Beef Industry and General Management

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure: Range Record Keeping

Range record keeping helps detect and demonstrate landscape changes that have a direct impact on your ability to maintain or grow your herd.

Beef

Home to more than 1 million head of cattle, South Dakota’s producers can rely on SDSU Extension for research-based information, best management practices and resources to support healthy and profitable herds.

Corn Residue Grazing and Rental Rate Considerations

Crop residue makes excellent fall forage for cattle and helps prevent volunteer corn in fields the following growing season. With many corn fields around, farmers and ranchers can work together and find a way to use residue grazing for adding soil nutrients and gaining feed access that benefits each party, respectively.

Grazing Corn Stalks to Combat Volunteer Corn Following Drought Periods

The incidence of volunteer corn in subsequent crops tends to be greater following periods of drought. Utilizing livestock to graze corn residue following harvest is a strategic management practice to reduce volunteer corn in the following crop.

Grazing Corn Residue: Connecting Crops, Cattle, and Soil

As corn harvest wraps up, remember that the value of the crop doesn’t have to end when the grain leaves the field. With intentional grazing management, the post-harvest residue can become part of another production cycle that connects crops, cattle, economics, and soil.

Drought Management Tools for Beef Cattle Producers

Making timely, objective decisions based on the long-term sustainability of the operation is essential for successfully managing through drought and positioning the ranch for recovery.

Guidelines for Livestock Carcass Disposal in South Dakota

Everyone who works with or owns animals tries their best to keep all animals alive. In turn, they also know there will always be normal mortality. Thus, we need to keep in mind the regulations surrounding disposal.