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Understanding Yardage Costs in Cow-Calf Operations

Have you ever wondered where your money goes during the winter-feeding period? Feed costs are easy to spot in a beef cattle operation, but what about the other expenses quietly chipping away at your bottom line? This is where yardage comes in—it is a crucial part of managing winter feeding costs in cow-calf operations. 

What is Yardage?
Yardage refers to the overhead and non-feed costs incurred while maintaining cattle during the winter-feeding period. These costs include day-to-day expenses such as labor, equipment and building maintenance, fuel, utilities, manure handling and other general expenses like farm taxes and accounting fees. They also include non-cash costs such as machinery and facility depreciation, which represent the graduate loss of value in assets over time.

Why Does Yardage Matter to a Beef Producer?
Yardage may not grab attention like feed costs, but it significantly impacts profitability. These costs, especially non-cash costs like depreciation, often remain unnoticed but can erode profitability over time. For example, underestimating yardage may lead a beef producer to assume their operation is more efficient than it truly is. Ignoring yardage also makes it difficult to identify areas where costs can be optimized. For example, the exclusion of machinery maintenance and repair costs may make the cow-calf enterprise look more profitable than it is.

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Swine Industry Advances: Biodigesters Lower Emissions and Increase Profits

Video: Swine Industry Advances: Biodigesters Lower Emissions and Increase Profits

Analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG emissions) in the Canadian swine sector found that CH4 emissions from manure were the largest contributor to the overall emissions, followed by emissions from energy use and crop production.

This innovative project, "Improving Swine Manure-Digestate Management Practices Towards Carbon Neutrality With Net Zero Emission Concepts," from Dr. Rajinikanth Rajagopal, under Swine Cluster 4, seeks to develop strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

While the management of manure can be very demanding and expensive for swine operations, it can also be viewed as an opportunity for GHG mitigation, as manure storage is an emission source built and managed by swine producers. Moreover, the majority of CH4 emissions from manure occur during a short period of time in the summer, which can potentially be mitigated with targeted intervention.

In tandem with understanding baseline emissions, Dr. Rajagopal's work focuses on evaluating emission mitigation options. Manure additives have the potential of reducing manure methane emissions. Additives can be deployed relatively quickly, enabling near-term emission reductions while biodigesters are being built. Furthermore, additives can be a long-term solution at farms where biogas is not feasible (e.g., when it’s too far from a central digester). Similarly, after biodigestion, additives can also be used to further reduce emissions from storage to minimize the carbon intensity of the bioenergy.