Beef

A five-year research project shows that margins were higher, calves healthier and labour requirements less for pasture calving than for its barn equivalent. But a changeover will delay cash flow in the first year

by Susan Mann

Ten years ago, after a nasty outbreak of scours among his new born calves, cow-calf farmer Amos Brielmann decided to change his calving methods.

This is just one of the questions producers are pondering as they strive to find ways to reduce their losses in the face of high feeding costs

by DON STONEMAN

A frustrated Ontario cattle feeder, who doesn’t want his name used, says that every time a truckload of cattle pulls away from his Bruce County feedlot, a piece of his farm’s equity goes with it. He wants to cut down on his corn costs and thinks he is better off feeding for less marbling in the cattle.

In the big picture, is it reasonable to market cattle earlier and still keep the first market, the packer, happy?

Managed properly, feeding after 5 p.m. results in day-calving in about 80 per cent of trials and nature is more forgiving of a calf dropped in daylight

by DON STONEMAN

Night feeding for day calving doesn’t work for you? Maybe you aren’t doing it right. The key, says Nancy Noecker, a provincial cow-calf specialist, is not to leave feed in the bunk all day. “If there is feed lying around all day, there is no incentive for cows to eat when there is feed.”

Managed properly, night feeding after 5 p.m. results in day-calving in about 80 per cent of trials, Noecker says.

‘Yield in cattle is just as important as butterfat is to the dairyman,’ says beef consultant Charlie Gracey. And an animal yielding more lean meat will cost less in feed

by DON STONEMAN

A hundred years ago, says beef consultant Charlie Gracey, butter makers complained that Holstein milk contained so little fat you could drop a dime into a milk pail and “tell whether it landed heads or tails.”

On the rock lands of the Bruce Peninsula, trefoil is proving ‘by far the legume of choice.’ But it can be difficult to establish

by Mary Baxter

Glen Wells calls birdsfoot trefoil the “miracle plant of legumes for grazing.”