Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator Knowing the moisture content of our feedstuffs and how to adjust our feeding plans accordingly is important. Photo credit Troy Walz. The past few months, we’ve been focusing quite a bit on the issues that can arise when hay gets a bit too wet: combustion, mold, and Maillard reactions. One often overlooked issue that can arise from wet hay is just the moisture itself. Whenever we provide part…
As winter progresses, winter nutrition and increased environmental stress on cows may concern many cow-calf producers. Winter nutritional management affects not only the profitability of a beef cowherd, but also the future performance of the cow and her offspring. With that in mind, building a nutritional program for a cow-calf system requires understanding nutritional requirements, knowing the “stress periods” that can happen, and knowing the quality and quantity of your forage resources. One…
Leslie Johnson, UNL Animal Manure Management Project Coordinator Which field benefits the most from manure? Participants combine personal experiences and management principles to identify preferred fields for receiving manure. Livestock producers with livestock waste control facility permits received or renewed since April 1998 must be certified, and farms must complete an approved training every five years. The Nebraska Extension Animal Manure Management Team holds Land Application Training events annually to fulfill this requirement.…
Randy Saner, Nebraska Extension EducatorMatt Stockton, Nebraska Extension Ag Economics Specialist While the selection of replacement animals in a herd of beef cattle may differ from ranch to ranch, there are three factors seen by the authors as critically important that affect their value as replacements. Photo credit Troy Walz. What is a respectable value of a beef replacement heifer for the coming 2019-2020 production season? This can be a complicated choice, but…
Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator Testing forage quality of your hay, whether it’s your own or purchased, is a critical first step to optimizing hay use. Photo credit Troy Walz. Hay put up too wet can lead to a number of issues, most notably mold and heat. Moisture keeps otherwise dormant microbes and fungi active, decreasing forage quality and creating heat. Too much heat can actually create a risk of combustion. However, even…
Good production with cost control differentiated the most profitable producers from those that were the least profitable. Photo credit Troy Walz. Listen to a discussion of the content in this article on this episode of the BeefWatch podcast. You can subscribe to new episodes in iTunes or paste http://feeds.feedburner.com/unlbeefwatch into your podcast app. This study by Whitney Bowman, Dustin L. Pendell Ph.D. and Kevin L. Herbel can be found at the Kansas State…
Matt Spangler, UNL Associate Professor and Beef Genetics Extension Specialist This bull sale season do not make the process more complex than it really needs to be. Photo credit Troy Walz. This bull sale season, profit-minded cattle producers will utilize expected progeny differences (EPD) and economic selection indices when selecting their next group of bulls. These tools are far more accurate at predicting the average difference in offspring than visual appraisal or actual…
Pre-calving nutritional strategies will be discussed at the upcoming Three State Beef Conference. Photo credit Troy Walz. In a joint effort, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa Extension are hosting three meetings to address how to set up an economical and successful breeding season. The registration fee is $25 per person. It includes a meal and a copy of the conference proceedings. Presentations include: Pre-calving nutritional strategies: Am I staying ahead or getting behind?Dr. Travis…
Bruce Anderson, Nebraska Extension Forage Specialist Don’t be misled into thinking soybean residues are as good or better than corn stalks. Photo credit Troy Walz. After soybeans are harvested, cows sometimes are put out on the residues to graze. Some bean residues are even baled. But how good is this feed? We’re all familiar with the usefulness of grazing corn stalks, but I see more and more residue from soybean fields grazed every…
Jessica Groskopf, Associate Extension Educator Female agriculture landowners, farmers and ranchers, and industry professionals looking to increase their business management skills are encouraged to register for the 2019 Women Managing Agricultural Land conference. The conference will be held Dec. 11 at Nebraska Innovation Campus, 2021 Transformation Drive in Lincoln. The Women Managing Agricultural Land Conference will allow women to build relationships with each other, attend workshops and gain valuable knowledge. Keynote speakers and…