In a dry summer the stock water gets more concentrated as it evaporates, and rising sulfates and total dissolved solids pull down…
A two-year-old is still growing while she raises her first calf, and she can't win a shoving match at the feed ground.…
Setting a defined breeding season and pulling the bull on a schedule tightens your calving window and tells you months ahead which…
Heat stress builds through the afternoon and only lets go overnight. When a run of hot days doesn't cool down after dark,…
Grasshoppers hatch along field edges and dry ridges in June, and once they grow wings they spread faster than you can respond.…
Spread by ticks, biting flies, and dirty needles, anaplasmosis can smolder through a herd all summer before you notice the anemia. Here's…
Lush alfalfa and clover regrowth can blow a cow up in an hour. Here's how frothy bloat sets up on June pasture…
Summer grass looks like it has everything a cow needs, but the minerals that drive breeding and calf health run short right…
Castrating and dehorning older calves in hot, fly-heavy weather invites infection and fly strike. A few changes to timing and technique keep…
Standing water around tanks and gates sets cattle up for foot rot in early summer. Here's how to spot it early, treat…
High-country snowmelt peaks and then fades fast in a dry June. The water you get onto your hay ground now is the…
Body condition at breeding decides more of next year's calf crop than the bull does. Here's how thin cows and late calvers…
Cattle on summer range will hammer the water and the bottoms and leave the ridges untouched. Moving salt and mineral is the…
Tall larkspur is one of the deadliest plants on Montana mountain range, and the danger climbs right when cattle move to summer…
Turning pairs out on summer grass only works if the fence holds. A slow walk of the wire in June saves you…
A breeding soundness exam gets your bulls to the pasture gate, but it doesn't keep them working. Riding through the bulls during…
Horn flies live on the animal and feed on blood dozens of times a day. Left alone through a Montana summer, they…
Before the herd hits the summer pastures, the stock water setup deserves a hard look. A stuck float or dry well in…
Mid-June is when pinkeye starts showing up in Montana calves — a weepy eye, a squint, then a white spot in the…
When cereal hay and green chop grow under drought stress, nitrate concentrates in the lower stems and can kill cattle fast. Here's…
Early summer is when cool-season grasses put on most of their growth. Push cattle across it too hard now and you're borrowing…
Leafy spurge and spotted knapweed take rangeland one patch at a time. Mid-June, when the spurge flushes yellow and the knapweed bolts,…
Haying equipment sits nine months and then gets asked to run flat out for three weeks. A few hours of shop time…
First cutting sets the tone for your whole hay year. Waiting for more tonnage costs you protein, and cutting too short costs…
Alfalfa weevil larvae feed on the growing tips in June and can strip a stand's protein and tonnage before the damage is…