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High tech has destroyed businesses, turned Main Street into a ghost town and driven your FedEx and UPS delivery person to sheer exhaustion. Forget the mall; Americans are shopping on their cellphones.
A lifetime spent in the pursuit of happiness, quite often generally and specifically in pursuit of a cow, in some form or another, has taught me nothing if it hasn’t taught me the world of agriculture is full of paradox and Renaissance men and women.
Let’s put in a good word for the feedlot cowboy. That group of fellers who meet every mornin’ early at the horse barn, saddle up, get their instructions and ride off down the alley.
Anyone who has ever owned cattle has asked the question, “Why aren’t my cows getting bred?” Undetected diseases plague us and keep us guessing. We must always be vigilant to prevent diseases such as trich, bovine viral diarrhea and lepto from entering the herd. Still, the most impactful disease is probably the most treatable and preventable.
While grass was slow to come this spring, it is likely forage quality will rapidly change this summer. As a general rule of thumb, energy values (total digestible nutrients) of forages (pasture included) can decrease rapidly at a rate of 0.33 to 1 percent per day from vegetative to mature stage.
As we head into the summer, dry conditions in most of the West may force producers to evaluate alternative management strategies. Open cows or potential replacement heifers are costly, especially when feed resources are limited.
Loose mineral supplements and molasses tubs or blocks are sometimes used to provide feed additives like fly control products, ionophores, antibiotics, bloat management drugs and others.
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