Drought: Livestock

Don’t Let Dry Conditions Take a Toll on Breeding Success

If you feel pastures are not going to provide adequate nutrients to prepare cows for breeding, here are some management strategies that can be done to potentially stimulate estrus, maintain good pregnancy rates, and save some feed resources too.

Water Conservation and Efficiency During Times of Drought

As drought conditions continue to expand across the state this year, more thought is given towards South Dakota’s limited water resources. We live in a state where weather conditions and rain patterns seem to comfortably exist at the extremes; we either have way too much or nearly not enough. While this isn’t always the case, it is important to keep in mind that our water resources are finite and all of us should be thinking about doing what we can to protect them.

Making Use of “Ugly” Feeds

Feed does not have to be perfect to be useful. The key to making smart feeding decisions is knowing what the imperfections are and adjusting accordingly.

Soybeans & Sunflowers: Alternative Cattle Forages

Alternative forages like soybean silage or hay, and sunflower silage, can help stretch conventional forage supplies and help avoid overgrazing pasture.

Feeding Drought-Stressed Crops to Cattle

Can drought-stressed crops be be utilized as feed? The answer is yes, if we know what the levels of nitrates are in the feedstuffs in question.

Limited Forage: What Are Some Alternatives?

Research has shown that a variety of feedstuffs can be utilized to meet the cows’ nutrient requirements with similar performance to hay or hay plus supplement ration.

Early Weaning as a Drought Management Strategy

Successfully managing drought conditions requires balancing the amount of forage demanded by grazing livestock with the amount produced.

Hot Weather Challenges Beef Cattle

Hot weather conditions create challenges for grazing beef cattle.

Managing Light-Weight Calves

Weaning calves early is a powerful management tool to reduce demands on range and pasture.

Drylotting Cow-Calf Pairs

Whether because of reduced forage production caused by drought, or increased competition for grazing acres, feeding lactating cows in a drylot is being at least considered as an option by more ranchers.