W. Mark Hilton

Producing and selling a healthy, heavy, high-quality calf should be the goal of all beef producers. The importance of calf vigor, heterosis and adequate intake of quality colostrum are well-understood and critical...

The traditional approach for heifer development has been to shoot for 65% of mature body weight at breeding time in order to maximize pregnancy rate. Is maximum pregnancy rate really the goal, or is a more profitable...

With today’s stellar feeder-calf prices, is this a good year to “take the money and run” at weaning time, or can you increase your profit by adding weight to your calves before sale day? Let’s look at an example in...

When I take on new clients, I always ask them their short- and long-term goals. One producer stated his long-term goal as, “I want you to eliminate fly problems in my herd.” ...

Two rather disappointing phone calls that I received from clients recently, along with a discussion among veterinarians at the recent meeting of the Academy of Veterinary Consultants (AVC), an organization of “beef...

Each fall, cattle veterinarians from North America and beyond gather for the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) annual conference. As always, there were many excellent talks at this year’s meeting in...

I’ve written many articles on preconditioning (PC) over the years, but few generated the response of my May BEEF column, in which some readers challenged my contention that everyone should wean calves before selling...