Ag & Range

Beefwatch webinar teaches cattle producers

u By Kamryn Kozisek Ag and Range Editor

The Beefwatch program is put on by University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to help beef producers.

The program has a podcast, a monthly newsletter and has a webinar series that began in October. The program uses beef specialists from different fields within the beef industry to help beef producers increase efficiency and increase their profit.

The newsletter is designed to help producers in raising beef in Nebraska. Topics include fly control, adding enterprises, disease information, equipment use and feed types. The podcast follows the newsletter on topics and is also used to answer questions that producers may have.

The webinar series began in October with speakers working to improve the profitability of Nebraska’s beef producers. Recordings of previous presentations are available on UNL’s website.

Next month the Beefwatch program is hosting a webinar that begins at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, 10, 17 and 24. This program will have speakers each day and the last day of the conference will be used to answer questions. This webinar is open to anyone and is free to join on UNL’s website.

On Nov. 3 key speaker Karla Wilke from the Panhandle Research Extension Center will be speaking on drylotting cattle and how to feed them. This talk is based on limit-feeding cattle for slaughter and limit-feeding for gestating or lactating cows. Wilke has expertise on cow/calf, range management, alternative feeds and calf nutrition.

On the second day of the conference Mary Drewnoski will be

speaking on the specifics of grazing corn residue. This presentation will include how to manage and monitor corn residue grazing and what issues to look out for. Drewnoski is a beef systems associate specialist professor at UNL with an expertise in ruminant nutrition.

On Nov. 17 Travis Mulliniks from West Central Research and Extension Center is speaking on body condition scoring. Mulliniks speech will include on how to score cattle body conditions, when to score cattle and what different body scores mean. Mulliniks is a range beef specialist, most specifically his expertise is in ruminant nutrition.

The last day of the webinar will be open to producers to ask questions about the webinar or about any level of beef production. All of the speakers will be available to answer questions at that time.

Photo Courtesy of USDA UNL’s Beefwatch webinar helps producers learn new management techniques.