{"id":722,"date":"2019-11-08T09:36:20","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T14:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/?p=722"},"modified":"2019-11-08T09:58:07","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T14:58:07","slug":"722","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/2019\/11\/722\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for Fall through Winter Calving and Breeding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Written below is the latest post from the Beef Tips &#8216;n Advice blog. <a href=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/beef\/\">https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/beef\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong>By Jason Duggin (UGA Beef Extension Specialist)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Has the hay you plan to feed this winter been tested?\u00a0 If so, you have the tools necessary to help maintain appropriate body condition for your herd and better plan for those potential winter storms.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t tested your hay, that ~$30 will be money very well spent.\u00a0 Whether purchased or put up yourself, the importance of forage analysis cannot be overstated.\u00a0 A producer may feel really confident that their hay is \u201chigh\u201d quality, but there is really only one way to be sure that the herd is getting sufficient fuel for their stage of production \u2013 Test it!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If hay is the main forage during breeding season and protein and energy are just a little off, there will be cows calving 3 weeks later the following year.\u00a0 The result could be a 50 lbs. lighter calf at weaning.\u00a0 However, with a forage analysis in hand, producers can know how much of a gap might exist and plan accordingly.\u00a0 The \u201cUGA Basic Balancer\u201d developed by Dr. Lawton Stewart can be found online to help assist in ration planning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After calving, a cow\u2019s nutritional requirements will obviously increase.\u00a0 Assuming a body condition score of 5 for cows and 6 for heifers, visualize that they will lose roughly a body condition score (80 to 100 lbs. of energy reserves) even with ideal nutrition.\u00a0 From calving to peak lactation, which is about 50 days, nutritional requirements will increase quickly.\u00a0 Peak lactation requirements are 12% crude protein (CP) and 60% TDN (energy).\u00a0 Cows in late lactation should be bred but still require 9-10% CP and 55% TDN. Even the \u201cdry\u201d cow should be monitored for body condition particularly during the cold snaps to come.\u00a0 The dry cow is still pregnant and needs to provide essential nutrients to the calf in-utero.\u00a0 This group of cows still need at least 7% crude protein and 50% TDN on a dry matter basis.\u00a0 Please note that this is right after drying off and the nutritional requirements will gradually increase until calving.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;An additional benefit of forage testing is knowing potential nitrate levels. \u00a0When levels are nearing 8,000 ppm or higher, serious planning needs to take place to minimize impact and death loss in the herd.\u00a0 Cattle turned directly onto forages that have a dramatic difference in nitrate levels can die rather quickly.\u00a0 A forage analysis may save your cows and your calf crops.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written below is the latest post from the Beef Tips &#8216;n Advice blog. https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/beef\/ By Jason Duggin (UGA Beef Extension Specialist) &#8220;Has the hay you plan to feed this winter been tested?\u00a0 If so, you have the tools necessary to help maintain appropriate body condition for your herd and better plan for those potential winter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cattle","category-forages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":724,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/worthag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}