Ag News and Views: July 1998

The price of corn should affect the price of cattle. Assuming all other variables remain constant, we expect an inverse relationship, meaning that lower corn prices should cause higher feeder cattle prices.

Management of native bobwhite populations is very challenging, often frustrating. The frustration occurs because quail managers often do not adequately identify and change the real factors that limit bobwhite abundance. Some aspect of cover, either too little or too much, often limits quail abundance.

Hindsight is always "20/20," but droughts should be considered normal in our business. They will occur either regionally or locally, and they cannot be avoided. Therefore, it is essential for you to make plans well in advance of their occurrence.

Well-fertilized bermudagrass can provide more grazing than most other warm season grasses. However, bermudagrass is not as productive or persistent under low fertility as other grasses.

Fertilization of established fescue offers an opportunity for cattle producers to generate inexpensive cool season forage.

A calf will always prefer its mother's milk first and will consume all she produces each day. Creep feeding won't help the cow, but it still can be an option for some producers.

We've expanded the newsletter to add additional pages, we should have space to print letters or excerpts of letters from our readers.

If you lived in these parts during 1980, no doubt the summer left quite an impression on your mind. Every living thing suffered through one of the hottest summers on record. Could such an extreme summer happen in 1998?

Those with a basic understanding of the water cycle and how it functions should be a step ahead during the current drought. However, "Mother Nature" is complex and often leaves those with the best of knowledge scrambling.