A simple tool

               The beef industry is one of the most important parts of Livingston counties’ farm income. The beef industry encompasses both full- time and part -time farm operations in Livingston County. It would be fair to say that most of our counties beef operations are 30 to 60 cow calf operations. Most are beef producers operate their family’s 100 to 200 acre farm and hold another job, so most of the work occurs after normal working hours or on the weekend. With today’s modern life style time and money are always in short supply for farm families. One of the largest robbers of income for cow calf producers are cows that do not re-breed or re-breed late. Most but not all these problems can be traced back to cow nutrition.

               Livingston County ANR works closely with its local cattlemen and the University to provide great educational opportunities and tools to help our local beef producers. The UK Cow Forage Supplement Tool has proven a very simple and useful tool to our counties’ cow calf operations.  If you own land in the county the first twenty five soil or forage samples are free. Over the past two years forage testing has increased in the county partially due to the user friendly UK Cow Forage Supplement Tool. This tool allows the farmer to enter the forage test data into it, the stage of production, mid to late gestation or lactation and a simple list of common supplements. It then gives the farmer a good estimate on what supplements they have chosen to feed to maximize nutrition of his animals for level of production. These two simple tools have allowed for better body scores of local heifers and cow. This coupled with educational materials and programs have helped with local production.