Transition to Grass Fed Production

Picture Credit score: USDAgov, Flickr, CC BY 2.0

“I wish to change my present cattle ranching enterprise to grass fed manufacturing. How do I make the transition?”

This query is among the commonest obstacles for cattle ranchers contemplating making adjustments to their cattle farming technique. And for good cause – altering your beef manufacturing technique isn’t one thing to be undertaken evenly.

Many cattle farmers are longing for change as a result of their present plan isn’t working anymore. Their new technique appears easier, extra worthwhile, extra environmentally sustainable, or is solely a extra pleasurable manner of doing issues.

However getting from right here to there can appear to be an insurmountable job. Even the smallest change to your calving date, pasture rotation, or herd administration technique can have large domino-like results that have an effect on all the pieces out of your advertising technique to illness pressures and your online business’ cash-flow. Accommodating even modest adjustments usually requires a reasonably drastic rethinking of your fence and water infrastructure.

The temptation is to dive in with the plan solely half-baked due to the eagerness (or desperation) to vary what you might be doing. Half a plan is much more harmful than not making essential adjustments in any respect.

Solely start the transition AFTER your new cattle ranching plan is fine-tuned and completely full! It is also the important thing to a clean and brief transition interval.

It is the little particulars of your plan that may spare you the grief and potential practice wrecks that may come up while you fail to foresee among the knock-on results of your adjustments.

My e-book, Grass Fed Cattle: how to produce and market natural beef, is a blueprint for find out how to plan all of the little particulars in a scientific method. The example farm plan article collection exhibits how all of the completely different components of the plan can come collectively right into a easy plan-of-action.

Within the meantime in the event you can not put your online business on maintain through the planning part (which is normally the case while you personal cattle!) proceed to function your present enterprise as traditional with out making any adjustments till you’ve got completed making your new plan and deliberate out all of the steps of the transition course of..

The important substances of a plan for elevating cattle:

Listed here are among the parts of a whole cattle farming marketing strategy:

The farm plan example exhibits how use maps to plan your infrastructure, your grazing and herd administration, and your contingency plans for each stage and each season of your cattle manufacturing yr.
A cattle manufacturing calendar is important for planning how your cattle yr will look – begin to end – in your new technique. It lets you match climate, temperature, grass progress, and grass high quality with the important thing dates in your cattle’s lives. This, in flip lets you schedule calving, weaning, grass ending, and slaughter dates to occur on the most advantageous instances, forecast illness pressures and dietary shortages, and maximize fertility, conception charges, and calf survival. Chapter 23 of my book gives detailed directions on find out how to arrange your individual cattle manufacturing calendar.
Calculate what it would value to make the required infrastructure adjustments to your farm. Measure the miles of recent fence in your planning maps. Calculate the miles of wire and variety of posts wanted. Go to the shop and value them out. Then add 25-50% to your calculations as a buffer to account for the sudden.
How will you financial the adjustments (infrastructure, cattle purchases, and many others)?
Plan your new advertising technique utilizing the cattle manufacturing calendar to determine essentially the most advantageous sale dates and determine how these dates will have an effect on money circulation in your farm.
Calculate precisely what your anticipated revenues might be out of your new manufacturing and advertising technique.
Calculate precisely what your working prices might be, month to month, together with your new technique.
And calculate any earnings disruptions you have to to climate through the transition stage (akin to in the event you transfer your calving season or change from promoting yearlings to grass-finishing). How a lot of a monetary buffer will you want throughout this transition interval till revenues out of your new manufacturing technique come on-line? Money circulation is vital – it’s worthwhile to have adequate financial savings or various earnings sources in place to climate the transition interval if there’s a short-term delay in gross sales.
Mentally stroll by means of each facet of the plan to make sure that it’s viable and reasonable. The cattle manufacturing yr calendar mentioned in level # 2 is a superb device that can assist you visualize all of the little particulars of the unfolding yr. For instance – in the event you plan on grass-finishing your individual cattle, will your butcher be out there to course of the quantity of cattle that you just want slaughtered on the time while you want them slaughtered? Are they set as much as deal with any particular slaughter necessities that you just require in your market (akin to natural certification)? In case you plan on shopping for younger calves to grass-finish as a substitute of manufacturing your individual calves, are they out there, at what value, and the way will you compromise new cattle in your farm to keep away from transport fever and different illnesses that generally have an effect on cattle after transport? If you’re planning to promote natural beef it could be significantly difficult to supply calves which are organically certifiable. And when shopping for in, how dependable is your cattle provider – will they abandon your contracts throughout years when the 10-year cattle cycle is paying a premium for calves? Mentally stroll by means of the plan earlier than you construct it!
Create a methodical step-by-step highway map for implementing your plan so that after you start making adjustments you not have to spend time or power on planning. For instance, yr one, infrastructure adjustments; yr 2, shift calving season by 3 weeks, and many others.
Do not do something till your whole plan is prepared. Then dive in and get it over with as quick as attainable to reduce the disruption and get life again to regular as shortly as attainable. And acknowledge that there might be challenges alongside the way in which – regardless of how a lot planning you do there’ll nonetheless be changes and additional fine-tuning wanted as your new cattle ranching plan is put into observe. Accepting this prematurely prepares you in order that when challenges do come up, they do not result in discouragement, panic, or stress. Anticipating some sudden challenges is essential to sustaining confidence in your plan and permits you the psychological flexibility to take care of challenges as they arrive alongside.
And keep in mind to benefit from the journey of all of it. Glad farmer = completely happy cows.

My very own transition instance – altering the calving date

One of the drastic adjustments I made whereas managing my mother and father cattle ranch was to maneuver the calving season from the autumn (September) to the summer season (June).

The monetary value of delaying breeding by 9 months was not an possibility. As a substitute we moved the breeding season forward by 4 weeks annually till we achieved the complete 3 month shift. This meant that the transition interval lasted 3 years!

Every transition yr had very completely different monetary concerns, in addition to completely different calving, weaning, breeding, vaccination and gross sales dates.

As key dates lined up with completely different climate patterns, illness pressures additionally modified. Completely different key dates required completely different grazing methods, feeding packages, and dietary dietary supplements annually all through the transition course of to account for the shifting ages of the calves.

Our advertising technique developed all through to account for various weaning dates. As a substitute of promoting 800 lbs calves in August, they have been heavier a lot sooner, which ultimately led to grass ending and direct-marketing cattle.

Even our calving technique needed to change drastically. Catching, tagging, and processing calves in fall calving pens is not all that completely different than most individuals’s spring calving packages. However that calving technique must be drastically modified to accommodate a summer pasture calving program with calves born onto giant open pastures, into heat dry climate, and with a number of tall grass to cover in.

The one resolution was to create an in depth plan for the ultimate very best yr in addition to for each single yr all through the transition course of. Yup, one full plan for each single yr till the brand new technique was in place. With a herd of over 400 brood cows, these plans have been an absolute lifesaver to maintain chaos at bay.

The cattle manufacturing calendar allowed us to foresee find out how to modify vaccination, weaning, and advertising dates. The calendar and the grazing maps additionally allowed us to foresee how adjustments to our advertising technique (promoting a lot older calves) would have an effect on our stocking charges, and find out how to account for that by adjusting our herd measurement, forage manufacturing, and advertising technique alongside the way in which. And the cattle manufacturing calendar additionally allowed us to foresee the cash-flow shortages that may happen through the transition course of (brought on by delaying sale dates (promoting older calves), in order that we may put apart the suitable monetary reserves past these wanted to make infrastructure adjustments.

Though we positively bumped into some sudden challenges alongside the way in which (hopefully you may keep away from most of them by studying my e-book), the top end result was that we eradicated virtually all our calving issues, our conception charges soared, calf survival charges went manner up, illness pressures went manner down, and feed and labor prices plunged.

Decrease prices, extra market alternatives and happier cattle made me a a lot happier farmer – it was so worthwhile to make the leap! Hopefully the teachings I realized alongside the way in which (and share with you in my e-book Grass Fed Cattle) will make it easier to plan a good smoother transition course of that can assist you obtain your very best cattle manufacturing technique.

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Associated Articles:

Grazing Management Summary – a helpful stripped-down
reference record of the seven Core Grazing Guidelines that anybody elevating beef
cattle must know of their sleep.

(Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made utilizing Amazon hyperlinks in my publish.)

And while you’re prepared to start out planning your cattle farm, take a look at my e-book: Grass-Fed Cattle: Produce and Market Pure Beef. Use the hyperlinks under to discover my e-book and skim evaluations on Amazon:

Grass Fed Cattle: How to produce and market natural beef, by Julius Ruechel

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