Hay is a very common sight in every cattle producer’s operation throughout the country. It is used during the winter to provide supplemental nutrition when forages are lacking. However, with the extremely dry conditions, we have been having lately getting hay bales is becoming harder and harder. With this difficulty producers are looking for ways to make their current supplies last longer.
Making the perfect hay bale will not do you much good if you do not store them properly. Storing it properly will maintain its high quality later in the year. How you store your hay bale can make or break what you will be able to get out of it come wintertime.
Properly storing your hay bales is not as complicated as it may seem. It really just boils down to storing them in a way that will keep them dry and out of the elements as best as possible. Here are 5 rules that you can follow to make sure that you store them the best that you can.
Maintaining your pasture during the summer can be very tricky. In no time at all, it can go from adequate moisture to extremely dry. A manager has to be on their game to keep their pasture from suffering too much.
Having a good summer pasture management plan in place can save you a lot of headaches later on. It will give you a chance to put out any potential fires, not literally, before they can occur.
A protein tub is a very good way to provide extra nutrition when needed. One benefit is that once you have placed it in the pasture you don’t need to check it every day. This is helpful for those that may have a job back in town.
It is never good whenever your cattle are suffering from a disease. It can rob you of performance while at the same time increasing your expenses.
Breeding season preparations are a very important task for any cow/calf producer’s bottom line. The steps that they take now will determine if they will have a good calf crop or not. Having good quality calves to sell is the defining factor between a successful and a not successful rancher.
Drought is one of those things that every cattle producer will have to deal with at some point. It ranks right up there with Death and Taxes. Just like those two though it is unavoidable however it is also something that most producers find themselves unprepared for.
Cedar, more accurately known as juniper, can be a very difficult plant to control. It is a very aggressive woody plant that grows here in Texas as well as in other places. It is often viewed as invasive because if left unchecked it can quickly take over a pasture choking out any grass growth.
