Beef producers are always looking for ways to lower winter feeding costs for their cow-calf and backgrounding operations.
Various systems for backgrounding calves and wintering cows are being evaluated by Agriculture Canada’s Western Forage Beef Group at Lacombe, Alta.
One evaluation was of early weaned calves backgrounded on annual or Italian ryegrass.
Research at Lacombe and previously at the research centre at Melfort Sask., has shown that weaned calf gain can be as high as 500 to 600 pounds per acre when grazing annual ryegrass in late fall.
Read Also
Government, industry seek canola tariff resolution
Governments and industry continue to discuss how best to deal with Chinese tariffs on Canadian agricultural products, particularly canola.
Calves weaned in late August at Melfort and Lacombe have gained 1.5 to 2.5 lb. per day while grazing Italian ryegrass from late August to mid-November.
If there is adequate shelter, weaned calves can strip graze Italian ryegrass in several centimetres of snow.
Two types of ryegrass
There are two types of annual ryegrass: Italian and Westerwold. The Italian type (Maris Ledger) is recommended for grazing in Western Canada.
Westerwold (Aubade) is not recommended because it will get stemmy and set seed. This seed will shatter and could germinate the following year.
Recently scientists observed some seed set in the Italian type. Producers should be aware that some of this seed could germinate the following year if allowed to reach maturity.
To avoid the problem, Italian or annual ryegrass should be rotationally grazed during the summer, keeping it in the vegetative state.
Seeded in early spring with adequate moisture, Italian ryegrass can be heavily grazed for a short period in late July and early August and in late fall, depending upon rainfall.
Italian ryegrass is slow to establish in spring and broadleaf weeds should be controlled with 2,4-D or MCPA as early as possible.
Several benefits
The big advantage for backgrounding calves on annual pasture is the reduced stored feed costs and fewer health problems.
No major health problems have been observed with backgrounding calves on late fall pasture. However, respiratory disease has been a problem when calves are backgrounded in feedlots.
While no major health problems have been found with backgrounding calves on late fall pasture, respiratory diseases have been found in calves backgrounded in feedlots.
