Coordinating Beef Cattle Management with the Range Forage Resource

Abstract

Highlight: Seasonal changes in forage production and quality occur due to climatic factors, principally precipitation. Increased eficiency of livestock production could occur if livestock management were coordinated to the changes that occur in forage quality. Traditionally, calves are born in the spring in much of the western United States. Weaning then occurs sometime in late fall. Management practices of early weaning, supplementation on the range, time of calving, and length of the breeding period can be incorporated into a livestock system to take advantage offorage at its highest quality and therefore to maximize beef production from the existing forage resource. summers. The Southwestern pattern, including Arizona, southem Utah and Nevada, and parts of New Mexico, is biseasonal with winter precipitation followed by spring drought and summer precipitation followed by fall drought. The Plains pattern occurs in the area bounded on the west by the Rocky Mountains and on the east by the Appalachian Mountains. Precipitation in this area is greatest in the spring and summer and then tapers off in the fall and winter. Great Basin Pattern Common ecological units within the Great Basin pattern are Box (1974) estimates the demand for red meat will increase in the sagebrush-bunchgrass of the lower elevations and coniferthe future due to an increase in population. He further states that ous forest communities in the mountains. Skovlin ( 1967) production of red meat will increase on rangelands. Red meat studied the protein content of important range grasses in the production on rangelands could be increased if better use were Blue Mountains of Oregon. Skovlin reported a 4-year average made of the range forage resource. of changes in protein content of four grass species from July to Traditionally, beef cattle management systems in the western October. As the summer season progressed, protein content and United States have been similar regardless of geographic or hence forage quality declined. ecological area. Generally, forage quality is the greatest in the By September, forage quality-had declined so that continued spring in northern regions and following the season of greatest growth of young livestock (unweaned calves or yearlings) could precipitation in the southern regions. Little attention has been have been critically affected. Previous work by Skovlin (1962) paid to coordinating specific management practices with showed that cow and calf gains decreased as the grazing season changes in forage quality. If this were done, efficiency of progressed (Fig. 1). Weights of cows and their calves taken at production in terms of pounds of beef produced per unit of 2-week intervals from Aug. 17 to Oct. 24 revealed that the cows rangeland could be maximized. lost weight most of the study period. Calf gains per 2-week period decreased greatly between the third and fourth periods. The Forage Resource and Livestock Production The gains observed at the last weight day were a result of fall