As a beef producer, sustainability is defined as your continued ability to live comfortably, to maintain a way of life that you have chosen for yourself and to ensure that you can pass that way of life on to your children and your children’s children.

Setting up an effective supplement program is more than simply finding the right mineral at the right price.

A few years ago, during an August hot enough to fry pancakes on sidewalks, I was home while my hubby handled 4-H at the fair with the kids. He oversaw some 4-H activities at the time, so he stayed at the fairgrounds while I trucked an hour one way back home to take care of chores on our little ranch.

Producers who utilize HMC have a substantial economic investment in their pile or silo full of corn and, ideally, they’d like to get a return on that investment. There are several important factors to consider when preserving HMC.

Historically, the objective of supplementation programs for grazing cattle has been to address nutrient deficiencies based on the difference between animal nutrient requirements and the nutrients provided by the forage, with emphasis on improving forage utilization and animal performance.

In high school biology, we were introduced to the fact that a phenotype is a function of genetics and environment. As cattle producers, we are constantly trying to optimize these two pieces.

Passionate about cattle and the people who raise them, Ignacio Albornoz, CEO and co-founder of Cattler, and his team have developed a mobile and desktop software platform that handles information covering rations, health, animal movement, and profit and losses.

As the agricultural industry continues to provide higher yields using fewer resources, innovation and improvements made on family operations drive the changes necessary to feeding an ever-growing population. For one of these operations, located in Elkader, Iowa, innovation began with a camcorder in a hog barn.

Sustainable and regenerative principles in cattle ranching are not new, but ranchers may not know how to revolutionize ranching with these practices and make cattle operations more resilient for whatever comes next.

To me, there is no job more enjoyable than working a pen of cattle with a team of stockmen that I call friends. There are many places across the country where processing day is as much a community event as it is a cattle management task that just needs to be completed.