“We'll get two lbs. or more of gain a day from the cool-season grass,” he adds. Normally, those cattle only get byproducts if their gains dip below around 1½ lbs./acre.

By the end of May or the first of June, the ryegrass is gone and the cattle are marketed. The Bermuda grass and Bahia are growing and getting ready for hay making in June or July.

Georgia's Hancock says the Bermuda/Bahia combo is a good choice since it has to stand up to heavy use. However, if Hollinger was depending on the forage for gain or hay alone, Hancock says, “He might want to go with Bermuda grass, especially Tifton 85 Bermuda grass, since it's higher in digestibility than Bahia grass.”

As far as hay production, it's rain-dependent, but Hollinger says his production normally ranges from 3-4, 900-lb. bales/acre with adequate moisture to 2-3 bales/acre in dry years.

After the first cutting, he may apply 50 units of commercial nitrogen/acre. “It depends on how much hay we're going to need,” he explains.

By then, the five-acre pens are starting to fill up with calves in the preconditioning program. All without a mess. “We try to be proactive,” Hollinger says. “We fence out the wet areas and the filter strips and catch water in the settlement areas. We let the sediment settle out before it goes in a major creek.”

Becky Mills is a freelance writer based in Cuthbert, GA.

Easy come, easy go

Even though Leo Hollinger keeps the cost of gain down on both his customers' cattle and his own, he's not about to let any gains slip away due to rough handling. “We can't overemphasize how we handle cattle — from the first day we get them until we put them on the truck,” states the Camden, AL cattleman.

“With a new set of cattle, we try to establish some sort of relationship with them the first hour they're here. We stand there and fool with them for 10-15 minutes and find their flight zone. They gain confidence.”

“It's a tough time when they get off the trailer, especially if they're just off the cow,” says Mary Ellen Hicks, animal scientist at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, GA. “The calves are trying to attach themselves to somebody. As long as you move through them quietly and deliberately, it's a good opportunity to step in and establish a leader-type position with the cattle.”

When Hollinger actually works the new arrivals, he says, “We try to handle cattle quietly. Eliminate any delays and prepare. Have your tools there. Make sure your pens are in good shape.”

If he has to doctor a sick calf later on, he'll do it in the pen with an ATV and a dart gun. In moving cattle from pasture to pasture, he'll also use trained border collies.

After the cattle go out on grazing, he'll take a bag of range cubes and walk through them once or twice a week so they stay used to having humans near.

When it's time to sell them, he thinks ahead. “One practice I try to follow is to group the cattle like we'll sell them. We sell all we can in 50,000-lb. load lots. I try to sort them off and bring them in a week or two ahead of time near the scales. Our paddocks are laid out so they funnel into one lane. Then they can just walk out of the paddock into the lane and onto the scales instead of goosenecking them that day. They can gain back the shrink from being moved.”

“That's fantastic,” says Hicks. “He's planning far enough ahead of time that the cattle can do what comes naturally to them and practically move themselves. He's keeping the stress off of them.”

Hollinger adds, “Facilities play a big part. Having scales on the farm is worth at least 1% to me.

“Cattle handling is something you have to learn,” he says. “It's an art, not an exact science, and it only comes with practice.”