Berea College Beef

Website: www.berea.edu/anr/collegefarms.asp

This grower has a photo album.

The Berea College beef herd is managed by a student core team consisting of: Abbey Lightcap, student manager; Amanda Wilkins, Cory Malone, and Shauni Nichols. Jamie Rowse, the assistant farm manager, advises the team.

The college operation is a cow-calf operation where the calves are born and raised on the farm and consist of Angus and Angus cross cattle. The genetic selection of the herd is transitioning to smaller, more grass efficient cows. The team is looking in to selecting a new bull with these intentions in mind.

The team is responsible for planning the various management tasks that are included in raising beef cattle. These tasks include, but are not limited to herd health, maintenance of fences and buildings, nutrition, records, breeding management, and calf health. A particular task involved with the cattle is intensive grazing; this method is allowing the cattle into a new strip of forage everyday with enough forage for that day. This allows the farm to raise more animals on less land because the efficiency rate of forage utilization is drastically increased with this method.

The enterprise system is part of a much larger picture. Cattle occupy much of the pasture land, offer an excellent experience for both individuals who are new to working with cattle and also with those who have spent their entire lives around cattle. Also, the cattle enterprise along with other enterprises offers a support system for the farm.