A bull that looks sound and breeds cows can still be shooting blanks. A breeding soundness exam before turnout is cheap insurance…
Horn flies show up thick in June and pull blood and gain off cattle all season. A practical look at ear tags,…
The broke-mouth and bad-bag cows you meant to ship last fall are grazing summer country right now. Sorting them off in June,…
Waiting for alfalfa to bloom before first cutting trades leaf and protein for tonnage of stem. Here's how to read the field…
Pinkeye moves fast on summer grass, and the calf with a runny eye today can be scarred and lightweight by fall. Here's…
Good grass a mile from water might as well be on the moon. Here's how to get your springs, wells, and stock…
Fast-growing cool-season grass in early summer runs short on magnesium, and a heavy-milking cow can go from grazing to staggering in a…
Leafy spurge and spotted knapweed hit a treatable stage in June. Miss the window on your rangeland and the infestation spreads faster…
Branding's over and the horses have earned a break they aren't getting. A look at feet, saddle sores, water, and feed for…
Hay put up above safe moisture keeps working long after you leave the field. Here's how to read moisture, check a heating…
First-cutting hay waits for nobody in Montana. A half day spent on knives, guards, bearings and belts now saves you the breakdown…
Temporary electric fence is the cheapest way to stretch summer grass on a Montana ranch. Here's how to build it so it…
Blue-green algae blooms fast on warm, still stock ponds in a Montana summer, and the toxin can kill a cow within hours.…
Native cool-season grasses set the size of their whole summer in a few weeks of June. Graze them at the wrong stage…
Green June grass fools cattle into skipping the mineral feeder, and the shortfall in phosphorus, copper and other trace minerals builds quietly…
As summer heat pulls water levels down, sulfates and dissolved solids concentrate in stock ponds and shallow wells. That's the setup for…
Anaplasmosis hides all summer and then drops a good cow in the fall. Here's how it spreads, why the older cattle die,…
A two-year-old raising her first calf is trying to milk, grow, and breed back all at once. Run her with the mature…
Summer range fence takes a beating from snow, elk, and runoff, and the weak spot you drive past in June is the…
Heat builds slower in cattle than you'd think and takes longer to shed. Knowing how the load stacks up over a few…
Multi-sire pastures sort out their pecking order the hard way in June. Here's how to cut down on wrecks at turnout and…
Rangeland grasshoppers are easiest and cheapest to stop when they're small, wingless nymphs in early summer. Scout margins and field edges in…
June high water pulls apart the very fence you're counting on to hold pairs on summer grass. Ride it before you turn…
Frothy bloat can put a healthy cow on her side within an hour of hitting green alfalfa or clover. Here's how it…
Mountain runoff is short-lived in Montana, and the creek that's bank-full in June can be a trickle by August. Getting water on…