Air November 29 - December 5, 2006

Monitor Feed Wastage and Winter Feeding sites

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. With hay being in short supply and right pricey if you have to buy it, it makes sense to try to minimize hay wastage at feeding sites. The amount of wastage would actually shock many of you. The least wastage is going to occur when hay is ground and fed into a bunk. When you do this, you are probably looking at well under 10% wastage, in reality probably 5%. To the other extreme, let's take that big round bale and just unroll it out in the pasture or stubble field where you have the cattle. Loss in these cases may approach 40% of the hay. Now, I will admit that under certain conditions you may want to do this to provide some dry bedding, especially for cows that might be calving. But if that is your purpose, you can probably find some old poor quality hay that will work just fine. Probably the cheapest and easiest way to reduce wastage is to use one of the bale feeders. You keep the hay pretty well contained and it becomes much harder for the cattle to trample the hay into the mud. You'll still have wastage, but it will drop into that 15 to 20% range which becomes far more tolerable. Just make sure that you have enough bale feeders to accommodate the demand at the feeders. The other part of the equation is to select winter feeding sites that are convenient but minimize the risk of unintended environmental impact. Allow for good drainage as muddy conditions can quickly reduce gain by 10 to 30% or worse. Consider moving the feeding site around during the winter so you don't spend too much time in one place. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Distiller's Grains and Wheat Mids

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. We are fortunate in living where we do in that we often can find many different livestock feedstuffs available at reasonable prices. And astute cattle producers will look for ways to utilize these different feeds in an economical manner to supplement low quality forages and to provide additional protein and energy during times of higher need such as winter weather. While we are all familiar with the various grains, dehydrated alfalfa products, and formulated cubed or pelleted rations, we also have various grain byproducts from other processing such as cottonseed meal, soybean hulls, distillers grains and wheat middlings or wheat mids. At various times, these products can become available at very reasonable costs including transportation. These products can be somewhat variable though, so it is always a good idea to make sure you have an analysis of these products. Probably the one that is most commonly used is the wheat mids. Wheat mids are popular since they are fairly high in roughage they can be added to diets high in roughage without "messing up" the rumen bacteria. Wheat mids are also a good protein source, often around 18% and a good energy source as well. For cattle that are needing to put on some weight, wheat mids are a great compliment to the forage base. Five to six pounds of wheat mids per day is often added to rations to put weight on backgrounding cattle, first calf heifers and cows that need to improve body condition score. If you are interested in using wheat mids, stop by the Extension Office. We have a couple of good bulletins that talk about wheat mids and how to use them in cattle rations. This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

Not all BT corn is the same

This is Ag Outlook 2006 on 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte, Geary County, K-State Research and Extension Ag & Natural Resources Agent. Corn producers are now probably pouring over yield trials, their own results and all the advertising literature as they try to decide what they want to plant next year and lock in early order discounts. Many producers have been utilizing both Roundup Ready genetics as well as Bt events to gain corn borer, rootworm and in some cases cutworm and earworm protection. While the Roundup Ready technology is pretty cut and dried, the Bt situation is not. There are six different Bt genes that are currently in corn hybrids and these come from 8 different events or combinations of events. Different Bt genes give control of different pests in somewhat varying degrees. For European Corn Borer and Southwestern Corn Borer all the Bt genes provide good resistance. All of them also give some suppression of corn earworm. Remember that suppression is not control and you will still have some corn earworm damage under high earworm populations. The Herculex I gene does offer some control of black cutworm and claims control of fall armyworm and western bean cutworm, but the jury is still out on these as to how good of a job they actually do. Some of the Bt genes give corn rootworm control, but those genes alone will not control corn borer. To get a combination of corn borer and rootworm control, you'll need one of the newer varieties that offers what's known as stacked versions or stacked genetics. Just ask your dealer what the Bt hybrids offer control of. Or for a nice breakdown of the different products and what they control, just ask me for the Bt comparison chart and I'll be happy to give it to you! This has been Ag Outlook 2006 on the Talk of JC, 1420 KJCK, I'm Chuck Otte.

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