Air January 31, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. Some very nice precipitation over the past several days. It didn’t necessarily all arrive as forecast, but that just goes to show what happens when humans try to determine what Mother Nature is going to do. The next couple of meetings coming up include narrow row crop management on February 5th in Marysville and Revenue Management on February 12th in Leonardville. Call me if you need more information!

We are heading into the two most critical periods that occur every year for the beef cow. The last 60 days before calving and the first 60 days after calving. This is that period when money is probably made or lost. The other 240 days of the year, those cows and calves are pretty adaptable. But the two months pre and post calving really set the stage for how well that calf will do and how well that cow will re-breed. This is not the time of year to skimp on feed. We need to get the good stuff out right now. And if you are a little shy on hay, it’s okay to use a little grain to stretch things along. Grain is cheap right now. Much cheaper than hay in many respects. And with the value of cattle good, and maybe getting better, we’re into a good profit potential window. That does not mean you can get sloppy on management. It means that if you are even tighter on management, your profit should be even better. Evaluate the body condition of your cows. Aim to have mature cows at a body condition score of 5 at calving and first calf heifers at a score of 6. If you don’t know how to do this, we’ve got a good bulletin that makes it so simple that I even learned to do it. If cows are over conditioned, you can be a little tight with the feed. If they are under condition, you need to jack up the ration to get them into condition. Otherwise they won’t provide the amount of milk the calf needs (hence lighter weaning weight calves) and poorer rebreeding. Limit feeding of concentrates, along with some good quality hay and free choice average hay will maintain good body condition. How about some of those liquid supplements? Well, the ads sound good and they do have advantages, but price efficiency probably isn’t one of them. Give me a call if you want more info on the liquid supplements. I do have a few copies of the 4-State Beef Conference proceedings - first come first serve!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2001.

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