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:agree: Knowledge Rich Ranching is an excellent book.

Ok I did find one study...but it didn't really say there was a difference, and it was done on feedlot animals fed a high concentrate ration. So not really apples-to-apples in my situation. https://www.animalsciencepublications.org/publications/jas/articles/78/9/2446

Are amino acid complexes the same as chelated? I'm not really up on my terminology. From what I've found, you are correct - the comparisons have been with sulfates and oxides. I take it you have seen research that does compare them with organic forms? What kind of difference was there? I'm...

We have several water sources. Rural water, developed springs, two shallow wells, one deep well (artesian), stock dams and dugouts as secondary sources. Depends where they are. I'd be interested in looking at the studies. Could you provide some links? Thanks. I'm not quite a good enough...

I talked to my mineral guy briefly today, think we're going to try some Intellibond minerals. They are some sort of hyrdroxy trace mineral, which is similar to chelates in terms of bioavailability but not as expensive. I heard a guy talk about them at a mineral workshop this fall. Worth a try.

Thanks for the kind words. I should have posted a few pics of the cows. They averaged BCS 6 when we weaned on Monday. Had we taken the calves off earlier, I think we might have struggled getting them down the alley for preg checking! The cover crop they have been grazing for the last two...

A short video of the steers: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rbTwYMk308Bb7wvx2 They are on the fleshy side I think, nice to look at from the rancher's perspective but maybe too much for a buyer? The heifers need to gain 0.5 lb a day until breeding to meet their minimum breeding weight. We put...

I didn't figure in any shrink. We gathered at 10:30 am, sorted cows from calves, and gave shots before weighing around 4:30pm. Probably could have taken a couple percent off? I'll see if I can get a picture tomorrow.

We weaned the calves off our mature cows (4-10 yr olds) today. These were mid-April through late May calves, Angus cows bred to maternal-type Angus bulls (Emulation, Shoshone, Wye breeding mostly). We had a dry start to the summer, had real good rain from late July through Labor Day. Moved...

So we used to pour once and it was enough, now we need to do it twice for the same results...10 yrs from now will it be 3x? I know of several producers near me that have quit pouring all together. They don't miss it. I'm not quite there, but I am done pouring everyone. I have a couple old...

CRP opened for grazing in our county. We can graze 75% of it as determined by NRCS stocking rate. Not sure how they decide that. There is so little CRP around that it doesn't make much of a difference. We have about 100 ac enrolled in the past couple years and these new contracts allow for...

Thanks for the input. I have not priced wet or modified, but I know of a few guys close to me that feed modified so it is probably competitive with dry. Guess I'll see when the time comes. Dry is at $136/ton delivered right now.

I had a wild idea, thought I'd see if anyone here could tell me if I'm on to something... I've heard about buying wet or modified distillers in the summer, layering it with straw, and packing it like silage to make it keep until winter. I've also heard about guys using the hay grinder to "mix"...

The drought monitor has us right about in the middle of the D1 zone. Sure hate to think about what D3 would look like. Ft Pierre is advertising something like 1600 pairs and bred cows for Friday's sale, guess we are not the only ones concerned. I am very glad we sold what we did, when we did...

How long is too long? Have one neighbor talking of cutting his winter wheat as soon as it heads and they can get it appraised for crop insurance. It's in the boot now. Is that soon enough or no?

Been a dry spring here so we are selling about 30% of our cows tomorrow. Everything that had not calved plus a few pairs. We may sell down some more in a few weeks when we work calves if the weather doesn't change significantly. This is the first year since I have had a significant financial...

I'm sure the science is sound, but I'm a little skeptical of the economics and propping-up of poor fertility animals. I cringe to think how this kind of thing is used to replicate "valuable" animals, whose progeny are supposed to go into commerical herds. Judicious to me would be if they don't...

The 50% and 33% values are highlighted, does that mean those are the values that most often are a "fair" value per AUM? How is the AUM per pair number calculated? I put in 1400 lb cows and it came out 1.25 AUM per pair. I always thought 1400 lb cows were 1.4 AUM. Sure makes the margins...

I am crunching numbers for the ranch this week, trying to figure out what to expect for a return this year. It's kinda tight compared in a few years ago of course. I pulled out a pasture lease from 5 years ago. My grass rent was 20% cheaper back then, but calf prices were not a whole lot...

Entering calving records in Excel (or other record keeping software), analyzing records to identify poor cows, submitting data to breed association (I have heard it can be a pain - no experience here), compiling and calculating grazing records on a pasture-by-pasture basis, tracking grazing days...