Producer battles to test all beef

By Dan Caterinicchia
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 28, 2006

A Kansas beef producer is in Washington this week trying to garner legislative support in its two-year battle against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which will not allow the company to test all of its cattle for mad cow disease.

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Defining Feed Efficiency

Angus e-list

Gordon Carstens, Texas A&M University, presented information defining feed efficiency at the general session “Where Do I Fit With My Production Environment?” at the BIF symposium, April 20.

Feed inputs and outputs are measured in targeted stages of the beef production cycle, Carstens said. Since it is not practical to measure forage intake of mature cows, emphasis is placed on growing animals.

“Expectations are that appropriate use of a feed efficiency trait in growing cattle, which accounts for genetic variation in efficiency of feed utilization to support maintenance and growth requirements, will generate progeny that are efficient in all segments of the industry,” Carstens said.

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BIF Online Coverage Available

Angus e-list
April 25, 2006

Angus Productions Inc. (API) is providing online coverage of the 2006 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) annual meeting and research symposium, which was April 18-21 in Choctaw, Miss. Visit www.bifconference.com/bif2006/newsroom.html for speaker summaries, such as the one that follows; proceedings; PowerPoint presentations; and coverage of award winners. Audio files will be available on the Web site by May 1.

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Cattle breeding season is best time to evaluate herd profitability

By KARI KRAMER | East Texas Edition, www.countryworldnews.com

Dr. Jesse Richardson detailed profitability measures to the cattle producers attending the recent Upper Sabine Cow-Calf Clinic.
— Staff photo by Kramer

April 27, 2006 - There are several things that influence a cattlemen’s profitability, and according to Dr. Jesse Richardson of the Henderson County Animal Clinic, breeding season is the best time to evaluate those factors.

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R-CALF drops effort to close the Canadian border

Thursday, April 27, 2006, 2:02 PM
by Bob Meyer, Brownfield Network

The Board of Directors of R-CALF USA has voted to drop efforts to close the U.S.-Canadian border to cattle and beef products from cattle under 30 months of age. The group decided it will not appeal a recent ruling by the U.S. District Court-District of Montana which denied R-CALF’s request for a permanent injunction to close the border.

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Don’t forget the average Americans when advertising American beef

By SHANNON BURKDOLL, The Prairie Star editor
Thursday, April 27, 2006 7:16 AM MDT

Shannon Burkdoll
I’ve been thinking differently since I became a mother. I now think more of my daughter than of myself and other seemingly important things.

As a result, my shopping habits have changed. My purchases are now dependent on three things: healthiness, price and reputation.

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North America’s livestock sector faces opportunities and challenges

By Drovers news source (Wednesday, April 26, 2006)

North America enjoys highly efficient livestock production systems that have adapted and evolved to meet changing conditions. The industry is competitive in the world market, but faces significant opportunities and challenges both in North America and abroad, according to an 18-month Farm Foundation study.

The study takes a comprehensive look at the opportunities and challenges facing major animal industries in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The project involved more than 150 individuals from the three countries, representing producers, industry, government agencies and academia.

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Media Watch, The Untold Antibiotic Story

James Arnold, Food Systems Insider
jarnold@food360.com

There is usually no medicine for the sick feeling industry insiders get when the nation’s media tackle antibiotic use in farm production.

Invariably, the stories have sensational headlines telling consumers the food they have trusted for years is going to keep them — or their children — from fending off the next bout of the flu. The articles are peppered with comments from activist organizations like the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Union of Concerned Scientists or Keep Antibiotics Working. Near the end of the articles, the reporters work in the other perspective. That perspective varies from corporate no comments to short clips from reasoned explanations that sound sketchy without the background that ends up on the cutting-room floor.

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Anthrax May Have Lived in Cows’ Ashes for Decades

Western Mail, April 26, 2006
by SALLY WILLIAMS AND GARETH MORGAN Western Mail
Mycattle.com

Reports that a water pool was the likely source of an anthrax outbreak at a South Wales farm could be a ‘red herring’ according to the expert at the centre of the investigation. Carwyn Jones, Welsh Environment Minister, said the pond was a likely source of the disease which affected two animals.

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FFA students take on responsibility

CHANDRA HUSTON
The Baxter Bulletin Staff Writer

When the last bell rings, most Mountain Home High School students feverishly head for their cars, but the day isn’t over for Future Farmers of America (FFA) members.

They feed cattle, clean the barn, wash and blow dry cows, brush fur and let the animals out for some exercise.

“It’s a big responsibility,” said Douglas Banasiak, 17. “You’ll see us here on the weekends, all day.”

The students are spending this week getting their cattle ready for the spring show at the Baxter County Fairgrounds. Several FFA members in northwest Arkansas will converge on the fairgrounds Friday and Saturday to show off their best animals.

The Mountain Home group is taking 10 animals to the show.

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Dry weather hurts hay farmers

JAMES A. JONES JR.
The Manatee Herald

EAST MANATEE - It’s a great time for baling hay, but not necessarily for growing it.

So says Phyllis Gilreath, county extension agent for Manatee County, in reference to the winter-spring drought.

As if to underscore the point, the shock waves from heavy trucks rumbling between Bradenton and Arcadia on Wednesday raised dark billows of powdery soil along the shoulders of State Road 70.

About a mile south of the highway, near the DeSoto County line, Al Robinson was in his element.

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Cows join cars in ethanol line

Professor touts fuel byproduct as livestock feed
By Jenni Glenn
The Journal Gazette / FortWayne.com

Attendees listen during the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference.
Photos by Janelle Sou Roberts/The Journal Gazette
Marvin Abbott, Wayne Stockland and Gordie Jones talk at the DD Ingredient Distributors Inc. booth.

The ethanol plants being built in Wells County and other locations around Indiana will produce more than vehicle fuel.

Manufacturing ethanol also creates a byproduct that can be used to feed livestock. Adding that byproduct – called distillers’ grain – to a dairy cow’s diet can encourage the animal to eat more and produce more milk, a dairy science professor told the audience at the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference on Wednesday.

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Activist Group Conducts Indiana-Ohio Anti-Agriculture Training Sessions

Animal Agriculture Alliance news release

The Animal Agriculture Alliance (Alliance) has learned that professional activists from New York-based Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) offered to lend citizens in Indiana and Ohio one of the organization’s five ”UVHounds”, portable monitoring devices that use ultraviolet light to detect things like hydrogen sulfide and ammonia in air. The extremist group lends the monitors exclusively to activists who plan to sue agricultural enterprises — not to activists who are just curious — because the devices are expensive (about $30,000 each).

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Ohio Beef Newsletter available

The April 26, issue # 484, of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter is now posted
to the web at: http://fairfield.osu.edu/ag/beef/beefAprl26.html

I saw orchard grass coming in head over the past weekend! ‘Nuff said . .
.
if our grazing “plan” isn’t already in full swing, we have a lot of
catching up to do. This week’s letter focuses on pasture management.

Articles this week include:
* Maximize the Use of the Spring Grass Surplus
* Why Do We Make Hay?
* Water: Second Only to Oxygen
* Baled Silage Can Mean High Quality, Timely Harvest
* “Grass Finished Beef” Pasture Walk
* Weekly Roberts Agricultural Commodity Market Report

Stan
———-
Stan Smith
Program Assistant, Agriculture
OSU Extension, Fairfield County
831 College Ave., Suite D
Lancaster, OH 43130

e-mail: smith.263@osu.edu
voice: 740.653.5419 ext. 24
fax: 740.687.7010
Visit:
Fairfield Co. OSU Extension - http://fairfield.osu.edu OSU Beef Team -
http://beef.osu.edu Ohio Bull Test - http://bulltest.osu.edu

From plate to pen

Spring brings an outpouring of culinary memoirs for readers to digest
By Stephanie Shapiro
Baltimore Sun Reporter
Originally published April 26, 2006

Whether they write of the rarified realm of a megawatt restaurant, the cheery domain of a Midwestern kitchen or a childhood hearth left behind, authors have pounced on food’s deep-seated power to summon the past or bring a seminal experience back to life.

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Livestock the bright note in South Dakota 2005 farm income

KNEB.COM

MITCHELL, S.D. (AP) _ Much stronger livestock prices offset
lackadaisical crop prices and crop production last year, according
to farmers participating in a management program.

Livestock sales in 2005 accounted for nearly 53 percent of farm operating income, while crop sales accounted for nearly 29 percent, said Roger DeRouchey, program instructor with the Mitchell Technical Institute’s Farm/Ranch Business Management program.

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Vet’s Corner: Cattle industry fights BVD

By David Barz, D.V.M., Northwest Vet Supply
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 11:57 AM CDT
Tri State Neighbor

Spring is here. Calving is progressing nicely and most areas have had sufficient moisture to begin the grazing season. This year it appears that the cattle industry has declared war on BVD.

Bovine Virus Diarrhea (BVD) is a relatively common disease in cattle that has been around for many years. Originally, BVD usually manifested in a feedlot situation and was associated with the “feedlot wreck.” Recent improvements in vaccines and the subsequent development of newer, better, more efficient testing procedures have made eradication seem possible. Scientists have improved everyone’s understanding of the disease syndrome and now we can determine the economic losses for all facets of the bovine economy.

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Cattle rustling ring broken up

By Samantha Yale
SPECIAL TO THE TWIN CITY TIMES

A series of calf thefts reported in Kings and Fresno counties during the past several months has culminated in the seizure of 70 calves at a ranch near Riverdale on April 18.

Sixteen of the calves have been identified as stolen from local dairymen, the Sheriff’s Department reported. There were 115 calves found on the property in total.

Pedro Ayala Ventureno, 46, of Riverdale, was arrested on suspicion of multiple counts of receiving and possessing stolen property following the discovery in the 4000 block of Harlan Avenue. He was booked into Fresno County Jail, said Kings County Sheriff Allan McClain.

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MacDonald Hired To Fill Animal Nutrition Position

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, (806) 677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Jim MacDonald, (806) 677-5608, jcmacdonald@ag.tamu.edu

AMARILLO - Whether it’s working on air quality issues or the use of distillers grain for feedlot cattle rations, Dr. Jim MacDonald plans to stay busy as the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station’s newest animal nutritionist in Amarillo.

“I can’t think of a better place, in terms of academic support and support of mentors, as well as access to industry, where I can develop a career as a beef cattle research scientist,” MacDonald said.

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Seoul may resume beef imports in June

Korean Hearld

Seoul is likely to resume imports of U.S. beef in June after establishing that the animal involved in America’s third case of mad cow disease was born before April 1998, Korea’s Agriculture Ministry said yesterday.

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