We’re in the heat of summer, a welcome time for many reasons – warm sunny days for putting up hay crops, ripening fields for harvest season, cattle contently foraging, and perhaps even some trips to the river or lake for fun.

We all aspire to exercise better stockmanship, and handling animals correctly is a big part of that goal. 

Feed cost, labor cost and availability, equipment cost and availability, calf marketing strategy, herd genetics, forage availability and cow age are all factors to consider when deciding to creep feed.

Many producers in the southeast U.S. have made the switch to making baleage or use both hay and baleage as stored forage in their operations during the year.

While many cattle producers have seasons of experience telling them how many cattle a tract of land can hold during the grazing months, it could still prove to be of benefit to have a reminder of how to determine how many animals the land can support, i.e., determine a proper stocking rate.

We’re fully into spring season by the month of May, and many operations are kicking out bulls or possibly preparing to artificially breed their herds, specifically potential replacement heifers.

Stocking rate and fertilizer application are the two main factors that producers can control in terms of increasing forage production for grazing or hay.

While spring brings new life to pastures in the Southeast, as we enter the late-spring time frame, we often encounter drier conditions.

In a graduate-level nutrition class, I had an exchange with a professor that I still remember.

As breeding season approaches, it is worth reminding that timely supplementation to first-calf heifers may be warranted.