May 01, 2024
This spring, it’s important to understand best practices during grass turnout so that you help keep your cattle healthy and promote breeding.
Dr. Brian Dorcey, a veterinarian at Southwest Veterinary Services, and Dr. Monty Kerley, founder and lead researcher for Boveta Nutrition, LLC, break grass turnout best practices into three categories:
Watch Dr. Dorcey and Dr. Kerley share tips for grass turnout in the on-demand webinar or continue reading below the video. We’ve also put together a special Grass Turnout Guide for you to download here to help you stay on top of the best practices during this busy season.
Pasture management can be affected by heat units and the amount of moisture, so it will be a little different every year. With this in mind, make sure your cattle match your grass.
Cattle and farmers can be anxious to get out to pasture, but it’s important not to overgraze too early. Take out your herd and rotate pastures frequently instead of letting them graze too much or mud down a pasture.
It’s good to know the balance of cool season and warm season grasses in your area as well as in your pastures to maximize the amount of growth you can get off that grass.
It’s also important to not let the grass get ahead of you. When the grass matures, the seed heads can actually damage a cow’s eye and possibly lead to pinkeye challenges later in the grazing season. Consider haying or clipping your pastures to refresh the growth, and remove some of the mature grass so it does not irritate your cows.
Good fences make good neighbors. Ensure your fences are maintained, spray for weeds, and cut trees before your pasture starts to grow too much.
Put together the timeline for your spraying program in a manner that coincides with your workload. Pasture sprays available on FBN’s crop protection online store include:
It’s also a good time to evaluate the ROI of a fertilizer program. This will differ from farm to farm and pasture to pasture, but thinking about how you can introduce fertilizers into your management program can help you maximize the value of your pasture.
At this time of the year, it's important to focus on cows' mineral needs. There are several factors that influence a cow’s nutrition needs, including:
Cows have added nutrient requirements for fetal growth, reproductive tract repair, and milk production.
Milk production increases calcium and mineral requirements.
Trace minerals are important for conception.
The mineral nutrition of the cow determines the mineral status of the calf at birth, which is important for growth and health.
By utilizing a breeder mineral, you increase the calcium available to the cow, which is needed for milk production. Introducing trace minerals in a hydroxychloride form will maximize the availability of trace minerals that the cow can actually use because they prevent minerals from being tied up by antagonists like sulfur.
In rapidly growing forages during spring, potassium and magnesium compete in grass. The plant can be limited or deficient in the amount of magnesium it provides when cows eat it. This can cause a magnesium deficiency in cows that is known as grass tetany.
Get more insights on forage in the free FBN Silage Guide here.
As you’re doing semen evaluations on your bull batteries on farms, it’s helpful to consider the bull to cow ratio. This differs from farm to farm and the specific area of the country you may be in.
On average, a good bull to cow ratio is in the range of 1:20 or 1:30. This can be determined by the age of the bull and how many acres the bull has to cover. When there’s a lot of area to cover, the 1:20 ratio is more practical. In a more confined range situation, the 1:30 ratio makes sense.
Try to semen check your bull as close to turnout as possible for a real-time measure of fertility. Monitor body condition. If a bull loses a significant amount of weight throughout the winter, this will affect his fertility.
As well, verify libido to ensure bulls will mate. Keep an eye on mating activity when they’re in the pasture to see that there are successful connections.
Match bulls to range conditions. It’s a best practice to stratify bulls by age and size in multiple pastures. This will help reduce instances of them creating a pecking order and getting into fights.
Learn more about breeding and reproduction in the free FBN Grass Turnout Guide.
Knowing biosecurity risks for your herd will help inform some of the management decisions that you face throughout the year. Be aware of the conditions of the animals that you’ve purchased and monitor them closely. These animals have the potential to bring in new strains of pinkeye, Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD), or Johne’s disease.
To protect against these diseases, visit the FBN Animal Health store to find products like:
Pinkeye Shield® XT4 from Elanco
One Shot® BVD from Zoetis
Being aware of biosecurity risks can help you develop an appropriate vaccine and management strategy. For example, you may need to quarantine new animals for 30 days or consider using a metaphylactic antibiotic treatment strategy. In some cases, you may want to contact the person who sold you the animals to get a better understanding of their herd status.
You should also consider consulting with neighbors who may have fence line contacts. Many diseases can be introduced across fence lines. Having conversations with your neighbor about the health of their herd could have potential implications on how you manage your own herd.
Some common questions to ask your neighbor about their herd include:
Did you see any changes in health?
Did you see more abortions this year?
Did you have more open (nonpregnant) cows than you did last year?
Are you treating more calves for summertime pneumonia?
Are you seeing more foot rot or pinkeye?
If both you and your neighbor are more vigilant about biosecurity risks, you both have the opportunity to ensure your herd is healthy.
There are diseases that you may not be able to keep off your farm because they’re endemic in your cow herd. In this case, work with a veterinarian to develop the right vaccine protocols for your operation.
As you prepare for grass turnout, keep these questions in mind:
What is your plan for pasture management and grazing?
Have you chosen the right mineral supplement for your herd?
What does your breeding program look like, and what is your plan for bull power?
What biosecurity measures do you have in place, and how are you managing disease?
What is your deworming strategy for your cows and calves?
Find all of the products you need for grass turnout through FBN. You can shop 24/7 online for everything from herbicides to protect your pasture to vaccines to protect your cattle:
Pinkeye Shield® XT4 from Elanco
One Shot® BVD from Zoetis
In our free Grass Turnout Guide, you can find more essential product recommendations, including:
Disease prevention
Breeding
Fly control
Implants
The FBN Animal Health store is stocked with additional products that can help keep your cattle and other livestock healthy through spring and beyond:
If you already have a certain product or ingredient in mind, you can type it directly into the search bar to quickly find it.
Products that require a prescription are identified by a gray RX clipboard icon and are easy to order. After you’ve submitted your order through FBN, our pharmacy team will contact you to request your veterinarian's name and phone number, and then we will obtain the prescription over the phone.
Your animal health product will be delivered Monday through Friday. If a vaccine requires refrigeration, it will be packed alongside gel packs in a secure thermal box and delivered to your farm or ranch within 48 hours.
If you have questions about purchasing animal health products through FBN, feel free to reach out:
Call us: (877) 218-9411
Email us: pharmacy@farmersbusinessnetwork
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May 01, 2024
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