By Gregg Hanzlicek, DVM, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab
Vitamin A deficiency can present with many different clinical signs, but the most common signs are weak or stillborn calves. In this article, we will discuss some possible reasons why this may occur in our spring-calving beef herds. Continue reading “Vitamin A: A major player in stillborn and weak calf syndromes”
By Jason Warner, extension cow-calf specialist
The question recently proposed to a KSRE professional by a local producer was: “I have 60 hd of mature cows and 600 large round bales of hay on hand. If I start feeding harvested forage today, do I have enough forage to make it through the winter?” This is an actual scenario and a real concern for many this year due to the reduction in forage supplies due to drought in areas throughout Kansas and in our neighboring states. Continue reading “Estimating How Long the Hay Supply Will Last”
By Keith Harmoney, range scientist, Hays
I was recently asked how the drought of 2022 will affect forage growth in 2023 and how drought-stricken pastures should be managed during the fall and winter prior to next growing season. These questions point me to results of a grazing study during the driest year on record at the KSU Agricultural Research Center at Hays in 1956. Looking back at 1956 and nearly 80 years of grazing studies to date, the stocking rate study being conducted that year also produced the lowest pasture yields that have been recorded at the Research Center.
In fact, grazing animals were removed in August of 1956 from the high stocking rate treatment of the study because animals simply did not have enough forage left in pastures to graze through October, the time that animals were supposed to be removed according to the study protocol. The heavy stocking rate pasture was essentially a tabletop. However, the driest year on record at Hays in 1956 was followed the next year in 1957 by an above average season of precipitation. In 1957, all of the pastures of the different stocking rate treatments in the study responded with above treatment average forage production from the above average precipitation, even in the heavy stocked pastures.
Continue reading “Learning from droughts in the 1930s and ’50s”
By Jennifer Ifft, agricultural policy extension specialist
On October 18, 2022, nearly two-thirds of all Kansas counties were reported as experiencing extreme or exceptional drought. Cattle producers can take many actions to mitigate the impact of drought, including purchasing forage insurance, or Pasture, Rainfall, Forage (PRF) insurance. The deadline to purchase PRF for 2023 is December 1, 2022, but the premium would not be billed until September 23, 2023. In this article, we discuss the what PRF is and report PRF payouts to-date by drought status for all 105 Kansas counties. In 2022, nearly 2.9 million acres were enrolled in PRF in Kansas; USDA reported 15.6 million acres of pastureland in Kansas in 2017. PRF premiums for 2022 totaled about $14 million and PRF has already paid out over $20 million in indemnities.
