Feed & Nutrition

Feed is a significant portion of annual production costs in a cow-calf operation.

These high costs make a supplement strategy with price control guidelines an important part of the management plan.

Summer annuals are often used by cattle producers for summer grazing or harvested for hay. Plants such as Sorghum-Sudan hybrids, Sorgo-Sudan hybrids, Sudan-Sudan hybrids and millets all fall in this category.

These summer crops can be very productive and high quality but can also accumulate toxic levels of nitrate when stressed. The heat and dry weather of the past two weeks has caused many of these plants to become very stressed.

We all hope that the severe drought of 2011 is over. If it is, we need to use what we learned and write a preparation plan for the next one.

Though technology and management practices have evolved over time, grass continues to be the critical component of most cow-calf operations.

Fall born replacement heifers have been (or soon will be) weaned and will be at a very critical growing period. It is imperative that they reach the target weight of 60-65 percent of their mature weight by the start of the breeding season.

Over the past decade, the ethanol industry has created quite a stir in both the corn and livestock industries.