Farm Progress Show opens

Farm Progress Show opens

Brownfield Network

by Tom Steever

The 53rd annual Farm Progress Show opened in Amana, Iowa Tuesday to steady rain. The showers let up just before midday, but not before leaving the ground’s pathways a muddy mess. By late afternoon the sun was shining accompanied by a gentle breeze to start drying the show site.

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U.S. beef exports to Japan this year will total $400 million

U.S. beef exports to Japan this year will total $400 million

by John Gregerson on 8/29/2006 for Meatingplace.com

The Agriculture Department projects that beef exports worth around almost $400 million will be sold to Japan in fiscal 2007. That’s about one-third the amount the U.S. beef industry shipped to Tokyo prior to December 2003, when Japan banned the product on fears of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. USDA says the amount still accounts for about 20 percent of the Japanese market.

Cattle TB Testing Begins This fall

Cattle TB Testing Begins This fall

WCCO.com

(AP) St. Paul Targeted testing begins this fall to see if Minnesota’s cattle population still has any traces of bovine tuberculosis.

Last year, five beef cattle herds in northwestern Minnesota tested positive for bovine TB.

For Minnesota to regain its TB-free status, more tests need to be conducted throughout the state.

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Cattle Update: Creep Feeding Calves

Cattle Update: Creep Feeding Calves

Cattlenetwork.com

Creep feeding is a way to provide suckling calves with supplemental nutrients. The type of creep feeds commonly fed are in the form of grain, protein supplements, high quality forages, or commercial calf creeps. The decision to creep feed along with what nutrient to utilize can vary from year to year. Also, what is profitable for one operation may not be for another. Producers should carefully consider their marketing objectives and evaluate the economics of creep feeding in order to determine whether or not it will be profitable? If the market endpoint for a producer is at weaning, the producer would be inclined to supplement calves most years in order to maximize weight gain prior to weaning.

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Trans Ova on the cutting edge of reproductive research

Trans Ova on the cutting edge of reproductive research

By Ryan Wendland

Agrinews

news@agrinews.com

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — Don’t be fooled by the two miles of bumpy gravel road it takes to get to Trans Ova. The firm’s headquarters, which doesn’t look much different than a modern livestock farm, is as high tech as it gets.

“There’s nobody in the world that does what we do for our clients,” Chris Sigurdson, sales and marketing director at Trans Ova, said.

Tran Ova began in 1980 as an on-farm embryo transfer service provider by Faber, Funk and Schuiteman. Today, 90 percent of Trans Ova clients raise beef cattle, and 50 percent of those clients raise Angus. Fifteen years ago, half of Trans Ova’s clientele were dairy producers. Trans Ova is currently re-entering the elite and commercial dairy industry. One burgeoning market Trans Ova has entered is bucking stock, which has gone from backyard hobby for many producers to a multi-million-dollar business.

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Beef Cattle Producers discuss Winter Feeding Alternatives

Beef Cattle Producers discuss Winter Feeding Alternatives

Debra Davis

Alabama Farm Bureau

TROY, Ala., Aug. 28 — The hot, dry summer has created a hay shortage in Alabama and is forcing state cattle producers to look at alternative feeds as a way to sustain their herds through the approaching winter.

More than 100 cattlemen from the Wiregrass attended a meeting in Troy Aug. 28 where Dr. Darrell Rankins, Extension specialist and associate professor of animal science and forages at Auburn University, discussed options that could allow them to hold on to their brood cows.

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US beef battling to make a comeback

US beef battling to make a comeback

MAD COW HANGOVER: US product is freely available in Japan, but consumers seem wary about putting it on their tables, preferring instead to turn to Australian or local beef

AP , TOKYO

Taipei Times

Chief sales clerk Tomohiro Kuriki arranges packs of beef imported from Canada and Australia at a Hanamasa Co supermarket in Tokyo on Aug. 18.

PHOTO: AP

The Japanese restaurant chain Zenshoku said it would serve US beef starting yesterday, a first among this nation’s restaurants since the ban on US beef was lifted last month.

Zenshoku Co, which specializes in Korean-style barbecue dishes said in a statement on its Web page that it plans to offer US beef starting with dinner last night.

US beef has only been trickling in to Japan since the easing of the ban, imposed in 2003 due to mad cow fears.

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State changing cattle ID system

State changing cattle ID system

DEAN BOHN

THE SAGINAW NEWS

Farmers, cattlemen, countrymen, lend your ears … well, the ears of your livestock, anyway.

A new state law mandates that all cattle leaving the farm of origin as of Thursday, March 1, must have an electronic ear tag, known as a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag.

The tags cost $2 apiece; the applicator, $20.

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Bush to provide nearly $800 million for drought-hit farmers

Bush to provide nearly $800 million for drought-hit farmers

LIBBY QUAID

Duluth Tribune News / Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The government promised nearly $800 million in aid Tuesday to ranchers and farmers stricken by a near-record drought.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced the aid while visiting a ranch in South Dakota, one of the states hardest hit by drought and heat. Farmers are struggling in the Plains, the South and, to a lesser degree, the Upper Midwest.

“As I walked a pasture where grass should be high and growing and cattle grazing, I saw only dirt,” Johanns told reporters by telephone. “In western Plains states, livestock producers are making very tough choices because of lack of green pastures.”

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Making sense of cattle auction prices

Making sense of cattle auction prices

Fred Owens

Wilson County News (TX)

In the typical weekly cattle auctions reported in this newspaper, the cattle are run through a chute past the auctioneer and bidders. The action is fast and furious — the bidder has only a few seconds to look at the cow before making a decision to bid.

Cattle sellers don’t need to be concerned about that. Once they take their cattle to the auction and agree to put them up for sale, they must accept whatever price they get for their animals, according to David Shelton of the Gonzales Livestock Auction.

Buyers and sellers both will be doing research before the auction by scanning the past week’s auction prices.

The Wilson County News reports the prices from the auctions in Seguin, Karnes County, Karnes City, Nixon, and Atascosa County.

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USDA’s Penn says U.S., China beef talks at standstill

USDA’s Penn says U.S., China beef talks at standstill

Brownfield Network

by Peter Shinn

USDA is submitting a detailed package to the World Organization for Animal Health, better known by its French initials as the OIE, in hopes of getting America’s BSE risk status reduced. That’s what departing USDA Under Secretary J.B. Penn told Dow Jones Monday.

The U.S. is hoping the OIE will reduce America’s BSE risk status to “negligible” or “controlled risk” either of which would make it easier for the U.S. to export beef. Penn told Dow Jones either category would essentially allow all U.S. beef and beef products to be exported.

Penn also told Dow Jones the U.S. and China are in a stalemate over U.S. beef. Chinese officials announced they’d resume U.S. beef imports some four months ago, but they haven’t done so yet.

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Farmers: Make animal ID voluntary

Farmers: Make animal ID voluntary

Mike Penprase

News-Leader (MO)

Even those who have different ideas on what provisions a new farm bill should contain were unified about one issue Monday at a House Agriculture Committee field hearing in Springfield.

Nobody wants to see mandatory animal identification –not the witnesses invited to testify about the 2007 Farm Bill and not the folks taking time off from their farms to attend the session in the E-Plex at the Missouri Entertainment and Events Center.

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Texas Steer Classification Conference Sept. 13 in Waco

Texas Steer Classification Conference Sept. 13 in Waco

Texas A&M

Writer: Blair Fannin, 979-845-2259,b-fannin@tamu.edu

Contact: Dr. Jim Mazurkiewicz, 979-845-1554.j-mazurkiewicz@tamu.edu

WACO – A Texas Steer Classification Conference is scheduled for Sept. 13 at the Heart O’ Texas Fair Complex in Waco.

The conference will give Texas Cooperative Extension agents, agricultural science teachers, breed associations and other industry personnel updated guidelines for each of the 15 breeds recognized at state shows, organizers said.

The updated guidelines will be developed prior to the conference during a closed workshop session Sept. 12.

“We’re encouraging anyone interested in learning more about the guidelines set during our workshop to attend the conference and learn more about classifying,” said Dr. Jim Mazurkiewicz, state coordinator for the Texas show steer industry and director of the Texas Agricultural Lifetime Leadership program.

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MT Stockgrowers Enjoy Educational Experiences On Follow the Cattle Tour

MT Stockgrowers Enjoy Educational Experiences On Follow the Cattle Tour

Cattlenetwork.com

(Ft. Collins) The Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSGA) 2006 Follow the Cattle Tour, presented to Montana producers in partnership with Montana MarketManager (a collaborative program between the Montana Stockgrowers Association and the Montana Grain Growers Association) has been a valuable educational experience for the 40 Montana ranchers from across Montana participating.

The tour, funded by grants from the Montana State Department of Agriculture Growth Through Ag Program and the Montana Beef Council, began in Billings on the morning of Wednesday August 23. After a welcome address by co-coordinators Lynmarie Laurens (Montana MarketManager) and Rose Malisani (MSGA), the group heard a presentation from Turk Stovall of ORIgen on the relationships between the producer, the feedlot, and the packing plant, natural beef programs, market transparency, and the global marketplace, specifically beef exports to Japan. Following Stovall, the producers played several energetic rounds of the Oklahoma State University “Packer-Feeder” game hosted by Russell Nemetz of Northern Ag Network and coordinated and presented by Shane Ellis of Iowa State University.

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