Field Day visitors to the MU Thompson Farm on Tuesday, Sept. 24, Spickard will hear news on cattle breeding, forage feeding, woodland management and Show-Me-Select heifer sales. Also, there are new MU people to meet.
Jordan Thomas of Columbia isn’t new as he was a grad student there. But he’s new as MU specialist. He’ll tell unreported results from his artificial insemination studies with sexed semen. That opens new profit options for farmers.
MU Extension Reproduction Specialist David Patterson, who made Thompson Farm famous with Show-Me-Select Heifers, sums up years of research. He goes into retirement while still working for MU.
Eric Bailey, still new in MU Extension, finds pounds of gain improvement per acre from burning fescue pastures. Fire reduces toxic seed heads, lowering fescue toxicosis. That helps calf gains. There are many more benefits as well.
A new speaker at Thompson Farm will tell profit potential to beef herd owners in north Missouri. Regional Livestock Specialist Jenna Monnig of Princeton will lead MU efforts to restart a Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Sale in her area.
“Show-Me-Select has been around more than 20 years. It’s not been widely adopted in northwest Missouri,” she said. “I’ll try to jumpstart that.” She urges new enrollments.
Monnig is backed by MU Extension specialists sharing research results.
Big help comes from Scott Brown, nationally known MU beef economist. He’ll tell record results of 20 years of calf-sales from Thompson Farm. Some years the MU herd adds $500 per heifer calf with better genetics. Steermates sell high, also. Many farmers across the state do the same.
Genetics pay a bonus when AI bulls are bred to AI heifers out of AI mama cows. Show-Me-Select calls that “Tier Two” breeding. Farmers call it stacked genetics, which they use in hybrid seed corn.
MU forester Dusty Walter will update visitors on the Field Day opening wagon tour. Farmers can see how unused timber stands on farms become profit centers. He says: “I hope to enable folks to make choices to benefit farms, now and for generations to come.”
Also, Walter learned new tree plantings become fodder for wild deer. He’ll tell solutions.
Thompson, as at other research farms across the state, shows the Land-Grant University mission. Research, Extension and Teaching come together there.
College students, most from MU, gain dirty-boot experience. Students from North Central Missouri College get life-changing experiences.
Beef farmers across Missouri and the U.S. learned long ago Thompson Farm provides ways to improve herds with fixed-timed AI and known DNA genetics.
The Field Day, Sept. 24, starts at 3:30 p.m. with sign-in followed by a wagon tour at 4 p.m. All return to the breeding barn to learn more.
Farm manager Jon Schreffler,will offer Thompson Farm prime beef for supper at 6 p.m. Talks will end by 8 p.m.
The MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources event is free. Dean Chris Daubert will greet all and tell financial news from the MU Ag Experiment Station.
For GPS followers, the MU farm is at 668 NW Highway C, From Highway 65 at Spickard drive west on Rte. C to the end.
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