Iowa Beef Center

Welcome to our final meeting session for our online meeting on weaning management! Today’s meeting is on making culling decisions during weaning time this fall.

If you weren’t able to attend the first four sessions or you’d like some background information on our new online meeting tool, check out our prior sessions:

• Fall Weaning Online Meeting: Session One – “Nutrition Concerns During Weaning Time”
• Fall Weaning Online Meeting: Session Two - “Maximizing Calf Health During Weaning”
• Fall Weaning Online Meeting: Session Three – “Making Marketing Decisions This Fall”
• Fall Weaning Online Meeting: Session Four – “Finding a Successful Weaning Strategy”

Today’s featured session is “Culling Your Cows During Weaning Time.” Click on the agenda links below to learn more about this topic:

“Considerations for culling decisions in cow herd” (newsletter article), Daryl Strohbehn and Byron Leu, Iowa State University
Dr. Daryl Strohbehn and Byron Leu, ISU Extension beef program specialist, discuss the list of reasons for culling a cow around weaning time, including disposition, performance, age, and health programs.

“Today’s cull cow market influenced by many variables” (newsletter article), Shane Ellis, Iowa State University
Shane Ellis, livestock economist, discusses the recent cull cow market and how current market
conditions should impact culling decisions.

Additional Resources:
“Marketing Cull Cows” (article), Dr. Dillon Feuz, University of Nebraska

Iowa Beef Center Contact:
For more information on cow culling, contact Dr. Daryl Strohbehn, Iowa Beef Center beef program specialist, at 515-294-3020 or stroh@iastate.edu.

Cow-Calf Operations, IBC Events cow culling

Iowa Beef Center Director John Lawrence shares the latest happenings of the IBC in his monthly column, which also appears in the Iowa Cattleman magazine:

By the time you read this, the State Fair will be over and school will have started.  Ames and the ISU campus will have 26,000 new residents and about 5,000 of those will be new to campus and finding their way to class.  Traffic will increase exponentially and parking spaces will be as scarce as a hen’s teeth.  I’m not complaining.  The influx of youth keeps me employed and optimistic about the future.

However, this fall will be different as Kathy and I will take our first and only kid to college. Caitlin is going to the Dark Side and will start as a freshman at the University of Iowa.  Growing up in Ames, she wanted a new experience and an opportunity to get away from home.  I wanted in-state tuition and to get her out of the house.   Iowa City was the compromise.  She assures me she will never be a Hawkeye and I offered to get her a Cy tattoo to wear near her heart.  Some things we still agree upon.  I believe I will adjust better than Kathy to the empty nest, but it’s still going to sting to write the check to that other university.

Meanwhile, back at ISU, Extension is continuing its transition.  The 20 Regional Extension Education Directors and their offices have been chosen and the new relationship between counties and campus has begun.  Three beef field specialists, Dennis Dewitt, Darrell Busby and Dale Thoreson, have announced their retirement effective January 31, 2010.  Daryl Strohbehn, ISU beef specialist, will also retire at that time. When you see these individuals, take the opportunity to thank them for their dedication and years of service to ISU and the cattle industry…

Ready to read more about the changes being seen at ISU and the growing resources the Iowa Beef Center is striving to provide Iowa producers? You can read the rest of John’s comments here!

Director's Comments, IBC Events

Looking for like minds in the livestock industry?

In light of recent interest the Iowa Beef Center is developing peer groups to bring together individuals who share common interests and concerns.

If you’re interested in forming a group with your peers where you can trade information and share advice, contact Iowa State University Beef Program Specialist Russ Euken at reuken@iastate.edu or 641-923-2856. The peer groups will be formed based on interest, so when you give Russ your contact information to indicate you’d like to be part of a peer group, let him know the kind of peer group you’d like to have formed – do you want to chat with individuals who are local to you, fellow feedlot operators of a particular size, or those interested in a particular subject?

Let us know about your operation and interests so we can help bring you together into a peer group that will help support you most!

IBC Events peer groups

It’s time to attend the second session of our online meeting! Today’s session is on calf health during weaning.

If you weren’t able to attend yesterday’s first meeting session or you’d like some background information on our new online meeting tool, check out this link: Fall Weaning Online Meeting: Session One

Check out the meeting agenda for today’s session, “Maximizing Calf Health During Weaning.”

“Establishing a Vaccination and Health Management Schedule” (podcast), Dr. Grant Dewell, Iowa State University
Dr. Dewell highlights important considerations for vaccinating weaning calves and other health  considerations that need to be addressed around weaning time.

“Cattle Vaccines and Their Use” (article), Dr. Stuart Lincoln, Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center
Along with discussing the appropriate vaccinations for the entire cow-calf herd, Dr. Lincoln highlights a vaccination schedule and the types of vaccinations that should be administered around weaning time, including a list of strongly recommended and optional vaccinations.

Additional Resources:
“Minimizing Weaning Stress on Calves” (article), Clay Mathis and Boone Carter, New Mexico State University

Iowa Beef Center Contact:
For more information on vaccinations and calf health, contact Dr. Grant Dewell, Iowa State University Extension veterinarian, at 515-294-2822 or gdewell@iastate.edu.

Tune in for tomorrow’s session, “Making Marketing Decisions This Fall”!

Cow-Calf Operations, IBC Events, Livestock Health calf health, calf weaning

Hoping to attend a meeting that fits perfectly into your schedule? We’ll bring the latest Iowa Beef Center meeting straight to your door!

 In-person meetings are one of the most successful ways of acquiring up-to-date, useful information, but sometimes schedules don’t allow you to attend an important conference, or perhaps that meeting you’re interested in is just too far away. In coordination with local meetings and statewide, in-person conferences, a new format – the online meeting – is being debuted by the Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State University.

 The online meeting is a great way to receive information on your own time in between attending local events. You have access to a meeting agenda that is the same as an in-person meeting, only this agenda links you directly to the research and advice you seek. Instead of waiting for a meeting to listen to a speaker, you’ll receive the same information from livestock experts via a variety of avenues: factsheets, voice-over PowerPoint presentations, newsletters, spreadsheets, and podcasts.

 The Iowa Beef Center’s first online meeting focuses on timely tips for this upcoming season: “Fall Cowherd Decisions: Herd and Calf Weaning Marketing and Management.”

Today’s featured session is “Nutrition Concerns During Weaning Time.” Click on the agenda links below to learn more about this topic:

“Nutritional Management of the Calf after Weaning” (article), Dr. Dan Loy, Iowa State University
Dr. Loy addresses helping calves overcome the stress of weaning time by properly introducing them to new feeds and establishing the appropriate amount of feed. He also offers examples of starting feed programs for three different types of calves.

“Creep Feeding” (article), Keith Lusby and Donald Gill, Oklahoma State University
OSU Extension specialist Keith Lusby and Extension nutritionist Donald Gill discuss the many issues associated with the practice of creep feeding, or providing a supplemental feed to nursing calves. Along with discussing the different types of creep feeding, they address the impact of creep feeding on postweaning performance. 

Additional Resources:
“Early Weaning Grain Mixes” (spreadsheet), Dr. Garland Dahlke, Iowa State University
“Preconditioning of Calves” (article), Stuart D. Lincoln, Caldwell Veterinary Teaching Center and Dan D. Hinman, University of Idaho�
“Using Distillers Grain in Alternative Cow-Calf Production Systems” (article), Daryl Strohbehn, Dan Loy, John Lawrence, Darrell Busby, and Dennis Dewitt, Iowa State University

Iowa Beef Center Contact:
For more information on nutrition in beef cattle, contact Dr. Dan Loy, Iowa Beef Center beef program specialist, at 515-294-1058 or dloy@iastate.edu.

Tune in tomorrow for the meeting’s second session, “Maximizing Calf Health during Weaning”!

Cow-Calf Operations, IBC Events, Livestock Health calf nutrition, calf weaning