Vermont puts on hold plan to register farms to monitor disease outbreaks

Vermont puts on hold plan to register farms to monitor disease outbreaks

Published: Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Vermont is suspending plans to require farms with livestock to register with the state in an effort to contain outbreaks of contagious diseases over concerns about keeping the information private, according to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.
The agency had been drafting rules that would have required the registration of farms, but not of individual animals, a plan advocated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Despite end of ban, U.S. beef virtually off-limits at Japanese stores

Despite end of ban, U.S. beef virtually off-limits at Japanese stores

By Yuri Kageyama

AP Business Writer

Northwest Arkansas News

TOKYO (AP) — It’s been weeks since Japan ditched its import ban on U.S. beef and the first shipment went on sale, but American beef is nowhere to be seen at supermarkets here — except in Japan’s five Costco stores.

Many Japanese are worried about the safety of U.S. beef. Retailers here said they aren’t about to waste their time carrying an unpopular product. Instead, meat section shelves are filled with beef from Japan and Australia.

Japan once was the top destination for U.S. beef, importing $1.4 billion each year. But that was before Tokyo’s December 2003 decision to ban American beef imports after the first case of mad cow disease in the U.S.

The U.S. government repeatedly has said the beef is safe because of stringent checks. But such assurances have done little to allay the fears of Japanese about mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a degenerative nerve disease in cattle.

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Meat and poultry claims: Part 2

Meat and poultry claims: Part 2

Star news online

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on labeling for meat and poultry. The first was on claims that tell us what is not added. The second column covers claims about the rearing of livestock and healthfulness of the foods we eat.

Claims on meat and poultry labels are often very confusing, and trying to determine if they actually have value is even more confusing. The following is designed to help you better determine how the animals you’re eating were raised, what they’ve been fed and how they’ve been cared for.

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Pasture management: ‘Grazing meeting’ conducted

Pasture management: ‘Grazing meeting’ conducted

By MICHAEL HARVILLA,

Times Leader (OH)

THE GRASS might not always be greener on the other side, but it could be!

Specialists, outstanding in their fields, were out standing in Ed Stenger’s field Tuesday, conducting a “grazing meeting” aimed at making suggestions and discussing pasture management as well as grazing rotation for Stenger’s dairy herd.

Stenger said he is currently milking 68 cows. “We have put in 16 paddocks and rotate the herd every 12 hours,” Stenger said. During the course of this year, about 1,700 feet of pipe has been laid, bringing water to the paddocks.

Nine frost-free hydrants have been installed, according to Stenger. He added that currently the water is coming from city waterlines in the barn, but he expects to hook the system to a well.

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Cattle Crowd Feedlots

Cattle Crowd Feedlots

USDA reports a seven percent jump in the number of cattle on feed.

Meatnews.com

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated that the number of cattle and calves on feed for slaughter in U.S. feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 10.8 million head on August 1, 2006. The inventory was seven percent above August 1, 2005 and 10 percent above August 1, 2004. This is the second highest August 1 inventory since the series began in 1996.

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Beef Quality Audit Answers Questions About U.S. Beef

Beef Quality Audit Answers Questions About U.S. Beef

Cattletoday.com

Initial results from National Beef Audit 2005, funded in part by checkoff investments in the Beef Quality Assurance Program, are in and offer U.S. cattlemen insight into beef quality successes and future challenges over which they have some or all control.

Identified in the new audit as the top three quality successes since the 2000 audit were: (1) improved microbiological safety; (2) improved cattle genetics and beef of higher quality; and (3) fewer injection-site lesions. The rankings are from interviews with beef end-users, including exporters, purveyors, foodservice and retail channels.

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Why Small Farms Matter: Economies of Scale

Why Small Farms Matter: Economies of Scale

By Bill Henning, Cornell University

American Cowman

In 2005, USDA’s report on the number of farms in the U.S. really wasn’t that surprising; it substantiated a trend that’s continued for many years. The number of farms with gross annual sales under $250,000 declined by 0.8% (USDA determines farms in this category as “small.”) Meanwhile, the number of farms with annual sales greater than $500,000 increased 3.8%.

In the 1918 text book, “Farm Management,” G.F. Warren of Cornell University makes the statement: “But so long as farmers become more efficient, we will need a smaller and smaller percent of the population engaged in farming.” For the young person yearning to be a farmer, not a farmhand, all this is far from encouraging. How can young people today afford to pursue an occupation where the economies of scale seem so stacked against them?

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Partner Up

Partner Up

by Steve Suther

Angus Journal

As in the Old West, success in today’s consumer-focused cattle business depends on finding partners you can trust. You might list a banker, nutritionist and bull supplier as partners in a sense, but have you considered partnering with a cattle feeder?

Historical research shows producers usually make money by retaining ownership of their calves through the feeding stage. That’s true on the average, so if you have unknown or below-average cattle, the risk is greater. However, if you have above-average cattle, you may be leaving serious money on the table by not retaining ownership.

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Avoid Misuse of Ultrasound Data

Avoid Misuse of Ultrasound Data

Hereford World

With the 2006 spring bull sale season still fresh in your mind, stop and think about how beef bulls are marketed. Think about the newspaper and magazine advertisements for bull sales. Think about the sale bills posted at the local feed store. Those print ads and posters usually feature pictures of a few individual bulls. Beneath each photograph is a caption describing the pictured animal. A description might state, “This top son of ‘Superbull’ had a weaning weight of 636 lb.” Another sale bull might be described as “an exceptional prospect with a scrotal circumference of 35 centimeters.”

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Avoid heat stress

Avoid heat stress (Herd health)

Drovers Magazine

In hot weather, it’s important to remember that cattle have an upper critical temperature approximately 20 degrees cooler than humans. So when humans are uncomfortable at 80 degrees and feel hot at 90 degrees, cattle may well be in the danger zone for extreme heat stress at those same temperatures, according to the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service. If working cattle in high temperatures is necessary, they offer some tips to avoid heat stress for the animals.

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BeefTalk: Beef Cows are What They Eat

BeefTalk: Beef Cows are What They Eat

By Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist

NDSU Extension Service

The beef cow never was intended to lead a pampered life. A beef cow is a ruminant animal specifically designed to convert fiber or other low-quality plantlike materials into products edible, or at least usable, by humans.

Depending on economic or production situations, the quality of feed materials available for the beef cow can vary widely, but producers must remember that the cow can exist on low-quality roughage when necessary.

Feeding a beef cow requires a basic understanding of the cow’s requirements. Once the basic understanding of one cow is appreciated, then mathematics will be used to determine the amount of feed needed by a producer to meet the nutritional needs of a cow herd during the winter.

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