 Again, welcome to our third week of our junior beef producer webinar series, the third one in a five week series. We got two left after this week. And I think we've had great topics over the first two weeks, great attendance for those. And this week we're going to talk about post calving and prebreeding nutrition, which is, in my opinion, probably one of the biggest nutritional demands on our cow herd is they're just finishing up calving, they're trying to raise a calf, and as well as getting back into condition to be able to rebreed in a timely manner. And this week, we've got Dr. Casey McCarthy coming to us to talk about this. She's currently a beef cow calf specialist down at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Casey got her bachelor's degree from New Mexico State University in 2016 in the animal science or actually that's Colorado State, sorry. Her master's degree at New Mexico State University. And she finished up her PhD work at North Dakota State University in 2019, and then went to work for University of Nebraska Lincoln in 2020, I believe it is. So I got to work with Casey quite a bit while she was here doing her PhD work and working on a couple of different projects and I think Casey is going to do a great job here talking about this post calving prebreeding nutrition and I'm going to turn the floor over to Casey and we've got a couple of our fellow extension agents online to monitor chats and if we get some pressing questions right away, they will jump in and ask Casey those questions on your behalf. So if you've got questions, type them in the chat there and we'll go from there. It's all yours, Casey. Wonderful. Thank you, Brian, for that introduction and hello everyone. Sounds like we have folks from all over tonight. So thanks for joining. I'm down here in Nebraska. I think it's maybe a little warmer than some of you guys up in North Dakota. So what we're going to talk about tonight is post calving and prebreeding nutrition and what I really want us to kind of be thinking about and focusing on tonight is how to manage and evaluate body condition score. I think this is a very valuable concept that I think is important for a number of different time points within our production system for beef herd. And so I'll talk about some of those production time points and the importance of evaluating body condition score, especially when we think about pre calving, post calving and moving into breeding season. We're going to dive into some nutritional requirements, thinking about demands during late gestation, as well as nutritional demands and some different supplementation strategies during the breeding season. And then also going to touch on a little bit of cold weather management. I know there's some parts of the country that are still dealing with cold weather, lots of snow. I know some people are still getting pushed out of the snow and shoveled out in North Dakota and in other areas of the country. And so what I kind of talk about that and how we can manage that related to our cow nutrition. So thinking about what body condition score is, it really is a method of evaluating our body reserves in our cattle. And so this is looking at that relative fatness of our cows, and it's on a scale from one to nine. And that goes from one being very thin, emaciated, upwards to our obese, nine very fleshy animals. And so this scale really allows us to visually assess and gives us an opportunity to get hands on our animals to evaluate that condition in those body reserves. And so when I think about what a body condition score is worth in terms of pounds on that animal, we usually are anywhere from 75 to 120 pounds. It's pretty big range, but what we're trying to really target here is about 90 pounds of body weight per condition. So we're trying to add additional pounds on that animal in terms of relative fatness. Now, when we think about evaluating our body condition at various stages, this becomes very critical from a management standpoint during our different production periods that are going to be extremely demanding two times that may not be as demanding on our cows. And so the one time period that we'll kind of dive into in terms of those importance related to a body condition and nutrition is during late lactation. And so this is a couple months prior to weaning where we still have some of those lactational demands, but we might be seeing some changes in our forage availability and quality. We might need to be thinking about supplementation strategies and when we're weaning because this lactation demand also pulls a lot of those energy reserves. And so identifying thin cows, looking at our younger versus our older cows are going to be really important during this time period. Now, weaning is another time period that might be a good time to evaluate, particularly paying attention to our young cows, especially since they're weaning their first calf. We're asking a lot of those young cows. We asked them to grow. We asked them to get pregnant, have their first calf, and lactate. And now they're supposed to be weaning their first calf. And so we want to make sure that we're setting those females up for success moving into breeding season. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. When we think about the critical time periods of 100 to 90 days prior to calving, this is the last opportunity that we can feasibly put body condition and weight on our cows if they need it. And so this is a really great time. If you have facilities or opportunities to separate some of those thin cows from maybe our better condition cows and increase that feed in our thin cows, we can gain body condition and weight on those cows prior to calving. Because at calving, this is going to be really important when we think about our colostrum quality, when we think about moving into lactation, and then moving into breeding season, where we want to make sure that she has energy reserves in body condition to be successful in that next breeding season. At calving, if our cows are thin, we really need to evaluate our feeding program and the feed that we're actually providing to those animals. And so when we think about evaluating feed, I'll talk about a little more in tonight's presentation, but knowing what we're feeding is going to be really critical to make sure we're meeting those nutritional requirements in those cows. And it's a very expensive time during calving season to increase condition in thin calving cows. And we can start running into issues related to calving and dystocia if our cows are getting too thin or weak and we're not managing them appropriately. And then breeding season is another good time. And this is where we may start to implement supplementation or maybe even early weaning strategies to reduce that lactational demand and meet those maintenance requirements for those cows, as well as an opportunity to get those cows in good condition, manage those groups a little differently. And so these are really the critical time points that I think are important for us to consider. And they all play a really big role in how we're managing those cows throughout the year. So what are we looking for when we're doing a body condition score evaluation? So there's different points on our animals that we want to be looking at. We want to initially be looking at our ribs, the spine and back. We want to be looking at those hip bones and tail bones and pin bones because that's going to be able to help tell us where kind of fat is accumulating. We also can start to look at that brisket. And then when we're looking at the animal from behind, we can also start to identify those hooks and pins and tail head fat thickness in those animals. This is another way that we might be able to think about that in terms of a couple of different steps when we're understanding body condition score. So the first one, we're going to look at those last two ribs on our animal. And are they visible? Well, then we're probably going to say she's a pretty moderate condition. She's around that five, so right in the middle. But if she is not, so maybe it's really, really soft, really smooth, or it's less and you can see more ribs, now we're going to start to adjust up or down from that middle five condition score. Then we're going to start looking at the spine. Can we see it? And then we're going to start to evaluate the hooks and the pins. And so this is an example of either a U shape or a really strong V shape, where we're seeing too much bone and not enough fat cover flesh on those animals. And so now we need to just kind of think about how we're going to evaluate and manage those animals differently. So here's kind of an example and I've got some pictures on the next slide for you guys, where you can see quite a few of those ribs. We're pretty sunken in and you can see that spinous process and we can start to see those hooks and those pins in these animals. So here's some photos of some cows or a little older photos. I was trying to get my video updated today and it just wasn't going. So we had to resort back to some of the older photos. But you can start to see those ribs. We start to see that spinous process. You can see the hooks and the pins here. There's not much fat cover over the back in the four ribs in these animals. So really good example of a thin cow and maybe a body condition score three. Now, our ideal condition that we strongly encourage folks to consider having their animals in a five or six body condition which generally will set them up for success moving into calving, breeding season. This is where we start to see those ribs are nice and smooth. We start to see those hindquarters starting to accumulate some little more fat deposit. We aren't really seeing much in terms of those hooks and pins and over that tail head. When you get a hand on these animals, it's pretty firm and smooth over those ribs and over that top line. And so really nice pictures here, maybe some higher moderate cows that we like, especially with our heifers to see them in this six condition because that's going to help them when they're really trying to pull that milk and some other growth demands that they're acquiring as well as asking them to get pregnant for their second calf or maybe even their first calf. This is a really good condition that we like to target. And then this is kind of starting to push towards the higher end of the scale for condition where these animals are going to be in really good kind of overly fleshy condition where they have no spine, no ribs they're showing. We've got abundant fat cover over that tail head so we start to see those fat deposits around that tail head really smooth. You start to see accumulation here in the brisket as well. So hopefully these are some good visuals and some good refreshers for us. I just had my students in class the other day. We were doing some demonstrations with body condition score. And it's always great to keep training your eye and working through photos, working through and evaluating your animals at home, having somebody else also evaluate and compare those scores because that really helps make sure that you're identifying areas that you should be looking at as well as then having conversations if we do need to start making some management decisions. So again, when should we be taking some of these condition scores? Now weaning is a really good time. And then moving into late gestation and getting us prepared for this post-capping and pre-breeding time window because when we start to worry about nutritional deficiencies during late gestation, these can negatively impact our milk production, our colostrum production, as well as subsequent reproductive performance in those animals. And so we can see pregnancy rates and kind of that longevity within those animals start to decline. If we aren't setting them up for success, moving into winter and then into the calving and breeding season. So what I like about this table is the concept that it takes us quite a bit of time and additional weight gain that's needed if we need to move cows up in condition score prior to calving. And so again, this is a great opportunity for us to do that before it gets really expensive at calving and post-capping before we turn animals out to pasture. And so this just kind of illustrates what it would be if we have an animal at maybe a condition score four and we want to get her up to a five. Now during late gestation, I'll show you guys some other tables here tonight, but we have quite a bit of fetal growth that's occurring during late gestation. And so we typically account for about 100 pounds of fetal and placental weight. And then we're also accounting for weight gain that we're asking that animal to gain in terms of that thickness. And so we're asking that cow to gain about 175 pounds. We've got about 180 days to calving. So she needs to gain about a pound a day to meet that target. Now if our cows are in thinner condition and we want to get them to that moderate or optimal time period, depending on how many days we have till calving is really going to depend on what our inputs and gains are going to have to be to make sure that we're getting those cows in condition. So keep that in mind, it does take some time to put weight on and that cost relative to the feed inputs that we're going to have to acquire to get those cows up to that adequate weight is also going to be something we're going to have to consider. So when we think about body condition score, it's a great indicator for our postpartum interval. And so if we think about it all, I've got a nice little graph here coming up, but we cows gestate for about 280 days, give or take. And so we've got about 80 days to work with to make sure that those calves are maintaining a 365 day cycle of having to calf once a year. And so if we target that five, five and a half body condition score, we can ensure that our cows are resuming estrus. So basically their whole reproductive tract after they calf is shrinking back down there. They're in good condition. Those, those tracks are ready to, to rebreat and they're, they're ready to have another calf. We can give them plenty of time to resume estrus and in that an estrus period to get ready for that next breeding season. However, if we're challenging those cows and they're in a little lower condition, maybe a little more on the thin side, we could have upwards 80, 90, 100 plus days for them to resume weight. We're asking them to be lactating during this time period. And so they're not even going to be worried about returning to, to estrus and thinking about the breeding season. And so it's a really a fine balance here of making sure that our cows are in that kind of target range. So we have some wiggle room to meet those targets for the breeding season. So this is just another way of looking at how we can increase or decrease body weight depending on what their body condition score status is. But ultimately what I really want you to look at is depending on where our cows are at in their condition score, this is impacting our overall pregnancy rates. And so if cows are thin and they're losing body weight, we start to see our pregnancy rates decline. And so this is really critical with where our animals are at, how we're managing them either on pasture or maybe in dry lots or other scenarios and evaluating body condition over time. So when we think about nutrition prior to calving, that last trimester, we have rapid fetal growth. We have increased nutrient demands. And we're going to dive in a little bit about cold weather, but that's going to increase those requirements. And so with some of these really cold storms and things that are coming through the Midwest, we need to keep in mind that those nutrient requirements are going to be increasing. So we're going to have to give them more energy, more protein to meet those demands for that growing fetus, that calf that's growing really rapidly, and also to make sure that she's maintaining condition. Because if she's losing heat, we may start running into some issues of body condition slipping. And so again, that target of five or six is that moderate condition, because it can impact those cows coming into heat. And so this is just some other work in the early 90s where depending on body conditions for those animals, we do see impacts in cows becoming in heat at the beginning of the breeding season. So this is really critical. It plays a role in how we manage our nutrition. And so keep in mind that thin cows at calving is a really challenging time point because it's economically challenging to increase that body weight. And so if we have cows, so for example, this is a 1,200 pound beef cow that's producing about 20 pounds of milk, we have to increase our energy in our crude protein and late gestation about 25% and about 10% per protein to make sure that she's meeting her maintenance requirements. And then when we hit early lactation, those nutrients are going to be prioritized to lactation before we even get any body weight change. So it's a very challenging time where you start to see we're almost doubling those maintenance requirements for this type of animal just to make sure that she can meet those lactational demands. And so when we think about lactation and what that cow is providing to our calves, there's been a lot of work out there that looks at how body conditions score at calving can impact the colostrum quality and the IgGs in that serum, in the colostrum and the serum of our calves when they're collected at 24 hours of birth. And so these calves, they consumed that colostrum then they took a blood sample, they looked at the immunoglobulins there. So those antibodies that are in that calf circulation and the lower body conditions for in those animals, the lower serum concentrations that they noted in those calves. And so when we think about colostrum absorption, that's a very critical time period right in those first 12 hours. And so we're setting those calves up for success in those first 12 hours of life and making sure that it's really good high quality colostrum is going to be important. And so when we think about the colostrum quality in calf survival, that's really important with that higher quality colostrum increasing the percent of calves that are surviving over a couple of week period. And so when we think about our cows and how the body condition score and the nutrition that we're setting them up for during lactation making sure that they're receiving a high quality forage roughage. So this might be maybe early high quality grass. Maybe we still have some cows in the dry lot. And so we have a ration that's pulled together. Maybe it's a corn silage based ration or maybe something a little different depending on where you're located in the country. But increasing that body condition score, making sure those cows are maintaining that's going to be really important. And so we'll dive into some of these different supplement strategies. But keeping in mind a distillers grain, some wheat mids, some other types of fiber based energy supplements can really help increase that body condition. We need to be cautioned with our starch based energy. So maybe some higher corn based diets because it can increase milk production. However, depending on if they're out on a forage or maybe a lower quality forage, we do need to watch that offset of protein and energy that's going to be utilized for the animal. And we may not see body weight changes. So it's a balance there and we'll talk about that. So some other things that I mentioned initially during our time periods is maybe thinking about managing those groups. So if we have thin or younger cows, it may be an opportunity to evaluate pre-caving, act calving, and then moving into the breeding season. If we can sort some of our younger cows into a group from our older cows, this can help us be pretty strategic on maybe supplementing some of our thinner younger cows and providing the higher quality feed stuff to those. And then letting our more flushy cows manage their condition a little differently. So we can sort by age and weight. You guys have been talking or if you've been joining the webinars, we've been talking about breeding and some different considerations related to breeding. One point that I like to bring up when we think about condition and how we're managing our nutrition is implementing pregnancy detection. And so that's going to help us, if we can do that early, especially if we're dealing in areas that have been dealing with drought, especially here in the Midwest, we've had parts of different states that are pretty low in forage. And so identifying cows early that if they're open, that gives us some opportunities to get rid of those cows, to move cows off of pasture and identify those opens versus pregnancy and make some different management decisions to help us stretch our forage. So a lot of other considerations that we can be thinking about. Briefly, I want to just mention cold weather management before we dive into some other nutritional considerations. But if we are in areas that we're needing to make sure that we're maintaining condition in our cows and especially our calves post-caving, is making sure that we are providing win-brakes, access to barns, or thinking of getting those animals out of muddy conditions. Because when they are having to utilize a lot of energy on their body to stay warm and to really fight off some of that cold weather, we really want to make sure that we're paying attention to our elements and the environment and what we have for wind protection and cold. And so depending on if it's really cold, it's really hot. If it's wet or freezing, wind, chill, all of these are going to start to impact that animal's energy requirements and change how we manage those animals in terms of the nutrients that they're being provided in. And so depending on where those animals are at in terms of cooler or warmer temperatures, we want to just make sure we're in this happy thermonutrile zone. And so these animals are in a good maintenance and intake requirement zone. And we're meeting those requirements. We're evaluating condition. Now, if we have cold weather or wind chills, that's going to drastically increase our requirements. And if we are dealing with really wet, windy conditions, we want to make sure that we have some type of either windbreak or extra feed out there to help make sure that they're not having to utilize those body reserves as much in some of those scenarios. Because when they get wet and cold, they start to use a lot of that fat and condition. And then we need to be worrying about making sure that they're getting enough feed out there to stay warm. So when we think about some of those general rules of thumb, mid gestation, it's around 55% energy, 7% crude protein for meeting those requirements. When we move into late gestation, that's going to increase. And then after calving, we start to see that increase even more. And so cows are going to eat around two and a half to 3% of their body weight in dry matter. And so when we are dealing with extreme cold, that is going to increase. So they're going to be consuming more and needing to maintain more body heat to make sure that they're meeting their energy and protein requirements. And so as that energy increases for every pound, we're basically increasing that for every five degrees below Fahrenheit. So we want to make sure that we're meeting their energy, meeting that protein, we're evaluating that coat condition. Is it dry? Is it wet? And then making sure that we're increasing our energy and protein in these severe cold weather events. And then one other key that I like to mention is testing our forage, especially prior to winter. If we have hay reserves, if we have different supplements that we know what we have available. So if we do have some of these extreme weather events, we have feed stuffs that are readily available to feed, as well as targeting some of those different groups. If we have some of our thin cows that maybe need a little more energy and protein, do we have some extra alfabales or distillers or maybe a corn or wheat mid-supplement that we might be able to provide with that hay to be able to increase those requirements. So testing forages prior to winter is a really great idea of knowing what you're working with. And then if you are running into issues and you're calling your local extension agents or specialists, then they can work with you to create those rations or help you think about your supplementation strategies based on the forage and feed resources that you have. So it really does help you plan and prepare and think about what you need to meet those cows' requirements. So we're going to start moving into our cow requirements, thinking about what impacts cow requirements and thinking about some different strategies that we can implement here post-caving and into the breeding season. And so when I start to think about cow requirements, there's a lot of things, a lot of factors that can impact that. So the cow age, so are we working with first-time cavers? Are we working with three, four, and five-year-olds? Are we working with five-plus-year-old cows? How big they are? Are they pregnant? Are they lactating? Are these heifers growing? Do they have to cover a lot of ground in their pastures? So you get out maybe into the northern Great Plains, the Midwest, and or even maybe in the Southwest when I was down in New Mexico, the environment and the amount of space that those animals had to cover to get their feed resources are very different across the country. And so some really good things that we can be thinking about. And then breed also is going to affect our nutrient requirement. So when we think about how our cattle are prioritizing our nutrients, so that's going to be our nutrients thinking about water, carbs, proteins, our fats, our vitamins, our minerals that make up kind of all those essential nutrients that our cattle need. What they consume is initially utilized in body maintenance. And so those nutrients are going to be utilized and then that's going to kind of fill up and then that's going to be utilized for basal metabolism, activity, and growth. And when we think about what they start to utilize in terms of our nutrients, they start to use up energy and protein first and they do a really good job of storing vitamins and minerals in their organs and circulating throughout the body. However, these are some of those first limiting nutrients that cows are going to prioritize. So now once we've met maintenance, we can think about reproduction. And so this is where they're going to be either maintaining pregnancy or we can even think about nutrients required for resumption of estrus as well. So then if we're asking them during different stages here to lactate, to have a calf, and to initiate estrus cycles and initiate pregnancy, we need to start partitioning those nutrients out for those animals. And then that's just going to loop right back around and start all over again in terms of that cycle. And so you'll see kind of this whole cycle going through in terms of nutrient prioritization. This is really important for us to be thinking about when we move into meeting those requirements in those time periods. So again, our lactating cow is going to have the greatest requirements, especially our first calf heifers. This is going to be the greatest requirement on a percent body weight basis. Then our mature lactating cow, then our late gestating cow, and then our growing heifers and steers. And so as our nutrient requirements increase, so for example, pregnancy and lactation, the quantity and quality fee that are going to be needed by that cow is going to start to increase. And so we got to be really cognizant of where their condition is at and where conditions of our pasture and our forages are at to make sure that we're meeting those requirements. So late gestation, that's going to be anywhere 60 days before calving. Those maintenance requirements are going to start increasing in early lactation. So these are going to be really critical time points, which when we start to think about the annual cow cycle, so this is an example of a spring calving kind of February, March time point. Okay. And I know this kind of varies throughout the country, but this is one of the examples I had just to kind of illustrate requirements for you guys. But we've got the darker line here, which is our crude protein requirement. Our energy and TDN is here in this kind of lighter brown line. And then this goes from January all the way to December. So we have cows starting to calf. We talked about that importance of monitoring condition here, moving into calving. We start to see our requirements increase. Now we're hitting peak lactation, right? So our cows potentially may be moving out to pasture, maybe in Mayish here, just kind of depends on where we want to start calving and where we want to start a breeding season, but we have peak lactation we need to be concerned about. We also need to be thinking about our forage quality, because as we move through our nutrient requirements, we'll start to decrease. We'll have weaning out here September, October, and then we move into winter months and start that cycle all over again. So these are going to be some critical time periods here that I have boxed. I will need to think about and kind of think about where our nutrients are going. So this is an example of crude protein and diets in the sand hills here in Nebraska. Now this is a very similar trend or curve to the forage samples that I took when I was up in North Dakota working on my PhD. And most typically in the Northern Great Plains and in areas in the Midwest, where we start to see our forage crude protein is going to be highest with our cool season plants in May, June, July, and then that crude protein and energy in our forages are going to start to decline. And then potentially could be deficient later on in the later grazing months and moving into winter. So when we think about forage that's needed and what cows are consuming, are they meeting those protein requirements for pregnancy, for lactation? During this critical time period of actually breeding season. And so we're asking a lot for these cows. And so this is a great example. This was taken with some different forage samples at either 4, 8, or 12% in crude protein. So that's going to be here in these different bars designated. And so if we have a cow that's in the last third of her pregnancy, if she consumes a low quality forage at 4%, she would need to eat upwards of 40 pounds a day. That is a lot of food. Now, if we have a cow that we've only got low quality forage and she's producing 20 pounds of milk, that maybe that means that that chart that I just showed you, she's, you know, we're really probably low out in our forage quality. She would have to eat upwards of 60. There's no way that is a lot, a lot of feed. So now we need to be strategic about either a higher quality and protein source for those animals. And so then now we're in that more reasonable 10 to 20 pound a day intake range to meet those requirements. So the quality of our forage either be grazing or stored feeds that we're providing to our animals, that's going to be really critical either in pregnancy or lactation into that breeding season. So again, just want to wrap up, show kind of a calendar here of those stages of gestation and thinking 280 for our gestation, around 80 days post calving to maintain a 365 day calving season. So as we're managing our cows post calving, this is a time moving into the spring that's going to have very high nutrient requirements. She does not have a calf growing yet. She's repairing, but we are lactating and nursing that calf and our energy and protein requirements are starting to be on the higher side. And so we want to make sure if we do have cattle before they're moved out to pasture, we're using a ration and we're maintaining those costs of that feed to meet these higher requirements. As we move into the summer months, we still have high nutrient requirements for our cows. This is during and after the breeding season, she's still lactating. Our energy and protein requirements may be a little less than high peak lactation, but we do need to make sure that we're evaluating conditions for here. This is kind of a low cost and higher quality pasture opportunity that we can use available pasture and forages to meet those requirements. So a much lower cost system if you do have opportunities to graze. So keep in mind that maintenance and gestation is going to pull a lot of those requirements for our animals. Moving into that breeding season, early gestation, if we have heifers, we are asking them to grow. And so we have a lot of energy and requirements that are going to be maintained here for growth and pregnancy. And so when we start to think about that fetal growth, we may only see a very small exponential growth here occurring in early gestation. But we do know that as we move from mid to late gestation, that energy requirements going to increase by 25%. Her protein requirements going to increase by 10%. And we're going to see about 75% of that fetal growth occurring here in that last two months of gestation. So it's really important that we're meeting those nutrient requirements for early and late gestation because there's a lot of stuff going on with our fetal growth to get that healthy calf on the ground at the end or the start of our calving season. And so there's a lot of muscle development and brain and functions and organs that are all being developed throughout gestation. And so we need to make sure that we're meeting those requirements for the fetus and for our cow. And so as we move into the fall or maybe second trimester, our requirements are starting to move into that lower requirement where this is an opportunity to capitalize on lower cost and lower quality feeds that are available. So this is a really good time, again to evaluate our body condition, thinking about lactating that calf. We might be getting close to weaning time. Our energy and protein requirements are starting to go down. And we can start capitalizing on different resources. Now here in the Midwest and especially in kind of Nebraska, Iowa and some surrounding states. We can utilize corn residue as an option or maybe cover crops has been very popular with annual forages to capitalize on lower cost feedstuffs that we can maintain cows and maintain condition on them at a fairly reasonable price over the winter. So really great opportunities if you have some of these resources available where you're at. We move into winter time, thinking maybe about now for third trimester and moving into calving. We start to ramp up energy requirements and we don't want to skimp on our feedstuffs. So working with the nutritionist or making sure that you're identifying what quality you have in terms of your feedstuffs is going to be really important, again to maintain that body condition, set those cows up for lactation and calving. So thinking about all that, thinking about our requirements, thinking about these different stages that we need to be cognizant of when we're evaluating our cows and evaluating their nutrition, most oftentimes we're going to be capitalizing on forage that they're grazing. And so if our forage is not meeting requirements, what can we do? What are some strategies, maybe some supplementation strategies that we can implement? Moving into the breeding season, that can help us be successful, increase those pregnancy rates and help meet those requirements. And so what we kind of like to think about in terms of rule of thumb is in general, 7% crude protein is kind of considered the minimum in cattle diets to maintain microbial function and digestion in the room. So what we're saying here is cattle are really unique in terms of their digestive system. And so what we need to be targeting is making sure that we're giving them enough protein to feed those microbes and those bugs in their gut to make sure that those cattle are healthy and functioning and they're utilizing those nutrients that they're consuming. Cattle are really great at selecting for higher protein and energy feedstuffs. Then if you were just going to go walk out and start clipping forage in your pasture and taking a sample, they're really good at finding that higher quality feed stuff. And so keeping that in mind as our forage quality changes over time and over the grazing season, it's really important to keep that in mind because we can be very strategic with our supplementation. So again, depending on that forage quality, this is a really nice kind of table that Dr. Lawman at Oklahoma State has pulled together that I think does a great job of kind of giving some forage examples of either dry winter forages and thinking about lactating or dry cows and what their forage capacity is in terms of intake. And so as we change from lactation to dry cows and depending on the forage quality, intakes are going to change and be variable, but really targeting that 2% to 3% in that body weight to make sure that we're meeting those requirements for animals. But I think this is a great resource and just gives you guys some good examples of what it takes to meet those requirements. So I'm going to dive into some protein and energy supplementation strategies to get us thinking about moving into the breeding season and what we need to be considering if our forage starts to be limiting or if we need to start thinking of supplementation strategies to increase condition scores in our cows. So daily energy intake is the primary factor that's limiting our cattle performance. And so as you kind of saw in that graph initially, we start to see energy and protein declining over the grazing season. And so as our forage starts to change and that intake starts to change now we need to be thinking about meeting the nitrogen or that protein in the rumen in our animals. And so feeding a protein supplement when our forage is less than 7%, generally is going to help us improve the energy and protein status of our cows, which ultimately then improves our forage intake and digestion. So it's a win-win. We keep those microbes happy, we keep the cow happy, and we meet her energy and protein requirements. Now the really cool thing about supplementation is the frequency that we can consider related to either protein or energy supplements. So protein is great, where anything over 20% we can feed one day a week, three days a week, or seven days a week. There's been a lot of research out there looking at these different strategies. And because cattle are great recyclers of nitrogen in their rumen, they can utilize that protein and extend that utilization over several days. And so we can then save on time and labor taking protein supplements out to our cows. So maybe we have a protein cube that we're providing to our cows. We might take that out every three days or maybe once a week. But we need to make sure that if we are going out at different times during the week, we're providing enough of that supplement to meet that requirement. And so that's a little different than our energy supplements that are most typically fed daily. And so really this is just some different work where as we correct for protein and make sure that we're meeting those requirements, we start to increase energy intakes and we start to increase forage intakes in those animals through utilization of some of our protein supplementation. And so really seeing a change in intake and forage and energy, which ultimately is going to help offset and increase that performance in our animals. And so when we think about that frequency once a week versus three times a week, this is a great example that we are not impacting conception rates or average daily gain based on the frequency that we're providing our supplements as long as we're making sure that we're consistent with feeding that supplement. This was in a cottonseed cake and we're consistent with meeting those requirements there once a week or three times. So energy though is one of those tricky ones because it needs to be fed daily. And most typically that's because we just need to make sure that we're meeting that requirement where protein can get recycled and utilized a little differently in the body. And so you can see that if we are not feeding energy daily we do see some detrimental impacts to average daily gain and conception rates in our cows. And so when we think about breeding time and if we need to meet energy requirements we need to make sure that we're providing that on daily basis to meet that requirement. And so this again just kind of illustrates another example of late gestation supplementation where if they're out on corn residue and provided a protein we during winter and calving in summer we need to be cognizant of how much they're getting and monitoring that condition because we can't see animals start to lose weight if we're not meeting those protein and energy requirements. So again just to reiterate why do we need to feed energy protein supplement or energy supplements excuse me daily? This is because it decreases the opportunity for rapid change in the room and environment. And so when we start to see constant shifts and fermentation patterns that's going to reduce our forage utilization so they're not going to want to go out and eat and utilize that readily available forage and then we could see potential digestive upsets in those animals. So it's a big balance here with our energy supplements. But when we think about infrequent protein with our ruminants like I mentioned these guys are great at conserving nitrogen from that protein source. And so they can recycle it and synthesize that our microbes are utilizing that protein. And so we can still maintain that function within the ruminant and go and alternate that supplementation with our protein. And so if we are providing supplements to our animals now if we're taking that out we're driving a feed truck out or maybe dumping our supplement in bunks and those types of things we need to be cognizant of how that's being delivered. And so if we have self-fed supplements and these might be in feeders, compressed blocks, or other types of ways that we're delivering that supplement. Self-feeders are nice reducing our transportation and labor costs because we're not having to go out there. But we do need to make sure that these animals are consuming that supplement. And so a major disadvantage is we have variation among animals. We may have some that are not consuming enough and meeting those targets. So it's really important to think about how we're delivering it, where those animals are at. Do they have access to a bunker to those feeders? Can they get into it? And then salt is a great limiter to be able to help those cows that maybe over consume some things. But we also need to be cognizant of how much they're all consuming. So some things for you guys to think about when we're considering supplementation. Another thing to consider is the price of our supplements. And so this is an example of kind of thinking of those costs related to a range cube. And so wanting to know how much protein is in that supplement. And so if we need to meet our cows protein and energy requirements, we've got a 20% crude protein cube versus a 32% cube. And we're buying a ton of that cube. It's 90% dry matter at 20% crude protein. It's about a dollar a pound for our 20% cube. However, when we are looking at the cost associated with our 32% crude protein cube, we're at about 83 cents a pound for crude protein. So doing some simple math, looking at the overall costs and what we're providing can be very advantageous when we're thinking about meeting those requirements related to supplementation, thinking about where our forage quality is at and then how we're managing those animals to make sure that we're evaluating their condition. And so when we think about some of those strategic strategies, I really like to have us be thinking about maybe our two and three year old, our thinner cows versus our older mature cows. If we have a room in undegradable protein source like distillers, we may have a greater opportunity after calving to increase that condition in those animals and where we can utilize that and have really good response due to those lactational and growth requirements. And so we can meet those requirements. The animal is utilizing that protein source. If we start to be strategic about supplementation after calving and then continuing through the breeding season if we need to, this is a really good strategy if our forages are lower quality and that nutritional demand is higher. So for example, if we have some lower quality forage, our grass hasn't greened up or maybe we're dealing with maybe some later summer breeding seasons, then we can be strategic about that supplementation to meet those requirements. And so in these first calf heifers, they need to kind of consume a diet that's at least 62% energy and around that 10 to 11% crude protein. And so that is going to depend on the level of milk production expected after their calving but evaluating condition, making sure we're looking at those calves while they're out on pasture or during those peak lactation time points is going to be a really good time to evaluate those animals. And then keep in mind that a good energy source like distillers or aruminant degradable protein, this is going to be really important at different stages as well. And so when we think about peak lactation, we think about during the breeding season, maybe weaning or other times where we need to increase that energy and that condition on these animals, we can be strategic about when and where and who we're delivering that supplement to to make sure we're meeting those requirements. And so just kind of summarize and get wrapped up here. Really want you guys to be thinking about the importance of body condition score. During that post calving and pre-breeding time period, evaluating condition and setting these cows up, moving into calving is going to be really important and then let's be strategic. And so I talked about nutrient requirements tonight during those different time periods. We can utilize supplementation or be strategic about the pastures and the forage and feed resources that we have to meet those key physiological time periods when our energy and protein requirements are highest. And so keep that in mind. Keep in mind that if you know your cost per nutrient of either protein or energy, that can help you make decisions when you are supplementing if you need to supplement around breeding time and then test those forages, know what your feed resources are. So then when you're working with nutritionists or your extension personnel, they can help you work through and be a little more strategic about meeting those cows requirements, moving into the grazing period moving into calving and then thinking about some of those other time periods in between. So hopefully that stimulates some questions. I have my contact information here if you do ever have any questions, feel free to reach out. That's my office number and email that you can reach me at. And I will turn it back over to Brian. I know we've got some potential questions maybe in the chat. So Brian, Casey, this is Kurt. Question that just came in. How much feed can a mature cow that is in late gestation consume when it is and when is it too much? Oh, great question, Hannah. So it really depends on the size of your cow. And so that is that is going to depend on kind of her body condition, her body size, her weight, her breed. But if you think about a cow consuming about two and a half percent of her body weight. So let's say that's a 1,200 pound cow times two and a half percent of her body weight. That's upwards about 30 pounds of dry matter that she can consume. And so if that's good quality, so thinking back to that slide I had that had different forage quality and what those cows could consume. When you think about gut capacity in our cows, they only have so much room depending on the quality of that feed stuff. So if we're working with that really low quality four percent kind of like old dead dormant forage, she's not going to be able to eat enough of it to make her feel full and to meet her requirements. So we need to increase that energy and protein. So maybe providing like an alfalfa or some corn silage or something that's going to add a little more energy to that diet that still has that good roughage. Then we can start to move back be anywhere from 25 to 30 pounds of dry matter in that diet. And we're going to meet those requirements. And so it kind of depends on the feed stuff we're working with. You know, if you've got hay, that could be about 30 pounds, you know, 25 to 30 pounds of hay, but it's got to be good quality. So really good question. It depends on our cow her size with late gestation. We're dealing with, you know, a calf that's growing. She doesn't have much gut capacity because we've got a pretty big calf in there. Right. So maybe a 75 pound calf. And she's got to be able to meet those requirements and fit everything in her gut. And so having good quality feed is going to be really important during that late gestation. Well, they are might be putting more questions in. I got one for you, Casey. kind of early on, you talked a little bit about some cold weather challenges. And you mentioned about increasing intake to offset some of that cold weather. If we have two scenarios for you, if we have just a single day of some extreme cold weather, do we need to worry about that intake level at that time? Or how many days is it before we should start to worry about increasing that intake? Yeah, great question. So when we think about like single period time points, most oftentimes, if our cows are in good condition, if they've been given some feed over time and we have maybe a blizzard or something come in, they are really good at maintaining that body heat and utilizing those body reserves for a day or so. But when we start to see extended periods of time of really cold, severe weather, that's when we need to be thinking about providing additional hay or feed to those animals to help offset some of that wind chill, that rain or snow or cold that we might be dealing with. And so you've got about a day or so to work with, but if you kind of remember some of those energy and protein, cows are really good at recycling protein. But if we don't have enough energy that they're getting, we need to make sure that we're getting that to them every day. And there was a question, Casey, that came through another, the Q&A part of this program. Can different cow breeds respond differently to the same feed? Oh, good question, Clara. So breeds are kind of different. They do impact your requirements a little bit, but depending on the feeds, you might just have some picky cows. But most typically when you think about different breeds, they're going to consume those forage and meet those energy and protein requirements. They may be selective for different feedstuffs over one or another, but most oftentimes we don't see any differences in consumption. Here's a question from an older 4-H-er. He says, my cows are getting close to calving. You talked about protein supplements. Can you tell me what I should do? Protein blocks, cubes, et cetera. Thank you. Yeah, great question, Travis. So when we are moving into calving, protein supplements, so this can get a little touchy for some folks, and a lot of it comes down to feasibility, availability, and kind of ease or labor. So you might see quite a few of those protein licks or cubes out in pastures. I drive back and forth to work, and I see a handful of them out in my cornfields right now. Now, the type of protein in those licks or those kind of maybe molasses-based tubs is going to be something called non-protein nitrogen or urea-base. Now, cattle are really great at recycling that when we think of our protein, but the big concern that I have here with those is if our cows are getting enough energy, and there's not going to be a lot of energy in some of those blocks or cubes that are compressed protein blocks just because of the type of protein that's readily available. Now, if we are providing a distillers cube or cube-based product, then you will see that a couple pounds of a cake, distillers-based cake cube can help meet some of that protein and energy with a good quality hay that you're providing a cabin. And so if you aren't utilizing a mixed ration, there are some of those combos that you can meet protein with maybe supplementation of alfalfa or maybe a corn silage or a good quality hay with your protein cubes. But again, where we start to run into issues is evaluating condition, moving into calving. And so being really cognizant of looking at your cows and where they're at in condition will help you make some of those decisions as well. Okay, thank you, Casey. Now, another question just popped in. Do you have any suggestions for show cattle, folks, specific energy, fibers, proteins, supplements? Typically, the show cattle expand more energy and working them in addition to their nutritional requirements. Hope that makes sense. Yes, so I think Dr. Zach Carlson, I think I saw him on. He's going to be talking about show cattle diets, I believe next week if I read the program correctly. But when we think about your show cattle, now this might be a growing steer or heifer for breeding stock. What you need to be cognizant about at this stage of the game is these animals need to grow. And so they're going to need protein and they're going to need energy. And so if you are providing a good quality hay and there are different mixed feeds that are available that can help meet some of that energy and protein requirements, most typically some of those complete feeds for our show cattle folks can that balance will be able to meet those requirements. And so when we think about energy expenditure with show cattle, some of that may be if you are trying to grow some hair, you're trying to grow those animals. We're dealing with harsh weather and they're not kind of in an enclosed area where we can maintain some of that growth and condition. Then we're going to want to increase the energy and protein. So giving them a higher quality hay. So making sure you can know where your hay quality is at. And then thinking about that grain product that you're providing as well. And so I'm sure if you jump on next week, Dr. Carlson is really going to dive more into some of those rations for you guys. And so I would stay tuned for that. But I would keep in mind protein and energy are going to be really important for your growing cattle. And so meeting those requirements and checking gains on those animals are going to be really, really important to make sure you're meeting those gains for fair or for, you know, your final market class. And you're exactly correct, Casey. Next week is the webinar is on show cattle nutrition. And Dr. Carlson and myself had a visit today about some of the things that we would possibly go over. So there's a lot of things to talk about. But we have another question, a couple of other questions here. If you're feeding too little or too much of something, will it be too late before you notice it affecting your cows? And is that a good reason why you should have a nutritionist? And that came through from Bella. Bella, perfect. Great question. So when we're thinking about what we're feeding our animals, depending on who we're feeding and when it is going to be important to monitor your body condition in those animals. And so if you're worried about not feeding them enough, what I would go back to when you think about the pictures we kind of looked at tonight, what's that gut feel like? Do we have that over those ribs? Or do we start to see some things declining in our body reserves in those animals? And so when I make the comments of testing forage, working with an extension specialist agent in your county or a nutritionist, the value there is to help you think about what forages and feedstuffs you have, the quality of those, and then being strategic on when you might be able to feed certain hay at a certain time period, or maybe thinking about purchasing this supplement to help offset energy or protein. So then you aren't getting behind on those animals. And so if you do have questions, I would encourage you to maybe talk to your extension educator in the county because they can help come out, look at your animals, evaluate your feedstuffs. A lot of them have hay cores and opportunities to take samples and send them in and get them tested for you. And then they can work through and develop specific rations or maybe supplementation strategies that are going to be specific to the feedstuffs that you have. Thank you, Casey. Another question in here, you talked earlier about testing feedstuffs. I've got a variety of feedstuffs on my place. Any suggestions on that evaluation of that hay, any go-to, where would you suggest? Yeah, so when we think about different bales of hay, different lots of hay. So maybe we have different pastures that we baled on our operation or maybe we bought some hay in from somewhere. So if we're buying hay from a producer, they may have taken samples. So like I mentioned, there's going to be opportunities to take a big hay core. You're going to take that sample, they're going to ship it in to a lab and they're going to be able to spit out some nutrient analysis of that. They're going to be able to tell you the crude protein quality, the energy quality, the digestibility of that hay or your feed stuff. So knowing the different lots or pastures that hay is coming out of is really good because then you can be strategic about when you might use something. So maybe if we're moving into calving and you've got some higher quality hay, that's maybe around seven, eight percent crude protein, that's around that 55, 58 percent TDN. We may be able to utilize that moving into calving to meet requirements. And then maybe we're just providing a little more energy supplement with a corner distillers. Now getting that shipped in, working with a extension agent in your area, they can help you identify and be strategic about what to use and when. And so I know I've got agents all out in the counties and in your state that are happy to come out and help you test forage and send those samples in and then work with you to get an idea of what you're working with that's on your operation or if you're purchasing that from a feed store, they should have some analysis there on the hay that they're providing you. That you're purchasing to be able to get a better idea of those requirements. Got another question here for you in the Q&A part of it, but just kind of give everybody and I put it in the chat. We'll take one more question after this if somebody's got one so that we can be mindful like Mr. Zimbrick had said earlier on of everybody's time. But our last question here comes from Clara. Where should I look to find a cattle nutritionist in a small town? Would my vet be able to put me in contact with someone? So vets may have contacts in your town. I would strongly encourage you to talk with either your extension forage person in your county or most typically you'll have somebody that can connect you to the university within your state with specialists and folks throughout. Different states may have nutrition companies or specialists or even some small cooperatives feed stores may work with nutritionists and companies. And so that might also be an avenue to investigate depending on where you're located and what resources you have. But most typically I'll send you the extension since that's what we do and that's what we're here for is to help you find those resources and then can also venture out to some of those other local cooperatives feed stores etc. that may work with different companies. So the last question and I'm trying I'm reading it and I think maybe you are too Casey. When would you need to pull your salt blocks? Does them does it in does your mineral include salt in that? Good question, Faith. So when we think about minerals and supplementation with our minerals and salt. When I think about a loose mineral, most typically a bag of mineral that you're going to be putting in a feeder out in the pasture or maybe in the bunk line or something. They're going to have salt formulated into that mineral kind of package. Okay. If your cows are consuming too much mineral, so you're going through a bag of mineral in a couple of days, right? Most typically those cows, they don't have the nutritional wisdom to know that they need to come and get that mineral. Most typically it's it's new to them. They haven't seen it in a while. So they're going to just start and come and eat as much as they can. Or they're bored in confinement. So if they're in a smaller pasture, maybe a paddock or maybe some pins, they're just going to be bored and they're going to eat. And so you can include more salt for those animals to help change the amount of forage that they're actually or the amount of supplement they're consuming. And salt is great as a limiter. Now cattle do need salt, but and so you can throw salt blocks out. But most typically if you're providing a mixed ration or a loose mineral in a diet or you have that available, most typically there's going to be salt in that package and you don't need to provide extra salt. Well, thank you, Casey. I'm going to turn this back over to Mr. Brian Zemprek to finish off our program this evening. Thank you, Kurt. And thank you, Casey. Excellent information that you shared with everyone tonight, Dan. A lot of great questions were asked. And Casey provided her contact information. If you want to send her an email, if you had other questions. And I just want to reiterate a couple of things that Casey brought up tonight is monitor your cattle for your body condition scores. Highly important that we monitor our cow herd for body condition scores. It plays a big role in conception rates as well as nutrition and feeding those calves as they grow. So body condition score and forage testing. Most of your county extension offices should have probes to test forages, agents that can help you answer some of those questions, maybe help you put together some rations for your cow herd or at least help you get in contact with someone that can get answer some of those questions as far as nutritional requirements and balancing rations for you. So again, thank you, Casey, for everything that you talked about tonight. Thank you, everyone that stayed on with us tonight and participated. And we will have this link up for YouTube here. I would say probably by the end of the week, if not by the end of the week, right away next week when we do our fourth session next Tuesday night, again, 6.30, we're going to talk about show cattle nutrition. Thanks for having me. Have a good night, everyone.