Tag: Ranching Tips (Page 1 of 7)

Is Creep Grazing Worth It Before Weaning?

July 27, 2026 / / 0 Comments
Is Creep Grazing Worth It Before Weaning?If you could put more weight on your calves before weaning without having to buy extra feed every week, wouldn’t you want to try it?
That’s where creep grazing comes in.
Every cow-calf producer wants their calves to reach weaning with as much weight gain as possible, but without spending too much. Weaning weight is important, and so are extra pounds. But those pounds only matter if they pay for themselves.
Creep grazing lets nursing calves eat higher-quality forage while keeping cows out. Simply put, calves can get into a better pasture or forage strip that cows can’t reach. This gives calves more protein and energy, while cows stay on their usual pasture.
It’s similar to creep feeding, but instead of using grain or concentrate feed, you use forage. This can mean buying less feed, doing less labor, not having to refill feeders often, and giving calves a more natural way to grow before weaning.
Creep grazing isn’t a magic fix. It won’t solve poor forage, bad pasture planning, or a weak calf market. But if you set it up right, it can help add calf weight, save on feed costs, and make better use of your pasture.
By July, it’s especially worth considering. Spring-born calves are big enough to use better forage, native pasture quality may be dropping, and weaning is close enough that every extra pound counts.
The key is knowing when creep grazing makes sense, how to set it up, and what can go wrong if you don’t plan ahead.

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Is Your Mineral Program Working in July?

July 15, 2026 / / 0 Comments
Is Your Mineral Program Working in July?By July, mineral feeders can reveal a lot about your whole operation if you know what to look for.
In one pasture, cattle might go through minerals quickly, while another group hardly touches them. Some cows may empty a feeder after it rains, then slow down when it gets hot. If you move cattle to a dry pasture, mineral intake might suddenly increase. Sometimes, you might find a full feeder and wonder if the cattle are getting what they need.
That’s what July looks like in West Texas and the Southern Plains. Heat affects how cattle graze. Dry forage changes what they eat and what nutrients they need. Water quality can also make your mineral program less effective. Salt levels, where you place feeders, pasture rotation, fly pressure, and cow condition all matter. Mineral intake might seem random, but there’s usually a reason for it.
It’s a mistake to think, “They’re eating it, so everything’s fine,” or “They’re not eating it, so they must not need it.” Cattle don’t balance their mineral needs as neatly as we’d like. They eat minerals based on taste, salt content, what’s available, habit, water, forage condition, and other resources. So, free-choice mineral intake gives you clues, but it’s not a perfect report card.
A good mineral program in July isn’t about buying the fanciest product or just adding more to the pasture. It’s about tracking how much cattle eat, checking ounces per head per day, understanding why intake changes, and using mineral placement as part of your grazing plan.
If your mineral feeder could talk in July, it would probably tell you more about your forage, water, cattle behavior, and pasture pressure than you might expect.

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Can Your Cows Breed Back on Summer Grass?

July 11, 2026 / / 0 Comments
Can Your Cows Breed Back on Summer Grass?July is when you find out if your cow nutrition plan is working or falling short. Grass might look fine from the truck, but that does not always mean it has enough protein, energy, or digestibility for a lactating cow during breeding season. This is important because after calving, a cow has a lot on her plate. She needs to raise her calf, recover from calving, regain body condition, and get ready to breed again on time.
Having a calf every year is not just a bonus—it is what keeps a cow valuable in the herd. With rising costs for feed, fuel, labor, and pasture, every cow that does not breed back costs you money. If a cow falls behind on nutrition during this busy time, you might not notice the problem until preg-check, when it is too late to do anything about it.
Here is the bottom line: cows cannot breed back if they are running on empty. A good nutrition plan starts with knowing what your forage really offers. Is the grass good enough to support milk and reproduction? Is there enough for cows to meet their needs? Are you feeding mature cows, young cows still growing, or thin cows trying to catch up?
Meeting these needs is more than just tossing out feed and hoping it works. You need to match forage quality, quantity, minerals, and supplements to each cow’s stage of production. When cows get the right nutrition at the right time, they are more likely to stay in good shape, breed back, and raise calves that make you money.

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Heat, Flies, and Scours: July Calf Checks

June 29, 2026 /
Heat, Flies, and Scours: July Calf ChecksJuly really shows which calves are handling the summer well and which ones are starting to struggle.
You might ride through the pasture in the morning and think everything looks fine. The cows are spread out, calves are resting in the shade, and nothing seems wrong. But when you come back in the evening, you might spot a calf hanging back by the water trough, another with manure on its back legs, and a few more with flies around their eyes. It might not look serious yet, but that’s how July can catch you off guard.
In West Texas and the Southern Plains, July stress usually doesn’t show up as one big problem right away. It builds over time. Heat makes calves eat less, flies keep them from resting, and dirty water or bad creep feed can cause gut issues. Dry forage can weaken cows, so calves get less milk. Parasites add to the trouble. Soon, instead of just one sick calf, you might have a whole group that isn’t gaining weight like they should.
This is why a July calf check is essential. It’s not about adding work—it’s about staying ahead. Spot small issues early while they’re still simple and inexpensive to fix. A dull calf today may be dehydrated tomorrow. Light scours in the morning can become critical by sundown. Calves bunched in the shade may be fighting heat, flies, and poor air all at once. Early action is the difference in July demands.
With this in mind, let’s focus on the first place where issues often appear.

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How to Keep Cattle Dewormers Working Longer

June 25, 2026 /
How to Keep Cattle Dewormers Working LongerInternal parasites can start costing you money long before you notice any clear signs. Your cattle might seem healthy and active, but parasites could be quietly reducing their weight, health, and performance. They can lower how much your cattle eat, block nutrient absorption, strain the immune system, and cause calves or thinner animals to fall behind when they should be gaining.
This is why controlling internal parasites takes more than just picking up any dewormer from the feed store. A solid deworming plan starts with understanding your herd, your pasture, and the right timing. Calves, yearlings, stressed cattle, and those grazing in crowded or manure-heavy areas often need extra attention since they are more likely to have higher parasite levels.
The challenge is that deworming is not just about treating all your cattle. It is about treating the right animals, at the right time, with the right product. If you use the same dewormer every year, parasites can become resistant, making the product less effective. That is why it is important to check the active ingredient, not just the brand, and to work with your veterinarian when making a plan.
When spring becomes summer, parasite problems can add to the stress from heat, flies, changing forage, and breeding season. Planning ahead now can help prevent weight loss, poor body condition, calf health problems, and financial losses. Even though you might not see them, internal parasites can cause real damage.

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Creep Feed Decisions for Summer Calf Gains

June 13, 2026 /
Creep Feed Decisions for Summer Calf GainsJune marks the time when a creep feeder starts to look tempting to producers.
Calves are putting on weight. The grass might still look good from a distance, but it is not feeding like it did in April. Each week gets hotter, flies are increasing, cows are milking and trying to breed back, and everyone is watching the market to decide if extra calf weight is worth the effort.
This brings us to why creep feeding is worth considering.
On paper, creep feeding calves sounds simple. Put feed where calves can reach it, but cows cannot, then sell heavier calves at weaning. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it works really well. Other times, you spend good money on feed, fight waste, feed birds, attract pests, and end up with calves that are a little heavier but not heavy enough to pay the bill.
This leads to the key question for June: Is creep feeding helping your calves, or is it just becoming another expensive chore?
In West Texas and the Southern Plains, the answer depends on forage quality, cow milk production, calf age, feed cost, feeder setup, water access, heat stress, fly pressure, and how you plan to market those calves. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. A creep feeder can be a smart tool, but it is not magic. It will not fix poor water quality, overgrazed pastures, sick calves, poor mineral intake, or a bad marketing plan.
Before refilling that feeder, consider what specific job you need the creep feed to do, and whether it accomplishes that job well enough to pay for itself.

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How to Protect Calves After Branding Season

June 9, 2026 /
How to Protect Calves After Branding SeasonBranding day gets all the attention, but the days after branding are when many calf health problems either settle down or start building.
Across West Texas and the Southern Plains, branding season often lands just as the weather gets serious. Mornings may still feel decent. By afternoon, though, the heat comes on, the wind dries everything out, and flies start acting like they own the place. Calves that were worked, vaccinated, castrated, branded, hauled, or sorted may look fine when they leave the pens. That does not mean they are fully past the stress.
That is why branding season aftercare matters. The goal is not to overthink every calf or turn ranch work into a science project. Instead, watch the right things, reduce the stress you can control, and catch problems before they turn into a dead calf, a poor doer, or a bunch of calves that fall behind.
Heat, flies, dust, fresh wounds, dry forage, and dirty water can pile on fast after processing. One stressor may not hurt much by itself. Several together can really pull a calf down. A calf that is sore from castration, fighting flies, breathing dust, and trying to cool off in 100-degree heat is not in a great position to heal, eat, and grow.
Good aftercare is straightforward: provide clean water, shade if you can, control flies, handle cattle calmly, watch them in the pasture, and act quickly if something seems wrong.

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Why Hot Weather Can Cost You Next Year’s Calves

June 5, 2026 /
Why Hot Weather Can Cost You Next Year’s CalvesJune can make the breeding season seem better than it actually is.
In West Texas and the Southern Plains, pastures may look healthy in June, but heat can impact cattle before it’s obvious. By the time you notice cows losing condition or bulls tiring, conception rates may already be falling.
Even experienced producers can get caught off guard. Heat stress not only makes cattle uncomfortable; it also alters grazing, reduces feed intake, increases water needs, and forces cows to use more energy to stay cool. Grass quality declines, flies rise, and bulls must work harder. These combined factors can quickly reduce reproduction rates.
This matters because June’s problems do not end in June. Poor breed-back can lead to open cows, late calves, lighter weaning weights, and a longer calving season than you planned. A cow that does not get bred early costs more than most people think. Every pound at weaning is important.
If you want a better, more profitable calf crop next year, now is the time to pay attention. Success during hot breeding seasons starts with checking cow condition, water, forage quality, minerals, fly pressure, and bull performance before small issues become costly.

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February Calving Prep: What You Should Have Ready Now

February 5, 2026 /
February Calving Prep: What You Should Have Ready NowFebruary can catch even the most prepared cattle producers off guard, especially in cow-calf operations juggling winter feeding and the start of calving season.
One day, you’re focused on hay supply, cow condition, and stretching winter feeds. Suddenly, calves arrive—and your priorities shift. The weather turns unpredictable, nights are cold, and small problems quickly become big if you’re unprepared.
This month bridges winter survival and strong calf starts. Preparation now determines if calving runs smoothly or chaotically.
Most calving problems aren’t from one big failure, but small gaps: a missing tool, bedding runs out, unnoticed mineral slumps, frozen water, or no plan for nighttime emergencies.
The good news? These are all fixable in advance.
Instead of scrambling later, now is the time to get organized. The following checklist covers essentials, double-checks, and common shortfalls.
Let’s see how preparation saves time, cuts stress, and helps cows and calves start well.

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Getting Colostrum Right: A Practical Guide For Cattle Producers

January 8, 2026 /
Getting Colostrum Right: A Practical Guide For Cattle ProducersFor a newborn calf, colostrum isn’t just important—it’s non-negotiable. That first milk from the cow is packed with antibodies that jump-start the calf’s immune system and protect it from disease during the most vulnerable days of its life. Without adequate colostrum, a calf starts behind the eight ball, facing a much higher risk of scours, pneumonia, poor growth, and even long-term health problems that can follow it for life.
In a perfect world, every calf would stand up quickly, find the udder, and nurse a full dose of high-quality colostrum within the first few hours after birth. But as any cattle producer knows, calving rarely goes exactly according to plan. Some calves are slow or weak, some cows don’t have enough milk, and others just won’t let a calf nurse. When that happens, having a solid colostrum management plan in place can make all the difference.
That’s where colostrum replacers and supplements come into play. Used correctly, they can help fill the gap and give a newborn calf the protection it needs to get off to a strong start. The challenge is knowing when to step in, what product to use, and how to deliver it properly—especially when the clock is ticking.
Timing is critical. A calf’s ability to absorb antibodies from colostrum drops rapidly after birth, with the biggest window in the first four hours. Whether you’re feeding natural colostrum or using a replacer, how and when you deliver it matters. In the sections that follow, we’ll walk through five practical, no-nonsense tips to help you handle colostrum challenges with confidence when you need to step in and lend a hand.

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