“Last spring and summer, the grazing conditions went from great to horrible,” said Roy, a rancher from Corning, Kan., with 105 custom-grazed cows. Roy’s cattle were rotated daily on mixed brome, fescue and clover paddocks. Spring and early summer rains made for excellent early grazing, but extremely dry conditions in late summer and early fall started to negatively impact forage quantity and quality and strain supplies. To add insult to injury, an armyworm invasion further decimated the remaining forage base. There were 11 first-calf heifers in the group, with cows bred to calve in later summer and early fall. Roy knew that often the best way to test a product is to see how it works under tough conditions. He started feeding Ralco’s Rumatec Cow Calf with Garlicto supplement his new heifers and cows with the nutrition they needed to have healthy calves on poor grasses. “What I noticed right away was the health and vigor of the calves at birth and shortly thereafter.”
The calves of cows fed Rumatec with Garlic were very quick to get up and nurse after birth and get up to follow the cow to the next paddock. Compared to past years when he didn’t feed Rumatec, Roy said the calves never had that kind of get-up-and-go.
Rumatec helped Roy’s herd mitigate flies, increase calf health, reduce stress and get the most out the forage in extreme drought conditions.
“The cattle looked great the entire time, probably the best they ever have during the last 4-5 years I’ve been grazing these cows.”
One of Roy’s first calf heifers with a healthy baby calf.