Denise Schwab, interim IBC director column
March 2024
March kicks off my favorite time of year – birds start singing, days get longer, grass starts to green up, and we all get invigorated about new crops of calves. In my opinion, there is no better sight than newborn calves frolicking on bright green cover crop fields! It also gives us a break from the chaotic winter meeting season to catch up on details we procrastinated, and to start planning for summer programs. If you missed our Feedlot Webinar Series in February, take some time on a rainy day to check out those episodes on our Iowa Beef Center YouTube page. We have a sizable library of short educational videos we’ve developed over the years. A few really timely ones are on colostrum management, the Konefal calving method, and tips for spring pasture turnout.
This month I’d like to introduce the organizer of the feedlot series Erika Woolfolk. Erika is our field specialist for southwest Iowa and has both a cow-calf and feedlot background. Erika grew up on a multi-generational family farm in Adair County with commercial and Angus cows. She and her husband are still involved in the business and have added Hereford cattle to their business. Erika jokes that the Herefords came when the husband did! Erika received her BS and MS degrees at Iowa State University where she focused on ruminant nutrition. As an undergrad, she worked in a research lab which helped spark her interest in research. She worked with Dr. Dan Loy and the Iowa Beef Center as an undergrad and through her graduate program before joining our Iowa Beef Center team fulltime in June of 2015 as our Program Specialist on campus. In September of 2018 she became our southwest IA field specialist and moved home to Adair County.
Erika provides leadership to many programs but is most proud of the Feedlot Short Course, Fencing & Grazing Clinic, and expanding alternative outreach such as social media and educational video production. She has also developed and led several research projects derived from grassroots input including cover crops and annual forages, technology management impacts on carcass quality in the feedlot, creep feeding calves and more. Many of these have been funded by the Iowa Beef Checkoff program. She also provides leadership to many of the beef research projects at the Armstrong Research Farm at Lewis and the McNay Memorial Research Farm at Chariton.
Like all good Extension specialists, Erika enjoys working with cattle producers and talking about cows. She is challenged by the combination of cow-calf and feedlot in southwest IA and the diversity of questions it brings. She also enjoys continuously learning with clientele on innovative strategies to improve the beef business. Her personal experience with the family operation provides a lot of perspective and insight on programs for our team.
Erika and her husband Matt have two of the cutest kids you’ll ever see, and shares lots of photos of them with the cow herd! They will undoubtedly be our next generation of beef producers.
With this warm weather, I’m sure you will all be anxious to turn cows out on pastures as soon as possible to reduce stored feed needs, but we encourage you to reconsider that. Following the drought conditions from the last two years, most pastures were stressed going into fall, and will likely be slow to grow this spring. Grass needs rest just like we do in order to perform at its peak, and a couple extra weeks of spring growth before grazing will likely increase your total forage yields this year. Wait till the grass is 6-8” tall before grazing. If cover crops are available, they are a great alternative for cows and newborn calves to get out of mud and allow pastures to get started.
As always, check out the Iowa Beef Center webpage for upcoming programs and resources.
The IBC at Iowa State University serves as the university’s extension program to cattle producers. Our center comprises a team of faculty and staff from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. We work together to develop and deliver the latest in research-based information to improve the profitability and vitality of Iowa’s beef industry. If you’d like to be notified of updates on progress of research projects or programs that might be coming to your area, please subscribe to our “Growing Beef” newsletter by following the link on our website, www.iowabeefcenter.org. If you have a question, use our “Ask our Experts” link. Also, feel free to call us at 515-294-BEEF or email us at beefcenter@iastate.edu. You can follow @iowabeefcenter on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
