Winter always seems to create unique challenges with livestock. From keeping ice off the water troughs to providing feed with enough nutrients to maintain the animal’s needs, each year seems to be different. On the other hand, one thing that seems to occur every year is a time period dealing with mud. Late winter is [...]

Are you getting adequate forage production from your pastures and hay fields? Are you getting maximum weight gains from your livestock with the forage species you have in your paddocks? Do you have paddocks or fields that you think need renovated? How much forage should my paddocks and hay fields be producing per year? Can [...]

It seems there are never enough days in the fall of the year to accomplish all the things I want/need to do. Daylight hours shorten quickly and before I know it, it’s dark before 6 p.m. Weekend hours also seem to vanish because I’m trying to finish projects around the house that I put off, [...]

It seems the time right after making first cutting hay is always a time for me to address some of those unwanted weed issues — not in the hay fields, but in the fence rows, around buildings and in pastures.

More than 95 percent of weeds can be controlled through good management practices.

Livestock graziers, now is a good time to finish what is left in your hay fields and then utilize forage in stockpiled areas.

Proper soil nutrients are required for forage plants to maximize growth. Data indicates our forage plants use 20+ elements to live and grow. All are equally important for growth, but vary greatly in amounts needed. Of these, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are usually required in the largest amounts followed by calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. These [...]

With the 2011 grazing season underway I imagine everyone is moving livestock to new paddocks on a regular basis by now. It has been extremely wet in our area so it’s been a challenge to rotate livestock to areas where grass is growing without pugging soils and damaging the sod base in those paddocks. Suggestions [...]

We often talk about forage quality factors such as percent protein and amount of total digestible nutrients when we look at how good a forage is for a particular group of livestock and if it meets their nutritional needs. Seldom however, are vitamins and minerals in a forage for beef cows even mentioned in the [...]

Now that summer is under way, many producers are finishing first cutting hay and preparing to make second cutting. As rotational graziers, however, we should already be thinking about preparations for the fall and winter and how we will feed our livestock after forage growth has stopped. Stockpiling While it may be a little early [...]