Number 1) Plan to have the cow herd pregnancy checked as soon as possible.  Schedule this activity with your veterinarian soon, so as to identify those cows that are NOT pregnant very early in the fall.  Culling all open cows may not always be feasible, but when feed is in critically short supply, it makes no sense to keep a cow that does not have a calf on the way for next spring.  If additional culling is required, ask the veterinarian to identify those cows that are going to be "late calvers" next year and remove them from the herd as well.  With the prospects of short feed supplies, these "late calvers" will be in poor body condition next spring and will likely not breed back on time next summer any way. 

Number 2) Plan to early wean calves from young, pregnant cows.  Rather than wait until conventional wean dates of late October and early November, wean calves from young cows at the first cool weather spell in September.  This will allow these young cows to hold their condition going into the winter without the energy drain of nursing large calves.  The calves may be marketed immediately, or backgrounded for sale at the normal time.  According to data from Colorado State University, calves that have been immunized for the respiratory diseases and weaned 45 days prior to sale (VAC-45) brought an average of $3.00+ per hundredweight more than non-vaccinated, naive calves.  This information was gathered via the video teleauction reports of 1996.