Expanding working facilities. Switching to a feeding software. Building another sorting pen. Adding calving pens. We all have something we wish we did sooner. Once we finally got around to it, we wonder, “Why the heck did I wait so long?”

Forage is the foundation for grazing beef cattle diets. Unfortunately, the perfect forage simply doesn’t exist, even with ideal growing conditions.

Building a strong foundation in the cow herd, heifer development or purebred program starts with genetics but can also be affected by management and nutrition.

For some cattle producers, drought is an expected and reoccurring event that is part of the management environment.

One of the most underutilized tools in the cow-calf sector is testing your harvested forages. Having these forage samples is a critical component of putting together a cost-effective winter feeding strategy. While taking forage samples is something everyone talks about doing, many times the practice seems to fall between the cracks. 

Sometimes what looks cheaper may not be when all costs are considered.