Month: June 2025

Car for Your Animal During Exhibition

Dr. Maurice Eastridge, Professor and Senior Associate Chair, OSU Dairy Extension Specialist
Dr. Elizabeth Share, OSU 4-H Program Specialist
Dr. Brady Campbell, Assistant Professor, OSU State Small Ruminant Extension Specialist
Dr. Justin Kieffer, DVM, OSU Professional Practice Assistant Professor/Clinical Veterinarian
Jason Hartschuh, Dairy Management and Precision Livestock, Field Specialist, OSU Extension

(Make sure the water supply is plentiful and clean. It is difficult to see the bottom of dark-colored buckets so watch carefully for sediment.)

Owning and caring for animals provides for a wonderful opportunity to learn about animal behavior and their needs, the responsibility for the care of animals, and about many facets of agriculture. It also helps to develop work ethic and growth in personal skills. Careful selection of animals for exhibition must be under the guidance of an adult to select healthy animals and animals that are going to align with the characteristics for the respective species and class within species.

Before Exhibition
The animal should be in good health, including up-to-date on all appropriate vaccinations and parasite treatments. You should have already established a veterinarian-client-patientrelationship (VCPR). If it is a growing animal, ensure it is Continue reading

OSU Extension Offering Hay Testing Program

Garth Ruff, Beef Cattle Field Specialist, OSU Extension

(Image Source: Davis Equine Service)

“Make hay while the sun shines.” How many times have you heard that said throughout the years? We’ve had some sunshine this spring/summer, but making first cutting “dry” hay has really been challenging for most farmers this year. Getting two or more days in a row without rain has been rare in the spring of 2025.

In response to these challenges OSU Extension is offering a forage testing program with the goal of providing timely education regarding forage quality and winter supplementation and if enough samples are submitted, creating an eBarn’s county hay quality summary. Reach out to your local Extension office to confirm that they are participating in the testing program and the availability of a forage sampling probe.

To participate you may submit dry hay or baleage samples to your local OSU Extension office by July 31, 2025 along with a Hay Sample Submission form for each sample, and include this completed program summary sheet with your payment. The first sample analysis will cost $15, with subsequent samples costing $20. Near Infrared (NIR) Analysis will be completed. In return producers will receive values for Dry Matter Content, Total Digestible Nutrients, Crude Protein, ADF, NDF, Ash, Fat, C, P, K for each sample submitted.

For more detailing the challenges of making hay during a wet May and June, see You Finally Got the Hay Made, How Good is It? by Mark Landefeld, retired Monroe County ANR Extension Educator.

Clipping Pastures: An Age-Old Debate

Mike Rankin, Senior Editor, Hay & Forage Grower
(Previously published online with Hay & Forage Grower: July 23, 2024)

Farmers are known to have strong opinions and often readily express them. From a pasture management perspective, few topics illicit stronger feelings than when the clipping topic is put on the table.

I recently returned from a grazing dairy where I didn’t even have to broach the subject. As we walked down the lane to a far-off paddock, the farmer passionately went into a dissertation of why he routinely clips pastures after the first or second rotation. I’ve also been on farms where a strong stance was taken for not clipping.

The primary reason for clipping is to improve the forage quality of the pasture by eliminating the taller mature stems and seedheads. This sets pasture plants back to a vegetative state and creates a uniform stubble height. In doing so, the mature stems don’t restrict animals from accessing the vegetative growth in the lower canopy during the next rotation. A secondary reason to clip pastures — but with little economic significance — is simply Continue reading Clipping Pastures: An Age-Old Debate →

Small Ruminant 509 Postponed to Fall of 2025

Kayla Scott, Graduate Research Associate, Department of Animal Sciences

Dueto unforeseen circumstances, the Small Ruminant 509 program will be postponed until Fall 2025. This decision was not made lightly and proceeds with careful consideration from our team. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding while we reschedule. Thank you for your continued interest and support. Please do not hesitate if you have questions or concerns.

We hope to see you in Fall 2025!

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How and Why to Test for Forage Quality

As I have traveled across the state this week, I’ve noticed one thing. You’ve got to make hay when the sun shines! This has been the case for many producers here in the Buckeye state. However, with the extended cool weather coupled with extensive rains, our forages have produced a lot of dry matter. Unfortunately, quantity and quality of our forages don’t always play nice with one another. It is my estimation that much of the hay made this week will be of poor quality – but we won’t know for sure unless we get it tested!