We have a new website!

Welcome to the 951st issue of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter! As we begin the 20th year of publishing this weekly letter, today it comes to you with a totally new web appearance that includes many new and improved features.

What you saw before was a site published in html format that allowed pretty fast download times in areas of the state that were still on dial-up web service. While we hope this new format will load just as quickly, it does, indeed, come with several features that will better accommodate today’s technology, many of which our readers have been asking for.

On the front page of the site, find quick links in two places to the newsletter, listings of events and programs, resource library, the Team’s YouTube channel and team members contact information.

You will find that we are now very mobile phone and iPad friendly.

You will also find that newsletter articles are Continue reading

Have You Fertilized Your Hay Fields Yet?

Stan Smith, OSU Extension PA, Fairfield County

Yes, it may be considered adding insult to injury, but even that very mature, poor quality, lowly digestible, late made first cutting hay that was harvested this year took with it lots of soil nutrients. Fact is, each ton of hay that’s harvested and removed from a field in the harvest process takes with it roughly 13 pounds of P2O5 (phosphorus) and 50 pounds of K2O (potash). That’s regardless the calendar date or quality of the material that’s harvested.

To maintain productivity and plant health, fertility that’s removed needs to be Continue reading

Posted in Forages

2016 Ohio Beef Cattle School Dates Announced

John F. Grimes, OSU Extension Beef Coordinator

The Ohio State University Extension Beef Team would like to announce the dates for the 2016 Ohio Beef Cattle School that will take place next winter. The dates for the school will be January 19, February 2, and February 16, 2016. These are all Tuesdays and the programs will begin at 7:00 p.m. each evening. The theme for this year’s school will focus on Continue reading

Posted in Events

Canadian and U.S. Beef Herds Move in Opposite Directions

– Tim Petry, Livestock Economist, North Dakota State University Extension Service

On August 20, 2015, Statistics Canada released its Livestock Estimates, July 1, 2015, report which detailed cattle, hog and sheep inventories in Canada (www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/150820/dq150820c-eng.htm). That same day USDA-NASS released the United States and Canadian Cattle and the United States and Canadian Hogs reports (www.nass.usda.gov).

The July 1 U.S. cattle inventory numbers were also previously released by NASS on July 24 in the Cattle report. Those numbers have been discussed in previous In The Cattle Market columns. In summary, the best overall pasture and range conditions in many years in states east of the Continental Divide and record calf prices spurred continued interest in beef cow herd rebuilding. Most U.S. cattle inventory categories saw Continue reading