Looking back at late November of 2014, when the negotiated fed steer price reached an all-time high, $172.06/cwt, makes one wonder why—today, at fed steer prices at least $10/cwt higher, margins are still narrow.  A 1,550-lb fed steer is worth $155 more today than one finished in late November 2014.

While cattle placed against current live cattle marketing might have a wider margin for profit, cattle placed in October of 2023 will have a narrower margin of profit.  Why?

Be safe, get the daily amount and leave a smooth face. These are the key factors when it comes to feeding out corn silage.

Silage is a conservation technique that relies on anaerobic fermentation to primarily convert plant carbs into acetic and lactic acid, and those acids will then preserve the rest of the material for future use. Because the ideal point of corn silage harvest is at black layer, by now (November) all silages would have almost sixty days since they were chopped and stored.

1.  Collect a representative sample of your hay with a probe.

Sampling is the largest source of error and doing it right is important to ensuring you get an accurate estimate of the feed value of your hay. Make sure to keep different “lots” of hay separate. Guidelines for sampling can be found here.

An upcoming virtual workshop series for Midwestern farm and ranch women will teach the basics of tax planning for agricultural operations. Hosted by women in agriculture extension programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kansas State University, and Purdue University, the three-part series will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Central time on Nov. 28, Dec. 5 and Dec. 12.

The first frost may be welcome for its fly-killing ability, but for cattle producers running cattle on annual forages, a few management steps this time of year can make sure that first frost doesn't have the same effect on cattle grazing milo, sudangrass and sorghum varieties. 

Calves with blemishes are usually cut off when taken to a sale barn and sold for a reduced price.  What can a producer do with these calves to add value? 

First, let’s look at what determines price.

In 2017, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) and Nebraska Extension made a commitment to implement a multidisciplinary Beef Systems Initiative (BSI) to develop and support implementation of beef production systems in Nebraska. In addition to the BSI, a parallel project funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) implemented a study of the best practices for incorporating beef cattle onto cropping systems while improving ecosystem services to ensure sustainability.

With harvest around the corner, you might be considering trading manure for cornstalks or vice versa. In many ways, it’s easier to pay cash for either product, but there are advantages to trading. This article will focus on what kinds of things to consider to be sure any deal made is a fair trade.

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.

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.

Grain production regions allow cattle producers to harvest grain crops as grain (dry or high moisture) or green chop to be preserved as silage for cattle feeding (feed crop).  Corn grain production is particularly well suited for this purpose.  Harvesting the ears and shank (earlage) or husk, grain, cob, and shank (snaplage) represent options intermediate to harvesting grain or chopping the whole plant. 

Cattle prices have responded to lower cattle inventory.  If you are keeping up with cattle production news media, nearly every week, someone declares how much feeder calf prices have increased since last year.  Sales of 500- to 600-cwt feeder calves are getting close to $300/cwt.  Expecting a gross revenue of $1,600 or more for feeder steer calves this fall is not out of the question.  Yet, with increasing costs of maintaining a cow, some cow-calf producers may wonder:  to increase revenue in 2023, is it worth it to retain calves for feeding during a backgrounding o

Would you like to grow your grass knowledge and better understand range and pasture resources? Nebraska Extension will host a six-session webinar series on Monday and Thursday evenings beginning October 23 through November 9 from 7:30 - 8:45 p.m. CT that will explain the basics of knowing, growing and grazing grass. 

Topics will include:

•           Identifying key grass species you want more of in your pastures.

Manure stockpiles must be built following some regulations, but where those regulations end, manners should remain. I suspect that just about everyone reading this article has been told on more than one occasion, “Mind your manners!” Or, perhaps as a parent, it’s this very simple instruction that you now give to your kids as they head out the door to spend time with someone outside the household. Continue reading on the UNL Water website.

The first step in dealing with hail damage is to contact your insurance agent, so that you know what is required to meet obligations for hail or revenue insurance.

In many areas of central and eastern Nebraska, drought conditions have resulted in reduced forage production on rangeland and pasture.  This is resulting in a shortage of feed for many producers and a need for forage between now and when cornstalks are available for grazing.  Windrow grazing annual forages allows producers to cut the crop at an optimum time for quality and increase harvest efficiency through strip grazing the windrows.   

As you prepare to inventory feeds for feeding the beef cow this winter, corn silage may be an option. In last month’s BeefWatch, the article, “Is That Corn Crop Worth More as Silage or Grain?” walks through the calculations to determine price of corn silage standing in the field, chopped and packed in the silo, and corn silage delivered to the bunk. If the price of corn is $5.00 per bushel, corn silage delivered to the bunk with 10% shrink is $60.83.

The 24^th annual University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory (GSL) Open House will be held on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. This year’s Open House will be a hybrid format with our traditional in-person event held at GSL along with being live streamed online as a webinar.

Ongoing dry and drought conditions in many parts of the state are supporting hay and forage prices as we look towards this fall. Perennial dryland hay production in many parts of Nebraska has been less than average. Forage production on rangeland and pasture in central and eastern Nebraska is, in many situations, significantly less than average. This diminished production is going to result in less fall and winter grazing.   

Top 5 Takeaways

• Wet bales are at risk for combustion; store appropriately and check temperatures. Anything above 170°F is high risk.
• Mold may produce mycotoxins, so roll out and let animals select good portions of moldy bales. Make sure other clean feed is available.
• Protect yourself from respiratory issues while working with moldy bales by using a dust mask.
• Hay testing is especially important when hay quality and safety are concerns.

Introduction  

Wet distillers grains (WDGS) are a good source of energy (108% TDN) and crude protein (30%) (dry matter basis). Therefore, they are a popular commodity for beef cattle supplementation. 

In partnership with the University of Wyoming, the Beef Reproduction Task Force will host the Applied Reproductive Strategies in Beef Cattle (ARSBC) symposium at the Little America Hotel and Resort (2800 W. Lincolnway) in Cheyenne, Wyoming on Sep. 6-7^th, 2023.

The event will run from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sep. 6, and 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Sep. 7. Producers, veterinarians, artificial insemination technicians, students and others interested in beef cattle production are encouraged to attend.

A new report from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Agricultural Profitability features current rates for custom services related to livestock production in Nebraska. It reflects the results of a statewide survey that was circulated in early 2023 to those who either provide or pay for custom work related to livestock.

The University of Nebraska is hosting an open house at the Barta Brothers Ranch on July 25th from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. The Barta Brothers Ranch is a 6,000-acre property donated to the University of Nebraska by Clifford and James Barta in 1996. The ranch has housed a variety of research projects over the years including studies on Sandhills’ biocomplexity and a 20-year-long grazing systems production survey. One of the newest research projects, commonly referred to as CAM (collaborative adaptive management), will be the primary focus of the open house.

The 2023 Nebraska Grazing Conference will be held August 8 and 9 at the Younes Conference Center in Kearney, NE.  This year’s conference features speakers highlighting Grazing Lands Conservation, Emerging Issues in Grazing Lands, and Precision Livestock Management. The featured banquet speaker for the Conference is Curt Pate.

With areas across the state either dealing with drought or wet conditions, cow management and limited forage resources may have producers considering options for early weaning and utilizing early pregnancy detection to help make culling and management decisions this year.

Click here for video from the 2023 Stocker-Yearling tour at the Skavdahl Ranch, near Harrison, Nebraska. 

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Sell cows or buy feed? That’s the question most ranchers face when drought hits. The best time to plan for drought is in a wet year, and one of the best ways to plan for drought is to build flexibility into a cattle operation.

Face flies can carry pinkeye and eyeworms, and cause millions of dollars of economic damage every year.

One to five face flies per eye per day can cause serious ocular lesions that mimic the symptoms of bovine pinkeye. Mechanical damage, whether sustained by face fly mouth parts, dust, weed, pollen, or excessive sunlight, predisposes the eye for infection and increases epithelial discharges.

The bright yellow-green of leafy spurge can put a damper on the joy of spring green-up. The noxious weed is especially noticeable in early June. That’s also one of the best times to invest the time and money into controlling leafy spurge.

Unfortunately, a single treatment will not control leafy spurge once established, so continued monitoring and retreatment is needed. An effective strategy is pairing spring applications that prevent seed production with a fall treatment to control new growth.

Join us on June 15-16, 2023, for a free two-day training event on Emerging Technology in the Livestock and Meat industries and CME Live Cattle and Carcass Specifications and Deliveries. We encourage stakeholders (cattle producers, feeders, processors, and allied industries) to join who are interested in the official quality grading of feeder cattle, fed cattle, and beef carcasses in the United States.  This training event is collaborative with USDA – AMS and the Animal Science Department at the University of Nebraska.

Insecticide-impregnated ear tags were first introduced in the late 1970s and have been used to reduce face fly and horn fly populations. Active ingredients in insecticide ear tags kill flies by direct contact. Small amounts of insecticide are released from the ear tag into the oils present on animal’s hair. The face, neck, topline and flanks receive the most product through natural grooming behavior. Interaction between cattle enhances the transfer of product between animals.

Small grains are an excellent choice as a double-cropped forage for a spring silage crop. However, making good quality small grain silage takes careful moisture management.

Each May we celebrate National Beef Month. One of the great things to enjoy in the Beef State is the moment in which producers and consumers come together over a juicy steak. As delicious and nutritious beef recipes are shared in local newspapers and across social media, it is a great reminder that the beef industry has a large impact on Nebraskans far and wide.

Current cattle market conditions along with the price and short availability of hay has created a scenario where the growing winter wheat crop may have more value for producers for grazing or as a hay crop this spring than to harvest it for grain. The current market value of good quality prairie hay and alfalfa ranges from $180 to $270 per ton.  Hay stocks are short. Harvested feed costs at current hay prices range from $3.00-$4.00 per cow-calf pair per day. 

Once again wildfires have plagued Nebraska rangelands. That rangeland will need a time of deferred grazing to recover. Some producers may have harvested forages available to feed while the rangelands recover. Annual forages may also be an option when native perennial forages are recovering.

Some producers may have access to pivots or other farming ground. Some of this ground may be established in introduced perennial forages, and traditionally used for hay, but could be grazed if another source of hay could be located, providing much needed deferment for recovering range.  

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), zoonotic diseases are pathogens that can be spread from animals to humans, leading to illness.  The CDC reported 59 zoonotic outbreaks in 2017, causing over 1500 illnesses and three reported deaths.  There are several different germs that have the potential to be zoonotic, with some more prevalent than others.  

The weather impacts producers right and left. A storm can come up suddenly and be short-term, whereas a drought can build and persist long-term. Stress can be similar in nature. We can have acute, stressful moments when we get into town too late to pick up that important part to fix equipment before chores the next day.  Stress can become chronic when one bad thing happens after the other. Many have experienced the effects of drought, first with not enough rain for pasture and forage production leaving us short and having to spend extra money to find additional hay or forage.

Drought conditions this last growing season, limited hay supply, and a wet winter have been very challenging to beef producers. This created a situation where many cows at this point were thinner than normal years.  In addition, we couple that with limited hay and lower-quality hay with the potential of having a late green up or delayed turn out to grass. With that in mind, we have to think about how to increase energy in the diet to meet the lactational requirements while gaining BCS and doing that past our traditional turn out to grass. 

As spring nears and grass begins to turn green, producers are anxious to get cows out to grass. However, cool season predominate areas tend to have lush spring growth which can lead to grass tetany in cows. While there are treatments for cows caught quick enough, prevention is always the best policy.

A recent BeefWatch article highlighted the importance of timing for a Breeding Soundness Exam (BSE) in our bull battery especially with the winter weather many of our producers have been experiencing. With that in mind, let us dive in a little deeper to how this harsh winter weather can impact bull fertility and how to address management for this next breeding season.

Calving is just underway across the country, which means calf processing and branding (if applicable in your area) is just around the corner.

For those who may not be calving already or those looking for good calving reading material, it is good to revisit some calving best management practices. Previous articles listed in BeefWatch do a great job highlighting specifics related to calving.

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 2023 Nebraska Ranch Practicum offered by Nebraska Extension.

Livestock producers can enhance success by identifying and exploiting their competitive advantage in relation to their competition. What is special or unique about the product you produce, your skills, background, reputation, business structure, location or service that sets you apart from others?  What gives you a “leg up” on the competition?

Nebraska Extension is looking to gather more information on cow-calf producers’ mineral supplementation practices. To better establish research and educational resource needs for beef cattle producers, Nebraska Extension has released a producer needs assessment survey targeting cow-calf producers.

Cattle operations in many areas have had to manage their animals through significant snowfall that led to muddy conditions in holding areas, walk lanes, feedyard pens, and other high-traffic locations.  Poor performance, health challenges, and generally undesirable conditions for man and beast often followed.

Nebraska and much of the Great Plains have experienced above normal snowfall coupled with extremely cold temperatures and high winds resulting in -20 to -60° F wind chills this winter. Extreme cold can result in frostbite to extremities in cattle including the testicles, which in turn can have a negative impact on spermatogenesis.

This article was first published by "In the Cattle Markets" on Feb. 13, 2023.