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Ranching for Profitability Meeting Series Set for January 12-15, 2009
12/12/2008 10:32:55 AM

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension is hosting the popular Ranching for Profitability meeting series across western and central Nebraska January 12-15.

Dates and locations of meetings are as follows:

Date	Town	Location	Time
January 12	O’Neill	Blarney Stone Restaurant	10:30 am CT
January 12	Ainsworth	Elks Lodge	5 pm CT
January 13	Broken Bow	Broken Bow Country Club	10:30 am CT
January 13	Elm Creek	Community Center	5 pm CT
January 14	Stapleton	Logan County Fairbuilding	10:30 am CT
January 14	Valentine	Cedar Canyon Steakhouse	4:30 pm CT
January 15	Kimball	Event Center	12 pm MT

The Ranching for Profitability Meeting series provides information on current issues and topics important to ranch management and beef production. Calving difficulty contributes heavily to production losses in cow/calf herds. Obvious losses are due to calves or cows that die at or soon after calving, while less noticeable losses are due to delayed rebreeding, more open females, an extended calving season, and increased labor costs. This year, Dr. Richard Randle, UNL Extension Veterinarian, will review pre- and post-calving management practices to minimize affects of calving difficulty and tips on assisting the cow with calving difficulty.

Seven dollar corn to three dollar corn! Four dollar diesel! To say the least, the markets have been volatile the last year. The increase of corn prices to $7/bu and subsequent fall back to $3.50/bu significantly changes the profitability of backgrounding and finishing cattle and retained ownership strategies for ranchers. How do you decide if you should sell your weaned calves or roll those calves over and sell them as yearlings? Dr. Darrell Mark, UNL Extension Ag Economist, and Rebecca Small, with the UNL Ag Econ department, will focus on the relative differences in profits to calf finishing and yearling finishing systems as input prices change, as well as risk management and hedging strategies for these systems.

Ranchers may be wondering how to cut rising mineral costs. Dennis Bauer, UNL Extension Educator from Brown, Rock, and Keya Paha counties, will talk about how to balance your mineral needs with your cattle diets. Knowing what minerals are in your feeds allows you to add or remove minerals according to the NRC cattle needs. Bauer has helped numerous ranchers develop lower cost custom mineral programs.

Several UNL Extension computer tools are available to help producers make management decisions. These tools can help ranchers compare the cost of TDN and crude protein in different feeds while considering transportation and feed waste, balance your feed rations, calculate an equitable share arrangement for leasing cows, calculate breakevens for feeders or cull cows, estimate cost of developing water sources in pastures, and grazing spreadsheets. What to use these tools for and where to find them will also be covered at the meetings.

Most ranchers take time to figure how they will manage their pastures they graze. But have you taken the time to figure how you will manage your meadows? Dr. Jerry Volesky, UNL Range Specialist from the West Central Research and Extension Center at North Platte will be on hand at the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to present information on subirrigated meadow management, including grazing potential and weed control. Additionally, the high cost of fertilizer is an important issue for producers that do fertilize to increase hay production. Efficient practices for fertilizer application as well as potential legumes for interseeding into meadows will be discussed.

Pre-registration is requested at the UNL Extension County office hosting the meeting one week prior for a meal count. Contacts include: O’Neill 402.336.2760, Ainsworth 402.387.2213, Broken Bow 308.872.6831, Elm Creek 308.324.5501, Stapleton 1.800.657.2113, Valentine 402.376.1850, and Kimball 308.235.3122.

The Ranching for Profitability meeting series is sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension and Pfizer Animal Health with generous support from local sponsors. Registration fee of $15. Please contact the UNL Extension County office hosting the meeting that you would like to attend for more information or to register for the program.