If you are feeding livestock, you know that the price of hay has gone up. Even if you raised your own hay, the cost to produce that hay has increased.

The nuance of feeding breeding stock takes on greater dimension compared to feeder cattle because of the long-term considerations required of breeding stock. In a broad sense, the goal with replacement heifers is to give them the nutritional foundation for success that will hopefully allow them to produce eight to 10 big, healthy calves in their productive lifetime.

For some cattle producers, drought is an expected and reoccurring event that is part of the management environment.

Hydroponic forages, or forages grown using a specially formulated combination of water and light – no soil required – are not a new technology. Increased pressures to find sources of quality feed through several years of persistent drought, along with the appeal of a land- and water-efficient, environmentally friendly source of high-quality forages has spurred a growing interest in using hydroponic forages in the U.S.

There is an increased focus on the feed industry and hay markets as producers scramble to determine how they will combat low forage supplies this winter.

One of the most underutilized tools in the cow-calf sector is testing your harvested forages. Having these forage samples is a critical component of putting together a cost-effective winter feeding strategy. While taking forage samples is something everyone talks about doing, many times the practice seems to fall between the cracks.