As the price of corn continues to hover around the historically high $8-per-bushel mark, feedyard concern about the performance of incoming cattle has never been greater.

It’s not every day you see cattle grazing intertwined with grape-growing.

We’ve all heard the famous quote, “failing to plan is planning to fail,” and this advice holds true when it comes to implementing successful protocols in your feedyard.

When it comes to ensilage, most managers’ attention is given to the first part of the process: harvesting the crop at adequate forage stage of maturity and moisture. This is coupled with the use of a research-proven microbial inoculant and fast filling, tight packing and adequate covering of the silo to ensure that the active phase of fermentation will start quickly and be as efficient and as short as possible.

Mud kills. It kills performance, it kills profitability and it can kill cattle. That seems like an ironic way to begin an article when most of the High Plains are thirsting for moisture.

Here are some things you never want to hear your veterinarian say: “I wish my hands would quit shaking before I operate on your $1,000,000 stud.” “It’s nothing that $500 in medicine won’t cure.”

I was talking to Okie. He’s the farm dog. He doesn’t care to go out on the range with the cow dogs. His job is mostly guarding, barking and putting up a big front. He does it well. I found him under one of the trucks. He’d dug a little bed in the dirt. It was in the shade. He seemed to be pondering.