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The Rockbridge Cattlemen’s Association will hold its annual winter meeting Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 6 p.m. at the Virginia Horse Center Appomattox Mezzanine.
Dr. Rodrigo Marques of Virginia Tech will be the featured speaker. Dr. Marques specializes in animal nutrition and recently joined Virginia Tech with over 15 years of experience in the cattle industry and livestock research in Brazil, Oregon, and Montana, which indicates his experience with livestock management systems in extreme environments. He will have a presentation on cattle nutrition during and following drought. Additionally, his wide experience will inform his answers to producer questions they will have time to ask about a broad range of cattle management issues.
Cattle herds in the Rockbridge region face a range of circumstances right now thanks to double-edged weather events featuring extended dry spells and heavy rainfall events. Many cattle farms have limited inventories of hay due to a very dry autumn in 2023 that forced stockmen to begin feeding hay earlier than usual followed by early spring warmth and dry conditions that caused first cutting hay to be thin and mature earlier than usual.
Some cattle producers in Rockbridge were in a position to set aside meadows for winter grazing, which put on significant vegetative growth following the rainfall events associated with tropical systems Debby in early August and Helene in late September. Still others have a limited supply of high-quality hay because October was virtually devoid of rainfall and featured a long stretch of low humidity days allowing late season growth to be harvested as hay, rarely the case for October in Rockbridge.
Fortunately, strong cattle prices and cyclically lower grain prices provide cattle producers some options for meeting the nutritional needs of their livestock. Dr. Marques will detail some of these options based on these different grazing and hay inventory situations.
Contact the Rockbridge Extension office at (540) 463-4734 or by e-mail at [email protected] if you plan to attend the Jan. 14 meeting. Cost of the program is $25 and includes dinner and your membership in the Association for 2025.
