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By Nina Prater, NCAT Agriculture Specialist As the summer heat ramps up around the country, it’s a good time to make sure we livestock producers are protecting our animals from heat stress. In this blog, I’ll briefly cover a few ways we can keep our livestock safe in the heat. Check out this webinar to learn more about solar grazing.
By Linda Coffey, Margo Hale, and Dave Scott, NCAT Livestock Specialists With many parts of the country currently experiencing bitter temperatures, we’re re-posting this blog from March 2021 to offer potential livestock watering strategies for your farm during severe cold snaps. Livestock waterer made from a 55-gallon barrel.
By Justin Morris Has your pasture been plagued by poor plant growth? Does water pond on the surface of your pasture either during or right after a rain or irrigation event? Or does water run off your pasture to the point that it leaves behind ugly scars of erosion or floods out other areas that are lower in the landscape?
The nighttime temperatures have been high enough to wake up the cool-season perennials in the pastures. The first question to ask is: do you really need to take on the work of establishing cover crops in pastures? The principal concern with no-tilling cover crops into perennial pasture sod is plant competition.
Our pastures are devastated by livestock feeding areas, hooves, gate ruts, excessive rain, snow melt, and lack of vegetative cover during the non-growing season. We are too aware of the cost of pasture forage restoration, truck fenders, and loss of man hours, but there is also a cost to the health and welfare of our livestock.
Here is a link to a video that talks about assessing pasture soil health using these tools. First, locate an area of the pasture that seems representative of the whole pasture. An 18-inch-long slice of soil positioned horizontally on a pasture to make it easier to look at soil structure and rooting depth.
By Justin Morris In an earlier blog , we discussed what compaction is and how it negatively affects plants, soils, livestock, and even economics. Causes of Compaction There are generally two major causes of soil compaction on pastures: hoof impact and overgrazing. Roots are essential for healthy soil structure to be maintained.
Pasture fences have been destroyed or damaged by so many trees falling across them that repairs will be time-consuming and costly. Winter is underway, and people, land, and livestock are still struggling to recover, but I am impressed with the outpouring of assistance and volunteers who are still trying to get lives back to normal.
However, managed pastures with legumes, high-quality hay, and minerals can help keep goats healthy. Related ATTRA Resources: Sheep and Goats: Frequently Asked Questions Getting Started with Livestock Dairy Goats for the Farm An Illustrated Guide to Sheep and Goat Production Small-Scale Livestock Production Episode 179.
Pasture fertility, healthy livestock, reduced nutrient runoff, all thanks to dung beetles. Even if you’re not a romantic, there are still plenty of other reasons to love dung beetles: it’s estimated that they provide millions of dollars’ worth of nutrient retention and pest fly reduction per year. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.
Planting, harvesting, breeding, raising livestock all require a period of waiting, but there are forms of waiting that can be minimized in farming operations, such as equipment repair, delayed harvest times due to unavailable labor, and delays of shipments of agricultural inputs. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.
By Linda Coffey, NCAT Livestock Specialist Here in Arkansas, the grass is growing, hens are at full lay, baby lambs are everywhere, and calves are arriving. But in my day job as an NCAT livestock specialist, I’ve been working on improving the curriculum for our Women, Livestock, and the Land course. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.
Dr. Lemus has been crucial in assisting the livestock producers across Mississippi understand the needs of each individual pasture toward better soil health. Leyla Rios, both of MSU Extension, strives to better understand forage present and soil health results from the implementation of conservation practices through an HMI framework.
Recent Actions In recent years, and most noticeably during the supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, several agencies within the USDA – including RuralDevelopment and the Agricultural Marketing Service – have helped direct critical funding specifically to small and very small meat processing plants.
Last fall, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and more than 150 other organizations, including nutrition, sustainable farming, ruraldevelopment, racial equity, labor, and environmental groups, sent a joint letter to President Biden, urging him to prod Congress to pass a new farm bill this year that transforms the US food system.
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