Author: beef-cattle

 

Farmers and ranchers often tell me their prairie hay or cane hay or other grass hay looks really good but when a lab tested it the relative feed value, also called RFV, was surprisingly low. Protein was good, TDN was …

Are you hoping to overcome drought by planting a summer annual grass? What type of summer annual will you plant? This can be confusing because there are five different types of summer annual forage grasses you can plant: sudangrass…

 

Which summer annual forage grass should you plant for summer pasture? This can be confusing because there are five different types of summer annual forage grasses: sudangrass, sorghum sudan hybrids, forage sorghum (which we often call cane or sorgo), foxtail …

 

Wheat growers worry about poor grain yields. Thin stands, dry soils, uneven maturity, and various pests have lowered yield expectations in many fields.

If stands are thin, maybe wheat hay is a better alternative. Because wheat usually yields over two …

Extending your grazing season into fall and winter often pays big dividends. Turnips provide good grazing beginning in October and often last into the new year. Turnips are cheap to plant. Seed can cost less than five dollars per acre …

Are all forages alike? Of course not, but how different are they?

This is hard to tell just by smelling, touching, and looking at the forage. Its hard to see the variation of the forage quality because it is based …

 

Different livestock have different nutritional requirements. Dry, mature cows need 7 to 8 percent protein and 50 to 54 percent TDN in their diet. In contrast, two-year-old heifers that are nursing calves need more than 10 percent protein and 62 …

 

 

Alfalfa planted in August establishes well when moisture is available. Be sure to plant early enough so alfalfa has 6 to 8 weeks between emergence and freeze back to develop good cold tolerance. That means that if you are in …

For the past couple of years, ragweed growth has exploded in pastures. This has happened because of the timely spring rains that encouraged germination and seedling growth followed by sunny dry falls that helped seed development.

There are two types …

 

Oat pastures have increase in popularity in recent years as one way to reduce problems from drought. Oat pastures can be long lasting and productive, but also disappointing at times. While we don’t know all we need to know, here …