By Tracey Koester, ARA Editorial Coordinator Each week, the mailman delivers fresh reading material to cattlemen and eBlasts fill up inboxes with links to online catalogs, videos and sale reminders. Facebook and other social media outlets resonate with individual lot information and pre-sale activities. The influx of communication and data during bull sale season can [...]

Grady Ruble, SDSU Extension Cow/Calf Field Specialist Purchasing or raising replacement females represents a significant investment for cow/calf operations and the impact may be felt for years after. To aid in the decision process, we are building a Microsoft Excel based decision aid that will allow producers to compare two business models: developing home-raised replacements [...]

The Gelbvieh and Balancer® Pen Show took place at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado, on Sunday, January 13, 2019. A total of 17 pens entered in this year’s show and included 14 pens of bulls and three pens of heifers. Quinton Smith, Lebanon, Tennessee, judged both the pen bull and pen heifer [...]

By Ryon Walker, Ph.D.Livestock Consultant Posted Feb. 1, 2019 Heifer development should be considered one of the easiest management components of your cow-calf herd. You’re not pushing her for gain, she is not nursing a calf yet, she doesn’t tear up fences and equipment like a herd bull, and you’re just coasting her to a [...]

Grady Ruble SDSU Extension Cow/Calf Field Specialist Dr. Robbi Pritchard compared replacement females to corn farming in a recent producer meeting. His point being grain farmers don’t plant conventional corn when there are hybrid varieties that offer greater production potential, so why are we trending toward largely straight-bred cow herds and passing on the benefits [...]

John F. Grimes, OSU Extension Beef Coordinator (originally published in the Ohio Farmer on-line) Artificial insemination (A.I.) in beef cattle is not a new technology as it has been available to producers for several decades. Nearly every cow-calf producer in this country has some degree of awareness of this management practice. While there is a [...]

Devin Broadhead, UNL Ag Economics Research TechnologistMatt Stockton, Nebraska Extension Ag Economics Specialist For creep feeding to be profitable, the costs of the added weight gain must be less than the value of that gain. Photo credit Troy Walz. Introduction Successful beef calf producers continually search for ways to improve their operation and bottom-line. Creep [...]

Early registration now open for 106th annual event MANHATTAN, Kan. – Brad Morgan, the senior director of protein for the Performance Food Group, highlights the program for Kansas State University’s 106th annual Cattlemen’s Day, scheduled for Friday, March 1. Early registration for this year’s event is $20 if paid by Feb. 25, or $30 afterwards. [...]

Matt Stockton, Nebraska Extension Ag Economics SpecialistRandy Saner, Nebraska Extension Educator When purchasing replacement heifers many factors should be considered. Photo credit Troy Walz. Executive Summary What is a respectable value to pay for a beef replacement heifer for the coming 2018-2019 production season? Like many decisions, this can be complicated by many factors, but [...]

  New Orleans, La. (Jan. 31, 2019) – More than 1,500 cattlemen and women took advantage of educational opportunities at the 26th annual Cattlemen’s College in New Orleans, La., Jan. 29-30. The turnout was more than 50 percent greater than attendance at the 25th Cattlemen’s College in Phoenix, Ariz., in January 2018.       [...]