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The winter months are a good time to consider feedstuff production and management plans for the upcoming year. Cattle feeders with integrated crop-livestock systems have the flexibility to produce the feeds that best fit their operation.
Profit margins could be a challenge in 2022 as feed prices remain high, with premium-quality alfalfa hay over $240 a ton, shelled corn approaching $6 a bushel and soybean meal over $370 a ton. One solution is if you have adequate forage amounts and quality.
Under the drought conditions of the 2021 growing season, I heard many concerns from livestock producers about forage supply shortages, low quality of the forages available and, of course, nitrate accumulation in those forages.
Hold on to your hats, folks: There’s another thing we need to be worried about. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are one of the more recent environmental concerns to crop up in agriculture.
What started as a time-saving decision about five years ago has led to a journey of soil health improvement and more flexible ways to produce forage for a dairy and feedlot.
Fertilizer prices have gone up tremendously recently. Anhydrous nitrogen is $1,250 to $1,400 per ton as of Dec. 1, 2021, and many dealers are not taking orders for spring, expecting the price to increase even further.
The most common crop sequences in the Corn Belt region of the U.S. are continuous corn and corn-soybean. In the last two to three decades, forage-based, more diverse crop rotations have transitioned to less diverse annual crop-based rotations.
In recent years, there has been a resurgence in sustainable farming practices and related research, driven mostly by increased interest in improving soil health, nutrient recycling and carbon sequestration.
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