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Forages

How to produce quality hay horse owners want to buy
Columns, Crops, Hay

How to produce quality hay horse owners want to buy

Taking crops off your hay land is much the same as cropping it to wheat or canola

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What is hay? Recent hamburger commercials keep referring to grass-fed beef. If you feed your cattle hay, are they still grass fed? All the year round, grass feeding occurs in very few areas of the world. In most of North America, hay is fed up to six or seven months of the year. Bison or […] Read more
Lastiwka sought out efficient cattle genetics, such as Luing-cross cows, that can make use of a variety of forages. And he says fences may not be in perfect shape, but as long as they work that's the main thing.
Cattleman’s Corner, Forages

Short and long-term thoughts on forage management

Some good lessons to be learned from more than three decades of experience of what works and doesn’t work

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A farm without a tractor. Some of the fences could use a bit of work. The cows have been known to eat thistles. And the farmer doesn’t hesitate to say “this really didn’t work out the way I planned.” So could a person trust any advice from this operation? If it was any place other […] Read more
Down the middle of this photo is a line of cattle working on a swath on Copperfield Colony. It takes about 20 minutes to advance a hot wire to the next swath once cattle clean up a windrow. The colony is now taking off more tons of forage per acre with the cover crops and swath grazing than with three cuttings of hay.
Cattleman’s Corner, Hay, Livestock

Year-round grazing reduces winter feeding costs

Cover crops, swath grazing and double cropping are all ways to produce more forage

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The cattle managers at the Copperfield Hutterite Colony near Vauxhall, Alta., northeast of Lethbridge, are using livestock to improve soils and pastures. Phil Hofer and the boys in charge of the cattle are using them in a year-round grazing system that includes intensive pasture rotations on swathed cover crops. “I am thankful to the management […] Read more
The nitrate level in a sample of this grass regrowth were somewhat elevated and there was always a risk there could be some “real hot spots” in other parts of the 40 acre field.
Cattleman’s Corner, Forages, Livestock

Play it safe with high nitrates

Proper management of drought-affected forages can reduce the risk to livestock

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This year’s drought taught me many lessons about the dangers of high nitrates in beef cow forage. That is why I recommend that all cow-calf producers test all their harvested forages for nitrates, whatever field it came from. It’s going to be money well spent, whether tests are negative or positive. And if they are […] Read more
(Andreus/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops, Hay, Weather

Hay-starved Prairies fertile ground for online scammers

At least $64,000 lost in Alberta alone, RCMP says

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High demand, scarce supplies and rising prices for hay and other feeds due to this summer’s drought on the Prairies have made a market for online scammers, RCMP warn. The urgency driving such transactions may cause ranchers, farmers and farm workers to make purchases “without taking time to properly verify or research production sources,” Alberta […] Read more
(GFM file photo)
Crops, Forages

CFA’s Hay West program up and running

Program website now online

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A revival of the “Hay West” initiative, aimed at shipping feed from Eastern Canada to supplement drought-dented supplies in the West, has gone live. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture on Friday announced its Hay West 2021 initiative is “now operational and seeking applicants to both receive and supply hay.” Applicants interested in either supplying or […] Read more
(MDS.mennonite.net)
Crops, Hay, Weather

Ontario MDS volunteers already moving hay west

Disaster response group spearheading program separate from CFA plan

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It’s in the spirit of co-operation in difficult times that a group of Ontario farmers have launched a hay donation program to assist their Saskatchewan counterparts. Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada, a volunteer organization that provides assistance in the aftermath of disasters in Canada and the U.S., is organizing the latest iteration of Hay West […] Read more
(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)
Crops, Hay, Weather

Plans afoot to move hay from East to drought-hit West

CFA, BFO spearheading Hay West-style initiatives

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Farm groups are spearheading new plans to get livestock feed from Eastern Canada to drought-damaged regions of the western provinces and northwestern Ontario. Details are still pending, but the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) announced Aug. 12 it has started work on a “Hay West” initiative to get surplus hay “to those struggling in the […] Read more
Lurking nitrates and noxious weeds threaten to be yet another fly in the ointment as livestock producers continue to struggle for every scrap of annual crop or hay they can get their hands on.
Crops, Hay

Feed hazards lying in wait

Feed testing an absolute must for cattle producers sourcing greenfeed, straw: experts

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Glacier FarmMedia – Cattle producers are urged to get greenfeed and straw tested for potentially deadly nitrates this year. “Basically, we know there’s going to be nitrates in some of the feed. Especially cereal,” said Jo-Lene Gardiner, who works with the Border Agriculture Stewardship Association and is a cattle farmer in the Clearwater area. “It’s […] Read more
Manitoba Beef Producers president Tyler Fulton speaks in Winnipeg on July 22, 2021 at a federal/provincial announcement including planned changes to crop insurance against this summer’s drought, alongside federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Winnipeg MP Kevin Lamoureux (r). (Dave Bedard photo)
Crops, Hay, Weather

Manitoba triggers hay disaster benefit

Per-tonne rate lifted to cover feed, transport costs

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Manitoba’s crop insurance agency is set to lift the per-tonne rate paid out on insured forage crops to help cover livestock producers’ bills to buy and truck in replacement feed. Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. (MASC) on Thursday announced a 2021 hay disaster benefit to provide another $44 per tonne, for every tonne below coverage, to […] Read more

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