Tall Fescue Challenges Can Be Managed
Progressive Farmer
Across the Southeast, beef cattle are knee-deep in tall fescue now, generating concerns of fescue toxicosis. It’s an age-old ailment that known to produce rough hair coats, heat stress, suppressed appetite, poor growth and reduced calving rates.
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Take another look at silage for finishing cattle
Sydney Sleep
Hay and Forage Grower
When corn prices are high, corn silage may be a more economical feed to replace a portion of the corn grain in beef finishing diets,” said Galen Erickson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln extension beef feedlot specialist. “Manure and storage shrink loss also play an important role in the overall economic picture,” he added.
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Prepare for farm transition with these 8 steps
Joy McClain
Prairie Farmer
“It’s estimated that over 70% of the farmland will change hands by 2030. Is your farm prepared?” That was the statement and question presented by Paige Pratt at the Midwest Women in Agriculture Conference recently. She put the question right out front where those in attendance couldn’t avoid it.
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Investigate Before Buying Livestock Feed
Drovers
The North Dakota State University Extension Service and North Dakota Stockmen’s Association remind producers to ask questions and use sound business practices to protect themselves and their livestock as they make purchases.
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Cover crops add value when grazed
Meghan Filbert
Wallaces Farmer
It can be hard to justify the costs of cover crops when the benefits aren’t always evident in the first few years of using them. However, when those cover crops are put through a cow, value is instantly added and can often exceed the cost of establishment.
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Mob grazing: Is it as effective as we thought?
Dennis Hancock
Progressive Forage
Rotational grazing (RG) has been promoted by many land-grant universities and USDA-NRCS for a number of years. Substantial research has shown rotational grazing to have many benefits, including improvements to soil fertility and health, reductions in hay feeding, increased stocking rates and greater profitability. Mob grazing (MOB) is a more intensive type of rotational grazing.
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How to Understand and Use Sire Summaries
F. David Kirkpatrick,
University of Tennessee
Sire summaries are produced and published twice a year by breed associations to provide up to date genetic evaluations on progeny of proven sires within their breeds. The sire summary formats may vary between breeds. However, they all are designed to use unbiased prediction procedures to produce expected progeny differences (EPDs) for all cattle in their breed that have legitimate performance records or progeny with legitimate performance records.
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Mixed messages as we race pell-mell for better genetics
Troy Marshall
Beef Magazine
Genetic tools and prediction accuracy are growing at a phenomenal rate, but these improvements haven’t necessarily made it easier to select the cattle and the genetics we want to move our herds forward.
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Texas ranchers battle to save cattle from Harvey’s wrath
Meridith Edwards
CNN
Seventh-generation cattle rancher Brandon Cutrer watched as floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey began to rise, threatening to engulf his family farm. The deadly storm that turned Houston streets into rivers was also transforming vast swathes of grazing land into lakes, destroying crops and stranding countless cattle across southeastern Texas.
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University of Missouri professor studies tick-borne diseases
Charlotte Observer
A professor at the University of Missouri has received nearly half a million dollars in federal grant money to develop new ways to combat tick-borne disease affecting cattle.
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The Beef Blog 