Ron’s Nurse Cows

By Alex GathiiGuiding cows through early lactation is key to their health and performance. Nutrition and health greatly affect milk yields and prevents health problems. Having good feed practices can improve peak milk yields.What is peak milk?Peak milk is the highest recorded test day milk production in a cow’s first 150 days in milk (DIM). Historically, producers used peak milk as a measure of the success of the dry period and early lactation nutrition and management. Peak m

For many small farmers and homesteaders, cows are the white (or, perhaps, black and white) whale of livestock: always top of mind, but seemingly forever out of reach. Most cows are physically bigger than other livestock, so they require more space and infrastructure than other ruminant animals like sheep and goats. Even mini cows are a bigger financial investment when it comes to upfront cost and maintenance. If you simply cannot live any longer without homegrown beef and fresh milk, th

This is the time of year when farmers like to put their perennial pastures out to pasture . . . so to speak . . . and let their cattle consume cornstalks, although the stalks are generally not what get devoured. It might seem that grazing corn residue is pretty straightforward, but the reality is that a high level of management is needed to maintain cattle performance and be good stewards of the land. In a University of Nebraska (UN) beef cattle extension webinar last week, Mary Drewnoski, a U

The author is an extension ruminant nutrition specialist at North Carolina State University.Grazing management is getting more attention these days, but the vast majority of cow-calf producers still use continuous or lax rotational grazing. Actively managed grazing does take effort, but it can be one of the most rewarding activities on the farm. Adaptive grazing is an approach that encourages the grazier to use a combination of grazing techniques to develop their own custom system that is a