 All right, thank you, Dr. Molenex. It's certainly a pleasure to be here to talk with you guys about one of the topics that I think is extremely important in the beef cattle industry. And it's the next generation of cattle, which should be our best generation each and every year. So today I want to talk with you about goals for developing beef replacement heifers on forages. So in Alabama, we have the great fortune to have lots of rainfall, which gives us lots of forages. So sometimes we get more than what we can use. So it kind of gets away from us sometimes. And then other times, maybe we don't have as much as we would like. So kind of trying to think about our developing our heifers in a beef system that will work and be sustainable, maybe even cost effective over time. So kind of a brief outline is we're going to look at some developing options and then look at some nutritional management when it comes to cool season annuals and perennials, as well as summer perennials and summer annuals. Here in Alabama, we are very different when you look across the state. So some of us have some options that maybe some others don't. Then we're going to you can't talk about heifer development without talking a little bit about the reproduction aspect, some of the breeding goals. And then one area that I think sometimes we as cattle producers fail, our heifers is the rebreeding aspect. It's almost like once we get them through that heifer development phase, we decide that it's time to kick them out with the mature cows and them start pulling their own weight. But it may be that we need to kind of revisit that and look at some rebreeding goals and knowing that those girls are not completely grown by the time they have with that first calf. So we may need to look at that. And then we'll open it up for questions. So just pulling a few quotes out of some papers. Heifer development, when you think of heifer development, you're selecting and developing beef heifers to replace cold cows or maybe you're in a herd building phase where maybe you're building your herd numbers. And that impacts the economics of a cow-calf operation through genetics and longevity. So improved genetics can enhance growth performance and carcass value while eventual longevity of the heifer as a mature cow is influenced by reproductive success during that first breeding season. So when you think about the, especially the economics associated with, you won't have her to sale as a product that year. So she's not gonna be in with the truckload of calves and you're investing in her potential performance in the future. So when you're designing your heifer development program, and that's one thing that I think we miss sometimes is this needs to really be a written plan. It needs to be something that you and whoever else makes decisions on your farm. This is not a time while you're working cattle that you look and you decide, oh, she's pretty, I'm gonna keep her. These are some real quantitative things that you've outlined that are goals that you and the other folks they're farming with you have decided upon. So you have those things in mind and maybe it's the heifers that you were born earlier in the calving season or are from productive cows and you're herd. But then you need to list the needed supplies and I put supplies in quotes because it kind of depends on what your farm looks like. So you need to list the needed supplies ahead of time and decide how feasible is it for you to develop heifers on your farm? Do you have the land area for it? They need to be separated from the mature herd. They have different nutritional needs. They're in a growing phase rather than a either lactating or maintenance phase. So when you think about the feasibility, do you have the labor that will be needed to work these heifers and develop them? Do you have, again, the land space? Do you have the fencing? They a lot of times are a little more promiscuous and they like to try to get in with the other cowherds. So do you have fencing that will allow these girls to be separated from maybe your main herd or the neighbor's herd bull? So can you make sure that they are isolated from the others? And then two, do you have facilities when it comes time for vaccination programs and health programs? Do you have the facilities needed to work these girls appropriately and without really stressing them out? So do you have adequate shade and do you have good water supply? So these are all things to kind of think about when you start deciding to either develop your own heifers or maybe have someone else develop them for you or maybe you have a good system where you can purchase heifers. So those are all things that need to be in your mind when you're thinking about it. So some of the traditional recommendations that you've heard in the past are that we want to manage our heifers to reach 65% of their mature body weight at breeding in order to maximize that pregnancy rate. This is still the recommendation today from our Alabama Beef Systems Group. We see enough local data to still support that 65% of mature body weight. In the past couple of years, there's been some studies that have released data showing heifers that can be developed as low as 48% and 50% of their mature body weight. They show no negative impacts on pregnancy rates. A lot of that data's come out of the Western States but when you kind of start looking through some of that, those systems, they're restricting some of the gain on those heifers to a 0.75 pound per day a gain. And then they really utilize that ramping up or compensatory gain right at breeding. So they increase that gain period at the time of breeding to get kind of a flushing effect to help with those conception rates. So we need to do a little more work here locally to support that type of that 48% to 50% of mature body weight for us locally. So at this time, we still like to say 65% of mature weight. So in talking a little more about those development options, so when you think about ways to get them from that weaning weight up to the breeding weight, which typically we're trying to put about 200 to 250 pounds of gain from the time that we wean to the time that we breed. So there's a couple of options as far as how to get to that endpoint. So you may probably the one that I like the best is the steady growing, the middle line that you see, kind of that steady rate of gain all the way up to the time of breeding. But there are some instances where maybe your forages are better at certain times and sometimes you can't control the rate of gain that you may be getting with the forages that you have available. So it may be that you have that really, really good forage availability and quality early in your time frame. And so you get that really high rate of growth and then it kind of steadies out there toward the end. That would probably be my least favorite because if you're going to have a steady rate of gain, I would like to see it right before breeding. So bringing them up kind of slow and then ramping them up would probably be the more desired when it comes to those top and bottom lines with the middle one being more ideal to get them kind of steady across the board. So when you think about your development options, so on your farm or in your availability, what forages are available from the time you wean until the time you breed. So if you have a calving season where you're calving in the fall, or maybe you're calving in the winter or the spring, then think about when you're weaning your calves. So from the point of weaning to the point of breeding, what forages do you have available on your farm that you can put these heifers out on? Is it forages that you could plant and have available or do you have some perennial forages that could be made available for these heifers at that time? So will the forages I have available meet or exceed nutritional requirements of growing heifers? This may require you to test some of your forages and see where they are at certain times of the year. And see if you could maintain those forages in that vegetative state to know that we can get the quality that we need. So then once you get those numbers, then you know if you have to supplement. So if supplementation is needed, you kind of need to know that on the front end so that you can have those commodities purchased on the front end. So all of this comes at a cost. Anytime that you're adding supplement, you're adding cost, you're adding labor, you're adding time. So the other thing is a lot of commodities can be purchased at maybe in a time of the year where they're cheaper. So if you can get a price break on bulk commodities and that's an option for you, that's something you'd want to take advantage of. So would supplementation be efficient and affordable for you? So that's something that you certainly need to think about when you're thinking about the forages that are available on your farm. So this is a slide that kind of looks at when certain grasses are growing and available to us here in Alabama. So we know kind of looking at forage growth distribution versus calving season. If you're fall calving, thinking about when you might wean those calves, say in the next spring, you would be looking at maybe the kind of the tail end of some of your cool season forages and then the beginning part of some of your warm season forages, which makes for some pretty good quality of grasses during those times. So, but if you're, say you're winter calving and you would be weaning those calves, say sometime in September, October, then you're looking at kind of a cool season, grass type program for those heifers in that development phase. So kind of thinking about maybe what types of forages are available to you and what you might be able to do there. So some nutrient requirements, goals, a good goal that we use as a benchmark is kind of that. The one to today gain with 1.5 is kind of being the average there until breeding to achieve that 65% of mature weight. So you need to look at them at weaning, get an idea of maybe a projected mature weight and you can do that using their frame score and then get an idea of where they need to be as far as growth rate. So can it be achieved by pasture alone? I think we've talked about it kind of depends on your season. So you can supplement your grass with maybe some cool or warm season annuals, some legumes, if you need to add quality or add quantity. Those are things that you kind of need to think about before weaning. So average quality pasture and hay always requires supplementation. So if you're at that average or even below average and we've had some rough years of hay production over the last couple of years, it seems like we get rain all at once or none at all. So some of our forages have been pretty mature when they've been harvested, making some of that quality maybe less than desirable. So if you are supplementing with hay or if you have pastures that got kind of overly mature, you may have to go in on pastures and bush hog or kind of restart that vegetative state. And then keep in mind some of our summer forages when you get kind of into that July and August timeframe, some of those forages have gotten pretty mature and headed out. And two, it is just so miserably hot that it's challenging to get heifers or really any animal out and actually start grazing or any time grazing because it's just hot. So they're utilizing shade and spending that time loafing rather than grazing. So that July, August timeframe can be kind of a challenge for any system. So that's something that you kind of wanna keep in mind when you're thinking about your system. So this is a table pulled out of the NRC looking at nutrient requirements for growing heifers. And this was just to give you an idea. You can look up kind of a mature weight target. You need to weigh some of your mature cows. There's a couple of ways of doing that. Maybe if you're taking some cold cows to the market, jot down what those weights were and kind of get an idea in your mind of how those appeared to you. Maybe you thought they were 200 pounds heavier or 200 pounds lighter. It gives you a pretty good idea of where you may be on your mature weight of your cow herd. And then two, if you have scales, it's a good idea to weigh those cows. Weaning is a good time for that so that you can see if she's producing 50% of her weight in her weaned calf. That's a good production benchmark for her. So this just kind of shows the age of the calf that's going to be taking in for about 12 months, 7, 14, or 24. And then the dry matter intake or the pounds of dry matter that calf is going to be taking in. And then the TDN or the energy component and then the crude protein component. So these are the requirements for growing heifers that you're trying to maintain at a two pound of day growing rate. Where are those forages need to be? And then if they're not there, how you may have to supplement. So I always liked doing a little cowboy math because I was always that student that needed things shown to me rather than told to me. So if you have a group of heifers and say they wean at 500 pounds and they have an expected mature body weight of 1,200 pounds. So your target at breeding is about 750 pounds. So that means that you're gonna need to, they're gonna need to gain 250 pounds from weaning to breeding. So how much time is that? So if you're weaning them at say seven months as an average and then your age at breeding is 15 months, the difference in that is about eight months. So you have eight months to put on 250 pounds. So thinking about that amount of time and that amount of gain needed, your target is that one to one and a half pounds of day game. So if you're needing to put 250 pounds on in eight months, you can do that with a pound a day. So that one to one and a half pound of gain per day is a good target for you to have that steady rate of gain. So the nutrient requirement for one pound of gain a day, which is on the lower side, is TDN of 52.7 and crude protein of eight. Most of our forages can get to that. Now, when they get overly mature, that's when you're gonna see these numbers start dropping. But most of the forages that we grow, especially our cool season forages, they're gonna really exceed these numbers. So the question is, can I do this with forages? I think the answer is definitely yes. I think it's an option for us. I don't, I think we can do this without supplementation a lot of times. We have systems that we're working with that the main reason we supplement sometimes is just so that they remain docile. And there is certainly something to that. You do want them to remember who you are and what people are. There's a docility part of Heifer Development. So the next few slides that we're gonna kind of go through are looking at a project that we have either at the Sand Mountain Experiment Station or the Black Belt Research Extension Center. So the Sand Mountain Elite Heifer Development Program is done from January until around June each year. And we've been doing that this next year will be our fifth year in that program. So looking at kind of some real data from Alabama or from our projects, when you think about cool season forages for us, you think about the perennials are gonna be a fescue-based system. And then some of the annuals that we utilize, we utilize a lot of ryegrass or some ryegrass legume mixtures and then the small grain mixtures, kind of your wheat, your rye. So those are gonna be some of the small grain mixtures that we've utilized. So this is data from just this last year. And each year seems to have some challenges or look a little different, but this last winter was actually a pretty good growing season for us. And looking at the number of grazing days for each of these systems, and I will say I pulled the fescue data from 2018 because we had to redo some fescue paddocks. So the fescue data is from 18. So when you start looking at number of grazing days, and that's what you kind of have to think about when you're thinking about developing on forages how many days can I have them out there? When you got 132 in the small grain mixture, 143 for fescue and 201 for ryegrass, the ryegrass depending on when you have to start and stop grazing can almost take care of a lot of your forage needs over that growing period. And the one thing I'll say about the small grains, we can usually get on them about 30 days prior to say the ryegrass or the fescue. So it comes up earlier. So it gives us an option for that. And we also can graze it out. And so we can just continue to keep coming back to that. And that's why it has a higher utilization is because we will continue to graze it because we can kind of graze it out before we move on to the ryegrass and the fescue mixtures. So forage consumed per heifer per day, we're at that nine, 12 and 19 values. And we were looking at somewhere around 14 on our dry matter intake earlier. So some of these numbers could certainly achieve those. So quite a bit of forage available through that system. Some of us in North Albin and over in the black belt have the option of stockpiling maybe some small fescue, most of which is a Kentucky 31 fescue. And I think we all understand at this point some of the implications or toxicities associated with that. But we still have those forages available. So this is a study out of North Carolina State where they looked at a late November through mid-January grazing and replacement heifers. And so they were able to get some pretty good quality numbers out of that fescue. So 16 to 13% on the crude protein and 68 to 60% on the TDN. That would do pretty well for what we would want to achieve. So unsupplemented, so only grass, they were able to achieve that one pound of gain per day. And then when they supplemented at seven pounds per day of high energy feed, they were able to pump that up to 1.7 pounds per day and add a half of a percent of body condition score. So certainly an option for us. Some of the warm season forages that we think about, we have behiagrass and bermutagrass. Sometimes I think behiagrass is overlooked because it's always been so readily available. We've certainly used bermutagrass because of its yield potential for hay production. But behiagrass is certainly something to look at because of its sustainability through some of our droughts. It's a deep rooted perennial forage that kind of hangs in there with us. So I think behiagrass is something that we certainly don't need to forget. It has some really good quality numbers early on in the summer especially. So you could achieve that one pound of gain a day on heifers using what you have. So some of the other systems, bermutagrass, native warm season grasses, this is, we have a study going on at the Black Belt Station kind of looking at replacement heifers on native warm season grasses when our second year of that study. So gains anywhere from 0.75 to one and a half have been shown in the literature. We're hanging out at that 0.7 up to a pound of gain. That's kind of where we've been seeing. So supplementation may be needed with this particular program. We don't have everything put together yet. But it's certainly a tool in the toolbox and it's maybe an alternative system to what we've had in place. So when you look at those kind of average days of grazing per year on some of our warm season forages, we're gonna be in that 70 to 100, maybe 120 days of grazing on these summer systems. And we do have some overlap when it comes to cool season and warm season forages. And then thinking about the yield on the different ones, some are gonna produce quicker. You have to understand that maybe in a 30 day grazing period you may have to do some put and take where you put more on and pull some off as that grass is growing. And we always use that rule of thumb take half, leave half. And we're talking about grazing systems. So that project that I was talking about in the black belt we're looking at alternative systems to tall fescue in summer for head for development. So some of the numbers that we've been seeing, this is just data from last year. We're still collecting data this year. So we're looking at tall fescue compared to bahia grass, which is in the middle there or the native warm season grass, which is on the top. So when we put those heifers on, you can see their initial weights and their final weights. So we were kind of at that 0.5 to 0.6 pound of gain a day. So with this system, with all of them last year they would have required supplementation to get them to that pound a day and get them to that achievable desired weight at breeding. So all of these heifers actually made it to breeding and had some really good conception rates when it came to total conception. So we were able to get them to where they needed to be but you kind of have to pay attention to them if you're using some of these summer forage systems. So at Sand Mountain, when you look at grazing days across the years, this is something that you kind of have to think about there. Year two was the 2016 drought. And they spent a lot of time eating hay and supplement because we just simply did not have any forages come up. We didn't get rain up here from July till December. So planting in September, October for your cool seasons to be there in January and February wasn't an option for us. So that really reduced our grazing days. Other than that, we've had anywhere from 138 to 154 days, 105 days on these cool season annuals with some perennial fescue mixed in. So looking across those years, we've had some initial weights from 600 to up to 741 pounds with breeding weights being from 790 up to 882. And each year our gains have been about where we would like them to be. You know, we're targeting that 1.5 and we've been from 1.6 up to 1.86 this last year with total conception rates being from 74 to 88. These numbers we would like to see a little higher, but when you're bringing in heifers from lots of different places with different management styles and a little bit of different age, this may be some good goals that we have here. So looking across kind of a four year comparison, this is kind of a busy chart, but I think it further illustrates how using forages is certainly a good way to develop heifers. When you look at gains that we were able to achieve across the years, I think this is all doable. Depending on the weather, you may have to have some supplementation just as a kind of a descriptive data point looking at frame score anywhere from 5.2 to 6.4. So with the five being kind of the moderate and six frame score getting up there, where you're starting to see some 1,400 pound mature weights. So on the projected mature weights anywhere from 1190 up to 1,340 with the percent of a body weight at breeding, we were above that 65% each year, which was the target for us. And the rest of that data just is more on the genetic side, but as part of the development program, we want to be able to give back some carcass quality data. And I think that certainly a portion of heifer development that you want to consider is especially if you're selling any local raised meat, these are some numbers that you can show to folks, especially that intramuscular fat to show maybe a snapshot into what their product may be. So just to dive into the economics just a little bit, I didn't summarize across all years, but I pulled from this last year looking at what does it cost? So what does it cost to do this system? So we had, let me back up and see here, we had 26 heifers this last year. So we had a lower number than normal. So the price per heifer is a little bit higher this year. And we've been anywhere from 60 to up to this $89 per heifer on our development. So the forage cost us, and the thing is you're going to plant for us the same acreage because we plant before we have all of our nominations in. So our forage cost was a little over $2,000 with the price per heifer being around $90 a head for the forage system. So the forage costs are associated with planting. So seed cost, fertility costs, if you need to lime, so taking a soil test and making sure your pH is right. So any type of weed treatments, that all kind of compiles into your forage cost feed. So we didn't have to, this one right here is what, this particular lime item is what will show a profit or a loss because if you have to add a lot of feed, then that's where you're really get into your pockets as far as cost. So we were able to keep our feed costs at a minimum at $16 a head. Then you're always going to have mineral cost. Typically for us, it ends up being about a bag of mineral per heifer over our kind of six month development phase. You're always going to have some vaccine costs and some deworming costs. For us, those have been between $13 and $16 a head. Then the carcass ultrasounds are going to run around 20. Breeding, we've been anywhere from $55 to $65 per heifer on our breeding costs. And that takes into account all of our medicine costs, leasing a cleanup bull. And then, so you're always, you always need to be prepared for anything else that may come up. So kind of miscellaneous costs that you just have to kind of account for. So we've got our bread now, what? So a lot of times we, once we get them bread, we kind of take a sigh of relief and turn them out and hope for the best. But we have to remember that this is still part of her development phase. So if she's 65% of her mature body weight at breeding and we're targeting 85% of mature body weight at calving, then she still needs to stay on that steady plane of nutrition to ensure that she's maintaining a body condition that will allow her to raise that calf and her best ability. So we're looking at about 250 days from weaning to breeding. Could be a few additional days if she didn't catch on that first breeding or even the second breeding. So she may have some additional days that she can get to that point. So with a steady plane of nutrition, most heifers can maintain a one to one and a half pound a gain, a pound per day gain and be on target for that 85% of mature body weight. Understanding that we need to be at about a body condition score of six at calving to, because most of the time we know they're gonna probably lose about the body condition score after calving and to feed that calf. So body condition score of six is a good target for us. So what happens from that point of calving to re-breeding? So that's one of the most challenging times for a new cow or a new first calf heifer in your system. So she's not only going through her peak lactation time period but she's also learning to be a new mother and trying to start cycling again. So going through uterine evolution and getting ready to re-breed. So this is a very challenging time that we need to pay close attention to. So a lot of our heifers will fall out of our program because at the time of calving, some folks will kick them out with the mature cows and assume that they're part of the cow herd now. I think we do them a disservice when we do that. So this is the nutritional demand that we must not overlook so that our first calf heifers will re-breed. So their requirement is still around a 10% crude protein, 65% TDN to get to that projected 1,200 pound mature weight. So will your forage alone meet this nutrient demand at that time that you've, that you're calving and into your peak lactation? So especially those that are in a fall calving system, if you're in peak lactation and re-breeding in December and January, what forages are available during that time? So if you do have some that can be grazed or if you're feeding hay, you need to make sure that you're testing those qualities. So this is some data from different farm groups or groups of calves from our Heifer Development Program at Sand Mountain. So this is the weights of those heifers when they came off of our program. And I wanted to show this to show that the average daily gain that was needed from the time that they came off of our test until calving. Some of those heifers were a little older so they didn't really have to gain a whole lot at all or maybe zero. So from zero up to a pound or 1.35. So those are very attainable goals from breeding to calving. So I just wanted to kind of show some real data there to show that these are certainly things that we can do. So reproduction cannot be forgotten. So some of the things that we can do to ensure that we're really keeping the most elite heifers in our system, we can do pelvic measurements. You can work with your local veterinarian or maybe you have someone in the community that's a cattle producer that's familiar with this type of measurements. So you can use a palvrimter like what's shown here in the picture. Or you can kind of measure the distance between maybe your thumb and pinky and upon palpation. I get a pretty good idea of the space that's in between their pelvis. So you're measuring the distance up vertical as well as horizontal that's available with a target of 150 square centimeters. And this is a good indication of her ability to be able to have that first calf. So the cowboy math, again, you can take that number, 150 divided by two, and that equates to the size of calf that she could have. So 150 divided by two, she could have a 75 pound calf that was presented in normal presentation. You can also do reproductive track scoring. And that's just to make sure that you don't have a juvenile track in your heifers and to really see if they've attained puberty. So as you can see in this image below where it's a dissected repro track, you're feeling for the size of that track as well as the size of the ovary. And on that ovary, does she have any structures? So does she have follicles? Does she have a CL present? And that kind of lets us know if she's been cycling. So this is a good way to maybe call out some of those heifers that haven't reached puberty or they're not far enough along in their development. You always want to think about docility. And here lately, there's been some emphasis on feet scoring. So the Angus Association has a really nice foot scoring chart that look angle as well as the evenness of those claws to give you a good idea of how her feet are gonna hold up in your system. So we've talked a little bit about the Hefers Development Program that we offer here at Sand Mountain. And this is for anyone in the state. You can nominate your heifers for this program. So we'll be accepting those nominations again in November. We receive heifers in January. We do breed them in April. For us here in Northeast Alabama, we feel like a winter calving time period or early spring calving time period matches our forages for those heifers when they're in peak lactation. So then they return home in June. It's a $400 a head flat rate for those heifers that are selected to go into the program. And this includes all your data collection and breeding. It's a forage-based as long as the weather holds up for us. It is done at the Sand Mountain Research Station in Crossville. And those heifers need to be born before February the 15th so that they'll be the right age when it comes to breeding.