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Tim Bare, left, and his father Ken Bare work stocker cattle through the chute on the K-Bar Ranches last week. The cattle are vaccinated and wormed to help them ward off diseases and parasites while grazing the spring grass of Douglas County.
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ENLARGE
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Carol Hall, left, and husband Bob are pleased with the condition of a calf born just hours earlier on their Dixonville area ranch. The calf’s mother is in the background. The Halls run 250 mother cows on their ranch.
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During the spring months, cattle graze across the hundred valleys and hillsides of Douglas County.
But then just as the green grass turns to brown in late June and into July, most of the critters disappear.
What is their story? Where did they go?
Cattle are raised in the county because its grass-covered landscape is prime for raising beef.
Warm spring rain showers mixed with days of sunshine produce green forage full of valuable protein that puts weight on yearling cattle. The more pounds, the more profit at sale time.
Several thousand animals, known in the beef business as stocker cattle, dot the county’s ranch lands through the winter and spring months. They arrive in the fall as 7- to 9-month-old calves, weighing 500 to 600 pounds. They’re purchased from cow-calf operations from all over the Pacific Northwest, weaned off their mothers and are trucked in.
They become yearlings and when the grass surges in growth from March through June, so do the animals. They can average 3 to 4 pounds a day in weight gain because of the protein in the county’s clover and grass pastures.
“There’s very few places in the world with the ability to do that,” said rancher Tim Bare. “It’s just a matter of utilizing the abundance of feed we grow here. We can run one yearling per 1 1/2 acres on the improved hill pastures in Douglas County.”
Bare is the general manager of the K-Bar Ranches, an outfit which has pastures from Canyonville to Dillard. K-Bar Ranches is owned by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians.
But then just as the green grass turns to brown in late June and into July, most of the critters disappear.
What is their story? Where did they go?
Cattle are raised in the county because its grass-covered landscape is prime for raising beef.
Warm spring rain showers mixed with days of sunshine produce green forage full of valuable protein that puts weight on yearling cattle. The more pounds, the more profit at sale time.
Several thousand animals, known in the beef business as stocker cattle, dot the county’s ranch lands through the winter and spring months. They arrive in the fall as 7- to 9-month-old calves, weighing 500 to 600 pounds. They’re purchased from cow-calf operations from all over the Pacific Northwest, weaned off their mothers and are trucked in.
They become yearlings and when the grass surges in growth from March through June, so do the animals. They can average 3 to 4 pounds a day in weight gain because of the protein in the county’s clover and grass pastures.
“There’s very few places in the world with the ability to do that,” said rancher Tim Bare. “It’s just a matter of utilizing the abundance of feed we grow here. We can run one yearling per 1 1/2 acres on the improved hill pastures in Douglas County.”
Bare is the general manager of the K-Bar Ranches, an outfit which has pastures from Canyonville to Dillard. K-Bar Ranches is owned by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians.
The county is “one of the best grass producing areas in the country that I know of,” said Bob Hall, owner of the Hall Ranch in the Dixonville area. “It’s ideal for raising livestock.”
“During the spring the forage here is of excellent quality,” said Shelby Filley, the livestock and forage specialist in the Roseburg office of the Oregon State University Extension Service. “It’s high protein, high energy for the ruminant animals (cattle, sheep and goats). They can convert the grasses and legumes to protein products, to meat.”
After three months of grazing, and as the grass begins to dry up, the yearlings are rounded up in late June and shipped to a feedlot. The steers will weigh about 900 pounds and the heifers about 850 pounds at that time.
At the feedlot, the cattle will be grain fed for 120 to 140 days and will gain another 400 to 450 pounds. Then they’ll be turned into hamburgers, steaks and roasts.
Cattle have become the favored animal by ranchers in Douglas County. Filley said that 2006 numbers showed 56,000 head of cattle (cows, and calves up to 15 months) in the county. Sheep numbers in 2006 were 44,000 (ewes, and lambs that go to market by 6 months old).
That’s a major change compared to the early 1940s, when there were almost 120,000 breeding ewes in Douglas County and very few cattle.
Through the 1970s and into the ’80s, sheep numbers declined and cattle numbers increased.
“During the spring the forage here is of excellent quality,” said Shelby Filley, the livestock and forage specialist in the Roseburg office of the Oregon State University Extension Service. “It’s high protein, high energy for the ruminant animals (cattle, sheep and goats). They can convert the grasses and legumes to protein products, to meat.”
After three months of grazing, and as the grass begins to dry up, the yearlings are rounded up in late June and shipped to a feedlot. The steers will weigh about 900 pounds and the heifers about 850 pounds at that time.
At the feedlot, the cattle will be grain fed for 120 to 140 days and will gain another 400 to 450 pounds. Then they’ll be turned into hamburgers, steaks and roasts.
Cattle have become the favored animal by ranchers in Douglas County. Filley said that 2006 numbers showed 56,000 head of cattle (cows, and calves up to 15 months) in the county. Sheep numbers in 2006 were 44,000 (ewes, and lambs that go to market by 6 months old).
That’s a major change compared to the early 1940s, when there were almost 120,000 breeding ewes in Douglas County and very few cattle.
Through the 1970s and into the ’80s, sheep numbers declined and cattle numbers increased.
“For most sheep producers, the increasing predator problem was the reason for the change,” said Filley, referring to coyotes and cougars. “It was very discouraging to raise livestock and see them killed by predators, especially when five or six were taken at a time and weren’t even eaten.
“The (dropping) price of lamb was another reason for the decrease in lamb production,” she added.
Cattle numbers have increased over the past 25 years because those animals are bigger and better able to defend themselves from predators, especially coyotes.
While some county ranchers specialize in stocker cattle, with several of them having over 1,500 head, there are others who have cow-calf operations. Most of the calves are born around the first of the year. Then, when they’re 2 to 3 months old and ready to graze, the best grass begins to grow.
Some of the ranchers will sell their calves to stocker cattle operations, while others maintain ownership of their calves through their first year and sell them to a feedlot. Still others keep their own animals on pasture to produce grass-fed beef that is also free of hormones and antibiotics. Those animals aren’t shipped to a feedlot but rather produce meat sold directly to a niche market of consumers.
“The (dropping) price of lamb was another reason for the decrease in lamb production,” she added.
Cattle numbers have increased over the past 25 years because those animals are bigger and better able to defend themselves from predators, especially coyotes.
While some county ranchers specialize in stocker cattle, with several of them having over 1,500 head, there are others who have cow-calf operations. Most of the calves are born around the first of the year. Then, when they’re 2 to 3 months old and ready to graze, the best grass begins to grow.
Some of the ranchers will sell their calves to stocker cattle operations, while others maintain ownership of their calves through their first year and sell them to a feedlot. Still others keep their own animals on pasture to produce grass-fed beef that is also free of hormones and antibiotics. Those animals aren’t shipped to a feedlot but rather produce meat sold directly to a niche market of consumers.
For the prevention of bovine diseases and parasites, the cattle that will be shipped to feedlots are worked through a chute in the fall and again in March for vaccinations and internal and external wormings.
“They can get parasites from eating grass that has larvae on it or from drinking dirty water,” Bare said.
Some ranchers also put a hormone implant in the ear of their stocker cattle. This time-release implant of either estrogen, testosterone, a combination of those two or a closely related hormone, helps the animal gain weight faster and produces more lean meat and less fat.
The hormore stays in the system for less than three months so is gone when the animals go to the feedlot.
“Some people think that’s terrible, but we’ve been in business a long time and have been using it for 30 years,” Bare said. “It actually increases the quality of the animal, producing a leaner, red meat. It’s a more desirable carcass.
“We’re not going to do anything that will harm the animals we raise,” he added. “Our goal is to utilize the forage we raise through our livestock and to raise the highest quality product we can.”
• You can reach Features Editor Craig Reed at 957-4210 or by e-mail to creed@newsreview.info.
“They can get parasites from eating grass that has larvae on it or from drinking dirty water,” Bare said.
Some ranchers also put a hormone implant in the ear of their stocker cattle. This time-release implant of either estrogen, testosterone, a combination of those two or a closely related hormone, helps the animal gain weight faster and produces more lean meat and less fat.
The hormore stays in the system for less than three months so is gone when the animals go to the feedlot.
“Some people think that’s terrible, but we’ve been in business a long time and have been using it for 30 years,” Bare said. “It actually increases the quality of the animal, producing a leaner, red meat. It’s a more desirable carcass.
“We’re not going to do anything that will harm the animals we raise,” he added. “Our goal is to utilize the forage we raise through our livestock and to raise the highest quality product we can.”
• You can reach Features Editor Craig Reed at 957-4210 or by e-mail to creed@newsreview.info.
