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Farm Facts

Cattle producer's chore

August 07, 2008|DAN GRIGSON

SPRING CALVING

COW HERD

â?¢Manage pastures to minimize the effect of high endophyte levels in fescue. Clipping pastures will improve forage quality and can also aid in controlling pinkeye by avoiding irritation caused by seed heads. Pasture, other than fescue, can be beneficial this month. Fescue is at its worse in July and August now is the time to be grazing alfalfa, clover, sudangrass, sorghum-sudan and millets. You can also take advantage of what nature provides you. Cattle will do well on crabgrass, Johnsongrass and foxtail.

â?¢Bulls should be removed from the cow herd by now! Bulls should be penned away from the cow herd with a good fence and allowed to regain lost weight and condition. This helps tighten up your calving season, which always makes you money.

â?¢Creep graze or advance graze calves, providing them with the best forages available. Providing high quality forage to suckling calves will increase weaning weight, and with good calf prices and your return per dollar spent will be very good. Creep feeding grain from now to October weaning will really pay off. Also, our research shows that starting creep feeding 45 days prior to weaning gives a very good return per dollar spent.

â?¢Repair and improve corrals for fall working and weaning. Get conditioning lots and weaning ready.

FALL CALVING

COW HERD

â?¢Dry cows should be moved to better pastures as calving time approaches. Cows should start calving next month. Cows can be moved to stockpiled fescue after calving.

â?¢Get calving equipment ready — be sure you have the following: calf puller, iodine solution for newborn calf's navel, eartags for identification, castration equipment, frozen colostrum or commercial colostrum supplement.

STOCKERS

â?¢Rotate grazing stockers to keep pasture vegetive. Consider providing forage other than high endophyte fescue to avoid the "summer slump". Stocking rate on fescue should be reduced to about half the rate used in the spring. If you don't have it now then plan to get some alfalfa-grass fields ready for next year so your stocker cattle have good pasture in July and August to keep gains at a high level.

â?¢Keep current on your markets. Push those calves for extra pounds. Better pasture and a balanced grain feeding program will make you dollars.

GENERAL

MANAGEMENT

â?¢Select pastures for stockpiling. Remove cattle and apply nitrogen around Aug. 10-15 at the rate of 150-200 lbs. of ammonia nitrate per acre. Graze these fields again after frost. Check the dollars and cents on stockpiling. It generally pays but this year if you can buy rolled hay.

â?¢Provide shade and water. Cattle will need shade during the hot part of the day. Check water supply frequently, as much as 20 gallons may be required by high producing cows in very hot weather.

â?¢Keep a good mineral mix with either Rumensin or Bovatec available at all time.

â?¢Do not give up on fly control. Methods may need to be combined, i.e. spraying or using a pour-on for "tagged" cattle in later summer, especially if flies numbers are greater than 50 flies per animal.

â?¢Take soil samples now to determine pasture fertility needs. Summer is the best time to lime your forage fields. Fall is the best time to fertilize your hay and pasture fields.

For more information, contact the U.K. Extension Office at 365-2447.

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