SGF'S HIGH GAIN STOCKER /FINISHER SCHOOL

MARCH 27-28, 2008 OMAHA, NE

Today’s high grain prices have created an exceptional opportunity to take cattle to heavier weights on forages for sale as either heavy feeder cattle or as grass-finished beef. With very little price rollback on heavier weight feeder cattle, the value of gain for either market is at an all-time high.

Unfortunately, as cattle gain beyond the traditional 700 to 800 pound feeder range, they require an entirely different type of forage and forage management for high average daily gains to continue. In many cases, these heavy feeder cattle will actually not gain at all on traditional stocker forages. This school is designed to teach you how to produce high average daily gains over the entire 400 to 1000 pound weight range.

This school is also designed to teach year around, reliable, forage-based production systems utilizing both stored forages and direct grazing in areas with serious winters. For those of you practicing the Bud Williams, sell-buy marketing method, this school is an ideal production complement.

SGF Editor, Allan Nation, will give you a big picture overview of beef cattle production opportunities in a grain-short world. He will show you why grass farmers will make far more money from today’s high grain prices than corn farmers and how to figure the value of gain on both commercial and grass-finished cattle today.

Argentina’s Anibal Pordomingo will show you why it is the stocker phase rather than the finishing phase that is the most critical in a beef animal’s life for producing a quality beef product. The stocker phase is not only the easiest time to put on high gains but also the most economical. Whether your animals are finished on grass or grain, they are made or ruined in the stocker period.

Pordomingo will show you the times of the year when forage supplementation will pay the biggest returns and when it is a total waste of money.

He also thinks home-raised calves are always more profitable than purchased ones and will show you why with figures from his personal ranch. Hear him out before you chunk your cows!

Pordomingo will also detail his research on meat quality and the factors that most affect meat tenderness, marbling and CLA levels. He will also illustrate the “Argentine Cut” that minimizes low-value hamburger from the carcass.

Dr. William Winter works with Thousand Hills Cattle Company in Minnesota. Thousand Hills harvests forage-finished cattle year around in deep snow country. In this presentation, he will show you how they do it.

Denver-based, stored forage consultant, Don Trott, will discuss how to make high-gain hay and pasture silages. Trott’s presentation will include how to make pasture, alfalfa and corn silages utilizing low-cost, multi-purpose machinery that can also be used for hay.

Nebraska based irrigated pasture consultant, Bob Scriven, will focus on forages that can be direct grazed even in deep snow.

Iowa grazier, Tom German, has probably gone the farthest toward developing an Argentine-style year around forage chain as anyone in the Midwest. In this presentation, he’ll tell you what he has found works for him and what didn’t.

Who should attend? Cow-calf producers, stocker graziers, grass finishers and even cattle feeders looking to add more forages in their finishing program. Dairymen, the same forages needed to produce marbling fat are the ones that produce milk fat, so you’ll learn a lot here too.

Two full days! Begins Thursday at 8:30 a.m., a networking reception at night and concludes Friday at 5:00 p.m. Don’t miss it!

Tuition is $600 a person. We will hold a seat for you for only $100 deposit per person. The remaining balance of $500 is due March 14th.

The Holiday Inn Omaha Convention Centre is offering a special conference rate of $99 + tax if booked before March 14. You must call the hotel direct at 402-393-3950. Tell them you’re with the Stockman Grass Farmer group. All events will take place at The Holiday Inn.

AGENDA

Thursday, March 27, 2008

8:30 to 10:00 - The Big Picture In a Grain-Short World by Allan Nation
10:30 to 12:00 - Producing High Average Daily Gains from Weaning to Harvest by Anibal Pordomingo
1:30 to 3:00 - Year Around Stocker/Finishing on Forages in Minnesota by Dr. Will Winter
3:30 to 5:00 - Producing High Average Daily Gains from Stored Forages by Don Trott
5:00 to 7:00 - Networking Reception

Friday, March 28, 2008

8:30 to 10:00 - A Forage Chain for the Midwest by Tom German
10:30 to 12:00 - Let It Snow! by Bob Scriven
1:30 to 5:00 - Cow-calf to Finish by Anibal Pordomingo

$100.00 Register for High Gain Stocker/Finisher School

$600.00 Register and Pay in Full for High Gain Stocker/Finisher School

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