In Early September, I wrote a blog post entitled The Downside of Baled Crop Residue. My previous post focused on cornstalks. After harvest, as I traveled across the state, I have observed we have more harvested crop residue to consider. Baling soybean and wheat residues are poor economic decisions and negatively impact soil health of...Read More

Guest Author: Terry Buettner, Support Agronomist The ‘Bomb Cyclone’ that hit the Midwest on March 13th has created a huge problem for many Midwest producers. Heavy rains on frozen fields created runoff of an impressive magnitude resulting in flood damaged fields. The damaging effects of flood water on agriculture are extensive. Crop residue was washed...Read More

Even before the ‘bomb cyclone’ hit, it was a heartbreaking spring for livestock producers. I was receiving phone calls of late term abortions and lost calves and cows due to poor nutrition. Before these historic floods, Nebraska and surrounding states were already enduring unusually low temperatures and heavy snow fall. Producers were struggling with guidelines...Read More

When temperatures dip, it is important to provide extra nutrients at the right time to help livestock fight cold stress.  Cold stress occurs when the environmental temperature is below the animals lower critical temperature. The lower critical temperature is reached when the animal can no longer maintain their internal body temperature through behavioral modifications such...Read More

We’ve all heard the Luke Bryan song “Rain is a Good Thing”. While it may be a catchy lyric, lack of rain can cause livestock producers to suffer from drought and heat stress issues, while too much rain can leave farmers dealing with flood damage.  This year has been especially testing from those aspects.  The...Read More

The other day while it was raining cats and dogs outside, a customer asked how that rain would affect his freshly cut alfalfa hay.  Unfortunately, rain after cutting and before bailing only decreases the nutritional value of the hay. As the freshly chopped forage lays in the field getting rained on, water soluble compounds leach...Read More

Summer has arrived, for livestock producers heat stress is something they face each year.  Cattle not well equipped to handle heat stress and are usually grazing or in a feedlot during this time of year.  Unlike swine and poultry who are housed in a more controlled indoor environment with fans and sprinklers to help keep...Read More

This spring we have had some very untimely snow storms.  Some have even been historical, such as the blizzard that hit most of the midwest including Minneapolis as I was traveling to the Montana Nutrition Conference and Livestock Forum.  Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the conference as my airplane was diverted and the...Read More

The state of Nebraska is in the center of the High Plains Region of the United States.  The states that make up this region are Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.  I checked the current drought monitor and found that southern Nebraska and southern Wyoming are abnormally dry, and Kansas, Colorado and the Dakotas...Read More

Here in Central Nebraska we have experienced several mid-summer thunderstorms. These hail producing storms have wreaked havoc on crops and forage productivity, particularly in the Broken Bow and Ansley areas. As producers move forward with crop insurance, they will also be scrambling to utilize what is left of their standing row crops and forages. There...Read More