Nebraska fence laws and the responsibility of landowners have evolved over time since the first established statute in 1867. According to current fence laws in Nebraska landowners are required to equally split the cost of establishing and maintaining a fence to divide their properties if either of t Continue reading…
Late summer rains and moderate temperatures have produced higher than usual fall alfalfa yields. Quite a bit has been harvested this October. Storage can be risky, though.
Hay cut in October tends to be rich with very high quality. It’s not unusual to have hay with lab tests that show more than Continue reading…
Will you feed cane, millet, or oat hay, or maybe corn stalk bales, to your cows this winter? If so, don’t let high nitrate levels kill your cows or cause abortions.
Nitrates occur naturally in all forages. At low levels, nitrates either are converted into microbial protein by bacte Continue reading…
Given current calf prices, it is tempting to sell immediately after weaning. However, grazing calves on corn residue and providing supplemental distillers grains is a cost effective way to add value to weaned calves. The two most important considerations to successfully and economically increase ca Continue reading…
INTRODUCTION
From a historical point of view, there have been considerable changes made to National Cattle Evaluations (NCE) overtime. More recently, many beef breed associations have augmented EPD (Expected Progeny Differences) with genomic information. This step alone has included many rapid evol Continue reading…
Cow depreciation is frequently the second largest expense to the cow-calf enterprise after feed. Depreciation is a non-cash expense that is often overlooked by cow-calf producers. Depreciation for a cow is calculated as the following.
Depreciation = (Purchase Price or Replacement Cost – Salvage Continue reading…
In recent months distillers grain price has declined while at the same time beef cattle prices have reached historic highs. In many situations distillers grains may be a good option to increase weight of calves and yearlings or for use as a winter protein supplement for cows. Distillers grains are w Continue reading…