While beta agonists (ractopamine) aren’t approved for use in cattle sold to all packing facilities, and they aren’t right for all situations (heat stress, too heavy of cattle to start with), they certainly do add additional weight and reduce feed conversion the last 28-40 days on feed. Given excellent returns such as this, with the […]

Most cattle producers understand the importance of delivering the right amount of quality nutrients to cows.  They balance for energy levels (body condition) and protein, and provide supplemental minerals and vitamins, recognizing that these are important for colostrum quality, delivering a healthy calf, milk production and reproductive performance. However, not all are aware of the […]

Our favorite time of year is here, calving season! The crisp cold air, the early mornings and late nights and coming out to find a healthy calf and caring momma cow makes it all worth it! Making sure you have a healthy cow to begin with gives you a step ahead in this crucial game. […]

We often focus on what summer heat stress steals from our feedlot revenue; but we tend to put the blinders on when we try to account for what winter cold stress costs us as an industry. Perhaps living in the Midwest, we are accustomed to the cold stress and have the mentality to ‘just deal […]

This prolonged heat spell is going to lead to some issues even after it breaks. One of those potential issues is urinary calculi. This condition is more frequent in males vs. females and more common in steers than bulls due to some physiological reasons. One of the biggest risk factors is elevated dietary phosphorus which […]

Anyone feeding cattle right now is feeling the tight margins due to input costs rising and market prices not following. Whether we should place cattle in the near term is a tough call. What is not a tough call is that if we are tending to cattle today, we need to increase our management skills […]

Warm weather is right around the corner and it is time to start thinking about fly control. Cattlemen are well-aware that as the seasons change, so must their management strategies. Mitigating the fly population within the herd is essential to maintaining profitability and performance of the animal. Control Methods Routine observations can best determine the […]

In a recent Feedlot magazine article, the concept of a Spring Feeding Frenzy was highlighted. It is a good reminder about what will be happening in the next few months. Elanco Nutrition Technical Consultant Gary Vogel, Ph.D outlined what happens as days lengthen and why we need to pay attention to feedlot cattle during this […]

Calving time brings forth a lot of anticipation. Anticipating a new calf crop, a renew of faith in new life, and anticipation of some headaches as well. While we all cannot wait to be on the other side of calving season and see the joys of our hard work; we can help ourselves through this […]

Article originally written for and published by Progressive Cattle. It doesn’t seem like it’s that time, yet here we are in the new year and the freshness of new birth as calving time is around the corner. Among many of the stressors we as cattle producers have felt this year, calving season can by far […]

An early burst of unexpected winter weather may have left many of us unprepared for colder temperatures.  With a couple of weeks of favorable weather in the forecast, there is still time to prepare your cattle facilities for winter. Taking some of these precautions ahead of time can save many headaches when real winter weather […]

It’s been a rough year. I think we can all agree that we have faced many challenges in the cattle industry and are looking forward to fresh cattle in the feed yard and a clean slate to work from. Starting cattle based on their risk factors has a lot to do with type and kind […]