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Superintendent
David Davis
21262 Genoa Road
Linneus, MO 64653
Phone: 660 895-5121
FAX: 660 895=5122
Email: DavisDK@missouri.edu

October-December, 2009
Forage Systems Update
Vol 18, No. 4

Summer is over and now is the time to plan ahead for the coming winter months. You should take the opportunity the fall season provides us to evaluate your livestock operation. Take a hard look at the cows you have, are they performing up to your expectations and goals? If they are not, you can reduce your winter feed bill by culling cows that do not meet your goals. Additionally, have your cows pregnancy checked, and more importantly, cull all the open cows. Have you identified your replacement heifers? There is no need to carry non-replacement-quality heifersthrough the fall and winter months if you are not adding value by backgrounding them to add value. At FSRC, we observe heifer calves every time we move cattle during the summer and when we work calves. We keep good notes and cull all heifer calves with bad disposition, younger heifers and lighter heifers (those born later in the calving season or do not reach a minimum weight goal at weaning time) take more feed resources to reach puberty. Is your winter water source winterized? Have you purchased supplemental feed such as by-product feeds during the summer and fall months to take advantage of seasonal lows in pricing? Do you have enough temporary fencing supplies to make adequate pasture allocations during the fall and winter? If you feed hay, have you tried space bale feeding to save tractor time this winter? If you are short of hay, have you purchased additional hay? The point is this, a little effort, time, and money spent now (when the weather is still nice) will pay dividends this winter when you have to feed your livestock under whatever conditions Mother Nature throws at us.

This fall and winter at the FSRC we will be backgrounding heifers and steers in a research project conducted by Dr. Justin Sexten. Our goal is to background these calves for about 84 days then feed all of the steers and all of the non-replacement heifers to finish. We will be using co-products and the experiment is designed to test for differences in protein quality during the backgrounding phase. We will also be testing for residual effects of protein quality during the finishing phase. Carcass data will be collected at finish on both the heifers and steers.

The Missouri Forage and Grassland Council (MFGC)/Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) is having their annual meeting November 2 and 3rd at Lake Ozark, MO. Information on registration is given on the last page of this newsletter. There will be information presented at this event that should interest all forage/livestock producers in Missouri. Some of the fall cow-calf research work at the FSRC will be presented. Please make the effort to attend this meeting. You will find it worth your time.

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