Kansas State University beef extension specialists hosted a series of producer-oriented webinars this spring to address cattle production challenges amid ongoing drought throughout Kansas. If you missed the live events, recordings are now available on KSUBeef.org.
Keith Harmoney, rangeland scientist at the Agricultural Research Center in Hays, presented the first webinar and talked about making decisions on stalking rates and subsequent adjustments based on spring rainfall. The decision chart he presented is useful for managing grass and cattle regardless of the amount of yearly precipitation.
The next webinar featured a former KSU graduate student, Brett Crosby, now a rancher from Cowley, WY, and president of Custom Ag Solution. His comments focused on use of the Beef Basis tool to make purchasing and marketing decisions.
The KSU Beef Replacement Decision Aide for assessing Herd Expansion and Contraction Decisions was covered by Glynn Tonsor, livestock and meat marketing specialist. This tool should help producers when it is time to restock herds after drought.
Despite some welcome rains there are areas of the state still experiencing extreme or exceptional drought and some that could slip backwards even with normal summer rainfall. If the grass does run out, Jason Warner’s webinar, strategies for feeding cows with limited forages, provides some guidelines for alternatives.
The final webinar of the series was given by Justin Waggoner and covered Feeding and Managing Early Weaned Calves. Early weaning is something earlier than your normal weaning time. See the article with the same title in this issue of BeefTips.
Find them on KSUBeef.org or subscribe to the KSU Beef YouTube channel.