Page 17 - MWC 9-15-2022s2

The Midwest Cattleman · September 15, 2022 · P17
next is pregnancy diagnosis. a short calving season. Re- days following the nutrient quality is likely to be expen-
If you don’t routinely preg- duce ranch nutrient demand restriction so don’t wait until sive, providing higher quality
nancy check cows at wean- by marketing the late calv- calving season to prioritize forage for longer periods may
ing, this is the year to start. ing cows in addition to opens. feed and forage resources. be an alternative strategy.
Open cows are a drain on Alternatively, late calvers Fall calving cows are often Offering the highest quality
the resources. With limited can be managed separately not as nutritionally chal- forage after weaning to thin
forages and high feed prices from the earlier calving cows lenged before calving, yet cows also ensures adequate
this is no time for “one more to prioritize forage quality this year they may be thin time to make up condition
year” cows. Remember, the relative to calving date. as well. Remember, feeding before calving. Getting ma-
day a cow checks open she While calving date is in- cows while lactating increas- ture cows to a BCS of 5 and
is 16 months from return- sightful, body condition score es milk production first and heifers to a 6 should provide
ing revenue to the operation (BCS) provides one of the only after maximizing milk adequate reserves to ensure
assuming she gets bred the most actionable data points production does cow condi- rebreeding. Cows managed to
next day. in the beef industry and is tion have the opportunity to get close but not conditioned
With limited energy re- simple to determine. Col- improve. In the event cow enough to re-breed next year
sources at the ranch, the de- lection of actual BCS over condition needs to be moved are a drain on resources com-
cision to feed open cows into a cow's lifetime provides from thin to fat enough, the parable to the open cow.
a more favorable market will an index one can compare time to address the problem Sorting provides manag-
require a sharp pencil. His- year over year. If you are ap- is before calving. ers strategic marketing and
torically, feeding sound, open proaching this year differ- There are other advan- feeding options when dealing
cows until the higher spring ently due to drought, consid- tages to supplementing thin with limited forage resourc-
market has proven economi- er keeping it simple and sort cows earlier in the fall be- es and higher inputs. After
cal. These thin cows are like cows by thin and fat enough. yond compensatory gain. The trimming the “ends” by cull-
those green steers we dis- Similar to the green feed- one upside of drought is you ing open and sorting the fat
cussed earlier, ready to eat er steer, a thin cow will ex- waste very little hay when enough cows, managers can
and take advantage of com- perience compensatory gain. feeding on dry ground. Thin prioritize feed and forage to
pensatory gain. Sorting the thin cows at cows often don’t compete as thin cows at weaning to take
If you are going to the weaning after selling open well for feed and forage when advantage of the only free
work of pregnancy diagno- cows is one of the best ways fed in large, unsorted groups lunch in the beef industry.
sis make sure and have the to prioritize limited forage so unrolling hay offers unlim- Drovers
vet call the probable calving resources. From a timing ited bunk space over feeders.
date. The path to a uniform perspective the compensato- In a year where supple-
marketing group starts with ry gain is maintained 45-60 mentation to address forage