For many livestock producers the next two months are a time when some of their animal related workload is reduced. Beef calves have been weaned and ewes/does have been bred. Producers may be taking advantage of the opportunity to get some other jobs accomplished before calving and lambing/kidding season rolls around after the first of the year. While it is easy to just let the moms do their thing and hang out waiting on the newborns to arrive, there are a few management practices you should consider as we move closer to winter.
In my last two articles, I spoke about getting your hay tested to know if it was capable of meeting your animal’s nutritional requirements and practices to conserve hay during storage and feeding. Both of these are paramount as we enter the winter feeding period. This is your best time to address any body condition issues you may have. Remember that once a cow/ewe/doe gives birth, her nutritional needs will drastically increase as she begins lactation. This is also a time when it will be difficult to completely meet all her needs, and she may loose some condition. If she gives birth with a body condition score below ideal, she may struggle to provide the nutrition her offspring needs and then may have trouble rebreeding next year. If you have members of your herd/flock that are below the ideal, now is the time to increase their plan of nutrition and increase their body condition prior to giving birth. You do need to be careful the closer you get to birth, as too high-quality feed can increase birth weights and contribute to birthing difficulty.
Outside of targeting your livestock to having the ideal body condition, it may be most valuable to know if they are even bred. Pregnancy diagnosis is the best way to conserve expensive feed resources as we move through winter. We want our livestock to work for us, and providing offspring is their major work. You can perform a diagnosis 35 days or later after the conclusion of the breeding season. Cattle will now be entering the third trimester of gestation and ewes may be entering the second. This can be done with the aid of your veterinarian who can palpate your cows or ultrasound your ewes. You can also collect blood samples which can be sent off to determine pregnancy status.
Finally, don’t forget about winter parasite concerns. The change in weather will end our seasonal fly issues but bring about concerns with lice. As temperatures continue to decline, the chances of a lice infestation increase. You should work with your vet to determine the optimal timing, but if you can get ahead of the problem your animals will thank you. Remember the life cycle of lice. The adults will lay eggs, and the nits will hatch after a 9 to 12 day incubation period. This usually requires two separate treatments to kill the current adults and the nymphs that will emerge later. It may be beneficial to use a product with a residual growth regulator to slow down the nymphs until the second application can be made.
As we enter the holiday season, our Extension programming slows down until we enter the new year. Frank and I are currently finalizing our winter programming schedule and will be releasing that information in the near future. One way to stay up to date on our programming schedule is to sign up for the OSU Extension ANR Ag Quarterly Newsletter. The newsletter is produced four times each year, and the next edition will be sent out the first week of January. As always, I wish you a safe and productive conclusion to the harvest season. If you have any questions, or would like to sign up for our newsletter, please feel free to contact me at the OSU Extension office in Wayne County at 330-264-8722 or email me at yost.77@osu.edu
John Yost is an extension educator IV, Agriculture and Natural Resources, at OSU Extension-Wayne County.
This article was previously published in The Daily Record.