What a weather anomaly this year has been! It started this spring with the bomb cyclone in March in the western part of Nebraska and the flooding on the central and eastern portion of the state from the rapid melting and rains. Since then, much of the state has been wet or flooded.
As silage harvest continues and corn harvest begins, mycotoxin challenges and issues may arise. Mold produce mycotoxins. It is not the molds themselves that impact animal health, it is the mycotoxins that negatively impact animal health.
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Here I am discussing 2019 and in my area, we haven’t yet cut 2018 wheat. Am I thinking too far ahead? I don’t think so when looking at 2018 and 2019 corn prices. As of this writing, Dec 19 corn is trading at $3.96 with Dec 18 corn 23 cents lower. Those aren’t prices I like, but those are the prices I currently have to live with. On the other side of profit is cost. If my variable costs decline in 2019, maybe $4 corn can make me money. If variable costs don’t decline in 2019, I would rather know that now than one year from now.
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Alfalfa seeded this spring is ready, or soon will be ready, to cut. Use the following harvest guidelines to get the most from your first-year alfalfa.
Seeding year alfalfa is different from established stands. Stems are spindly, roots are small and shorter, and growth is a little slower.
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Back to school, state fair and corn silage harvest. This is a busy time of year and there are many things consuming our thoughts; however, there are a few key items that we should be thinking about to make sure the corn silage we harvest today will yield high quality feed for the year to come.
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Very soon this question will pop up and will ask about selling a full year of production or a specific cutting. Getting a handle on how much either is worth is often just guess work. There is a better way.
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El muestreo es clave para un análisis adecuado de los alimentos y para el balance apropiado de las raciones del ganado. Aquí le mostramos como realizarlo.
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Salud y enfermedades metabólicas relacionados con factores nutricionales en vacas lecheras
(Dairy Cow Health and Metabolic Disease Relative to Nutritional Factors)
This NebGuide written in Spanish discusses common dairy cow diseases related to nutrition.
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Back to school, state fair and corn silage harvest. This is a busy time of year and there are many things consuming our thoughts; however, there are a few key items that we should be thinking about to make sure the corn silage we harvest today will yield high quality feed for the year to come.
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Many dairy diets contain 40% or more corn silage. Most other components of the ration are determined by the quality of this silage so starting with high-quality silage can greatly affect eventual ration cost and milk production.
Harvest at the optimal stage of maturity will maximize yield of digestible nutrients and provide the correct moisture content for proper ensiling.
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One thing that always amazes me during my travels to dairy farms both in the state of Nebraska as well as other parts of the world is the sheer diversity of byproducts fed to dairy cattle. The byproducts originate for the food, beverage, bioenergy industries. I personally have seen such unusual feeds as carrots, bread waste, cookie waste, cannery waste, and potato chips successfully used to feed dairy cattle. In general, byproducts are used in because through rumen fermentation, cattle are able to utilize both protein and energy out of a wide range of feed sources and convert them into a high value food product, namely milk.
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