Building on the continued success of the Iowa Beef Center's Feedlot Short Course, a regional version has been created to provide a similar opportunity for southwest Iowa producers. Iowa State University extension beef specialist Erika Lundy-Woolfolk is one of the program organizers and said the Cattle Feeders Camp will be held Nov. 30-Dec. 1 at the ISU Wallace Learning Center at the ISU Armstrong Memorial Research Farm near Lewis and the nearby JW Freunds Farms feedlot.
"While the program is not quite as long as the Feedlot Short Course, we're packing a lot of information, activity and discussion into the two days," she said. "Plus our limited size of 30 attendees allows us to provide optimal hands-on opportunities and small group learning."
The program runs from 10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 30, through 2:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 1. Weather makeup dates are Dec. 7-8, same times and location.
The event begins with classroom sessions on starting cattle on feed and preparing calves for the feedlot. After lunch is a feed mixing demonstration and presentation on pros and cons of feedlot types, followed by a social hour and dinner. Friday morning features a session on ingredients for a recipe for profitability, research update on feeding beef-dairy steers and farm demonstrations on managing foot health and bunk scoring. Following lunch participants will learn about facility designs and join in discussion about the camp.