By Kristen Ulmer, Nebraska Extension Educator, Beef Systems
The 33rd annual Three-State Beef Conference will be held January 16, 17 and 18, 2018 at locations in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. Nebraska Extension, Iowa State Extension and University of Missouri Extension have partnered to bring timely information to producers surrounding topics like opportunities in alternative cow-calf production, utilizing reproductive management and technologies to improve profitability, as well as, calculating the profit/loss of an operation though break evens.
Knowing your production costs is a key step in making your operation more profitable. Shane Ellis, farm management specialist with Iowa State University Outreach and Extension, will help producers determine their cow-calf profit and loss, as well as, will walk cow/calf producers through how to calculate their breakevens. With high pasture rental rates and lack of additional pasture being a forerunning topic, Erika Lundy, extension beef program specialist with Iowa State University’s Iowa Beef Center will discuss opportunities and challenges with alternative systems. She will discuss how year round grazing, fall grazing of crop residue and drylotting in the winter compare with traditional summer grazing or confinement in hoop barns. The final topic encompasses reproductive technology available, such as estrous synchronization, to help tighten the calving window and produce a more uniform calf crop born early in the calving season. Dr. Sandy Johnson, extension livestock specialist with Kansas State University Extension, will discuss how reproductive technologies can be used to increase calf value and increase profitability of the cow herd.
The conference will travel to three locations over the course of three days with each location receiving the same speaker agenda.
January 16—Southwestern Community College, Creston, Iowa
January 17—MU Hundley-Whaley Learning Discovery Center, Albany, Missouri
January 18—Gage County Nebraska Extension Center, Beatrice, Nebraska
Registration starts at 5:30 p.m., and the program begins at 6:00 p.m. and continues until about 9:00 p.m. The registration fee is $25 per person, which includes a meal and copies of the presentations. Registrations are appreciated by Friday, January 12 to help with meal planning and reducing costs.
To register for the program in Creston, contact the ISU Extension and Outreach office in Union County at 641-782-8426 or kdowning@iastate.edu. For the program in Albany, contact MU Extension in Gentry County at 660-726-5610 or deerings@missouri.edu. Registrations for Beatrice can be directed to Nebraska Extension in Gage County at 402-223-1384 or to Kristen Ulmer by emailing, kristen.ulmer@unl.edu .
For more information contact your local university extension office or visit our website at http://extension.iastate.edu/feci/3StBeef/.