By Scout Nelson
The 26th Annual Dakota Feeder Calf Show is set for October 19 in Turtle Lake, North Dakota. The event offers a chance for cattle ranchers to evaluate their 500- to 700-pound steer calves and gain valuable insights into herd performance.
Producers can consign one or two pens, each containing three or four calves, to the show. The calves will be exhibited and evaluated before being sent to North Dakota State University’s Carrington Research Extension Center for feedout. There, the calves will be fed to finished market weight, and detailed data will be collected.
“After 25 years of comparing calf performance, North Dakota cattle ranchers are finding superior growth and carcass characteristics,” says Karl Hoppe, Extension livestock specialist at NDSU Carrington. Hoppe also highlights the impact of herd genetics and bull and heifer selection.
Colin Tobin, an animal scientist at NDSU, emphasizes that the feedout offers a low-risk way for ranchers to collect growth performance data without feeding an entire calf crop. “The risk is less, and a feedout project provides a substantial amount of information about the calves,” he says.
During the 2023-24 feedout, calves gained an average of 744 pounds over 222 days, with a total feeding cost of $1.02 per pound of gain. The average sale weight was 1,342 pounds, with a break-even point of $178.17 per hundredweight.
Cattle producers can pre-register calves and will be charged an entry fee of $20 per calf. Vaccination and booster requirements are specified. Awards will be presented at the end of the trial.
For more details, visit the NDSU feed out page or contact Karl Hoppe or Darwin Chesrown for further information.
Photo Credit:gettyimages-digitalvision
Categories: North Dakota, Livestock, Dairy Cattle