Schedule early pregnancy checking activities if not already done.
- For late-summer and early-fall calving cow herds:
- Evaluate cows for BCS and adjust your plan to ensure mature cows are ≥ 5.0 and 2-4 year old females are ≥ 6.0 at calving.
- Review your calving health protocols as needed.
- Closely manage free-choice salt and mineral programs.
- Record date and amount of salt and mineral offered and calculate herd consumption on a pasture or group basis.
- Adjust how you are offering product to cattle if needed to achieve intake early in the summer.
- If consumption is 2X the target intake, then cost will be too!
- Properly store bags and pallets to avoid damage and product loss.
- Closely evaluate bulls at the start of the breeding season
- Watch for injury so you can intervene and treat bulls promptly if needed.
- Ensure they are aggressively covering cows.
- Monitor BCS, particularly on young bulls.
- If pulling bulls from cows to manage the length of the breeding season, schedule those dates and have them on the calendar in advance.
CALF MANAGEMENT
- If considering creep feeding calves, make sure you understand what your objective is by doing so and calculate the value of gain relative to cost of gain.
- Monitor calves for summer respiratory illness.
- Schedule any pre-weaning vaccination or processing activities.
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
- Continue to evaluate early-summer grass growth and adjust your grazing plan as needed.
- Continue efforts to control invasive species in pastures.
- Use the Management Minder tool on KSUBeef.org to plan key management activities for your cow herd for the rest of the year.
- Employ multiple strategies and chemistries for controlling flies and insects.
- With high feeder calf prices, consider price risk management tools.
- Make and evaluate important production calculations:
- Calving distribution (% 1st cycle, % 2nd cycle, % 3rd cycle)
- Calving interval
- % calf crop (# calves weaned/# cows exposed for breeding) for calves born in fall 2022.