Reading Time: 3 minutes I’ve been studying and practising grazing management for more than two decades and have always been intrigued by how it allows you to increase pasture productivity with few other inputs. At times, I’ve resorted to adding nitrogen fertilizer, spreading pig manure, harrowing, and clipping thistles. For some pastures, it seemed like the only thing to […] Read more
Grazing management is your best – and cheapest – pasture input
Grazing management can produce significant pasture health and productivity increases without breaking the bank
Improve performance with a sweet treat for your cattle — afternoon-cut forage
Sugar concentration in forages peaks about 11 to 13 hours after sunrise — and can be as much as five per cent higher
Reading Time: 2 minutes Make hay while the sun shines’ is good advice in more ways than one, says a federal research scientist. “There’s fairly strong evidence that shows, by increasing the sugar concentration in forages, you can improve the performance of ruminants,” said Gilles Bélanger, who spoke during a recent Beef Cattle Research Council webinar. “If you want […] Read more
Is your pasture ready to graze? Start counting leaves
Grazing a pasture for six weeks costs about half of the annual production potential for your forages
Reading Time: 3 minutes Deciding when to graze a pasture has nothing to do with plant height, says an Idaho-based grazing expert. “Height doesn’t tell us very much,” Jim Gerrish said recently at a Foothills Forage and Grazing tour near Acme. “What we really want to know is, physiologically, is a plant ready to be grazed?” And leaf stage […] Read more
Ergot becomes invisible in manufactured feed
Researchers and feed makers say new guidelines for assessing risk are needed
Reading Time: 2 minutes The two pictures of pelleted feed veterinary toxicologist Dr. Barry Blakley put up on the screen at a recent ergot symposium here looked identical. But one had enough toxins in it to kill livestock. The rising levels of ergot in western Canadian cereal grains and forages has turned into a nightmare for the manufactured feed […] Read more
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