Month: March 2025

Early spring seeded forage to fill shortfalls

– Jason Hartschuh, OSU Extension Field Specialist, Dairy Management and Precision Livestock

Spring seeded oats are an option for early forage.

The past six to nine months have been brutal for perennial forage production, from drought conditions that have damaged pastures and hay fields. To winter annuals that look much browner than we are used to this winter. Additionally, the colder than normal winter weather conditions caused livestock to need more energy than in recent winters, causing them to eat more hay than usual. Some drought damaged pastures may require remediation practices this year. All of these factors may lead to a need for early spring seeded forage.

It definitely feels like spring is here, and it is time to think about planting as the sun shines and my thermometer has risen to 63°F today. While it might still be a little early in Northern Ohio for spring planting, for the southern part of the state, we can start planting spring summer annuals soon. These forages can provide high-quality feed for livestock, improve soil health, and enhance pasture productivity by allowing reseeded pastures to rest. Planting of spring annuals can begin once Continue reading Early spring seeded forage to fill shortfalls →

Was the grass dead or dormant?

– Christine Gelley, OSU Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County (also published in Ohio Farmer on-line)

This tall fescue pasture has been resting since August 2024 and is greening up in March 2025.

Prolonged drought in much of the state during 2024 led to many conversations about how bad the observed condition of pasture actually was and if it would bounce back when precipitation comes. Three months into 2025, we are still waiting for the answer.

Back in July and August, I answered those questions with the response of “Right now, the grass is dormant. It is saving resources to rebound when moisture comes.” Moving into in October and November, I became less confident that the brown and crusty grass we saw was dormant. Some of it was dead and some was dormant. We are still waiting to see which Continue reading Was the grass dead or dormant? →

Reclaiming Pugged Up Pastures

– Dr. Chris Teutsch, UK Research and Education Center at Princeton

Figure 1. Sorghum-sudangrass is easily established once soil temperatures research 60 F and provides rapid growth and canopy cover outcompeting common summer annual weeds.

Wet conditions this winter have resulted in almost complete disturbance in and around hay feeding areas. Even well designed hay feeding pads will have significant damage surrounding the pad where animals enter and leave. These highly disturbed areas create perfect growing conditions for summer annual weeds like spiny pigweed and cockle bur. Their growth is stimulated by lack of competition from a healthy and vigorous sod and the high fertility from the dung, urine and decomposing organic material around hay feeding areas.

Our most common approach to revegetating these areas is trying to reseed cool-season perennial grasses (tall fescue and orchardgrass) and legumes (red and white clover) in mid- to late-spring. On the surface this seems to be a logical approach. However, it rarely works as well as we would like. The problem is that cool-season perennial grasses usually don’t have enough time to become fully established before the weather turns hot. In addition, summer annual weed pressure can be fierce during establishment. The net result is that Continue reading Reclaiming Pugged Up Pastures →

Register for the upcoming Certified Livestock Management (CLM) webinar series!

Register to view the remaining sessions live.

The OSU Extension’s water quality team is back for the 4th year of their Certified Livestock Management webinar series. Including the next session on April 7 and continuing on June 2, August 4, October 6, and December 1, these webinars will cover topics relevant to Certified Livestock Managers, as well as Certified Crop Advisers. Each webinar will be recorded and posted to the OSU Agronomy Team’s YouTube Channel for later viewing.

Following the presentation, each webinar will provide an avenue for audience members to ask questions of our unique panel of speakers for that day’s event. Each webinar will provide 1.5 CLM continuing education credits as well as 1.5 credit hours for CCAs. These webinars will offer Continue reading Register for the upcoming Certified Livestock Management (CLM) webinar series! →

Cattle on Feed, Livestock Slaughter, and the Welcome Return of the July Cattle Report

– Josh Maples, Assistant Professor & Extension Economist, Department of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University

Last week brought the release of a few key monthly cattle reports with interesting headlines. The monthly Cattle on Feed and Livestock Slaughter reports each showed sharp declines from year-ago levels. February 2024 had one extra day due to the leap year but that was not the only driver of the differences. We also received news of the return of the July Cattle inventory report. For this newsletter, we’ll dig into news from each of these reports.

The February Cattle on Feed report was released on Friday and showed lower numbers across placements, marketings, and total cattle on feed. The total inventory of cattle on feed in Continue reading Cattle on Feed, Livestock Slaughter, and the Welcome Return of the July Cattle Report →

Importance of Managing Inputs with High Cattle Prices

– Hannah Baker, M.S., State Specialized Extension Agent – Beef and Forage Economics, Range Cattle Research and Education Center, University of Florida / IFAS Extension

This week: Manage input costs.

2025 is expected to be another year of high cattle prices as a result of, primarily, tight supplies. Average weekly prices for 500-600-pound steer calves across the country have increased by roughly 10 percent with fed steer prices also increasing 10 percent year over year. Week to week, there has been some volatility, but overall, prices have remained strong during the first few months of 2025. Prices for weaned heifers, replacement cattle, and cull cows in Florida are following the same trend with March prices being 7 percent, 22 percent, and 16 percent higher year over year, respectively. As we approach expansion and more heifers are retained and culling slows more than it already has, the value of female cattle will increase. Prices for feeder cattle will also increase with less heifers entering the market. The next few years are expected to be highly favorable for cow-calf producers in terms of revenue.

In terms of profitability, production costs are also high, affecting how large Continue reading Importance of Managing Inputs with High Cattle Prices →

Check for Contaminants in Hay

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

If feeding purchased hay, scout for toxic weeds before, during, and after feeding.

Making and feeding hay can be tricky business. After a long season feeding hay, livestock producers are getting a lot of experience judging hay by its appearance. The way hay looks and feels can be helpful for making assumptions about hay, but appearance, smell, and texture are just a few indicators of quality. It takes these factors plus a laboratory analysis to truly understand the nutritional value of hay.

Even with a hay test in hand, we should still use our senses of sight, smell, and touch to help evaluate quality because sometimes we can spot an unwanted contaminant in hay that a lab test would miss.

The following are hay quality indicators that we can pick up on using our senses to determine if hay is worth Continue reading Check for Contaminants in Hay →

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION: Improve Hay Quality in 2025

– Dr. Chris Teutsch, Forage Extension, UK Grain and Forage Center of Excellence at Princeton

Figure 1. Impact of stage of maturity at harvest on forage quality (Blaser et al., 1986).

Last fall we analyzed 1,127 hay samples as part of the Eastern, Central, and South-Central Kentucky Hay Contests. A summary of the results can be found in Table 1. Nutrient requirement s of various livestock classes can be found in Table 2. So here is what we found:

• Crude protein (4.6 to 26.7%) and total digestible nutrients (39 to 76%) varied widely
• 3% of the hay samples contained less than 50% TDN
• 1.4% of the hay samples contained less than 8% crude protein
• 283 samples or 25% contained enough energy to meet the requirements of a beef cow at peak lactation
• 777 samples or 69% would meet the protein requirements of a beef cow at peak lactation
• 1111 samples or 99% contained enough protein to meet the needs of a dry pregnant cow
• 1091 samples or 97% contained enough energy to meet the requirements of a dry pregnant cow

In general, a higher percentage of hay samples required Continue reading NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION: Improve Hay Quality in 2025 →

Beef School Session Focuses on Open Cows and Culls

Register today, it’s free!

All things considered – drought followed by mud followed by the coldest mid winter in years, plus temperatures that have gone from one extreme to another . . . multiple times – the past 6 to 8 months have collectively been some of the most stressful conditions experienced in Ohio in years. Regardless if calving in spring or fall, that stress can prove to be devastating on the pregnancy rates of a cow herd.

If you own cows, make plans to join us during next Wednesday’s third session of the Ohio Virtual Beef School when we dive into two questions that should be on every cattleman’s mind: Why Are My Cows Open? and Open Cows – Keep or Cull?

If you still need to register in order to receive free log-in details, visit: go.osu.edu/beefschool25.

Weekly Livestock Comments for March 14, 2025

– Dr. Andrew Griffith, Assistant Professor, Livestock Marketing Specialist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Tennessee

At midday last Friday, the Choice Select spread was $11.55 compared to $8.22 a week ago.

FED CATTLE
Fed cattle traded $6 higher on a live basis compared to last week. Prices were mainly $203 to $205 on a live basis. Dressed trade was mainly $325.

The 5-area weighted average prices thru Thursday were not available due to a lack of reportable trade the first four days of the week. A year ago, prices were $187.82 live and $298.41 dressed.

Cattle feeders and packers have been too busy this week to trade cattle until Friday afternoon. This is said as a joke in that both parties have toyed back and forth all week, but the parties struggled to come to terms on prices this week. This is not a new occurrence as slow trade has been common due to packers losing money and cattle feeders knowing they hold the cards as it relates to supply moving to slaughter. Based on the first few thousand head that traded this week, it would appear cattle Continue reading Weekly Livestock Comments for March 14, 2025 →