June | 2024 | Ohio BEEF Cattle Letter (2024)

– Garth Ruff, Beef Cattle Field Specialist, Ohio State University Extension (originally published in Ohio Farmer on-line)

Pastures are in their prime, and for many spring-calving cow herds, breeding season is either here — or soon to be here.

As we progress through this cow breeding season, there are several economic drivers to consider when we evaluate reproduction within the beef herd:

Monitor cow performance. The start of breeding season is a good time to monitor cow production. Recording body condition scores (BCS) at breeding is an indicator of cow performance. If a cow is struggling to maintain body condition, is it because she is heavily lactating and nursing an above-average-weight calf, or are there underlying factors to consider? Continue reading →

– Victor Shelton, Retired NRCS Agronomist/Grazing Specialist

I was recently asked to briefly explain “ruminating.” Ruminating is when the ruminant animal regurgitates partially digested food from its stomach back into its mouth, where it chews it again to further break it down. This process helps these animals extract as many nutrients as possible from their food, which is typically plant material that is difficult to digest. Ruminantsare key to sustainable agriculture systems because they have a unique ability to convert low-qualityforagesintohigh-qualitymeatand milk products.

Ruminants possess a distinctive digestive system optimized for the microbial breakdown of complex plant materials. The ruminant “stomach” consists of four chambers which are home to a microbial population that degrades feedstuffs consumed by ruminant animals.Optimizing the rumen microbiome not only enhances animal welfare and productivity but can also Continue reading →

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

Mutiflora rose is reaching full-bloom this week. The sweet aroma of roses and honeysuckle drifting through the June evening air is almost heavenly when paired with the scent of freshly mowed hay. As sweet as they smell, both multiflora roses and Japanese honeysuckle are invasive weeds commonly found in Ohio pastures and woodlands.

I tend to be less critical of these two weeds than many others simply because they are not poisonous to livestock, they can provide some benefit to wildlife (primarily birds and insects), and they can be target grazed with small ruminant animals. Goats are quite effective grazers of both roses and honeysuckle because they have a specialized prehensile lip that allows them to select individual leaves from plants and avoid thorns and woody tissue.

However, NO ONE should be propagating these plants on purpose or ignoring them in the landscape. Because they have invasive status in Ohio, it is every landowners’ Continue reading →

– Kate Hornyak, OSU Extension Program Coordinator, Delaware County

Assist us in shaping the future of beef cattle management by sharing your insights on the breeding practices within your operation. Take a moment to share how you manage reproduction in your beef cattle operation through our quick survey. Your responses will contribute to the OSU Extension 2024 eBarns report, providing valuable insights for other producers.

Your input is crucial, will only take a couple of minutes, and can impact the industry significantly, no matter how big or small your operation might be. Please follow this link now: https://go.osu.edu/beefcattlebreeding

– David P. Anderson, Professor and Extension Economist, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service

At the time of writing this on May 28, the wholesale beef market, as measured by the Choice beef cutout, has jumped more than $16 per cwt in the last two weeks. Most of the cutout’s underlying primal cuts (the rib, loin, chuck, round, and brisket) have increased in value. Weekly beef production has dipped from six weeks of above a year ago production.

We might think about the cutout value in the context of USDA’s Cattle on Feed report released on Friday, May 24^th. For the first time in eight months, the total number of Cattle on Feed declined below last year’s level. The 11.5 million Cattle on Feed were the fewest since September 2023. The number of Cattle on Feed has been elevated in recent months by placing more heifers, placing available feeder cattle earlier, and Continue reading →

– Matthew Diersen, Risk & Business Management Specialist, Ness School of Management & Economics, South Dakota State University

Conventional wisdom says that nobody is expanding cattle herds. Usually, that means there is not enough expansion in aggregate to see any difference. Local or individual situations can differ, and contraction or expansion is normal to observe. For example, at South Dakota AMS-reported auctions, there have been several weeks with notable volumes of heifers traded as replacements. The volume, while interesting, does not defy conventional wisdom – the total for the month of May was smaller than the total from 2023. Expansion is not rampant. The heifers weighed 700-1,000 pounds and traded on both a per cwt and per head basis in both years. Replacements weighing close to 800 pounds traded at $249.00-291.00 per cwt. This reflects a premium compared to heifers not deemed as replacements that traded at $222.50-263.00 per cwt. The replacement prices also reflect a premium to the CME Feeder Cattle Index, which was averaging about $249.00 per cwt for the same period. Last year the replacements only traded at a few dollars above the Continue reading →