A tight hay supply continues to elevate hay prices, especially when compared to softening grain prices. Thus, many cattle producers are looking at alternative feedstuffs instead of purchasing hay.

Utilizing tillable acres to provide feed for cattle while still harvesting a cash crop is becoming a popular goal for farmers.

Cattle consuming plants experiencing drought stress or plants harvested during drought conditions can be at higher health risks. So what risks are there with feedstuffs during a drought?

We all aspire to exercise better stockmanship, and handling animals correctly is a big part of that goal. 

In this episode of the Progressive Dairy Podcast, Editor Jenn Coyne visits with Alice Crothers of Long Green Farms in Maryland. Crothers is a member of the Holstein Foundation’s Young Dairy Leaders Institute Class 12 where she spent the last two years welcoming opportunities that allowed for personal and professional growth.

Feed cost, labor cost and availability, equipment cost and availability, calf marketing strategy, herd genetics, forage availability and cow age are all factors to consider when deciding to creep feed.

In a graduate-level nutrition class, I had an exchange with a professor that I still remember.