At one point or another, nearly every cattleman will experience the not-so-joyous occasion of twins on the ranch. Understanding the cause and effect of this phenomenon can help breeders make decisions to impact a herd’s long-term reproductive success.

Recent headlines read, “World Health Organization calls for ban on preventative uses of antibiotics in livestock.” Product labels and even restaurant menus read, “raised without antibiotics.”

Calving season will start soon, and beef producers are preparing themselves for less sleep each night. Nearly 90 percent of beef producers regularly observe cows and heifers during calving.

Broken bones are sometimes seen in cattle, especially young calves, such as accidents when a cow steps on its calf and breaks a leg or a limb fractured due to excessive and improper pressure applied pulling a calf.

When Idaho-based grazing consultant Jim Gerrish talks about his time spent in Australia, one of the biggest cross-cultural differences he highlights is the Australian producers’ approach to calving trouble.

Why do cows need the right nutrition at the right time? This question was addressed by Dr. Lee Dickerson of Purina during last year’s Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville. This article is taken from Dickerson’s presentation.

Trace mineral supplementation is imperative for profitable cattle production. Unfortunately, this single aspect of production is complicated by the overwhelming variety of mineral sources, product offerings and formulation strategies available, so livestock research has produced conflicting results.

The problem has lots of names: grain overload, founder, laminitis, acute indigestion, acidosis. Some people expand that last term to “rumen acidosis” or “lactic acid acidosis.”

Just like a business that’s only as good as the people and business plan behind it, the same goes for feed formulations and a person’s ability to deliver it to the bunk.