During the winter and early spring of 2019, beef cattle health and nutrition became a major concern.   This was primarily due to poor hay quality and weather related issues such as excessive rain and mud.   To address the nutritional needs of beef cattle (going into the winter of 2019-2020) the Extension Service developed two programs:  Feeding the Cow Herd During the Winter and Forage Testing and Ration Balancing.

 The ANR agent worked with Dr. Jimmy Henning and local beef producers to sample approximately 95 forage samples. All of these samples were sent to Dairy One Forage Testing Lab in New York for forage quality and fermentation testing.  During the winter feeding program, Dr. Henning discussed the results of the forage testing project in relationship to forage quality and feeding the cow herd during the upcoming winter.  32 farmers attended this program and got specific information on meeting the nutritional needs of beef cattle. 

In addition the ANR agent developed feeding rations for each of the forage samples. This gave the 23 farmers, who used the forage testing program, specific guidelines in feeding their 2019 stored hay to their beef herd.  This enabled the farmers to feed their cows correctly during the 2019-2020 winter and reduce/eliminate last winter’s health issues.