Page 15 - MWC 2-2-2023s

paddocks. He’s had The Midwest Cattleman · February 2, 2023 · P15
as many as 100
brood cows, but
currently the herd
consists of about
50 cows plus some
registered Black
Angus bulls that
he sells for breed-
ing. His calves
are background-
ed for at least 60
days before being
sold. The fall-born Locke’s cattle graze a paddock of novel endophyte tall
fescue. The Show-Me State rancher has only a few
calves are genom- remaining fields of unrenovated, toxic fescue. Photo by
ic tested to deter- Hay and Forage Grower
mine which bulls
or heifers will be and helps guide nitrogen ap-
kept and which ones will be plications on pastures. “I find
sold after backgrounding. this information extremely
useful and interesting, but
The holy grail there’s still a lot to learn in
Military personnel usual- how it can be applied and in-
ly don’t go anywhere with- terpreted,” Locke noted.
out their dog tags. On R&J
Ranch, Locke doesn’t make a Goodbye toxic fescue
move without what he calls Like most mid-South
his “holy grail book.” The farms, toxic Kentucky 31 tall
need for detail and Locke’s fescue comprised nearly all of
desire for as much informa- Locke’s initial forage invento-
tion as possible, which was no ry. That remained the case up
doubt learned while in the Air to the point where he attend-
Force, is now applied on his ed a seminar on how to reno-
farm in the Ozarks. Locke’s vate pastures with new novel
holy grail book contains his- endophyte fescue varieties.
torical information on every At the same program, he was
field and paddock, including shocked to learn the amount
soil test data that is updated of production he was losing
every three years. by grazing his toxic fescue.
To estimate and mon- Before making the finan-
itor forage availability cial commitment to convert
across the farm, Locke uses his pastures to novel endo-
a front-mounted sensor on phyte varieties, the meticu-
his UTV, which is coupled to lous Locke was determined
a software app called Pad- to find out how bad his fes-
dockTrac from the Universi- cue really was. After all,
ty of Missouri. With the for- it’s important to know your
age availability estimates, enemy. Following detailed in-
the app generates a grazing structions, he collected plant
wedge graph to help guide crowns from numerous pas-
cattle movements. Locke tures and drove the samples
strives to keep his cool-sea- to the University of Missouri
son grass paddocks below in Columbia.
2,000 pounds of dry matter. “My samples were hot,
“At that point, I feel I’m losing nearly all above 85% toxic,”
quality,” he said. All of this in- Locke said. “That was the
formation is kept in his holy clincher, and starting in 2005,
grail book. Locke also tracks I vowed to kill and reseed a
cattle movement, inventory, field per year to a novel en-
and performance with the dophyte variety until I got
CattleMax record-keeping it all done. I still have a few
system. (fields) that are not done yet,
Recently, Locke began but they aren’t that produc-
working with USDA Agricul- tive anyway, and I just man-
tural Research Service soil age around them.”
scientist Alan Franzluebbers Locke has perfected
to monitor the soil health and his renovation technique
quality of his paddocks. Sev- through years of terminat-
eral sets of soil samples have ing Kentucky 31. “I spray
been taken in the past few with glyphosate when the
years. This information, too, fescue is boot-high in May,”
resides in the holy grail book
continued on page 16