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Corn stover treated with hydrated or pickling lime can replace grain in beef-cattle feed and may also – to a lesser extent – replace a portion of forage in dairy-cow diets, according to new research....More

Cattle, sheep and other ruminants have the unique ability to digest cellulose, the main component in plant cell walls, to produce energy for themselves. This is significant, since cellulose makes up 40-70% of forage....More

A rapid test that precisely measures rumen starch digestibility of feed ingredients is helping nutritionist Will VanNostran reduce his client herds’ ration costs. He estimates savings from 5¢ to 10¢/cow/day depending on ingredient costs. The test is part of a service called Calibrate Technologies, from Forage Genetics International. Nutritionists enter test results and ration information onto Calibrate’s online calculator, which assigns a rumen degradable starch score....More

Mixing hay and grain for young calves didn’t help them adapt to a total mixed ration later in life, University of Guelph, Ontario, researchers report. Starting at birth and continuing for eight weeks, Holstein bull calves were fed chopped hay and concentrate as a mixture or in separate buckets. They also received milk replacer for the first seven weeks. All calves were fed the mixed diet in weeks nine through 11, then were offered a novel TMR in weeks 12 and 13. The TMR contained haylage, corn silage, high-moisture corn and protein supplement....More

While scoring manure piles, producers and nutritionists should check their herds’ locomotion and body-condition scores, said Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois emeritus dairy nutritionist. Or evaluate cows as they come from the milking parlor, he added....More

A growing number of consumers are “hungry to know where their food comes from,” says Rod Ofte. More than that, they want to know that it comes from animals fed healthily and treated humanely. The trend has led him – and many others – to go for Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) certification....More

A free workshop that discusses which forages and feed sources can accumulate nitrates will be held July 25 at Halfway High School, Halfway, MO....More

Proposed dairy reforms stayed intact as the House Ag Committee approved its version of the 2012 Farm Bill, which now moves on for a full House vote, according to the Milk Producers Council (MPC)....More

High heat and low moisture are drying up many Kentucky horse pastures made of cool-season Kentucky bluegrass and orchardgrass. That means horse owners should be monitoring those pastures and considering supplementing with hay, according to Laurie Lawrence, an animal nutritionist at the University of Kentucky....More

Beef producers can hope for the best but should plan for the worst in years like this, when pasture and hay supplies run low. One drought year, if not managed properly, will affect profits for three years, say Ron Lemenager and Keith Johnson, Purdue University animal scientist and agronomist, respectively....More

A few standout farmers and ranchers proud of what they do and eager to share their stories will be selected in a competition just announced by a newly formed coalition of farm organizations....More

The pricing of homegrown vs. purchased forage will be one of several topics discussed at the 4-State Dairy Nutrition & Management Conference, to be held June 13-14 at the Grand River Center in Dubuque, IA. The conference is sponsored by university Extensions from Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota....More