Current Newspaper Column

Testing your forages is a good practice to implement into your yearly plans, but especially during a year with an impacted forage crop. As the old saying goes “don’t guess…test”.

The objective of analytical testing of forages and feedstuffs is to improve our ability to meet the animal’s nutrient requirements and ultimately predict animal performance.

A Kansas State University veterinarian is urging cattle producers to beef up their plans for managing heat stress in their herds, a challenge that costs the U.S. cattle industry up to $370 million in losses each year.

Remember the priority of nutrients. Energy and protein are of higher priority than minerals and vitamins.

Most beef cattle producers recognize that mineral nutrition is important. However, a mineral program is only one component of an operation’s nutrition and management plan.