USDA Confirms Silage Corn Can Be Planted On Prevent Plant Acres

USDA Confirms Silage Corn Can Be Planted On Prevent Plant Acres

Anna-Lisa Laca

Dairy Herd Management

This week, farmers in much of the eastern Corn Belt will be eligible to plant cover crops as the late-plant period on prevent plant acres ends there on June 26. Following last week’s announcement about the potential to harvest cover crops on September 1 instead of November 1 many farmers, particularly in the upper Midwest, started to wonder if silage corn would be eligible. According to Richard Flournoy, deputy administrator of product management for the USDA-Risk Management Agency (RMA), silage corn can be eligible for planting on prevent plant acres.

Full Story

Forage Sampling For Haying and Grazing and Tips on Bale Size

Forage Sampling For Haying and Grazing and Tips on Bale Size

Kathy Voth

On Pasture

Forage sampling in a standing pasture allows us to get a feed value estimate of forages that will be fed to livestock. It’s also helpful for making sure your forage is at the best stage for cutting hay. While you can look at it, checking the color, leaf to stem content, and the stage of maturity of the forage, they’re no substitute for a feed test that can tell you exactly what you’ve got.

Full Story

Beef and forage tour will sharpen management skills

Beef and forage tour will sharpen management skills

Prairie Farmer

If you raise forages or have even a few beef cows, you don’t want to miss this one-day tour on July 6. You can visit three unique beef enterprises and learn about both establishing and feeding a variety of forages in one tour. I tagged along on a pre-tour, and I promise you will come home with plenty of ideas that will make you think about your own operation.

Full Story

Baxter Black, DVM: The Cost of Recycling

Baxter Black, DVM:  The Cost of Recycling

We try to be faithful recyclers around the house. I make regular runs to town with the pickup full of newspapers, bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard boxes and tin.

Full Story

Electronic Ear Tags to Be Required for Cattle

Electronic Ear Tags to Be Required for Cattle

Philip Gruber, Courtney Love

Lancaster Farming

Dairy cattle and beef breeding stock will be required to have radio frequency ID tags, replacing the familiar orange metal ear tags, to move interstate starting in 2023. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced the change in April as a way to speed up the location of animals during disease outbreaks. Sorting through paper records can take weeks or months, but electronic tags can cut that searching to a matter of hours, the agency said.

Full Story

Research shows ways to avoid weather loss of minerals.

Research shows ways to avoid weather loss of minerals.

Gilda Bryant

Angus Beef Bulletin Extra

In 2019, severe spring weather included blizzards, floods and twisters that created serious management concerns for beef producers. Cattle reduced their mineral consumption because free-choice minerals likely washed away, lost effectiveness due to leaching, or were not provided consistently. Some producers concentrated only on moving animals to higher ground. Weather caused delays in working cattle, further disrupting supplementation and vaccination schedules.

Full Story

Give Calves the Groceries They Need to Grow with Creep Grazing

Give Calves the Groceries They Need to Grow with Creep Grazing

Gallagher

For cow-calf producers, heavier calves mean a better bottom line come weaning and shipping time. Creep grazing offers an easy and affordable way for producers to pack on those extra pounds during the grazing season. Research has shown creep grazing nursing calves gain between 30 and 50 pounds more than those that do not creep graze.

Full Story