Taking Efficiency to the Next Level

Taking Efficiency to the Next Level

Hereford leaders and breeders pursue data to document and build feed efficiency.

 by Teresa Oe
Hereford World

Some things in life are just plain true — hard to test, document or prove with scientific evidence, but generally understood via experience. In the cattle business, one such truth is that Herefords and Hereford-crosses are efficient converters of grass and grain. Generations of cattlemen have told it true. Still, we’ve come to an age where a man’s word often just isn’t enough. Data is demanded.

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Management of Yearling Bulls

Management of Yearling Bulls

 Drs. Scott P. Greiner and John B. Hall, Extension Animal Scientists, VA Tech

 Winter and spring are the primary bull buying seasons in Virginia.  A diligent amount of time spent studying performance information, EPDs, pedigrees and other pertinent information is warranted as sire selection is the most important tool for making genetic progress in the herd.  Of equal importance is the care and management of the newly acquired bull.  Proper management and nutrition are essential for the bull to perform satisfactorily during the breeding season.  With most new herd sires in the state purchased as yearling bulls- management prior to, during, and after the first breeding season is particularly important.

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Cattle Identification: Why Register Your Premises?

Cattle Identification: Why Register Your Premises?

 Cattlenetwork.com

 It gives you more control over the health of your animals.

 We can’t predict when a disease outbreak might occur, or how severe it might be if it happens. By choosing to register your premises, you become part of a national animal disease response network. You join industry, State and Federal partners, and producers like yourself – putting you on the frontline of controlling and preventing the spread of animal disease.

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K-State Offering New Beef Cattle Medicine Course

K-State Offering New Beef Cattle Medicine Course

 Kansas Livestock Association

 The Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) will educate additional large animal practitioners by offering a new six-week advanced beef production medicine course. Up to 30 students from K-State and cooperating veterinary colleges will have an opportunity to take the course during May and June.

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Many Factors can cause Pregnancy Loses in Herd

Many Factors can cause Pregnancy Loses in Herd

 by: Heather Smith Thomas

 After a cow or heifer is bred, she should calve about nine months plus one week later (283 days, on average). But sometimes accidents of gestation terminate pregnancy early, or other factors (disease or toxins) kill the developing calf. Immediately after conception, when the tiny embryo is travelling down the fallopian tube into the uterus, it is safe from harmful influences. After it reaches the uterus a few days later, however, it becomes more vulnerable to problems. The conceptus is called an embryo during the first 45 days of pregnancy; after that, all the major organs and body systems have been formed and it becomes a fetus. If loss occurs before 45 days of gestation, it is termed early embryonic death.

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U.S. FDA Denies That It’s About to Approve Controversial Cow Drug

U.S. FDA Denies That It’s About to Approve Controversial Cow Drug

 Environmental News Network.

 The Food and Drug Administration denied Sunday that it was about to approve a controversial new antibiotic for cattle that some people fear might harm human health.

 And in an unusually strongly worded statement, the agency criticized the Washington Post newspaper for an article that said it was about to do so.

 ”The Washington Post article made assumptions and drew conclusions that are premature and irresponsible,” the FDA said. “At this time, the FDA has made no decision regarding the marketing application for cefquinome.”

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Cattle farmers weather blizzard

Cattle farmers weather blizzard

 Fremont Tribune (NE)

 Cold weather and snowfall in February made it difficult for producers to care for and feed livestock, according to the latest Nebraska Agricultural Statistics Service report.

 In Dawes County, hay was expensive if producers could find it, according to county extension educators. Snow and the resulting muddy fields had “a huge impact” on cow/calf operations, with some cattle producers reporting higher-than-normal deaths of newborn calves and older cows.

 In that area, “Most cattle are standing in mud a foot deep,” the report stated.

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High-country cattle: For some, winter is the time to head for the mountains

High-country cattle: For some, winter is the time to head for the mountains

 By Kathy Coatney
California Farm Bureau Federation

Most cattle in California overwinter in the lower elevations, then may move up to the mountains for the summer. But this isn’t always the case.

Jim Morris, part owner of Bryan-Morris Ranch in Etna, raises cattle throughout the winter in the rugged Scott Valley just south of the Oregon border.

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Food inspection watchdog releases details on Alta. mad cow case

Food inspection watchdog releases details on Alta. mad cow case

 The Canadian Press

 Alberta’s latest case of mad cow disease – the province’s ninth, overall – involved a 61 2-year-old animal that was born and raised on the same farm where it died.

 The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a news release on the case Tuesday, explaining that its investigation was nearing completion.

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Stocker Cattle Forum: GI Disease In Stocker Calves

Stocker Cattle Forum: GI Disease In Stocker Calves

 Cattlenetwork.com

 Gastrointestinal (GI) disease can be any number of problems that affect the stomach and / or intestinal tract of the animal. While respiratory disease represents the highest health cost in stocker operations, GI disease can be an important source of losses as well. GI problems may be associated with the nutritional program, various infectious agents, and internal parasites. Conditions such as bloat, coccidiosis, and heavy worm burdens are not unusual in many operations.

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The Man Behind the Cloning Movement

The Man Behind the Cloning Movement

Why is Scott Simplot pushing so hard to clone animals for supermarket shelves? He’s following in his father’s footsteps

 by Pallavi Gogoi
Businessweek

 It’s a cold February morning, and a thin layer of snow covers the ground at the Simplot ranch in Grand View, Idaho, about an hour south of Boise. Scott Simplot drives out to one of the nearby fields to see the cows giving birth. On the windswept field, the tall, wiry 60-year-old asks a ranch hand how the new calves are doing. He smiles when he hears that the first 26 calves weigh in at about average for the breed, 78 pounds each. These are no ordinary calves. They are the offspring of clones. “Great news,” says Simplot.

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Health Management Barometers

Health Management Barometers

 Beef Stocker Trends

 ”Any good animal health program is in constant evolution, with improvement based on the cycle of implementation, evaluation and change,” says Brad White of Kansas State University’s (KSU) College of Veterinary Medicine. “Evaluation is based on good records including diagnosis evaluations, treatment response rates, disease rates and necropsy findings.”

 At the KSU Stocker Conference last fall, White explained that keeping accurate and complete stocker-health records is the requisite foundation for gauging how well or how poorly the stocker-health program is working.

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Cold Weather May Increase Calf Birth Weights

Cold Weather May Increase Calf Birth Weights

 John B. Hall, Extension Animal Scientist, Beef, Virginia Tech..

 No sooner did I mention that the winter has been warmer, yet still stressful, that we were hit with almost 30 days of below average temperatures.  Producers have often felt that calves are bigger after cold winters.  Is this really true?  Often it is hard to compare one year to the next as bulls and nutrition change which can affect calf birth weight.  However, several studies indicate that exposure of dams to cold conditions can result in increased birth weights of offspring.

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Concerns Grow In Indiana as Size of Livestock Farms Increases

Concerns Grow In Indiana as Size of Livestock Farms Increases

 Cattlenetwork.c0om

 INDIANAPOLIS (AP)–Rural Indiana residents have complained for years about the stench and dust wafting from the state’s largest livestock farms –concerns reflected in several bills this legislative session aimed at tightening the farms’ regulation.

 As lawmakers debate that legislation, however, records show that state regulators are approving the sprawling, factory-style farms at a record rate.

 Last year alone, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management approved 106 of the very largest of these farms, clearing the way for more than 2.4 million animals at new farms, according to department records reviewed by The Associated Press.

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Tough row to hoe?

Tough row to hoe?

Where’s the beef?

 The Republican (MA)

 If you are in Franklin County, you’ll find grass-fed Scotch Highland and Belted Galloway beef cattle on the Wheel-View Farm owned by Carolyn E. and John L. Wheeler in Shelburne.

The Wheelers are among a new breed of farmer. More accurately, this breed of farmer is as old as the picturesque hills and pastures on which the Wheeler cattle feed. Farming to them comes naturally, as in no antibiotics or hormones and anything else that is unnatural.

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