Density vexes Adams Ranch plans for land

Density vexes Adams Ranch plans for land

By Jim Reeder

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer (FL)

FORT PIERCE — A plan to save environmentally sensitive land on the Adams Ranch by moving potential development to another area was still being discussed by St. Lucie County commissioners late Tuesday with opponents complaining about density and the lack of detail.

“For us to approve a 500 percent increase in density for Cloud Grove is a problem,” County Commission Chairman Doug Coward said. “There was consternation when we allowed a 150 percent increase in the plan for northern St. Lucie County.”

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Cattle Update: BVD In the Feedlot

Cattle Update: BVD In the Feedlot

Cattlenetwork.com

BVD is a viral disease that’s been around for a long time. Until recently, it didn’t really get a whole lot of attention from beef producers or their veterinarians. However, that has changed significantly. With increased intensity in management practices, both on the ranch and in the feedlot, more attention is being paid to disease prevention and the economic advantages associated with prevention. In the quest for minimizing costs, BVD has surfaced as a profit killer in many feedlots across the continent.

There are relatively few cattle in the national population (

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Creekstone says Asian market starting to pick up slowly

Creekstone says Asian market starting to pick up slowly

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS / Arkcity.net

WICHITA– Kansas beef producers say resumed trade with South Korea and Japan will help them gain back the trust of Asian meat consumers, though they don’t think sales will rebound to levels seen before the two countries imposed bans over concerns about mad cow disease.

South Korea had been one of the largest foreign beef markets before the country shut its doors to American beef imports in 2003 after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. Last week, South Korea agreed to resume those imports.

Kansas meatpacking plant operators say that market’s reopening, combined with Japan’s decision in July to lift its ban on American beef, will boost sales to Asian markets, albeit gradually.

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Wyoming regains brucellosis-free status

Wyoming regains brucellosis-free status

The Associated Press

By BOB MOEN

The federal government declared Wyoming’s cattle herds free of brucellosis, meaning costly restrictions placed on the state’s producers over the last 2 1/2 years can now be eased, state officials said Tuesday.

The decision by the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare the state brucellosis-free will be official in the next several days when it is published in the Federal Register, according to Gov. Dave Freduenthal’s office.

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can cause pregnant bison, cattle and elk to abort. Wyoming lost its brucellosis-free status in November 2003 after the disease was found in a cattle herd near Pinedale. That herd also was close to an elk feedground, and elk and bison in and around Yellowstone National Park are known to harbor the disease.

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Producers hear plans for TB-tests

Producers hear plans for TB-tests

Written by David Hill

Thief River Falls Times

Livestock producers gathered Sunday, Sept. 10, at the Lincoln High School Auditorium in Thief River Falls were pretty much told by state officials, that the state would be testing every herd in northwest Minnesota for tuberculosis.

Carter Hunt, a livestock producer from northwest Minnesota, said he got involved early. And, he said, things weren’t moving fast enough.

Hunt knows Roger Skime, owner of the first herd that was diagnosed with tuberculosis in July 2005. Hunt explained that he was concerned for Skime, but also his own herd because he had cattle in his herd that came from Skime’s herd. At the time, Hunt said he didn’t think things were moving fast enough. When the 228 head in his herd were finally tested, and 11 suspect re-tested, he said he called Skime and told him he was negative. “It was as if a thousand pounds had been lifted off of me,” said Hunt.

Hunt encouraged the crowd of 50 or so gathered at the Lincoln High School Auditorium Sunday, Sept. 9, to hear the state’s response plan to the tuberculosis threat, to participate in the state’s plan.

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Panhandle ag producers try to recover from drought damage

Panhandle ag producers try to recover from drought damage

By Caroline Booth Lara

Southwest Farm Press

Disastrous wildfires scorched more than 1.2 million acres across Texas between Jan.1 and March 19, 2006. Most of the fires occurred in the northern half of the state, including the deadly East Amarillo Complex fire. In addition to the loss of human life, property and acreage, thousands of head of livestock were killed and injured in the blazes. Six months after the end of the worst fires, Panhandle agricultural producers are working to recover from the devastation, but drought conditions have hindered their efforts.

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USDA issues security guidelines for farms and ranches

USDA issues security guidelines for farms and ranches

By Christine Souza

California Farm Bureau Assistant Editor

To help agricultural producers increase security at the farm or ranch, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed a guide entitled “Pre-Harvest Security Guidelines and Checklist 2006.”

The voluntary guidelines and checklist are designed to help farmers reduce all types of security risks. These include protecting against natural disasters as well as the unintentional or intentional introduction of plant or animal diseases.

“Agriculture in California is the backbone of our nation’s food supply, making it even more important for farmers and ranchers to seriously consider implementing these recommendations,” said Danielle Rau, California Farm Bureau Federation director of rural crime prevention. “This checklist provides a common-sense approach to protecting your property and serves as a good reminder that homeland security really does begin at home.”

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Arkansas Close On Cattle Monitoring Program

Arkansas Close On Cattle Monitoring Program

By Kim Souza

The Morning News(AR)

In the background of what looks likes like a war between animal producers protecting civil liberties and big government seeking to assign numbers to farms and livestock there is another program springing up in the natural state designed to track cattle.

The Quality Systems Assessment Program, or QSA, will soon be a voluntary option for the state’s cattle producers.

“It will involve age and source verification of Arkansas cattle and it is purely voluntary,” said Richard Bell, Arkansas’ secretary of agriculture.

The state program in essence is what the federal government is trying to mandate with animal identification. The motivation to take part in QSA is linked to increased profits that can be garnered from exporting beef that meets new Japanese import guidelines, said Phil Wyrick, of the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission.

“Traceability is imperative for cattle bound for export. The cattle in QSA would bear an electronic tag to provide exact age of the animal to buyers and could also serve as a way to locate the source in case of a disease outbreak,” Bell said.

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Prevent Overgrazing

Prevent Overgrazing

American Cowman

Missouri’s Maurice Davis, retired Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) state grassland conservationist, says the most frequent grazing mistake he saw during his career was producers allowing livestock to graze pastures too short.

Grazing a pasture to the ground, either because it’s overstocked or the livestock have been left there too long, “does not leave enough residual plant material to carry on photosynthesis,” he says.

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Health, Genetics and Information Build herd Value

Health, Genetics and Information Build herd Value

Cattletoday.com

by: Clifford Mitchell

Animal husbandry has been one of the elements that cattlemen use to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. The pride of finishing the task, whether it means saving the new born after a difficult birth or heading an epidemic off at the pass, caretakers learn from each experience.

Not long ago researchers proved, all things being equal, management mattered. Documented data could mean more than doing a good job. It could add value to the calf crop. Health became one of the top indicators of value as cattle were passed through the production chain until they hit the harvest floor.

Pre-conditioning programs, new vaccines and increased education followed suit. Today, there is still value in the pre-conditioned calf. A calf with an insurance policy transferred to the new owner signifies it is hard to buy cattle, no matter what the genetic background, without a health history.

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Now is the Time to make Plans for Winter Forage

Now is the Time to make Plans for Winter Forage

Cattletoday.com

by: Gary Bates

Professor, Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee Extension Service

With fall approaching, it is time to begin planning the winter forage program. A little effort now can pay big dividends later. Here are a few management practices to incorporate into your overall cattle program.

(1) Stockpile tall fescue. Stockpiling tall fescue has the potential to add approximately 60 more days to the fall grazing season. This will be 60 days when no hay will have to be fed. Stockpiling is trying to save forage for use later in the season while it is still growing. Research has shown that fall growth of tall fescue is high quality and it stays high into the winter, providing an excellent feed for cows. The steps to stockpiling are simple. About the first of September, have the pastures grazed or clipped to remove all of the mature summer forage. Apply 60 units of nitrogen per acre after the fall rains begin and then allow the fescue to grow as long as possible, even up to a killing frost. Ammonium nitrate is the best nitrogen source to use. If possible, rotationally graze the fescue so that less of the forage is trampled and wasted. Even though the nitrogen expense is significant, it is still quite a bit less expensive than having to feed hay for the extra 60 days.

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US Feed Ban May Be Too Costly To Industry

US Feed Ban May Be Too Costly To Industry

Cattlenetwork.com

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may have underestimated the cost to industry of the government’s plan to improve the way mad-cow disease contamination is kept out of livestock feed, Steve Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, said Tuesday.

Sundlof, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, said FDA is now going back over its proposal that seeks to force renderers to remove the brain and spinal cord from all deadstock cattle processed for livestock feed.

The FDA had presumed that the rendering industry would not be hindered greatly when the new feed rule proposal was devised, Sundlof said.

“What we heard back, was that no, that’s probably not the case,” Sundlof said. Instead, only a minority of companies “would be willing to separate the brain and spinal cord out.”

Officials have been taken aback by the industry’s response.

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