Making Do with Less

Optimizing cattle performance with limited resources.

Winter is the time of year when cattle most often need additional supplementation to maintain body condition. Cows that maintain a body condition score of 5 or 6 throughout the winter are more prepared for calving and rebreeding than thinner cattle. Winter feeding contributes to a significant portion of the feeding costs associated with raising cattle. Feeding appropriate supplements will complement other feeds, optimizing inputs and managing costs.

Queen of Forages Gets Boost

Researchers fortify alfalfa with disease defense.

Alfalfa is often called the “queen of the forages” due to its high yield, feed quality for ruminant animals, nitrogen fixation and pollinator habitat among other environmental services. Yet this royal member of the legume family is no match against the host of microbes that cause the disease complex known as “crown rot.”

Chemical controls aren’t effective against crown rot, and there are no genetically resistant alfalfa varieties available to farmers. Now, a team of Agricultural Research Service, University of Minnesota and Donald Danforth Plant Science Center scientists is exploring a “surrogate” defense — one borrowed from a close relative of the $8 billion legume crop.

Investigating the Causes of Respiratory Disease

Time to go back to the scene of the crime and explore a series of questions.

“When producers are struggling with bovine respiratory disease (BRD), one of the first questions I get asked is, ‘Hey, Doc, what new antibiotic is working these days?’” says Daniel Cummings, veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim. “While antibiotics are important, they are just one part of the big picture.”

Importance of Nutrient Analysis When Purchasing Hay

Avoid unnecessary supplementation with an inexpensive feed test.

The only way to determine levels of various nutrients in hay is to have it tested. Mary Drewnoski, beef systems specialist at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, says one of the biggest benefits of feed testing is to determine protein levels — especially this year, since hay in many regions got overly mature before harvest.

“It’s not very expensive to get a hay test, and it can be extremely valuable. Otherwise you may be supplementing when you don’t need to, or not supplementing when you should,” she says.

Changing Ways

Feed hay first; graze stockpile later to lower toxin in both fescue forages.

by Duane Dailey, University of Missouri Extension

To reduce fescue foot, a long-used plan to feed winter hay after grazing down fall pastures should be changed. A University of Missouri Extension forage specialist says it’s backward. Feed hay first; then graze stockpiled winter pastures.

Mycotoxin Risk High

Extreme weather issues across the U.S. result in high risk for mycotoxins in corn silage.

The past year has been one of the most challenging years in recent memory for corn farmers across the Midwest due to excessive rainfall, which has resulted in delayed and/or prevented planting in many areas. Extreme weather conditions and moisture levels can reduce yields and induce plant stress, and they can also lead to future issues for the crop, including molds and mycotoxins. Increased moisture can allow Fusarium molds to flourish, producing a variety of mycotoxins that include deoxynivalenol, fusaric acid, T-2, HT-2 and zearalenone.

Supplement Purchased Feed

Using wheat pasture as a winter supplement for cows.

Limited grazing of wheat pasture has proven to be the best and also a more efficient approach for utilizing this high-quality forage with mature beef cows. The protein requirements of a dry cow can be met by allowing her to graze on wheat pasture for one day and returning her to dry pasture grass and/or hay for two to three days. A pattern of one day on wheat and one day off should meet the protein needs of the same cow after calving.