Cattle

The Kerr Center’s beef cattle program has these goals:

balance production level with production cost
forage-based: grazing management maintains soil fertility and promotes plant diversity
training the next generation of ranchers

1st principle of sustainability: create and conserve healthy soils

“Grass farmer plan”: high-density rotational grazing fosters health from the ground up:

grass-farmer-plan

Many animals for a short time in a small area

Benefits:

soil: concentrates animal manure/urine for fertility; reduces compaction
plants: keeps plants vegetative and growing; increases diversity; reduces weeds
animals: fresh and nutritious forages; reduced parasites
rancher: reduces costs; increases profits

Learn About…

Adapted Breeds

The constant quest for an animal optimally suited to its environment. Learn more

Fence

Permanent or temporary? Electric or non-? Mesh or barbed? Which is best for which animals and situations? Learn more

Animal Health

A whole-farm approach to thriving livestock. Learn more

Pasture/Grazing

Healthy soils, healthy forages – warm-season and cool. Haying vs. grazing. The keys to management intensive grazing. Learn more

Watering

Watering system design; gravity flow from ponds; tractor-tire water tanks. Learn more

Cattle Publications

Fact Sheet: Grazing Management

This fact sheet summarizes the Kerr Center’s experience with and recommendations for grazing management.

Grazing Management Basics

This presentation covers grazing systems and their benefits, grazing terms and calculations, pasture design, and grazing strategies.

Watering Systems

This is a presentation by Brian Freking from the livestock track of the Oklahoma Beginning Farmer & Rancher Program. It…

New Use for Old Tires

This fact sheet explains why the Kerr Center livestock program uses old tires from heavy equipment as watering tanks, and describes the process of preparing and installing them.

How to Direct Market Your Beef

This is a book, published by SARE, used in the livestock track of the Oklahoma Beginning Farmer & Rancher Program.…

Management Intensive Grazing

This is a report on the Kerr Center’s experience with management intensive grazing (MIG). It defines MIG, explains and demonstrates…

Layout and Design of Grazing Systems

This is a book chapter, used in the livestock track of the Oklahoma Beginning Farmer & Rancher Program, that discusses…

Enough Grass to Make Your Head… Rotate

This is an article from the summer 2005 issue of Field Notes. It explains the basic principles behind rotational or…

ATTRA Resources on Sustainable/Organic Beef Production

This is a list of ATTRA publications related to sustainable and organic beef production. ATTRA Resources on Beef Production

Soil Health and How it Relates to Healthy Cattle

This presentation covers simple soil health monitoring techniques, basic soil science, and sustainable livestock management.

Heifer Management

This report covers heifer selection and nutrition, early puberty, target weight concept, proper feeding, breeding, calving difficulty, and bull selection.

Herd Health Overview

This presentation includes a detailed discussion of vaccines, discusses managing both immunity levels and disease exposure, and addresses the effect of difficult births.