Feed costs have been in an increasing pattern since 2007. The cattle industry has been slowly adapting to these new economics.

From an 11-year-old who buys a steer at his county fair and donates it to the local food bank, to a high school senior who buys a heifer at her county fair to benefit a memorial scholarship fund;

The cattle of Honduras are sending a friendly “Mooooollllooooo” to Progressive Cattleman and all of its readers after a recent mission trip brought informative calving insight to their ranchers.

When traditional feeds are in short supply or expensive, there are some non-traditional feeds that can be used, according to David Bohnert, a beef extension specialist and ruminant nutritionist at Oregon State University (Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center at Burns, Oregon).

Wanted: One young female bovine that can produce a heavy weaned calf, can rebreed within 80 days of calving, can maintain a body condition score of 5 or more on minimal feed, is easy to handle and stays in all the fences.

I just heard about a Hereford cow in England who gave birth to her second calf in three months. I’m not talking about a twin; I’m referring to a miracle known as “superfecundation.” It sounds dirty to me but it means that a second egg got impregnated a few months after the first, causing another pregnancy at a later stage of development. Being a tightwad, my first thought was, when the vet preg-checked did he charge for one cow or two?

Usually when we discuss protein in beef cattle diets, the discussion doesn’t go much further than looking at the crude protein content of the feed and ensuring sufficient non-protein nitrogen and rumen- degradable true protein is available to meet the requirements of the rumen microbes.

In winter, I have often stood in the icicle air and gazed up at the starlit sky. The pinpricks of light shimmer and flicker in the velvet blackness, while their reflections, like millions of candles, dance across the frozen snow. The whole world sleeps under the warmth of an icy blanket. My soul is filled with indescribable peace as I marvel at the grandeur of it all. I think of how the snow covered the autumn leaves and the dark, bare ground and how when the snow melts into spring, the world will be transformed into a brilliant green world of new life.