Winter management tips

Stewardship and sound business practices are key to the success of the beef cattle enterprise. This article will address some good practices to focus on, and in return will have long-term benefits.

Forage management: In preparation for the spring grazing season, soil samples taken during winter allow nutrient deficiencies in pastures and hay fields to be identified. Frost-seeding clover is a cost-effective strategy to improve forage quality and availability in early spring. Thinking ahead, February is an optimum time to frost-seed clover in Virginia and the surrounding region. Frost-seeding needs to be done with four to six weeks of winter conditions remaining (freeze-thaw cycle).

 Addition of clover to tall fescue pastures is an effective way of diluting ergot alkaloids associated with fescue toxicosis in the animal’s diet. Clover is valued for its nitrogen-fixing ability and has financial benefits as a low-cost method of adding nitrogen to pastures.

Genetics: For spring-calving herds, now is the time to prepare for the spring bull-buying season. Evaluate your current herd sire battery, as well as genetic needs for your herd moving forward. Take time to objectively assess your herd’s strengths and weaknesses to identify traits to focus on. 

Comparison of current and previous sire EPD (expected progeny difference) profiles relative to herd performance will assist in establishing benchmarks for future sire selection. Careful evaluation of herd goals and records will provide a road map for identifying bulls in the sale book which meet your specifications for performance traits (EPDs, pedigree, etc.). Finally, focus on traits that pay the bills.

Business practices: Winter is also a good time to evaluate and summarize annual production costs and identify cost and income factors that affect your bottom line. It is easy to focus on production areas (e.g., nutrition, genetics, health, reproduction, etc.) we find interesting when reviewing records. It is valuable to consider these major areas as slices of the whole pie rather than singular pieces. 

Profitability in your beef enterprise can be improved to the largest extent by focusing on the weakest links in your operation, and those that comprise the largest portion of either expenses or income. Enterprise budgets are an excellent tool to use and can be constructed for a number of components of the operation, including replacement heifer development, implementation of an artificial insemination (AI) program and calf backgrounding. 

By combining budgets with key assumptions, it is possible to consider the effects of changing certain management practices in terms of their costs and potential returns.