It would be easy to be lured into the idea that more grass means more livestock and profits. Caution is warranted to prevent falling into a “green fever” trap.

Renting, leasing or purchasing grassland is often a complicated and expensive proposition. While many options are available, not all are practical or realistic.

Encouraging animals to disperse and utilize the full range can be a pain this time of year, but necessary for the health of the range plants. 

Herd rebuilding or expansion must start with enabling grazing land to support the additional animals over the long term.

With drought conditions common in many parts of the country in recent years, cattle producers often find themselves scrambling for forage. One underutilized forage, tree hay, is gaining traction as an emergency feed for ranchers trying to feed cattle economically.

A team of researchers at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is completing a 10-year study on how grazing management practices used in rotational grazing systems and continuous grazing systems affect cattle foraging behavior, diet quality and yearly weight gain in semiarid, extensive rangeland.

Using cattle to graze standing forage can significantly reduce feed costs and aid in decreasing the cost of production.

Nebraska producers Brock and Heidi Terrell and University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL) extension educator Mary Drewnoski helped address whether strip grazing is worth the additional time and labor when utilizing cover crops in the fall season.

2022 was a challenging year regarding precipitation throughout much of the Central and Western portions of the U.S. Many major cow-calf production regions, particularly in the central and southern Plains, are continuing to experience drought.