Cattlemen’s Verified Program Takes Producers From National To International

Cattlemen’s Verified Program Takes Producers From National To International

Cattlenetwork.com

ARVADA, Colo. August 9, 2006 – After lengthy negotiations and testing of U.S. beef export safeguards, the Japanese government has finally reopened its border to U.S. beef and beef products from cattle verified to be 20 months of age and younger.

The key word to producers is “verified”. The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and IMI Global, a USDA-approved Process Verified Company, are pleased to announce the Cattlemen’s Verified Program. CCA is honored to announce this partnership with a company that has been delivering solutions to their customers for ten years.

“We are constantly asked to define the value of verification,” said CCA President, Mark Roeber. “And it’s really quite simple,” he added. “Verification helps producers qualify their cattle for age verified markets and gain access to progressive marketing options; and the bottom line is that it adds value to producers’ beef cattle.”

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USDA eases rules on bovine imports from Canada

USDA eases rules on bovine imports from Canada

Reuters

Dose.ca

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Agriculture Department proposed on Wednesday to allow imports of Canadian poultry and pork processed at plants that also handle cattle, in a sign of declining fears of mad cow disease.

USDA now requires that Canadian meat products derived from nonruminant poultry and pigs come from facilities separate from those processing ruminant animals such as cattle, which are susceptible to mad cow disease.

Ruminant animals collect swallowed food in a part of their stomachs for further chewing.

The department said because products derived from nonruminant animals pose a small risk of getting mad cow disease from contaminated products, it was “inconsistent” to have them processed in a separate facility.

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A home for the range

A home for the range

St. Petersburg Times

With development consuming more and more Florida ranch land, the Adams Ranch stands as a model for how to preserve nature – and a way of life.

By COLETTE BANCROFT, Times Staff Writer

It could be a scene from another century: Red cattle flow across green Florida grassland, guided by a rangy man on a white horse.

But the Adams Ranch, whose headquarters are in Fort Pierce, is a thoroughly modern cow-calf operation.

Founded in St. Lucie County in 1937 by Alto Adams Sr., the home ranch now covers 23,000 acres (plus operations on another 42,000 acres in three counties). It is run by Alto “Bud” Adams Jr. and his sons Mike and Lee, who help run the cattle ranch, and Robby, who oversees the citrus groves.

The fourth generation is represented by three of Bud Adams’ 12 grandchildren who work on the ranch full time “and a bunch more here in the summer,” Adams says.

Photographer and environmental activist Carlton Ward Jr. of Tampa took these photos this year after he became interested in the Adams Ranch’s historical and environmental legacy.

Although some methods of ranching have been criticized by environmentalists, the Adams family has won awards for its stewardship from such organizations as the Florida Audubon Society.

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Blue Grass Stockyards: Finding new home hasn’t been easy

Blue Grass Stockyards: Finding new home hasn’t been easy

Lexington Herald-Leader

By Andy Mead

Shortly after Milton Stinnett started working at the Blue Grass Stockyards in 1947, he mounted a horse to help drive a herd of cattle there from a farm on nearby Leestown Road.

That couldn’t happen today.

‘It’s all houses over there now,’ Stinnett said yesterday, after bringing in a truck load of cattle from much farther away.

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Moo-ve over, Fido: Minicows popular pets

Moo-ve over, Fido: Minicows popular pets

Contra Costa Times

By Jeanine Benca

Judy Dresser knows bigger is not always better, especially when it comes to livestock. On her Danville ranch live six miniature black Angus beef cows.

Dresser began breeding and selling the Australian-developed cattle for fun about two years ago and considers her designer beefers ‘part of the family.’

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Anthrax outbreak in cattle on Prairies hits record

Anthrax outbreak in cattle on Prairies hits record

DAWN WALTON

Globeandmail.com (Canada)

CALGARY — An anthrax outbreak has risen to record levels in Saskatchewan and Manitoba where the number of dead animals — most of them cattle — has jumped dramatically in the past month and officials are now frantically vaccinating herds to stop the spread of the disease.

As of yesterday, 628 animals have died on 129 properties in Saskatchewan since the beginning of July, when the bacteria was discovered in a dead bull in Melfort, northeast of Saskatoon, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

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Tech names associate dean and director

Tech names associate dean and director

By NRVToday

Virginia Tech has named Mark A. McCann of Newport, Va., an associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the director of Virginia Cooperative Extension.

“Mark brings an extensive and solid background in Extension to the position,” said Dean Sharron Quisenberry. “His knowledge will help create a vision for Extension that ensures programming to meet the changing needs of Virginia’s citizens.”

McCann oversees the Extension program, which provides research-based educational resources to individuals, families, groups, and organizations, especially in the areas of agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, community viability, and 4-H youth development.

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Cattlemen push for protection

Cattlemen push for protection

By Stella Davis

Current-Argus Staff Writer (NM)

CARLSBAD — Landowners with only surface rights say they deserve to have legal protections for their property and compensation when oil and gas companies damage their lands.

Although legislation failed to pass this year that would have provided some protections and compensation for landowners, crafters of the bill have made some revisions with the hopes of getting the bill passed in the 2007 Legislative session

Oil and gas industry representatives say that in order for the proposed legislation to pass, representatives from the ranching and oil and gas industry need to talk and develop a bill that will be acceptable to all parties.

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Liquid Feed Supplements Can Be Cost Effective

Liquid Feed Supplements Can Be Cost Effective

by: Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D., PAS

cattletoday.com

Over the last years and especially the one most recent, the feeding industry finds itself almost overrun with alternatives and opportunities as commercial manufacturing and especially the evolving fuel industry makes available assortments of by-products that can and NEED to be fed as an alternative to the waste of this material in landfills and the like. One significant challenge for nutritionists and cattle producers is to determine the ingredients, additives and feed processing as well as delivery systems that will improve performance and/or efficiency of cattle on pasture. An important consideration must be that the program should improve forage utilization in a cost-effective manner in a given situation. While countless combinations exist for providing the necessary nutritional supplements, not all are as economical as we’d like. Others require substantially more labor to utilize than is available. One of the options the cattle industry has come to respect to accomplish both is that of liquid or molasses based supplementation. With the use of the new by-product – some of which don’t even have names yet – it will become more cost effective to use less and less actual cane molasses. Many supplier countries of cane molasses are already seeing this commodity as a more valuable source of ethanol for use in automobile fuels. Let’s take a look at some possibilities for these products as feeds or supplements for growing replacement heifers and stocker cattle.

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How do MGA- and CIDR-based synchronization systems compare?

How do MGA- and CIDR-based synchronization systems compare?

by API staff

Angus Journal

University of Missouri (MU) researchers recently compared the use of melengestrol acetate (MGA) and CIDR® inserts and their effects on heifer estrous response, timing of artificial insemination (AI) and pregnancy rates.

A total of 353 heifers at three locations were randomly assigned to one of two treatments by age and weight. Of those, 175 head of MGA Select-treated heifers were fed MGA for 14 days. Researchers administered gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) 12 days after MGA withdrawal and administered prostaglandin (PG) seven days after GnRH.

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Making It Look Easy

Making It Look Easy

Breeders share their experiences and thoughts about using artificial insemination in their herds.

Hereford World

There are many decisions or ideas breeders can agree on — or agree to disagree on. But for three breeders from different regions of the country, different programs and different management schemes, one decision is unanimous. “There wasn’t much of a decision,” Mark Frederickson says of electing to use artificial insemination (AI) in his herd. “It was easy to make simply because a person of my type of scale and my economics, AI gives me the chance to utilize genetics I couldn’t normally afford to buy.” Frederickson Herefords near Starbuck, Minn., is home to 120 Hereford and 30 Angus cows.

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Cattle Feeding: Don’t Forget the Salt and Minerals

Cattle Feeding: Don’t Forget the Salt and Minerals

by Mark Landefeld, OSU Extension Educator

cattlenetwork.com

Salt is an item commonly used in livestock feed rations and because it’s used so regularly it is easy to forget the importance of it in the diet. Salt is the best source of both sodium and chloride, which all farm animals need. Sodium constitutes a very high percentage of the basic mineral elements contained in blood, it is required for muscle contraction, nerve impulse transmission and other required functions within the body. Chloride too is very important in the blood stream and is necessary for production of hydrochloric acid used for digestion of nutrients in feedstuff.

The sodium requirement for beef cattle is the primary factor determining how much salt should be fed. Generally, it is thought the sodium requirement is approximately 0.08% for growing cattle and 0.10% for lactating cattle. If the sodium is supplied from salt, this would be equivalent to 0.2% for growing cattle and 0.25% salt for lactating cattle (3-4 ounces per day/1000lb. animal). Sodium requirements increase during lactation because cows milk contains sodium. The amount of sodium livestock need also increases when cattle are fed lush forages because the amount of water in fecal excretion is higher.

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eMerge Teams With Loomix, Pfizer and Zinpro to Create Per4mance Verified

eMerge Teams With Loomix, Pfizer and Zinpro to Create Per4mance Verified

cattlenetwork.com

SEBASTIAN, Fla., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — eMerge Interactive, Inc. (Nasdaq: EMRG) today announced that it is working with Cattleman’s Choice Loomix, LLC, Pfizer Animal Health and Zinpro Corporation to create the Per4mance Verified Program, a new opportunity for cattle producers to meet the nutritional, animal health, data services and age verification needs in a single comprehensive program.

CattleLog is the exclusive data service provider to the Per4mance Verified Program and will be used to record age, source and production information on all enrolled cattle. The CattleLog Agent program, as part of the CattleLog Process Verified Program, will be exclusively used to verify age and source on all Per4mance Verified Program cattle, including those animals enrolled in the Pfizer SelectVAC program. All qualified animals will be eligible for participation in CattleLog Listing Service, the beef industry’s only public listing of cattle that have been 100% on-site audited for premium and branded programs.

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