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Diversifying with
low-input,
sustainable cattle
systems
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Some western Illinois farmers are well positioned to add cattle to the production mix. They have ready labor in late winter and early spring, access to Illinois-grown feeds and some acres that would be better suited to forages than to corn or soybeans anyway. It all adds up to a potential competitive advantage that could increase the profitability and sustainability of Illinois beef production.
 Researchers at the University of Illinois and Illinois State University are collaborating to find the cattle and forage
systems that would allow small- and medium-size cattle producers to best maximize that competitive advantage. According to Larry Berger, an animal scientist with the UI College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, the project evolved from discussion with an advisory group to the UI Orr Animal Research Center in Perry, Ill.
"We provided the concept and the Orr Center group saw the potential merit immediately. There is an opportunity to contribute something unique to the Illinois beef industry through this project," Berger said.
The approach the researchers settled on is to compare three cattle systems and two forage systems. Berger and colleagues at the UI and Orr Research Center brought land, animals and experience with related research to the project. From ISU, Paul Walker contributed individual animal feeding facilities and specialized equipment to measure feed intake and collect other performance data. The
C-FAR funding allowed the scientists to expand the research idea beyond biology to include more applied aspects, such as collection of cost and economic data.
Through the summer of 1998, researchers will compare performance of traditional cow-calf systems; a cow-calf system with excess heifers used in the calving heifer system; and a calving-heifer system with additional heifers purchased to maintain numbers. At the same time, researchers will study low-input grazing management and forage production techniques with a goal to develop an economically profitable, environmentally sound and biologically efficient strategy complementary to cattle systems which prove best for Illinois
beef producers.
From a biological standpoint, a single-calving heifer may allow farmers to reduce production costs, Berger said. One reason is the traditional cow-calf system uses 70 percent of the nutrients consumed for maintenance of the cow. In the calving heifer system, however, growth and reproduction are combined into the same animal and about 45 percent of the nutrients consumed are used for maintenance.
"The disadvantage is that the single-calving heifer system takes more labor and management than a traditional cow herd," Berger said. "That's likely why the system hasn't been developed. Most producers try to maximize longevity of a cow to reduce the cost of that first year and to maximize offspring, but new research indicates that is not the most efficient system."
A higher level of management is not an insurmountable problem, however, he pointed out. Researchers might develop systems that allow producers to more easily adopt the technologies that make it practical. Or custom services might develop to serve cattle producers.
Updates on this and other C-FAR-sponsored beef research will be available at Orr Animal Research Center field days and through the Cooperative Extension Service.
Related C-FAR Research
Weaning management systems are the focus of research conducted by ACES scientists, working with the Illinois Beef Association. The project includes evaluation of animal performance, beef quality and economics.
You've got to give C-FAR credit: They're the ones who put time and energy into obtaining resources from the Legislature. Often faculty members are criticized for being isolated in "ivory towers" and in a sense, I hear
C-FAR saying, "You've got to come out to get these funds." There are important links being forged, important networking going on, important relationships being built now that would never have happened before
C-FAR. In the long run, this networking may prove to be the most important outcome of the C-FAR effort.
Danny Terry,
Chair, Agriculture Department
Western Illinois University
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