EARLY WEBSTER COUNTY BEEF WEIGH-IN DEC. 5-6

The early-bird Webster County 4-H/FFA Beef weigh-ins will be held December 5 in Red Cloud and December 6 in Blue Hill. Exhibitors wanting to show market steers or market heifers at the Webster County Fair, Nebraska State Fair, and/or Ak-Sar-Ben must identify and weigh in their projects. This weigh-in is designed for exhibitors who want to attend early progress shows with their animals and need the weigh-in information, tags, and identification on their animals. The beef will be weighed in Red Cloud at the South Central Herd Health Services on Saturday, December 5 from 9:00 am till 11:30 am and in Blue Hill at the Blue Hill Livestock Sale Barn on Sunday, December 6 from 1:30 pm till 4:00 pm. The extension office asks that all exhibitors have your animals identified and tagged by that date if at all possible. Electronic Identification for all beef will be done at each weigh-in. This will be a second tag in addition to the 4-H/FFA tag. EID is voluntary, but highly suggested. They further request that if you put your tags in before weigh-in, that you reserve the one-third of the left ear closest to the head for the EID tag. 4-H tags and market beef affidavits are available from the Extension Office in Red Cloud. FFA tags and affidavits are available from agriculture education instructors including: Melissa Bonifas, at Blue Hill high school; Joe Strickland, at Red Cloud high school; and Dave Barnard at Superior. For those that cannot get the tags or affidavits prior to the weigh-in, they will be available at the weigh-in sites. 4-H exhibitors are reminded that if they intend on going on to State Fair or Ak-Sar-Ben, they must have their beef nose-printed and DNA sampled. There is a $6 per head charge for DNA samples. This will also be done at the weigh-in site for those that so desire. FFA requirements are somewhat different, for instance beef going on to State Fair must either have a nose print or EID tag plus their FFA tag. When in doubt, or not sure of their intentions, we suggest that exhibitors DNA or nose-print your market beef to be on the safe side. Exhibitors do have until April 10 to DNA any beef animal that may go to State Fair or Ak-Sar-Ben. Please note that all other market livestock that may go to Nebraska State Fair or Ak-Sar-Ben will need to be DNA sampled this year, with a later due date to be announced. In planning for market beef enterprise, exhibitors should try to match the size of the calf that they pick out to match their intent. If it is the intent to “dead-end” the calf at the county fair then exhibitors should figure from December 5 to July 13 for time on feed, which computes to 220 days. Figuring that you want to gain at least 2.5 lbs a day (2.2 is required) then assuming a county fair weight of 1300 lbs then the biggest calf that you should weigh in on the first December weigh-in would be about 750 pounds. If you figure 3# per day ROG, then a 600 lb steer (today’s weight) would be about right. If you plan to hit State Fair with the 1300 pound calf then you have 264 days to feed and at 2.5 #/day then your calf should not weigh more than 650 on Dec. 6. The regular Webster County market beef weigh-in will be held in its usual time slot for all others who need to weigh, tag, and ID their cattle. The second round of market beef weigh-ins will be held on January 30 in Red Cloud and January 31 in Blue Hill with the same locations, time frame and inclement weather schedule.

Please contact Dewey Lienemann at the Webster County Extension office in Red Cloud at (402) 746-3417 for more information.