Ear Tag Loss a Common Problem

Ear Tag Loss a Common Problem

Dr. Ken McMillan

DTN

Lost tags are a fact of life in the cattle business. There are lots of reasons ear tags get lost, but at our farm most of the time the tag gets hung in a feeder, hay ring or brush. I am not aware of any study proving one brand to be superior to the others.

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Can producers feed alternative diets to bred cows?

Can producers feed alternative diets to bred cows?

SUE ROESLER

Farm & Ranch Guide

Winter feeding costs account for the majority of annual operating costs in a cow/calf operation. While forages are typically a major component of beef cow diets, high prices or limited availability of forages may lead livestock producers to consider alternative feeds.

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Soil pH; vital to maintaining productive and healthy forage stands

Soil pH; vital to maintaining productive and healthy forage stands

Ohio Beef Cattle Letter

Extension Educator Jason Hartschuh discusses the importance of one of the most misunderstood factors involved in maintaining high yielding forage stands . . . that is proper soil pH. Listen in as Jason discusses the importance of soil pH and the factors surrounding it.

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Get ’em out, get ’em up, get ’em fed, write ’em down…Rawhide!

Get ’em out, get ’em up, get ’em fed, write ’em down…Rawhide! 

Reynold Bergen

Canadian Cattlemen

It’s called calving difficulty for a reason. They’re difficult to deliver, it’s difficult for the calf to survive, it’s difficult to watch it die, and it’s difficult to lose the $1,250 the calf could have sold for in the fall.

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Frost seeding improves yield, quality

Frost seeding improves yield, quality

University of Missouri

Forage yield and quality improve when legumes are frost-seeded at the right time, says University of Missouri Extension state forage specialist Craig Roberts. Frost seeding, a method of broadcasting seeds over snow- or frost-covered pastures, improves poor pastures at a low cost. Seeds work their way into the soil and germinate as the ground freezes and thaws between winter and spring.

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PLC Welcomes Opportunity To Show Biden Administration, Ranchers Are The Original Conservationists

PLC Welcomes Opportunity To Show Biden Administration, Ranchers Are The Original Conservationists

Public Lands Council

The Public Lands Council (PLC) Executive Director Kaitlynn Glover, today released the following statement in response to the Biden Administration issuing executive orders that involve climate change and land conservation: “Public lands ranchers truly are the original conservationists and their carefully-managed grazing programs are designed to facilitate healthy cattle and sheep, while also supporting sustained landscape health.

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Minimizing hay losses when feeding beef cattle

Minimizing hay losses when feeding beef cattle

Garrett Ford

Tahlequah Daily Press

Feeding hay is a necessary expense to any livestock operation, particularly during the winter months, when forage availability is limited. Recent price studies show the average cost of hay can range from $.04 to $.15 per pound of dry matter – usually more than double the cost for the same amount of nutrients from pasture.

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Purdue-developed sorghum safer for grazing animals and takes stress off producers

Purdue-developed sorghum safer for grazing animals and takes stress off producers

Purdue University

Livestock producers who use sorghum and sorghum-sudangrasses as forage for their animals are acutely aware of the coming of the fall or winter’s first freeze. At that point, many of them abandon the forage and turn to other feed options. That’s because of dhurrin, whose role in plants is unclear but may provide defense against insects. As temperatures become cooler, this secondary metabolite is thought to accumulate in sorghum leaves and stems, which increases the risk for livestock.

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5 Tips for the next round of replacement heifers in your herd

5 Tips for the next round of replacement heifers in your herd

Kristy Foster Seachrist

Beef Magazine

From repeat pregnancies to a first timer, there are some things to watch for in the cattle herd. Another goal for most producers is to get heifers to bred when the rest of the herd breeds. However, there are some tips to ensure that happens.

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Ranch Group Applauds Made in America Executive Order; Asks for m-COOL

Ranch Group Applauds Made in America Executive Order; Asks for m-COOL

Carrie Stadheim

Tri State Livestock News

On behalf of America’s independent cattle farmers and ranchers we applaud your “Made in America” Executive Order signed today that strengthens buy American provisions and ensures the future of America is made in America by all of America’s workers.

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Getting heifers prepared for their first breeding season

Getting heifers prepared for their first breeding season

Western Livestock Journal

Anyone who has lived with teenagers can attest that their food consumption can be high as they are rapidly growing to their adult size. In much the same way, growing beef herd replacement heifers also need to have their nutritional needs met so that they reach puberty at around 12 months of age, according to Kansas State (K-State) University veterinarian Bob Larson during the recent Beef Cattle Institute (BCI) Cattle Chat podcast.

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Bragging rights require knowing costs

Bragging rights require knowing costs

Rick Machen and Stan Bevers

Progressive Cattle

Average calf weaning weight and market price are popular topics for discussions among cattle producers. Though ranchers keep their business matters private, the one bit of information most will share (at least among their peers) is the price received for their calves. However, when it comes to profitability, that price is only one of three pieces of the puzzle.

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New Study Finds Whole Cottonseed Is a Valuable Option for Feedlots

New Study Finds Whole Cottonseed Is a Valuable Option for Feedlots

American Cattlemen

When designing finishing diets for beef cattle, two factors are key: price and performance. Cotton byproducts are readily and locally available throughout the southwestern U.S., which often makes them economical and convenient choices for the region’s many feedlots, but how do they perform?

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Cryptosporidiosis – Frequently Asked Questions

Cryptosporidiosis – Frequently Asked Questions

Dr. Michelle Arnold

Ohio Beef Cattle Letter
Cryptosporidiosis, also known as “crypto”, is a disease primarily seen in calves due to a protozoan parasite, Cryptosporidium parvum or C. parvum for short. In its “clinical” or visible form, calves have profuse, watery diarrhea that can lead to dehydration and death. It generally affects calves from newborns up to 6 weeks of age but older animals may be asymptomatic shedders.

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The grazing of livestock stores carbon in the soil.

The grazing of livestock stores carbon in the soil.

Raylene Nickel

Successful Farming

Edward Bork’s research surrounding how livestock grazing affects soil carbon has made him a believer in the beneficial role cattle can potentially play in a changing climate.

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Establishing warm-season natives is a process

Establishing warm-season natives is a process

C.J. Weddle

Hay and Forage Producer

Native warm-season grasses (NWSG) are becoming more popular among forage producers in locations where they historically haven’t been utilized. Dirk Philipp, an associate professor of forages at the University of Arkansas, described some of the challenges associated with establishing NWSG in a recent issue of the university’s Animal Science E-News.

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Bull Selection: New Calculator to Determine the Value of a Bull

Bull Selection: New Calculator to Determine the Value of a Bull

Rural Roots Canada

Different traits of bulls can contribute to different impacts on the bottom line of the operation. For example, a bull with a higher calving ease EPD may contribute to a higher weaning rate. Not surprisingly, bulls with higher calving ease (or lower birth weights) sell for a higher price (Simms et al., 1997). With the large variation in bulls available, bull prices extend over a wide range from $1000 to over $20,000 per head.

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ND considers making state beef checkoff voluntary

ND considers making state beef checkoff voluntary

Carrie Stadheim

Tri-State Livestock News

Rep. Sebastian Ertelt of Lisbon introduced a bill in the North Dakota House of Representatives to make the state beef checkoff voluntary. Since the bill was enacted in 2015, which requires all cattle sold in North Dakota or sold by a North Dakotan to pay an extra $1 per head of cattle sold, to the North Dakota Beef Commission, sale barns have been required to withhold these funds from producers’ checks and producers who sell private treaty are required to submit payment to the beef commission.

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2021 Florida Virtual Beef Conference

2021 Florida Virtual Beef Conference

Doug Mayo

SouthEast Ag Net

For the past 35 years, the Florida Panhandle Ag Extension Team has offered a cattle rancher educational program in Marianna that included a trade show. But, due to COVID19, the 2021 event will be a 90-minute webinar with two invited speakers, brief updates from cattle and forage researchers, and then a question and answer panel discussion.

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Paddock grazing helps utilise grass growth during drought

Paddock grazing helps utilise grass growth during drought

The Cattle Site

Mr Henry’s system consists of 75 pure Luing cows split into groups of approximately 20 and rotated every three days round 1ha paddocks from 1st April, when they start calving. Steers which are kept through to finish, along with additional finishers brought in as part of a collaboration venture with fellow organic farmer Charley Walker, follow into the rotation four weeks later, along with the previous year’s calves from Oakwood Mill.

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