Ohio Beef Newsletter Online

The August 9, issue # 499, of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter is now posted to the web at: http://fairfield.osu.edu/ag/beef/beefAgst9.html

“In the day” back home on the farm we came to expect bacon and eggs for breakfast, Grandma’s baked steak for lunch, and hamburgers for supper . . . then came the 21st century . . . and it became “in vogue” to eat a high protein diet . . . go figure! This week Brian Roe discusses how “diets” have, and are impacting the economics of the beef cattle business.

Articles this week include:
* Recent Diet Trends: Implications for Red Meat Consumption
* Don’t Forget the Salt and Minerals
* Heat Stress and Beef Cattle
* Forage Focus: Be Prepared for Fall Forage Harvest
* 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@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

Japan’s Open, but…

Japan‘s Open, but…

Beef Stocker Trends

The first shipments of U.S. beef reportedly went to Japan last week. That following the July 27 announcement that Japan’s ban on U.S. beef was lifted, at least for boneless beef from cattle 21 months old or younger.

FULL STORY

NDSU beef center exceeds investment goal

NDSU beef center exceeds investment goal

Grand Forks Herald / Associated Press

FARGO, N.D. – More than 30 people and groups have invested in the North Dakota Natural Beef LLC project, helping it exceed its investment goal of $3.5 million, officials say.

North Dakota State University is partnering with the New Rockford-based North American Bison Cooperative on the beef processing and research center.

Among the investors are the North Dakota Farmers Union and Dakota Growers Pasta Co. in Carrington, said Dieter Pape, president and chief executive officer of the bison co-op. Investors are located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado and Washington, he said.

The project has raised $3.65 million, and Pape said the five-person interim board of directors has voted to keep the investment opportunity open until the end of the year.

FULL STORY

Auction owner mourns herd sell-offs

Auction owner mourns herd sell-offs

Bismarck Tribune

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – As South Dakota’s U.S. senators prepare to tour drought-stricken areas on Wednesday, the owner and operator of the Herreid Livestock Market said ranchers being forced to sell off their cattle herds is “right up there with going to a funeral.”

“I tell people to put on their grimmest face and watch these people having to sell all their cattle. They’re selling their livelihood,” said Herman Schumacher. “We knew there was a problem with the drought back in May, when people started selling off a lot of their cow-calf pairs.”

FULL STORY

Canada can’t locate birth farm of 6th mad cow case

Canada can’t locate birth farm of 6th mad cow case

Dose.ca

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Tuesday it could not confirm the birth farm of Canada’s sixth mad cow case since 2003 due to a lack of information on the animal’s history.

The mature cross-bred beef cow was “at least 16 years old” when it died on a Manitoba farm earlier this summer, the federal food safety agency said in a release as it wrapped up its investigation.

The brain wasting disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, is believed to be transmitted through contaminated feed. The affected animal was born well before the 1997 feed ban on cattle feed containing protein from rendered cattle and other ruminants.

Since cattle are most likely to contract the disease in their first year of life, the CFIA said the cow was most likely exposed to the BSE agent in 1989 or 1990 when the inclusion of meat and bone meal in cattle feed was both accepted and legal.

FULL STORY

USDA extends comment period on BSE study

USDA extends comment period on BSE study

North Texas E-News

Billings, Mont.) – R-CALF USA was pleased to learn today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has granted the organization’s request for an extended time period for public comments on the most recent Harvard Risk Assessment on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as Docket Number FSIS-2006-0011.

“We appreciate the FSIS’ quick action in extending the comment period on this comprehensive study,” R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said. “The cattle industry needs to review the Harvard Risk Assessment very carefully because it is the principle resource used by USDA to decide what level of risk the United States is willing to assume when trading with countries that have a BSE problem.”

FULL STORY

Are there benefits to eating grass-fed beef?

Are there benefits to eating grass-fed beef?

By JANE SNOW

AKRON BEACON JOURNAL

AKRON, Ohio–Cattle graze peacefully on David and Deanna McMaken’s farm near Waynesburg in Carroll County. From the time they’re born until they become hamburger, the animals wander through pastures, munching grass and slowly gaining weight.

That’s how cattle were raised a century ago, but rarely today, when most are weaned from grass at an early age and fattened on grains in feedlots. The McMakens’ Rose Ridge Farm is one of a handful in Ohio producing grass-fed beef. But at the rate the industry is growing, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of this meat.

Grass-fed beef became so popular with customers at Krieger’s in the Akron, Ohio, area, that it’s now the only kind the market sells.

FULL STORY

Arkansas Farmers Struggle to Feed Cattle

Arkansas Farmers Struggle to Feed Cattle

KATV-TV (AR)

Reporter: Scott Inman Posted By: Talisa Austin

Arkansas farmers are worried again about the high heat and lack of rain. It’s not only taking its toll on crops, but Arkansas cattle are struggling. So much so, it could mean a lower quality of beef for consumers when they visit their local meat department.

When temperatures are creeping close to the century mark on an almost daily basis and there’s little rain to cool things off, farmers say their cattle don’t eat much. And as a result the cattle don’t fatten up.

FULL STORY

U.S. Senators Address South Korean Beef Trade

U.S. Senators Address South Korean Beef Trade

Wisconsin Ag Connection

A bi-partisan letter urging South Korean President Cheong Wa Dae to give his ‘personal attention in resolving the prolonged embargo’ being maintained against American beef by the Republic of Korea is being sent, according to the American Meat Institute.

Signed by 31 United States Senators, the letter points out that the ongoing beef embargo has become an impediment to advancements on free trade talks between the nations, reports MeatNews.

FULL STORY

Data with a purpose

Data with a purpose

Hereford World

“What kind of numbers does he have?” “Is he a low-birth or high-growth bull?” “Is he a high-spread bull?”

These are just a few of the questions seedstock producers are being asked by commercial cattlemen who are demanding data to support their buying decisions. The signs are clear to most savvy Hereford breeders: performance data is a necessity to be competitive in today’s marketplace.

FULL STORY Adobe Acrobat file (PDF)

Managing body condition is key to success

Managing body condition is key to success

by Rick Rasby, Extension beef specialist, University of Nebraska

Angus Journal

Many times I have discussed the importance of managing the body condition of your cow herd. Body condition at calving for spring-calving cows has a major effect on reproductive performance during the next breeding season. Cows and first-calf females in good body condition at calving [body condition score (BCS) 5 for cows and BCS 6 for first-calf females] will resume estrous cycles and breed early in the breeding season.

FULL STORY