South Dakota Rancher Newsletter

Millborn Seeds Winter Workshops

2012-01-16T13:22:00.000-06:00

Join us for our Winter Workshop's. Click on the postcard to enlarge it.

Supplementing on Stalks and Winter Grass

2011-10-27T11:54:00.000-05:00

No matter whether you are in the east or the west, supplementing protein to cows on corn stalks, winter range, or any other type of low-quality forage is getting very expensive. I'll pass on the discussion of when supplements are needed or not for the cow herd as I will assume everyone has a good handle on that. Let's move on to more important things like cost. The table below shows the

Cash Report

2011-10-20T08:52:00.000-05:00

Hub City Livestock Auction - Aberdeen, S.D. Feeder Cattle Weighted Average Report for 10/19/2011 Receipts: 5102 Last Week: 3855 Year Ago: 3221 Compared to last week: Feeder steers and heifers sold mostly 1.00 to 3.00 higher. Active market with good demand. Steers 60 percent, heifers 40 percent, 70 percent over 600 lbs. Steers500-600 - $163.00 600-700 - $144.00 700-800 - $141.00 800-

To Background or Not to Background?

2011-10-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

Another incredible week in the cattle market this week for both the cash and futures. Hard to believe that 500 lb steers calves are going for $850 - $940/head. In any event, the question I've heard a lot is whether a guy should be backgrounding calves this year? In my mind, that is a pretty easy question answer and it's not very complicated. I'll show a couple of calculations to demonstrate the

Flooded Pasture: Species and Seeding Options

2011-09-30T15:53:00.000-05:00

Eric Mousel, Forage and Alfalfa Specialist, Millborn Seeds Inc. 605-690-4974, ericm@millbornseeds.com My last article discussed the impact that flood waters have on pasture soils and some thoughts on what a person should do to revitalize those soils. I listed several species that can tolerate soils that have been impacted dramatically by flood waters. But what about pastures that flooded out,

Flooded Pasture Soils

2011-09-19T16:53:00.000-05:00

Eric Mousel, Forage and Alfalfa Specialist, Millborn Seeds Inc.605-690-4974, ericm@millbornseeds.comThe first thing that has to be considered when figuring out what to do with a pasture that has been flooded out; is to consider what shape the soil is in. Flood waters that stand for long periods of time can really cause a lot of problems for your soil. These waters will bring in a lot of debris

Flooded Pasture Renovations

2011-09-14T17:07:00.000-05:00

Eric Mousel, Forage and Alfalfa Specialist, Millborn Seeds Inc. 605-690-4974, ericm@millbornseeds.com For those of you that had pastures flood for extended periods of time this summer, you are not alone. It has been a very aggravating summer for a lot of people in South Dakota, but you can thank your lucky stars you don’t have land along the Missouri further south, it can only be described as

Prussic Acid and Nitrate Problems Could be Substantial this Fall on Forage Sorghum and Millet

2011-08-31T13:49:00.000-05:00

Eric Mousel, Forage and Alfalfa Specialist Millborn Seeds, Inc. 605-697-6306 Any time growers plant any type of forage sorghum for hay and/or livestock grazing, prussic acid is a concern. However, in the minds of most growers, prussic acid toxicity is a concern early in the growing season when forage sorghum plants are less than 18-24 inches tall. Normally, when sorghum plants grow taller than

Millborn Seeds Inc.

2011-08-30T17:31:00.000-05:00

Dear friends, I am excited to let you know that I am now working with Millborn Seeds, Inc. in Brookings, SD as a Forage and Alfalfa Specialist. As a result, I will be working with cool- and warm-season grass pastures and alfalfa. We also service forage sorghums, sudangrass, millets, and cover crops. Additionally, I will be maintaining this blog as well as contributing to the Millborn Seeds

Excessive Heat Taking it Toll in South Dakota Feedyards

2011-07-19T14:29:00.002-05:00

Read article here... More to come... Feedyard losses mounting....

This Week In Cattle

2011-07-19T09:35:00.000-05:00

I had a guy ask me yesterday about whether he should background his calves this fall and try to hedge a profit in now while prices are still really high. First, I congratulated this guy for having the foresight to think about how he was going to market calves before October 15. Not that he isn’t a good thinker, because he is, but I have never known him to give too much thought to the most

Heat Stress in South Dakota Feedyards Will be a Major Issue Next Week

2011-07-15T11:50:00.000-05:00

Although temperatures will only be in the low to mid-90's, high relative humidity and low winds speeds are the major threats to penned cattle. The real issue will be high nighttime temps and high humidity will not allow stressed cattle to cool off overnight, therefore cattle cannot handle the heat of the next day. Heat stress can't be completely avoided but a little management can go a long

Y the Infertility in Heifers?

2011-06-03T10:26:00.000-05:00

Here's an update from BIF in Billings. This goes along with the work we have been doing at SDSU with identifying factors that affect fertility and longevity in females. Why the Y? Thank You and Have a Great Day!!

2010 Cow Calf Business Report

2011-05-12T13:34:00.000-05:00

The SDSU Cow Calf Business Report is a guide to current year's production costs and production cost trends. The data that comprises these reports is collected directly from outfits across South Dakota as part of the SD Integrated Resource Management Program at SDSU (SD IRM). The SD IRM program provides individual and small group business management training, record keeping, and accoutning for

This is a Test

2011-05-04T11:47:00.002-05:00

This is a test to see if SDR Newsletter, SDR Twitter, and SDR on Facebook are all connected. I doubt it.

Odds and Ends

2011-05-02T15:11:00.003-05:00

As a result of my considerable time away, which is typical of JAN - APR due to the trip to Argentina and a lot of other stuff going on, I have developed quite a backlog of really good questions, comments and points of discussion that I would like to try to address over the next few weeks.Last fall and early winter, we had quite a few discussions on cattle markets and the like and since that time,

Fosatti´s

2011-01-09T12:44:00.002-06:00

Martin and Raul Fosatti have hosted our group at their ranch, Don Poncho, near Santa Rosa for the last several years and visiting them is a great experience as it is always interesting to see what the Fosatti Brothers have been doing over the last year to improve their operation.On our first visit to Santa Rosa in 2007, the Fosatti´s had just broke ground on a cooperative packing plant they had

This Week In Argentina

2011-01-09T12:23:00.002-06:00

Greetings from Argentina, this first week has really gone fast and has kind of gotten away from me with all of the great tours we have had.We got into Buenos Aires last Monday with no problems and the students had a good time exploring the downtown area of the city. We went on a city tour in the afternoon and learned a little history of the town and what it is like to live in BsAs today. For a

This Week In Cattle

2010-12-30T09:58:00.005-06:00

It's been awhile since we've looked at the markets and for good reason...not much has changed since the last time we looked at them.Oh yes, the prices have moved drastically, but the profit relationships haven't changed all that much, especially on backgrounded calves. If you have ranch calves that you didn't sell in NOV and decided to put a few extra pounds on to sell after the first of the year

The New Year

2010-12-27T11:16:00.002-06:00

First of all, I must apologize for disappearing for about a month and a half. The end of November and all of December have been out of control in terms of being busy with the end of the academic semester, a larger than normal demand for speaking engagements, the holiday season, and preparing for the annual voyage to South America.That being said, we have a lot to catch up on, namely, the trip to

This Week In Cattle

2010-11-15T08:26:00.003-06:00

Some strength in the futures on feeder cattle this last week has really opened up opportunities for short turns on light calves that we haven't seen in the last couple of weeks. We can talk corn futures and feedlot placements until we are blue in the face, it doesn't really matter.The only thing that really matters is that the spreads between the cash market on lighter calves and the futures on

Economics of Protein Supplementation

2010-11-10T10:56:00.002-06:00

One of the principal costs associated with wintering cows is protein supplementation. Winter range, harvested forages, and crop residues for the most part, contain plenty of energy to meet the needs of gestating cows during the winter.The protein content of these energy sources however, tends to be fairly low which will ultimately reduce intake and digestibility of these types of forages.The feed

This Week In Cattle

2010-11-01T08:48:00.002-05:00

There is a lot of feed in the country this year with record levels of precipitation and pretty good growing conditions throughout the summer. With abundant feed and really decent cattle prices, I have received a lot inquiries from ranchers about bringing in calves to feed on a short turnaround to burn some extra feed and make a little cash on the side.It's a pretty good idea, although getting

This Week In Cattle

2010-10-04T11:12:00.003-05:00

The cash market is heating up with the fall run of calves starting to filter into the marketplace. Although the cash market has remained pretty strong, especially on the lightweights, the fall calf run is putting a lot of pressure on the futures market. this is going to create some opportunities for guys that want to add some weight to these calves before they go to town. However, the key thing

Cull Cows Today

2010-09-28T10:17:00.009-05:00

Building upon the earlier discussion, it might be useful for guys to update their analysis of cull cow calue as they get closer to making marketing decisions.The same principles apply today as they did the first time I talked about this. Of course as we get closer to the fall calf run and subsequent glut of cull cows at salebarns across the land this fall, prices have dropped from earlier this