Reminders for cattle producers in winter
For starters, I would like to remind people about a local youth livestock event on Jan. 14, 2017 at the Northwest Georgia Research and Education Livestock Pavilion here in Calhoun. Gordon 4-H is coordinating a youth heifer and swine show for 4-H and FFA members in the area. AgGeorgia Farm Credit, ACA is serving as the sponsor for these shows. The heifer show will start at 10 a.m. while the junior swine show will start at approximately 1 p.m. Most folks know where the livestock pavilion is located, but the address is 1286 Highway 53 Spur SW. This is a great event to watch area youth show their livestock.
For today’s article, I would like to give some reminders to our cattle producers in these winter months. I will be sharing information from a variety of sources and from various UGA specialists.
First, 2016 and now 2017 have not been kind in regards to weather for the cattle and other livestock sectors. The drought has been a historic event. I remember as a youth back in the 70s of maybe another bad drought, but this one has been special. Hay is a very valuable commodity right now. Hay has been trucked in to the area from all over the Southeast to help with the short supplies. One suggestion on your hay is to do some hay testing to see what your hay is providing nutritionally. When you test, you can get a RFQ (Relative Forage Quality), score, crude protein, energy and even check nitrate levels of the hay, for example. Sampling takes out the guesswork and helps you make management decisions on whether you need to add a supplement in regards to poor quality hay.
Poor quality hay can set yourself up for a lot of problems. Many cattle producers in North Georgia will have a late fall to early winter calving season. So, right now many herds have lactating cows. The drought has not helped since many cows went into the winter with a lower body condition score than they would in previous years. There have been situations where if the hay quality is poor, the cows cannot eat enough feed to provide the nutrition they need to get bred back and also to raise that calf. Right now, I would really be keeping an eye on body condition of each cow in your herd. Also, keep an eye on the baby calves too. We like to see a cow on a 1-9 Body Condition Score with a score of 6. Many cows right now are lower. Those cows will need extra help to get through the winter. If you do a visual appraisal of the cows daily, you should be able to see what cows are doing well and ones that are not.
Again, testing the hay will let you know what you are feeding and if you need to do more. Keep in mind that poor quality hay will be tough to add enough supplement to get you where you need to be nutritionally. I will add that if the hay quality is poor, such as TDN (Total Digestible Nutrients) in the 40s to 50s and RFQ in the 70 to 80 range, that hay is not much different that straw. In those situations, some supplements that we use a lot, such as molasses lick tanks, can cause cattle to eat more and more of the poor hay which can lead to impaction issues in the digestive tract of the animal. Impaction can be fatal. I could go into more technical terms of impaction, but the take home message is the more you know about your hay nutritionally, the easier you can know if you need to be doing more.
I have said many times, I like the changing of the seasons. I even like to see some snow here and there, but this year I would rather move on to spring and see some grass grow for our livestock. Another tip is soil testing. Time is going to tell on how much our grass will come back this spring due to the drought. Soil testing is another way to take out the guesswork on if you need to lime or how to fertilize your pastures or hayfields. Soil testing is one way to get you on a path of peak production on that acreage. We have a lot of land that probably needs a lime application.
If you need to reseed some areas, you need to make sure you are not planting a certain grass at the wrong time of year. For example, if you plant fescue which is a cool season in late spring or summer that is not going to work. I see mistakes like that a lot. Finally, with short hay supplies, along with cattle that had a difficult year due to weather and limited grazing, producers really need to dig in and manage for the situation now and make plans for the upcoming hay and grazing season. Again, take the time to check body condition on the cows and monitor calves since some cows may not be lactating like they would in better years.
For more information, contact UGA ExtensionGordon County at 706-6298685 or email gbowman@ uga.edu.