State’s feedlot numbers dwindle

State’s feedlot numbers dwindle

By Chuck Clement

Capital Journal Staff (SD)

SIOUX FALLS – The large cattle feedlots in South Dakota have reported that the July cattle herd was 15,000 head smaller than June’s numbers, but 22,000 head larger than the herd on hand during July 2005.

The state’s cattle feedlots with capacities of 1,000 head or more reported on Aug. 1 that the facilities had 165,000 cattle on feed for the slaughter market, according to the staff at the National Agricultural Statistics Service in Sioux Falls.

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It’s a long, hot summer for farmers, but they’re coping

It’s a long, hot summer for farmers, but they’re coping

by Bruce Strand

Staff writer, Star News (MN)

Usually on this page we discuss the Zimmerman city news. Let’s turn our attention to the country for a bit. The Star News visited area farmers Richard Thompson and Brad Dillon in the past week to ask about rural life in general and coping with drought in particular.

First of all, there’s not a lot of farmers in the area.

“We used to have a lot of little farms around here,” said Thompson, 65, a third-generation farmer with 300 acres between Zimmerman and Elk River. “But the land started to be worth too much with developers wanting to buy land for houses. When people get older, they’ve been selling. We’ve had a lot of pressure in the last 10, 15 years, but I’m going to farm for a while longer.”

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Intervet Receives FDA Approval for Zilmax

Intervet Receives FDA Approval for Zilmax

Intervet to Conduct Additional Research Prior to Commercialization

Boxmeer, August 21, 2006 –– Intervet’s U.S. business (Intervet Inc.) has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Zilmax (zilpaterol hydrochloride), a product designed to improve production efficiencies in beef cattle during the last phase of the feeding period.

The results of the U.S. studies confirmed the safety and efficacy that Intervet has experienced with Zilmax through more than 10 years of international use.

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Thirteen records fall at 4-H Sale of Champions

Thirteen records fall at 4-H Sale of Champions

Maria J. Flora

Crawfordsville Journal Review (IN)

Managing Editor

INDIANAPOLIS – Thirteen records fell at the Indiana State Fair Sale of Champions Wednesday, but none of them were for local kids.

The sale raised a record of $227,930, compared to last year’s record of $157,350. The Indiana Department of Agriculture and the Sale of Champions Buyers’ Club supported each participant selling in the record-setting sale – more than 40 businesses, organizations and individuals contributed to the Buyers’ Club.

Montgomery County’s 4-H auction brought in $132,5000 this year.

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A better beef carcass = more money

A better beef carcass = more money

BY BONNIE WARNYCA

Agcanada.com

While most of the attention for the June 20 official opening of Natural Valley Farms’ slaughter plant centered on the new facility, it also was a good time for the more than 200 investor-producers to get a crash course in carcass evaluation. Natural Valley Farms (NVF) held a judging seminar where producers evaluated 2 live dairy steers, 2 beef steers, 2 beef heifers and one virgin beef bull, guessing at their yield and grade.

NVF’s producer relations manager Kathy Martin is regularly asked when an animal is finished; what’s the difference between a dairy and a beef steer; what’s the difference between a double A and a triple A; how can you tell what an animal will grade or what they will yield. “It’s not that easy to determine what an animal will grade or yield just by looking at it,” admits Martin. “We were able to show producers what the animal looked like under the hide while they still had a good visual image of the live animal. Because NVF returns individual carcass information to its producers, this type of demonstration shows which animals perform best on the NVF grid.”

Rick Toney says he wasn’t far off in his scores for grade and yield for the demonstration animals. But he was off and that was part of the learning experience. The Toney family — Rick and his wife Norma, sons Chuck and Paul and father Bernard — run 400 cows between 2 ranches at Gull Lake and Maple Creek, Sask. Rick and his father have fed steers to finish for more than 25 years while farming more than 2,000 acres.

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Alternative Feedstuffs for Beef Cattle Operations

Alternative Feedstuffs for Beef Cattle Operations

Cattlenetwork.com

Dry conditions across the Mississippi this year have made making economical and effective nutritional program decisions even more critical going into the fall. Beef cattle feeding programs can successful include a wide variety of feedstuffs. Basic comparisons and information about many of these feed ingredients are outlined in this article and the Beef Production Strategies article.

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Research indicates not all cattle diets in the balance

Research indicates not all cattle diets in the balance

Southwest Farm Press

What cattle eat affects everything from their health to rate of gain. It’s one of the most significant economic inputs into the animals, and can produce some of the greatest variability in quality.

That’s why Certified Angus Beef (CAB) LLC examined the effects of some popular feeding trends on carcass quality. CAB vice president Larry Corah and supply development director Mark McCully compiled university research and discovered that some popular combinations of cattle feed and processing are no friends of beef quality. Steam flaked grain and ethanol co-products are two examples they found that could detract from the ability to reach higher beef quality grades.

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Canada confirms 8th mad cow case

Canada confirms 8th mad cow case

Theeagle.com (TX)

TORONTO – Canada confirmed mad cow disease in an animal on an Alberta farm Wednesday, the country’s eighth case of a terminal ailment that has roiled its livestock industry.

The latest case was found in a dairy cow between 8 and 10 years of age, Canada’s Food Inspection Agency said.

The agency says exposure to the terminal disease probably occurred before or during the introduction of new feed regulations that were supposed to stop the spread of the disease.

Shipments of cattle to the United States were halted in 2003 after the first reported cases of mad cow in Canada. Trade in cows younger than 30 months resumed last year.

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Increased Demand Brings Higher Cattle Prices

Increased Demand Brings Higher Cattle Prices

By Kim Souza

The Morning News (AR)

Despite reports that U.S. beef has yet to reach most Japanese grocers, demand has increased domestically and internationally leading to higher prices for both producers and consumers according to agriculture economist, Rob Hogan with the University of Arkansas Extension Service.

The Farmers Livestock Auctions in Springdale and Fort Smith have each reported steady to higher prices in recent months over last year’s better-than-average rates for slaughter cows and feeder calves.

Prices have been good overall and there has been some increased sell-off of cattle due to drought situations in Oklahoma and other southern cattle-growing regions, Hogan said.

He said not everyone is selling, but the short-term prices might dip if overall producers sell more cattle than they retain.

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Ranchers trail cattle from pasture to plate

Ranchers trail cattle from pasture to plate

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON

IR Features Writer (MT)

When the market closed, Helena ranchers Craig Winterburn and Tom Brown smiled at their bottom line. After two hours of wheeling and dealing, they had turned a $300,000 profit, not bad for two mock meat packers learning on the fly.

Winterburn, president of the Running W Cattle Company in Helena, and Brown, a Capital High School student, took part in the first day of a four-day “Follow the Cattle Tour,” which opened Wednesday morning in Billings.

Over the next four days, Montana ranchers will follow cattle as they are processed from the pasture to the dinner plate. They’ll visit feedlots in Nebraska, tour the Excell slaughterhouse in Fort Morgan, Colo., and stop at a grocery store in Fort Collins.

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Gillett forms new natural meat firm

Gillett forms new natural meat firm

By Janet Forgrieve,

Rocky Mountain News (CO)

Vail businessman George Gillett Jr. has combined two of his investment groups to create a natural meat company with more than $500 million in annual revenue.

Golden-based BC Natural Foods, parent of Coleman Natural Meats, merged with KDSB Holdings and its Kings Delight and Snow Ball Foods brands to form Coleman Natural Foods LLC, the company said Wednesday.

“It is taking on (the Coleman) name because that (name) has the greatest consumer awareness,” said Chief Executive Officer George Chivari.

Headquarters will remain in Golden. The combined company will employ 2,300 people at 17 facilities in six states and produce meats under several brands, including Coleman, Petaluma Poultry, Kings Delight and Snow Ball Foods. The company has about 300 workers at three Colorado facilities, said spokeswoman Robyn Nick.

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Farmers Fighting Drought Band Together to Send Washington a Message

Farmers Fighting Drought Band Together to Send Washington a Message

KXMB.com (ND)

(Donnell Preskey / KX News) North Dakota farmers and ranchers are proud people.

Not often do you hear them ask for help.

But after feeling ignored and going through a summer like this they’re raising their voices.

(Sen. Kent Conrad/D – ND): “Do we need disaster aid you know i think they may hear that in Washington. I believe if they hear from enough of us the white house will rellent and allow congress to pass disaster aid.”

Conrad, Dorgan and Pomeroy have tried to get disaster packages for farmers passed they’ve been unsuccessful.

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Kosher Slaughter Fight

Kosher Slaughter Fight

Chanan Tigay JTA Wire Service

Jewishtimes.com

Arlene Holtz grew up right behind her grandfather’s kosher butcher shop in downtown Philadelphia. It was there that she learned to be mindful of the mitzvot — among them the laws of keeping kosher.

But when news broke that the killing practices at the Agriprocessors plant, America’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, may have been less than ideal — even, some have claimed, less than kosher — Holtz began to think twice about her fidelity to kosher meat.

“I believe the ideas behind kashrut are good,” says Holtz, 59.

Strictures on what sorts of meat can be eaten and how the animals must be killed were intended to ensure humane treatment of the animals, she says. But what if it turns out they’re not always treated so well?

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USAIO Working To Minimize Animal ID Program Costs

USAIO Working To Minimize Animal ID Program Costs

Wfrv.com

The Board of Directors of the Animal Identification Organization has reached agreements with two manufacturers of ISO RIFD devices in the U.S. According to the USAIO, the agreements are important to the advancement of a national animal movement database that minimizes the cost for industry participants.

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