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The Feedlot School will help identify areas for improvement, including feed bunk management, health, business planning and marketing. (NDSU photo)
CARRINGTON, N.D. (NDSU Extension) – Cattle producers, feeders, backgrounders, feed industry personnel, animal health-care suppliers and others will have an opportunity to learn more about during the annual North Dakota State University Feedlot School set for Jan. 20-21, 2021, at NDSU’s Carrington Research Extension Center.
“Feeding cattle is a decades-old business with lots of new techniques,” says Karl Hoppe, Extension livestock systems specialist at the center. “Making cattle feeding profitable is usually a result of doing many things right, not just one thing better. The Feedlot School helps identify the areas for improvement, ranging from feed bunk management to health to business planning to marketing.”
Feedlot school topics will include:
- Why feed cattle in North Dakota
- Animal nutritional requirements and feeding
- Implant technologies
- Feed additives
- Ration formulation
- Bunk reading and feed delivery
- Livestock stewardship/beef quality assurance
- Facility development and management
- Disease diagnosis, treatments and health programs
- Differences in feeding profitability
- Manure and nutrient management
- Carcass quality and marketing on the grid
- Using market information for strategic planning
- Budgeting
The school also will include a tour of a commercial feedlot and the Research Extension Center’s livestock facilities. Faculty from NDSU’s Animal Sciences Department, and the Carrington, Hettinger and Central Grasslands Research Extension Centers, as well as others who have extensive experience working with northern Plains feedlots, are instructors for the school.
“The regional cattle experts who teach at the school provide a good overview of management for North Dakota feeders, and the outreach or interaction with the participants continues for years after the school,” says Mary Keena, Extension livestock environmental management specialist at the center.
The registration fee is $175 per person and $90 for each additional attendee from the same operation. All meals, a flashdrive with supporting documents and a copy of the Cow Bytes feed ration balancing computer program are included with the registration.
The deadline to register is Jan. 15. The fee does not include lodging. Register online at http://www.tinyurl.com/
Participants must make their own lodging arrangements. Lodging is available at the Chieftain Conference Center, 701- 652-3131; Carrington Inn and Suites, 701-652-3982; or Cobblestone Inn, 701-652-3000.
For the 2021 school, class size will be reduced by half to allow for social distancing due to COVID-19.
For more information about the course or to register, contact Hoppe at 701-652-2951 or karl.hoppe@ndsu.edu or Keena at 701-652-2951 or mary.keena@ndsu.edu.
The Carrington Research Extension Center is 3.5 miles north of Carrington on U.S. Highway 281.