Just as seasons change, cow herds will transition through production phases.

Successfully raising healthy calves to market or retain on farm is essential to the livelihood of cow-calf operations.

How cattle require some minerals less than others may be a reflection of how scarce the resource is and how efficient we need herds to be.

Winter grazing patterns or dry lot forage and hay feeding is on the horizon for many cow-calf producers. With pregnancy checking and the necessary culling of open or deficient females completed, the finalized herd is likely in place until calving season.

With winter just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about protein and energy supplementation again. There are many advantages to supplementing your winter feeding program with distiller’s grains or products made with distiller’ grains; however, there are also some disadvantages that need to be considered before feeding decisions are made. 

Profitability of cow-calf operations is largely determined by cow reproductive performance.

It goes without saying that hemp production is currently a hot topic in agriculture. As is the case with almost all other agricultural or food industries where harvest, refinement or processing results in a residue or byproduct, there is also considerable interest in potential uses for hemp and its byproducts as animal feed ingredients – particularly for cattle.

While beet pulp is well-known for being an energy concentrate that cows love, feed beets have yet to be discovered in a big way.

Fall is in the air, and if you have a spring-calving herd, you are either smack-dab in the middle of weaning calves, have dates set in the near future or already have bawling calves in the pens.