NOVELTY, Mo. – With new breeding research, beef cow herd owners can produce more uniform calves that weigh more at weaning.
Jordan Thomas from the University of Missouri will explain how that is done at the Greenley Center Field Day near Novelty, Mo., on Tuesday.
The beef research will be one of three tours at the annual field day, Aug. 6. Crops and pest management tours will be included.
Thomas and the MU beef team ran pregnancy checks on the Greenley beef herd last week. The results showed 69 percent of 83 cows became pregnant on the first day of breeding season this spring. That’s a new high for the research herd.
Cows calving early in the season produce calves that will be older and heavier at weaning, Thomas says. That’s just one advantage of the breeding research. With appointment breeding, all cows are bred on the same day.
The Greenley Center is one location in the ongoing research trial that Thomas is conducting.
“Successful reproductive management one year sets the herd up for success the next year,” Thomas says.
The three tours start at 8 a.m., says Randall Smoot, superintendent of the MU research center.
A free breakfast will be served at 7 a.m. Registration begins at 7:30. All three tours can be taken before lunchtime, Smoot says. Lunch will be free as well.
The MU farm is located east of Novelty, Mo., in Knox County. It is just north of Highway 156.
Smoot reminds those driving from the west that Highway 156 is closed at the Salt River Bridge.
The research center is part of the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Columbia.
For more information, go to aes.missouri.edu/greenley.
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