Month: June 2024

The Impact of Rain on Hay Quality

– Ted Wiseman, OSU Extension, Perry County (originally published in Farm & Dairy)

Did rain damage your hay before it got baled?

Hay, a vital feed resource for livestock, needs to be of high quality to ensure animal health and productivity. Unfortunately, when hay gets rained on during the curing process, its quality can be significantly compromised. Understanding how rain affects hay and what can be done to mitigate these effects is crucial for every hay producer.

How Rain Affects Hay

Rain during the hay curing process can lead to several issues. One primary concern is the leaching of nutrients. Rainwater can wash away essential nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and minerals, reducing the overall feeding value of the hay. Even a light rain can cause substantial nutrient losses.

Another significant issue is the Continue reading →

What is your Hay Outlook for the Year?

– Jordan Penrose, Ohio State University Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Morgan County

With first cutting made, have you secured your annual forage needs?

With first cutting progressing across the state, now is the time to evaluate your hay outlook for the year. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you are evaluating. How have your yields been? What do you think your next cutting will look like? Do you have any leftover hay from years before? By asking yourself these questions you are going to come to one of three conclusions, you are right on track, you have an abundant supply, or you have a low supply. Let’s look at some options that you could have if have an abundant or low supply of hay. Because the time to plan is now, the earlier you plan the more options that you will have available to you.

Abundant Supply of Hay

Having an abundant supply of hay is a good problem to have. But what do you do with the extra hay that you won’t use? Do you keep it, or would you like to make a profit? The first thing that may come to mind is to Continue reading →

Is creep feeding calves right for you?

– Bill Halfman, Beef Outreach Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension

Considering whether or not to creep feed is complex.

With cattle prices at record highs and favorable feed prices, producers are likely considering creep feeding their beef calves to add additional pounds.

Creep feeding provides supplemental feed to nursing beef calves in an area that the cows can’t access. It is common for creep feed to consist of grains, protein supplements and limiters, but many other feed sources can be used as creep. The feed may be an on-farm mix or a commercial feed of various types, and usually is fed using a creep feeder.

Whether creep feeding will pay off is more complex than just adding pounds to calves; many factors come into play. Research results over the years have been mixed. It is important to evaluate numerous factors, including Continue reading →

Manure Science Review Coming Thursday August 6th

Register before July 19 for the discounted rate.

The annual Manure Science Review will be held on Tuesday, August 6th from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm at the Farm Science Review Molly Caren Agricultural Center 135 SR 38 NE, London, OH.

Topics will include manure placement and subsurface drainage, 360-RAIN liquid manure application, and a variety of demonstrations.

For more detail and registration information see Ohio State to Host Manure Science Review in August

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The Relative Value of Bred Cows

– James Mitchell, Livestock Marketing Specialist, University of Arkansas

Many analysts expect the beef cattle industry to expand the cowherd in 2025. This won’t be confirmed until the release of the January 2026 Cattle Inventory Report. When herd expansion begins, replacement heifers and bred cows will become increasingly valuable. As one might expect, replacement heifer and bred cow prices are correlated with feeder cattle prices.


Cows that are open but otherwise healthy can enter two marketing channels: cull cow or bred cow markets. In most circumstances, cows leaving a cow-calf operation are sold as open cull cows. However, cyclical cattle inventories and Continue reading →

Beefenomics: Corn-Feeder Cattle Price Connection

– William Secor, Ph.D. University of Georgia Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics

The ups and downs of summer weather are upon us affecting a host of agricultural markets. The focus of this note is looking at how feed costs can affect cattle markets, specifically corn prices. In general, if growing conditions are worse than expected (e.g., a drought), corn prices increase because markets anticipate a smaller than expected crop. In contrast, if growing conditions are better than expected (e.g., ideal weather), corn prices will fall because markets anticipate a larger than expected crop.

For the cattle sector, as corn prices increase, the cost to feed . . .

Continue reading Beefenomics: Corn-Feeder Cattle Price Connection

Beef with a Business Mindset

– Haley Shoemaker, OSU Extension AGNR Educator, Columbiana and Mahoning Counties (originally published in the Ohio Farmer on-line)

Find out where your ‘benchmarks’ fit among your peers.

These days dropping a cull or feeder calf off at the local auction can feel a little bit like Christmas in July – prices are solid, and markets are strong, largely due to a decline in cattle inventory following years of drought and production challenges.  And while as cattle producers we’re naturally inclined to keep the “when will these prices end” thought in the back of our mind, we also sometimes find ourselves getting comfortable with the idea of $135/cwt for culls or upwards of $300/cwt for calves.

Periods of high prices, such as those the industry is experiencing now, have been known to make the good farm business manager look great, and the mediocre farm manager look good.  Anyone who’s been in business for any amount of time knows that these trends have a way of evening themselves out, but the factor that remains is that a well-managed farm business will stand the test of time, and volatile markets.  One of the tools utilized by beef herd managers across the U.S. is called FINPACK, a financial analysis software service offered in Ohio through the Farm Business Analysis and Benchmarking Team.  Each year, farm analysis teams throughout the country collect data from a variety of enterprises, ranging from beef, dairy, and crops to specialty products and small ruminants.  The data collected from balance sheets, income statements, and enterprise analyses not only provide Continue reading →

Record Keeping for a Healthy Herd

– Dr. Michelle Arnold, UK Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory

Individual identification is critical for success of a record keeping system.

Keeping written farm records is like participating in a regular exercise program, easy to talk about but often hard to put into practice. Without good records, evaluating individual cow performance and the financial success of the beef cattle enterprise is a “guesstimation” (guess + estimation) at best. Even with handwritten records, taking that data and placing it in a system that allows for analysis is a step that is easily overlooked or forgotten. Computers have made this task easier, especially with the advent of programs designed for cow-calf producers. It is easy to see the value of knowing performance but what about health records? How important are records to maintaining a healthy herd?

Production records are invaluable to allow the beef producer not only to look at what is currently taking place within the cow herd but, more importantly, to look at how management changes impact the performance of the herd. Through analysis over the long-term, records can help to pinpoint weak areas in the management program and in identifying individual animals that fail to perform at profitable levels. With health data, it is possible to conduct a herd-specific risk assessment for a certain portion of the production cycle such as “calving season”. This “assessment” begins with a “risk analysis” which is identifying the “hazards” in your operation that contribute to sickness and death loss. For example, hazards during the calving season may be dystocia (difficult births), weak calves, scours, and environmental hazards such as Continue reading →

Honeysuckle; Friend or Foe?

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

Tartarian honeysuckle. Photo by Kathy Smith, OSU Extension, School of Environment and Natural Resources.

Honeysuckle is a commonly found plant that often draws attention of passersby with its pleasantly fragrant blossoms from April to July. The sweet nectar inside its tubular flowers is edible by many animals and even people. There are over 180 known honeysuckle species in the northern hemisphere. It’s beauty and fragrance lead to the introduction of many non-native honeysuckle species to North America in the 1800s primarily for ornamental use. Despite the sweetness it adds to the air, the impacts that non-native types have had on our environment are certainly not sweet.

Unfortunately, four of these introduced species are extremely aggressive in our landscapes and have created an imbalance in natural systems due to their ability to outcompete native plants for resources. The types of honeysuckles which are damaging to these spaces are Japanese honeysuckle, which is a vining type, and three bush type honeysuckles- amur, morrow’s, and tartarian. Some species form dense thickets of shrubs and some spread with vast creeping vines that can strangle neighboring plants. These honeysuckle species are commonly found in pastures, woodlands, reclaimed sites, and Continue reading →

Common Challenges of Cow-calf Share Arrangements

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

As an Extension economist that focuses in the area of livestock marketing, I always learn a lot by working through questions I get from stakeholders. A couple times each year a farmer or Extension agent will reach out to me hoping to understand what type of arrangement is typical when multiple individuals partner on a cow herd. The reality is that these arrangements tend to be very complex, and each one is unique. Often, one of the individuals provides the majority of the labor and management, while the other owns the land, cattle and equipment. From there, these arrangements vary greatly as to which party provides what and who is responsible for which expenses. It can be difficult to set share agreements up in a way that is attractive to both parties and this article will briefly talk through some of the reasons why.

First, large profits have historically been pretty elusive in the cow-calf business. I am well aware that I am writing this during a time when calf prices are extremely high and that can be seen in the Southern Plains calf price chart above. But the profit levels being seen during Continue reading →