STOCKTON, Mo. – “Bus tours are a good way to visit cattle producers, marketing facilities, slaughter facilities and college/university farms to gain knowledge and management strategies that can be used to help improve your cattle operation,” says Patrick Davis, University of Missouri Extension livestock field specialist.

MU Extension livestock and agronomy specialists are collaborating on a four-day bus tour of locations in south-central Missouri, northwestern Arkansas, northeastern to central Oklahoma and central to southeastern Kansas in August. The tour starts Aug. 5 at Prairie Chapel Church, 20414 U.S. 65, Urbana.

“College and university research updates in the areas of cattle production and grazing management can be very educational to cattle producers and helpful in maintaining optimum cattle operation production,” says Davis. This part of the tour will visit the cattle operations at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo., and the Savoy Research Complex at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

“Touring a livestock marketing facility provides education to cattle producers that will help them in marketing their cattle in the future,” he says. This part of the tour will visit the historic Oklahoma National Stockyards and Stockyards City Main Street in Oklahoma City.

“Touring a cattle packing plant allows cattle producers to gain knowledge in cattle slaughter and marketing,” says Davis. This helps cattle producers improve their operations to gain incentives if they sell their cattle directly to slaughter facilities. This tour will tentatively visit and tour the Creekstone Packing Plant at Arkansas City, Kan.

“Supplemental feeding of byproducts is important to the beef cattle industry to meet cattle nutritional needs and reduce feeding costs,” says Davis. To that end, this tour will be visiting the Southern Kansas Cotton Growers Cooperative facilities and discuss cotton ginning and processing as well as whole cottonseed as a beef cattle supplement.

“Cattle operation tours allow participants to gain knowledge and management strategies that can be implemented to improve their cattle operation,” says Davis. This tour will visit seedstock cattle operations raising Angus, Hereford, Charolais, Maine Anjou and Red Angus cattle. These operations include Circle S Farms/Hamm’s Polled Hereford, Elkins, Ark; Watson Ranch, Morris, Okla.; Express Ranches, Yukon, Okla.; Dalebanks Angus, Eureka, Kan.; MM Ranch Polled Herefords, Galesburg, Kan.; and Tallgrass Land and Cattle, Valley Center, Kan.

The cost of the event is $475 per person. To attend, mail payment to the MU Extension Center in Hickory County, 18715 Cedar St., Hermitage, MO 65668 by July 15. To register or for more information, contact the extension center at 417-745-6767.