Scheduled calving season program can be an asset

Scheduled calving season program can be an asset

The Baxter Bulletin

One recommended practice many beef producers often overlook is simple, inexpensive and greatly can improve the overall management and success of a beef cattle herd. Recommended by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service is the implementation of a scheduled, 60- or 90-day calving season.

Some producers keep herd bulls with the cow herd on a year-round basis, resulting in calves being born throughout the whole year. A set breeding and calving season, allows producers, not cattle, to decide when calving occurs.

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Ohio Beef Newsletter Available

Ohio Beef Newsletter Available

The May 3, issue # 485, of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter is now posted tothe web at: http://fairfield.osu.edu/ag/beef/beefMy3.html

Can fed cattle prices recover enough this coming fall and winter toreward us properly for the very valuable feeder calves that arepresently being purchased?

Get Brian Roe’s thoughts on it in this week’sletter.Articles include:

* Korea and Fall Cattle Prices
* Spring and summer grazing
* Consideration for liming pastures
* Weekly Roberts Agricultural Commodity Market Report

Stan———-

Stan SmithProgram Assistant,
AgricultureOSU Extension,
Fairfield County831 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

PRODUCERS IMPACTED BY TEXAS PANHANDLE FIRES

PRODUCERS IMPACTED BY TEXAS PANHANDLE FIRES

by: John West
R-CALF USA Southeastern Field Coordinator
Cattletoday.com

In the wake of a rash of wildfires in the northeastern panhandle of Texas, producers have banded together to save their communities and the main industry in the area — live cattle production. On Sunday, March 12, 2006, an accident at an oil drilling location on the 6666 Ranch sparked a wildfire that ravaged 684,500 acres in nine counties. Eleven people perished in the fire, along with an estimated 3,000 head of cattle and horses. The fire was indiscriminate — it burned anything and everything in its path. Wooden fence posts are burned off clean at the ground. High line poles were left smoldering where they stood, and piles of black ash are all that remain of hay put up for the winter.

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U.S. authorities give up investigation of mad cow case in Alabama

U.S. authorities give up investigation of mad cow case in Alabama

CBC News / Canada.com
17:41:24 EDT May 3, 2006
LIB QUAID

WASHINGTON (AP) – The government has given up trying to track the origins of an Alabama cow infected with mad cow disease.

The trail went cold after seven weeks of investigation of more than three dozen farms, the Agriculture Department said in a report issued quietly late Tuesday. Meantime, in a separate investigation, the U.S. is tracing 15 cattle imported from Canada that ate the same feed as an infected cow discovered last month in British Columbia. So far, the government has found one cow and intends to kill and test it, the Agriculture Department said.

While the Alabama traceback didn’t pan out, John Clifford, the USDA’s chief veterinarian, said it’s important to remember that people and animals are protected by a series of safeguards in the United States.

The red crossbreed cow was a “downer,” meaning she couldn’t walk, when an Alabama veterinarian examined her in late February. Downers are banned from the food supply because they are thought to have a higher risk of being infected with mad cow disease.

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Angus breeders win BIF awards

Angus breeders win BIF awards

Angus Journal.com

Angus breeders won a variety of prestigious awards at the Beef Improvement Federation’s 38th annual meeting and research symposium April 18-21 in Choctaw, Miss. Angus Productions Inc. (API) is pleased to provide online coverage of these award winners. Summaries of select award winners follow. To read full releases about all of the award winners, visit www.bifconference.com/bif2006/awardwinners.html.

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U.S. told not to cut cattle checks

U.S. told not to cut cattle checks

Japan Times

Reducing mad cow testing won’t go over well: Nakagawa

GENEVA (Kyodo) Agriculture minister Shoichi Nakagawa told U.S. farm chief Mike Johanns on Tuesday that reducing the number of cattle to be checked for mad cow disease will never get a positive reaction in Japan.

Johanns told Nakagawa during a meeting in Geneva that the U.S. plans to cut the number of cows to be checked because the likelihood of the disease’s occurrence is almost nonexistent, Nakagawa said afterward.

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Beef Checkoff Accelerates Efforts To Move Supply This Summer

Beef Checkoff Accelerates Efforts To Move Supply This Summer

Angus Journal

In a near “perfect storm” of market forces this summer, the U.S. beef industry will experience higher costs and lower prices, along with oversupplies of competing proteins, including pork and poultry.

Normal seasonal increases in beef supply will soon be compounded by heavy feedlot placements, due in part to drought in the Southern Plains, as well as higher carcass weights. Additionally, poultry supply has increased, due in part to international avian influenza fears, which has quickly cost the domestic poultry industry as much as two-thirds of its export market.

Competition among proteins will be fierce, but the U.S. beef industry is determined to keep demand for beef as high as possible. A key marketing strategy, funded by the Beef Checkoff Program through the Federation of State Beef Councils, will center on an aggressive summer consumer-advertising and promotional campaign intended to position beef as an irresistible addition to summer menus. The drive, running now through September, will feature radio advertising, attention-grabbing retail promotions, an intensive national public relations push and widespread product sampling in cooperation with major retailers.

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CIDR Strategies

CIDR Strategies

Quick tips for AI synchronization using the CIDR progesterone insert

by Kindra Gordon
American Chianina Journal

Since being approved for use in the United States a few years ago, the CIDR progesterone insert has quickly gained popularity among beef producers seeking a simplified synchronization protocol.
“The biggest advantage of progesterone is that it will jump start anestrus cows. The CIDRs are an easy way to administer progesterone if cattle are on grass and not in a MGA feeding situation,” says Tim Olson who is based in South Dakota and has worked as a Select Sires field representative and AI technician for more than a decade.
University of Minnesota beef reproduction specialist Cliff Lamb agrees that the CIDR can offer a good synchronization alternative. He reports that research is continuing on CIDR protocols, but says most results show the protocols work well and on average will realistically yield a 50-53% pregnancy rate.

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Cattle Alert: Consideration For Liming Pastures

Cattle Alert: Consideration For Liming Pastures

Cattlenetwork.com

Pasture quality, carrying capacity and profitability is significantly variable from region to region in Minnesota. This is also true from pasture to pasture within region. Minnesota Farm Business Management records suggest profits varying from $2.10/acre to $62.00/acre, based on the low vs. high profit managers.

There are four main factors that impact profit including:

1. Level of management

2. Pasture productivity

3. Species diversification

4. Land value and potential range of uses

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SDSU analyst: Use risk management to protect cattle profitsSDSU analyst: Use risk management to protect cattle profits

SDSU analyst: Use risk management to protect cattle profits

By Drovers news source (Tuesday, May 02, 2006)

Cattle producers might find this a good time to use risk management tools to protect profits, a South Dakota State University specialist said.

SDSU Extension Risk and Business Management Specialist Matt Diersen said cattle prices are lower, though inputs are higher due to increasing pasture rents and interest rates.

Meanwhile, price volatility is up, meaning cattle producers will pay more for insurance, Diersen said.

“All of this pressures profitability,” Diersen said. “Price levels are probably at action points for many producers. That is, many producers would like to do some risk management before the profits get any smaller.”

Diersen’s latest update on the cattle markets can be found at the SDSU Economics Department’s Web site for current market analysis, http://econ.sdstate.edu/Extension/CMA.htm. The site also has SDSU specialists’ updates for corn, soybean, wheat, hog, and dairy markets.

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