Livestock

[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.
 

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

As drought conditions persist, cattle producers should consider feed resources that can complement low quality forage.

Brandon Smith, assistant professor at Auburn University, talks about how soybean holes should be a consideration for producers.

[Brandon Smith, Auburn University Assistant Professor]
So soy holes in particular fit that system because at the time, very affordable, and, you know, feed markets go up and down over the year.

So, if we listen to this podcast next year, then this, this may be totally out of the realm of possibility, but that as we go away, so this byproduct feeds, what I really like about soy holes is you get a moderate level of protein.

So the protein, you know, we're not talking about the type of protein that's going to be a soybean meal, of course.

You know, we're not taking the end of sperm out of that.

We're dealing with the outer seed coat.

So I would call it moderate protein, but you're also getting digestible fiber.

And the combination of those 2 mean that you're really not shifting a nutrition program away from that forage and fiber-based system.

And that's where sometimes in our supplementation of feeding programs we can get in trouble when you take something that's very dense and starch or very dense and protein, you shift the Roman ecology over and it's almost a shock to the system.

Soy hills in particular, and I would put those in the same category as something like the stiller's grains or some of the cotton bike products, really work in that system because they don't shift that room in ecology away from its natural state.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Brandon explains what soy holes are and where they come from.

[Brandon Smith, Auburn University Assistant Professor]
So the soy hole itself is going to be the outer layer, the the, um, seed coat or almost shell, if you will, of the soy bean.

So it's not the shell as in the pod, just the outer coating of the bean itself.

And we get this from processing soy beans for oil.

So the main product out of the soybean is going to be the soybean oil, from that we have soybean meal, which is the dry remaining portions.

The hull.

So seat code is going to come from that, and then the amount of soy hulls that are generated are going to depend on what type of soybean meal was being produced.

So you can adjust the standardized protein and soybean meal by how much hull is added back into that system.

Um, soy hulls themselves then come off, you can have them loose or in the past 10 years or so.

I've seen more use of them as pelleted.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Brandon also points out what kind of energy is being supplied by the soy halls.

[Brandon Smith, Auburn University Assistant Professor]
On a TDM base, the soy holes were going to be in that 70 to 75% range somewhere thereabouts.

So to put that in perspective, we generally look at, hey, now this, of course, hey, is going to be all over the board, but hey, we generally think of as that 50 to 55% range being the floor of what you need for maintenance.

So we're looking at something that I would call halfway between a forage, so hay versus a concentrate, like if you were feeding cracked corn or something like that.

You know, not even that, but as we look at these soy holes, you know, all fiber is not created equal, if they're on a pasture-based system or hay system, they're getting plenty of the physically effective fiber, you know, the scratch factor, long stem type fiber, soy holes offer us that unique aspect of digestible fiber.

So it's chemical fiber, it, as chemically makes up fiber, but the digestibility is higher, which is where you get that higher TDN.

That's what really benefits the system and where you were going with the using a fiber-based energy source over something like a starch base.

It meshes very well.

[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.

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.