Dairy Nutrition
Cows calving with low blood calcium isn’t necessarily bad.
Grass tetany might be easily defined as a deficiency of magnesium, but for Dick Kurtz of Oregon, Mo., it just means trouble. He lost three cows in March to the disorder and is carefully watching a few more.
Mycotoxins represent a broad category of toxic agents produced by various naturally occurring fungi, mostly soil borne and environmentally dependent.
Feeding Rye or Triticale Silage to Dairy Cattle
With spring in full bloom and summer just on the horizon, now is a great time to analyze the pasture your animals may soon graze.
Calcium is the most important mineral in milk, but magnesium may be the most critical mineral in the cow’s diet.
The timing of the rains can make it difficult for producers that are trying hard to put quality hay in the bale for next winter’s feed supply.
The person who originated the adage, “It beats a snowbank” may have been thinking about feeding corn stalk bales. However, like most forages there can be quite a bit of variability in nutritional value.
Poisonous plants are responsible for considerable losses in livestock although many cases go unrecognized and undiagnosed due to a lack of knowledge of which plants could be responsible.
With the hot, humid and rainy return of summer, livestock producers can expect forage leaf and root diseases outbreaks in pastures.
Cornell University experts share how raising BMR sorghum sudangrass can create an abundant feedstuff that is high in feed value and yield; flexible to raise; and environmentally sustainable.