Many beef producers keep a decent set of calving records, but what good are they if you don’t use them to analyze your management and herd performance? Before we can dive into a few suggestions to measure your management success, we need to look back at the previous year’s breeding season.

While cool-season grasses grow well in the Upper Midwest, producing forage in the spring and again when temperatures cool off in the fall, they suffer from “summer slump” when conditions get too hot or dry, and their growth slows.

Recent research suggests that beef-on-dairy steers fed a low-starch total mixed ration at a younger age will continue to increase in feed intake and growth longer than those receiving different diets. 

Livestock enterprises can use crop acres seeded to cover crops and crop residue to stretch the grazing season and save on feed costs. Crop operations benefit from the nutrient value added through livestock manure and to help with pest management.