As of February, Nebraska remains in drought conditions despite much of the state receiving significant snowfall in December and January (https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/). The soil moisture profile is in a deficit due to months of below normal precipitation the last couple of years, which will have an impact on grass growth this spring.

This year, the Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program was the highlight of the Closing General Session “A BQA Celebration” at the 2023 Cattle Industry Convention.

Since 2009, the National BQA program has utilized the National BQA awards to recognized cattle producers across the nation for their BQA achievements. The program recognizes producers and operations from the following sectors: cow-calf, feedyard, marketer, and dairy. Additionally, the educator award recognizes an individual who has been dedicated to the BQA program throughout their career.

Cold stress increases a cow’s energy requirement and can pull down her body condition.  Thin cows can result in weak calves being born in the spring and/or poor breed up. Winter storms have already swept across the Plains, giving indications this could be a long, cold winter for cows already thin due to summer drought stress.

Plans for calving season should include how to identify and manage cold stress in newborns. In the 2007 National Animal Health Monitoring System report, 25.6% of operations reported weather as the main cause for death in calves less than 3 weeks old.  Preventing hypothermia is vital to survival in the newborn.

1. Pay attention to nutrition needs of bred heifers or cows prior to calving.

Adequate body condition at the time of calving for young females and mature cows is important as it impacts stamina during delivery of the calf, colostrum quality, calf vigor, and also impacts subsequent rebreeding.

Given bull sale season is underway, addressing a few Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) might prove helpful as you begin to consider what bull(s) to buy this spring and the tools you use to select them.

1.       I keep my own replacement heifers but also retain ownership on cattle through the feedyard. How can I keep cow weight down but ensure that hot carcass weights do not go down?

Determining how much pasture is needed for summer grazing can be difficult. There are many factors that affect pasture productivity including current year precipitation amounts and timing and previous year growing season’s conditions. The drought conditions that much of the U.S. experienced last year limited the amount of energy plants were able to store, especially if they were heavily grazed. It is important to consider this when developing a grazing plan for this year. This will aide in understanding how to set stocking rates and prevent further damage.

Nebraska Extension will host a price risk management workshop for cattle producers in Ord from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 23, at the Valley County Extension Office, 801 "S" Street, Suite 1, on the fairgrounds. Cattle producers will learn strategies designed to reduce risk exposure to achieve a profitable outcome in uncertain times.

Current issues facing the cattle industry will be discussed to help producers to make more informed decisions facing the industry.

Agriculture is a rewarding business, but it does come with stressors – weather, cattle and grain prices, debt, etc. -- that can stack on top of each other. It’s important to recognize the value a person brings to an operation compared to the markets, number of acres you own, or the number in your bank account. Farmers and ranchers tend to struggle with a lack of routine, or lack of structure that comes with the business and having to always be flexible when dealing with the unknown. Producers tend to push through these adversities without giving themselves grace.

Total digestible nutrients (TDN) are the common energy reference for both feed content and animal requirement, so how are the two connected and what can we know to better examine TDN of feedstuffs and use energy economically?

The initial measure of energy begins with gross energy (GE), which is the term for all energy contained within a feed and consumed by the animal. By subtracting all the energy that passes through to manure from GE, you get digestible energy (DE). Digestible energy is the measure of energy converted into TDN within feedstuffs.

The 2023 Beef Feedlot Roundtable Series is an event that you won’t want to miss! We encourage feedlot owners, managers, employees, and allied industry to join Nebraska Extension February 7-9^th as we dive into a series of timely topics covering feedlot management. Highlights from the program include the use of roller compacted concrete, implications of increasing hot carcass weight, and new requirements on implanting with speakers from UNL Extension and producers.

Another year has come and gone for the Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance program, and while it was a year of successes for the program as a whole, there is still plenty of work to be done. As I sit here writing this thinking back on all the accomplishments we have achieved this year, I am happy to brag about where the program currently is and where it is going in the future.

It has been said, “Develop your communication skills because when you open your mouth, you tell the world who you are.”  This is just another way of saying that we’re known by what we produce (words, actions, etc.).  Our reputation, in other words.  Said another way: “Develop your husbandry skills, because when you handle and care for animals, you tell the world who you are.”  Stockmen have long considered their work an art form, and take pride in honing their skills with a level of devotion seldom rivaled in other professions.  In a time where the agricultural work

I run across situations where one party, or both parties have decided that their estate plan isn’t fair or equitable.  I have also had recent contact with landlords that think the tenant is taking advantage of the farm lease and are not paying an appropriate cash lease rate.  Either situation is a dispute, and everyone stops listening to each other.  The parties dig in their heals and have made up their mind that they are not being treated fairly or equitably.  When that happens, the relationship between the parties is usually permanently damaged at some level.

This article was first published by "In the Cattle Markets" on Oct. 31, 2022.

Cumulative national feeder and stocker cattle receipts are slightly lagging both 2021 and the 5-year average (2017-2021) at 12,098,700 head through Oct. 21. In 2022, more of the receipts are coming from cattle weighing less than 600 lbs. and heifers – both signals that the drought in various parts of the United States is affecting feeder and stocker cattle being sold.

The 2022 production year presented several challenges to Nebraska producers. Widespread drought conditions and several large wildfires created loss situations with significant financial impact. This article is a quick reminder to producers of available assistance from USDA programs that may apply to their situation.

Nebraska Cattlemen and Nebraska Extension will be hosting the 2022 Cattlemen’s College on December 6 at the Buffalo County Extension Building (1400 E. 34^th Street, Kearney, NE). Registration, and a chance to begin viewing the graduate posters on display, will be at 12:00 p.m. The program will run from 12:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.

In the last few years, buzzwords like precision livestock management have been thrown around quite a bit. Although the official name of “precision livestock farming” debuted in a European conference in 2003, usage of technology in beef production systems isn’t a new thing. Artificial insemination began in the 1950s, use of growth implants became commercially available in 1957, and use of EPDs in bulls started in the 1970s. These 3 technologies adopted in commercial cow-calf systems would be considered precision livestock management tools.

Ionophores have been safely utilized in the beef industry for a long time. If fed according to the recommended rates, ionophores are considered safe and effective. Ionophores are feed additives used in cattle diets to increase feed efficiency and body weight gain. In addition, ionophores can decrease the incidence of bloat and coccidiosis.  Ionophores can be fed to cattle in several different supplemental packages from liquid feeds, cakes, pellets, and loose minerals.

Pasture Rangeland Forage (PRF) insurance coverage is available on a calendar year basis with a signup deadline of December 1. For coverage in calendar year 2023, producers must sign up for PRF by December 1, 2022. At this point, many producers across the state are thinking about the impact of drought. Some may already be implementing PRF, and others may be thinking about adding it as a part of their drought risk management strategy. PRF insurance is administered by the USDA – Risk Management Agency (RMA) and is available for purchase through local crop insurance agents.

The numerous tools to aid in genetic selection allow for expedited progress toward breeding objectives. However, there are variations in how values are calculated and the units they are reported in. Single Trait Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs), EPD Indexes, and Production Ratios are typical of reported data and can provide guidance towards breeding objectives when applied as they are intended. While the bells and whistles vary across breed associations, the basics of each measurement can be applied across breeds and genetic reporting platforms.

The drought across much of the western U.S has resulted in low hay production, high hay prices and in some cases, no hay to be bought.  Some producers may be considering using corn residue bales. Corn residue has been traditionally used as a roughage source in feedlot diets and more recently mixed with more energy dense feeds and fed to cows in confinement. However, many operations may not have the ability to mix and feed diets.

This article was originally published by "In the Cattle Markets" in August 2022.

It seems the year is just flying by with fall already upon us, which means it is about time for the “Fall Run”. Millions of cattle are being transported across the U.S. over many miles. A past Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) survey indicated that feeder calves traveling to Texas or Nebraska feedyards traveled 468 ± 415 miles.

Nebraska rangelands lost over 419,000 tons of plant biomass production in 2019 due to woody plant encroachment¹. This was determined using new monitoring technology that tracks production losses as a result of increasing tree cover since 1990. Encroachment by species like eastern redcedar can reduce forage production by up to 75% in heavily invaded locations and is among the greatest threat to Great Plains grasslands.

Nebraska beef producers and corn growers can enhance their operations by attending the 2022 Cover Crop Grazing Conference. Scheduled for November 1, the conference will take place at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center near Mead.

The conference kicks off with registration, refreshments, and a trade show at the August N. Christenson Building at 9:00 a.m.  Educational programs are from 10 a.m. – 2:45 p.m. and include a producer panel session and live field demonstrations.   

Drought conditions influenced forage and grain production for nearly two years.  Forage and grain yields are expected to be somewhere between 1/3 and ½ of normal.  Pasture yield is also low or already out.  Feeding and managing cows while coping with these conditions is a challenge complicated further by costs associated with feed delivery.   Cow-calf producers must incorporate three considerations that greatly affect cow feeding costs under current economic conditions:  feeding group size, energy density of feed and fuel cost.

The Nebraska Women in Agriculture program, along with the Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance Program, are excited to announce the second annual Herd That! Conference on Sept. 21, 2022, in Broken Bow, Nebraska with a pre-conference Sept. 20. The cattle handling demonstration will be one of the highlights of the program, along with the keynote speakers Courtenay Dehoff, #fancyladycowgirl, and ShayLe Stewart, DTN Livestock Analyst.

Southeast Nebraska farmers can sharpen their management strategies for the third and fourth most grown crops at the second annual Southeast Nebraska Alfalfa and Wheat Expo. Hosts and southeast Nebraska Water & Integrating Cropping Systems Extension Educator, Nathan Mueller, and southeast Nebraska Beef Systems Extension Educators, Wayde Pickinpaugh and Connor Biehler advocate for more diverse crop rotations that are both underutilized and undervalued.

May marked the beginning that pasture and range conditions are released by USDA-AMS in their weekly crop progress reports by state. This gives the industry its first barometer of how bad the drought could be this year across the United States to the overall industry and to specific geographic areas. The USDA-AMS reports pasture and range conditions in five categories: very poor, poor, fair, good, and excellent.

Grain Source

The United States produced 1.65 billion bushels of wheat in 2020, with wheat ranking as the third largest produced grain after corn and soybeans. As grain prices increase, dependent on availability, utilizing wheat may be an option for producers to implement in their feeding program.

The US drought monitor is indicating that drought conditions for central states, including Nebraska, remain in 2022.  Seasonal outlook for the remainder of summer in Nebraska and western states is characterized as drought tendent.  Persistent drought pressured forage and grain prices and deteriorated pasture conditions.  Concurrently, the January US beef cow inventory declined from a peak in 2017 of 31.2 million cows to 30.1 million cows in January of this year.  Implications of lower beef cow inventory on supply of feeder calves are already evident in the marketplace: f

The current map from the U.S. drought monitor (Current Map | U.S. Drought Monitor (unl.edu)) has all but a small corner of Nebraska listed as abnormally dry to extreme drought. This ongoing drought has been affecting parts of the state since 2020, forcing beef cattle producers to make drought related management decisions. One of the options often proposed to help reduce pressure on drought stricken pastures is early weaning.

Drought has limited pasture availability and forced many producers into feeding total mixed rations (TMR) to cows. Including silage in a TMR can reduce ration cost, improve the energy content of the diet, and add moisture, which can serve as a ration conditioner. However, high commodity prices have encouraged many grain farmers to plant corn for grain rather than silage. Silage can also be made from small grains such as rye, wheat, oats, triticale, or barley, or from summer annual forages such as forage sorghum, sorghum-sudan or pearl millet.

The 23^rd annual University of Nebraska–Lincoln Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory (GSL) Open House will be held on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. 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 webinar.

Quality is a prediction of the expected palatability of a carcass. Quality grade is based off animal maturity and marbling. In addition to these factors, other characteristics such as color, texture and firmness of the final product are considered by those making purchasing decisions. Differences in these characteristics can be impacted by several different things and often tie back to the life of the animal. It is often noted that the combination of genetics and environment can impact the phenotype, or physical characteristics, of an animal.

This planting season, early dry conditions followed by late wet conditions in some areas have caused some fields to be designated prevented planting acres. To go along with this, high feed and forage prices and less than ideal pasture conditions due to previous years’ drought are allowing the opportunity for producers to think outside the box. After all, an influx of prevented plant acres provides freedom to produce annual cover crops to counter-balance current forage prices.

In recent years, a modern technology, “virtual fencing,” has emerged into the market and has been gaining growing interest from the livestock producers, particularly in the cattle sector. Virtual fencing technology has been studied in some European countries and Australia where grazing beef and dairy cows are predominant. More research is currently being conducted in the USA to better understand how virtual fencing might fit within cow-calf and yearling operations as a tool for grazing management.

SDSU Extension, Kansas State Research and Extension and Nebraska Extension will host a series of Diversifying with Small Ruminants workshops June 7 in Salina, KS, June 8 in O'Neill, NE and June 9 in Chamberlain, SD. The program will go from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and lunch will be provided.

This program was developed due to interest by cattle producers looking at adding sheep to their beef operation.  We will discuss things to consider when looking at such a move and producers will discuss what they have learned from adding sheep.

This article was first published by "In the Cattle Markets" on May 9, 2022.

In working with cow-calf producers and discussing unit cost of production, labor and equipment costs are often the second largest expense category identified after grazed and harvested feed. Expenses related to labor and equipment have increased dramatically over the last several years and especially in the last 18 months. Competition for labor is high and those with the necessary work ethic and skills frequently find industries outside of agriculture offering wages and benefits difficult to compete with and be profitable.

Presently, despite timely rains in certain areas of Nebraska, the threat of drought for the summer of 2022 is not dissipated.  Prediction models of precipitation for May to July place most of Nebraska counties at leaning below normal probability with probability of temperatures likely above normal.  Weather conditions and continued high grain and forage prices will result in greater annual cow costs in 2022.  

Many rural consumers are switching from multiple trips to the grocery store or local butcher shop to bringing their own cattle in for custom processing. Provided the consumer has access to large areas of available freezer space as well as the ability to afford the upfront cost, this may be an economic way to supply a family with high-quality protein. Following is a guide to selecting the proper animal to feed out for harvesting freezer beef.

This article was first published by "In the Cattle Markets" on April 5, 2022.

Protein is often the first limiting requirement when selecting diets and designing supplementation strategies for cows and growing cattle. Age and stage of production impact how much protein an animal requires. Understanding the different types of protein can help tailor supplements to meet protein requirements economically and effectively.               

Today’s farms and ranches require decisions to be made throughout periods of elevated risk and uncertainty. Managing operational efficiency, grass banking, and destocking herds are all commonly used to stabilize returns during drought conditions and market extremes.

However, the compounding effects of extreme weather, market volatility, and rising input costs have re-focused attention on management alternatives that offer a broader set of resources to use when developing or implementing grazing management plans.