Calf, stocker prices hit all-time high

Beef cow inventories in Ontario, Canada and the world are currently down significantly, and there is no sign of a rebuild in numbers starting yet. This has resulted in the value of beef calves and stockers being at an all-time high. Calves selling at $3/lb represent $1,200 – $1,500 gross return on a cow. This is twice the average from the last few years.

Pasture management

Grazing is about growing grass. The more grass forage that is produced on a parcel of land, the more cattle that can be supported on that acreage. Managing a pasture is about rest and recovery of the grass. If livestock have access to all the pasture area, they pick the tasty plants and leave the less palatable and more mature plants. The most palatable plants get over-grazed and the less palatable get under-grazed. Palatability is affected by maturity as much as species. Subdividing Pastures and Rotational Grazing: Rotational grazing is the key to getting even pasture consumption across the pasture. Animals should be in a pasture/paddock for no more than five days. For optimum production a paddock should be grazed on to two days, followed by 25 to 45 days or more for recovery and re-growth. There have been improvements in pasture productivity simply by sub-dividing a pasture. In most cases, an increase of 25 to 35 percent in productivity is readily achieved. In very dramatic cases, a 500 percent increase has been seen. Since your pastures already have a perimeter fence, sub-dividing to increase productivity is very simple. An internal sub-division fence can consist of one electric wire (two at the most) with step in posts. Animals quickly learn that the fresh grass available when they are moved is far more palatable than the grass that has been trampled and fouled by manure and urine. Each paddock must have easy access to water, but since several paddocks can access the same water point, this does not need to be a daunting task. One fairly easy way of getting water where it is needed is by pumping it through plastic pipe lying on the ground. Grazing Cover Crops: There is another opportunity for pasture in cover crops. Cover crops grown for soil protection can double as livestock pastures. The livestock will benefit from the cover crop forage, and also convert the nutrients in the cover crop into a more readily available form for the succeeding annual crop. This additional feed will give your permanent pastures an opportunity to rest and recover and will result in strong plants for next year’s grazing season. Look around your farm and your community and see if there are crop acres that are better suited to perennial forage, or are already producing perennial forage but could be more productive. There are many opportunities to increase the productivity of existing pasture land and also grazing of other crops. This will provide low cost feed for livestock and allow the producer to realize increased profitability in their farm enterprise.