Livestock producers who want to improve the profit potential for their cow herd operations need to make successful heifer management a key component in their business plan, says a beef cattle expert with the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.
Heifer management is one of the most important things that livestock producers need to be concerned with in developing a cow herd, said John Grimes, beef coordinator for Ohio State University Extension and a member of the OSU Extension Beef Team.
“One of the most expensive investments in any beef herd is the young cow,” Grimes said. “Heifers require a higher degree of management to maximize their profit potential.
“They can be more challenging to manage than mature cows because they have different nutritional needs and must be developed and managed properly to become quality replacement heifer candidates for the cow herd. Based on the latest agricultural census, the average cow herd in Ohio is about 17 cows, meaning these livestock producers typically add three to four females to the herd each year.”
Helping producers weigh options of how best to manage young cows for profitability is the focus of the Aug. 26 Jackson Beef and Forage Field Night at the Jackson Agricultural Research Station.
Presentations from Extension, OARDC
The event will feature presentations from OSU Extension and Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center researchers and educators, including Grimes and Justin Kieffer, Scott Payne, Steve Boyles, Tony Parker, Jeff Fisher and Jeff Moore.
OSU Extension and OARDC are the outreach and research arms, respectively, of the college. The research station is part OARDC and has been a primary site for reproductive and production management research in beef cattle for more than three decades.
Topics to be discussed during the field night will include:
- Veterinary feed directive.
- Replacement heifer decisions: Do I raise them or do I buy them?
- Getting the heifer bred and properly developed to calving time.
- Keeping the first calf heifer in the herd.
The workshop is from 4-8:30 p.m. at the research station, located at 019 Standpipe Road, Jackson. The event, which will include dinner, is $10 per person, with an Aug. 23 deadline to register.
Source:ag.purdue.edu