September is nearly here. While some of us wonder where the Summer went, in reality, the quality of our pasture forages are falling like a North Korean missile test.
Here are 10 opportunities you should consider, before you decide to hold off on your fall supplementation program. Remember that your cows are taking care of two calf crops until this year’s calves are weaned.
As breeding season quickly approaches, goat owners should think about whether or not to flush their breeding does. What is flushing? Flushing in simple terms refers to putting the animals on a higher plain of nutrition 30 days prior to breeding and continuing on until 30 days after breeding. The purpose of flushing is to facilitate better ovulation rates and increased implantation rates resulting in better conception rates and increased twinning or even triples. Under the correct circumstances the practice of flushing can reap many benefits; however, it is not ideal for every situation.
Using CRYSTALYX® in weaning & receiving programs is well established and promoted. In a CRYSTALYX® weaning program, products such as Beef-Lyx®, Brigade®, or Battalion® are placed with newly weaned calves or with cow-calf pairs a couple of weeks ahead of cow-calf separation. CRYSTALYX® is then left with calves for about a month until they are on feed and completely weaned. In this blog, I will review these different CRYSTALYX® products. There are distinct fortification differences between the three and one may fit better depending on the weaning strategy.
Stress... it's part of life. Whether it's caused by work, school, neighbors, we all deal with it in our own way and move on. Livestock experience stress too. We tend to focus on stress in calves and feedlot cattle and how that affects performance and ultimately the bottom line. But what about the cows in the pasture? To be honest, I never really thought about it either. This year’s wildfires and weather have brought it to mind several times though, do cow have a memory for stressful events?
As we enter the later part of the summer, many farms and ranches may find themselves short of grass. In the upper plains, the main reason may be due to drought conditions and in other areas it may be due to stocking rate combined with weather issues. I travel in areas of expensive farm ground where the availability of pasture land is still an issue. Several producers have added cows more quickly than pasture has become available or available at a reasonable cost. We have yet to see corn and bean ground going back into grassland at an appreciable rate. Whatever the reason of forage shortage, the decision to early wean can benefit the cow by reducing the nutrient demand for lactation and allowing her to regain body condition.
