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A herd of cattle grazing in a snowy pasture.

Do You Have To Defer Grazing on Winter Pastures?

How can ranchers improve profitability when feed typically represents well over half of cow-calf production costs? Grazing dormant winter range is a common practice to reduce costs in South Dakota. Grazing winter range when plants are completely dormant minimizes negative impacts on the function of the plant during the growing season. Separate pastures are typically designated for winter use only, often based on availability of winter shelter, water and access to stored feeds.

A mother cow with her calf in a field of tall grass.

Preparing the Beef Calf for Weaning

One fact on which cattlemen, veterinarians, and animal scientists can agree is that of all the events in most calves’ lives, weaning is the most stressful of them all. If a calf can weather this stress unscathed, they have cleared a major hurdle to a productive future in the feedlot or as a replacement in the breeding herd.

A variety of common food allergens arranged on a table surrounded by the word “Allergy” spelled out on wooden tiles.

Programming for 4-H Members with Food Allergies

Foods to avoid and options to provide for youth with food allergies.

Three brown yearlings eating from a feeding trough.

Distillers Supplementation Strategies for Grazing Yearlings

Providing a high-protein supplement to yearlings during the grazing season may increase final body weights and average daily gain compared to not providing supplement. The frequency of supplementation comes down to economic and logistical viability.

Feed Bunk Management

A successful slick bunk feeding program matches dry matter intake (DMI) to the cattle’s appetite as closely as possible and keeps DMI consistent from day-to-day.

Supplementing Cows on Pasture to Stretch Forage Supplies

With dry conditions spreading quickly across the Dakota’s, producers are forced to make challenging decisions on how many cow/calf pairs to turn out to pasture, and then determine how long the pastures will even last if moisture doesn’t come soon. During the spring/summer months, supplementing grass with energy and protein can decrease forage dry matter consumption.

SDSU Extension hosts cattle webinar series on market, climate and health trends

May 03, 2024

The Market, Climate, Health: Cattle Update one-hour webinar series is online via Zoom at 11 a.m. CDT / 10 a.m. MT on June 4, 11 and 18, 2024. Tickets are $30 and registration is required to receive the Zoom link. To register, visit extension.sdstate.edu/events and search “cattle”.