blackfoot-valley

In addition, samples are pulled from the pasture grasses each month to be sent to a Nebraska lab for testing. Minerals found to be deficient are then custom-formulated by Nutrena, a company in Billings, and given to the cattle. Jim further comments, “We make the cattle work for a living.... It used to be that when the snow came the cattle started looking for the feed truck. Now they start looking for the grass.” Ripe grasses are available beneath the snow, and hay is given to them as needed. When the cows are in their last trimester, in March, they receive alfalfa and / or grass hay. “We want the cows to graze throughout as much of the year as possible and we will rotate them through the river corridor in the winter or early spring. We can let cattle eat off the old-growth grass in those areas when the ground is frozen without creating erosion problems.... The feed we raise goes mostly for background- ing calves and some for supplementing the yearling heifers and two-to-three- year-old cows in the winter. Mature cows are expected to tough it out with limited supplementation. We do get a lot of snow and ice though, so we buy some additional grass hay and quite a bit of straw for them. We’ll boost their protein a little with alfalfa or lick tubs, but we don’t start calving until the first of June, so we keep winter feed costs pretty low.” 187