Salt blocks come in a variety of colors, as any trip to your local feed store will tell you. The specific color of the block will tell you two things about it. One of those is what kind of nutrients are contained in it. The second one is what kind of use it is intended for.
With the different varieties out there it can be quite confusing as to which block is best for you. The one that is best for you depends on what mineral(s) are deficient in your particular operation.
Using a colostrum replacer or supplement can be a very confusing matter to figure out. Now ideally every one of your new calves will get up and start nursing on their own. Unfortunately we don’t live in an ideal world.
There are some times that you will need to provide assistance to the new born to get them on the right foot. This can come in the form of providing a colostrum replacer. If you find yourself in that situation here are 6 tips that can help you get the most effective use out of it.
It is that time of year again: Spring Calving season. Calving season can be one of the busiest times of year for cattle producers. Along with being busy it is also one of the most important times of the year.
What happens during this time can have an impact on the overall health and performance of your calves. The steps that you take here can be the difference between an increased profit or just another year of barely getting by. So it is important that you do calving season right.
With everything that you will have going on there are many things that can go wrong. So I’ve compiled a list of 5 things that you can do to help ease some of the stress that comes with this season.
Selecting a bull is one of the most important decisions that a cow/calf producer will make. This is because that one animal will have such a large impact on your herd’s genetics going forward.
In a single sire herd the bull will account for half of all of the genetics that will be present in your calf crop. The last 3 herd sires that you use will represent about 87% of your calf crop’s genetic make up. This will include any replacement heifers that you use as well as any potential future sires if you decide to keep them.
With the importance that the bull will play it is critical that you select the right one for your operation. Here are 5 tips that you can follow:
Heifer development can be one of the most challenging yet also rewarding tasks that can occur on the ranch. The very basis of your future depends on your ability to develop the young heifers into productive mothers. But these challenges do not come without problems.
What makes this challenging is the cost of producing theses heifers takes place before you will get any return. This can be risky for some producers because you are spending money on the hopes that she will be able to “earn her keep”. This may be challenging but that doesn’t mean that it has to be difficult. If you plan your heifer development right it can be a very simple procedure.
Here are some steps that you can follow to make this much easier for you and your sanity:
Prescribed burning, also known as controlled burning, is basically a fire set intentionally. Despite the word “fire” generally brings to mind very negative images a prescribed burn can be a good thing. It is a management tool used by land managers and landowners to improve diversity of their vegetation. It can also be used to control any invasive plants that are present in your pasture.
When used along with other management methods prescribed burning can be used to improve the overall health of your pasture. Getting the most of out prescribed burning takes more than just setting some fires. To ensure the safety of both you and your neighbors it requires some serious planning.
Distaff thistle as well as the other species of thistle are considered the most serious threat to range and pasture. Thick stands can completely crowd out other vegetation reducing grazing. The sharp spines can prevent access to both livestock and people. It is not able to be grazed due to the fact that it is unpalatable to livestock and wildlife. Once it is established it is very hard to get rid of because the seeds can survive for a very long time, some up to 8 years.
Feed costs remain the single largest expense for any cow producer. Generally this expense can equal up to half of the total yearly cost of raising cattle. And that is on a good year. If you are in a drought condition this total can go up to as high as 70%. With this in mind it is no wonder that feed costs is usually the main factor to determine if an operation will be profitable or not.
In order to keep their heads above water producers are always looking for ways to reduce how much they will spend in feed every year. Though this is an admirable goal one should be careful going for it. Reducing feed costs will do you no good if production ends up suffering. The way to attack this problem is to find ways to balance high cow performance and less feed costs. Here are 5 things that you can look at to do that:
Hay season is upon us! As you have probably been aware now is the time of year when everyone is cutting and baling hay. Though many are only focused on just bailing not many are thinking about how to store the hay.
Along with making sure that the forages that you are cutting is of the highest quality. How you store them will also plays a role in how well it will do. How you store your hay can make or break what you are able to get out of it.
To make sure that you will get the most out of your bales here are 5 rules to follow:
Producers tend to have a love/hate relationship when it comes to supplements. On the one hand they love how it improves the performance of their cattle but on the other they hate that it adds to their expenses. It is for this reason that producers tend to not feed supplements unless they absolutely have to.
In order to get the most cost effective use out of feeding cattle producers should look at supplements more as an investment rather than just another expense. If used properly supplements can add increased value to both performance and their return at sale.
As we are all aware just forages alone will not provide all the necessary nutrients that your cattle need. Supplement feeding is necessary to complement what your forages provide. Though your grass may be green now the quality of it will decline as they mature later on in the year.
So how do you get the most effective use of supplements?
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