Cow-Calf Operations Its all about BEEF! From foukeffa.org Written by Matt Bierds Ag Student Texas A&M GA Ag Ed Curriculum Office To accompany the Georgia Agriculture Education Curriculum Course 02421 Unit 2 July 2001

Advantages Forage is cheaper than feed. Less labor requirements. Low death loss. Adapt well. Good demand for producers, especially small producers, because inexpensive. Forages are the main food source for all cow-calf operators. Very little feed is fed by cow-calf oprerators. If they feed feed it is just in the winter to the cows or during a drought to the cows. The calves are only fed a creep feed for about 3 months on a limited basis. Most all of the labor required is for maintenance of the ranch. Is a most in order to insure good profits and cattle just don’t lose a lot of their offsping. It is easy for producers to adapt to the market and to various ways of producing the cattle. Great opportunity for people to be involved in agriculture because it is easier to produce cattle than other species and usually less expensive to operate.

Disadvantages Through droughts, cost increases, due to no grass and feeding feed Don’t convert grass as good as feed Fewer offspring per year, compared to other species High cost to start operation; i.e. land You have to feed supplements during the harsh times of the year. Cattle don’t convert grass to body weight as quickly as they do with feed. Thus it takes longer to get the product to the table than with other species. Cows only have one offspring a year to sell verses more offspring with other species, however the more mouths you have to feed the more expensive it gets. It does cost more to get started than with other species because you have to buy a lot of land which is expensive. However the land is more easly convert back to capital than with other species because you don’t have a lot of barns that can only be used for one purpose like with swine.

Cow-Calf Operations How does it work? What type of cattle are used? When is the calving season? Producers role is to produce a calf to be used in the beef market. They can only produce one calf every 12 months. A Cow carries a calf for 9 months before it gives birth. Then she nurses it for another 6 months before it is weaned and sold. We can rebreed a cow 3 months after she has given birth that way she is carring her next calf while she is nursing one. This enables us to have a calf every 12 months. We typical like our cows to contain at least 50% of a mother breed, the other part can be of a exotic breed. We then breed these cows to exotic type bull to produce calves with a high percentage of exotic so that they will grow and be well muscled, but still have some ability to get fat from the mother breed influence. Calves are usually calved out in a season which would last for about 3 months. We typically will calve in the fall and spring but the summer months can also be used for calving. We try to avoid the winter months and year round calving.

What’s the Bull’s Job? How many cows can one bull breed each season? How many bulls would you need if owned 200 cows? What is another way to breed your cows? One bull can breed approximately 30 cows. 7 bulls However AI can be used. To be able to get more diverse genetics.

Heifers: What are these creatures? When are heifers able to start breeding? Gestation period of ~283 days (9 months) Can a cow ever have twins? Heifers need to be bred around 15-18 months of age that way they will have there first calf at around 2 years of age. Cows can have twins but not very likely.

Moo-cows get hungry too! What do we feed beef cattle? Mainly forages- grasses and legumes. Grasses Bermuda, Fescue Legumes Clovers, Alfalfa Pasture free of weeds. Why? Grass is much cheaper to feed than feed. You do have to maintain the grass by fertilizing the grass several times a year. You also have to apply herbicides to kill the weeds so that you have good grass. Just like in your yard. You also have to think about planting some type of grass for them to eat during the winter, why?

Supplements Minerals Creep feeding Fed free choice What is it? Minerals are feed to kept the animals healthy since they can’t get all they need from the grass. Creep feed is a feed that is feed to the baby calves in order to help them grow faster and be heavier at weaning time, why? The creep feed is fed somewhat on a limited basis, but not free choice. Why? Because we want to limit our cost.

Where are we at in the process? Calf is born. Calf is weaned. Where does it go next?

Backgrounding system Cattle is fed high quality forages and maybe some grain for about a 4-6 month period. Usually on the fall off in spring or on in spring off in fall. This is done to increase size of your cattle, as cheaply as possible. Because again grass is cheaper than feed. Here we are taking the weaned cattle and letting them graze grass for about 4-6 months. Usually if it is the summer they are grazing bermuda grass, sudan, or other types of warm season high quality grasses. If its winter then they are usually grazing wheat or oats. We do this because we can put some cheap gain on the cattle . The only draw back is that it takes a long time, Why? We usually only are trying to put about 200lbs on the cattle.

Finishing system Cattle is fed to slaughter weight here. -start at about 800 lbs -finished at 1100-1400 lbs -fed for about 150-175 days Commercial feedlots Midwestern and Southwestern U.S. Fed feed concentrates -high energy- corn, milo, oats We try to put on at least 300-600lbs of gain at this time. We want the cattle to put on muscle and fat. We hope that we can get the first 300lbs on rather quickly from compensatory gain from coming off the pastures. The last half of the weight is hard to put on, because we want them to stop growing and start fattening but some cattle are really hard to fatten.

Nowhere to go but,… Slaughter House Finally, beef is sent to HEB to be consumed by us.

Review of Process Cow calf operator- conception to weaning, 15 months. Backgrounder- raises weaned calves until they are ready to go to feedlot. 4-6 months Feedlot- fattens cattle to slaughter weight, usually 5-6 months. Slaughter House to Grocery store to Table.

Process Review Cont. Total time require to get beef to the consumer. From the first thought of the next calf crop to the table, right at or just over 2 years. From the birth of a calf to the table, right at 16-17 months.

Review What is a cow-calf operation? What do we feed? Where are the beef cattle finished off?