NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

May 20, 1999

Late-Season Calving Featured on June 3 Southwestern North Dakota Ranch Tour

A tour of southwestern North Dakota ranches that use late season calving to reduce beef production costs is scheduled for Thursday, June 3.

The tour will meet at the Flying J Truck Stop in Beach at 7:30 a.m. MDT. Tour participants will car pool and caravan to the ranches on the tour. The final tour will conclude at about 6 p.m. For more information or to reserve a seat on a van, contact NDSU Extension beef specialist Greg Lardy at (701) 231-7660 or Randy Gaebe, NDSU Extension Service agent in Bowman County, at (701) 523-5271.

"An increasing number of beef cattle producers are turning to this technique to reduce costs," Lardy says. The shift to calving later in the season delays cows' nutritional needs until they are on pasture, reducing the need for stored forage.

The calving shift doesn't affect marketing for producers who background their own calves, but for producers who typically market at weaning, the shift can move calves out of the traditional fall marketing window, Lardy says. Although that poses some management concerns for fall and early winter feeding and handling, producers may see a price increase because their calves aren't sold during seasonal market gluts.

The Joe and Shannon Fritz Ranch near Beach is the first stop on the tour. The commercial cow-calf/yearling operation uses late-season calving and management-intensive grazing.

The second tour stop is at the Bill and Phyllis Stegner farm near Rhame. The Stegners implemented late-season calving on their ranch in 1998 with 180 cows calving after June 1. This year they have 410 head that will start calving on June 1.

Another stop is scheduled for the Sailer ranch near Hettinger. Ted Sailer and his father Gerry use "bucker piles" to self-feed their cattle to reduce the cost of feeding harvested forages.

"The producers will discuss how late-season calving fits into their individual ranch operation and how the shift impacts marketing and other ranch operations," says Randy Gaebe. "We'll also see other cost-saving techniques that these producers use to cut costs and improve their operations."

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Sources: Greg Lardy (701) 231-7660 and Randy Gaebe (701) 523-5271

Editor: Tom Jirik (701) 231-9629