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Livestock

All Livestock Content

A snowy farmyard with sunlight breaking through the clouds.

2018 Annual Climate Summary

In 2018, South Dakota saw the typical weather extremes of all kinds. New Year’s Day 2018 started out with record cold temperatures and wind chills; the year ended with a blizzard on December 31, with a lot of extremes in between.

a father and son inspecting a show goat in a competition.

Bringing Home Your 4-H Goat Project

Sales and transport is a stressful time for any animal. Reducing stress factors due to transitions start before the actual purchase of your new project. Managing proper nutrition and disease management are just a couple factors to help your project get off to a great start.

Yogurt cups are filled with a warm yogurt, then quickly sealed and cooled at a dairy processing plant

Yogurt: A Bright Future for Dairy?

On a percentage growth basis yogurt has clearly been the dairy industry’s shining star.

financial paperwork sitting on a desk

Financial Record Keeping Software: A comparison of Quicken and QuickBooks

As fall nears many producers are beginning to gather their records to prepare for taxes. From these records many important operating decisions are made. Agriculture producers often use computer software to keep financial records. While there are software packages tailored for farm and ranch businesses, many producers successfully use general commercial software such as Quicken® or QuickBooks®. Both products can be useful for an agricultural producer’s record keeping. The question which often arises from producers is, “which one do I need”?

A horizontal bed biofilter diagram. Contact SDSU Extension for more information.

Horizontal Bed Biofilter Construction: Lessons learned at the SDSU gestation unit

This article outlines the design considerations, experiences and cost to construct a horizontal bed biofilter for a pit fan on the new South Dakota State University Swine Education and Research Facility gestation room.

filed of sunflowers in bloom

Why Add an Agritourism Enterprise to Your Farm or Ranch?

Agritourism is the practice of touring agricultural areas to see farms and often to participate in farm activities.

A series of swine pens at a state fair.

It’s Showtime, Get Your Show Box Ready!

It’s time to head off to the show, but before you can go everything needs to be loaded into the truck and trailer. You get a supply of feed and hay, load some bedding, put in a fan, add the trimming stand and now it’s time for the show box.

closeup of a pig's face, focused on its eyes

Swine Respiratory Health: Detecting Multiple Viruses

Over the past decade, surveillance and diagnosis of respiratory agents have been revolutionized by the use of non-invasive techniques such as oral fluids sampling.

Dairy cattle on a dairy farm.

Heat Stress in Dairy Cows: Is Genetic Selection a Solution?

The summer season is just around the corner, and the knowledge and understanding of the effects of heat stress on cow production and how to mitigate these effects are important for dairy operations.

cows eating silage

What’s Important to Know About Silage Additives & Inoculants? 

Corn is suited to preservation as silage. Silage additives can be used to remedy deficiencies such as lack of sufficient population of bacteria to support adequate fermentation, and low levels of fermentable carbohydrates.