The goals of a dairy replacement management program are to rear heifers at a low economic and environmental cost without compromising future lactation performance. To meet these objectives, bred heifers are commonly fed diets containing low-cost, high-fiber forages which meet the low energy requirement of bred replacement heifers. Feeding bred heifers low-energy, high-fiber forages also helps minimize overconditioning at calving, which can be detrimental to lactation performance.

Raising replacement heifers is often looked upon as a major cost on the farm without a return on the investment until the animal begins its first lactation. As a result, heifers are often fed the cheapest feed available with minimum inputs on facilities and labor until they approach the time of calving. Efforts to improve management and nutrition of the dairy replacement heifer, in order to decrease the age at first calving, have been labeled as an “accelerated heifer growth program.”

Replacements are an investment in the future of a dairy, and they are significant, often representing 15 to 20 percent of the total cost of milk production, which is second only to dairy feed costs. The likelihood of a positive payoff on those investments is dramatically improved when the management team has a system in place that generates quality heifers.

Most calf deaths are attributed to infectious disease such as scours, septicemia, pneumonia. However, non-infectious problems cause most of the losses in the first two to three days, and these problems greatly increase the risk of later infectious disease problems, if they do not kill the calf right away. Management practices aimed at identifying and resolving these early problems are the most direct and cost-effective way to improve calf health.

Forage neutral detergent fiber (NDF) is retained in the rumen longer and is therefore more filling than other feed components. Rumen fill can limit feed intake, especially for high-producing cows and cows fed high forage diets. There is great variation in the filling effects of forage fiber because of differences in digestion characteristics; forage fiber that digests and passes from the rumen quickly is less filling than forage fiber that digests and passes more slowly.

The ad read: For sale: 30-acre ranchette with two wells, year-round creek, round pen, loading chute, run-in shelter, paddocks, corrals, granary and poultry condo, a perfect place to watch people and critters grow and thrive in a Montana atmosphere! Poultry condo? That would clinch it for me!

Forage testing assesses the nutrient composition of forages and permits a producer to develop feeding and marketing strategies. This [article] has been developed to inform livestock or cash-crop hay producers of the benefits of forage testing. Information on different analytical procedures, terminology, sampling procedures and the application of results are presented.

One year ago from this last Memorial Day weekend, I stood in Afghanistan with my fellow warriors from the 10th Mountain Division. General Eikenberry, then the commander of all U.S. forces in that country, told us we were in a land far away so that our loved ones would be safe. In other words, we kept the war here in Afghanistan and in Iraq, rather than fight a war on U.S. soil. I recently drove the 5 miles from my home in Alma and walked among the gravestones at our small cemetery on a bright sunny day. I began and ended my walk in one corner of the cemetery. Here, warriors having died in wars as far back as World War I are buried. And some have been buried as recently as our current war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Cows need lots of water when temperatures outside get warmer.

The North American Cargo Securement workshop was held in March to continue the process of moving hay from the general freight category to a commodity-specific status.