BeefWatch Archive

Beefwatch Archive

To read articles prior to September 2017, please visit the article archive on UNL Announce.

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Rebuilding Fences After Flood or Blizzard Damage

One of the greatest needs for ranchers after damage from flooding or a blizzard is the need to rebuild fences. This article will review Nebraska fence law, available assistance for replacing fences, and considerations as you assess the damage.
Monday, April 8, 2019

Body Condition Score and Getting Thin Cows to Rebreed

During the production year, livestock are faced with dynamic changes in nutritional and environmental stressors that create nutritional challenges. Many parts of Nebraska experienced high, early spring rainfall and tremendous forage growth, resulting in early maturing and low-quality forages.  
Monday, April 1, 2019

Nebraska Ranch Practicum – Seeking Applications

The 2019 Nebraska Ranch Practicum gives ranchers cutting edge research in range livestock production from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  Natural resources, livestock management, and economic reality are integrated throughout the Practicum.

Monday, April 1, 2019

New Technologies for Range and Pasture Management

As technology improves and continually moves forward, more and more information can be gathered remotely to make informed decisions on Nebraska's farms and ranches. Remote Sensing is the science of obtaining information about objects or areas from a distance, typically from drones, airplanes, or satellites. Since the 1970s, the Landsat satellite program has collected earth imagery data. Current satellites with this program take imagery and sensor data from earth's entire surface once every 16 days.

Monday, April 1, 2019

Getting Ready for the Grazing and Forage Production Season

The start of the growing season will be here soon and it is time to finish up grazing and forage plans for the upcoming year.  Rangeland and pasture production in 2018 was very good with many areas of the state seeing production 10 to 30% above average.  This, of course, was the result of abundant and timely rains during spring into mid-summer.  While long-range weather forecasts always have some uncertainty, the Climate Prediction Center currently indicates weak El Nino conditions in the Pacific Ocean.&nbs

Monday, April 1, 2019

Importance of Cow Nutrition from Calving through Breeding

For cow-calf producers, the last few months have been very challenging from a weather standpoint.  This has left many first-calf heifers and cows in less than optimum in terms of body condition at the time of calving.  Weather conditions have also significantly depleted feed resources available as many producers have had to feed earlier and more than normal.

Monday, April 1, 2019

Marestail / Horseweed

Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) is a concept to identify potential invasive species prior to or just as the establishment of the invasive is taking place. An Integrated Pest Management plan (IPM) can be developed to manage, contain and eradicate the invasive species before it can spread further. This will avoid costly, long-term control efforts.
Thursday, March 28, 2019

Dealing with flooded hay and grain

Is wet feed and hay salvageable? The first thing to ask is where did the water come from? If hay, silage, or grain was in contact with flood water that could have come in contact with chemicals from building or cities (any water from rivers or streams) federal regulations state that it should not be fed and should instead be disposed of. Feed that was in fields that ponded due to rain or snow melt maybe salvageable. However, if water came up through tiles into the field it could contain animal waste products, high chemical levels and other contaminants.
Monday, March 25, 2019

2019 Feedyard Extension Webinar

We will resume the feedyard extension webinar series this week, on Wednesday, March 27. It will be the first of eight feedyard extension webinars planned for 2019. The webinar will be broadcast live at 12:30 pm (central) and each topic will only last 10 to 15 minutes and will allow for questions. 

Topic: Feedyard Assessments: How To
Speakers: Brian Vanderlay and Rob Erich

Friday, March 22, 2019

Feeding Cows After the Flood

The recent flood resulted in loss of feed stocks for herds. Currently, many fellow producers are stepping up to the plate and donating grass hay. For cows that had already calved, but lost their calf in the flood medium quality grass hay, fed free choice, will likely meet their energy and protein needs. However, cows that did not lose their calves in the flood and/or had not calved yet, their nutritional requirements will be much greater. To keep the cows and calves healthy and get cows rebred, meeting their nutritional needs is important.

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