Ag News and Views: April 2012

A parallel-bar barrier is probably the best option to prevent adult fish passage through spillways. Parallel-bar barriers are especially important for ponds stocked with grass carp.

As we prepare for fertilizer application this spring, two important questions come to mind: what happened to fertilizer I applied last year and do we need to fertilize or not?

Many perennial forage plants were forced into summer dormancy for survival due to the severity of the drought. Dormant plants survived on energy reserves stored in plant crowns and roots when normally they would have generated energy through photosynthesis in green leaves.

Selecting replacement females is challenging, especially when you consider that decisions made now will impact your operation for many years. As commercial cow-calf producers evaluate the opportunity to expand, it is important to review the value of crossbreeding.

With the challenges of the drought, the beef cow inventory declined 3.1 percent for an annual inventory of 2011 and prospects for further decline are evident unless changes occur in cow slaughter and heifer retention. With this decline, the 2012 U.S. calf crop stands at 35 million head, the lowest in 60 years.