A tremendous benefit of cattle is their ability to convert a wide range of feedstuffs into edible products for humans. This is very evident in the growing or backgrounding component of the industry, where it seems variation and creativity are the norm.

It was a cowboy’s worst nightmare. Pen after pen of lethargic cattle. Feed intake down by 50 percent. Skyrocketing pulls. Even heavy 1,300-pound cattle heading to the hospital pen in higher-than-normal numbers.

When it comes to trace mineral supplementation for cattle, there is an abundance of information and research to consider. Here are five minerals myths that have been debunked to distinguish fact from fiction.

By this time of year, breeding season is well underway, and summer is winding down. Between haying and harvesting, there isn’t much time left in the day to manage the cow herd, besides checking water troughs and rotating pastures.

If all the cars in the world were placed end to end ... they’d probably be behind a slow-moving cattle truck.

As if from the staccato blast of a Gatling gun, I felt three sharp, painful smacks to my head just under my hat and directly behind my right ear. Except for the occasional Red Ryder BB gunfight with my cousins when I was a kid and the time my back was peppered by some shotgun pellets from an idiot pheasant hunter as I was fixing a fence, I’ve never really been shot.

It’s fall on the cow outfit. Time to get out the WD-40 and grease up the handles on the squeeze chute. Maybe find the three or four syringes that work, buy some new gaskets and barrels along with a box of needles.

Hay is the third largest U.S. crop in terms of harvest acres. It also provides environmental services, notably erosion control. Understanding the U.S. hay market is therefore important for both market and policy reasons. This article examines the U.S. hay market since 1919, or when the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistical Service began to report data separately for alfalfa hay.

A number of universities and other organizations compile yield data from annual crop variety field trials. Crops tested varies by state. This data may be useful for seed and crop selection for the coming year. Check these websites for results in your area.

Minimizing heifer-raising costs without sacrificing heifer quality can be a challenge for many dairies. To help shed some light on this, Matt Akins, assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin, spoke at the 2018 Vita Plus Calf Summit on some opportunities he sees in current heifer-raising practices.