Last updated on August 31st, 2021 at 09:05 pm

welcome to september

2021

time to start planning for fall & winter

With limited forages and poor quality stockpiled feed heading into winter, it's gonna take some sharp pencils to make a plan for your operation to be profitable in the months to come. It's important to ensure your herd has supplements that will help them utilize this poor-quality forage and enable them to extract as much protein and energy from it as possible. Additionally, many of you be weaning soon. Do you have the tools you need to ensure your calves are healthy, hungry, and happy?

how GET MORE NUTRIENTS OUT OF POOR QUALITY FORAGE

tools for a smoother weaning season

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Rancher Stories: Jim Wulf, Minnesota | Weaning With Riomax | Fall Pre-Booking Promo | Article Preview: Hammered by Drought? Consider Early Weaning

MEET JIM WULF

Clear Springs Cattle Co.

Starbuck, Minnesota

you take care of the cow, then she'll take care of you.

Jim Wulf's dad had a saying, "We have to do what's best for the industry, and then for our breed, and then we worry about ourselves. Because if the first 2 don't survive, we don't have a chance."

Today, on Jim's seedstock and Simmental operation, Clear Springs Cattle Co, he holds true to that belief.

What makes a seedstock operation work? TLC - tender loving care, Jim says. Not only that, but it's important to look at every aspect of an operation - from the soil, to the plant, to the livestock.

Learn more about Jim's history and how he and his sons have grown their operation into a flourishing management system. If you're a cow guy, Jim comments, you're actually a grass manager; you have to manage your pastures, your land, and your grass, and that's what you have to convert into beef or genetics...

Photos of Clear Springs Cattle Co, nestled in the Glacier Ridge Hills of Western Minnesota.

WEAN HAPPY, HEALTHY, HUNGRY CALVES

Reduce Stress. Stimulate Appetite. Improve Health Status.

tools for a smooth weaning season

Here’s why managing early-weaned calves fetches more dollars at sale time.

If ever there’s a year to consider early weaning, 2021 is it. Just one glance at the weekly Drought Monitor map shows a vast portion of cattle country is in various stages of desperation as water holes, creeks, and rivers dry up.

Early weaning is usually defined as weaning calves 90 days earlier than normal. By this time, the calves’ rumens are developed enough that they’re consuming a fair amount of forage. That means one of the most important advantages to early weaning is it extends a drought-shortened grazing season and provides more forage for the cows.

“Ending lactation reduces the cow’s nutrient requirements and dry matter intake compared to when she is nursing a calf,” says Warren Rusche, Extension beef feedlot management associate at South Dakota State University.

“Calves consume approximately 2.0% to 2.5% of body weight of dry forage; weaning early eliminates that forage demand as well. Research by SDSU demonstrated that weaning calves 90 days earlier cut forage disappearance by 36%, or 18.9 pounds per head per day. That equates to an additional 1.1AUM in additional grazing available, which should help ranchers reduce the number of cows they need to move off grass and reduce the risk of overgrazing,” he writes in “Early Weaning as a Drought Management Strategy"......

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