Winter Feeding
Even if you’re just feeding your own livestock, knowing the cost of stored feed still matters.
Calving during the winter months can present some unique challenges, so being prepared with supplies and supplemental nutrition will help.
Top of mind issues for producers and managers with cattle in feedyard or drylot pens during winter weather include bedding, nutritional needs and equipment.
Feeding cattle in winter is critical to management, especially in regions where forage quality declines significantly during colder months. Proper nutrition during this period ensures cattle health, productivity and reproductive performance.
Proper nutrition during this period ensures cattle health, productivity and reproductive performance.
Cattle are naturally adapted to cold weather, but their ability to stay warm depends on factors such as their winter coat, body condition score (BCS), nutrition, and staying dry.
Melting snow has created special challenges for beef cattle producers and monitoring the body condition of gestating cows during times of cold stress becomes critical for calving and rebreeding.
Missouri’s drought in 2022 and 2023 may have been underrated, says Eric Bailey, University of Missouri Extension. He offers tips for stretching your feed during the next few months.
U.S. hay production in 2023 was 6.3% higher than the drought year of 2022, but remains 7.8% lower than the 10-year average. Hay stocks were higher in eight of the ten states, with decreases only in Kansas and Kentucky.
If your pastures were able to recover from drought, winter grazing of stockpiled grass produced during the growing season might be an option to extend the grazing season and reduce winter feed costs.
Calving during the winter months can present some unique challenges. What can we do to make calving in the late winter months as problem-free as possible? Get prepared.
Leasing pasture is common in the beef industry, especially for those just getting started. However, fencing leased pastures can be a challenge depending on the conditions of the existing fences.
Areas on the ranch lacking vegetation or poor productivity? Now’s the time to strategically designate these spots for hay feeding to enrich the soil with essential nutrients.
Some individual cows or groups of cows experience significant decline in body weight and condition over the winter known as “winter cow syndrome.” The best strategy of prevention is twofold.
In developing a protein supplementation strategy, it is important to consider what is the goal of feeding the protein supplement and that not all protein sources are equal.
When cows get below their lower critical temperature and get into cold stress, they can adapt by increasing feed consumption to increase their basal metabolic rate and increase heat of fermentation.
As expenses increase and producers evaluate more-efficient management techniques to lower production costs, one alternative may be to incorporate swath, or windrow grazing.
These four measurements can help you determine what your herd needs are for additional nutrition.
Buddy Rowlett of Richmond, Kansas covers the basics of managing added snow pressure with fence design, working with frozen ground and offers a creative solution for electric fences during winter storms.
Although U.S. cattle inventories declined, following widespread drought, cattle feeding margins are not as wide as in the previous period of low cattle inventories. Here’s some management strategies to consider.
Here’s some tips and strategies to help cattle producers stretch their dollars when it comes to winter feeding, shared by Aaron Berger, extension educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
As cattle producers, we see abbreviations, such as CP, RDP, RUP and MP, in relation to feedstuffs. It is important to understand the different terms related to protein in feed.
Keeping cattle fed, bedded and out of the wind is one thing; but making sure they have flowing water is another. Here’s some tips on winter watering your livestock.
Bulls are often a part of the cow herd that slips through the cracks during the winter months as breeding seasons end. Bull management strategies can impact a bull’s performance in the upcoming breeding season.
Utilization of winter forage will be critical in many parts of the country this year. Plan ahead to maximize utilization of forage resources, including: reduce wastage, maximize digestibility and extending the supply.
The first frost may be welcome for its fly-killing ability, but for cattle on annual forages, a few management steps this time of year can make sure that first frost doesn’t have the same effect on cattle.
In an effort to evaluate the potential compensatory effects of winter rate of gain and implant strategy across the entire production system, a two-year study by the University of Nebraska addressed those questions.
Cattle prices have responded to lower cattle inventory. Yet, with increasing costs of maintaining a cow, producers may wonder: to increase revenue in 2023, is it worth retaining or backgrounding calves?
For cattle producers that are set up to feed calves in a bunk, limit-feeding a high energy diet may be a cost-effective option for growing calves this fall and winter.
Composting livestock manure will increase the volume reduction compared to stockpiling, as well as reduce internal and external parasites, pathogens and weed seeds.