Tall fescue, a cool-season perennial grass, grows on approximately 1 million acres in north Georgia and more than 30 million acres in the U.S. Cattle can graze on this grass for an extended period from early spring to fall.

A survey of records of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) cases at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory showed that drug resistance in Mannheimia hemolytica, one of the primary organisms associated with BRD, increased from 2009 to 2011. 

All good stockmen are aware that heat stress can be a problem in livestock as the summer heats up, but not all are aware that other factors can enter the equation besides the thermometer reading. These same factors can be dangerous to the people that handle the livestock as well, but we can do things that help to compensate for the danger.

The unique conditions leading into the spring of 2013 may be leading us into even more potential problems. A dry growing season last summer, combined with poor forage growth in the fall, has left almost no standing forage in many pastures. In short, as we approach spring there is not much out there, and if forecasts are correct conditions for spring growth may not be great either.