Author Archives: laurab08

Meet Copenhaver Sheep Center

Posted on March 6, 2014 by laurab08

Named for retired animal science professor Jack Copenhaver, the center is located on the edge of Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus and has served as a teaching and research facility for years. Visitors who walk into the main barn in late winter will be greeted with the sight of ewes and newborn lambs, and the center’s pastures adjacent to Smithfield Road give the surrounding community a taste of the daily routine for livestock operations.

Copenhaver Sheep Center is home to a flock of Dorset sheep, which are white in color, and Suffolk sheep, which have white bodies and black faces and legs. Although these breeds produce wool, they are primarily used for meat production. The flocks at Copenhaver have been carefully selected to create lambs, rams, and ewes that are useful for teaching and research and appealing to individuals in the sheep industry. A flock of hair sheep also resides at the farm comprised of St. Croix sheep and some similar crossbreds. Unlike wool breeds like Dorsets and Suffolks, hair sheep originate from hot climates and have developed resistance and resilience to the harmful effects of parasites. This makes them valuable for research exploring parasite control in sheep and parasite resistance genes.

Dozens of undergraduate Animal Science students visit the center each semester for coursework in animal handling and livestock management. A senior-level livestock production course provides participants with hands-on industry experience at both Copenhaver Sheep Center and the neighboring beef center. Each spring, students are offered the opportunity to come to the facility and prepare an animal for the Little International showmanship contest hosted by Block and Bridle, an agricultural club for students.

Furthermore, freshman in Animal Science partake in “lamb watch,” whereby each student is assigned a night to stay at the barn during lambing season in order to detect any birthing difficulties. Lambing season takes place primarily in the winter. Ewes and their newborn lambs are kept in individual pens in the barn, known as “lambing jugs,” to enhance maternal bonding and protect the offspring from the elements during their first days of life. Keeping the ewes in “jugs” also makes it easier for students and farm staff to monitor the health of the animals for several days post-lambing.

Ewes are kept in “lambing jugs” for a several days so that they can bond with their offspring and be monitored by students and farm staff.

While Copenhaver Sheep Center provides key learning opportunities for Virginia Tech’s students, the work done at the center is also valuable to the state’s industry and has elevated the reputation of the Virginia sheep industry over the past few decades. Research at the center focusing on genetics, parasite resistance, ultrasonic evaluation of body composition, and other relevant areas is important to producers who wish to employ the most up-to-date management practices. Buyers seek rams and ewes from the Copenhaver Sheep Center at the annual production sale held on campus on Labor Day Weekend. Rams from the center are consigned into the Virginia Ram Lamb Performance Test Sale. These sales offer suitable breeding animals to buyers the industry, as any rams that are offered must pass a breeding soundness exam and meet standards for structure, type, and quality.

Photo credit: Deanna Bradley

Besides serving the industry with high-quality animals and important research and providing a venue for students to learn about animal management, Copenhaver Sheep Center has also helped Virginia Tech reach its goal of serving locally-produced food in its dining halls. Students have the opportunity to purchase lamb and other meats harvested from the campus farms from the Farms and Fields Project in Owens Food Court.

While not every Virginia Tech undergraduate will visit the center for coursework, the many students and Blacksburg residents who walk daily past the sheep grazing in the fields catch a glimpse of a facility with a rich past that has made a lasting impression on the state’s industry and family sheep producers.

Photo credit: Deanna Bradley

Additional Resources for Readers:

Copenhaver Sheep Center

Virginia Tech Sheep Extension

Useful Virginia Cooperative Extension Sheep and Goat Publications

Meet Sprouse’s Corner Ranch.

Posted on February 10, 2014 by laurab08

The 81-acre ranch in Buckingham County, operated by LaRue Sprouse Dowd, has belonged in the Sprouse family for many generations. After gaining years of experience working, training, competing, and teaching in the horse industry and studying Veterinary Technology, Equine Therapy, and Horsemanship, LaRue returned to the ranch in 2006 and worked with her family to restore the property and create a fully-functional horse operation.

LaRue provides lessons and training for a variety of disciplines.

Anyone who visits Sprouse’s Corner today will be greeted by a clean barn, a tidy tack room, and several large pastures. While the ranch offers an array of services to the community including boarding, youth camps, trail rides, three on-farm shows per year, and lessons for a variety of disciplines and skill levels, the operation offers one program with a particularly deep impact on everyone it touches—the Heartland Horse Heroes therapeutic riding program.

The ranch has an arena dedicated to Heartland Horse Heroes that meets the PATH facility standards for therapeutic riding.

LaRue became interested in initiating a therapeutic riding program after hearing about the success of a dog therapy program in Farmville and learning of a need for horse-based therapy in the area. Starting in 2009, the ranch underwent an intensive inspection from PATH, or the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International, so that it could be accredited for use in a therapeutic program. LaRue also passed a rigorous testing program in order to become a PATH Registered Instructor. Thus, the Heartland Horse Heroes therapeutic riding program at Sprouse’s Corner Ranch was born.

Heartland Horse Heroes provides riding lessons and activities for youth with physical, mental, emotional, and social challenges or learning disabling conditions. In fact, the nonprofit program is so successful that Buckingham County Public Schools brings students to the ranch weekly for ninety-minute lessons. The students spend half of their time learning in an on-site classroom and half of their time on horseback.

Sprouse’s Corner Ranch recently hosted a training event for Virginia Cooperative Extension faculty.

Volunteers are an integral part of Heartland Horse Heroes because most of the youth in the program are still learning to ride independently. This means that each horse and rider pair needs one volunteer to lead the horse and two side walkers to support the rider. Each lesson with ten riders requires thirty volunteers. Many students from Longwood University’s recreational therapy program volunteer with Heartland Horse Heroes, but LaRue is always grateful when members of the community come to the ranch to offer their time, resources, and support.

The volunteers of Heartland Horse Heroes are looking forward to expanding their scope by initiating a program in April for at-risk youth called “Inner City Slickers.” This program, created by former Three Dog Night drummer Michael McMeel, provides an opportunity for at-risk youth to learn about horses, work with mentors, and complete growth challenges. Participants learn the “cowboy way” of kindness, hard work, responsibility, and perseverance. Follow-up with participants will be a critical part of the program as it grows at Heartland Horse Heroes.

While Sprouse’s Corner Ranch enjoys celebrating the successes of the youth and adults who learn, train, and show at the facility, the accounts coming out of Heartland Horse Heroes are particularly uplifting to the parents, teachers, and volunteers who work with the program’s riders. LaRue tells the story of one participant who did not speak while at school, but who would arrive at the farm each week and readily ask about her favorite horse, saying “Where’s Peaches? Can I groom Peaches? Can I ride Peaches today?” Another child in the program struggled with handwriting at school. After she developed muscle tone from holding the reins while riding, her handwriting improved and her teacher took note. Therapeutic riding encourages students to build and strengthen some of the same muscles that are used in everyday life, and students who participate in Heartland Horse Heroes are motivated to grow and improve by their enjoyment of riding. They also gain confidence from the experience of working with a large animal.

Running Sprouse’s Corner Ranch and Heartland Horse Heroes is not the only thing keeping LaRue active in the community. She is also the leader of Pegasus 4-H Horse and Pony club. The club is open to any youth who love horses and enjoy learning about them, even if they do not have access to animals of their own. LaRue helps club members participate in local educational clinics, shows, and 4-H knowledge contests such as Horse Bowl that teach participants about animal science and foster communication skills.

Sprouse’s Corner is one of the many horse facilities across the state that provides a valuable platform for learning and skill development. Without people like LaRue who enjoy teaching and without facilities in the region suitable for horse programs, youth would have limited opportunities to spend constructive time outdoors learning the responsibility, confidence, and leadership that come from working with horses. Heartland Horse Heroes has opened the door of opportunity in Central Virginia even wider, indelibly touching the lives of the many children who join LaRue Dowd and her volunteers at the ranch each week.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Sprouse’s Corner Ranch Webpage and Facebook Page

Heartland Horse Heroes Webpage and Facebook Page

Virginia 4-H Horse Program

PATH International Webpage

Inner City Slickers Webpage

Meet Robert Harper, Cattle Producer.

Posted on January 24, 2014 by laurab08

Robert manages cattle as part of a partnership called Cross River Farms, LLC. Robert’s operation is located at Dungeness Farm, which has fascinating roots in early American history. Dungeness was built by Isham Randolph in the early 1700s, and Thomas Jefferson’s mother was raised there. Today at the Goochland farm, Robert specializes in several aspects of cattle production. In addition to running a cow-calf operation that includes Red Angus cattle, he custom-raises Holstein heifers for a nearby dairy farm. He also manages a group of females for the Amelia Area Cattlemen Heifer Development Program. Heifers in this program are produced and owned by individual livestock producers from across the region, but they are brought together to live at Cross River after they are weaned. They are bred in December and undergo further development through the winter. In the spring, most return to the herds on their home farms where they were born. A few are sold in April to buyers looking for high-quality females for their cow-calf herds.

To keep up with so many cattle, Robert must carefully manage his feeding program to ensure that he has adequate pasture and hay available to the cattle throughout the year. Because each set of cattle on his farm has a unique purpose, Robert must tailor his feeding and management to suit the needs of each particular group. His brood cows in his cow-calf herd need enough energy and protein from feed to produce milk for their calves from birth until weaning. The calves, in turn, need to grow steadily before and after weaning so that they will perform well at a finishing operation later in life and provide high-quality beef for consumers.

However, the young female calves in the heifer development herd require a different approach. Unlike their counterparts that will not remain in a herd for many years and must instead reach a robust “finished” weight in a timely fashion, the heifers need to grow at a more moderate pace. The young heifers must build bone, fat, and muscle tissue at a rate that promotes longevity and sound reproductive traits in preparation for a future career living on pasture and raising their own calves on a cow-calf breeding operation. To meet this goal, the heifers are run on pasture and receive a daily ration of silage, commodity feeds, hay and grain to grow and mature in preparation for breeding. Robert periodically weighs the Cross River heifers to gauge their growth and make management decisions.

Once the heifers reach an appropriate age and body size and undergo a reproductive soundness check from a veterinarian, they are ready to be bred. Robert Harper and the rest of his fellow cattle producers in Virginia have the option to use a live bull for breeding or rely on artificial insemination. Both options follow the natural cycle for cattle reproduction, allowing females to produce one calf each year as they would do if left to their own devices. After breeding, cows remain pregnant for nine months before calving, and the calf nurses the cow on pasture for several months before it is weaned.

Unlike most horses and sheep which only can be bred during certain seasons, cattle cycle naturally throughout the entire year. However, instead of leaving the bull with the herd full-time and allowing heifers and cows to get pregnant and calve sporadically, producers aim to confine calving to a single season, often the fall, so that calves within a herd are all of approximately the same age and can receive the same health treatments such as vaccinations at the same time. This practice reduces stress on the animals by limiting the number of times that the herd must be brought in close proximity to humans for handling. For these reasons, Robert and the Amelia Area Cattlemen choose to breed the heifers at Cross River in December so that they will calve during the following fall season. To ensure that the animals can all be bred around the same time, they follow a heat synchronization program that causes all of the heifers to cycle on the same schedule. Once the group of heifers collectively comes into heat, they are bred. This herd is first bred using artificial insemination. This advanced, well-studied reproductive method puts little stress on the heifers and allows herd managers to bring cutting-edge genetics into the herd from bulls all over the country.

The heifers at Cross River wear heat detection patches. When the silver surface of the patch is rubbed off, the heifer is ready to be bred.

If a producer wants to use a live bull, he or she will not have to spend time synchronizing cow and heifer cycles or watching animals for signs of heat—the bull takes on this job himself. However, a locally-purchased bull’s genetic traits may not always be predictable, and the producer will need to rotate a new bull into the herd every few years to ensure that the quality of the herd and its collective genetic potential continue to progress. If producers choose instead to buy units of semen from a company that offers a catalog of bulls available for artificial insemination, they can select semen from bulls with well-documented performance traits that match their goals to improve traits like mothering ability, meat quality, animal build, or a plethora of other factors.

Bulls that are selected for use in an artificial insemination program are considered the “top of the line” in the industry and are subject to extensive performance testing and offspring data collection. Hence, producers like Robert Harper and members of the Amelia Area Cattlemen who choose to breed via artificial insemination have the means to improve their herds far more quickly and increase their genetic diversity far more easily than they could with a live bull. However, old-fashioned bulls still have their place and there are still many high-quality bulls sold locally that may never be featured in a semen company catalog. These animals are useful even to a herd that relies on artificial insemination, as not every heifer will successfully conceive through this means. Hence, the “cleanup bull” is turned out with the artificially-inseminated heifers so those that do not “catch,” or get pregnant, come back into heat and have the opportunity to get bred by the bull.

Like many producers, Robert likes to stay on top of the curve and adopt progressive practices that improve the health, performance, and longevity of his animals and the animals he custom-raises for fellow cattlemen across the region. His creative edge has allowed him to increase the scope of his operation over the years, but anyone who visits the Cross River Farms partnership at Dungeness can easily sense that Robert’s passion for working hard to raise high-quality cattle has been the ultimate force driving his success.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Getting Started in the Cattle Business in Virginia

Replacement Heifer Development Steps

Ten Steps to Buying the Right Bull

Artificial Insemination vs Natural Bull Service-Where are the Economic Benefits?

Meet Mike Henry, pasture manager.

Posted on January 9, 2014 by laurab08

He has worn many hats over the years—Extension agent for Chesterfield County and then Amelia before he retired, cattle producer, and founding member of the regional Amelia Area Cattlemen. He is also one very excellent pasture manager. He spent the last several years improving the pasture on his Amelia farm, adding fencing and water sources as he went. When he first set out, his goal was to sustain enough forage to successfully support a beef cattle herd on a year-round strip-grazing management system.

Pasture land in central Virginia is abundant, hence the number of cows in the region, but not all producers are able to sustain animals year-round on pasture alone. Why? The availability of pasture forage depends on the seasonal growth of the species in the pasture. Because this region is set between the cold northern climate and the warmer South, cool-season and warm-season grasses can both be grown here and many pastures contain a mixture of both.

Mike Henry’s pastures contain a mixture of tall fescue, orchardgrass, clover, and even some ryegrass that emerged in early winter.

Cool-season forages grow most actively in spring and fall when the weather is cool, but go dormant in the summer when little moisture is available. Many producers must resort to feeding hay during this season while they wait for fall pasture regrowth. Tall fescue is the most common cool-season forage in most pastures, but other plants like Kentucky bluegrass, orchardgrass, timothy, and clover are also in this group. Cool-season grasses stop growing during the winter, but can be preserved or “stockpiled” during the cold. Tall fescue is the hands-down best choice for stockpiling, retaining its nutritional value for several months after the growing season even under snow and ice. In order to stockpile a tall-fescue pasture, the manager must remove the animals from the area in the late summer, giving the pasture a chance to recover and initiate heavy fall growth. The animals can return to the well-grown pasture in December or January, resulting in an extended grazing season that heavily cuts the costs associated with feeding hay. Mike Henry practices stockpiling on his pastures, as do many of his peers in this region.

Warm-season forages like Bermuda grass or crabgrass have the opposite growth pattern. Their growth is dominant during the hottest part of the year, but they go dormant at the end of the summer and do not take off again until the spring. As a result, producers with pastures full of warm-season plants must either feed hay during the cool seasons or establish a cool-season pasture in a new area to keep cows fed during the fall, winter, and spring.

Mike Henry’s pastures contain mostly tall fescue, but other elements including crabgrass, orchardgrass, clover, and ryegrass are present and contribute to the diversity of the available forage. The clover mixed with the cool-season grasses is a legume plant, meaning that it contains a high level of protein and supports the needs of young, growing cattle and lactating brood cows. To establish and maintain dense stands of these forages and choke out competing weeds, Mike has stayed on top of mowing, seeding, reseeding, and nutrient management, but the economic benefits have outweighed the costs.

In a “continuous grazing” system, cattle are given access to the entire pasture acreage at once, so they have the option to overgraze forages that are highly palatable, stressing the plants’ root systems. They under-utilize other areas, and they tend to create muddy spots near central hay feeders and water troughs. Finally, they may not distribute their manure very evenly, resulting in both mucky areas with a glut of nutrients and neglected areas that receive very little natural fertilizer. The alternative? Many producers have adopted “rotational grazing,” whereby a pasture is split into a few sections and animals are moved from one section to another every few days or weeks. As a result, each pasture section has an opportunity to rest and build strong roots, resulting in a longer-lasting, more robust stand of forage. Furthermore, the animals consume the existing grasses more evenly and efficiently. Manure is distributed far more uniformly in a rotational system, which aids in desirable nutrient cycling and reduces fertilizer expenses.

Mike Henry practices the more intensive cousin of rotational grazing, known as “strip grazing.” In this management system, cows are given a small strip of pasture at a time and are moved from one strip to the next as frequently as once a day or sometimes even every few hours. The pasture utilization rate increases dramatically when animals are tasked with eating one small area at a time. Mike knows that the key is making sure that the cows always have something to eat, so he will be the first to tell you that strip grazing brings an economic advantage but also a new requirement for labor. Nonetheless, since most cattlemen check their herds frequently, the time it takes to open or close a temporary fence to a pasture strip is negligible and affords an opportunity for the producer to get a close-up look at the cows.

Mike’s pasture setup is conservation-minded. He has excluded his cattle from the dam and waterways on his farm, and on the occasions when he has had to supplement his pasture with an occasional bale of hay, he unrolls and spreads the hay in a new area each time so that the cows do not heavily disturb the soil in one particular location.

As a former Extension agent, Mike understands the value of helping other farmers, so he has had the opportunity to show his system to several beginning cattle producers and even a few experienced ones who wanted to see strip grazing in action. He has also noted one unexpected benefit from all his time spent moving fences and walking the pasture to check on his forages—the heifers he manages have become more docile from close daily exposure to his presence and follow him wherever he goes, making it easy for him to take them wherever he needs them. Add up quiet cattle, a thriving pasture, and annual hay savings to get one content cattleman.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Planning Fencing Systems for Controlled Grazing

Controlled Grazing of Virginia’s Pastures

Rotational Grazing Recycles Nutrients

Making the Most of Tall Fescue in Virginia

Stockpiling Tall Fescue

Meet Huguenot Hops.

Posted on December 12, 2013 by laurab08

The Midlothian yard is owned and operated by Kurt Stanfield and his business partner Devon Kistler. 2013 was their first year growing hops as a commercial venture, but the results have been good and they have begun to increase the size of the yard and set up new plots for the upcoming season. Kurt and Devon work alongside fellow growers in the state and members of the Old Dominion Hops Cooperative who enjoy swapping ideas, networking with brewers, and helping one another at harvest time.

This year, Huguenot Hops grew the Cascade variety, which appeared to make it through the wet, humid summer unscathed by problems like downy mildew that can sometimes haunt hops in Virginia and North Carolina. Perhaps that is due in part to the yard’s unique trellis design. Rather than training the hops to grow in parallel vertical lines, Kurt and Devon arranged them in an open V-shape and spaced them to allow for plenty of airflow. They train each bine to grow clockwise up the twine towards the top of the trellis. However, they are still perfecting their support system design and have plans to make some adjustments to the cables and poles in the new plots that will be used to grow the Nugget and Zeus varieties next year.

Kurt and Devon are planning to take soil tests on the existing yard and the new ground so that they can amend the soil pH and nutrient levels accordingly. Like any crop, hops need sufficient levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to remain productive. The yard is also working on perfecting their weed control system using ground covers like mulch and cloth. In addition to suppressing weeds, covers like mulch help the soil retain its moisture. Moisture control is critical in hops, and during most summers the plants require irrigation to supplement rainfall.

Hops growers can start yards with rhizomes, cuttings, and field-ready plants from other growers. The hops grow each year out of the crown at the soil level. In order to ensure that only the best bines grow up on the trellis, Kurt and Devon cut the regrowth several times early in the season. This helps remove any shoots that may carry certain diseases and eliminates any possible “bull shoots,” or shoots that are not ultimately productive.

Kurt and Devon hope to harvest one and a half to two pounds of hops per year from each plant that has been growing for two or three years. Because hand-harvest of a sizeable yard requires ladders, lots of time, and a small army of volunteers, they are considering the possibility of turning to a mechanical harvester that strips the cones off the bines. What else does the future hold for Huguenot Hops? Some new practices and improved trellises seem to be in the cards, and if all goes well, plenty of local hops will make their way into Virginia brews in the coming years.

Additional Resources for Readers:

North Carolina Hops Project

Huguenot Hops Webpage

Old Dominion Hops Cooperative Webpage

Meet Taylor Clarke’s Soybean Test Plot

Posted on December 5, 2013 by laurab08

Taylor Clarke hails from south Brunswick and serves Mecklenburg County as the agriculture Extension agent. Most of his work revolves around tobacco, crops, and cattle. Like many Extension agents across the state of Virginia, he also facilitates on-farm research that enables specialists to gauge performance of crops under varying treatments and conditions.

Field trials and test plots are responsible for a broad spectrum of scientific advances in agriculture in past decades and these tests help agriculturalists make new progress each year. New fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides can be compared and tested on crops for safety and efficacy. Variety trials performed each year measure the performance of new seed for yield, hardiness, disease resistance, and other traits that can help farmers improve their efficiency and profitability. The end results of these tests are unbiased research-based recommendations that farmers can use to guide planting and purchasing decisions each year.

Virginia Cooperative Extension’s crop specialists are primarily housed on-campus at Virginia Tech and Virginia State University or at one of eleven agricultural research and extension centers, commonly called “ARECs,” scattered across the state. These specialists perform research on the plots housed at the ARECs, but sometimes they also opt to take their research projects to outside farms. In some cases, what happens when an experiment is run at the research station plot is not consistent with what happens when it is run on a working farm. In other cases, the more plots that can be planted around the region, the better the data. For these reasons, specialists make on-farm work an integral part of their studies.

This is where county Extension agents like Taylor come in. They communicate regularly with specialists and researchers and foster ongoing face-to-face relationships with local farmers. As a result, Extension agents can locate producers willing to host an on-farm plot and then manage and collect project data from planting to harvest with the support of specialists. Agents in Southside Virginia like Taylor work frequently with the specialists housed at the Southern Piedmont AREC in Blackstone or the Tidewater AREC in Suffolk. Although most data on test plots is compiled at the end of the season and must undergo analysis, farmers benefit in the short-term from these test plots when they are used for Extension field days and demonstrations. Many producers enjoy having the hands-on opportunity to see crop varieties planted side-by-side or visually evaluate plants as they grow in disease resistance or disease treatment plots.

Taylor Clarke runs several tests plots each year, including a 2013 test on his farm evaluating performance of soybeans with and without treatment for soybean rust. Soybean rust, a challenging foliar fungal disease, entered the state in late summer this year and had the potential to hurt yields in field where beans had not reached the “R6” maturity stage. Bean seeds in plants that have reached this stage appear full-sized and are touching within the pod; once the plant reaches this point, infection with soybean rust will not cause significant yield loss. However, specialists worried that some double-crop beans and late-maturing beans had not yet reached R6 when soybean rust entered Virginia this year, so Taylor’s test plot was an effort to evaluate the potential impact of treating double-crop soybean beans that could undergo yield loss if the disease were left unchecked.

The field was planted and various sections were treated according to a predetermined experimental design. Because untreated soybean rust hurts yield in plants that have not reached R6 maturity, Taylor chose to use yield as a means to evaluate the performance of the treatments. To collect his data, Taylor used a combine to harvest each section of the plot individually. For every test section of the plot that was cut, the beans were unloaded into a weigh wagon. Each load was then weighed and evaluated for moisture content of the seeds and test weight of the seeds. Test weight measurements give the number of pounds of soybeans in a bushel. After each strip was cut, Taylor measured the length of the harvested strip in order to determine the square feet harvested. He can now use all of his data to determine parameters such as the predicted number of bushels per acre that each test section yielded.

Harvested beans are unloaded into a weigh wagon.

The wagon weighs each load from the combine.

Moisture levels are tested for each load of beans.

Lunenburg agent Lindy Tucker assists Taylor by measuring test weight on beans from each load.

Taylor measures the length of each harvested strip in the plot.

On-farm research plots are not the only thing keeping Virginia Cooperative Extension agents like Taylor busy on a day-to-day basis. Other duties include taking phone calls, visiting farmers daily to assist with troubleshooting and management decisions, teaching and facilitating workshops and educational activities, and providing information to meet the needs of agricultural producers, homeowners, and landowners. Nonetheless, test plots remain a vital part of Extension work because agents appreciate the value that on-farm research brings to agriculture and the role these projects serve in bringing credible, up-to-date information to the people who help grow the nation’s food.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Virginia Soybean Update Blog with Articles Listed by Topic

Virginia On-Farm Soybean Test Plots 2013

Meet Windy Springs Farm.

Posted on November 21, 2013 by laurab08

Operated by the Roberts family of Amelia, this farm is home to a herd of beef heifers, cows, and their calves. It is one of the many “cow-calf” operations that contribute to Virginia’s inventory of nearly 1.5 million cattle and calves. In fact, the cattle industry is ranked second-highest in the state, standing just behind broilers which bring the highest value in receipts. What many people do not know, however, is that not all beef producers in this area make a living raising cattle all the way from birth to harvest. In fact, cattle production is often divided into stages, and in the conventional industry different types of farms may specialize in different stages of cattle management.

All beef animals start out as calves, but before the calf comes the brood cow. Left to her own devices, a good female can raise a healthy calf if she is provided with pasture or hay that meets her nutritional demands while she is pregnant and when the calf is nursing. In fact, raising heifers and cows that subsist on grass and hay is by far the most efficient management system. Furthermore, a forage-based system where cows graze year-round in the field promotes healthy rumens in cows, provides a clean calving environment, and mitigates contagious diseases that can worsen when very young animals are kept in tight quarters. Contrary to some misconceptions, most cows in a conventional commercial production system are only given some feed when nutritional needs cannot be completely met by forage, and calves spend seven or more months with their mothers in the field consuming milk and pasture before they are weaned. This is the calf production step of the beef industry; farms that specialize in maintaining cows for breeding and raising calves from birth to weaning are generalized as “cow-calf operations.”

Weaned calves, now known as feeder cattle, may then go to a “backgrounder” or “stocker” operation. They may weigh several hundred pounds at weaning time on the cow-calf operation, but they may undergo a period of additional weight gain and adjustment to peer groups on a stocker operation. The final step is finishing, where cattle are fed to an appropriate weight and then processed for the wholesale and retail market. Virginia feeder cattle are often sent to states like Pennsylvania, Kansas, Iowa, and Ohio for finishing because these states offer an advantage in feed availability and processing.

Although the commercial cow-calf, stocker, and finishing operation sequence is most common, there are exceptions. Farmers who sell directly to consumers at farmers markets and other venues may choose to raise animals from start to finish and take responsibility for processing and marketing. This system is most common on small direct-market operations located in proximity to large numbers of urban consumers. Other farms may specialize in producing purebred animals for high-quality breeding stock, and some may specialize in raising show cattle, heritage breeds, or hobby animals. These operations are far less common than conventional commercial operations due to the nature of their production and marketing needs.

Virginia is fortunate to experience adequate rainfall during average years, and producers who manage their pastures diligently are capable of maintaining medium to high-quality forage for their animals nearly year-round. Amelia County, where Windy Springs Farm is situated, is no exception. In fact, crop production and cattle production overlap in Central Virginia where land is suitable for either use. Hence, Virginia has a reputation primarily as a cow-calf state and Windy Springs is one of many cow-calf operations in the region. Producers in this area often time breeding so that calves will be born in the fall of the year. However, some operations choose a spring calving season.

The Roberts family aims to have all of their heifers and cows calve around the same time so that each calf is at the same stage of growth as its peers. Why is this important? Cows and calves need treatments like vaccination and parasite control in order to remain healthy, grow properly, and prevent disease outbreaks. Windy Springs calves must also be tagged so that they can be identified and records can be made each time they are handled in the future. The herd must be brought through the farm’s handling facility for these tasks to be performed with minimal stress. If all calves within a group are approximately the same age, the whole group can receive certain health treatments at once. This allows the farm to be more efficient and reduces the number of times the animals must be handled.

Windy Springs has a handling facility designed to minimize stress. Animals start in a group pen and are walked down an alley towards a chute and a head gate, which humanely stabilizes the animal while it is treated. Good handlers like Johnny and Lawson Roberts rarely keep animals in the head gate for more than a minute even when completing multi-step tasks, and some chores performed at certain times of the year can be completed in just seconds per animal. Cows have a herd mentality, so they follow their peers in line as they walk towards the chute and they rejoin the herd immediately in the pasture after they are treated. The end result is a vigorous crop of calves that will remain healthy later in life when they are transported to another operation or comingled with new peers. Windy Springs Farm, like many cow-calf operations, takes pride in maintaining a high-quality herd of cows and working long hours to raise calves that excel on the farm and provide a top-notch product for the consumer.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Getting Started in the Cattle Business in VA

Beef Cow/Calf Herd Health Program and Calendar

Beef Cattle Management Publications

Meet Jennifer Ligon, Low-Stress Cattle Handler.

Posted on November 7, 2013 by laurab08

Jennifer is more commonly known as the agriculture agent for Virginia Cooperative Extension in Buckingham County and has become a leader in animal science and cattle industry programs both within her county and across the state. However, she has taken on a particularly important role as a proponent of low-stress cattle handling methods that improve animal welfare and prevent losses associated with poor handling practices. Virginia is home to many top-notch cattle producers. Some have innate cow-reading skills and have unwittingly practiced low-stress methods for years; some have learned and adopted low-stress methods later in life. The rest employ conventional methods, which is where Jennifer’s work comes in.

Because cattle are prey animals, they choose to maintain a large area of personal space. When a person enters this “flight zone,” animals feel pressure to move and restore their personal space. A skittish or untrained animal may have a flight zone extending several hundred feet out from its body. Over time, after repeated positive experiences with humans, this zone will become smaller and animals will tolerate closer distances to humans. The reverse is true if they encounter negative experiences. The dairy cow presents an example of an animal with a very small flight zone. Because she is handled daily and usually in a positive manner, her flight zone may only extend a few feet from her body. Some dairy cows may even allow themselves to be touched. Nonetheless, when a person steps into the flight zone of a beef animal, they apply pressure that causes the animal to move. When they step out of the flight zone, they release the pressure on the animal and it may no longer feel the need to move away.

As a rule, brood cows and their calves in Virginia spend their days enjoying pasture and hay. This production system for cow-calf operations is highly cost-effective and makes use of the state’s abundant forage. Producers are nearby daily to check on the herd, move the animals to fresh pasture, or bring in feed or hay. Cattle become accustomed to these routines. However, calves and cows occasionally need to be brought into direct proximity to humans in order to receive routine care such as vaccinations, parasite controls, tagging, reproductive soundness exams, pregnancy checks, and ultimately weaning, the primary cause of stress in a cow-calf operation. The only way to perform these activities safely is to bring the cattle into a handling facility, creating opportunities for stress if the cattle are moved too quickly or exposed to loud noises, fast-moving objects, or people encroaching too quickly or aggressively on the “flight zone.”

Conventional handlers tend to rely on vocal encouragement, arm-waving, and applying pressure from the back of the group in order to move animals from one pen to another or from a pen to the chute, where cattle are restrained briefly for treatment. Low-stress handling methods employ minimal noise, movement, and arm-waving. Handling methods matter during tasks such as emptying pens, where startled or stressed herds may continually circle past an open gate and frustrate handlers who wish to push them forward through it. A low-stress handler can accomplish this task more quickly by working from the front of the herd and briefly training animals to walk calmly or stop moving using pressure-and-release movements into and out of the flight zone. Once animals understand that the handler will remove the flight zone pressure when they step in the right direction, the handler can stand in one place off to the side of the group and direct animals through the gate calmly and efficiently. The same applies to moving cattle from a pen to an aisle or chute; a worked-up herd will feel forced when pushed towards narrow space. A calm animal may willingly choose to enter an aisle or alley when pressure is applied appropriately and the animal naturally chooses to step away from the pressure.

Over the past decade, low-stress handling has gained popularity and farmers throughout Virginia have attended educational sessions to become more adept at working with cattle in accordance with their instincts. Two 2013 events sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension featuring nationally-recognized cattle handling experts drew several hundred attendees. Virginia producers who become certified in the “Beef Quality Assurance” industry program attend educational recertification courses which emphasize low-stress handling as a key component of high-quality beef cattle production. Extension agents, university specialists, and veterinarians across the state support and facilitate these efforts. In particular, Jennifer Ligon has undertaken research to quantify the benefits of low-stress handling in comparison to conventional handling methods on cow-calf operations. In several locations, she compares the behavior of animals that encounter both handling methods during various tasks. She plans to evaluate impacts of stress, including weight loss during the weaning process. Jennifer also works closely with local cattlemen and organizes educational efforts that demonstrate low-stress handling methods.

Many consumers are concerned with the practices that are used to produce food. They can rest assured that low-stress handling methods promote calmer, happier cattle that are treated responsibly at all times. Low-stress handling has the potential to benefit cows, raise consumer confidence, keep handlers safe, and cut losses to improve profitability across Virginia’s cattle operations. With the help of industry leaders and agents like Jennifer, more producers are adopting these practices and reaping the benefits.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Getting Started in the Cattle Business in VA

Cattle Handling Pointers

Low-Stress Cattle Handling: The Basics

Meet David Smith’s grain sorghum.

Posted on October 24, 2013 by laurab08

David raises cattle on his farm in central Virginia, but this year, he also gave sorghum a shot.

Sorghum—or milo, as some call it—is a summer annual plant that was developed in the Upper Nile region of Sudan. It is quite versatile. Most varieties have been developed for grain harvest, while others are chopped for silage as an alternative to corn. Sorghum-sudangrass hybrids are becoming increasingly popular for hay and forage because they can be grown during the summer months when cool-season grasses like tall fescue hit a slump. Varieties that make up the “sweet” sorghums are valued for the juices that are extracted from the plants’ stalks and turned into sorghum syrup, a homestead specialty that has become rather rare. Furthermore, faculty at Virginia State University and other research centers are developing varieties of sorghum that are suitable for use in biofuel production.

Sorghum has been grown for grain in many states for a number of years, but many new producers in Virginia and North Carolina, including David, have recently decided to try it thanks to an increase in demand from livestock operations in the state. The rising costs of fuel, labor, and fertilizer in combination with past periods of drought have raised the cost of feeding corn on these operations. Managers are looking for alternate feeds that equal corn in nutritional content, so sorghum has become a good pick. Most grain sorghum produced in the U.S. is used as animal feed, but sorghum is growing increasingly popular as a gluten-free, high antioxidant food in the U.S. Many farmers favor sorghum because it is more drought-tolerant than corn. While corn and sorghum may both curl up during a dry year, sorghum can wait longer for moisture to return and will bounce back readily after a rain. Sorghum also adds flexibility and diversity to a crop rotation, resulting in easier disease and pest control.

Sorghum plants closely resemble corn during their early growth stages.

David was among many farmers in the state who faced some challenges during the early part of the growing season. Excessive rain washed nutrients out of the soil in high parts of fields, leaving seedlings with shallow roots temporarily deficient in phosphorus. Seedlings in low areas, especially in flat fields in eastern Virginia, faced the risk of drowning. The heavy, constant rains also created a good environment for pressure from seedling disease issues like damping off and root rot. Fortunately, David’s sorghum weathered the late spring and grew out nicely. The same is true for most of the growers across southside and central Virginia. In fact, the middle and late summer moisture was a boon for both corn and sorghum plants in later stages of development.

This sorghum has developed a head but the gain has not filled yet.

Grain sorghum looks like corn throughout its early growth stages, but rather than developing ears, it grows a head with small, rounded seeds that appear as pyramidal cluster. The grain must be harvested before it becomes dry enough to “shatter” or fall off prematurely before or during harvest. Ideally, it should be harvested between 17 and 20% moisture to prevent losses at harvest. However, grain at these moisture levels will spoil easily during storage, so the harvested grain must be dried so that it reaches a safe storage moisture level of 10-12%.

The grain shown here is well-developed and almost ready for harvest.

The future of sorghum in the state looks bright. Sorghum grain is not a complete replacement for corn and not all growers have the equipment to grow and dry it or access to an increasing market, but acreages in parts of the state near large buyers are expected to increase. This year, the drought-ready traits of the crop did not have an opportunity to shine. However, in view of the uncertainty of next year’s weather, many sorghum producers will be better equipped to withstand a dry year. Sorghum is not new to everyone, but thanks to new growers like David and expanding markets in and around the state, it is enjoying a resurgence and helping farmers mitigate risk and diversify their operations.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Sorghum Marketability

Sorghum Variety Data

United Sorghum Checkoff Program Mid Atlantic Production Handbook

Meet the Bowmans, makers of sorghum molasses.

Posted on October 10, 2013 by laurab08

Molasses-making has become a rare art, but a few Virginians still carry on the old homesteading practice using sorghum, a plant that came from Africa and is used in various forms for grain, biofuel, and silage. The molasses that shows up on store shelves is made from sugar canes or sugar beets, and technically the thick, sweet product created from the sorghum plant is “sorghum syrup.” However, the traditional title of “sorghum molasses” still stands amongst many producers and the two names are sometimes used interchangeably. “Sweet sorghum” is the moniker used to categorize the unique varieties chosen for molasses-making that have more stalk juice and sugars than the forage or grain sorghum varieties do.

Grain from the head of the sorghum plant is saved for seed.

Sorghum looks similar to corn when it begins to grow. Sweet sorghum varieties grow particularly tall. The plants develop heads containing seeds, which are cut off prior to harvest so that the stalk juices remain high in sugar. Sugar content in the stalks drops as the seed heads become more and more mature. Some seed heads are saved for the next years’ crop. Seed-saving is important because certain sweet sorghum seeds have become rather rare and some growers have to cross state lines to seek out particular varieties.

Once the stalks have grown up and the plant is mature enough to cut, the molasses-making crowd must assemble. Molasses-making tends to be a community affair, after all, and the more hands to cut, haul, carry, and stir the molasses, the better. The harvest must take place before a fall frost hits because sorghum, like corn, is a summer crop that does not tolerate cold weather. This year, Don and Betty Bowman of central Virginia invited friends and neighbors to their sorghum harvest as they have done for many years in the past. There is usually so much sorghum to cut that the family gets started in the field the evening before molasses-making day, and this year was no exception. The next day, volunteers finish cutting down the last of the stalks and loading them onto a wagon that carries them to the mill site. An early start is key because the sorghum takes nearly all day to complete. The 2013 effort was already in full swing by 8:00 AM on molasses day.

Once the wagonloads of sorghum are driven back to the molasses-making site, the extraction process begins. In the past, the Bowmans fed the stalks into a horse-drawn mill, and then they made a technological leap by powering the mill with a lawn tractor. Mrs. Bowman humorously recalls having to sit on the ground to feed stalks into the mill while it was running so that it would not hit her in the head each time it circled around. According to Mrs. Bowman, this method still required upwards of three hours to complete, so the family came up with an even better solution and began to power their mill with a belt running off a stationary tractor.

As the canes are crushed in the rollers, juice is screened and collected into a bucket which connects to a tube that transports the juice downhill to the vat station. Here, the juice does not immediately enter the vat. First, it travels through another series of screens that prevent fibers and plant particles from staying in the juice as it fills the vat. The vat that the Bowmans use is a batch-type system that cooks one large pan of juice at once. Some producers use a “continuous flow” system that gradually creates molasses as juice travels through a series of compartments.

Boiling does not begin until all the stalks have been fed through the mill and extraction is complete. The vat is set over a fire pit that is lit and monitored closely to ensure that the temperatures are appropriate. Volunteers keep the fire hot so that the juice will begin to boil. At this time, someone must stir the vat and agitate the bottom so that the sorghum does not burn. Once the juice reaches a full boil, people take turns skimming proteins and coagulated components off the top surface of the juice. If the fire gets too hot, the juice boils too high and overflows.

These tools were fashioned for skimming juice in the vat.

The boiling and skimming step is the longest part of the process. It can take nearly all day, and sometimes can last into the night. The fire continues to keep the vat boiling which kills bacteria and cooks more and more water out of the juice. When the sorghum nears the right temperature and density, the fire is cut back and the final skimming continues. The Bowmans have found that overcooking or undercooking leads to a lower-quality product, so they occasionally put their finished product back on the fire pit for more boiling or they add water and reboil the vat to thin molasses that has gotten too thick. The finished vat cools a bit, and then the Bowmans transfer the molasses to a metal tank with a shutoff valve that allows them to bottle it more easily.

This year’s quarter-acre sorghum plot yielded about nine gallons of finished molasses. Typically it takes 6-12 gallons of raw juice to cook into one gallon of sorghum molasses. What happens to the crushed, discarded sorghum plant material? The Bowmans let their cattle access the pile, and the cows eat the stalks with enthusiasm.

Finished sorghum molasses has a golden-brown hue and is enjoyed as a sweetener on biscuits and desserts. Virginia’s sorghum molasses makers might be scattered across the state, but the families who continue the practice seem to universally enjoy a rich tradition of sharing and fellowship with the many friends and neighbors who visit year after year to help.

Spike the helper dog thinks that supervising molasses making is hard work.

Additional Resources for Readers:

Processing Sweet Sorghum for Syrup

Sweet Sorghum for Syrup

National Sweet Sorghum Producers & Processors Association Webpage

Central Virginia Ag Spotlight

Connecting communities to agriculture

Author Archives: laurab08

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Meet Jennifer Ligon, Low-Stress Cattle Handler.

Meet David Smith’s grain sorghum.

Meet the Bowmans, makers of sorghum molasses.