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It may seem odd that a so-called forage specialist writes about water, but as any forage manager well understands, water is the life blood within any forage system. With abundant water comes the potential for abundant life.

Often times cow-calf producers have a difficult time incorporating replacement heifers into the cow herd with a high degree of success.

Achieving a desirable pregnancy rate in replacement heifers is contingent upon many things, but it all begins with nutrition.

Brush encroachment is a common problem across the landscape these days.

We often think about the bull as the means of introducing new genetics into a beef herd. However, management of the bull (or lack of it) after purchase is often the "Achilles Heel" of cattle production. Failure to pay attention to important management practices affecting the bull often results in reduced calving rates, increased calf mortality, and loss of uniformity and marketability.

The "new normal" can be defined as the period of time from 1981-2010, a span of 30 years, when Oklahoma rainfall was significantly more abundant than it had been in the previous 87 years.

When purchasing agricultural land, it is essential to define the overall goal of the acquisition. Some people buy for quality-of-life reasons. Sometimes land is purchased as an investment. Others purchase to generate a profit from agricultural practices.

The Integrity Beef Alliance is a Noble Research Institute-sponsored, cow/calf program that standardizes management decisions and supports value-added production practices. Producers in this program are already committed to retaining ownership of calves through a 45-day preconditioning program.

To help provide producers options for managing and marketing cull cows, researchers at the Noble Research Institute and Oklahoma State University teamed up and conducted a study that evaluated the economics of two alternative management and marketing systems for retaining open beef cows.

As input prices continue to rise for cow-calf producers, it is increasingly important to maximize revenue when marketing calves.