Ranch Hand Top 10; May 2012
Top 10 management strategies to consider on your operation during May 2012:
- Catch and treat sick calves ASAP. They will respond better to treatment and perform better after recovery, compared with waiting until “later” to treat them.
- Match rations to the stage of production. Remember that mineral nutrition impacts male and female fertility.
- Finalize culling and selection of replacement heifers, and use reproductive tract scores to identify and strategically cull heifers with low likelihood of becoming pregnant.
- Conduct breeding soundness exams on the entire bull battery. Replace bulls as necessary.
- Adapt bulls to grass before pasture turnout.
- Contact artificial insemination (AI) companies regarding breeding service and to order semen and AI supplies.
- Develop prebreeding and branding vaccination protocols with your veterinarian and administer vaccines at appropriate times.
- Prepare pastures: fertilize, maintain fences and waterers, and restore pastures and hay ground that were lost through winter kill or flooding.
- Monitor pasture growth and don’t graze until adequate.
- Develop a plan for pasture stocking rates under different summer moisture scenarios and be prepared to implement your plan proactively.
