Month: August 2023

Field Days to Examine Crop and Livestock Integration Barriers and Benefits

Are there economic and environmental tradeoffs associated with different approaches to mixing livestock and row crop production?

Fertilizer prices, soil health concerns, and extreme weather events have led many Ohio farmers to consider the benefits and barriers of adding manure and other livestock production elements to their row crop operations. Two Ohio State field days in August will provide farmer and researcher input on these choices.

The field days are part of an Ohio State research project funded by the USDA. The research team has spent the last year and a half working with farmers to study the economic and environmental tradeoffs associated with different approaches to mixing livestock and row crop production. To accomplish this, they have compared on-farm samples and interview data from 31 Ohio farms which represent different levels of crop and livestock integration.

Both events will feature a . . .

Continue reading Field Days to Examine Crop and Livestock Integration Barriers and Benefits

Uncertainty and Variability but not in Cattle

– Stephen R. Koontz, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University

Cattle and feed markets remain a contrast this summer. December corn futures established a support low in May, tested the resistance high at the end of June, then returned to and tested support a few days later in early-July, rallied to what I am uncomfortable calling a 50% correction in mid-July, and is now breaking back to the support low. This is a textbook case of uncertainty where the market is looking for the appropriate price level where the trading slows down. And I do not think the feed grain market is through as crop conditions remain uncertain. There are a lot of acres but rather variable conditions. In the face of this for-now lower feed grain market, the forage markets in the high plains remain rather strong. Higher quality hays are in the mid-$200s approaching $300 per ton. And lower quality forages are well above $100 to $150 per ton. There is enough drought and strong demand that forages remain expensive.

Feeder cattle and calf markets showed little comparable reaction to the feed grain markets over the past two months. There was a brief price break in June with the first harvest corn price run up. But 7-8 weight feeder cattle futures have largely held the $250 per hundredweight level and cash has moved to these levels. This is reasonable – from an economic fundamental perspective – given the strength in the fed cattle market and the downstream boxed beef market. It is not simply tighter numbers – much tighter numbers are ahead of us when herd building restarts – beef production is off modestly but the strength in demand. Within the important underlying fundamentals, slaughter weights are seasonally tight, cattle on feed over 120 days are very tight compared to prior years, packer margins and feedlot margins are very strong. These are all bullish signals. At some point in the future, we will need to be concerned about competing meat supplies, trade volumes, the strength of the dollar, and interest rates versus inflation. But this summer the cattle and beef market just continue to show dramatic strength. And this is largely due to the underlying strength in the domestic economy.

Know the ins and outs of feeding baleage

– Jason Hartschuh, OSU Extension Field Specialist Dairy Management and Precision Livestock (originally published in Farm & Dairy)

Timeliness of the wrap is important for proper fermentation. Photo: Gelley, 2023 SE Ohio Hay Day

Maintaining forage quality with small dry-weather windows can be done by using baleage instead of dry hay.

The ideal conditions for baleage is to bale the hay between 40 to 65% moisture and wrap within two hours of baling. This process uses anaerobic conditions and the acids produced in fermentations to preserve hay.

Baleage fermentation is slower than in haylage, often taking six weeks. When forage is baled between 25 to 40% moisture, it will not ferment properly and baleage at these moisture levels should be considered as temporary storage.

During such situations, preservation is primarily a function of maintaining anaerobic, oxygen-limiting conditions. Mold is more likely at this moisture; higher bale densities and more wraps of plastic is required to better seal out oxygen. Baleage at this moisture will not maintain quality for Continue reading Know the ins and outs of feeding baleage →

Pinkeye Prevention begins Long Before the First Bad Eye of the Season

– Dr. Michelle Arnold, DVM (Ruminant Extension Veterinarian, UKVDL)

Corneal ulceration in the early stages of pinkeye. Photo from Veterinary Clinics of North America, Food Animal Practice 26 (2010), page 489.

Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis (IBK) or “Pinkeye” is a costly and exasperating disease for the beef producer and industry. For the producer, the economic costs of pinkeye include lower average weaning weights, pinkeye treatment and labor costs, and discounts received for calves with corneal scars. Despite ongoing research to combat this disease, prevention has proven difficult because of the complicated interaction of pathogens (bacteria), host (cow/calf), and environmental factors that result in pinkeye’s development and its fast spread. Frequent observation of the herd allows early recognition and prompt treatment of affected eyes, resulting in better healing and less transmission to herd mates. However, preventing a pinkeye outbreak does not start with the first bad eye of the season. Once pinkeye cases begin, it is highly contagious and the bacterial pathogens spread rapidly by direct contact and by mechanical vectors, especially face flies. In an outbreak, on average 10% of calves and 3% of cows in a herd are affected in 30 days or less. Although knowledge gaps exist in our understanding of immunity in the bovine eye, prevention starts early by maximizing the herd’s ability to fight disease, and through reduction of sources of eye irritation, injury, and transmission. Pinkeye prevention for individual herds is best accomplished with Continue reading Pinkeye Prevention begins Long Before the First Bad Eye of the Season →

Posted by at Posted in Health

Would Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags benefit your farm?

– Jason Hartschuh, Dairy Management and Precision Livestock Field Specialist, Ohio State University Extension

Ohio cattlemen can request free, white 840 tags.

USDA is providing a limited number of official 840 RFID tags for each state to distribute to cattle producers and accredited veterinarians in the state. Low-frequency button tags are available in either white or orange. White tags are for any cattle while the orange tags are reserved for cattle that received calf hood vaccination for brucellosis. Only veterinarians can request the orange tags. If a calf already has an 840 RFID tag it cannot receive another 840 tag, these tags must stay in the animal’s ear for life and not be removed.

A Premises Identification Number (PIN) is required to order the free RFID tags. To obtain a PIN, scan the QR code found in the fact sheet linked here to access PIN registration on the ODA website, or call them at 614-728-6220.

Premises ID numbers are required when using 840 tags to assist in animal disease traceability.  Once an 840 RFID tag is utilized producers can either Continue reading Would Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags benefit your farm? →

The Duration of Cattle Growing Programs Should be Driven by Goals of the Operation

– Dr. Kenny Burdine, Extension Professor, Livestock Marketing, University of Kentucky

Cattle growing programs are a key component of the beef cattle sector. Each year a large number of calves are placed into pasture-based and feed-based programs to be grown for a period of time before being placed on full feed for finishing. I always enjoy working with farmers that have these types of operations because they can be so widely different in how they operate. On occasions when I am able to work with someone who is fairly new to a system like this, they will often ask questions about how long they should keep cattle. As I probe a little deeper, they are often asking how to balance the benefit of adding more lbs per head by keeping cattle longer vs turning cattle over more often and running more total head each year.


There is not an answer to this question that applies to all situations because every operation is different. As I often to do when discussing something like this, I will start by simplifying the world and considering two very different types of growing programs. For the sake of illustration, let’s say that operation #1 pays a premium to buy preconditioned calves that they perceive as being lower risk and feeds them over a period of 4-6 months before reselling them as heavy feeders. Conversely, operation #2 buys Continue reading The Duration of Cattle Growing Programs Should be Driven by Goals of the Operation →

Revisit the 2023 OSU Beef Team Virtual Beef School

Enjoy 2023 Virtual Beef School sessions linked here for your convenience.

The Ohio State University Extension Beef Team hosted the 2023 Virtual Beef School on the second Wednesday of each month, January through April. In case you missed any of the session, or would like to review them, find the recording of each linked below:

  • January 11; A Look at Input Costs with Barry Ward, OSU Extension Leader for Production Business Management and Market Outlook with Garth Ruff, OSU Extension Beef Field Specialist (view the recording here)
  • February 8; Presynchronization and Improving Fertility of Beef Cows (click link to see presentation) with Alex Crist, OSU Animal Sciences and Synchronization and Natural Service (click here to see presentation) with Dean Kreager, OSU Extension Educator
  • March 8; Asian Longhorn Tick and Theileria (click here to see presentation) with Dr. Risa Pesepane, OSU Vet Preventative Medicine and Managing Anaplasmosis (click here to see presentation) with Dr. Justin Kieffer DVM, OSU Animal Sciences. Dr. Kieffer also explained what the Veterinary oversight of OTC antibiotics would mean to cattlemen, and what the meaning of VCPR is.
  • April 12; OSU Beef Team Live Roundtable, Q & A session with OSU Extension Beef Team members. (click here to see recorded presentation)

Forage Management and Heavy Rain Events

– Victor Shelton, Retired NRCS Agronomist/Grazing Specialist

Regrowth is highly influenced by rest, recovery, and soil cover.

Moisture, or rather the lack of sufficient amount of moisture, is still an issue for quite a bit of the Midwest. Some areas have certainly been blessed with more rain than others, but I must remind you and myself that we’re only about two weeks away from a drought from about any time period. We should always strive to take advantage of and conserve any moisture we receive.

I’ve been repairing some fence lines along wooded areas that seem to be testing my patience. Windstorms with dying or dead ash trees don’t make a good combination.  That has caused me to dig and replace a few fence posts that were in the line of spoilage. On a somewhat positive point, it allowed me the opportunity to evaluate the soil moisture in the depth of the post hole. Even though I’ve had rain, soil moisture was a little less than normal as I dug deeper – but it could have been a lot drier.

You can’t change the amount of rain you get, but you can influence the impact of that rain to a degree. Ideally, you want to Continue reading Forage Management and Heavy Rain Events →

Fescue, At Your Service?

– Jason Duggin, UGA Department of Animal and Dairy Science

Fescue can serve as a main forage supply, but there are some things to consider.

TV informercials can be convincing. That new gadget promises to save you time and money for only $19.99, plus shipping and handling. It’s exactly what you need, but the new gadget doesn’t really fulfill all its lofty promises. In the Southeast, one of our main forages looks promising – but doesn’t deliver as expected.

Fescue can serve as a main forage supply, but there are some things that need to be considered to mitigate the toxic endophytes. As a blessing, a pasture full of growing grass looks just like the cure for supplying nutrition through the spring and early fall. As a curse, cattle with an abundant amount of grass are a body condition score thinner than ideal, conception rates are poor, and late-spring hair coats look like shag carpet sopped in mud. Summers are spent in the shade, ponds, and mud holes. Most folks understand tall fescue is bad stuff, but they either don’t know the whole impact or feel helpless to do anything about it. If you ever wondered why producers have fall-calving herds, this is one of the reasons. Breeding seasons in May and June can have very disappointing conception rates when toxic endophyte fescue is the main forage. Although fall calving helps, the growing calves and replacement heifers will be victims come . . .

Continue reading Fescue, At Your Service?

Cattle Handling and Stockmanship Influence on Animal Performance

– Bill Halfman, Agriculture Agent, Monroe County, Wisconsin

Hands on cattle handling demonstrations will be a large part of Stockmanship & Stewardship in Caldwell in September.

We often hear and see reports on how sickness or the use of technologies such as fly control, implants, ionophores, and others influence animal performance and profitability.

Low-stress cattle handling methods have been discussed and promoted for many years, but the influence on animal performance is not often part of those discussions. Some research has been done to investigate the influence that stockmanship has on disposition and animal performance and more is being done.

Good stockmanship and low-stress handling methods include utilizing the animals’ natural tendencies to the handlers’ advantage while working or handling cattle. It includes calm and quiet action and movements by the handlers, changing and remodeling equipment and facilities if there are problem areas that impede cattle flow, and acclimating the cattle to . . .

EDITOR’s NOTE: Hands on cattle handling demonstrations will be a large part of Stockmanship & Stewardship in Caldwell in September. Learn more and register at: https://www.stockmanshipandstewardship.org/

Continue reading Cattle Handling and Stockmanship Influence on Animal Performance