Breeding season is right around the corner, and a shorter calving period next year could be the first step toward improved reproductive performance in the long term.

Spring is here or near. Plans for spring calf-working and stockers heading to grass should consider growth-promoting implants. Of the management tools and technologies available today, implants still offer one of the more attractive benefit-to-cost ratios.

March is an exciting time. Temperatures start creeping up slowly, days get longer, and many producers in the Midwest and North begin to see the results of their 2016 mating decisions.

Life is not always heads or tails, black and white, or pass-fail. When it comes to beef, certain traits, like tenderness, are easier to quantify than others.

By a very slight margin, most Progressive Cattleman readers believe the U.S. should leave the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Just missed it. Just missing a flight, a deadline for a major rebate or watching your child’s winning shot at a ball game. The feeling is much the same.

I recently saw an ad on Facebook for The Bachelor of a bunch of very well-dressed young ladies feeding dairy calves and shoveling manure out of a cattle barn. It was like a train wreck – painful to watch, but I couldn’t look away!

Common questions among producers at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Cattle Industry Convention (CIC) included: “What didn’t the CattleFax analysts see when they were standing on the stage last year at the NCBA convention? And, what were the things that changed?”

It’s good news for the Midwest and Southeast in 2017, but the Pacific Northwest will likely encounter major drought. Why? “A new El Nino is coming,” said CattleFax meteorology analyst Art Douglas as he addressed the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Cattle Industry Convention (CIC) attendees in Nashville.

On Jan. 31, the USDA released the January Cattle Inventory report, which confirmed expectations of a continued expansion of the U.S. cattle herd in 2016. However, the report showed a more robust pace than expected.