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Landowners making repairs and rebuilding will incur cost. How will these be reported on the 2015 tax return?

With triple-digit temperatures and very little rain, the livestock industry is feeling the effects of drought. The United States Department of Agriculture has rated 90 percent of pasture conditions in the region as very poor. To make matters worse, most livestock water sources are drying up or have reached a point where water quality is a major concern.

We have a tendency to balance winter rations for cows in two phases: non-lactating, in the middle third of pregnancy (dry); and then post-calving, in peak lactation (wet). Using nutritional requirements for the average weight of the cow herd, it's simple to come up with two feeding regimes; one for before calving and one for after calving.

Most producers are trying to survive the winter by stretching forage and feed resources. This can be accomplished with careful thought and consultation with a nutritionist to ensure that each cow's nutrient requirements are still being met for the stage of production it is in. If corners are cut to save money now, it can have long lasting repercussions.

In most years, winter pasture would be planted by Sept. 1 and some fields would be turning green at the start of October. However, throughout southern Oklahoma and northern Texas in 2011, this may not be the case because of the drought.

Internal parasites cost U.S. cattle operations an estimated $200 million annually. While several chemicals and formulations are approved to control worms in cattle, there have been recent reports of declining efficacy of some dewormers.

Mobile App Review: Cattle Market Mobile allows producers to check cattle prices for almost 300 locations nationwide.

Spring rains have resulted in green pastures for many and the question on everyone's mind - is it time to restock? This decision is difficult and unique to each operation. Cattlemen from Oklahoma and Texas share their thoughts on this topic.

With high protein prices, many people are thinking about growing alfalfa, some for the first time ever. While alfalfa can be very profitable, there are some common mistakes that can take you from profitability to loss quickly.

Estrus synchronization and timed artificial insemination are an economically viable alternative to owning a bull if the producer has multiple bulls.