Livestock Programs
The Kerr Center’s original beef cattle program has diversified
over the years to include sustainable livestock operations encompassing
several different species, including beef cattle, meat goats, poultry and hogs. The Kerr Center also uses these sustainable livestock operations as a training ground for the next generation of ranchers in the Oklahoma Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program.
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 Heifer Sale
The Kerr Center's livestock program has only 10 remaining Pineywoods
yearling heifers for sale. The heifers are registered stock, weigh around 650lbs, and have been exposed to a bull, so they should be short bred ready to calve in the spring. The asking price is $800/head. Some open older (4-10 years) cows are also still available for sale.
For more information, contact Mary Penick at 918.647.9123 or
mpenick@kerrcenter.com.
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This “grass farmer plan” focuses on high-density stock grazing and multispecies use to foster health literally from the ground up: from soils through forages to animals. Like all Kerr Center projects and activities, this plan demonstrates the ten principles of sustainability, but none more so than the first: to create and conserve healthy soils. It seeks to understand the connections between soil, forage, and animal, and use all three to benefit each other.
High-density rotational grazing is used throughout the 310 acres to manage all livestock systems. Grazing many animals for a short period of time in a small area benefits the forage by keeping the plants in a vegetative and growing state. It improves soil health by concentrating animal manure and urine for use as fertilizer, and reducing compaction. Animals benefit from daily moves in continued offerings of fresh and nutritious forages, and reduced parasite exposure.
As in the horticulture plots, good rotations address fertility, weed, insect and parasite pests, and disease management, as well as diversifying forages for nutrition and cost reductions to the operation.
One difference between the horticulture use and livestock is the frequency of rotation: crops every season, livestock every day. The Kerr Center moves animals every 24 to 48 hours to balance the system as well as possible without the use of synthetic chemicals.
Poultry litter and lime, as well as any macro- or micronutrients, are not applied on a regular basis – only when soil tests reveal that more is needed than what the animals can provide.
Multispecies Use
The Kerr Center uses a combination of modern and heritage breeds of livestock, all selected based on their compatibility with the climate of southeastern Oklahoma.
Heritage-breed Pineywoods Cattle form the core of the Center's beef cattle herd, with a composite breeding of Senepol and Angus for the commercial herd.
The Pineywoods breed, descended from the first Spanish cattle in the New World, is tough and hardy, able to tolerate heat and humidity and thrive on pasture. The commercial herd was developed over many years of careful selection and culling to produce an animal that would fit “the box” for the commercial industry. These animals have to be able to thrive in the hot, humid conditions of southeast Oklahoma and be able to deal with endophyte infected fescue.
 More recently, the Kerr Center has also begun raising meat
goats, with
an emphasis on forage-based production. The commercial herd consists of several breeds, but primarily Kiko to provide the traits needed to prosper in the southeastern U.S.
The meat goat program also includes the popular meat goat forage buck test, in which goat bucks from around the region compete to see which can gain the most weight on pasture with the least trouble from parasites.
The Kerr Center is beginning to implement multispecies grazing, incorporating the goat herd into the larger rotational system with the cattle. Currently, the goat herd is being slowly rotated on approximately ten acres. The goal for the program is a lead/follow system with the goats and cattle throughout the entire 310 acres by 2012.
 New in 2009, the pastured poultry project features heritage-breeds such as Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, Silver-Laced Wyandotte and Black Minorca. The pastured poultry project’s egg production enterprise rotates over the same ground as vegetable plots, integrating livestock and horticultural operations in a new move toward whole-system sustainability.
 In the fall of 2010, the Kerr Center brought hogs back to the ranch. The chosen breed is the Large Black Hog, a heritage breed known for its ability to forage and grow on little but grass.
Multispecies grazing can also be a tool for maintaining native pollinator habitat.
Contact:
Mary Penick
Livestock Projects Manager
Learn more about:
Kerr Center Workshop:
Healthy Soils, Healthy Livestock 2011
Over fifty people from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kansas attended the Kerr Center’s “Healthy Soils, Healthy Livestock” grazing workshop on Friday and Saturday, April 8-9, 2011. Complete presentations and materials are available online. Topics include soil health, animal health, grazing systems, and pasture management.
Cowboy Arithmetic (estimating available forage)
Fact sheet by Ann Wells, April 2011
Holistic Approach to Animal Health and Well-Being
Report by Ann Wells, April 2011
Genetics for Grazing
Presentation on Pineywoods cattle and grass-fed beef production by Mary Penick, April 2011
Kerr Center programs:
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