Livestock

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Just like all livestock, cattle need available water to stay hydrated during the hot summer months.

Extension educator Troy Wall says, water needs for cattle can vary.

[Troy Walz, Nebraska Extension Educator]
So cattle, just like any other mammal, have a requirement for water, and it depends on the class of livestock, and it depends on what the temperature the ambient temperature is.

So, of course, the hotter it's getting or the warmer it's getting, the higher the water requirement is going to be for cows and also, depending on their stage of production and class of livestock.

But as a general rule of thumb, let's just say for when it gets to be about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, growing cattle, and lactating cattle, cows are going to have a requirement of 2 gallons of water, for every 100 pounds of body weight, and a non-lactating cow or bowl will need one gallon of water per £100 of body weight.

And when we think about these lactating cows having a water requirement, We cannot forget that they also have a calf outside, and those calves also have a water requirement, and those calves are going to need anywhere from 5 to 10 gallons of water per day.

So when we think about spring calving cows and we get to this 90 degree temperature, that's what we're going to be seeing with these lactating cows.

So these lactating cows are producing milk, of course, and milk is 87% water.

So for every gallon of milk that a cow is producing that is increasing her water requirements.

So on our spring calving cows.

Say if we have a £1200 cow, she is going to need probably 24 gallons of water when we get this to this 90 degrees plus another 5 to 10 gallons of water for her calf.

So when I talked about a cattle having a calf at her side and that calf has a water requirement as well.

Some of that water requirement will come from the milk that that calf is getting from that dam.

And also some of the water requirements for the cow herself.

She can get from grazing lush forage if there's lush forage or whatever ration she is receiving if it's high in moisture.

So water quality is another important aspect for cattle intake of water.

So cattle are going to drink, good quality water, and they are going to drink low quality water, and we need to get our water tested so we know what we are, if we have any problems with our water.

So some problems we could see with our water could be high nitrates.

We know we have some nitrate issues in some areas of the state so we could get that tested.

We want our nitrates in our water to be 100 parts per 1000000 or less of nitrate nitrogen, that 100 is kind of that upper level we would be looking at.

Then we also have to think about sulfate, some areas in the state have sulfate or sulfur in the water, for our growing cattle.

We want those to be less than 500 parts per 1000000 and for mature cattle, we want that to be less than 1000 parts per 1000000.

And in order to know these things, we have to get this tested.

So just, you can take a water sample into any of the certified labs here in the state of Nebraska.

When cattle are drinking out of ponds or if they've been standing in it all day, they're increasing the nutrient load from manure and nitrogen, and that can cause algal blooms or algae to grow, and some of these algaes that we see, such as blue green algae, can be toxic to cattle, and we'll see blue green algae growing in stagna, water, lakes, and ponds.

And with that toxicity, we need to be.

Considerate of that, that could be tested as well.

And we, sometimes this time of year, we start hearing about some of the bodies of water in the state that have toxic blue green algae in there.

And some of the symptoms in cattle would be diarrhea, lack of coordination, labor breathing, and could possibly even have death with those.

[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.

Mitigating heat stress in cattle can greatly affect their performance in a positive way.

A.J.

Tarpoff from Kansas State has some recent research data that looks at limited feed and how shade will help cattle cope with severe heat events on today's almanac.

[AJ Tarpoff, Kansas State Extension Educator]
Animal comfort has always been a big focus of mine.

You know, I've always been a big believer that, you know, when we focus and we invest in animal comfort.

It pays dividends economically, okay?

And so when we take care of those animals for the best of our ability, uh, the outcomes are, you know, just that much greater.

Now, that being said, it always comes at a cost.

Right?

So what are some of those parameters?

And uh, before this study began, a lot of the conversations that I was having, folks both internally and and trying to get this project funded, it was, okay.

Let's start looking at shade as an investment long term.

And what kind of parameter should we look at?

And that's where I, I said, you know, We, we have some data at the feed line and it's very, you know, regionally dependent.

However, in the Midwest and and eastern Kansas, the Midwest.

We, you know, I, I believe we've got a growing backgrounder segment.

And in some of the conversations that I had with folks, that there was kind of confusion and almost arguments that growing cattle don't have heat strip.

And right away, I said, well, we do because we see it, and we, we, but we don't always measure what those effects are.

So in that growing segment, there, it's such a vast differences and diets, and housing, you know, so how do we put all this stuff together?

And that's really where this, this idea came to be is, you know, one, let, let's analyze and let's really dig down into shade usage here in the Midwest and eastern Kansas, uh, specifically, but that environment can match pretty well with a lot of our Midwestern states.

So we wanted to look at shade, but we also wanted to utilize, kind of digging into the physiology a little bit, is how we feed cattle.

Can that be a determining factor with what type of heat load these cattle can can sustain.

So the idea was, let's look at our limit feeding, we've been, uh, Dr. Dale Blasi here in Kansas State's been doing a lot of limit feeding work with a high co-product, corn co product diet, that's limit fed for a, you know, for a 2.2% uh, body weight.

But we wanted to look at the physiology of it.

When we feed a higher digestible feed stuff.

There's less heated digestion that's actually produced.

So if we think about this logically.

It's like, well, if we feed a more digestible ration to these growing cattle, rather than a high rubbage, that's, you know, takes more bacteria, more time, more room and churning to be able to digest, if we do that, does that have a determining factor on heat stress?

So, we kind of pulled those 2 ideas, both nutritionally and kind of environment with the shade, uh, to try to see if these were additive, or if the physiology, you know, idea of data fermentation, if it's real, do we see some of those impacts?

So that's kind of the basis of what we wanted to look at.

You know, I I see it a couple of different ways.

One, uh, utilizing this information to show some of the, uh, you know, the increase in efficiencies and increasing gains, uh, that we can see from shade, and then penciling that into their own operation, right?

So looking at shade, not as a one time, you know, one time fee is, so to speak, but of a long-term investment that's going to pay out over a number of years.

So I, I, I think that's, that's one piece, and then the limit feeding.

You know, limit feeding has a number of different positive attributes.

One of the basic needs of limit feeding is having access to a cornco product.

Whether it's corn gluten feed, whether it's distiller grains, something along those lines that we can feed it at, you know, 40% within the ration.

But if we have access to that, utilizing that that limit feeding program can really help out with, you know, changes in commodity, uh, commodity prices, fluctuations and drought, temperature.

So, you know, you know, one of the big, big problems.

Sometimes we have issues of just availability of forages to be able to feed some of these background, you know, by utilizing some of the limit feeding programs, we can get some of those those forage needs down to about 13% of their rations.

[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.

Hot summer days are now upon us, and severe heat can seriously affect cattle performance.

Nebraska extension educator Alfredo Deaconstanzo talks about some good strategies to help livestock cope with brutally hot days.

[Alfredo Diconstanzo, Nebraska Extension Educator]
You know, we always talk about heat stress and from the standpoint of education.

Maybe my plan to look at this is to break it down in a manner that makes sense to the individual when they read it or listen to this message.

And in very the simple way to break this down for a feed lot animal is that they are going to be get large and heavy and finished, and we use high energy diets to get that accomplished, and we do this in an environment that obviously is out in outside, which can create its own challenges.

So if we simply separate animal diet and facilities, then that's an easy way to perhaps address these things and be ready to prepare ahead of time.

So the 1st one to me is to make sure that cattle that can handle stress are in pens have the higher propensity to have heat stress developed in them, right?

And it's not a best case scenario, but if you happen to have some light colored cattle, cattle that are starting out in the feeding process, maybe they should be in some of the more challenging pens.

For example.

In addition, we make these cattle fairly heavy.

And so for some of them that we know are probably going to be with us another 30 to 45 days.

It's a time for some of them to start thinking of them going sooner rather than later, and we know there's an incentive to keep them around longer, for making good profit on some of these cattle and pounds count.

But they count if their lives.

So the question is, are you better off extending that show list to include pens that are, that you were going to keep them 30 to 45 days longer because you wanted more weight on them.

And maybe you're changing your your plan because the heat is coming and you go, well, maybe I'll try and sell them too.

You know, that's another way to do that.

So, so that keeps marketing current to avoid having excessively heavy cattle on the facilities, particularly if it happens to be a yard that has challenges, with facilities and keeping heat stress away.

The 1st things that come to mind, and because of the range, that particularly in the eastern portion of the state, the growth explosion, both on trees and grasses and weeds and so forth, creating tremendous wind breaks out there, and maybe we haven't even removed the wind breaks themselves that we put up as bales.

And so the very 1st thing to do, and I was at a yard recently that still had the wind breaks up, it's time to take them down as fast as you can do that to permit the wind to blow through those pens as soon as you can.

So in a sense, this is the time to look at facilities and remind ourselves where the most stressful pens are and try to get whatever we can to make them a nicer facility, cut down some of the weeds, uh, grass, whatever around those pens, if we have only a limited amount of shade, portable shade, that's the place where they're probably going to be placed.

Maybe one could potentially, if it's a smaller yard set up, in essence, uh, you know, uh, garden hose, uh, type sprinkler system that can help get these cattle wet when the time comes.

This is what I would call for facilities, the midterm, mid to close term preparations to a heat event, and that's the types of things that a manager and owner need to be looking at.

Is this the time perhaps to loosen up the stocking density in some of those pens so that they're not so close together?

[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.
 

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Recent high temperatures and high humidity have caused concern for cattle producers.

Nebraska extension specialist, Galen Erickson, talks about strategies for producers to employ when summer heat is affecting cattle performance.

[Galen Erickson, Nebraska Extension Feedlot Specialist]
Yeah, really, heat stress is a culmination of multiple things that have to happen.

One is usually hot days, which everybody recognizes, we use a temperature humidity index, somewhat like what we do in humans.

There's also adjusted temperature in index, which account for, essentially, sunlight, so solar radiation, obviously hot temperatures.

Uh, humidity is a contributing factor, wind speed.

Okay?

So if there's less wind, bigger challenge.

And then actually, interestingly, some of the work from Terry Mader, who studied heat stress was the temperatures the night before, so low time temperatures the evening prior are all good indicators that that producers should watch.

In addition, there are a couple of tools online, um, here in Nebraska, and so you can search the, uh, for cattle climate index in the cattle, uh, Mezzanet, uh, network, and those tools can be used also for prediction of days when it's going to have heat stress related activ- uh, problems.

So the strategies that producers can use are really things to keep cattle more comfortable.

And so how do we do that?

Well, can't control the weather, but you can try and control their environment.

So sprinkling, uh, sprinkling the pen is a good approach because it cools down the pen surface.

Pen temperatures on the surface can get quite warm, uh, up to 140, 6, 140 or 50, 60 degrees Fahrenheit in some of these real hot days with a lot of sunlight.

So cooling the pen.

Sometimes people think we should sprinkle the cattle, but actually the data show that sprinkling the pen surface is better.

If it's really humid and the wind, some have suggested that that's not always the best approach.

Uh, because it increases humidity locally.

Second option is you can, uh, provide shade, right?

And many feed yards have have implemented that, um, management strategy.

Third is plenty of access to water.

So, one of the key things that feed yard should be monitoring is how much water trough space access the cattle have.

The old rule thumb is one inch of water, trough space per head in the pen.

So if it's a 100 head pen, and you measure the length of the opening on your water, obviously it's got to be at least 100 inches.

If you increase that to two, 3 or 4 inches.

Those are benefits and heat stress events.

And now, how do you increase your water trough space because you got a water in the pen?

Most producers would do that by delivering extra water tanks in the pen, either filling those or siphoning into those.

Um, and then lastly, cattle will eat less, and so, uh, that's one way they take the heat that they're producing from consuming feed off of their body.

So you can also help that sometimes with diet changes.

One is to actually feed a less energy dense diet, so interestingly, feeding more forage can help.

In severe cases, but all those changes should really be assessed with your nutritionists.

And then, lastly, some have explored additives that claim to help and some of those may have value, some may not.

[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.

New technologies are constantly changing the way cattle are managed and produced.

One of the latest trends is using GPS sensors to track cattle movements.

On today's almanac, Nebraska extension staff, Yigi Zong and Mitch Stevenson talk about how useful GPS centoring can be in raising cattle.

[Yijie Xiong, Nebraska Extension Precision Livestock Management Specialis]

So a little bit on the global positioning system, which we call GPS system more often.

Um, so that is using set light, fixing to track an objective.

What we use, the GPS system for research is we currently have GPS for multiple projects and multiple objectives.

So one is, we're tracking the steers and make sure they, we know where they are grazing, so that we want the type that, the position system was their, individual contribution for the meth and emission, which is a global concern for um, greenhouse emission right now.

And that study has been done at.

The Imrak, Eastern, Nebraska, Extension and Education Center, oh, at Meade, on a really small plot.

I think a very interesting trend that we see is the fast and uh, advanced evolution for technology.

So, I think we all remember, uh, one of the 1st GPS study back in 1940 was documented as like, So all the position system was recorded by human observation, and the researchers actually documented, say, like full moon, and cart light is really beneficial to the study.

However, with the advancement of recent uh technology.

We were able to have those units on cattle.

And uh, we were able to um, afford them with a lot, cheaper price per unit, and more accuracy, and much better battery life.

So with the newer technology that I introduced in the beef article, um, is called internet of things technology, we were actually able to see the cattle or, Um, a.k.a. The sensory location in real time and also be able to download the data to the frequency that we want.

It doesn't matter if it's a one hour or 2 hours or 24 hours, we were able to utilize the newer technology for the type of research that we need was a much better and convenient data acquisition strategy.

[Mitch Stephenson, UNL Associate Director of the Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center]

I think there's a lot of applications that we can think about just knowing where the animals are at.

And a lot of it ties to our grazing management in that regards, because a lot of our grazing management, if you think about more water or or fences or a lot of these other things are trying to control where those cattle are at, by having a GPS on an animal, you're able to see where they're spending most of their time, where some of the, the grazing management can really benefit an area for either getting it used more or getting it used less, depending on on some of the challenges that might be out there on a landscape.

Um, and so, you know, we've really tried to utilize GPS to better understand, uh, how things like topography to affect livestock grazing, and, um, knowing that they're going to spend more time in some of the lowlands, some of the flat planes relative to some of the slopes and the hills, if you have really kind of rough topography.

Also, examining how far cattle will go from water, how much they'll utilize an area at certain distances from water.

Those types of things can really help us better understand how cattle are utilizing the landscape and then ways that we can improve that harvest efficiency by maybe putting a fence in or putting additional water and those types of management practices.

[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's recent wildfires have devastated thousands of acres of pasture lands. Extension educators Ben Beckman and Ryan Benjamin talk about a few tips to help ranchers reduce the risk of fire on their past years. Ryan starts off the program with a simple tip to encourage producers to keep vehicles away from tall, dry grass.

[Ryan Benjamin, Nebraska Extension Educator]
Yeah, so I think one of the things that we were talking about before we started recording was kind of the fuel load out there, because we never really had any snow this winter, a lot of our grass fuels that typically would kind of be pushed down onto the ground is still standing vertical and very easily ignited.

So one of the big things that we talk about is vehicle traffic through the pasture and just it being so dry and still having that tall standing fuel, pretty easy to start a fire with vehicles.

And so one of the main themes of the, the article is talking about, you know, the different types of vehicles and considering what to drive.

Pickups tend to have lower exhaust systems and ones that get quite warm due to catalytic converters or region on some of these diesel pickups.

And so that exhaust system is very much hot enough to start a fire.

Um, we've seen it happen several times here where I'm at.

And so tending to use more side by sides and 4 wheelers can be helpful.

A lot of times, 4 wheelers and side by side, that exhaust system is, you know, tucked up a little higher in the body.

It's a little easier to avoid some of the tall fuels with a smaller vehicle.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Ben says another simple tip would be to have clear communication with your farm staff or younger family members about pastor driving and parking.

[Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator]
Some of where this was coming down through too, is how can we make a comprehensive list?

So, you know, when you're having somebody on your operation that maybe isn't used to ranching, isn't used to working in dry conditions like this or hasn't done it before, or maybe is just, you know, a little bit younger in age and isn't thinking through everything quite as clearly just ready to go out and get work done, being able to have these conversations and have it all in one place.

And so, yeah, just talking through, like Ryan said, you know, tall grass, if it's dry, avoid that if possible, driving in areas where it's green, where we've got shorter vegetation, so we don't have that risk of things brushing up against hot equipment.

Where do we park on a place that's going to have shorter vegetation, green vegetation?

You know, if there's a bear patch, just some of those practices, you know, keeping an eye on a vehicle after we've driven a little bit, just being aware of, you know, how long we've driven sometimes even can make a big difference.

You know, if we just drove a mile to go check a pasture, that exhaust still has, you know, the risk of being hot, but it's not going to be as hot as if we drove that vehicle for 30 miles to, you know, town and back and then went to go check a pasture after that.

Just being aware of some of those things.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Ryan points out, basic tools available to respond to a fire situation can make all the difference in prevention.

[Ryan Benjamin, Nebraska Extension Educator]
One person with a shovel early on can do a whole lot of good and preventing a large fire.

The other thing that we really encourage producers to do is carry like one of those big silver, like 2.5 gallon water can fire extinguishers.

You can get them fairly affordable and they're reusable, which is the big reason that I like them.

You know, a lot of guys carry them on the tractor, on the Baylor or whatnot, but having one in your picket too is a good idea.

When a fire's small, it's pretty easy to, to get it stopped, but the bigger it gets the, the more it requires.

And so if something does start and you think it's something that's more than you can take care of, just call the fire department quick.

I'm on the volunteer fire department up here and and we would much rather you call us and turn us around if you get it under control than just having a huge incident and and spending a lot of time trying to catch up and and get that thing stopped.

[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 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. On a recent almanac program, Dr. Pedro Fontes from the University of Georgia, shared some interesting research data that suggested overconditioned bulls, could have a negative impact on their fertility. On today's program, he points out previous research that is pointed to a cow's conditioning could impact embryo development.

[Pedro Fontes, Associate Professor, University of Georgia]
But current research suggests that bull's condition and nutrition could affect that development as well.

We know that as you go around the country, right?

There's several situations where we see bulls potentially getting a little bit more overconditioned, more on the overconditioned side.

So getting a lot of questions on that, that kind of drew my interest on potentially trying to understand what is that?

Is there really an association between both getting overconditioned and potentially some detrimental effects on both fertility and so forth?

So we've been working on that area for about 4 to 5 years now.

And I think we generated some interesting data to help producers make some informed decisions as we think about both development.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Pedro says that bull body condition is critical to optimal breeding, but says there's a negative impact if they are overconditioned.

[Pedro Fontes, Associate Professor, University of Georgia]
So when we started our work here, we 1st did, we call a somewhat of an observational study, where we go out there and we collect BSE records from different bowl development programs, across the southeast, and basically, we were initially asking ourselves, is there any association between semen parameters and bowl overcondition, right?

Let's call it, let's call it overcondition for now.

But the way we approach this, is we got this large data set, and with BSE's records, and we also had carcassotrasound data on those bowls.

And what we were able to do is sort those balls based on the amount of subcultaneous back fat that they had in their car cuts ultrasound.

And that's when we initially started seeing those associations, right?

We noticed that as subcultaneous back fat thickness increase in the carcass ultrasound, we noticed that the morphology defects in the breeding soundness exam also gradually increase as well.

And one of the interesting things that we notice is that if you look at the balls that were in the top 10 or 20% of our population of balls in the study for subcultaneous back fat thickness, those balls were in fact, they had greater probability of failing their BSCs.

So that was the initial evidence that we were able to see that association and then as you start going into the literature.

There's quite a lot of research coming out of Canada and the late 90s exploring that idea of bowover condition that supports this concept that when both get over conditioned.

We have an increase in spur morphology defects.

And then more recently, we've been looking into a little bit further, potentially an effect of the bone nutritional program, not only on the ability of that sperm to move or how that sperm looks in a morphology examination, but also the ability of that sperm to fertilize an o side, an egg, right?

And generate a healthy embryo that could hopefully create a pregnancy.

And what's interesting is that since we started working on those post-filization events, we also saw a negative impact of bulls being overconditioned.

So we get those balls over condition within a control, experimental setting, and then we collect balls, collected balls and run these balls in collaboration with the University of Florida.

Right now we have about 3 experiments exploring that.

We run those both through an IVF routine.

And what we see is that ember production goes down.

When we use those bulls that are overconditioned.

And the way we interpret this is that maybe we're not only influencing the sperm parameters itself, but once that sperm fertilizes an egg, fertilizes an other side, the ability of the eroside should develop into a healthy embryo is impaired by the sire diet.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Dr. Fontes presented more information and research results on this topic, on a recent 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.

Despite increases in beef prices at the grocery store, Americans still aren't slowing down their purchases. Nebraska extension educator Alfredo Deaconstanzo says, in fact, consumers have spent more on beef than they have in the past decade. He talks about how beef still has a bright future and why.

[Alfredo DiConstanzo, Nebraska Extension Educator]
As you indicate that that analysis tells us that beef and the form of roast, uh, steaks and ground beef has increased from 50 to 54% since uh, 2016.

That's one segment of those surveys from the same US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On the other hand, there is a nice set, as I said, before that tracks what individual, what households, and I'll explain what a household is in a minute, spend on beef.

A household, by the way, is defined by 2.4 people, which is obviously resulting from the survey.

So imagine, you know, a regular home with mom and dad and a child pretty much is kind of what that says, but of course, has to take into consideration single family homes, et cetera.

And this cuts across the demographics, right?

We're not looking at any backgrounds or anything, just across the board, American people that were interviewed, and by the way, the survey tracks, 1000000 people a year, which I think is really good.

It's a good basis on where to base or information.

So, from about the most recent data, unfortunately, is 2024.

The previous data that I looked at was 2016 and at that time, a household spend and remember what I'm saying, a household spend $244.16.

And in 2024.

The same household spend $408 a year on beef.

This is at home and away purchases, which is interesting because if you remember the press and the media, saying how expensive beef has become, and it has.

It's just that on a yearly basis, it doesn't impact a house, American household to a degree any more than 400, perhaps the 2025 figure will come back to $500 a year.

And that's one of the shocking things and when reviewing these data that, uh, We talk on one end that prices have increased.

But, you know, the consumption is still at only $400 in 2024.

If you take just the price of beef increases between 16 and 24 versus what the American house will spend between 16 and 24, And the American house will spend $164 more in 2024 than they did in 2016.

This is way more than than beef increased in price.

So that has to say that these people are eating way more beef.

And when you calculate that back, and this is the fun part about this article is that, and this is not the way we calculate generally the demand in America.

Demand is calculated in America by simply dividing the number of carcass pounds available a year by the population.

This figure that we're talking about here reflects that in 2016, uh, by using the the prices that the bureau reported, in 2016, Americans were consuming £42 of beef in a household.

And now they're consuming £51 in 2024.

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

To hear the entire interview, go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Nebraska Extension Almanac. 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. Research being done at the University of Georgia may change the entire conversation when it comes to fertility in bulls. University of Georgia Associate Professor Dr. Pedro Fontes says most of the fertility research has focused on cows, so his team is looking more closely at bull overconditioning, and how that impacts reproductive results.

[Pedro Fontes, Associate Professor, University of Georgia]
We have traditionally thought about the sperm, right?

Or the bull as this little DNA bullet, right, that travels through the female reproductive track, fertilizes the egg, and then the responsibility of the bull or the role of the bull, the mayo is done.

Right?

But the reality is what we've been learning over the last 15 to 20 years is that the sperm actually carries quite a lot of important little molecular cues that will help that other side to transition from an other side into a developing embryo.

So the male plays a pretty important role in early embryonic development.

And, you know, for sit stock producers, they're listening to us or for folks that are involved in the Amber transfer industry, right?

You probably see that when you're utilizing a given sire in an IVF routine, right?

Sometimes there's some bowls that don't do as well in an IVF setting, as we would expect, and that could be associated with some of those molecular cues that those sperm cells are carrying.

So there's a lot of people trying to understand what those are and how they work.

And what we've been focusing on is that idea of the nutritional program, right?

So what can we do from a nutrition standpoint?

In other words, what we're doing from a nutrition standpoint, is it influencing the ability, the ability of that sperm cell to elicit those events, they're biologically important for those embryos to form, and hopefully establish a successful pregnancy?

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Pedro says the research is focused on bull body conditioning and how in some circumstances could negatively affect fertility.

[Pedro Fontes, Associate Professor, University of Georgia]
We look at the data set in a couple different ways.

So what we did is we sort those bulls and we ranked them based on the amount of sepcotainous backfatch, and we used 2 different thresholds.

So 1st we compare, we use what we call a 10% threshold or a 20% threshold.

Now, all that means is we compare the fertility of bows that would rank in the top 10% for subcontainous backfatch against the rest of the bows in that study, or we rank those balls based on a 20% threshold and compare with the rest of the balls in that study.

And what we saw is that regardless of those shoe rankings, those balls are in the top 20% for subcutaneous back fat thickness, they did worse on their breeding sonus exam.

So then the natural quest is like, wow, but how much is too much, right?

So when we look at that data set specifically, we usually start seeing more defects from a spermorphology standpoint when those balls are going through their breeding sound as exam, when their subcultaneous back fat thickness is 0.55 inches or more.

So, for folks that are listening and they might have, you know, be doing their earling, uh, carcass ultrasound and their bows are developing.

So that's that's a good number to maybe take a look at.

So take a look at your data set, see how many of your bowls are above that threshold.

And you notice there is not a lot of them. Which is the good side of the story.

Sometimes I go there and present this data Iran to producers and people get really worry about it.

One of the things that I always try to convey is that for us, you see those detrimental effects on fertility, those bowls really have to be on the overconditioned side of things, but really overconditioned.

We're talking about bowls there with the body condition score of 7 or more.

And we know those bulls are out there, right?

But if you're managing your bulls in a body condition score of six, um, and you have access, your carcass ultrasound data, you can also take a look at the carcass ultrasound data and use that .5 threshold to see where you are from an overconditioning standpoint and try to gauge your nutritional program based on that to avoid those fertility issues.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Stay tuned to future almanac programs where Dr. Fontius explores other issues and research findings on bull fertility.  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.

If you've wondered if virtual fencing would work on your operation, you should make plans to take a bus tour sponsored by Nebraska extension, coming up June 16th and 17th. Extension specialist Yiji Ziong says the tour will help producers check out different operations and uses for virtual fencing.

[Yijie Ziong, Nebraska Extension Precision Livestock Specialist]
So we're going to have date one is pretty much just site visits, and um, it is Tuesday, June 16th to Wednesday, June 17th on day one, Tuesday, and we're going to visit a rolling prairie ranch at Phil, Missouri, and this sites utilize halter virtual funds colors, and that is the 1st stop, and then we will transition and move to the mud rich wrench in.

Red Oak, Iowa, and they're using no fence virtual fence colors, and both of those producers are going to really openly share their experience of using these 2 specific products and share what have worked really well for them and what haven't worked out and they learn from their experience.

And then on day two, one day, we will start with eastern Nebraska, research extension and education center, where we will demonstrate a shepherd, and as well as halter virtual funds collars, and see how we can use that for more intensive and smaller scale grazing situations.

And after that, we will have a classroom session and just talk about general best practices for grazing management, as well as bringing up a panel discussion evolving all the industry representatives as well as producers, researchers, and extension educators to openly talk about questions surrounding this and also summarize what we have learned from the site visits.

So I think this is a really, really exciting opportunity and really hoping that we can have a fruitful tour and bringing events for our producers.

As a researcher, we have some targeted questions, we want to answer, and being benefited from having extension appointment is that I often got my research question generated from producer's question.

So, for example, we've been asked about different situations and different increase from producers.

Can we manage multiple groups in the same pasture for some really intensive grazing management and potentially for leading follower system like that.

And we've done that with the Gallagher system and the results was really promising it works.

And then some other producers from the sandhills area and probably our listeners understand the situation they're facing.

So you're facing really, really big terrain with rolling hills, and then also like it depends on what you want to do with your ranch management, and the product will vary, right?

So, there are uh, products are designed for really extensive management and the, with the primary goal is to contain them, or knowing where they're grazing at, but there's also other products are more designed for very, very intensive, grazing management, and with the target at benefiting your soil, health, and then grazing management, and also the forge in vegetation. Management.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Be sure to take this virtual fence tour for ideas on how you might be able to use this technology in your operation. Please register by Tuesday, June 9th by going to go.unl.edu slash bf underscore bus tour, which is one word. Once again, that's go.unl.edu slash VF underscore bus tour. The cost is $200, which includes transportation, lodging, and lunches. For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR, 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 a previous almanac program, extension specialist Mary Dornowski talked about some of the benefits of grazing summer annual Sudan grass. On today's program, shall detail some of the advantages and disadvantages of grazing annuals versus perennials.

[Mary Drewnowski, Nebraska Beef Specialist]
On grazing all annuals.

Uh, when you think it's ready or when you think it's going to be ready, say in a few days, it's ready.

Oh, that's the 1st one, like, don't delay, just go.

The other one is you typically with perennials, right?

You really need to be thinking about, what am I doing to my root reserves?

Am I ensuring that that plant is going to be be able to make it and is going to maintain?

And so, you know, you want to be conservative about how much you take off?

They talk about take half, leave, half.

Throw all that out the window with annuals.

These guys are a little bit different in terms of what they're thinking about, right?

I mean, if you want to say plants think.

So a perennial, it wants to survive, right?

And then it wants to reproduce, if it can.

Annuals are going to go to sea.

That is their whole job, right?

And so one of our biggest challenges is that the quality declines as the plant matures and annuals want to mature rapidly.

Your grazing management will dictate how high of quality that forage will be.

And so you're actually sometimes better off, especially early on, to maybe go through and hit some of the field hard if you have enough animals to do so.

That's why I like to split it up.

Because if you can keep it to where you actually maybe even set it back a little bit so that as you move on, it's not getting away from you the next time, it actually helps with the grazing management.

So I actually graze fairly severely when I am initially grazing some of my annuals, because I know that in the end, that's going to keep that from getting too mature on me.

And so that's one of the things that I think is a little bit different in terms of the mentality.

And I think, uh, I've had several, including, uh, some of my students who, when they 1st go out and they see how I'm suggesting to graze, they kind of look at me like I'm crazy.

Eventually, they get on board and they understand, especially when they see the pastures that maybe we move to the next one because we thought, oh, the next one is really needs to get on it because it has too much forage and it's getting mature, and so we don't graze the one as hard as we should.

Then what happens is you have some plants. That actually get mature in other plants, right, that got grazed, and then the cattle only eat the plants that got grazed, and it's almost magnified like a 100 fold in annual systems than in perennial systems.

One of the risk of grazing Sudan grass is a chance of prussic acid in the plant.

Mary talks about minimizing the risk of cattle grazing on high concentrate oppressic acid.

Prussic acid happens really in 2 situations, right?

One is the very immature plant has a prussic acid risk and it is really, really high risk when you talk about sorghum.

And sorghum sedan is kind of in between, like we tell you never to graze sorghum until it's 2 foot tall, right?

And Sorum Sedan usually, that's the same suggestion.

But for sedan grass, it still has that risk, but it's lower, and in fact, we tell you that, um, you can graze it at 15 inches.

So, one of the things it's not about like how far down you graze it, like once the plant gets above 15 inches.

You can graze it down to the ground and that's fine.

That's one of the questions I sometimes get.

It is just about how young the plant is, if that makes sense.

[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. Tail flicking, skin twitching, and other defensive behaviors by pastured animals could mean an infestation of stable flies. Extension educator Dave Boxler, talks about prevention and control of stable flies on today's almanac.

[Dave Boxler, Nebraska Extension Educator]
Well, historically, they've been with us for a number of years, actually 100s of years. But were primarily affecting Feedlot and dairy cattle up until the early 1980s.

And there was a change in how we handled, hey, that occurred in the early 19 Hades, where we went to a round bale, and consequently created a round bale feeder also.

And it's interesting because when cattle are fed, especially in overwintering sites.

There's a lot of spillage of this material to the outside that never gets consumed because it gets trampled on by cattle and urinated on, defecated on, and you have actually the perfect ingredients for stable fly larval production.

The limiting factor when it comes to stable fly larval development is moisture.

And earlier this year in Nebraska, we were very short of moisture.

Well, in the last 7 to 10 days, that has certainly changed across the state.

And I initially thought that we weren't going to see a major issue this year with the pastured cattle, but that's all changed based on the last weather event that we've had.

So we have the moisture in place.

So we have all the ingredients available for stable flies.

The stable fly is a blood feeding fly, both male and female of the species take a blood meal, and usually it's twice a day.

So during that process, the blood meal usually takes anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes to complete.

So the fly is very persistent in getting that blood mill taken.

Once it's completed its feeding, it will fly away off of the amyl. To an area where it's usually in the shade where it can digest that blood.

So it's on the animal and then off the animal, which makes it difficult for treating or trying to control the population on the animal.

You are typical fly methodology or treatments that we've used for hornfly, do not necessarily work that effectively against the stable fly because of its behavior out in the pasture settings.

So, there are some traps available that are fairly effective, but it does take some effort to get them placed safely.

Usually we like to place them close to where the cattle will come to water.

But they do have to be protected from the animals because the animals are very curious and will cause some physical damage to it.

There are 2 traps available.

Uh, one is the star bar bite free trap, sold by central life sciences.

And the other is a nightstick trap that is sold by a company called Bug Jammer.

And they both will attract stable flies and capture them.

We've also looked at spray applications to reduce the populations on the cattle.

A number of years ago, I did a study using a misblower type sprayer that is very commonly used in the dairy and the feedlot industry.

That's pretty effective in that setting.

But we decided to see how effective we could manage stable fly numbers on pastured cattle, making those applications.

And this is where you actually take the sprayer in a pickup or on a flatbed out into the pasture and spray the cattle in the pasture.

And this was a 3 year study and we saw a significant reduction in fly numbers between the untreated group and the treated group.

So that is a methodology that has been picked up by a number of producers in Nebraska.

It's labor intensive, as with a lot of applications, and there's a bit of investment on the monetary side.

[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. Extension specialist Mary Dronowski says sedan grass can be a great option for summer grazing. She says it stands up well due to its tendency for better regrowth after grazing, and it thrives during the hot summer months.

[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Specialist]
Let's talk a little bit about sedan grass itself.

So we said need summer grazing.

And sedan grass is a warm season, and it's actually one of the parents of probably the warm season grass annual grass that most people are familiar with, sorghum sedan, right?

This is different, just to be clear.

It's actually one of the things that sorghum sedan is the cross of.

So it's sorghum and then sedan grasses crossed to get sorghum sedan.

So that's important because sedan grass, it looks a lot like sorghum sedan, but it has some differences that is really useful from the grazing perspective.

And one of those is that it yields a little less if you're trying to just ton it out for hay, but it regrows better after grazing.

So on a grazing situation, we typically see actually a little bit more grazing from it than sorghum sedan.

And there's kind of a little bit of a bonus in that it's lower prussic acid.

So it has a little bit less risk when you're grazing those smaller plants.

So we still tell people to wait till it's 15 inches before you turn out, and there are actually varieties that are even lower risk versus others.

And so the one I've been using is Piper.

It's from the 70s people.

So this is nothing new.

But Piper, uh, sedan grass does a really nice job of, of regrowing after grazing, and even when the cattle step on it, it seems to be able to recover, you can sometimes have stems that almost look shattered and yet they're still growing and being productive, which is pretty cool.

So we've been actually putting incident grass after rye.

And so we've been grazing rye until, well, until right now, until the end of May, and then we'll kill the rye out and we'll plant sedan grass.

So just get an idea of the timing.

We're kind of planting it a little bit later, then maybe some people would because we're trying to get the most used out of our winter annual.

So we're planning it now, and then it's usually ready to graze at 30 to 40 days.

Sometimes, actually 40 days is too long.

It gets going and it can grow really, really fast.

So sometimes at 40 days it's 5 foot tall.

Just to tell you.

But what we've been doing is we actually been grazing it both with uh, cow calf pears and with stalker calves.

So both of those classes of cattle, we grazed on the rye 1st and then we took them off.

We took them over to perennial pastures.

So in our case, smooth broom grass, let them graze for that month to 40 days and then came back to our annual field.

So, with the sedan grass.

Honestly, with all annuals, I suggest you rotationally grace.

I realize it's a lot of work to put up fences in a crop field, but I think it is more than worth it to go ahead and divide it up into quarters and and be able to rotationally grace because your whole goal with annuals is to keep them vegetative.

So keep them young and keep them growing quickly and keep them very high quality.

And you can do it, and cattle will perform really well.

In fact, we did peak lactation cows who we were breeding out on the sedan grass, and they maintained condition, and their cabs gained actually £2.5 a day.

So they had, like, they were started out about 70 days of age.

And we went um, for uh, about 70 days uh, on the grazing.

And so those cabs gained actually about £4 more than calves who were actually on cows out on our perennial pasture.

So the quality is really good.

The stalker calves are heavier when they went out.

Um, they were actually 880 pounds at turnout, I know, crazy.

So, turnout's really July 1st time frame, just to have everybody on the same page, and they gained about one. £6 a day.

So really good quality stuff

[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. One of the most critical needs for beef cattle is adequate access to water. During this time of year when ranchers are beginning to turn out cattle on the past year, that access is even more critical. Nebraska extension livestock educator, Troy Walz, talks about the importance of water for cattle on today's almanac.

[Troy Walz, Nebraska Extension Livestock Educator]
You never really understand the importance till you don't have it.

And then, 0 my gosh, you have to struggle to get those cattle water.

And we always want to think about water quantity as one thing, but we also have to think about that water quality.

Because if the water isn't any good, the cattle aren't going to drink it.

So we have to keep that in mind as well.

And when we think about that quantity, Aaron.

Other thing, I'd like to remind people is, you know, if you have 200 head of cattle and you just have a small tank, they're going to drink it all out very quickly.

So you need to be thinking about how quickly you're going to get that tank full or how big your tank is so you can handle the capacity that is needed to water your cattle.

So as we think about what a cow needs, those general guidelines is that a lactating cow is going to need 2 gallons of water for £100 of body weight per day for her.

So as we think about that, so that, again, that lactating count eats 2 gallons of water per £100.

And if we think about a dry cow or a bowl, they need one to one. 5 gallons of water per £100 of body weight per day.

And we base this on the nutrient requires of beef cattle that came out in 2016.

So in the other consideration, we always need to think about is that environmental temperature.

The cattle are just like we are when it's hot or out, we need more water.

So we always have to keep that in mind as well.

But yes, when we're out grazing lush grass, we know that that grass is probably only 10% dry matter, so it's probably upwards of 90% moisture, so they're getting a lot of moisture or water when they're grazing that lush forage, whatever that is out there.

And that compares to a time in the winter when we're feeding those cattle dry hay, that's only 10% moisture.

So it will affect the amount of water that they need.

But but always have it in your mind that.

Those numbers that I told you that a cow or dry, whether she's lactating or dry is going to need, always try to have that much water available for them because you just never quite know for sure.

The other thing to think about is silage.

We know that silage is, 50 to 60% moisture as well.

So for feeding lots of silage.

They're getting some moisture with that too.

And also, I guess, as I talked about needs.

We never want to forget that baby calf out there.

Calves do get some water from milk, but they also drink water and we want calves to gain, so we want them to be able to reach the tank, so we need to make sure that we have our tanks banked or grade it, so the calves can reach the water as well.

And I guess that goes too, that we want them to be drinking fresh water because we want those calves to gain well.

And if there, there's been some studies, research out there that shows that calves are, that are drinking from pawns, don't gain as well as calves that are drinking from fresh water.

As we think about our windmills too.

We going to have some days of doldrums in the summer where that wind isn't going to blow.

So we need to make sure we have some type of backup, whether it's for a windmill with a pump jack or maybe we have a solar well somewhere that we can have cat or water for our cattle.

And 2 to your point where the cows drink it down 1st and if the calf doesn't get a drink and the mom already had her fill, she's ready to go out and graze again, so the calf is just going to follow along.

And so we know that calf is not going to be able to.

He's going to go with his mom and not get that drink for that day until she comes back in.

And it could be the same scenario again.

So yes, we want that recharge or that capacity for that wad of water so those calves can have a drink.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion 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. On a recent program, Nebraska extension specialist, Brad Lubin, talked about how the beef industry was a bright spot in agriculture, as opposed to how crop producers are facing challenges. On today's program, Brad focuses on how trade policies affect both the producer and the consumer.

[Brad Lubben, Nebraska Extension Ag Policy Specialist]
It is the quintessential question about trade and what's the benefit of trade.

And as a trade economist or as an economist studying trade policy issues, I would often characterize trade and the benefits of trade are fundamentally about consumers.

Consumers benefit from having new products or more products available and price competitiveness and so forth.

Trade politics tend to be about producers.

And it's supporting or protecting production, resources, and investments from competition from elsewhere. Whether it's fair or unfair.

Well, in the trade arena, the cattle industry, the beef industry, kind of lives in both sectors.

Um, They benefit from consumer demand that drives exports that drives domestic demand as well, certainly, but that drives exports.

And that's exports for some of the higher value products that the US produces, muscle cuts, steaks, and roast.

They also benefit from foreign consumer demand for variety meats.

The kinds of things that most Americans and consumers don't touch.

And so there's value in the carcass that otherwise wouldn't be there, were it not for the benefits of exports and the export of beef and beef products, globally.

There's also import competition and there is import competition in terms of live animals.

Arguably, that's because the US has a, I think, a comparative advantage in feeding animals and processing animals compared to its neighbors and compared to much of the world.

And so importing live animals from Canada, importing live animals from Mexico, when we don't have a New World screwworm outbreak to worry about.

Those are kinds of things that actually support the domestic industry as opposed to directly compete for prices for animals.

Well, it does offer more supply of animals.

So yes, a producer of animals thinks about imports as competition.

A producer of beef, thinks about trade as an opportunity.

And so there's there's always a distinction between which side of the trade.

Do you do you feel impacted by?

Um, the other reality, some of our imports are beef?

Well, that's imports typically of beef trim, lean beef trim.

That's what gets ground into our hamburger mix.

The US seems to be an outsized consumer of hamburger.

We love it in almost every form, and with the animals we produce, and the muscle cuts, and higher value animals that we're sending, or that were processing.

We have a shortage of beef trim to produce the mainstay hamburger blend.

And so getting that from elsewhere adds value to the tallow and the remainder of the carcass here as well.

So that's more of a complimentary import.

It's a complimentary good, not a substitute, but it looks like imports.

And so when we look at statistics, yes, it looks like we import more animals, we certainly do.

We import more pounds of beef.

We do.

Traditionally, we export more dollar value of beef than we import.

In the midst of trade conflict at the moment.

That's hurting a bit, but fundamentally, those are reasons why we focus so much on trade and trade issues.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
You can read the detailed article about issues facing the beef industry by going to UNL Center for agprofitabilities website at cap.unl.edu. You can listen to the entire interview by downloading 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.