As we welcome on the new year, I reflect to a year ago when I was glad to see the 2017 season disappear and start with 2018 because there was no way in my mind it could have gotten worse than 2017. Well, I guess I was wrong. To make matters worse we are now facing poor grazing due to extended periods of rainy weather that has delayed establishment, stunted root growth from saturated soils, and/or induced significant leaching. Many of you were considering whether or not to apply more fertilizer or to spend money on feed. I addressed this issue individually with a lot of you. Now that a lot of you are supplementing hay with cottonseed, I thought I would provide a little bit of direction with this comment from Dr. Jacob Segers, UGA beef cattle nutritionist. “I tell them to try not to exceed 0.5% of body weight per day. For a 1200-lb cow, that’s about 6 pounds. “
For more information on Forages, check out the UGA Forage Team letter, which contains some very good information.