THE LNS FAMILY NEWSLETTER  •  MID-MONTH EDITION

Happy Harvest, LNS Family!

New Faces, This Month's Reading, a Frost & Stover Update, and a Tool Spotlight

Dear LNS Family,

We hope harvest is treating you well! Whether you're in the middle of combining, hauling stalks, or just enjoying the cooler evenings, we wanted to check in with a mid-month update. Happy harvest to every one of you — thank you for all the hard work that goes into this season.

To everyone who's joined us since our last newsletter — welcome to the LNS family! We're glad to have you. Whatever you raise and wherever you're located, our goal is the same for every one of you: practical, trustworthy nutrition information you can put to work on your own operation. If you ever have a question, our team is always happy to talk through your specific setup.

Here's a look at the educational posts we've published since our last newsletter. Browse the list below and click into whatever applies to your operation and species — and remember, you can always catch these the moment they go live by following us on Facebook:

With our first frost behind us, now is a good time for a quick word on forage safety. A killing frost can cause certain forages — especially sorghum, sudangrass, sorghum-sudan hybrids, and johnsongrass — to accumulate prussic acid (cyanide), which can be dangerous for grazing livestock. The highest risk window is typically in the first several days right after a frost, and new regrowth following a frost is often the most concerning of all. As a general rule of thumb, it's best to hold animals off these forages for about a week after a killing frost and to be especially cautious of frost-damaged regrowth. Frost can also concentrate nitrates in some forages, particularly if plants were drought-stressed going into fall, so a forage test is always a smart move before turning out if you have any doubt.

For those grazing corn stalks or other crop residue this month, stover quality keeps dropping as the season goes on and animals work through a field — they'll select the better leaf and husk first, leaving the lower-quality stalk behind, so both energy and protein intake can decline the longer cattle stay in a field. Keep an eye on grazing distribution, field conditions, and any down or moldy ears as harvest wraps up.

If you have any questions about a specific field, species, or forage test result, please don't hesitate to call — we're always glad to help you sort through it.

With forages changing fast this fall — frost, stover, and shifting rations all at once — it's easy for gaps to creep into a nutrition program without anyone noticing. The Livestock Nutrition Analysis System App puts professional-grade ration analysis right in your pocket, so you can catch those gaps and deficiencies early, before they show up in the herd.

Beyond flagging straightforward shortfalls, the app's Gap Analysis is a great way to take a closer look at your mineral program this season. Fall forages and crop residues can carry elevated sulfur, molybdenum, or iron — all well-known antagonists that can tie up copper and other trace minerals before your animals ever get the benefit of them. Building out your full ration in the app, including water and mineral sources, gives you a clearer picture of where antagonists or deficiencies might be working against you, so you can adjust before they become a bigger problem.