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Beef Tips

Managing Production Systems for the Future

Posted on by Sandy Johnson

Jason Warner, extension cow-calf specialist

The term “sustainability” has been used a lot in recent years in nearly every industry.  It seems that it has become more common for companies and organizations to have a claim that a product or service has been produced “sustainably”, and this usually is in reference to the environment.  Keeping in mind the environmental impact on how goods are produced and working to better understand and subsequently minimize our footprint on the environment is certainly a good thing for society.  Continue reading “Managing Production Systems for the Future” →

How Does Western Ragweed Impact Pasture Production?

Posted on by Sandy Johnson

by Keith Harmoney, range scientist, Hays

Western ragweed (Ambrosia psilostachya) is one of the most common native forbs found throughout Kansas rangelands.  Western ragweed is a perennial plant that can form dense colonies from growth of lateral creeping rootstalks.  It’s used by wildlife for cover and for food, and the high protein content of western ragweed seed makes it a valuable staple of bobwhite quail and other grassland bird diets. Cattle also graze on western ragweed and utilized up to 50% of the western ragweed produced in moderately stocked pastures when measured in a long-term grazing trial at the Ag. Research Center in Hays. Continue reading “How Does Western Ragweed Impact Pasture Production?” →

Management Considerations for June 2024

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

COW HERD MANAGEMENT 

  • For spring-calving cow herds:
    • Monitor BCS relative to feed/forage availability.
    • Formulate your plan if you anticipate early-weaning or supplementing on grass.
    • Schedule early pregnancy checking activities with your vet if not already done.
  • For late-summer and early-fall calving cow herds:
    • Ensure mature cows are ≥ 5.0 and 2-4 year old females are ≥ 6.0 at calving.
    • Review your calving health protocols as needed.
  • For free-choice salt and mineral programs:
    • Record date and amount of product offered, calculate herd or pasture consumption.
    • Adjust how you are offering product to cattle if they over- or under-consume.
    • If consumption is 2X the target intake, then cost will be too!
    • Properly store bags and pallets to avoid damage and product loss.
  • For 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

  • Visit KSUBeef.org for info and events!
  • Evaluate early-summer grass growth and adjust your grazing plan as needed.
  • Make concerted efforts to control invasive species in pastures.
  • Take inventory of remaining forages and feedstuffs carried over to this fall.
  • Use the Management Minder tool on KSUBeef.org to plan key management activities for your cow herd for the rest of the year https://cowweb.exnet.iastate.edu/CowWeb/faces/Index.jsp.
  • 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 (always a good time for this):
    1. Calving distribution (% 1st cycle, % 2nd cycle, % 3rd cycle)
    2. Calving interval
    3. % calf crop (# calves weaned/# cows exposed for breeding).

Mineral Supplement Selection Tips

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

One of the challenges cattle producers face is determining which mineral supplement they will use during the upcoming grazing season. Often this decision is based on the information provided on the mineral tag and price sheet. Although, price is an important consideration, other factors such as the concentrations of the minerals in the mix relative to the animals’ requirements and sources of minerals used should be considered.

The first step in selecting a mineral supplement is to know what you are shopping for. Mineral mixes are often categorized based on the concentration of phosphorous in the mineral mix. Phosphorous is often deficient in cattle consuming forage-based diets and is our first priority in developing mineral supplements for grazing cattle. The amount of phosphorous required in a mineral mix to meet the requirements of a cowherd is a function of forage phosphorous content (determined via forage mineral analysis) and animal requirements, which are driven by mature body weight and production stage. A mineral mix that contains 6 to 10% Phosphorous would be adequate in many situations.

The next step is to spend some time reading the mineral tag. The guaranteed analysis section of the tag guarantees the concentration of the minerals listed. In general, the more guarantees the better, and if a mineral is not listed then it is not guaranteed to be in the mineral. The sources of the minerals used in the mix also warrant consideration as mineral sources differ in bio- availability (Table 1). For example copper sulfate is 100% available to the animal, whereas copper oxide is unavailable.

For more information about mineral supplementation, see “Questions and Answers on Beef Cattle Nutrition (http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/c733.pdf).

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu

It’s Not Always About the Money

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

If you have an employee who seems to continually be bothering you about not being paid enough, there are usually two possibilities. 1) You’re a tightwad and you’re not paying them enough; or 2) the person is disgruntled about their role in the organization. To find out if the answer is #1, make a few phone calls to managers you trust in your general geography and find out what your neighbors are paying for similar jobs in your industry. If you’re within 50¢ or so per hour, then move on to answer #2. Some people are just better employees than others. If this person is worth more than the ‘scale’, you’d better pay more to keep them.

But “pay” can come in many forms. You can “buy” an employee’s loyalty and general job satisfaction with many perks other than another few cents or bucks per hour. Make sure your insurance, savings investment, and/or profit sharing plans are at least in line with the industry. This is especially important if this person has a family to look after. Non-monetary benefits include things like flexible time off. Those early mornings and long days are a lot easier to take if a person knows they can take Thursday afternoons off for a child’s ballgame or whatever.

What about goals? Have you asked your employee what they want out of this position? They may want to move up in the organization or have opportunities for a management role elsewhere. You can be selfish about this or you can take on the role of mentor and teacher. By taking care of your employee and training them for a leadership role they will most certainly be a better employee, and will have a harder time leaving for a different job. And even if they do leave for a different opportunity, they will give such a glowing report on your leadership and team approach, you can be certain to find a good, young person to replace them.

The question you need to ask yourself is “Do you really want this person around for the long haul?” If you DO, take some time to privately evaluate your plans, then take some more time one-on-one with this employee to find out their long-term needs and goals. If you DON’T want this person to remain in the organization, you still need to get your plans in order because after you inform this person they are not what your organization needs, you’d better have a pretty good plan set up to attract a quality person to replace them.

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu

Management Considerations for May 2024

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

COW HERD MANAGEMENT

  • If cows are in marginal BCS (4.0 – 5.0) going into breeding, possibly consider:
    • Supplementing 2-3 weeks prior to and through 1st cycle.
    • Using monensin (200 mg/hd/day) in feed supplements.
    • Temporary calf removal or a CIDR to initiate estrus in anestrus females.
    • Early weaning if BCS doesn’t improve during the season.
  • Pregnancy check and cull fall calving cows, if not already done.
  • With higher costs, it’s important to closely manage salt and mineral programs.
    • Record date and amount of salt and mineral offered and calculate herd consumption.
    • If consumption is 2X the target intake, then cost will be too!
    • Properly store bags and pallets to avoid damage and product loss.
  • Continue to provide high magnesium mineral formulas to cows grazing high risk forages: wheat, rye, triticale, oats, bromegrass, and other cool-season forages.
  • Risk of grass tetany is greatest for lactating cows and older cows.
  • The estrus synchronization planner (https://www.iowabeefcenter.org/estrussynch.html) is a helpful tool for scheduling synchronization protocols.
    • Order your AI supplies well prior to starting your protocols.
  • Closely monitor bulls at the start of the breeding season for injury and to make sure they are aggressively covering cows.

CALF MANAGEMENT

  • Calculate the value of gain relative to cost of gain for:
    • Implanting nursing calves and grass cattle.
    • Creep feeding nursing calves
  • Finalize health protocols for spring-born calves and cattle going to summer grass.
  • Consider supplementing or feeding replacement heifers for a period when initially turning to grass if they don’t have post-weaning grazing experience and/or forage supply is limited.

GENERAL MANAGEMENT

  • Reconsider stocking rates and turn-out dates for drought stressed pastures.
  • Begin implementing early-season weed/invasive species control.
  • 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 this spring, 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 2023.

What’s in Feedlot Diet

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

The commercial cattle feeding industry is incredibly diverse in many ways. A recent survey of consulting nutritionists conducted by Samuelson et al., (2016) gives us some insight into the feeding and management practices of the cattle feeding industry. This survey summarized responses from 24 consulting nutritionists that service in excess of 14 million cattle annually. As expected the primary grain used in both receiving and finishing diets was corn. However, the most commonly reported secondary grain used was wheat. The most common processing methods were steam-flaking and dry-rolling. The typical grain inclusion was 60% or less for receiving diets and 34.8% of the respondents reported an inclusion of 60-70% grain in finishing diets with a range of 50-90%. The reported range in grain inclusion of finishing rations is likely attributed to the use of byproduct feedstuffs. The most commonly used byproduct in both receiving and finishing rations was wet distiller’s grain. Alfalfa was the most common roughage source used in receiving diets (58.5% of responses). In finishing diets corn silage was the primary roughage source used (37.5% of responses), followed by corn stalks (29.2% of responses) and alfalfa (20.8% of respondents). The majority of nutritionists in the survey recommend an energy content 0.68-0.70 Mcal/lb of Net Energy for gain and 13.4% crude protein in the finishing ration.

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu

Send Everyone Home Safe

Posted on by Jessica Jensen

Most of you reading this are likely involved in agriculture in some capacity. Would you consider agriculture to be a high risk industry?

The reality is that agriculture is a dangerous business. A recent report (12/2023) from the U. S. Department of Labor contains some staggering statistics and emphasizes the need for safety. In 2022, workers engage in farming, fishing and forestry had the highest fatal work injury rate among U.S. occupations with 23.5 fatalities per 100,000 full-time employees. A total of 5,486 fatal occupational injuries occurred in the U.S. in 2022 with 146 fatal injuries occurring among agricultural workers. Fatal work injuries due to contact with equipment and machinery (738) increased 4.7% from 2021 to 2022. These statistics are sobering. The need for safety in agriculture is real and present. When was your last discussion about safety with your family or employees? Now is the best time to have those discussions.

A quote from Dr. Keith Bolsen, K-State emeritus professor, comes to mind:

“Our number one goal is to send everyone home safe at night; if an operation isn’t safe nothing else really matters.”

The full report from the U.S. Department of Labor may be accessed at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu

Long-Term Effects of April, August, or October Prescribed Fire on Yearling Stocker Cattle Performance and Native Rangeland Plant Composition in the Kansas Flint Hills

Posted on by Sandy Johnson

Objective: The objective of our experiment was to determine if prescribed fire applied in April, August, or October influenced stocker growth performance or plant community characteristics in the Kansas Flint Hills over a 6-year period. Continue reading “Long-Term Effects of April, August, or October Prescribed Fire on Yearling Stocker Cattle Performance and Native Rangeland Plant Composition in the Kansas Flint Hills” →

K-State Hosts 30-hour OSHA Course for Agriculture Workers

Posted on by Sandy Johnson

Agriculture is a high-risk industry, where “near misses”, accidents and even fatalities unfortunately occur. Many agriculture employers believe they are exempt from OSHA regulations and standards.  However, agriculture falls within the scope of OSHA per the “General Duty Clause” (Section 5.a.1., OSHA 1910) which states that “Each employer shall furnish to each of his/her employees employment and place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his/her employees”.  K-State will be hosting an OSHA-30-hour course for agriculture workers this spring in Garden City, KS. I would highly encourage anyone who is not familiar with OSHA and your role and responsibilities as an employer or supervisor to take an OSHA course.

For more information, contact Justin Waggoner at jwaggon@ksu.edu