Bloatless Alfalfa Grazing
Steve Freeman
On Pasture
After attending a conference for dairy graziers I was somewhat surprised when one of the speakers spent a considerable amount of time explaining all they ways necessary to avoid bloat in cattle when grazing alfalfa.
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Beef Cattle Water Requirements Changing with Summer Heat
Dr. Rachel Endecott
Montana State University
Of the six classes of nutrients — carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water — water is the most often overlooked, yet the most critical. Cattle performance can be affected by water intake.
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Remote Control For Horn Flies
Dr. Ken McMillan
DTN/The Progressive Farmer
When it comes to fly control, I have one new idea to think about and one old idea that has stood the test of time but is often forgotten.
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Tools are Available to Improve Forage Digestion
Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D., PAS
Cattle Today
At the cow/calf and stocker cattle level, production systems are generally built on forage production, pastures, hay, etc. For these operations forages provide the bulk of the nutrients needed for the animals. In many cases because of inadequate management or simply uncooperative weather patterns, forage quality is not suitable for the pasture and hays to maintain the type of digestibility needed for the animal to extract the needed nutrients.
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Be Careful Baling Pastures
Travis Meteer
University of Illinois
While I think everyone should have some hay on hand for emergency feeding, baling pastures may not be the best option. Forecasted dry weather makes it easier in some minds to cut hay and bale it up… because it won’t get rained on. However, that weather pattern is not favorable to pasture regrowth.
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Improving the Efficiency of Your Hay Production
Doug Mayo
Panhandle Ag e-news
As cattle prices have drastically declined, producers are closely examining every production expense. It makes perfect sense to closely evaluate the efficiency of the hay produced on an operation, because hay is typically the most expensive feed fed to livestock. Not only because of the cost to produce it, but because of the sheer volume needed as the base feed when summer pastures are dormant.
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Beef Tour Connects Influencers with Nebraska’s Beef Community
KTIC
The Nebraska Beef Council hosted its annual Beef Experience Tour on June 7th and 8th for a group of 24 influencers from across the country. The tour attendees included chefs, foodservice professionals, dietitians and culinary instructors from states such as New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Maryland, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
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Independents say the USDA’s $1-a-head assessment works against them
Lynn Brezosky
Houston Chronicle
There’s no Big Texas-style entrance to Doug Havemann’s cattle operation. It’s just a hog panel fence at the end of a lane of modest homes and double-wide trailers in Nixon, a small town east of San Antonio where 22 percent of families live below the poverty line.
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A Cow’s Life: It Isn’t All Clover
John J. Berger
Huffington Post
Editor’s note: Stories of this ilk are included in the blog to inform those in our industry how agriculture is being presented to and perceived by the public.
You’ll learn amazing things about the effects of cows and CAFOs — concentrated animal feeding operations — on our health, water, soil, vegetation, ecosystems, and polity. As Cowed reveals, the collective impact of our 93 million cows is clearly worth ruminating on.
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Managing Stress To Reduce Early Embryonic Loss in Beef Cattle
Janna Kincheloe
iGrow
The last thing producers want to hear at pregnancy check time, is the call of “Open!” from their veterinarian. It is often assumed that open females failed to conceive; however, fertilization rates in beef cattle typically range between 90-100%. Nonetheless, only around 70% of fertilizations result in conception.
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The Beef Blog 