  BeefTalk:
Have You Investigated All the Options of Beef Production?
By Kris Ringwall, Extension Beef Specialist,
NDSU Extension Service
I watch the weather daily longing for spring like a young boy longs for sunshine
on a summer day.
Most likely, we have all wished for old man winter to move on and let the
green grass of spring sprout. However, are we ready for the challenges of
another growing season? Will our best-laid plans be enough? Each year brings
opportunity, but too often our conservative connections with the past hold us
back from making changes we know need to be made.
At the North Dakota Dickinson Research Extension Center Ranch, our concern is
focus. The beef business is an affair with the land. Producer success is a
function of the ability to utilize an allotted piece of ground through plant,
animal or recreational outputs -- or a combination of the three. At the Center,
our two options of plant versus animal (in this case beef cows) are annually
debated. Perhaps this is why the terms ranch versus farm originated. The farm
was heavily dependent on plants and the ranch more dependent on animals. In the
past, however, neither was exclusively plant or animal. Today, producers are
slowly moving toward specialization.
For the Center, we quit maintaining a combine, and from there successively
reduced the inventory of cropping equipment. Land was switched from producing
grain crops to the production of forage crops. As the grain farmer is deciding
which cash crop or variety to produce, the beef producer must decide on which
forage to produce. The choices are more diverse than most people realize.
In a broad sense, spring produces cool season plants, summer grows warm
season plants and fall blooms cool season plants. These plants could be
perennials, biannuals, or annuals. The plants could be grazed, harvested as hay
to be moved, harvested as hay but not moved or left as standing winter forage.
These options call for management decisions which could ultimately affect
profitability.
What makes these decisions difficult is in most cases the operation is
land-locked. Additional acres may be unavailable. More cows produce more income,
which means converting crop and hay land to grazing, with the intent to purchase
hay in lieu of land.
Successful planning requires a thorough review of production potential, cash
grain, forage, input costs, income potential and other factors. It is not easy,
but by completing the planning procedure, producers can make the decisions which
will benefit their operation, their livestock (beef cows) and the land resources
in their operation.
At the Center, we have annually discussed the direction to take. Let me
provide two options for the management of a 4,640 acre ranch with 400 acres of
crested wheatgrass, 2840 acres of native range land and 1350 acres of crop land.
- Option 1: Stock this ranch at 252 cow/calf pairs and harvest 27,000
bushels of cash grain and 118 tons of hay. The operation would still need to
purchase 512 tons of hay.
- Option 2: Utilize the forage base to increase cow numbers to 388. This
would require the ranch to terminate the cash grain operation and convert
the grain acreage to forage production. Grazed acreage would include 388
acres of crested wheat, 2840 acres of native range, 486 acres of annual
forage and 388 acres of standing corn. Weaned calf and winter cow needs
would be met by 476 acres of annual forage cut in the milk stage.
Which option would you take, traditional or switch to a forage base? May you
find all your ear tags.
Your comments are always welcome at www.BeefTalk.com
For more information, contact the North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement
Association, 1133 State Avenue, Dickinson, ND 58601 or go to www.CHAPS2000.COM
on the Internet. In correspondence about this column, refer to BT0028.
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Source: Kris Ringwall, (701) 483-2045, kringwal@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu
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