Livestock

[Mike Straub, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

High quality water is important to the health and safety of the people of Nebraska.

Extension Associate for Domestic and Wastewater Management, Becky Sherman, speaks on water quality, the importance of knowing the quality of your water, and how to test for contaminants.

[Becky Sherman, Nebraska Associate Domestic and Wastewater Management]
We are talking about water quality, the importance of knowing your drinking water quality, as well as making sure that your on site wastewater systems, and your domestic water systems, are kept in good shape and inspected twice a year, and maintained regularly.

And once you know your water quality, If there is an issue with a particular contaminant, let's say nitrate, that you are over the 10 milligram per liter, MCL, or maximum contaminant level, that you go ahead and look into implementing treatment, most often for residential homeowner, which includes our rural residences, that would mean a reverse osmosis system.

Typically, the basic, the most definite contaminants that we want people to test for are nitrate and bacteria.

But then finding out if there's any other contaminants of concern in your area.

So we do have naturally occurring arsenic and uranium throughout the state.

Nebraska is kind of blessed, I sarcastically say that, with hard water.

We have high iron and manganese throughout much of the state.

And so those are mostly nuisance contaminants.

Although, high manganese can also cause issues in health concerns with very young children, because of the fact that within the cereals, the baby cereals, and within a lot of the infant formulas, there's already manganese.

And so if you add high manganese water to that, you are going to have an exacerbated level of that within the food or the formula that you're feeding a baby, which can cause health concerns.

But we often tell folks, go ahead and check with your local NRD.

If you have a close by community water system, go ahead and find out if they have any contaminants of concern, and then go ahead and test for those.

Unfortunately, we don't have a one size fits all test for contaminant.

Usually, your nitrate and your bacteria tests are each going to run around $20.

We do recommend using a certified laboratory, which means a laboratory that can do public drinking water tests, because we firmly believe that your private drinking water is just as important as a community water system.

So, it's all, it's, if you know that you have high arsenic or high uranium in your area, I would go ahead and test for those as well.

But the biggest concerns, especially with our collaboration with UNMC, the water climate health program, we're looking at trying to educate healthcare providers on nitrate, and the health concerns of nitrate in drinking water, and then for them to be able then to also help pass on that information to their patients.

All rural domestic well owners need to be testing their water, regardless.

Most rule homeowners have farm ground that surrounds them.

But it's not just farm ground, it's also how you're taking care of your own yard, how you're taking care of your vegetable garden and landscape.

Unfortunately, more is not better.

And the aquifer is not set up in small little basins underneath each person's property.

It is shared.

And so nitrate concerns, depending on where your well is drawing from, often is the case, but nitrate concerns are everywhere.

[Mike Straub, Program Host]
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Mike Straub.

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.

Optimizing feed costs is obviously a top priority for modern ranchers.

In the past, soybeans generally haven't been the best option for cattle due to higher cost than distillers grains.

On today's program.

South Dakota State University, Dr. Warren Rushi, discusses the research being done on extruded and expelled soybean meal that might be a good alternative to distillers grains.

So I'm going to start.

I'm gonna go back about one step before this study that we talked about.

We'd been working a little bit on soy protein for starting in about 2022.

And to be frank, it was the initial stab was because the South Dakota Soy Council had some resources available.

We need to fund grad students.

And so, and we were also developing in the state more soy crush capacity.

So we started off looking at, you know, just conventional soybeans, and then that turned into what about the heat treated soy?

And so, uh, our 1st study is the one, you know, that kind of led you to me, I guess, uh, you know, where we evaluated, extruded, expelled in a finishing diet.

And so one of the things that, you know, I think we need to talk a little bit about terminology, you know, because we start talking about soy and soybean meal and the, uh, we get, it's easy to get caught up in the weeds of what we're dealing with and what.

So if we think of starting at kind of at the ground level of conventional soybean meal, you know, the 44 or the 48% high pro that, you know, we've had available to us for forever, that's a solvent extraction process.

You know, they use hexane to strip out the oil, leaves the meal behind.

Characteristically, that is more room and degradable.

We don't think of that as having as much, you know, our undegradable protein or as much escaping digestion going to the small intestine.

The various heat treated options.

There's roasting, there's extrusion.

There's a couple plants in our region that do some steam flaking.

Roasting's pretty self-explanatory.

We're using heat.

Heat, that will change the, the structure of the protein, make it more resistant to degradation in the rumen, and then a greater proportion of those amino acids go intact into the small intestine.

Extrusion uses a press or a screw to create heat and pressure that does that same thing, changes the protein structure, changes degradability.

The expeller process takes it one step beyond, where they take then that extruded soy product, run it through a press and squeeze out as much of the oil as they can physically remove.

So to back to, you know, that 1st study we talked about, that was expeller processed where most of the oil had been taken out, but it left that that altered protein.

And what we found was in that study when we did a partial substitution for pulling out some of the dried distillers and added this expeller processed soybean meal, we picked up £20 of carcass weight.

And initially we, I think this one kind of slipped by us a little bit.

We were focusing on some other work and, uh, you know, and it wasn't until we did some follow-up work with full fat extruded soybeans that we began to think, hey, we're onto something.

We did a follow-up study with one of my colleague, Dr. Zach Smith's PhD students, Madeline Nichols, where we replaced all of the distillers with extruded soybeans, and we picked up £30.

And then since then we did a follow-up, um, where the partial replacement where it was only 6% of the diet or about a pound and a half .

We ended up with a £27 response.

The exciting part about that partial response and and also what Dr. Smith and our team did the 1st time is that is economical.

The, that full fat, full replacement with the £30 here sounds exciting until we start running a diet cost and realize, yeah, we spent too much money for what we got out of them.

But that partial replacement seems to be the sweet spot in terms of controlling diet, best cost kind of diets where we're getting a response that's large enough, especially in today's cattle market to offset that additional investment we have to make on the diet side.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
We'll explore more of this important topic on a future almanac program 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.

Producers looking for a high protein alternative to distillers grains, might want to check out a new study from the University of Nebraska, focusing on whole or roasted soybeans.

UNL Animal Science Professor Jim McDonald, talks about some of the key factors that the research uncovered and why whole or roasted soybeans would make an appropriate alternative to distillers grains.

[Jim McDonald, UNL Animal Science Professor]
Surely from a nutritional standpoint, roasted soybeans are very interesting and, you know, they're kind of fun to work with.

You heat the entire soybean.

You can crack it, but many times you just heat the entire soybean, roughly to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and you will get increased the bypass protein in the soybean itself.

And of course, in either of those circumstances, if you're feeding whole soybeans or roasted soybeans, you know, the fat is all still there.

So you've got something that's about 20% fat.

Smells good.

Cattle seem to like it.

So it's kind of fun to work with because, because it gives you a nice response and, you know, it's not something that you mind having around if you like the smell and works really nice in a growing diet and even a finishing diet as well.

So we looked at 3 inclusions of 3 different sources.

Okay, so 7, 14 or 21% inclusion of roasted soybeans, whole soybeans, and distillers grains.

Now, remember my previous comment that in this type of diet, um, about 15% distillers grains will meet the metabolizable protein requirements.

So that 14% got us about to where we expected the MP requirement to be met, and if you just look at the distillers grains response, it was, it was largely a flat line from there.

A little bit of an increase from the negative control.

Most of the response happened at 7%, which is typical.

You'll see the largest single response in the 1st inclusion of the protein supplement, and then kind of leveled off from there.

The whole soybeans, all of the response happened in the 1st inclusion.

In fact, based on our data, you know, I would say there's very little value in continuing to add whole soybeans, whole unprocessed soybeans past, you know, somewhere between 5 and 10%.

In this case, the number was seven.

I don't know that there's anything magical about that number, but somewhere between 5 and 10% soybeans, if you're going to use whole soybeans in this type of diet, I don't see an advantage in going beyond that.

Distillers grains, right?

As we would expect, kind of topped out at about 15%.

Roasted soybeans were different.

We continued to see a response through 21% inclusion.

Presumably, you know, we were able to utilize the bypass protein as a protein source, but then I think the fat and combination between the protein profile and the fat profile of those roasted soybeans gave us an additional response over either the distiller's grains or the whole soybeans.

The microbes should not have been deficient in nitrogen in any of the diets.

And then we displaced corn from an economic standpoint.

You're comparing a protein source to corn, but knowing that you're bringing in a bypass protein source in these growing calves, where that's often the 1st limiting nutrient in terms of their growth.

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

To read the detailed article on this topic, or 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.

Limit feeding cabs in a bunk, a high energy diet might be a cost effective option for calves this fall, according to extension educator, Aaron Labery.

While limit feeding is not a new concept, current forage prices might help some producers choose this option as an alternative to feeding high roughage growing diets.

[Erin Laborie, Nebraska Extension Educator]
When I wrote this article, I used our feed cost calculator, which is an Excel-based spreadsheet, um, that you can access on our website.

And it lets you compare feeds on a price per pound of nutrient basis.

And so, I priced hay at $200 a ton with that hay having a total digestible nutrients or TDN value of 52%.

And compared that to corn, uh, 435 a bushel, and the corns around 88% TDN.

And so, um, comparing those 2 alone, the hay was about ¢22 per pound to TDN compared to ¢10 per pound to TDN.

Now, I know corn price is a little bit higher now, but still um, quite competitive when we look at those on a price per pound a TDN basis.

And even wet distiller screens.

I priced at $75 a ton, um, and distillers grains is about 108% TDN, and that comes out to about ¢11 per pound at TDN.

So, Certainly an option to consider compared to our traditional high roughage backgrounding diets is looking at maybe a limit fed.

High energy diet for wintering calves.

Um, you're gonna more efficiently use the bunk space you have available.

And really, depending on, on the amount of time you have, labor and your pen design.

You could consider.

Leveraging that amount of bunk space by, um, feeding one group of calves in the morning and then rotating in possibly a 2nd group in the evening.

You're also going to improve your health management of calves, and when we think about those lethargic or sick calves, they're going to be easier to spot compared to those calves that are eager and healthy coming up to eat at feeding time.

And it's also gonna improve your pen conditions, which is gonna result in less maintenance due to, um, manure.

And Kansas State has actually done some research on this and shown a 40 to 45% reduction in manure output when limit feeding stalkers.

And to me, that number is just huge.

So when we 1st get those calves started, it is important to have some, some long sum hay available in bunks, but, um, we'll start out that 1st day's fee delivery, um, about .75% of body weight and that's on a dry matter basis.

And then we can just slowly work those calves up to about 2.2% of body weight within 14 days, depending on how they're cleaning that up.

And then as those calves grow, we just want to make sure we continue to increase that amount of feed that's being delivered.

So we stay on target for that targeted average daily gain.

Feeding it the same time each day is also going to help, as well as providing the right amount of bunk space, so at least 15 inches per head, just so we can prevent any digestive upsets.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion of an interview from a beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension to read the detailed article on this topic or 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 our previous almanac program, extension B systems specialist Mary Dronowski talked about the importance of vitamin A on the immunity system of cattle.

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

[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist]

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

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

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

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

Then we get into the spring.

Maybe we got a little bit of green.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So what do we need to do?

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

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

You eat a quarter of a pound.

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

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

We actually have some data.

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

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

And that did not keep their stores anywhere near adequate.

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

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

For Nebraska, extension almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Systems Specialist]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

For Nebraska extension almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We literally drop her energy requirements in half.

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

She's got a very low energy requirement.

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

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

So that might be something to think about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

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

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

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

So they sent the bread heifers somewhere.

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

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

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

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

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

It's very different from what they normally do.

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

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

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

But no decision is still a decision.

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

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They have to sell the ball in calf.

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

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

There could be a little bit of a discount there.

But at the same time.

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

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

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

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

For Nebraska extension almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But this summer born camp.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They get stressed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sometimes manually.

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

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

And then they just sit there and continue to dehydrate.

So fluids for that calf shade for that calf.

Maybe a cool towel to wipe them down.

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

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

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

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

For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

[Kacie McCarthy, Nebraska Extension Cow/Calf Specialist]

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

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

Are we working right with those yearling heifers?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And so kind of jumpstart them.

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

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

Then you have your MGA product, right?

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

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

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

And all of these protocols can be found.

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

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

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

All right, goodness to Sandhills Laboratory.

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

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

Anything you can think of.

Um, it's probably been research at Goodmanson.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

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

And we kind of want to talk on that too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another thing is we like to do.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

The government's ranch is a research facility.

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

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

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

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

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

To register for the event.

Go to go.unl.edu/openhouse.

That's go.unl.edu/Openhouse.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

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

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

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

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

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

It covered over 640,000 acres.

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

So the damage was pretty extensive.

Some fences were lost.

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Okay, so the recovery has already started.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

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

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

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

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

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

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

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

So things are bouncing back pretty good.

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

Stay tuned for future updates on this topic.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

[Becky Funk, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

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

So the signs can be quite subtle.

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

So that's, that's an issue.

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

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

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

Um, so those are kind of the 2 things.

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

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

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

We may see them.

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

So, they just don't feel like eating.

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

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

Doesn't look like she's been nursed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So all of those things are important.

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

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

All critical things that your veterinarian can help you with.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

I'm Brad Mills.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

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

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

[Becky Funk, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

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

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

We start to see that that disappear from their systems.

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

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

Some things that we can think about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So that's important to think about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we get larger herds.

We tend to think about more risk for pneumonia.

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

The more animals we have.

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

So those are awesome things to think about.

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

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

So all things to think about.

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

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

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

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

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

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

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