From:
CONCEPTIONS Beef Cow-calf route newsletter June-July 2023
Andy and Angus Arthur of Laingsburg have developed a successful grassfed beef marketing production system utilizing Angus, Hereford and “black baldy” crosses.
On a recent breeding visit, Andy mentioned that they tried some fly-repellent ear tags on cattle last year. The feeder cattle going into winter hay feeding were 50# heavier with the fly tags than without. They are thinking of trying them again.
On a recent breeding visit, Andy mentioned that they tried some fly-repellent ear tags on cattle last year. The feeder cattle going into winter hay feeding were 50# heavier with the fly tags than without. They are thinking of trying them again.
How much does creep feeding and winter silage exaggerate EPDs?
As many of you are active grain farmers, the temptation to divert some of your corn crop into a corn silage supply for your cows for winter feeding is great. You will of course be encouraged by most seed salesmen to do exactly that. However, while corn (and soybean) prices still hold at record high price levels historically, and after the pandemic’s severe runup in fertilizer prices, we have to ask if this is a wise practice.
Most beef breeds were developed on grasslands grazing and winter hay feeding
The genetic instinct of animals is to live on what they were programmed to eat in mature. For cattle, especially the English base breeds (Angus, Red Angus, Hereford, Polled Hereford, Scotch Shorthorn, Murray Grey, and most “heritage” breeds of Highlander, Red Poll, Galloway, Dexter), corn was never part of their instinctual diets. Thus when fed corn, it usually was metabolized as stored body fat, over muscle surfaces (not marbled), in mammary tissue, and around internal organs (kidneys, liver, uterine tract). This fat has negative reproductive and health effects if too much accumulates, and in a broader sense, given it is just trimmed away in butchering, has no human food value—thus is a waste of your land and farming inputs compared to an effective pasturage and forage harvesting system.
High quality pasture that is treated like a crop (ie, receiving some nitrogen fertilization after each grazing pass) will not only regrow perennially but yield economically competitive volumes of feed. No more than 2 acres per cow-calf unit of good, high energy variety perennial grasses in central Michigan will provide winter hay and spring/summer/fall feed, properly rotated. The cows will rebreed more easily without being fat around the ovaries, and the heifers you save will calve much easier by not having excess fat packed into their pelvic structures pressing around the birthing canal.
It seems to have developed primarily in the “continental breed” and “club calf” herds to believe that, either to produce higher EPDs for breeding stock sales, or fleshier calves for showing, that the cow herd has to be as “conditioned” as the sale and show stock. This is not sound cattle breeding selection and has had many negative consequences, first in slower reproduction.
As many of you are active grain farmers, the temptation to divert some of your corn crop into a corn silage supply for your cows for winter feeding is great. You will of course be encouraged by most seed salesmen to do exactly that. However, while corn (and soybean) prices still hold at record high price levels historically, and after the pandemic’s severe runup in fertilizer prices, we have to ask if this is a wise practice.
Most beef breeds were developed on grasslands grazing and winter hay feeding
The genetic instinct of animals is to live on what they were programmed to eat in mature. For cattle, especially the English base breeds (Angus, Red Angus, Hereford, Polled Hereford, Scotch Shorthorn, Murray Grey, and most “heritage” breeds of Highlander, Red Poll, Galloway, Dexter), corn was never part of their instinctual diets. Thus when fed corn, it usually was metabolized as stored body fat, over muscle surfaces (not marbled), in mammary tissue, and around internal organs (kidneys, liver, uterine tract). This fat has negative reproductive and health effects if too much accumulates, and in a broader sense, given it is just trimmed away in butchering, has no human food value—thus is a waste of your land and farming inputs compared to an effective pasturage and forage harvesting system.
High quality pasture that is treated like a crop (ie, receiving some nitrogen fertilization after each grazing pass) will not only regrow perennially but yield economically competitive volumes of feed. No more than 2 acres per cow-calf unit of good, high energy variety perennial grasses in central Michigan will provide winter hay and spring/summer/fall feed, properly rotated. The cows will rebreed more easily without being fat around the ovaries, and the heifers you save will calve much easier by not having excess fat packed into their pelvic structures pressing around the birthing canal.
It seems to have developed primarily in the “continental breed” and “club calf” herds to believe that, either to produce higher EPDs for breeding stock sales, or fleshier calves for showing, that the cow herd has to be as “conditioned” as the sale and show stock. This is not sound cattle breeding selection and has had many negative consequences, first in slower reproduction.
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