01/12/2025
Beef cattle producers, with winter conditions on the rise keeping your herd heath in check, is the biggest priority. Here are some tips that might be able to help you gain some perspective for you operations.
Ag News
Contact: Jay Diehl
[email protected]
Winterizing your cow herd.
1. Palpate all cows, sell all open cows and consider selling late breeding cows that will calve outside your calving season. These calves will weigh less at weaning and will drag your cows down prior to breeding in the spring.
2. Check all cattle for broken mouths, pop-corn teeth, bad or cancerous eyes and sell them. Cattle that can’t eat or see can’t produce calves as cheaply as those that can.
3. Check for ear ticks or Gulf Coast ticks in or on ears and spray for early lice, ticks and any flies.
4. Tip horns if necessary and clip hair from ear tags (retag cows missing ear tags) and/or brands for easy reading.
5. Vaccinate all cows for leptospirosis (5-way) 30-60 days before breeding and vaccinate all cattle for vibriosis (campylobacteriosis) 2-4 weeks before breeding. Inject all cattle with vitamin A (or A-D-E), 3-5 cc’s if dry conditions or frost are expected. Consult your local veterinarian for specific recommendations for your ranch.
6. Begin supplemental feeding when pasture, cattle or weather conditions indicate. Cows dropping from a body condition score 5 to 4 will need to gain 8% of their original body weight to return to a BCS 5 prior to breeding. Since this requires about 1000 pounds of feed for a medium sized cow, it is cheaper to reduce stocking rate or begin supplemental feeding before this occurs. For every degree drop in temperature below 55F a cow’s energy requirements increase by 10%.
7. Protein supplementation (1/2 – 2 lb of 41% protein) will stimulate the animal’s appetite (30-60%) and increase the digestibility (6-12%) of poor-quality forages. This will allow for a good maintenance ration of most bred cows (BCS 5 or better) until they calve and/or grass gets short. Good protein sources include (but are not limited to) cottonseed meals, whole cottonseed, other oilseeds, range cubes, blocks, etc.
If liquid feed supplements are used, remember that they are a good source of protein (or nitrogen for making protein if they contain urea), not energy. The cattle must be on a good energy source to supply the minimum requirements. Check feeders daily and refill before they run dry. Make sure that cattle have access to good, dependable water. Never put shrunk, hungry or stressed cattle directly on liquid feed, fill them up with hay first.
8. Energy supplementation (1-2 lb) will slightly stimulate digestibility (1-3%) and intake (5-10%) of poor-quality forages. If the levels of energy supplementation increase above 10-12% (2-3 lb) then forage digestibility will be depressed causing a substitution rather than a supplementary effect. Still a pound of grain contains more energy than a pound of forage or hay, but it will require more grain than forage to make much improvement. In some emergency feeding situations where forage is scarce, grain will usually be a more economical source of supplementary energy than forage. Remember that travel by cow requires 1/2 lb of energy (about 1 pound of good quality hay) for every mile she travels to feed and water during the day. So be sure to include some extra energy (but not protein) for travel costs.
9. Keep and maintain year-round a good 12% calcium:12% phosphorus mineral that the cattle will and are consuming (2-3 oz/day). A good trace mineral or stock salt (in combination or separately) is also recommended. Place these in areas away from watering sources, preferably in poorly grazed areas to balance grazing pressures and encourage consumption of ungrazed forages.
10. Cattle will require a dependable supply of good quality water that contains less than 3000 ppm in total dissolved salts. Since cattle will drink 20 gallons of water or more a day, actual consumption will depend on the taste of the water, the air temperature and humidity, the cow’s physiological stage, the type of forage eaten, distance travelled to water, etc. Water sources should be checked daily.
*Additional sources of information on these tips can be gotten from your County Extension Agent, your local veterinarian, the Texas Cow-Calf Management Handbook and your County Beef Herd Health and Management Guide.
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Jay Diehl is the County Extension Agent for agriculture and natural resources for Polk County. His email address is [email protected] .
Educational programs of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race, color, s*x, disability, religion, age, national origin, genetic information or veteran status. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating.
