Double cropping with cattle

 

CONCEPTIONS Beef Cow-calf newsletter          March April 2021

Clay Howe          route sales and services/ agronomy specialist              ph (519) 933- 8431

Sue Palen           store product manager and order desk                          ph (989) 277- 0480

Greg Palen         refresher AI training/  certified seed specialist              ph (989) 277- 6031

Mich Livestock Service, Inc    “For the Best in Bulls”   “For the Best Forage Seeds”
110 N Main St   (PO Box 661)   Ovid,  MI  48866            www.michiganlivestock.com
ph (989) 834- 2661     fax (989) 834- 2914         email: greg@michiganlivestock.com

 

With cattle to feed, the options of what to plant and when expand our grain marketing greatly.   For example, you might plant oats and peas as early as you can get on the stubble this spring – harvest in boot stage by mid May – disk in a short-season corn crop (82 to 95 day) to capture the warming soil and sunlight, then prepare to pick corn late September—or make silage late August!    Either of these allow you to plant a fall cover crop that can grow through the winter, awaiting you in the spring with a full harvest of Triticale, either as baleage or feed grain.    Your soil organic matter content will increase, you will feed the soil biology that transports nutrients in the root zone, and you will capture most of the rain that falls into that same root zone.

The annual yield of digestible dry matter will be greater than what you harvest from that single long-day crop that also leaves your soil bare to the elements 200 days each year.

 

No “live” shows this spring?     We can gather up your semen orders for you

Without a physical show, many of the breeders from whom you buy semen will not travel into Michigan to meet you.     However, they make their sires available at Cattle Visions and we are shipping back and forth between here and Clark MO every two weeks.    Pooling your orders in full shippers means we can cover the shipping charges.    This might save you $100 or more.

 

A couple simple steps that improve conception rates by 10% or more

Have trouble entering some cows cleanly with the AI gun?     Consider sheath protectors (or the IMV flimsies coveralls) to protect from carrying manure particles into the cervix or uterus.    We stock both, and they are simple to use.     Or consider Heifer Plus or Bull Plus (ask for info).