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OSU Extension BEEF Team

BEEF Cattle questions may be directed to the OSU Extension BEEF Team through Stephen Boyles or Stan Smith, Editor

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Previous issues of the BEEF Cattle letter

Issue # 489

May 31, 2006

Additional Supplies versus the Promise of the East - Brian Roe, Associate Professor, Dept. AED Economics

In the spirit of a summer blockbuster movie, imagine an archetypical action hero racing a truck carrying precious cargo out of the hostile confines of enemy territory toward an impossibly small opening in hopes that a powerful, newly designed weapon - fired skillfully - will jar open a wide enough space to allow for the improbable escape to freedom. Sadly, this tired plot line sums up the US beef market this summer, though the Hollywood ending of a successful escape is not guaranteed as it is at your local multiplex.

The US beef industry's precious cargo is its huge projected increase in summer beef production. And that impossibly small opening - the projected opening of both the South Korean and Japanese export markets to US beef. The powerful, newly designed weapon meant to blast us to freedom - that of bureaucratic negotiation with foreign trade emissaries - misfired back in January after a lapse in our quality control and caused the wall to tumble back down and block that opening for the first six months of 2006. But this time we think it has worked and opened not only the Japanese but also the Korean market.

The question becomes: will these newly re-opened markets provide enough relief from these building supplies to stop a massive summer price slide? Let's start with the supply situation. USDA is projecting 2^nd quarter (April - June) supplies to be nearly 11% larger than last year - a full 660 million pounds more than last year. However, during April and May, only 180 million extra pounds materialized, meaning that - if USDA's projections are right - there is an extra 480 million pounds of beef to hit the market this June (more than a 20% increase over last June).

It is hard to imagine that feedlots will increase cattle marketings by that much in June with cash prices below $80 and the promise of Korea and Japan still ahead. However, the alternative is to keep them on the lot and feed them increasingly expensive corn. In all likelihood, June marketings will merely be big (say, a 10% increase over last year or an additional 200 million pounds) with additional cattle and weight per animal carrying over into July and August - say an additional 300 million. This puts second quarter 2006 beef production merely 6% higher than 2005 and suggests that third quarter 2006 production might be as much as 10.5% higher than last year.

This makes more sense given the timing of Asian market openings. However, this puts July and August prices in a precarious position, particularly given the relatively slow pace at which Japan and Korea are likely to re-open.

August CME live cattle futures prices closed just below $80 prior to Memorial Day. If supplies ramp up to 10% higher than last year, the only way $80 clears the August market is if the strength of demand is 20% higher than last year - a tall feat that even a storybook figure like Dr. Atkins would find hard to repeat. Put it the other way around - if the strength of demand were identical to last year and August supplies are up 10%, prices could drop as low as $70. For those of you who still have July and August sales exposed to downside price risk, you may wish to seek downside protection or pray for fast ships to Japan and Korea. With a Livestock Risk Protection policy from USDA, you could have locked in late August sales for $73.63 for the cost of $1.03 per cwt on the morning after Memorial Day.

Forage Focus: Management for Cow Nutrient Needs - Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator Ag/NR Athens and Hocking Counties

Approaching mid-lactation and entering the breeding season, the cattle producer needs to know the nutrient requirements of the cow and the first calf heifer and attempt to manage pastures to meet those nutrient needs. The following table provides some reference point with regard to nutrient requirements at mid lactation/breeding season.

(Source NRC 1996)

Recognize that these are minimum requirements and in a pasture situation factors such as topography and the amount of walking required to graze and get to water can increase these requirements.

Now, what can we expect from some of our common cool season grass pastures with respect to nutrients they can provide? One way to answer this question would be to take some forage samples from pasture paddocks as cows entered to graze and submit them for laboratory analysis. The disadvantage is the information received would lag behind management decisions. However, if this were done over the course of a year, or even several years, this would provide some good historical information about pasture quality and nutrient levels available under your pasture management scheme. Admittedly, few producers are going to go through the effort and expense it takes to gather this type of information. Our next best option is to use book values of nutrient values that various pasture grasses provide at various growth stages. We can use this to put us in the ballpark as we seek to match up animal requirements with our pasture management. The following table contains some book values that we can use to make some management decisions.

I'll mention at this point that I have seen pasture samples at these growth stages contain higher nutrient levels than what is listed in this table. In particular, if a pasture has had an application of nitrogen fertilizer we would expect to see higher crude protein levels. However these values will serve to help us make some management decisions. It can be seen that generally crude protein is not going to be the limiting nutrient; typically energy (TDN) is what we will need to focus on. Comparing the two tables, it is obvious that for our mature cows we can let grass get to boot stage or even a little beyond and still meet their nutrient requirements. For those first calf heifers that have an additional requirement for growth, pasture quality needs to be better. To meet the needs of the first calf heifer pastures have to be managed to keep grass in the vegetative stage and prevent the formation of seed heads. It can also be seen that adding a legume into the grass pasture will boost pasture quality both in terms of energy (TDN) and crude protein.

The first management decision to be made is: do we run the first calf heifers with the mature cows or group them with our developing heifers and manage for two different nutrient needs? If the decision is to run heifers, first calf heifers and mature cows with calves as one herd, the situation I most often see, then the second management decision is pasture management. Specifically, will the pasture be managed to meet the higher nutrient needs of the first calf heifer or the nutrient needs of the mature cow and try to supplement the first calf and growing heifers? Anytime it is possible to meet the nutrient needs of the animal through forage, especially forage that the animal harvests, our bottom line is going to be improved.

Successful pasture management involves understanding a few key principles and utilizing grazing "tools" to maximize management skills and keep the grass plant healthy. Those principles can be summarized as:

• Avoid seed heads (through use of livestock or mechanical clipping when necessary)
• Take half; leave half when grazing the pasture paddock. My advice to graziers on this principle is that if you are going to err, err on the side of leaving more plant rather than less.
• Provide adequate rest periods for each paddock to allow the forage to re-grow to grazing height.

The tools that the cattle producer has available to make these principles work include: pasture divisions (fencing), water, cattle, and some means of measuring and recording pasture growth across paddocks.

Most cattle producers have the knowledge or can learn the grazing principles that will enable them to manage their pasture to meet the nutrient needs of the various classes of cattle they have on the farm. Putting this knowledge into practice involves management, and it is this management skill that can improve the profitability of the cattle operation.

Reduce Summer Stress on Calves by Developing a Vaccination Program - Kris Ringwall, Extension Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

May is always a busy time. The fun of the approaching summer, the warm air, occasional rain showers, and cows and calves strolling through the thick, green, cool-season grasses makes one appreciate rural life.

At this time of the year, grass and calves grow at astonishing rates. Unfortunately, we all can relate to those days when all the calves didn't bounce up like they should.

After arriving at the pasture, a calf is missing. How does one know? It 's easy because the missing calf is the biggest, fattest, shiniest one in the whole pasture and stands out like a pillar of stone.

The calf is spotted in an awkward position. From a distance, the odds look bad. The calf should be up. The producer already knows the outcome. Approaching the calf, the producer sees that the calf is dead, laid out flat. The producer 's heart sinks. The pride of the pasture is gone, succumbed to overeating too much of a good thing or perhaps an off day. The reasons are many, the result is the same.

This example is one of many key reasons for the need to vaccinate calves. In this case, there is a group of clostridial diseases. Overeating is a common name for this example. The diseases are fairly common, so a routine vaccination is certainly highly recommended.

The various programs are predefined by years of practical experience, knowing the cows and the environment where the cattle are going. The time spent now processing the calves for a summer of grazing needs to take priority.

For some, the calves are worked in smaller groups at very young ages. Each group is moved to a cool-season pasture as they are worked. For others, the calves are not worked until all the calves are born and a major workday scheduled on the calendar. The workday often coincides with the available work force. The workday commonly is called branding, and the work force is more likely family and friends sharing time to get the work done.

All this activity is very important because the work is hard, but more so for planning for the very near future. That very near future means the life of the calf or perhaps even the cow.

Once cattle are turned out to summer pasture, the opportunity to catch up with the cows and calves is very limited. The equipment and labor needed seldom are available again until fall. The vaccinations that the calves, and perhaps cows, receive are the start of building a strong immune system through the summer program and possibly the rest of their lives.

This is not unlike getting our children ready to start school. We can all relate to the many trips to the doctor 's office or county health nurse making sure that all the children have the required vaccinations prior to comingling as they start preschool, kindergarten or first grade. In fact, those vaccinations for children are so important that many are required by law.

Our children simply are not allowed into group settings until they have received these required vaccinations. Perhaps the word required is a bad word to use because the industry is facing many issues regarding the long-term tracking of cattle. However, in this sense, the necessity of the vaccinations is very real.

The consequences of not vaccinating are heavy on the pocket book. The programs vary, so contact your local veterinarian and don't skimp on vaccine. A dead calf simply is not a desired outcome. Visit and compare notes for the region and pick the right program for your area. If the conversation is short, start discussing the clostridial diseases and then build a program.

It's a matter of "Pride and Prejudice" - Dr. Glenn Selk, Extension Cattle Specialist, Oklahoma State University

Have pride in your calves and avoid discounts at sale time due to prejudice.

One experienced sale barn employee put it this way: "Just about the dumbest thing a rancher can do is to bring a horned bull calf to a sale!" Considerable VALUE can be added to weaned feeder calves by applying some routine management practices while they are still "on the cow". Doing these operations while the calf is still young (2 months of age or less) is kinder and gentler to the calf. Calves that have been castrated and de-horned and healed-up from these operations suggests to the buyers that: "this rancher is proud of the product that he or she markets".

Attitudes about de-horned calves apparently are changing. Sale barn surveys conducted in the mid 1980's in Kansas illustrated that the difference in horned calves and calves with no horns was really quite small. They reported only a difference of about $.50 per hundredweight or $2 - $2.50 per calf. However, two similar surveys conducted in Eastern Oklahoma in 1997 and again in 1999, revealed that horned calves were discounted a much greater amount in the late 1990's. This time the difference in horned steer calves was $3 - $3.50 per hundredweight or $15 - $17.50 per 500 pound steer calf. The advantage in heifer calves was about half as much. In a low margin industry such as the cow calf business, finding every advantage is key to success/survival. Dehorning calves at an early age (OR using a genetic dehorner such as a polled bull) can help avoid discounts at sale date.

Castrating bull calves at an early age is another key step to improved prices on sale date. Data were collected at 14 Eastern Oklahoma sale barns during October 1997. The average discount in price was $3.56 per hundredweight for bull calves of similar breed and weight to steers. For a 500-pounder, the difference in take home dollars is another $17.80. More recent surveys in Arkansas list even greater discounts ($4.50/hundredweight) for bulls. Some producers may be tempted to sell bull calves because "bulls grow faster than steers" and therefore weigh more at weaning. While there is no question that bulls generally are heavier at weaning time, research has repeatedly shown that steer calves, given growth promoting implants at about 2 months old, will weigh the same as the intact bull and consistently receive the higher selling price per pound.

De-worming spring-born calves in the first week of June is another management practice that can return more dollars than it cost. Calves de-wormed at the OSU Research Station near Haskell, Oklahoma weighed 21 pounds more at weaning than calves that were not de-wormed. Added weight gain is routinely valued at $.55 per pound. Therefore, de-wormed calves sold for an average of $11.55 more per head than calves from the same herd that were not de-wormed.

Blackleg vaccines routinely cost about $.50 or less per dose (if the producer administers the vaccine him/herself.) This is extremely inexpensive insurance against a disease that is present in the soil of many areas of Oklahoma. One calf lost to blackleg could have potentially purchased 800 to 1000 doses of the vaccine.

The procedures outlined above are important to increasing the value of calves sold from your operation. Many cattle producers can and will perform the management procedures such as castration, dehorning, implanting, blackleg vaccinations, and de-worming. These hours of hard work are certainly well rewarded at calf marketing time. Not every small Oklahoma cow/calf operator has the facilities, the strength of youth, or the time away from other employment to do all of the procedures we have discussed. Therefore, some producers will choose to take the calves to their local veterinarian to have some or all of these procedures done for them. A small survey of northeast Oklahoma veterinary clinics found that all five of these management procedures could be done for $14.00 to $19.50 per horned bull calf. This cost would include the vaccine, implant, and de-wormer. Obviously, less expense is needed if the calves are heifers or already polled. Research on sale barn calves raised and sold in Eastern Oklahoma suggests that implanted, dehorned, de-wormed, castrated steers would be valued at $40 to $46 more per head than if they had been left as "wormy cutter bull calves".

Do you like putting more money in your pocket than you take out? Do you like the idea of being proud of the calves that you unload at the sale each year after weaning?

* De-horn calves

* Castrate bull calves

* Implant steer calves

* De-worm calves

* Vaccinate for blackleg

Visit the OSU Beef Team calendar of meetings and upcoming events

BEEF Cattle is a weekly publication of Ohio State University Extension in Fairfield County and the OSU Beef Team. Contributors include members of the Beef Team and other beef cattle specialists and economists from across the U.S.

All educational programs conducted by Ohio State University Extension are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status. Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Admin. and Director, OSU Extension. TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868

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