Ohio Beef Newsletter available

The July 5, issue # 394, of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter is now posted to the web at: http://fairfield.osu.edu/ag/beef/beefJly5.html

While much of Ohio has been blessed with adequate precipitation and ample forage growth thus far, a “summer slump” as we move into what are typically the hottest and drier months of the year is inevitable. This week, summer pasture management is a focus of the BEEF Cattle letter.

Articles this week include:
* Cattle Demand Remains Strong During First Half of 2006
* Forage Focus: Summer Slump Are You Ready?
* Summer Grazing Management

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

e-mail: smith.263@cfaes.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

Dolly was world’s hello to cloning’s possibilities

Dolly was world’s hello to cloning’s possibilities

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, was born 10 years ago Wednesday, a birth met with elation by scientists who see cloning as a potential cure for illnesses and alarm by those who are fearful of a future populated by less-than-human clones.

But Ian Wilmut, the scientist whose team at Scotland’s Roslin Institute cloned Dolly — born July 5, 1996, and euthanized in 2003 because of lung disease — says the most interesting thing about the past decade is what has not happened.

Wilmut, who has been in North America speaking at scientific conferences and promoting his book After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Cloning, says scientists have not fully succeeded in cloning human embryos, and it could be decades before it happens.

Though scientists have cloned 10 other mammals — cows, goats, pigs, rats, mice, rabbits, cats, dogs, horses and mules — Wilmut says there is a “striking absence of primates.”

FULL STORY

Canada finds 6th case of mad cow disease

Canada finds 6th case of mad cow disease

By ROB GILLIES / Associated Press
Texas Cable News

TORONTO — Canada confirmed on Tuesday its sixth case of mad cow disease and said it would investigate where the cow was born and what other animals may have eaten the same feed.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said test results confirmed what was suspected last week. The animal was at least 15 years of age, and was born before Canada implemented restrictions on potentially dangerous feed in 1997.

The agency said it was launching an investigation.

Mad cow disease is believed to spread through feed, when cows eat the contaminated tissue of other cattle. Humans can get a related disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, in similar fashion – by eating meat contaminated with mad cow. There have been more than 150 human deaths worldwide linked to the variant.

FULL STORY

Diseases carried by ticks can be deadly

Diseases carried by ticks can be deadly

Outdoor enthusiasts should thoroughly check themselves to prevent infection.

By Cory de Vera
Springfield News-Leader (MO)

For a farmer Gary Garges, 58, it’s difficult to avoid attracting ticks.

His daily routine involves milking cows and pitching hay, favorite playgrounds for the tiny insects.

If he has to fix a fence or his farm machinery, he may have to lie down on the ground.

Most of the time, Garges has gone home and pulled the bugs off himself. But back in 1989 he got a bite he’ll never forget.

“I was fixing a fence, and I had one bite me on the leg. It felt just like someone took some needle nose pliers and clamped down. It really, really hurt.”

FULL STORY

Study Shows You Can Have Your (Beef) Fat and Eat It Too

Study Shows You Can Have Your (Beef) Fat and Eat It Too

AgNews / Texas A&M
Writer: Edith A. Chenault, (979) 845-2886,e-chenault1@tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Stephen Smith, (979) 845-3936,sbsmith@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION – A recent Texas Agricultural Experiment Station study indicates cattle fed longer on certain diets will produce beef with more of the “good” kind of fat.

Dr. Stephen Smith, Experiment Station professor of animal science in College Station, said the study showed the longer cattle were fed corn, the more monounsaturated – and less saturated – fat they produced. Monounsaturated fats are currently viewed as being healthier than other dietary fats, Smith said.

FULL STORY

BeefTalk: Shrink – $20 Worth of Understanding

BeefTalk: Shrink – $20 Worth of Understanding

By Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist
NDSU Extension Service

Many discussions are focused on cattle shrink because the market value of cattle is a function of weight times price. Weight and price constantly change.

As a result, cattle marketing can be very confusing because buyers and sellers try to compensate for this change by predicting or estimating values for the factors involved. The same question arises when producers work cattle.

A common and true response is “working cattle costs me money.” This is where good management is needed to decide when one step back results in two steps forward. The Dickinson Research Extension Center faces this dilemma in its work with cattle identification.

When does the identification effort bring a financial reward? Not a simple question, but the DREC is constantly trying to piece together all the components.

FULL STORY

Have your ethics and profits, too

Have your ethics and profits, too

Kristal Arnold, Food System Insider
karnold@vancepublishing.com

Before you take a bite of that vanilla caramel fudge ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s wants you to consider small-scale farming. The famed ice cream company is trying to address social and environmental issues one scoop at a time and last fall launched an ad campaign centered on social consciousness rather than ice cream.

Ben & Jerry’s joined an expanding group of companies that are finding that when it comes to focusing on social and environmental issues, they can have their cake and eat it, too. Companies are reaping benefits, including increased profits but often over and above, when they proactively address issues ranging from antibiotics and animal welfare to obesity and fair trade.

FULL STORY

Ranches Drying Up

Ranches Drying Up

KXMD News (ND)

Dry conditions in south-central North Dakota are forcing some ranchers to sell off their herds.

Herman Schumacher is the co-owner of Herreid Livestock Market in South Dakota. He says about half of his business comes from North Dakota.

Schumacher says his livestock market usually handles the sale of up to 400 cattle per week at this time of year. He says the number now has increased to more than 25-hundred a week.

FULL STORY

In Eliminating BVD At The Ranch, Aim For PIs

In Eliminating BVD At The Ranch, Aim For PIs

Cow-calf weekly

Consensus among participants in a recent BVD control summit held in Denver, CO, is that BVD’s days as the nation’s, if not the world’s, most costly viral livestock pathogen could be numbered.

Bob Larson, DVM, University of Missouri-Columbia veterinary beef cattle specialist, says that, beyond inhibiting conception and causing abortion in infected heifers and cows, the larger negative health effect of the BVD virus is suppression of the immune system.

FULL STORY

Communicable disease experts aim to end antibiotic use in livestock

Communicable disease experts aim to end antibiotic use in livestock

Successful Farming

This week, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (ISDA), an organization representing 8,000 infectious disease physicians and scientists, announced it is endorsing the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), which is sponsored by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Representative Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

FULL STORY

Professors Working on Sensor-Based System to Monitor Livestock Herds

Professors Working on Sensor-Based System to Monitor Livestock Herds

M2 Communications / Mycattle.com

MANHATTAN — As the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, approaches, work is being done at Kansas State University to monitor and protect food animals on the range. Professors from veterinary medicine, engineering, and computing and information sciences are working to develop a system to monitor the health and activity of individual animals in a herd.

“The primary goals of the project are to develop new technology to increase meat quality by minimizing the impact of disease and to protect human/animal populations by detecting disease early before local herds are mixed with animals in large feedlots,” said Steve Warren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

This system could be especially beneficial for avian influenza, which began in the Far East, said Howard Erickson, professor of physiology. In addition to avian influenza, other animal diseases such as pneumonia, mad cow disease, bacterial infections, lung diseases and respiratory tract diseases also could be detected early.

“Some animal diseases that are potential bioterrorist agents — anthrax, botulism, hantavirus and West Nile fever — are zoonotic, which means communicable to humans,” Erickson said. “Other animal diseases, such as avian influenza, and foot-and-mouth disease, are high-consequence livestock pathogens that may also affect humans.”

FULL STORY