For spring-calving herds, many stressors often coincide with the breeding season, which can impact pregnancy establishment and embryo survival.

While it is well understood that growth-promoting implants are an asset to the feedlot industry in terms of increased gains and feed efficiency, the use of implants in the cow-calf segment is often overlooked and blamed for negatively impacting quality grades.

Calving season is in full swing for much of the region; hay supplies are tight; and we’re impatiently waiting for green grass to turn pairs out on. With a wet spring predicted, turnout may be delayed later than hoped for and may require extended stored feed delivery.

With continued pressure on extending the grazing season with limited pasture acres, interest in integrating annual forages into the rotation has been on the rise. Typically, this includes planting a cool-season annual followed by a warm-season annual.

Benchmarking is a unique tool that allows producers to evaluate their enterprise’s strengths but, more importantly, areas where improvements can be made, such as management, genetic selection or herd health programs.

For the last several years, calving in a confinement setting has been on the rise because of the advantages offered, including better opportunity to monitor and assist during parturition if needed, ability to control feed intake and waste, and avoid dealing with mud.

2018 has been an interesting year for cattlemen, as we experienced a wide array of drought and flooding conditions and even both in some areas. There is no doubt that the weather conditions Mother Nature threw at us had an impact on forage quality.

Drought in recent years has led to an increased interest in feedyards feeding beef cows throughout the winter months on a custom-fed basis. Custom feeding breeding stock may be an economical alternative for the cow-calf producer to maintain the herd in some cases.

With regions across the country experiencing drought conditions for consecutive years, and high hay prices this past spring, many producers chose to integrate forage annuals into their crop rotations or plan to integrate cover crops this fall to expand their grazing season either into the fall or early spring months.

August is the time to start stockpiling forages for winter grazing, which can aid in reducing winter feed costs. For stockpiling, generally pasture acres are not grazed for the last 70 to 80 days of the grazing season, allowing forage to recover leaf foliage and yield.