Livestock

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

On our previous almanac program, extension B systems specialist Mary Dronowski talked about the importance of vitamin A on the immunity system of cattle.

On today's program, she continues this discussion by focusing on how the drought has made this problem worse, and what solutions might be available to producers going into the fall.

[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist]

Yeah, so beta carotene is correlated with the uh, greenness of forage, and beta carotene is basically a precursor to vitamin A. So it's what is naturally in our forages that supply vitamin A to the cow.

In the case of brown forage, or even just light green forage.

It will be low in beta carotene and thus low in vitamin A. So what was happening right now in the situation of those cows who have been, let's say they came out of the winter, they were on brown forage, maybe some stored hay, maybe cornstalks, right?

They didn't have a lot of vitamin A, and they were using stores to meet their needs.

Then we get into the spring.

Maybe we got a little bit of green.

They got a little bit of vitamin A and now we went back and we're on brown forage again.

They probably did not build up a lot of stores during that period where they did have some green.

Not enough to get them through now what's going to become almost a full year without a, a lot of uh, high beta carotene or vitamin A. And so what we have to be thinking about is that, yes, the cow coming off of that green grass can have stores that can last even 6 months.

And so that's one of the things we normally depend on in our traditional systems is that during that winter period, yeah, we're using some of that up.

But now we have a situation where we're not building it back up.

So it's just like thinking about, I have this storage tank and I have now depleted the stores and I have nothing left and that's where we start running into problems.

So likely now is the time where people might be starting to get into some situations where that cow is deficient.

So what do we need to do?

Well, the 1st thing we have to think about is how are we supplying vitamin A to the cow?

Traditionally, we have said that the requirement is essentially 30,000 international units per day of vitamin A. And if you look at a lot of free choice minerals, they are slated to supply basically about 150,000 international units per pound.

You eat a quarter of a pound.

It's about what we say the supplemental requirement is.

That is not nearly enough in situations where cows are actually on brown forage for long periods of time.

We actually have some data.

We get a project out at Scott's Bluff with cows and confinement.

Where we were feeding them the recommendation of about that 30,000 international units per day.

And that did not keep their stores anywhere near adequate.

In fact, they were about half of where they needed to be.

Uh, so we we did look at feeding some various levels and found that we honestly probably needed to be about 2.5 to 3 times that amount in the total diet to be meeting needs.

So I usually tell people I'm shooting for 75000 international units per day if I do not have green forge. 75,000 international units per day of supplemental would be basically 350 to 400,000 international units per pound in a 4 ounce mineral.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from the beef watch podcast produced by Nebraska Extension.

To hear the entire interview, go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

For Nebraska, extension almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

One of the most important vitamins in a beef cow's diet is vitamin A. Nebraska extension specialist Mary Dronowski says, cattle can't get the vitamin A they need, from the typical feed they get on a daily basis, particularly in drought conditions.

She begins today's program by talking about vitamin A's role in a cow's immunity.

[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist]

When we're talking about vitamin A, and it's important.

The 1st one I usually think about is, honestly, immunity.

And with cows, we really don't think about them having a large immune problem, right?

Cows are pretty robust, but vitamin A is very important for epithelial integrity.

And what that really means is like thinking about things like your skin, your reproductive track.

Your, your respiratory track, your, um, digestive track, all of those are epithelium.

And they're all quickly turning over, which means that you need to make sure that they are forming correctly and creating barriers and basically productive organs, even skins in organ, which is kind of interesting.

So when we think about cows, when we say, okay, with vitamin A, if a cow is low in vitamin A, where might that show up?

I would say the common clinical symptom when they get very, very deficient is actually night blindness.

And that's something that's really hard to pick up on.

But when we step back just a few more notches and say, okay, they are subclinically deficient, meaning that they are deficient enough to where it's starting to impact their biology.

That's probably where we're risking in the case of drought situations.

And what I'd likely see in those situations would be, um, actually some reduction in reproduction would probably be the number one.

I know everybody thinks about abortion and vitamin A. But honestly, uh, you have to be extremely deficient in vitamin A to see a lot of abortions.

Usually what happens is there's something else, uh, like a disease or some, or some other reason that they are compromised where the vitamin A being low is associated with that.

But it's because it's not creating that barrier, if that makes sense.

So the bottom line is for the cow, we typically, I would say, in situations where we have nice green grass, they go out there, they graze for 5 or 6 months.

We usually don't see deficiencies, but in the case of confinement or in situations where they're grazing even brown forages like this year with this drought, then we can start getting low and we might see some effects on the cow.

But even more importantly, and I would say the most susceptible animal in our Calcalf system is that baby calf.

And regardless of drought, we do see that it is a challenge to get that baby calf to have enough vitamin A to be able to amount an immune response.

And we all know how challenging it can be for us to keep those baby calves healthy.

And vitamin A, as I said, is extremely important for that epithelial integrity.

And we talk about the the GI tract, so the digestive tract.

One of the common things we see with deficiency of vitamin A and baby caps is diarrhea and diarrhea at a fairly young age, really 3 days to about 3 weeks.

And the other one would be, of course, a respiratory disease because again, it's important for the integrity of that respiratory track.

So that baby calf is probably, uh, the one that I usually focus on in most years and worry about trying to meet its need, which means we got to meet the cows need, and we got to have enough in the diet when that cow is forming the colostrum, because that's how that baby calf gets it.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

There is much more to follow up on this discussion on vitamin A in a cow's diet.

Stay tuned for future programs where Mary talks about how drought conditions have caused this issue to be more of a problem.

For Nebraska extension almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

On part one of this discussion of nutrition challenges for Calcalf Operations, extension specialist Carla Wilkie detailed some of the problems facing producers in Nebraska.

Extended drought and wildfires have made nutrition issues for producers very difficult.

On today's program, Carla continues to focus on helping producers make good decisions.

[Karla Wilke, Nebraska Extension Cow/Calf and Stocker Management Specialist]

When it comes to keeping their cows and cats fed by focusing on early weaning.

So if we do early wean, then we take lactation away from that cow.

We literally drop her energy requirements in half.

So that makes what we feed her to get her through the winter much easier now because at this point, hopefully she's bred, but she's only 2nd trimester, um, no lactation.

She's got a very low energy requirement.

And so we could possibly feed her in confinement of a fairly low energy dense ration, and we could maintain her through the winter fairly easily, um, with that.

Um, we could limit feed her some higher quality feeds, but not give her everything she wants and that could be a cheaper diet too, and confinement.

So that might be something to think about.

Um, just sending her out, farming her out, so to speak, to a custom lot.

Might be something that would pencil out because it would allow ranchers to save what little hay that they did manage to put up on their meadows or on their dry land acres, whatever they had.

Um, and and bring in supplement for after she goes into late gestation and then into lactation.

And so, it's really kind of a, um, moving pieces, puzzle pieces around on a board kind of, um, concept.

If I send her here and use these resources over here, I could save these resources and I could put them over here and this could make this fit down the road.

And so it's just really thinking through all those options and putting a pencil to that.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Carla says drought conditions have forced producers to look at unconventional means to keep their operation profitable.

[Karla Wilke, Nebraska Extension Cow/Calf and Stocker Management Specialist]

Lots of things are unconventional and lots of things are um, something they've never done before.

So a lot of people, For example, after the fires, they've had to send bread heifers out.

That was that was the easiest, you know, they didn't want to mess with the pairs, but they didn't have room for everybody.

So they sent the bread heifers somewhere.

Something to be, for them to be thinking through as if those are later bread, they would, the bull might just be, still be with them or the bull might just be being pulled.

It's very important that we not move those heifers for 30 days after the bull's pulled so that we get that embryo set, if we do a lot of transport and stress on those animals, we could lose that embryo.

And a lot of people don't think about that because it's this is not their normal system.

So they don't normally wouldn't normally be transporting at this point because they wouldn't have them somewhere, you know, in a, in a lot or something.

And so there's a lot of things that we're having to do this year that, as you mentioned, it's very unconventional.

It's very different from what they normally do.

And so, um, think through the system, every decision that we make now has an impact somewhere down the road, and we definitely need to do, um, some thinking about if I do this, how does it impact this?

But by the same token, if I don't do anything, what's it going to do down here?

And so sometimes the decision paralysis is a little overwhelming because we're not sure what to do.

But no decision is still a decision.

And no decision and just letting things play out is worse than our 2nd best decision.

So sometimes we're afraid because if we don't, if we do this and it wasn't the very best thing I should have done for these cows, it could still be better than just trying to let things play out in chaos.

So that would be my, that would be my advice, is, is make a plan and implement it because it's better than no plan.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Nebraska producers have faced many challenges with feeding their cows this season, including extended and severe drought, and wildfires earlier this spring.

On today's program, extension specialist Carla Wilkie talks about some of those challenges and points out some of the difficult decisions producers need to make.

[Karla Wilke, Nebraska Extension Cow/Calf and Stocker Management Specialist]

So Calcalf producers are faced with those issues of having reduced hay production and range quality and range quantity.

And so some of those options here that people are starting to think through in late August, are early weaning, um, and possibly confinement feeding, um, maybe confinement feeding pairs, but probably, uh, confinement feeding the mama cow with the calf removed.

Um, to try to save their feed resources for late gestation and early lactation next spring, because we'll have a period of time there where we're still waiting to go to green grass in June that those cows will once again have a high requirement for nutrition.

Um, and so they need to be, a lot of them are really struggling with the feed resources that they would have to get them through the winter and whether they will have those speed resources and whether they should send them somewhere to be fed for a while, um, to get them through.

So, um, a lot of people shy away from early weaning.

They don't like the results of early waning, and I think that some of our expertise and extension can maybe help them with that ease their concerns about that.

And one of the things that people don't like about early waning is that they tend to not get the gain on those calves, that they would have gotten out on grass and still getting milk from the cow.

And we can replace that with distillers and corn or some soybean meal, some alfalfa hay.

So, a higher quality diet for that calf, while he's, when he's early weaned, as opposed to what we might feed that calf as a ration at a normal weaned, we might only want, um, a pound and a half day gain on a normal weaned calf, which might be 180 days, 200 days of age.

We take an early weaned calf that's 100 to 120 days of age.

And we're going to want to replace that milk, um, nutrition because we want that same rate of gain that he would have been getting on the cow.

And so that can help producers a lot to think through some of that, um, taking those higher quality feeds and and putting them through that calf.

Um, The other thing related to early weaning is some of them don't have a way to keep the cap.

They have to sell the ball in calf.

And so, um, I would highly recommend they work with their veterinarian and see if they need to, um, bump up their vaccination schedules so that we get the preconditioning shots in them, um, get that calf set up for a good weaning experience for someone else who might be selling them.

Um, there, there may be because they're selling less weight.

There could be a little bit of a discount there.

But at the same time.

They need to be thinking through if you leave that cap on that cow and she becomes thin and she may be bred now, but she has a horrible winner.

Um, goes into lactation again in the spring of 27 and she's thin and she's behind.

Does she get bread in the spring in the summer of 27.

So, it's you're making a decision now that's going to impact things way down the road.

And so I really encourage people to think through what their options are to do the best thing long term.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Stay tuned for future programs, where Carla continues to focus on helping producers make good decisions when it comes to keeping their cows and calves fed, by focusing on early weaning.

For Nebraska extension almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of INR media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Dry conditions across the state have caused some stressful conditions for calves during weaning.

With hay and forage shortages, the weaning process presents some unique challenges.

Extension beef educator Lindsay Wacker Meade talks about getting calves set up for success during stressful conditions.

[Lindsay Waechter-Mead, Nebraska Extension Beef Educator]
Stress is going to come from a lot of different areas.

If these calves are coming off of really dry pastures, in, especially if they're going into like dusty lot conditions, those are things that are going to be really affect their immune system and how well they're going to respond to things like vaccinations and or pathogens or bugs that might make them sick.

So, what can you control in that situation is how I like to look at it.

And so, you know, the 1st thing would be, is, let's just talk about the condition that they're going into.

So if you are weaning calves and they're coming into a dry lot.

You've read a lot of things about how you can maybe water down, you know, the dust or try to prevent that dust from happening, but also just offering opportunities to kind of take those calves' minds off of the fact that they've just been taken from mom and kind of look at something else.

And so when I think about how curious a calf is, I kind of think about how I can maybe interact in that, that relationship to get them to kind of take their mind off of that.

And so one way would be to kind of walk through those cabs.

So I'm a big firm believer of getting into the pen once or twice a day and just getting those calves attention and we aren't going to, this isn't anything, you know, you're not loud, you're not fast.

You're just slow and quiet and kind of walking with them.

And you'll kind of get them to look at you and then pretty soon you'll notice that they're wanting to maybe pay more attention to you than they are to bawling.

And so that's that's the 1st step.

I think is to, how can we kind of change their mindset to kind of help to lower that stress and give them something else to think about.

If you have the facilities, everything that we talk about, obviously, is going to depend on what you have for labor and facilities.

But if you have the ability to be able to supplement, you know, some sort of creep or complete ration protein, you know, pellet out in the pasture setting, that will kind of teach them.

It's, you know, it's just like we're teaching toddler children or babies on how to eat.

And so they'll start to see that, something that's highly palatable.

They really like the way it tastes, and then they start to get curious, and so if they've seen it before, they leave moms.

So before they're really stressed, then that will be something that's familiar.

And if they can see that familiar object when they get into the lot, that will really help them to keep maintain that appetite and want to eat.

Because again, the immune system is directly related to nutrition.

And so if these cabs, you know, we want to get them to eat as soon as possible so that they can try to maintain that immunity and stay healthy.

So, highly palatable, palated feed or something that you have available, even if they've potentially, like in my situation, I know a lot of guys that have fed distillers during the calving.

So if these calves may have already been exposed to something like that.

So even just having dry distillers out, um, that they might remember that and to be able to want to go to the bunk line for that.

But then also it's really important to have some sort of roughage.

And so, whether that's a bail, whether you're grinding hay.

I also really like, this kind of goes back to, to um, changing their mindset if they are pacing that, that fence line where you can put bales, kind of put them perpendicular to the fence line where they actually kind of run into that and they might stop and take a bite, um, that they have to walk around it.

And so, you know, just having ample opportunity for them to be able to eat something that they, that they have seen before and or they, you know, they're interested in and it's going to taste good for them.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension to hear the entire program, go to beef.unl.edu, or download from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
 

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

While summer fall calving might be less labor intensive than winter spring calving, there are some significant challenges when it comes to raising calves in the heat.

Extension specialist Carla Wilkie talks about some of those concerns on today's almanac.

[Karla Wilke, Nebraska Extension Cow/Calf Specialist]
A lot of times people think, well, if we move to summer fall, then we get out of calving in snowstorms and, you know, chilled baby calves and that kind of thing, and that's true, we do, but, but every season in every facet of agriculture comes with its own issues.

And so this baby calf that may be born in a pretty warm summertime months, it can also be at risk for dehydration.

The baby cat's body is about 75% water, just like a human baby.

And so, you know, dehydration can happen extremely quickly for that baby, and it may not be so much the newborn, as in a spring herd, you know, you walk up there, the cow's calving, and the calf gets chilled because he doesn't get dried off quickly.

But this summer born camp.

It may be the day old 2 day old cap that starts to struggle because of maybe a 100 degree ambient temperature day.

If that baby can't reach the water tank, uh, and we don't think about them, you know, getting water, because at that point, they're pretty much, uh, just, just nursing, but because of that elevated ambient temperature, they may need additional fluids.

And if they don't know to go to the tank or they don't just don't go to the tank or they can't reach it or whatever, it may be on us to provide them a bottle of electrolytes in addition to them nursing the cow, simply because again, with that body weight being 75% water.

That's going to go fast when they get overheated.

I think another compounding issue with that can be that that heat stresses that baby.

And then we all know that in that spring herd, you know, when they get cold and stressed, then the immune system's challenged a little bit and the bacteria and the in the gut can multiply and get out of hand.

Well, same thing can happen with a fall born baby that's hot.

They get stressed.

Then those bacteria begin to multiply, they get ill, now they have a fever.

Now it's a hot day, and they have a fever, and this is a baby that probably better get some electrolytes in it pretty quick.

If there's a way to develop kind of a shady area that is only accessible to the caves because if we have a nice shady area.

There's probably going to be a bunch of mama cows standing in it and that's not always the cleanest and best environment for the for the baby to be there if they're standing there stomping flies.

But if we have an area where, you know, we can get those babies, uh, some shade away from the mamas and stuff and they, Need some airflow with that too.

Sometimes what we think is, well, it's, you know, a little shady there.

They may not pick that out, uh, because it doesn't seem much cooler to them, but it probably really is because it's out of the direct sun.

But I've, I've noticed with fall born herds.

Sometimes manually.

I've had to move those chaos to a cooler area.

They just don't even, I guess they just get really hot and then they just try to not move around much.

And then they just sit there and continue to dehydrate.

So fluids for that calf shade for that calf.

Maybe a cool towel to wipe them down.

You know, we think about having a, a warm towel right out of the dryer that we might rub down a cold stressed calf.

Well, you know, same thing with that cave, trying to take a cool rag or something and kind of wiping him down and helping him reduce that elevated body temperature, some could, he could benefit from that too.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension.

To hear the entire interview, go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
 

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Calving windows and estrus synchronization are key elements to herd management.

On today's almanac, extension cow calf specialist, Casey McCarthy talks about the tools and strategies available for producers to effectively manage synchronization.

[Kacie McCarthy, Nebraska Extension Cow/Calf Specialist]

Yes, I think the one thing we need to think about is understanding how we handle our hormones, what we need to do with them, understanding the cycle, right?

Because we can use these to our advantage when we're thinking about maybe some of our late cows and late cavers that are still on an estris and are there opportunities to jumpstart those females?

Are we working right with those yearling heifers?

And maybe we can select, uh, particular products that are going to help us, suppress estras, and get those female cycling or jump started.

So when we think about these different protocols, right, we've got a general 21 day cycle, and then how do we then start to manipulate that cycle to be able to utilize artificial insemination?

Maybe that's a natural breeding service and using our bull power to get these females bred.

Or, you know, maybe we're trying to do some heat detection or used sex semen.

There's a lot of different protocols that are available that can help us manipulate those cycles and provide opportunities, right, to tighten that breeding window, bring a larger proportion of females into estras. At a designated time point.

When you think about a typical protocol, we're thinking about the timing of these in relation to the sequence of synchronizing females.

So we might have a prostaglandin that's going to regress a corpus ludium which allows cows to return to estris.

This is usually administered between day 6 and 16 of a cycle.

So it does not induce cyclicity in those non-cycling postpartum females.

But it is an opportunity to target these other females that have a CL present.

And so then we start to think about the next steps within those protocols, with the ganatotrop and releasing hormone, that's going to trigger ovulation, synchronize those follicular waves.

It can actually potentially induce those anestris females that are close to cycling, but these cattle need to have, right?

A large, healthy follicle present to be able to help induce that ovulation approximately 24 to 30 hours after that GRH injection.

And so we can start to use that and then think about some of our timed AI protocols, ways we can manipulate that.

Then you've got some other products like progesterone-based products, right, that are going to mimic the ludial phase, which is going to suppress estris until a withdrawal.

And so that can induce estris in those anestris females again.

And so kind of jumpstart them.

So that's going to be right like your cedar, which is that controlled internal drug release, that T shaped device that's going to release that constant dose of progesterone.

And then he's usually used right in those five, six, 7 or 14 day protocols.

Then you have your MGA product, right?

Your millingesterol acetate product that's orally ingested in heifers, right?

It's going to suppress estris, usually fed at .5 milligrams a day, right, for about 14 days.

And then you're going to inject them with a prostically landed shot 19 days later.

And all of these protocols can be found.

Um, there's a group that work on these protocols at beefrepro.org uh, and work through all of the timing of these products.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from a recent Beefwatch podcast offered by Nebraska Extension.

To hear the entire interview, go to beef.UNL.edu or download from Apple Podcasts for Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu. 

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

UNL's Goodmanson Sandhill Lab will host its annual open house on August 19th near Whitman.

The event is open to cattle producers or other ag professionals, interested in the latest beef industry research findings.

Extension beef educator T.L. Meyer begins today's program by talking about the history of the ranch and what its mission is.

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

All right, goodness to Sandhills Laboratory.

It's a 13,000 acre plus ranch in the heart of the sandhills that lays right over where Cherry, Grant and Hooker County come together.

It was donated back in the 80s to the University of Nebraska Foundation, and then UNL leases it, and they do, uh, the focus is on cow calf systems research, uh, wildlife research, range land research.

Anything you can think of.

Um, it's probably been research at Goodmanson.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

TL talks about what attendees can expect by visiting the ranch during the open house.

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

We feel like this is a great way to showcase what's going on at Goodmanson, uh, to showcase the research, uh, maybe showcase some of that research that's been taken to the extension level and used uh, on local ranches. 2026 has been especially tough for that part of the state.

And we kind of want to talk on that too.

Goodmanson's currently facing some of the worst drought at scene.

And so we want to talk about not only drought, but unfortunately, the wildfire recovery as well, just there's a lot of challenges in our area out there this year.

And so we're also probably going to talk about that this year.

We will probably have a market update and a weather outlook with Eric, which we really appreciate him coming out to do.

A highlight we started a few years ago was adding interactive sessions, and this is just where we kind of open up the area for about an hour and a half .

We have different topics at different areas around the facility there at the wagon hammer.

People can come and go, interact, ask questions, get that one on one interaction with our specialists on a wide range of topics.

Anything from fly control to virtual fencing to weather, to getting your cows pregnant.

Another thing is we like to do.

We end the day now with research updates and we do just short little blurbs about the research going on at Goodmanson.

And then we bring all those presenters back, and we do what we call a bullpen session, which are kind of well known at the range beef cow symposiums, but we allow the audience to ask any and all questions of the presenters, and we kind of go till that that ends, and then we wrap up for the day.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

The government's ranch is a research facility.

And TL says the lab has researched many key issues during its history.

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

We like to think the research taking place at Goodmanson is very applicable to other sandhills ranches and even beyond the sandhills.

We've done some groundbreaking research in cabin date work that started back in the 90s that continues on.

Goodmanson is, um, they have a March cabin herd and a make having herd, so we're constantly comparing that whole system, whether it be developing heifers or feeding out the stair progeny.

We think what we do at Goodmanson is applicable in the real world.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Once again, the 2026 Goodmanson Sandhill lab open house is coming up August 19th near Whitman.

To register for the event.

Go to go.unl.edu/openhouse.

That's go.unl.edu/Openhouse.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Historic fires this past spring in Western Nebraska have slowly been making a recovery in range land and past years.

Four major fires destroyed over 800,000 acres of Sandhill property.

On past almanac programs, we've discussed how these fires have become more frequent due to drier conditions out west in the fall and winter months.

On today's almanac, Nebraska extension educator, Gary Stone, talks about what happened and how Rangeland Prairie grasses and plants are making a comeback.

He begins the interview by recapping what happened this past March.

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Okay, so from mid late March, uh, we had what we call the moral fire, predominantly in Garden County.

It covered over 640,000 acres.

It was pretty bad, burned a lot of the prairie, grass to where nothing was left, but just the sand hills.

So the damage was pretty extensive.

Some fences were lost.

Some water sources were covered, so, yes, and some livestock was lost also.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Gary talks about a possible timeline when this range lands might recover.

He says, despite drought conditions in the sand hills and low precipitation, prairie plants have shown some resilience.

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Okay, so the recovery has already started.

They've had some fairly decent rains in spite of the drought that we've had, the grass is starting to come back very well. Things are starting to green up.

The native plants are showing a real good job of being able to bounce back with such a fire that took place.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Gary says Mother Nature has a way to make things come back in unexpected ways.

He says there isn't much we can do to accelerate that process.

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

So for now, mostly it's just a wait and see issue.

So from where I see it, this is something that Mother Nature has to do for us.

The sandhills are such a sensitive area, they are sandhills for that reason, of pure sand.

So the native grasses, Forbes, and everything, just need time to come back, get some decent moisture, and they should spring back.

And hopefully, this time next year, things will bounce back, look like they used to be.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

As previously mentioned, severe drought conditions out West haven't really helped in the recovery process.

Gary says, despite all that, range lands and pasture have already started to green up.

But there isn't really any way to put a timeline on when things will be back to normal.

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Uh, in uh, places, the rain, uh, if it's been uh, uh, uh, down, gullet washer, yes, it has washed, but uh, I've traveled through there a couple of times after the rains, and I don't see that much evidence of it washing.

So things are bouncing back pretty good.

It's just good to see the native grasses come back, see the wildflowers, see the other plants pop back, and, you know, if you just saw it after the fire, you would have thought nothing's ever going to come back, but things look really nice, really green.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Wildfires in Nebraska aren't anything new, and the recovery process will have to rely mostly on Mother Nature.

But as Gary said, it's been surprising that despite low precipitation and a streak of extremely hot weather, the range land is making a comeback.

Stay tuned for future updates on this topic.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IE&R Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

In part one of our discussion on summer pneumonia calves, extension specialist Becky Funk talked about how this illness can become a problem when colostrum immunity begins to wane.

On today's program, she focuses on some of the symptoms producers need to be aware of.

[Becky Funk, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

Yeah, I think for, you know, from my perspective, those suckling calves, those calves at side of cow, they're probably the hardest population for us to identify pneumonia in.

So the signs can be quite subtle.

If we're picking up some really severe signs, we're probably pretty late in the progression of disease.

So that's, that's an issue.

But things I'm looking for, you know, we're really just looking for that, that depressed calf, um, that calf that maybe he's not keeping up with the herd, or she's isolating herself somewhere, you know, off in a corner when the rest of the group is up at the tank or the mineral feeder, um, or hanging around when we're checking pastures.

So things that, you know, maybe, maybe you're an issue, maybe not, but we certainly want to take a 2nd look at those cans.

Because that gives us an opportunity to catch them early in the course of disease when we can intervene successfully for them.

Um, so those are kind of the 2 things.

A lot of times producers are going to describe that calf is, oh, just a little off, right?

Maybe not even something we can really describe well or put our finger on, but we look at them and we think, oh, I just don't, don't look quite likely to expect them.

They're not doing quite the things we'd expect.

We may see them.

You know, in the article, I describe inappetence, right?

So, they just don't feel like eating.

Um, and that, that can be harder to assess, but a lot of times it's those calves that were like, maybe they don't have the belly fill that we'd like to see.

Or maybe mom is is, you know, carrying around a full udder.

Doesn't look like she's been nursed.

We want to make sure we look up her calf and see what they look like because that can put them on our radar as a calf that's not feeling well.

A lot of times the pathogens we're worried about are the same ones we're worried about in our feeder calves or our feed lot cattle.

But in these young calves, a lot of times we're looking at a viral component.

And those viral components tend to spike a fever pretty readily.

So it's always a good idea to catch a temperature on those calves.

Just to give yourself an idea of always my question when I talk to clients to producers is, you know, are we chasing the right thing when we're trying to make decisions about what interventions should be?

So if we're catching calves that just aren't feeling well and and we're seeing some some fevers, then that gives me a little more confidence that we're that we're chasing a pneumonia or chasing the right thing.

One of the most important aspects of this issue is having a good relationship with your veterinarian.

And Becky talks about when producers should bring this problem to their attention.

So it's important to talk to somebody who knows what's going on.

They can help you decide on the best treatment protocols, how to approach that.

And ultimately, unfortunately, if we do have a loss in the herd, if you if you come across decaf that's that's a dead in pasture or if you know you have one that's severely affected, that's likely.

To go that direction, um, we can do a lot of things diagnostically with that carcass, um, that are important.

And again, coming back to that, making sure we're chasing the right thing.

When we're designing treatment protocols and helping figure out how we want to approach the problem, that postmortem exam can be really key.

Because if we're opening up chaos, then we expected to be pneumonias and they're not, we may need to start looking for a different cause of death and it's a totally different solution to the problem than what we expected.

So all of those things are important.

And then going back to that calving period, having that conversation about what's common in your area, um, what is your vaccination program need to entail?

What does that look like, um, for your specific operation in your region?

All critical things that your veterinarian can help you with.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension.

To hear the entire interview, go to beef.unl.edu, or download from Apple Podcasts for Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Summertime is usually a lower stress time for cattle producers as calving season is behind them, and the herd is out to pasture.

But extension specialist Becky Funk says, there could be an issue with summer pneumonia that could creep into calves if not dealt with early.

[Becky Funk, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

July and August for most of our spring calving herds tend to be a little bit of a critical period for calf health.

Part of the reason for that is if you're thinking about those calves, where they're at from a maturity standpoint, this is when that cholosterol antibody or that antibody that mom supplied them with when they were born, starts to wane, right?

We start to see that that disappear from their systems.

So this is where they're transitioning to having to really kind of make their own way as far as immunity to disease.

And so there's a transition period where they're a little, they can be a little bit at risk.

Some things that we can think about.

And obviously, you know, it's it's thinking ahead in the spring.

Obviously, the 1st step is making sure that they have that classroom, right?

It really does go all the way back to birth and making sure we're managing those cows and calves well.

And setting them up for success as they go into pasture.

And then secondary to that is making sure getting them vaccinated, right?

Because even though we're vaccinating during a period where they have cholesterol immunity or have those antibodies for mom, that helps kick their own immune system into, into high gear.

Um, so they can start to, to build their own immunity that will take over um, when moms, moms supply wanes for them.

So that's important to think about.

Becky talks about some of the research that has revealed some good results for producers to look for.

A few things, you know, a few things that show up when we look at the research on on herds that seem to struggle with summer pneumonia.

They're also those herds that struggle with scowers in the spring, right?

So, So maybe we've got those Kavs that have, they've had previous episodes of disease, even if it's not an pneumonia disease, and that's going to put them more at risk for, for summer pneumonia.

So thinking, again, going back to that calving period, if we are a herd that struggles with scours, we maybe need to think about that as more of a long-lasting issue than just getting through that scour risk period.

Um, when we think about later summer health for those calves, those herds that introduce outside animals, um, right?

Anytime we introduce an outside animal, particularly those, you know, those orphan calves, right?

A lot of us, have a tendency to bring in, be a calf to put on a cow that's lost one, which makes sense from an economic perspective a lot of times, but understanding that that can put us at risk for for some health issues, either right then or down the road, depending on what that looks like for our herd.

As we get larger herds.

We tend to think about more risk for pneumonia.

And part of that is just having more animals to keep track of, right?

The more animals we have.

The more, you know, we're at risk that one or 2 of those will be in that population and develop pneumonia.

So those are awesome things to think about.

If we are, you know, if you are sorting cattle and handling them, often for something like estrasynchronization and AI, that's going to put those calves a little more risk for developing pneumonia.

A lot of that goes back to the stress of, of handling and sorting and maybe not being with mom for a significant period of time, depending on how you're, you're handling, um, that period, uh, of your hard work.

So all things to think about.

Um, some things we can, we can change how we manage.

Um, some things, we may just need to be aware of the risk and what we expect going forward.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Today's program was part one of a discussion on summer pneumonia in calves.

Stay tuned for Extension Almanac for part 2 where Becky talks about some management strategies for producers to employ to control this issue.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills, Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Livestock risk protection insurance is a widely used risk management tool for cattle producers.

Extension specialist Jay Parsons says, recent enhancements to LRP programs have made it more affordable and accessible.

Jay talks about one specific policy that has made a significant impact on a producer's bottom line.

[Jay Parsons, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

It was basically a 13 week policy taken out in early August, and then the end date would be the 1st week in November, and it was for feeder cattle, and I'd looked at, I actually have it also for fed cattle.

But anyway, feeder cattle, weight one, weight 2 for steers in general.

And like I said, now it's up 21 years worth of tracking on that.

So you can start to see some patterns where it paid producers when prices dropped and then, of course, when prices were above expectations, it didn't pay.

But basically half the time.

Um, they're out of the 21 years, I think 10 years or an 11 was a split and basically where it paid or didn't pay.

But the big thing is, is that there's, you know, on the upside, you're basically, if the prices go up, you're really just out the or the premium payment, right?

There's no extra to pay there, but if prices go down, it's going to pay you anything below your actual coverage price.

So it's period like in 2006 to 2009-ish, I believe, where there's where producers were paid indemnities with that particular policy if they'd had that. 15 and 16 coming out of the drought years when prices cattle prices move the other direction.

And then not too long ago here, just in 2020, I think, through 23 where it paid.

So you start to see these kind of patterns in there, and it's not to encourage people to try to outguess randomness because it's a problem in and of itself.

But to see that if you stick with that as a protection tool.

There's times it's going to pay and it's going to, you know, protect you and the prices move down.

Prices move up, you're out the premium, but overall, it's a good risk management tool.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Jay says this type of risk management tool.

Might be especially effective when coming out of drought years.

[Jay Parsons, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

Yeah, well, that's interesting because it's been characterizes a slow rebuild or maybe a delayed rebuild, you know, with the stuff.

We actually had quite a few years of dry weather.

It wasn't like 2012 where it was really just 12 months.

The last part of 2012 and 2013.

You know, we had dry weather and, you know, cattle inventories went down and then they fairly quickly rebuilt from there.

We're just kind of wondering when all that's going to happen.

And the main thing is, is you can't predict it exactly.

If we could, we'd all we'd all be rich.

Um, but, uh, at some point, we're going to see these cattle prices come back down a little bit.

We're going to see inventories go up and prices come back down.

And that's when you need the protection or that's when you're going to be, you know, wanting to have the protection.

You just can't predict when it is.

So it just becomes kind of a business practices of, you know, what do I want to protect here?

You know, in case that does happen.

Do I need the protection or not at what level?

Well, the main thing is, is that nobody wants to collect on insurance in general, right?

I mean, when you buy insurance on your house, It's not like you want a hailstorm or a fire to happen, so you can collect on it.

Same thing here.

As a producer, you don't want the prices to drop in general.

You want them to stay strong and you want to get a good price in the marketplace.

So the expectation part is built into actually what the insurance is tied to, right?

So the insurance is tied to current expectations.

You don't want those expectations to be wrong.

I mean, you don't expect them to be wrong, I guess, is the point.

You just buying the protection in case they are wrong.

So, uh, so the mindset, I always tell people is you, you know, you with any insurance product, right?

You basically weigh the trade-offs.

You know, what's the premium cost me?

Protection, I get from that, is that the protection I need?

And so on.

And you hope that air conditions are fantastic and you don't have to, you know, collect an indemnity to actually compensate you for some loss for things not being well.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Today's program was taken from a recent farmcast podcast offered by UNL Center for Ag Profitability.

To read the detailed article, or hear the complete interview, go to cap.unl.edu, or download the program from Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, for Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of INR Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

There are several management factors that ranchers should promote to help their cows be long term producers on the operation.

Nebraska extension specialist Kacie McCarthy says, this goes beyond achieving their 1st pregnancy.

[Kacie McCarthy, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

One of those things that we like to talk about as we're thinking about setting heifers up is that concept of early conception.

So, right, heifers that conceive within the 1st 21 days of their initial breeding season tend to calve earlier, have more time to recover from a postpartum standpoint.

And we see that they're also weaning more pounds of calf over their lifetime compared to females that are later conceiving.

And so, as we start to set them up, and as we start to get females ready for the breeding season and we're doing pregnancy checks, really looking at where they've been developed, that early conception time point's going to be really critical.

And then when we start to think about range systems or traditional systems, where these females are also developed is going to be something that we need folks to be considering, right?

When we start to think about development costs, that's going to play a big role in where they're at, as well as then thinking about some of that long-term success for these females.

And so, for example, there's been research comparing kind of that intensive or dry lot scenario compared to an extensive range-based system.

A lot of that's going to come down to the type of protein and or nutrition strategies that we might be implementing the amount of exercise that these females may be exhibiting.

And then what we do after the breeding season as well.

And so these have fairs that were developed on range with a higher room and undegradable protein supplement, exhibited greater retention in the breeding herd through 5 years of age compared to these heifers that were either a low RUP or dry lot developed heifers.

And so knowing that protein type can have an impact and not just level of nutrition are going to play a role in some of these forage limited systems.

And so that, that would be one extreme, we're, we're thinking about not a lot of feed, lower inputs, but really targeting to make sure we're hitting those, you know, growth requirements for those heifers, um, and seeing some benefits long term as well.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Casey says the age of the heifer plays a role in these management decisions.

[Kacie McCarthy, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

There was a recent study out of Dr. Molenk's lab that I was a part of where we were looking at comparing March born heifers.

So older heifers compared to a May born heifer.

So we looked at if those heifers in the make group were born early or late in the calving season.

So we looked at over a five-year period what that retention rate was for these heifers developed in these different systems.

And so what we noted was that after 5 years, a greater proportion of those heifers that were born in that March system remained in the herd, with no differences between that early and Mayborn heifer group.

So basically, right, suggesting that age at that 1st calving, rather than position within the calving season, had a greater influence on retention.

So when we're thinking about, you know, maybe converting older heifers into a summer type system, that may be advantageous for those females, and or right, as we just look at older females within our calving group, and understanding, right, that we're also gonna need to set these females up from a nutritional standpoint when they move into lactation, and rebreeding, especially in some of these limited environments.

And so making sure that as we move these females into that 2nd, 3rd calving season, making sure they're getting enough energy for lactation, and also making sure that we identify if we are deficient in protein or, you know, in metabolizable protein within our forages and we're energy deficient, that we're maybe being strategic as well from a supplementation standpoint to help these females and be strategic throughout the breeding season.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Today's program was taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension to read the detailed article, or hear the complete interview, go to beef.unl.edu, or download from Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills, Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Nebraska extension specialist Carla Wilkie says early weaning may be a viable option for producers when quality forage is scarce.

She says early weaning can be beneficial not only to the calf, but to the pastor plants as well.

[Karla Wilke, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

Early weaning calves helps the pasture from the standpoint that the calf is already starting to eat some grass, even though he's still pretty dependent on his mom for milk.

And so he's eating some grass.

The lactation demand that she has increases her forage intake.

So if we can wean them and put the calf somewhere else, and we can reduce her intake on the forge by about 20%, take him away from it.

That can help the pasture.

The cows this year, if there's a lack of overall quantity of grass because of the drought, could be losing some body condition and so removing lactations away to help them as well.

And so early weaning can have some benefits for the cow in the pasture.

But some challenges for the camp if we're not overly prepared for that or ready for that.

And so, if we're talking about weaning a calf that is, you know, a £300 calf instead of our traditional £600 calf that we're used to, we have to think about facilities management and whether cavs can be held in those facilities or if they can crawl through the bunk or out the corner of the pin or whatever because of their smaller size and whether they can actually reach the bunk or if we need to modify the bunk a little bit so they can reach feed in it and same with the water, things like that that 

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Carla says beef caps can be weaned around 3 months of age, but every operation is different.

[Karla Wilke, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

So producers will need to make their own decisions based on age, weight, performance, and other considerations.

Camps that are around 3 months of age have developed their rumen enough that they are considered a ruminant animal and not a pre-reminant.

And so if you consider all the digestive system, by the time they're about 90 to 100 days of age, 85% of that digestive system is rumen, and that's enough to be considered a ruminant animal.

And so at that point, um, we can remove milk intake and the calf can be dependent on feeds fairly self-sufficiently, they are going to have to have a little more viewing for, you know, monitoring at maybe is a better word for health issues and making sure everybody's getting access to the diet, needs to be a, a highly digestible diet because the rumen is developed, but it's very small.

[Brad Mills, Sultan of Swing]

Carla says preconditioning the cast for early weaning. Is critical to their growth success.

[Karla Wilke, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

Well, much like a normal weaning, you know, it's very...

Critical, and fortunately, in the Great Plains region.

It's very common to do preconditioning, um, vaccination shots.

And so, um, I would encourage anybody to, to think about early weaning to go ahead and visit with their veterinarian and say, okay, here's what we're going to do.

And so, you know, what and when do I need to give for vaccinations and then, what do I need to be prepared to watch for, you know, and what do I need to have on hand if I should run into some other health issues so that we get on that very quickly.

Another thing to think about is any opportunity that a person has to expose KFC to some of the feeds that they will be consuming once they're weaned, if they can have exposure to that on the cow, then they do go to that feed much quicker.

Today's program was taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension to read the detailed article, or hear the complete interview, go to beef.unl.edu, or download the program from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media, and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

The stress of calving season might be behind cattle producers now, but Nebraska veterinarian Holden Clark encourages producers to remain vigilant.

He says summer pneumonia and other illnesses can be treated.

[Halden Clark, UNL DVM]
If symptoms are spotted early enough.

Typically, nursing pneumonia, which is kind of a perennial problem is going to be noticed by producers as a listless, weak, half with no obvious diarrhea, but ears are droopy, seems to lack energy, may lack abdominal feel, meaning he hasn't been eating or drinking very much at all, laying around too much.

Those kinds of things, if they catch that calf, typically they're going to have a high fever, well over 103, maybe a 104, 105, 106 somewhere in there.

So that's usually what a producer will notice.

Somewhere around a 5th of beef operations in our plains states are going to deal with cases of summer pneumonia in their calves in a typical year.

And then maybe somewhere around half of those operations will actually lose a calf to pneumonia while the calves are in the pre-weaning phase.

So it tends to be a disease that responds well to treatment, and uh, working with your veterinarian to get a plan made for what to treat calves that look like that with, should you encounter cases of of nursing calf pneumonia like this is really important.

And then in addition to a treatment plan, about uh, 87% of vets recommend uh, pre-weeding calf vaccinations to address this nationwide.

So those 2 things can be addressed by the herd veterinarian and uh, you know, plan can be made.

Typically treatment doesn't take the capture and restraint of the animal is usually a bigger part of the cost of treatment than the drugs themselves.

It's typically not a huge burden economically to purchase the treatment drugs, but the labor and time to get these calves treated can be even a bigger piece of the puzzle than that.

So that's a little bit about the basics of what this looks like.

There have been a couple studies that have looked at a number of different risk factors.

One that comes up over and over is if the calves had scours go through if a number of cabs were treated for diarrhea in that critical 1st month of age, which is the danger zone for scours.

If a lot of scours occurred during that time frame, then there's a higher likelihood that those calves are going to fight pneumonia as well.

And we believe that is an indicator that those calves were faced with a number of things that could lead to higher disease, incidents such as poor quality colostrum intake, environmental stressors, management factors, like extended calving seasons, and greater commingling, especially of different age cohorts of calves, those kinds of things that lead to greater health rests can impact pneumonia rates as well.

Treatment early in the course of disease is really important for these.

So my recommendation would be working with your veterinarian to either be able to treat these for you very promptly or to have a protocol, basically a plan, a written, maybe a written plan even with what the veterinarian recommends as far as treatment drugs, and this can be based on postmortem analysis of any calves that may have died, and sample submission and results, that's possibility, or the veterinarian's clinical impression of what appears to be the animicrobial choice in that region.

Those are important things.

Availability, product availability comes into play.

If the drug that your vet recommends for summer calf pneumonia has not been discussed in the last few years, it might be good to to consult with them again.

There are a lot of new generics on the market at a much lower price point than previously.

So that could potentially be a time to benefit from your relationship with your vet and to find a good option that may come at a lower cost than in years past.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion taken from a recent beef watch podcast to hear the entire interview. Go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts for Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.