Ken and Sara Nimrick of Stronghurst was the recipient of the Illinois Beef Association Commercial Producer of the Year Award at the IBA Annual Meeting held near Deer Grove, Illinois on Saturday, July 24.
The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Commercial Producer Of The Year
Ken and Sara Nimrick of Stronghurst was the recipient of the Illinois Beef Association Commercial Producer of the Year Award at the IBA Annual Meeting held near Deer Grove, Illinois on Saturday, July 24.
The Nimricks run a grain and commercial beef cattle operation consisting of 220 cow-calf pairs and 35 replacement heifers on 340 acres of permanent and rotational pasture. They have been on the same farm in Henderson County since 1971 on land that has been in Sara's family since the mid 1800's.
An area in which the herd excels is reproduction management through the use of estrus synchronization, AI of their replacement heifers, and limiting the length of the breeding season for the mature cowherd.
Whereas many herds have continued to move their calving dates earlier, the Nimricks calve in the late spring from late April to late June.
This results in a number of their heifers and all their cows calving strictly on pasture.
Their genetic program for the past ten years have centered around the use of composite bulls consisting of 50-75% Angus or Red Angus and 25-50%
Simmental or Gelbvieh. This has resulted in a majority of the cowherd being of similar genetic composition and greatly simplified their crossbreeding program.
The Nimricks were one of the first herds in Illinois to adopt early weaning with this occurring at 75 to 135 days in early September.
Their experience has found these early weaned calves to be very efficient and stay healthy with a good preconditioning program. Following weaning, the calves are backgrounded until mid winter with most being sold through a preconditioned feeder calf sale.
However, to monitor feedlot performance and carcass quality, one or two loads of cattle are fed at a commercial lot each year.
Of exceptional importance to the Nimrick beef cattle operation is to provide the most productive, highest quality pastures to allow the cowherd to maximize their genetic potential.
This is accomplished by pastures consisting of a combination of endophyte-infected, fescue-based pastures and improved alfalfa-orchardgrass or ryegrass-endophyte-free fescue-white clover mixtures.
There is also a small acreage of the "friendly endophyte"fescue. Pasture performance and carry capacity has increased dramatically with the incorporation of rotational grazing and improved pasture species.
Through the use of the Illinois SPA Program the Nimricks realized that hay is extremely expensive to produce and reduces the potential for a profitable enterprise. Thus, very little to no hay is harvested. To expand the grazing period winter annuals such as rye or triticale are used along with the grazing of cornstalks. To help fill the slump during July and August, summer annuals such as sorghum-sudan or standing field corn are used as needed.
Another unique management practice to reduce the cost of wintering cows is the grazing of standing corn from January through March. Two items that make this work is the use of strip grazing, so cows consume approximately nine-pounds of corn each day, and the supplementation with corn gluten feed three times per week. The program is very low labor and easy to manage with about 15 to 20 minutes per day needed to handle the entire herd. Cost to winter the cows on this program is from $0.37 to 0.50 per cow per day.
The herd has been on a testing program of some kind since beginning with the University of Illinois BPT program in 1972. In addition, FBFM system has been used for total farm records. Also, the Illinois SPA records have been valuable in helping with cost control. The operation is interested in monitoring the economics of the herd by keeping cost down such as: total cost/cow/year of less than $215; feed cost/cow/year below $145; weaned calf unit cost of production under $63/cwt; calf sold after backgrounding below $54/cwt; and purchased/harvested feed cost under $74.
Individuals who have had the opportunity to visit the Nimrick beef cattle operation realize that Ken is extremely knowledgeable about his operation and the overall goals of a successful cow-calf enterprise. Ken Nimrick summarizes the goals of his operations in what could be identified as a "mission statement." Areas he concentrates on are -
"To maintain reproductive rates, while controlling feed and overhead expenses by improving and managing pastures, minimizing machinery and building expenses, utilizing a low cost wintering program, and grazing as many days of the year as possible." He further elaborates that, "Investments in pastures, genetics, and preventive health have been the most cost effective." Also, his efforts in genetics are geared toward, "Improving convenience and carcass traits since the reproductive and growth traits are now adequate."
Ken Nimrick is also known as Dr. Nimrick to his students at Western Illinois University where he serve as Beef Cattle Professor in the Agriculture Department. His responsibilities include teaching Animal Science Classes and Managing the WIU Bull Test Station and beef cow herd along with conducting research on "Management and Grazing Systems for Beef Cattle."
Since Ken is gone a number of days, assistance is provided by the Nimrick's daughter and son-in-law Kristin and Alan Durkee of Stronghurst. This help allows him to share his many years of practical experience and expertise with future producers and leaders of the Illinois beef cattle industry.
The Nimricks were honored at the 2004 IBA Annual Meeting and will be placed in national competition at the National Beef Improvement Federation Annual Meeting. At this meeting they will compete with commercial firms from throughout the United States and Canada to be honored as the Commercial Producer of the Year.