Heat Stress in Cattle As cattle producers, when the temperature rises, you begin to feel the pressure of keeping the herd healthy and performing. The warmer it gets outside, the more your herd runs the risk of decreased performance, increased sickness and, ultimately, economic losses. Put yourself in the shoes of the stocker operator, this […]
Tag: Nutrition
Nutrition is Key to Raising All-Natural Cattle
Today’s consumers are more aware than ever before. They want to know where their food comes from, how it was raised and if it is safe and wholesome for the entire family. Consumers value words like all-natural, hormone-free and antibiotic-free. The beef industry has responded with branded programs to meet consumers’ demands. The goal: all-natural cattle. […]
Quality Nutrition is a Great Alternative for Antibiotics for Cattle
The average consumer is no longer average. Grandmothers no longer leave their butter dishes on the countertops or thaw their meat in the sink in white-wrapped paper. They even make sure to refrigerate their eggs. Today, the majority of grocery shoppers are women, 68% in fact, and fall between the ages of 24 and 49. […]
The Importance of Balanced Nutrition
All nutrition programs are not created equally, and all nutrients included in a program are not created alike either. To that you all cheer a resounding amen! Various production stages require different minerals and vitamins for your beef cow herd to excel, depending on if you’re breeding, in gestation, lactation or growing out calves. With an emphasis on growing […]
How Nutrition Works to Amplify Your Animals’ Health
Health and nutrition. To some livestock producers these terms might seem like the “chicken and egg” expression, and leave you wondering which one came first. Do you amplify your nutrition program to get your animals to perform to their highest potential? Or does a high-quality nutrition program help keep your animals healthy and therefore performing? […]
Give your Calves a Jump-Start the Natural Way
Taking chances usually isn’t easy. In fact, it can be down-right scary. Cody Murphy, owner of Standing M Livestock at Greenville, Ala., faces a lot of challenges, as he preconditions high-stressed, high-risk, weaned calves straight from the sale barn and prepares them for backgrounding on rye grass. Throughout the year, Murphy contracts load lots of […]
How to Prepare a Health Management Plan for your Stockers
Just like any group of livestock you are handling, you need a solid health management plan for your stocker cattle. After being freshly weaned from their mamas or hauled in by a semi, these young, stressed cattle can be more susceptible to sickness than older calves. Knowing what kind of cattle you’ll be getting and […]
What You Should Know: Three Things Buyers Consider
Information is power. In today’s world, more information is available than ever before on about any topic you have an interest in. For cattle buyers looking to fill their feedlots and backgrounding yards, three pieces of information are essential when it comes time to buy calves: vaccination history, genetic makeup and the nutrition program history. […]
Tips for Reduced Stress at Weaning
If you’ve ever had a young child, think back to his or her first days of school. The word that might come to mind is chaos. Learning a new bus or drop-off routine. Do you pack a lunch or eat the school’s hot lunch? Does your sweetie have a book bag? Item for show-and-tell? The […]
How to Reduce Risk with a 3-Step Nutrition Program
Anytime a backgrounder gathers up mixed calves from different farms of origin and puts them together, they are taking a risk. But, with a high-quality nutrition program in place, the risk can be minimized. That is what Kerry Vogt, Newton, Kan., discovered, as he backgrounds nearly 3,000 stockers each year. Vogt, who was talking to […]