Basic Beef Cattle Management

Basic Beef Cattle Management

    Well today we're going to talk a little bit about just some basic beef cattle, cow , and calf production thoughts .

 We want to give you just some of the basic essentials that will be necessary and some things to think about before you step over beef cattle production system and actually buy some cows and so some things that we got to think about :

1- Fencing requirements :
 For cattle for a simple basic cow calf operation most producers can get away with just a single pasture however it does begin with one pasture it begins to limit your grazing strategies and the ability to rotate cattle to help better manage forage conditions and so again you know one good pasture with perimeter fence is kind of the basic need but as you begin to split those pastures some you can start to manage them a little better for cows and cattle typically just a five or six strand barbed wire will be adequate.
 
Some producers opt for a net wire which is closer spacing and especially on perimeter fences or maybe areas that you may be weaning cattle because they kind of keep cattle from pushing their head through the fence but with a six wire barbed wire fence most the time that's going to be plenty adequate.
 
We always recommend your perimeter fences be in really good shape to keep those cattle contained in your operation ,so you don't lose them for obvious reasons but if you're on a pasture or a county-owned if you're on a farm to market road or a county road or even a major highway perimeter fences are so critical for that because we don't want those cattle to get out and stray maybe stray into the roadway and get killed themselves or cause a traffic accident that could harm somebody .
So basic fencing requirements is important.
 Again single pasture that's all you need but as you split those pastures up ,you have the ability to more efficiently manage those cattle .
So fencing that's kind of a basic thing you need to think about before you get the cattle....

 2-  Shades :
 For cattle in general it's nice to have some shade and shade trees for those cattle.
 It's not mandatory if I'm raising cattle that have a lot of hair and that are more adapted to let's just say Montana some English or Continental based cattle and I'm trying to raise them in South Texas, I probably better have some shade for those cattle ..
Whether it be trees or some kind of artificial shade.
 If I've got predominantly Brahman influence or ball Senecas cattle I can get away with that ,but certainly during some of those inclement times ,it's not a bad idea to have some shade and some shade trees if it is available.
 But again depending on your breed type of cattle you may not need it .
 Extreme weather conditions in Texas we don't typically have the extreme cold conditions that would warrant having a calving facility where we bring cattle into calves them occasionally we do get some inclement weather and we can get into the 20s and maybe some ice and snow and if you're trying to cab during that time of years you have some heavy tropically adaptive genetics.
 Brahman type genetics those calves may need to be warmed up so you may think about when you're calving around that and we've talked about calvings and calving seasons and when two calves and in other discussions so again those are some basic requirements .

3- Water resource :
 In Texas we do rely heavily on ponds and streams for our water resources and then we also can depend on water that comes from well .
Our public water system in the form of water troughs a good source of clean water is a basic necessity for cattle that you've got to have and clean water you know is extremely important and that's going help with the production but then also if we get into some issues where we've got some stagnant water ,we can get into some toxicity issues so you have to be aware of those types of things.
 If you're going to put in a water trough or a source of water that is dependent on you making sure that there's a constant supply every day so rather than having a one to two acre lake that's got plenty of water every day you don't have to worry about it if you're goning depend on a trough based system you've got to make sure that you probably check on those cattle to make sure that they've got water daily or if you're not checking them daily you make sure you've got an adequate supply of water to meet the the need of those cattle in between the time from when you check them the first time to when you come back and that's important maybe during the winter time but it's extremely important as we move into the summer months because the water requirements for a cow can range anywhere from cooler wetter conditions where we've got the grasses got a lot of moisture in it a cow may only need 10 gallons of water today as we get into the summer the grasses are dry it's 95 to 100 degrees we could be looking at a cow drinking 20 to 30 plus gallons of water a day - to maintain what her body needs and so what you need to do is think about that if I'm gonna be checking my cows daily I've got during the summertime there eat they're drinking 30 gallons of water a day I probably need to make sure I've got a checking those cows twice a week I'm gonna have to multiply that times three and a half times so I've got to think about those things because without water during extremely hot and dry periods cattle can die fairly quickly and we have seen that in the past and that's not a good scenario that's not a good welfare practice .
So think about the water requirements.
 Also calves nursing a cow will have a water consumption factor as well weaned cast four to five hundred pounds may drink anywhere from ten to twenty gallons of water per day

so water requirements and there's a lot of good resources on the web that talk about the requirements of water for cattle during different types of the year .
so water is a basic fundamental need that we've got to think about.

 4- Stocking rates :

 So how many cows that you can run on your particular operation .
The rate of that are some things that you've got to consider as well
we always recommend that you stock a little bit more conservative and I especially recommend if you don't have a historical perspective on a particular ranch and so if you just bought a piece of property and it's 50 acres and you're in the eastern portion of Texas but I don't really know how many cows the previous owner managed on that particular operation I'm probably going to start a little more conservative until I get a feeling of what that particular operation will produce for me so again we typically think about maybe starting out and that's that seventy five percent of what you think the stocking rate will be and maybe you maintain that and then you can fluctuate from there .

The other thing is when you're thinking about stocking rate is figure out actually how much grass you have ??
 You've got to take out your house barn structures or areas that are fenced off where cattle cannot get to ponds wooded areas that are not going to have any grass under them and so actually calculate what your actual pasture area is and use that to calculate how many cows that I can can graze that particular piece of land .
We've talked about in other segments of some tools that you can use that are available on the Internet and that'll help you go in and calculate that graze able acres that you do have so you can better calculated stocking rate but again we always recommend maybe starting out a little conservative or work off of somebody else's estimates if you have them from a previous landowners . AG valuation on your property:
 The other thing that you've got to be real careful with with stocking rate depending on where you what county you live in as well as what area of the state may be you should be or will be concerned about AG valuation on your property and so fortunately in in Texas we have the ability to buy you rule AG related property based on a different rate and so when we do that we drastically reduce our taxes to pennies on the dollar for that property that is in agricultural production or maybe wildlife exemption as well and so with that that that's important to consider and agriculture can production from a cow-calf operation could be grazing cattle but it also can be hay production one of the things that I would recommend is you touch base with your local appraisal office and you have to go to your local appraisal office your local county appraisal office to get this information because County to County is going to be a little bit different and what your county is maybe different than what the next county is and figure out what what those requirements are as far as the number of cattle that should be on a particular property piece of property sometimes those are negotiable and sometimes we do work with those County appraisers to get them a better understanding what a more acceptable stocking rate is going to be and so those are some things to consider when you're thinking about your stocking rates whether it be on cattle or small ruminants or something like that so be sure to check with your local when you begin when you purchase a piece of property or you're starting a cattle production check with your appraisal office they're gonna help you get signed up for that AG exemption as well so they're a great resource good place to start rather dough to to head that off early as you begin to think about putting together .

6- Reproduction : 

so you've got some cows and maybe you you purchased those cows bred maybe you purchased some heifers you know the next step is okay so once they have calves or they're getting to the age where I can breed them we need to either think about artificial insemination or we put a bowl on those cattle .
so reproduction is important and it doesn't work unless we do have conception there so what are my options you know I've got 15 cows is a bull my best option or is artificial insemination my best option ??
artificial insemination eliminates the need for the bull but with artificial insemination you're gonna have some costs associated with that the cost of synchronizing those cows those heifers or cows together to so that you can breed them at one time so there's cost associated with that it can be around $20 a head not including labor then you've got the semen costs that are somewhere in that 20 dollars then you may have a technician fee if you've got to pay somebody to do it and then just the logistics behind it so with artificial insemination you're gonna have to run them through the chute a couple of times as well so there is that aspect the other aspect is with artificial insemination you know you can expect maybe first service conception rates in that 60 to maybe 80 percent are some  figures depending on the quality of the technician how the cattle are set up and so on but the reality is unless you continue to breed those that don't come in or that don't get settled with AI you extend your breeding season you're gonna end up having to figure out a way either I'm gonna have open cattle or I'm still gonna have to clean them up with the Bulls .
- So really intruder are all artificial insemination is not gonna eliminate the need for a bull it will you know me make an introduce some higher quality genetics at a more economical price possibly so if I'm just gonna side well I'm gonna have a bull well typical bull mature bull to cow ratios or about a bull to around 25 to 30 cows is is typically what we think of
if it's a young bull maybe a 15 to 17 month old bull a common rule of thumb would be one cow per hour one bull per so if that bull is fifteen months old we would expect that he could service about upwards to a mature bull is around 25 cows that he could cover per year so that gives you some rule of thumb on bulls we do recommend the Bulls not guaranteed as long as he's out there with the cows so we recommend you do a fertility exam before he's turned out for the first time and then we recommend following up have your your local large animal veterinarian conduct a breeding soundness exam fertility exam on that bull annually to make sure that there's not even reproductive problems because always remember cow that doesn't get bread doesn't have a calf then give you a paycheck the next year .

okay so I have I've got my my fences put together I've got a water resource, I've got my forages established you know I can meet the need basic needs of the cattle I know how many cattle that I can run on my operation so now the next question is well what breed are breed type of cattle that I choose ???

- That can be a challenge there's a lot of breeders there's over a hundred breeds of cattle in the United States today there's probably about 15 to 20 major breeds in the the u.s. today and really we can divide those into three functional groups okay and those three groups would be our British breeds which would be example would be Angus Hereford Shorthorn Perle poll Hereford and Red Angus those breeds are very maternal so they're good milking ability they easy fleshing ability meaning they will put on condition and fat so that makes them an ideal candidate for a cow that's very efficient on the ranch they also are known for their if they're easy fleshing or easy fattening they also a higher marbling so their meat quality the downside of those breeds they're more adapted to cooler environments and so in the tropical adaptive environments they're not as efficient the next breed group that we have would be our continental breeds and we brought those to the United States mainly to increase the performance of our cattle that we're here already our British breeds and so those cattle are known for their growth their muscling ability and their leanness and so we really like those cattle from a yielding perspective and growth of performance if they're leaner higher yielding heavier muscle they don't fatten as well or don't eat you flesh it up as well so maybe in a purebred standpoint they may not be as suitable to some of our cow conditions they also on average or lower marbling and again we're working off of averages here we know within breeds there can be some differences there and then our last breed group would be our American breeds or our Brahman influence our tropically adapted type breeds these breeds are suited to the more hot environments of the southern portion of the US and these cattle are known for their adaptability these environmental conditions with parasites and heat and maybe lower quality forage and stressors at the same time they're very good maternal ability and they make really good cows however on average those breed types are known to be a little bit lower and marbling again that's on average there's differences within the breeds and there are some cattle breed type breeds some cattle genetics within those breeds that are higher more a lot of those breeds have made improvements so those are three breeds now what we always say is you match the cat of the environment so figure out what breed works well in the environmental conditions you're in if you're in the and in Texas for the most part you will see that a lot of our cattle on our commercial cow-calf production the cows gonna have some Brahman influence in it because of the adaptability but also the heterosis or hybrid vigor or when you cross breed animals you get that improvement in and reproductive fish and sea longevity and just a performance so we'll see a lot of our cattle with some Brahman influence not to say that I couldn't raise straight English or British breeds angus or Hereford or short horns down on the coast it's just whenever you move cattle that are not as adapted to their environment - and in those areas production costs are gonna go up okay so when you adapt cattle to where they're suited then you're gonna have you'll be able to control the cost and they're just gonna be more productive for you the other thing is then you've got to figure out okay I've got my cow base well what breed a bold I put on them to complement her genetics to produce a calf for my market now what is your market now is your market taking them to the local livestock auction if it is figure out what cattle are consistently right there in the market that will produce calves that are productive in your environment but also will give you a good price as well you also have to you know your market could be directly to a feed yard maybe you've got a niche market and maybe you're going to finish out cattle on your ranch either with grain or grass and sell them directly to consumer in a farmers market you've got to figure those markets out and then tailor your breeding system to do that Basic Beef Cattle Management