School is out but the work hasn't stopped at Shealy Farm. Our interns are still working long hours to get everything ready for the next steps in our research. Indoor and outdoor lots are leveled, water tanks are cleaned and finally shades are in place. Cattle are now in the indoor and outdoor feedlots to be used for another research project. Here is a few updates of what we … [Read more...] about Summer Vacay
Did you just say curve and research in the same sentence? May 11th, 2018 We prepared to make a calibration curve of pasture data. First, we scanned a strip (approximately 30 feet in length, marked by posts) with the scanning equipment. Following that, the strip was mowed with a tractor. The clippings were collected in large trash cans so the samples could be weighed. … [Read more...] about Calibration Curve
Two of our interns this semester were assigned a video project while in class for their agriculture communications major. They chose to feature our beef forage research project. In the video, you will learn about important details and steps we used to get the research started. … [Read more...] about Beef Forage Research? What’s that?
Getting the cattle out to treatment pastures is not as easy as one might think. This two-day process needed all hands on deck to complete. Step one is to record each steers weight before the shrinking process. Shrinking issimply keeping steers without food for around12 hours. This will give us an accurate weight, without as much gut fill. As a team, we used this data … [Read more...] about Let’s “Moo”ve some Cattle
These hungry steers eat lots of food, over 2,000 pounds each morning to be exact. Until we get underway with the grazing study and turn the cattle out to pasture we have to keep them full somehow! Each morning these 75 head of cattle are fed a ration of silage and grain. We grind two silage bales with 750 pounds of grain totaling more than 2,000 pounds of feed. We then use the … [Read more...] about Dinner’s Up!