Recent Articles
The Tax Man Cometh – and So Does Spring Calving
Starting off 2012, as in most years, my thoughts turned to getting together my “stuff” from the year 2011 for the tax preparer. And, as in most years, my tendency was, to put it off to another day. As my wife’s motto says, “Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow, ‘cause if [...]
How do you Get your Cows through a Winter Drought?
Here it is December and all the talk is about Christmas – Christmas shopping, putting up Christmas decorations, family gatherings, etc. My thoughts have been, for quite awhile now, how do I get the few cows I have left through the winter? In my area of Texas, we have been in a severe drought and [...]
Sally Buxkemper to be inducted into Cowgirl Hall of Fame
Sarah “Sally” Buxkemper, owner and operator of RX Simbrah near Ballinger, Texas will be one of the inductees into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in ceremonies October 26, 2011. The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to preserve the history and highlight the impact of Western women living roughly from the mid-1800s to the [...]
Tips for Computerizing your Cattle Records
The days of spiral or pocket notebooks to keep your cattle records are giving way to a variety of improve record keeping solutions, including computer software programs designed specifically for cattle records. As time has passed and more ranchers have adopted the use of cattle software, programs such as the CattleMax herd software have become [...]
USDA Issues Notice of Proposed Livestock Traceability Rule
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is seeking comments on a proposed rule issued August 11, to establish general regulations for improving the traceability of U.S. livestock moving interstate if an animal disease event takes place. According to the news release, under the proposed rule, livestock moving interstate would [...]
Maintaining Cow Body Condition in a Drought
As most folks know, Texas is in the midst of the worst one year drought in history. My rainfall records for 2011 indicate a total of 5.5 inches of rain since January 1, with 2.6 inches of that coming the weekend of August 13-14. And, we are nearing 70 days of 100 degrees F or [...]
Tips for Effective Cattle Deworming
Cattle management programs usually include one to two anthelmintic treatments per year, so an effort should be made to avoid development of resistant internal parasites. Anthelmintics are medicines that eject or kill intestinal worms. They are commonly known as dewormers. There are basically two ways to fight anthelmintic resistance. The first is to rotate treatments [...]
Ways for Determining Range Forage Quality
Several earlier articles here on Cattle Management provided steps for estimating the amount of forage present in a pasture. A forage inventory is not complete, however, until plant quality is determined. Forage quality is easily measured on improved pastures or areas where only a few plant species are distributed uniformly across the acreage. Representative samples of [...]
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