Contact: Dr. Joe C. Paschal, (512) 265-9203
CORPUS CHRISTI — One of the major obstacles to profit in the beef cattle industry is the failure of every cow to bring a live calf into the weaning pen. It has been determined that every open cow or heifer that fails to breed and wean a calf robs cattle producers of the profits of four that do.
With annual cow costs ranging from $275 to $365 (or more with the high cost of feed due to drought conditions), this averages 75 cents to $1 per day per cow, said Dr. Joe Paschal, livestock specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.
“Coupled with low calf prices at the market, ranchers should only retain fertile cows and heifers and more importantly, manage for high fertility,” Paschal said.
With this in mind, county Extension agents and Extension specialists have teamed up with the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas Beef Cattle Veterinarians and Pfizer Animal Health to provide profitable and timely information to South Texas ranchers struggling to get their cow herds bred.
A series of six regional programs under the Beef Partners in Extension Program (Beef PEP) will be held in locations along the Gulf Coast and the South Texas brush country. Each program will focus on the factors affecting reproduction in the cow herd, including body condition, reproductive diseases, nutritional management parasite control, replacement heifer management and calving difficulty.
These regional programs will be held in Bay City on Nov. 5 (Multipurpose Building, County Fairgrounds), Refugio on Nov. 6 (Community Center), Yoakum on Nov. 7 (Yoakum Civic Center), Weslaco on Nov. 14 (Texas A&M Center), Laredo on Nov. 15 (Webb Co. Agriculture Building) and in Alice on Nov. 16.
Registration will begin at 8 a.m. The program will start at 9 a.m. and continue until 3:30 p.m. The cost for a beef lunch and a copy of the Beef PEP proceedings is $10.
Reservations are required. Directions to the specific locations can be obtained by calling your local County Extension agent or Dr. Joe Paschal at (512) 265-9203.
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