Swath Grazing: Extending the grazing season
Sandy Smart
On Pasture
Producers are always looking to cut costs in livestock operations because of marginal profit opportunities in commodity based markets. One proposed way to cut fall/winter feeding costs is to extend the grazing season and allow the livestock to harvest the resource instead of relying on mechanical harvest. This will reduce the labor required to cut, bale, and feed hay.
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Calibrate your poo meter
Alan Newport
Beef Producer
Learn to read the diet quality by various manure conditions and you can better manage grazing and supplementation. This collection of dung pictures from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation at Ardmore, Oklahoma, were created for that purpose.
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Are Genotyped Embryos the Next Market Opportunity?
Victoria Myers
Progressive Farmer
A technology once limited to the research lab is moving mainstream. Just a few cells off a bovine embryo can tell a producer not only its genetic makeup and sex, but whether it will be the right fit for a particular breeder’s program.
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Beef profits may hinge on forage quality
Mike Rankin
Hay and Forage
Margins are precariously thin for cow-calf and stocker operations. As the time has come to hunker down for winter feeding and grazing, harvested forage quality may very well be the determining factor between profit or loss.
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What is ‘sustainable’ agriculture? Consumers’ ideas vary
On the Farm Radio
Consumer perception plays a huge role in how companies describe themselves, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, a USFRA member organization. USFRA findings reveal nearly 8 in 10 consumers identify with four key points when it comes to farming and sustainability: soil, water, air and habitat.
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40 Ways Cattle Ranchers and Farmers Help the Environment
Explore Beef
The cattle farmer and rancher commitment to the environment goes beyond just lip service. Here are 40 ways raising beef is greener than you think…
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Busted corral? It might cost you more than you think
Wes Ishmael
Beef Magazine
Pondering that busted corral and the cost to fix or repair it seems straightforward enough. Especially when margins are thin, fix what’s needed and put up with what you have.
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Beef Imports Not the Culprit
Greg Henderson
Drovers
As cattle markets turned sour this fall, many pointed to imports of cattle and beef as the culprit. In fact, comments posted to some recent stories on Drovers.com suggest we have dismissed “the increase of imports from countries like Brazil as a contributing factor to price decline in the feeder calf market.” Another noted the “extraordinary increase in beef imports” that have “mirrored the drop in cattle prices.”
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Cattlemen’s Boot Camp Hosted February in Kentucky
Farm Forum
Cattle producers are invited to gather for a Cattlemen’s Boot Camp Feb. 17-18, 2017, at the Fayette County Extension Office in Lexington, Ky. The event is hosted by the American Angus Association in partnership with the University of Kentucky, and provides purebred and commercial producers timely information presented by academic and industry professionals.
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“Scours” Vaccine – Give it Now for Protection in the Spring
Michelle Arnold, DVM
Ohio Beef Cattle Letter
A scours outbreak in baby calves on a cow/calf operation can be a nightmare in real life. Ask any producer who has been through this ordeal and he/she will tell you it made them want to quit the cattle business. Once the outbreak begins, it spreads quickly throughout all of the youngest calves.
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