HERE'S THE BEEF

Except perhaps for a few quizzical vegetarians, most people don't consider grass -- even eastern gamma grass -- toothsome.

But for the cattle at Southeast Missouri State University's demonstration farm, the eastern gamma grass tastes "better than chocolate ice cream," joked Bill Ellis, farm director and Southeast agriculture professor.

"You turn cattle into that, and they just run from stalk to stalk," Ellis said. "It's unbelievable. It's better than chocolate ice cream, I believe, to a cow."

You've probably seen the sign on the east side of Interstate 55 some two miles north of the Jackson-Cape Girardeau interchange: "Southeast Missouri State University Demonstration Farm" in white letters, with the university's familiar Academic Hall dome on top in red.

But that is probably all you know about Southeast's 408-acre, beef-cattle operation.

Ellis would like more people to know about research done at the farm, especially about the "excellent working relationship" the university has with the four other agencies that use the farm. And he would love to see a herd of people attend the agencies' field day Oct. 3

"The primary function of the farm is twofold: beef education of Southeast Missouri State University students and beef technology demonstration to regional beef producers," Ellis said.

The university began its lease-purchase plan for the land 19 years ago. The farm, which includes 318 acres east of I-55 and 90 acres west of the interstate, was a dairy enterprise for 17 years before switching to beef cattle two years ago.

Before the change, the university asked Ellis to find something that would be "more meaningful to the region and to the students," while being friendly to water quality and wildlife, he said.

"We wanted to have the most modern use of technology that we possibly could," he said. "So that would be rotational-intensive grazing, utilizing cool- and warm-season grasses.

"And we wanted to expand this a little more to where this encompassed an educational and regional role of more agencies than just Southeast Missouri State University."

Ellis formed a group of five agencies: Southeast, the University of Missouri-Columbia and its Extension Service, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Cape Girardeau County Soil and Water Conservation District.

MU helps Ellis with cattle management; MDC with water quality, warm-season grasses and wildlife management; and NRCS with grazing systems.

Southeast serves as coordinator and controls the budget. The university makes the lease payment and pays the salary and benefits for a full-time beef technician, Neil Hermann, who has a master's degree and lives on the farm.

This summer, Ashley Burns of New Madrid is helping Hermann and Ellis take care of the 107 cows, 33 heifers, 33 calves and three bulls on the farm through a university internship.

The annual budget is $29,000. The farm must earn that amount by selling calves and from other ventures. In the fiscal year that ends Tuesday, the farm made $36,000, a $7,000 profit.

"We cannot go out there and just do whatever we please," Ellis said.

Southeast and MU researchers and students observe how pelleted limestone affects seasonal fescue growth and how estrous synchronization techniques reduce the breeding season to three days from 21 days. They also see equipment that controls flies, which spread bacteria that can cause a disease that may result in blindness.

The studies will culminate in eight years when the farm ends the beef-cattle operation. At that time researchers will examine the changes in the quality of Williams Creek, which runs through the farm.

They will also determine how many pounds of beef per acre the farm produced each year. In its first year with beef cattle, it yielded 89 pounds an acre. This year the number increased to 103 pounds an acre, and Ellis hopes to see that figure rise to 250 in eight years.

Until then, Ellis will use the farm to give students "decision-making training."

"The farm is not really to train them to run beef cattle," he said. "It's to train students to use the decision-making process."

FARM FACTS

* Beef cattle-only enterprise, producing 103 pounds of beef per acre this year.

* Farm has 107 cows, 22 calves, 33 developing heifers and 3 bull.

* Southeast has had control of the farm for 19 years. For 17 of those 19 years, it was a dairy operation. The farm is on a lease-purchase.

* Each SEMO ag student uses the farm about five to seven times a year.

* The farm must generate its own income. The annual budget is $29,000. This year the farm made $36,000.

* A beef technician lives on the farm. The university pays his salary and benefits.