It was hot and sunny out during the Western Beef Development Centre’s (WBDC) 17th annual summer field day, which was held on June 23 at Termuende Research Ranch just outside of Lanigan.
The event saw at least 223 people show up, which was one of its highest attendance levels in history. Part of this might be due to the fact that it was the first time the event was held in conjunction with the Saskatchewan Forage Council’s annual general meeting (AGM).
Following the opening remarks, Jim Gerrish of American GrazingLands Services launched this year’s event with a speech about “what really matters in grazing management.” It was a purposeful topic since much of the day’s focus was centered on grazing practices and current or ongoing research on the topic.
“Cattle prices are record high and producers are making money, so they may be at a point where they’re looking to make investments,” said Kathy Larson, a beef economist for WBDC and spokesperson for the event. “They have some extra cash now and can look at something they may have neglected.”
Gerrish’s speech summary in the handbook given out at the event mentioned that many pastures are not producing at their full potential because of failures in grazing management. He talked about adjusting stocking rate to suit carrying capacity and using high stock density. Farmers have to learn how to balance grazing with recovery time so as to improve soil health and overall quality.
“If you view pasture in the sense that grass feeds the grass, grass feeds the soil, and, then, grass feeds the livestock, the productivity of your pasture will increase tremendously,” he wrote in his speech summary. “If you only see pasture as feeding the livestock, you will most likely be stuck in the rut of low pasture production and an ongoing need for supplementation or feeding stored forages even during the growing season.”
Once Gerrish was finished, Larson presented the group with the aggregate results that were collected from over 400 completed surveys, which were done during the 2013-14 winter. Provincial participants included Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia and represented a little over 76,000 breeding females. Some of those results included an average cow to bull ratio of 25:1, an average breeding season length of 93 days, and the top three bull selection criteria of breed, conformation, and birth weight. Within the next few months, the WBDC is expected to release the results by province, herd size, producer age, and soil zone.
Larson also announced the winner of the 21-day calving challenge winner. The contest was put on by the Ministry of Agriculture and getting producers to write down calving records - when a calf was born and to which cow, its gender and its birth weight - in a calving pocket book. Larson said the purpose of this challenge was to purpose of this was to track information and calculate calving distribution.
“We recommended that 60 per cent of their cows calf in the first 21 days of calving season. The first (group of calves) would be the first cycle. The target you want to aim for is 60 per cent or more of females calving in the first 21 days,” she said.
Anyone that submitted his or her pocket book then received an entry into three draws. Three people’s names were drawn and they won $1,000 worth of minerals each.
The WBDC then held their traditional complimentary beef lunch, followed by bus tours that took attendees around the site to show them the ranch. Each of the stops also featured a presentation by various experts about topics such as Cicer Milkvetch for stockpiled forage, selecting cows for feed intake, and supplementing second calvers for breeding success.
“Lots of times producers will have problems getting (second calvers) rebred, so the flax- and canola-based pellets will give them extra fat in the diet,” said Larson. “We’re hoping to bring up their energy so that they’re able to increase their reproductive success.”
The other topic, selecting cows for feed intake, was presented by Dr. Bart Lardner and also carried particular interest considering it was a research project that was nearing the end of its term. According to Larson, it investigated the possibility of using commercially-available DNA tests to select efficient heifers.
“We developed replacement heifers in our GrowSafe pens for over three different years,” said Larson. “We took calves that were just weaned at seven months old, fed them in the pens where we have GrowSafe bunks, and measured each individual animal’s intakes. We could tell what they’ve consumed and what they were eating because of this GrowSafe technology.”
Using those results, they were attempting to determine why some animals can eat less than their pen mates but still gain the same amount of weight. By measuring that and attempting to identify which animals were efficient, theoretically it would become possible to streamline the feeding process more efficiently as opposed to just tossing it all into a trough for animals.
However, Larson said the predicted results (DNA panel scores) didn’t line up with the actual observed results (ie. residual feed intake that was calculated using individual animal weight gains and intake data collected through GrowSafe bunks). In fact, over half of the animals “re-ranked” themselves (changed scores), which may be because the panel score tests were not developed with cattle in western Canada fed forage-based diets.
“Part of that has to do with the fact that animals tend to rerank themselves,” said Larson. “With different populations, animals have a different diet.” That is, animals will have different eating habits depending on what group they’re in, so finding “efficient” cows based on DNA markers has proven difficult.
The attendees were then able to witness drone demonstrations by Farm World from Humboldt. The day was wrapped up with the Saskatchewan Forage Council AGM, a BBQ steak supper, and a closing speech by Gerrish about making cost effective pasture improvements.
“The purpose of WBDC is to find out what’s interesting to producers in terms of what’s timely and important to them and to discuss what research we’re doing,” said Larson. “We’re really engaged in that as an organization.”
