Crop Progress: Harvest 2023 Ahead of Average Pace
Fall Cattle Lice Treatments
Treating cattle for lice when it’s convenient—usually during preconditioning and preg-checking—isn’t necessarily the most effective approach.
While late summer and early fall endectocide (drugs that kill both internal and external parasitic insects) treatment may work on most internal parasites and horn flies, lice may escape.
Spanish:Understanding Cow Health Concerns on Corn Residue
Grazing corn residue is common practice in the Midwest and a quality resource for cattle producers to utilize. While the forages available can provide the necessary nutritional requirements, there are a few health conditions that need to be planned for prior to turn out.
Spanish:Best practices for vaccinating cattle, handling vaccines, and caring for animal health equipment
Fall weaning and transportation can be a high-stress period for calves that may be transitioning from one operation to another. As animal care providers, it’s our job to take that into consideration and do all we can to reduce the stress load on these animals.
Spanish:Cheesy Pork Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients:
- 4 large bell peppers, scrubbed with clean vegetable brush under running water
- ½ pound fresh pork sausage
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 cup canned corn, drained
- 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup salsa
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, shredded
- ½ cup cilantro, gently rubbed under cold running water, chopped (optional)
Directions:
- Wash hands with soap and water.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
- Cut bell peppers in half and remove core, membrane and seeds. Place on prepared baking sheet and set aside.
- In a large skillet, brown sausage until the internal temperature reaches 160°F when measured with a food thermometer. Drain fat and turn off heat.
- Add cooked rice, corn, beans, salsa, spices and ½ cup of cheese. Stir well.
- Evenly distribute meat mixture into the bell pepper halves. Top with the other ½ cup of cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and peppers are hot and softened. Sprinkle with cilantro, if desired, and serve.
- Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to four days.
Multi-Cooker Tuscan Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 pound fresh pork sausage
- 1 onion, scrubbed with clean vegetable brush under running water, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 5 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 5 medium red potatoes (about 1 pound), scrubbed with clean vegetable brush under running water, sliced
- 2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
- 3 cups kale leaves, gently rubbed under cold running water, stems removed and chopped
- 1 cup low-fat milk
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Wash hands with soap and water.
- Using the sauté function on your multi-cooker. Add sausage to the pot and cook stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until browned. Remove from the pot and set aside.
- Wash hands after handling uncooked meat.
- Add chopped onion to the pot and cook stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until softened. Add garlic, stir and cook for 1 minute.
- Pour in the broth and stir well, scraping the bottom to deglaze the pot. Add sausage, potatoes and Italian seasoning and stir.
- Place lid on multi-cooker and lock according to manufacturer’s instructions. Make sure the valve is set to sealing position.
- Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes followed by a 10-minute natural release, then a quick release. Once pin drops, remove lid.
- Add chopped kale and stir. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes to soften the kale.
- Stir in milk. Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, if desired.
- Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to four days.
Try a few of our favorite soup recipes!
Yield: 10 servings Serving Size: About 1 cupCalories: 260Total Fat: 13Saturated Fat: 4.5Potassium: 15Total Sugars: 3Iron: 6Vitamin D: 6Calcium: 4Protein: 14Fiber: 2Added Sugars: 0Total Carbohydrates: 22Sodium: 420Cholesterol: 40Photo by Marusa JonasPork Rice Bowls
*Try this Quick Pickled Daikon Radish and Carrots recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound ground pork
- ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon corn starch
- ½ teaspoon ginger powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ cup low-fat sour cream
- 1-2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce
- 3 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 cup cucumber, scrubbed with clean vegetable brush under running water, sliced
- 1 cup carrot, scrubbed with clean vegetable brush under running water, peeled and shredded
- 1 jalapeno pepper (optional), scrubbed with clean vegetable brush under running water, sliced
- ½ cup cilantro, gently rubbed under cold running water, chopped
- 1 cup pickled vegetables or kimchi (optional)*
Directions:
- Wash hands with soap and water.
- In a large skillet, brown ground pork until internal temperature reaches 160°F when measured with a food thermometer. Drain fat.
- In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, corn starch, ginger powder, garlic powder and sugar. Add to cooked meat and mix well. Cook for 1 minute or until the meat is coated and the sauce has thickened.
- Divide rice into 6 bowls. Top with meat, cucumber, carrot, jalapeno and cilantro. Add pickled vegetables, such as pickled daikon radish, carrots or kimchi, if desired. Drizzle with spicy sour cream and enjoy!
- Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to four days.
Winter Rate of Gain & Implant Strategy of Stockers Influences Hot Carcass Weight
This article was originally featured in Progressive Cattle and is a summary of the 2023 Nebraska Beef Cattle Report, Timing of Implant Use in the Backgrounding System.
Spanish:Reviewing Cow-Calf Share and Cash Lease Agreements
The trend in cattle prices over the last year has been dramatically toward the upside. Prices have risen higher and faster than many market analysts thought possible for 2023. These changes in market value are having an impact on beef cow share and cash lease agreements in determining what is “fair” to both cow owners and those who are leasing the cows.
For a cow owner, the following are the four major drivers that determine what is "fair" in terms of a cash lease or percentage of the calf crop the cow owner should receive. Those factors are:
Spanish:Air Fryer Pork and Apple Burgers
Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 1 apple, scrubbed with clean vegetable brush under running water, grated (about 1 cup)
- 1 pound ground pork
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 6 whole wheat burger buns
- Sauce of choice (optional)
- 1 tomato, gently rubbed under cold running water, sliced
- 1 ½ cups spring greens or arugula, gently rubbed under cold running water
Directions:
- Wash hands with soap and water.
- Crack egg into a large bowl and beat with fork. Wash hands with soap and water after cracking raw eggs.
- Add grated apple, ground pork, breadcrumbs, onion and garlic powder. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Mix well.
- Divide the mixture into 6 parts and shape into patties. Wash hands with soap and water after handling raw meat.
- Set the air fryer to 400°F and preheat for 5 minutes.
- Place the patties in an air fryer basket. Make sure they are not touching. Cook for 5 minutes. Flip and cook an additional 5 minutes, or until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 160°F on a food thermometer.
- Toast buns if desired. Assemble with a sauce of your choice (if desired), cooked patties, slices of tomato and top with spring greens.
- Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to four days.
More than 419,000 Tons of Rangeland Production are Lost Annually in Nebraska to Woody Encroachment
Did you know that Nebraska’s grasslands lose over 419,000 tons of forage production every year due to woody plant encroachment? When woody plants like eastern redcedar spread and take over grasslands, they displace grasses and broadleaf plants and reduce forage production by up to 75%1 (Fig.1). New rangeland monitoring data shows that tree cover increased by over 402,000 acres in Nebraska’s rangelands from 1990-2019 (https://www.wlfw.org/yieldgap/). This means less forage for livestock and wildlife needs.
Spanish:Strip grazing annual forages in the fall: Is it worth the effort?
After about 5 years of fall cover crop grazing, one thing became apparent: the amount of grazing achieved when we gave cattle access to the whole field from the start did not appear to be determined by the amount of forage that was in the field. This was because the weather seemed to determine how much trampling loss occurred. In wet years, we harvested less than 15% of the forage, and on average, we captured about 30%.
Spanish: