Livestock
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A new resource guide has recently been made available by the Animal Agriculture Climate Change group that co-sponsors this blog. It is entitled “Adapting to a Changing Climate: A Planning Guide.” It is available online by clicking here. This guide provides several steps that extension agents, farmers and ranchers can use to think about how…
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The results of the 2014 hay contest are in, and show a marked improvement over 2013, when wet weather caused poor forage conditions across the Southeast. Here is a paragraph from the contest summary: “Weather is always a major limiting factor when attempting to produce high quality forage. This year, dry conditions in the later…
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Last year at this time, an unexpected early season blizzard in South Dakota killed over 40,000 head of cattle. Many ranchers were caught unprepared by the unseasonable weather and had not moved their cattle to their winter pastures yet, which increased the losses. Cattle were also still in summer coats and were soaked by the…
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An entry from the American Geophysical Union blog site in mid-August discusses the possibility of spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ABR) through wind dispersal of land-applied animal wastewater used for irrigation in drought conditions. You can read the blog here. Scientists are not sure about the amount of ABR naturally occurring in the soils now, but speculate…
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The New York Times published a story earlier this week discussing the changes that changing climate may cause to soil microbe populations. Their focus was on grazing lands in the Southwest, but it is a question that could be asked across the country. The story focused on cyanobacteria, a critical component of surface soils in…
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The Southeast Cattle Advisor provides articles on a variety of information related to cattle, including market information, inputs, and decision aids. If you have not visited their web site, you can find it at https://www.secattleadvisor.com/. They also provide a periodic newsletter which sends the articles directly to your email address.
Posted in: Livestock -
The QUEST multimedia reporting group has a new audio and text story on how recent droughts in Texas and Oklahoma have changed the shape of the cattle industry. During their last drought, many ranchers sold off significant parts of their herds. Much of the beef production moved farther north to places like Nebraska where feed…