Safely Grazing Frosted Sorghums
The first light frosts are still a few weeks away in Nebraska. However, planning for these events should be considered by beef producers grazing sorghum-related plants. In addition to sorghum, plants such as sudangrass, shattercane, and milo fall under this same spectrum of review as colder temperatures draw near. Following a freeze, these forages can be highly toxic with prussic acid. Drought, pasture clipping, and overgrazing are other events that can cause increased levels of prussic acid.
Herd Health Vaccinations
Weaning and shipping can be a stressful time in a calf’s life and can cause acute illness. These conditions can include taking in high-risk cattle to co-mingle, weaning your own calves to finish or purchasing ranch source cattle. Importantly, it is our duty as stewards and caretakers of these animals to reduce these stress factors and mitigate illness. Preconditioning against disease can improve calf performance through the growing and finishing phase.
Pregnancy Checking of Spring Calving Cows
In order to remain an economically practical member of the herd, a beef cow must produce a calf annually. Most non-pregnant cows in a herd, after breeding season, are either young (first calvers breeding back) or old cows. Rather than waiting until calving season to determine if a cow got bred, utilizing pregnancy checking of each individual cow as a management tool will improve reproductive efficiency of a herd. The majority of non-pregnant cows are generally a result of environmental conditions such as management, nutrition, or genetics.
Herd That! Conference
The Nebraska Women in Agriculture program along with the Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance Program are excited to announce the first annual Herd That! Conference on Sept. 15, 2021 in Lincoln, Neb. The conference will focus on the five areas of risk management specific to livestock. The highlight of this year’s inaugural event will be a live cattle handling demonstration with Temple Grandin, Ph.D., Colorado State University and Dean Fish, Ph.D., ranch manager, Santa Fe Ranch.