Is the Price Right?
With many producers utilizing annual forage/cover crops and prevent plant acres, the amount of “non-traditional” forage options on the market have increased this past year. As long as we keep an eye out for potential nitrate issues, sorghum/sudangrass, milo, or small grains like oats, rye, and wheat can all make great forage options as hay or silage. Whether you are looking to buy or sell these products, answering the question, “Is the price right?” can often be a difficult undertaking.
Spanish:Registration opens for 2020 Nebraska Ranch Practicum
Ranchers interested in learning about the latest cutting-edge research in range livestock production from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln are encouraged to register for the 2020 Nebraska Ranch Practicum offered by Nebraska Extension.
Spanish:Economics of Yearling Systems – A Review
This article is a summary of the 2020 Nebraska Beef Cattle Report, “Economics of Yearling Systems.”
Spanish:Five Ways to Reduce Unit Cost of Production in a Cow-calf Enterprise
Unit cost of production is a ratio where costs in the numerator are divided by the units produced in the denominator.
There are five ways to reduce unit costs of production in a cow-calf enterprise.
Spanish:Evaluating and Preparing Bulls in Advance of the Breeding Season
Although the breeding season for many herds is still a few months away, it is time to be evaluating bull body condition. Body condition is just as important in bulls as it is in cows. Research has shown that bulls in a body condition 5-6 have better semen quality than those in a 4 or 7.
Spanish:A Calf’s Most Important Meal: Colostrum
2020 Beef Feedlot Roundtables in Bridgeport, Lexington, West Point
Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP)
Nebraska USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) is reminding livestock producers of an approaching deadline for the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). Producers who filed a LIP Notice of Loss with FSA for livestock losses due to natural disaster in 2019 have until Monday, March 2, to supply appropriate supporting paperwork and complete the application for payment, if they haven’t done so already.
Spanish:Wet Bales Can Tip the Scales
The past few months, we’ve been focusing quite a bit on the issues that can arise when hay gets a bit too wet: combustion, mold, and Maillard reactions. One often overlooked issue that can arise from wet hay is just the moisture itself.
Spanish:Principles for Care and Management of the Cow and Calf at Calving
Manure: Waste or Valuable Agricultural Resource?
Stories about manure often illustrate two opposing sentiments. Is manure a “Waste” that pollutes our water resources and creates undesirable nuisances for communities? Or, is manure a “Resource” that reduces the demand inorganic fertilizers and improves the health of our soils?
Spanish:Winter Nutrition: Are You Staying Ahead or Getting Behind?
As winter progresses, winter nutrition and increased environmental stress on cows may concern many cow-calf producers. Winter nutritional management affects not only the profitability of a beef cowherd, but also the future performance of the cow and her offspring. With that in mind, building a nutritional program for a cow-calf system requires understanding nutritional requirements, knowing the “stress periods” that can happen, and knowing the quality and quantity of your forage resources.
Spanish:Sharing Animal Agriculture’s Sustainability Story
Animal agriculture often endures criticism from our neighbors and consumers relative to sustainability. But when it comes to management of carbon and nutrients, animal agriculture has a positive story to share. Many environmental and sustainability organizations promote the importance of a “circular economy” for increasing sustainability. Farmers should help our neighbors and consumers recognize agriculture’s long term practice of implementing this circular economy.
Spanish:Beef Profit Tips for 2020
During the winter and spring of 2020 Nebraska Beef Extension Educators will host 7 beef profitability workshops in Eastern Nebraska to help Beef Producers evaluate their operations to make them more profitable through the latest research information. Topics will vary depending on presenter and specific location. These workshops have been held across Nebraska for the past sixteen years. The cost is $15.00 but may vary from location to location depending on local sponsorship.
Spanish:Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference is Feb. 20-21
The annual Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference will celebrate 35 years Feb. 20 and 21 at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Kearney.
Workshops and presentations will offer tools and information to help women better manage risk, improve their farms and ranches and become more successful operators and business partners.
Spanish:Asking “Why?” with Systems Thinking: A Powerful Tool for Problem Solving
Beef production from conception to consumption is a complex, biological system where cause and effect are often distant in time and space. For example, things that occurred to a calf while it was developing inside of a cow, can impact that animal throughout its life all the way to harvest. This can make it challenging to identify and address the actual source of a problem when it is observed. To better understand and address the source of problems, consider asking the question “why?”
Spanish:Sugar Beet Pulp Shortage and Alternative Energy Sources for Beef Cattle
The adverse weather conditions experienced by most agriculturalists in 2019 certainly impacted sugar beet production. The reduced volume of sugar beets available for sugar production has impacted the amount of the by-product, sugar beet pulp, available for beef cattle diets this winter.
Sugar beet pulp is often used in gestating cow diets in the winter to increase the energy density of a forage based diet. The highly digestible fiber in sugar beet pulp gives it a total digestible nutrient or TDN value of 85-90%. The crude protein value is approximately 10%.
Spanish:University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension Beef Economics Team Annual Beef Heifer Replacement Forecasts for the 2019 – 2020 Production Season (Summary Briefing)
What is a respectable value of a beef replacement heifer for the coming 2019-2020 production season? This can be a complicated choice, but a vital one that requires some clear thinking. It is important to have a handle on this value since future prosperity partially depends on it. Pay too much and future profits and net worth will suffer. Non-participation in the market is not likely to be an option since cow numbers are necessary to maintain productivity.
Spanish:Nebraska Extension Offering Land Application Training in January and February
Livestock producers with livestock waste control facility permits received or renewed since April 1998 must be certified, and farms must complete an approved training every five years.
Spanish:UNL Beef Roundup Webinars January 21 and 28
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