Prism’s BEEF Magazine 2006 Beef Quality Summit to Feature Speakers from Industry’s Largest Consumer Marketers

Prism’s BEEF Magazine 2006 Beef Quality Summit to Feature Speakers from Industry’s Largest Consumer Marketers

2006 Beef Quality Summit

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Prism Business Media’s BEEF® magazine today announced additional details and speakers for its 2006 Beef Quality Summit, targeted to the nation’s top cow/calf producers and feedlot operators. The conference, focused on assisting ranchers in marketing and maximizing profits, will take place in Oklahoma City, Okla. on November 14 – 15, 2006. BEEF is a leading source of production information for more than 100,000 of the nation’s leading cattle producers.

“Anyone who needs to know about beef-marketing channels will find this two-day meeting highly rewarding,” said Bret Kealy, publisher of BEEF. “The first day’s program will focus on what ‘quality’ means to consumers, and examine opportunities that exist in U.S. and export markets. In addition, attendees will be provided with real-world examples by producers who are successfully leveraging those opportunities. The second day of the conferences will provide information on how to identify and select a marketing partner, and build a profitable working relationship with them.”

The conference will feature panel presentations by major consumer beef marketing firms. Robert Cannell, supply chain director for McDonald’s USA; Tony Ribble, beef category manager for Wal-Mart Supercenters; and Steve Erickson, vice president of Outback Steakhouse will kick the conference off with a discussion of how US beef consumers define quality. Together, these firms represent billions annually in beef-purchasing dollars.

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Black Ink- The purpose driven herd

Black Ink

The purpose driven herd

Steve Suther

theFencePost.com

The cows in your herd are there for a reason. How did they get on the place, and why do you let them stay? You should consider those questions for each cow, but start with the big picture. Why do you have cows? That’s a deeper question than you can answer in a few seconds.

Many people looking for even deeper answers have purchased Rick Warren’s spiritual bestseller, “The Purpose-Driven Life.” In the last few years, his concepts have spread to the business world. You can now find articles on “purpose-driven management” in everything from software development to drywall construction and forestry. Why not animal husbandry?

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Meat Labels Hope to Lure the Sensitive Carnivore

Meat Labels Hope to Lure the Sensitive Carnivore

Many cows, pigs and chickens will soon be living cushier lives.

Jonathan Fredin for The New York Times

Whole Foods Market is preparing to roll out a line of meat that will carry labels saying “animal compassionate,” indicating the animals were raised in a humane manner until they were slaughtered.

The grocery chain’s decision to use the new labels comes as a growing number of retailers are making similar animal-welfare claims on meat and egg packaging, including “free farmed,” “certified humane,” “cage free” and “free range.”

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Hay in short supply

Hay in short supply

By Wes Franklin / Neosho Daily News (MO)

Neosho area cattleman Bill Thogmartin hopes a new federal relief grant will be enough to recover his losses from this year’s drought. But he’s not holding out for much.

Thogmartin, owner of Circle T ranch west of Neosho, is one of several Newton County ranchers applying for the Livestock Assistance Grant, established to help livestock producers recuperate after a nationwide drought this year hurt forage production.

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Cattle producers seek response to market cycle

Cattle producers seek response to market cycle

Mobile Press-Register

What does the rest of 2006 and 2007 look like for cattle producers?

Cattle producers have been told by agricultural economists for the past couple of years that the current cattle cycle is on the downswing and that producers should look for decreasing prices in the future — with many economists pointing to possibly 2007 as the year to begin the decline.

The drought experienced in a large part of the country — every cattle producer in our area is certainly aware of the lack of rainfall in our area — has caused replacement herd building to slow down, however. So what does that mean to producers? First let’s look at some statistics:

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E. coli eating virus in the works

E. coli eating virus in the works

by Bob Meyer, Brownfield Network

Researchers around the U.S. are working on developing a virus that will kill E. coli 0157:H7 in the digestive tract of cattle. Dr. Andrew Brabban with Evergreen State College in Washington says it all started about five years ago when researchers at USDA were, “Trying to get E. coli 0157 to stay resident in sheep, and they couldn’t do it. They tried three different times and each time, the sheep just seemed to be resistant to the colonization.” It was at that point they found the sheep had, “A bacteria-eating virus.”

Brabban says they have isolated the virus and are now trying to develop it into a type of treatment. Like most research, the professor says it is much easier to get it to work in the lab than it is in actual trials. “At the moment, we don’t have any in animal trials that completely eradicate it,” but he says they are getting large levels of reduction, “We’re knocking it down 99.9% but we don’t have complete removal of it.”

At the present time, they are trying to develop a cocktail where multiple types of the virus attack the bacteria in different ways, “By doing that, we reduce the levels of resistance.” Currently, he says they can kill-off E. coli 0157 beyond our level of detection within a few hours and there is no regrowth in two days. Once they get that fine-tuned, Brabban says, “We’ll be back trying it in the actual sheep again.”

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The Whole Truth – Cattle Marketing Definitions

The Whole Truth – Cattle Marketing Definitions

Cattlenetwork.com

The chill is in the air. It is time for football, harvest and cattlemen across the country to prepare for fall weaning and marketing.

Whether at the local auction, video auction, or trading in the country, there are lots more options available for marketing your cattle profitably.

Fall 2006 calf marketings can be pre-vaccinated and weaned, pre-vaccinated only age verified, source verified, age and source verified, known genetics, natural, non-hormone treated.

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Oklahoma Fall Cow Culling and Calf Runs

Oklahoma Fall Cow Culling and Calf Runs

Cattlenetwork.com

As expected, the large auction runs of calves observed July through mid-September are being offset now by much smaller than normal fall calf runs. In the first three weeks of October, the Oklahoma eight-market auction total of feeder cattle is down 33 percent compared to the same period last year. Generally smaller runs are expected for the next month which should limit any price pressure despite the lack of wheat pasture demand for cattle.

The southern half of Oklahoma received substantial and much needed rain a week ago which revives some hope for wheat pasture, especially in the southwest part of the state. However, the major wheat growing regions in the north central part of the state received less than half an inch in most locations.

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The Chicken Challenge

The Chicken Challenge

By Drovers news source

Beef, after a 20-year slide in demand, is enjoying a resurgence in consumer acceptance that has put an additional $250 per head on cattle feeders’ take-home pay. But an extensive research effort this summer showed that chicken is narrowing the gap in consumer acceptance.

The revelations in the research were not new, according to Rick Husted, chief operating officer for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, speaking to members of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) at a joint meeting of the two groups in Amarillo. TCFA members were gathered for their annual convention and TSCRA held its fall board and committee meetings.

“Recognizing that the chicken challenge is real and that beef can’t afford to rely on the status quo, NCBA initiated a very comprehensive research approach, funded by the beef checkoff, to understand how beef can strengthen its connection to consumers,” Husted said. That connection is very strong, the survey of more than 4,000 consumers nationwide showed. Thirty-nine percent said they either strongly prefer or somewhat prefer beef, while 27% said the same of chicken.

But more than 40% said they are eating more chicken due to health concerns.

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U.S. Cattle on Feed Up 9%

U.S. Cattle on Feed Up 9%

Angus e-List

Cattle and calves on feed for harvest in the United States for feedlots with capacities of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.4 million head on Oct. 1, 2006. The inventory was 9% above Oct. 1, 2005, and 8% above Oct. 1, 2004. This is the highest Oct. 1 inventory since the series began in 1996.

The inventory included 7.20 million steers and steer calves, up 5% from the previous year. This group accounted for 63% of the total inventory. Heifers and heifer calves accounted for 4.12 million head, up 16% from 2005.

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