Double C Cattle Company is a fifth-generation commercial cow-calf operation in southern Oklahoma owned and operated by Chuck and Ruth Coffey and their three children – Seth, Aaron and Sarah – and their spouses.

Over the past decade, the importance of better understanding our cattle’s grazing behavior and impact on rangelands has become increasingly important. With the increasing size of finished cattle, the size of breeding cattle must also grow to create those larger-framed cattle. 

Livestock minerals in both their macro and micro forms have been around for decades. While their existence has remained constant, their importance, delivery and management has adapted through the years.

If there was ever an opportunity for good science, this is certainly it.

“What’s really cool about sheep is the way they’re a part of the human story,” says Dr. Hailey Wilmer, research rangeland management specialist at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station near Dubois.

Competition is a wonderful thing. Competition has produced Michael Jordan, Billie Jean King and Secretariat. In a pasture, however, competition can work against a farmer by destroying clover and producing a mat of low-yielding bentgrass. Why?

Grazing systems have been targeted as a source of greenhouse gas emissions due to high-forage diets and decreased forage quality.