Combine Herds and Calve on Green Grass

Combining here the first two points of profitability and harmony since, honestly, they could switch places. Both cut down on labor significantly and typically increase calf survivability.

However, after this entire year plus a few months of almost constant mud and having unfortunately purchased several unadapted cows, I’ve come to realize that if one is to combine herds into one mob, you must allow a great deal extra winter grazing forage to allow for substantial trampling waste to keep them out of the mud. It is true that there is some value to trampling, but feeding the microbes is more efficient by cycling it through the stock. It seems i can never learn all the lessons i need to in the course of one lifetime.

For reasons I’ve discussed before, my cows have been calving in mid-April – knowing that that can be a challenging time of the year. A real problem with calving out of sync is the problems continue through the year with breeding out of sync and weaning out of sync. This year (2023) my cows should start about May 1. Next year, i may move to May 15.

Your time is just as important as anyone else’s – be sure you are paying yourself and others a fair wage with benefits or your operation is a hobby and not sustainable nor regenerative.

Another issue is a problem with calving in a managed/movement grazing scheme is leaving calves behind. This happens all too much. Although it takes some planning, it may be best to not disturb the cows whilst calving and give them plenty of space. Sure, this will result in some loss of grazing efficiency, but having relaxed cows and heifers with better opportunity to bond will likely outweigh the loss of grazing best practice.

Cleanliness is paramount in a calving paddock as is being well drained with no ditches or draws. It may very well be that those need to be fenced out to avoid calves dropped into ditches and cows and/or calves smashed and killed in the mud. This has been a very expensive journey for me in that regard, even in the summer as cows are seeking cool.

Life is a balance. Harmony – Decide your goals, temper them a bit with time and grace to make mistakes. Learn from others’ mistakes since you do not have time to stumble over the same rocks. Do not forget your family and their interests and don’t underestimate how quickly the years will pass and your strength and stamina will begin to wane. Position your operation to handle the unexpected changes life will throw your way. Sharpen that pencil.

Dr Dick Diven (Low Cost Cow/Calf) suggested that in toxic endophyte country like ours in north central Missouri, fall calving may be a way to avoid the highest toxins during breeding season. However, that is completely out of sync with nature and results in huge wintering costs trying to maintain a nursing cow on winter stockpile or hay. The best time for cows to calve here is May-June – the same time during which bison have been naturally selected. Manage the toxins in your pasture and select animals which tend to thrive despite ingesting them.

Create something beautiful today!

Finally, my brethren, whatever is
true, whatever is honest, whatever is
just, whatever pure, whatever lovely,
whatever of good report, if there is any
virtue, and if there is any praise, think
on these things. Philippians 4:8 HRB

Adapted Animals

Regardless of how you choose to graze, feed, or manage your livestock, adapted animals are crucial to your environment and any possible success. Build your own landrace breed specifically selected for your environment and management.

Point 4 of my blog entry, Quickest Ways to Profitability & Harmony mentions the importance of adapted animals.

I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is to find and develop adapted cattle or other livestock. The difficulty certainly is in finding the initial stock and it’s quite likely you’ll find some you think will adapt, yet it will be – maybe – only 10% to 20% of them can even survive much less thrive under your management, grazing resources, and weather conditions. It’s a long expensive process to get started since you may find that NONE of the animals you purchase will make your selection guidelines for adaptability. Make sure your budget is strong for this stage. Don’t go into debt – have a job or good investments to keep food on the table as you navigate this massive fallout stage. Culling rigorously is critical early on and only keep as replacements animals which have met all your criteria.

For example, a cattle buyer wouldn’t buy calves from Florida to put in an Iowa feedlot! The calves would be completely unadapted and would not do well at all – especially in the winter – although feeding corn can overcome some nutritional deficiencies.

Moving stock from one climate to another is almost always a recipe for disaster or a very expensive selection process. It’s far better to find stock grown in your own weather and ground conditions. Open cows and flat out death less may be substantial. Remember that semen or embryos from a different area will be the same. You will likely be going backwards with each generation of introduced genetics. Be wary of applying bandages contrary to your specific goals or you won’t be able to select the best animals for your purpose.

Some will encourage you to purchase bred heifers or cows, but I’ve been unable to justify that decision since there are simply no stock to be found – even expensive stock – that will stay in the herd for long (cows, bulls, or replacement heifers). After 30 plus years of trying to introduce animals, far and away the best is to retain my own heifers and bulls (some say you need a minimum of 100 cows to be able to select bulls from your own herd). Take your time, build slowly. Buy the best you can afford from reputable breeders who grow animals as close to how you will – won’t be perfect, but it’s likely the best place to start.

The cost of raising and developing your own replacements is substantial – compare that to buying and having a lot of fallout. Remember to include the extra labor and pasture to develop them. Will you hold them an extra year before breeding? then a separate pasture is needed to keep them from the bulls. Farming and ranching have expenses coming at you from many angles! Beware.

Another consideration that i have fallen prey to is buying cows in my area that seem adapted, only to find out they’ve been on corn since they were born! It is very likely that their rumens will ever adapt to grazing and may even die especially with highly toxic endophyte fescue pastures. That’s an expensive mistake – speaking from experience.

Other important decisions before buying:

1. what are your marketing goals – commodity or special niche? Both can be upgraded to ‘value added’ status. Value added in commodity may mean breeding for black cattle, but consider whether or not they will thrive without expensive inputs. It’s all a balance
2. Selling adapted breeding stock is a long term commitment. Until you establish an adapted line and build a reputation, much of your production will go the commodity route. Don’t think that you will receive a great premium at the get-go. Overestimating your income will come back to bite you in a hurry.
3. What class or species of livestock most closely meet your skills, market, and interest? What is the weather like in your area? Some places are simply not fit for man or beast in the wintertime. Especially as we get older and fighting the elements also gets old.
4. Build an excellent perimeter fence on your property BEFORE getting any livestock. Contact your local extension agent for the definition of a legal fence in your state or county, then build better. Stock getting out is a good way to ruin relationships with your neighbors and you will need to be on good terms with them.

Compare these two Angus cows. Photo one is clearly not adapted to my management and is very likely not bred. This is one of the 3-year-old cows i bought as a pair in spring of 2022. She suffered through the green growing season, raised a poor calf, and has not done well through an admittedly tough, very muddy winter of stockpile grazing. However, the 6-year-old cow to the right is an adapted home raised animal, raised a good calf, is in acceptable condition, and looks very much bred to calve early in the season. These cows were grazed in the same mob these past 12 months.

No hay was fed, but protein tubs were provided to help utilize the mature stockpile.

The above photos show the great importance of selecting for adapted cows. Do not make the mistakes i’ve made.

CREATE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL TODAY!

Shalom

Consider this 3-year-old purebred Corriente cow with her first calf. She raised and weaned off a healthy calf grazing right alongside the two cows pictured above. Her calf sold for $250 MORE than what she cost for me to purchase. Now, there is very strong calf market in spring 2023, but it does show that careful purchasing of adapted animals can result in good profitability. Be mindful, however, that thin breeds like the Longhorn or Corriente will always bring less at salebarn and grow more slowly. Study the market and buy what seems to be undervalued.

Genetics and Selection

There are very few reasons for mobs of livestock to have access to ponds beyond and emergency drinking water access. My reason here is that these heifers needed to be separated from the main cow herd for the 45 day breeding season and the only paddock I have does not have shade or even a high point to catch a breeze such as the pond dam where the heifers in the second photo are standing.

Ideally, allotting short term adequate shaded space is the optimal.  Video below shows comfortable cows and calves.

In many cases, cattle not selected for heat tolerance will immerse themselves in a pond for relief. The flip side is that oftentimes these cattle will tolerate severe cold better than the others. We can spend decades selecting for the genetics which thrive in each of our unique environments and management. Hopefully also providing a quality eating experience for the consumer.

This is a jarring photo and i hesitate to post it, but reality is, we don’t live in a perfect world and sometimes we make do until improvements can be made.  These purebred Angus heifers can’t tolerate much heat and humidity and stand in the pond. Not healthy for the pond or the cattle.

These heifers have up to 50% genetically selected heat tolerant breeds of either Longhorn or Corriente crossed with black or red Angus. Clearly more comfortable in Missouri heat and humidity.

Profitable Ranch Strategies

Although Jim’s article in On Pasture is specifically geared towards livestock/pasture management, the principles can easily be applied to any business.

Kick the Hay Habit – Jim Gerrish’s Tips for Getting Started

By Jim Gerrish  /  September 17, 2018  /  No Comments

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This week’s Classic by NatGLC is from Jim Gerrish. Jim will be speaking about Grazing Lands Economics at the National Grazing Lands Conference in Reno in December, so we thought you’d like to have an idea of what he might cover. Jim is one of over over 50 producers who will be part of the conference talking about innovative grazing management. We hope you’ll join us! Register before October 16 to get the reduced rate of $395, and bring a friend or spouse with you for just $175 more.

Hay feeding still ranks as one of the top costs of being in the cow-calf business in the U.S. The good news is we do see more and more livestock producers ‘Kicking the Hay Habit’ with each passing year. There is much more to kicking the habit than just deciding one day that you’re not going to feed any more hay. It usually takes several management changes to get there.

Here are what I am seeing as the top five moves for getting out of the hay feeding rut.

1. Have a plan for year-around grazing.

This doesn’t mean just hoping you have some grass left over in the fall to use during winter. It means making a critical evaluation of all of your forage resources and mapping out when they can be used most optimally. Develop a calendar of when your stock are going to have their highest and lowest demands. As an industry we have given a lot of lip service to matching forage and animal resources, but the majority of ranchers still do a pretty poor job of implementing a sound plan.

2. Change your calving season to a less demanding time of year.

It is much easier to graze a dry, pregnant cow through the winter than a lactating mama. For many of today’s moderate to high milk producing beef cows, daily forage demand at peak lactation is 50-80% higher than when she is at dry, pregnant maintenance. Late spring or early summer calving seasons work well in a lot of ranch country once you change your mind about a few things. I’ve met very few ranchers who switched to later calving who ever went back to winter calving.

3. Make sure your cattle match your environment and climatic conditions.

You really want your cattle to survive and thrive on the native resources of your ranch. The more petroleum and iron you put between the sun’s solar energy and your cow’s belly, the less profitable you are likely to be. Cattle should be able to earn their own living. You shouldn’t have to earn it for them. Consider every head of cattle on your place to be a ranch employee. Your primary job as manager is to create a working environment for your employees to do their job.

4. Manage all of your pasture and rangeland more intensively.

This does not mean graze it more intensively, this means manage it more intensively. If you do, you will get more forage production and greater carrying capacity from your land. Simply rationing out what you are already growing is one of the easiest places to pick up more grazing days from every acre. One of the strongest arguments I can make for Management-intensive Grazing (MiG) in the summertime is to create more winter pasture opportunities.

5. Change range use from summer grazing to winter grazing.

In most environments with degraded rangeland, switching to predominantly winter use is a great strategy for improving range condition. Many public lands offices are very willing to work with ranchers on this kind of positive change. We do see some agency offices and employees who drag their feet on making any kind of change, but most are willing to work with you if you have a grazing plan that will help them meet their conservation goals.

You may not need to make all these changes in your operation. It depends on where you are right now and where you want to end up being. While some operations go cold turkey and try to make the entire shift in a single year, it may be easier to make the transition over 3 or 4 years. You will take some learning and adjustments to get comfortable with the new approach. Your livestock will also need to adapt to the new management regime.

Most beef herds in the US and Canada are made up of cows that are too big and have too much milking ability to live within the resource capability of the land base. Winter grazing is a lot easier with the proper type of cow on your place. Making the switch in calving season might be as easy as just holding the bulls out for a couple extra months. Changing cow type to a more moderate framed and lower milk producing animal will take quite a bit longer.

The key point is to have a plan for making the transition with a clear target of where you want to go.

Thanks to the On Pasture readers providing financial support.

Can you chip in? To be sustainable, we need a $15,000 match from readers to make our grant happen this year. If it’s an option for you, consider becoming an “Ongoing Supporter” at just $5/month. Being able to show that kind of support is especially helpful when we’re approaching outside funders.

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• Published: 9 hours ago on September 17, 2018
• By: Jim Gerrish
• Last Modified: September 14, 2018 @ 2:13 pm
• Filed Under: The Classic by NatGLC

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Building a Ranch From the Ground Up (Part 1)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Gerrish

Jim Gerrish is the author of “Management-Intensive Grazing: The Grassroots of Grass Farming” and “Kick the Hay Habit: A Practical Guide to Year-around Grazing” and is a popular speaker at conferences around the world. His company, American GrazingLands Services LLC is dedicated to improving the health and sustainable productivity of grazing lands around the world through the use of Management-intensive Grazing practices. They work with small farms, large ranches, government agencies and NGO’s to promote economically and environmentally sustainable grazing operations and believe healthy farms and ranches are the basis of healthy communities and healthy consumers. Visit their website to find out more about their consulting services and grazing management tools, including electric fencing, stock water systems, forage seed, and other management tools.

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