Ohio Beef Newsletter Available

The June 20, issue # 542, of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter is now posted to the web at: http://fairfield.osu.edu/ag/beef/beefJune20.html

It’s hard to figure . . . back in the day, Columbus weathercaster Joe Holbrook would get on TV and describe the coming weather using a grease pencil and a dry erase board and be pretty accurate about it.

Today, we’ve got the technology to make a tractor read a satellite signal and guide itself down the corn rows while we talk on our cell phone to our grain marketer trying to figure out how high the price of corn will go simply because the people in Chicago don’t know if it will ever rain again!

This week we focus on more drought strategies.

Articles include:
* Options for Cattle Producers During a Summer Drought
* Forage Focus: Harvesting Stressed Alfalfa and Other Forages
* Oats, planted late, aren’t your Grandpa’s oats!
* Oats, Turnips and Teff
* Early Pregnancy Diagnosis Important During Drought
* Field Day for Ohio Beef Heifer Development Program to be held July 24

Stan
———-
Stan Smith
Program Assistant, Agriculture
OSU Extension, Fairfield County
831 College Ave., Suite D
Lancaster, OH 43130

Pasture fertilization pays

Pasture fertilization pays

Drovers.com

Fertility of hay and pastureland is critical to maximizing the return from that land for livestock producers. However, University of Kentucky agronomists estimate that less than 10% of their states forage land is soil tested, and that, when tested, 40% was found to be too acidic, 45% was low in phosphorus, and 35% was low in potassium.

FULL STORY

Microsoft funding major animal rights organization

Microsoft funding major animal rights organization

Meatnews.com

The Animal Agriculture Alliance has learned that Microsoft, the software giant, plans to make a $100,000 donation to animal rights behemoth Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and is partnering with the vegan-led group on a pilot program called the ‘i’m Initiative.’

Through the new program, whenever a Windows Live Messenger user has a conversation using i’m, Microsoft will give a portion of the program’s advertising revenue to one of ten organizations selected by the user, states a news release. HSUS is one of the choices, and there is no limit to the amount of money that can be donated.

Other non-profit organizations, like the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, have urged Microsoft to end its support of HSUS, but the company refused. Tara Kriese, a Microsoft representative, said the program is “a great way to enable people to help causes that are important to them.” Apparently she missed the October 2006 statement from Miyun Park, HSUS’ Vice President of Farm Animal Welfare, who said that the organization’s long-term goal for the egg laying and broiler chicken industry is, ‘to get rid of the industry.’

‘The Animal Agriculture Alliance is highly concerned about Microsoft teaming with an organization whose leaders have such a radical agenda,’ said Kay Johnson, executive vice president of the Animal Agriculture Alliance. ‘Clearly someone at Microsoft has not done their homework. Otherwise they would know that HSUS is just like PETA, but in a nice suit.’

FULL STORY

Cattle Preconditioning Forum: Footrot Poses Problems In Pens & Pastures

Cattle Preconditioning Forum: Footrot Poses Problems In Pens & Pastures

Cattlenetwork.com

Footrot is commonly a problem in cattle in confinement situations. In fact, it has been reported that footrot occurs in up to 25% of cattle in high-intensity beef or dairy production units.2 However, cattle on pasture are susceptible to footrot, too.

 “Both wet and dry pasture conditions can lead to footrot problems,” says Dr. Joe Dedrickson, Director of Merial Veterinary Professional Services.

He explains that in hot, dry conditions, several environmental factors can lead to footrot. “If the pasture is dry, it will be more likely to have dry stubble and rocks that can cause mechanical injuries to the hooves. As temperatures rise, cattle tend to concentrate in shaded areas,” Dr. Dedrickson explains. “These loafing areas often become extremely wet from urine and feces.”

FULL STORY

Accuracy Counts

Accuracy Counts

Leveraging preventative health and treatment dollars is all about giving the right product, in the right dosage, in the right way.

Beef Stocker USA

Treating cattle and animal health products as if they were all cut from the same cloth can make for easier and quicker processing and treatment. Unfortunately, this one-sizefits- all approach is also a sure way to squander dollars and opportunity. The good news is that when you give cattle too much or too little by treating them on the average, you’ll really never know just how much money you’re wasting.

FULL STORY PDF

Options For Cattle Producers During A Summer Drought

Options For Cattle Producers During A Summer Drought

Francis L. Fluharty and Steven C. Loerch, The Ohio State University

Much of the Eastern U.S. is experiencing severe drought conditions. This is causing many cattle producers to feed next winter’s hay supply and sell lightweight calves at a discounted price.

Researchers at The Ohio State University have several years of data and experience with managing early-weaning calves as well as alternative ways to feed the cow herd. From 100 to 205 days of age, calves that are fed high-concentrate diets convert 3.5 to 4 pounds of feed to a pound of gain. With the current low price of corn, there is no reason to sell lightweight calves at a loss.

With corn at $2.00 per bushel and protein supplement at $200-250 per ton, the feed cost per pound of gain should be around $.25-.30/lb. Research at Wooster has shown that early-weaned steers can be fed from 100 days of age until slaughter weight of 1150-1200 pounds at an average age of 340-360 days. In OSU studies, steers have had a feed efficiency overall of 5.0-5.5 lb. feed/lb. of gain, with approximately 85% of cattle grading choice.

FULL STORY

Forage Focus: Harvesting Stressed Alfalfa and Other Forages

Forage Focus: Harvesting Stressed Alfalfa and Other Forages

Cattlenetwork.com

I have received several calls about harvesting alfalfa that appears to be under stress from dry weather. Alfalfa usually has a strong capacity to continue growth under dry conditions, and we would normally expect alfalfa to be growing better than it is at this stage in a dry cycle. The late spring frost injury combined with the first harvest taken before the crop had a chance to replenish taproot reserves has likely contributed to the weak regrowth now being observed.

Many alfalfa stands were cut in mid- to late-May, which in a normal year is ideal timing. Unfortunately, the late killing spring frost this year resulted in alfalfa plants having to initiate new growth all over again. That required a lot of energy from the plant at a time when taproot reserves were low. So the mid- to late-May cutting was actually like an early harvest stress in terms of the physiological condition of the plant. This has likely contributed to the weak regrowth of many alfalfa stands, especially those that were cut last autumn or have additional stress factors such as suboptimal fertility and pH.

FULL STORY

BeefTalk: Pasture and Range, the Second Priority for Cow-calf Producers

BeefTalk: Pasture and Range, the Second Priority for Cow-calf Producers

By Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Pasture & Range – Foundation to the Herd 

While identification and documentation of priorities are important, action should not be impetuous.

In the world of beef, it is important to evaluate and ask if our priorities are in the right order. This is true in all businesses and beef is no exception.

However, setting priorities is only part of the equation. The next step is to make sure one sets aside enough time to reflect on how to effectively accomplish life among the noted priorities.

The facts are very straight forward for all of us. We need to realize that few of us really have adequate resources or unlimited opportunities.

However, one common denominator all producers have is time. We all are given exactly the same amount of time every day.

FULL STORY

Dry weather reduces forage supplies

Dry weather reduces forage supplies

MARK MECHLING

Zanesville Times Recorder

The dry weather continues to be the main topic of conversation among farmers. Al Gahler, Extension Educator in Fairfield County, provides some solutions to lack of forage supplies this summer and beyond.

By now, hopefully most of you have made your first cutting hay, have rotated through each pasture a couple of times, and have clipped all of your pastures to ensure vegetative growth into summer. And I’m sure plenty of you have realized by now that your forage production may not have met your expectations, and may have come significantly short, in both hay and pasture settings. Probably due in part to the Easter freeze, and the abnormally dry month of May, or a combination of the two – our spring growth has just not provided us with the tonnage we desire in most areas of Ohio. And as we continue through a hot, dry spell in most of the state into the first weekend of June, livestock graziers and hay producers alike are beginning to worry about their forage supply.

FULL STORY

Florida Hay Supply Dwindles Due To Drought

Florida Hay Supply Dwindles Due To Drought

Hay and Forage Grower

Although a couple of rain events seem to be giving parts of Florida a break from the drought, the rain has been spotty at best. Hay is hard to find. “The hay supply for Florida, in general, is exhausted,” says Yoana Newman, University of Florida forage specialist. The drought plaguing much of the Southeast has hit Florida hay producers hard. “The big story here is the lack of forages,” says Andy Burns, Larsen Farms hay buyer at Alachua. “Hay is a high-priced commodity right now and local product, coastal bermudagrass, was non-existent until about two weeks ago. They’ve missed two cuttings and I would be surprised if even 10% of the hay has been cut yet in Florida. A lot of cattle seem to be going to market in both southern Georgia and Florida. People are going to have to come up with alternative ways to feed cattle.”

FULL STORY

AMI, R-CALF USA battle over COOL

AMI, R-CALF USA battle over COOL

By Tom Wray

ProvisionerOnline

WASHINGTON – The American Meat Institute and -Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America have been exchanging letters in disagreement over implementation of the country-of-origin law passed in 2002.

R-CALF USA has been pushing for enforcement of the law on imported beef while AMI has called it “burdensome and protectionist” but recommended that all beef producers follow the law.

AMI works to represent the meat industry as a whole. R-CALF USA is focused on supporting American beef producers.

In the latest move through a press release Monday, R-CALF USA has called on AMI to meet to “meatpacking members in seeking an effective, efficient and accurate means of verifying the country of origin of live cattle, without the burden of additional paperwork and with the benefit of minimizing errors.”

FULL STORY

Distillers’ grains as pasture replacement

Distillers’ grains as pasture replacement

Angus Journal

 Distillers’ grains provide a high-fiber energy source that does not have a negative interaction with forage digestion. In addition, distillers’ grains (DG) apparently will be more abundant in the summer vs. fall and winter since, at least in Nebraska, the price seems to follow placement of cattle into feedlots (see Fig. 1). So, the price of distillers’ grains should be less in the summer compared to fall and early winter.

FULL STORY PDF

Another US beef shipment mistakenly exported to SKorea

Another US beef shipment mistakenly exported to SKorea

The Montana Standard

SEOUL, South Korea – Another shipment of U.S. beef violated South Korean import rules, a South Korean official said Tuesday, less than two weeks after Seoul lifted a brief ban on American beef imposed because of two similar cases.

But at least one of the U.S. companies that handled the shipment said Tuesday the only problem with the beef was an incorrect code on two boxes.

Seoul reopened its market to American beef last year following a three-year ban due to mad cow fears.

Only boneless meat from cattle under 30 months old, which are considered less at risk from the disease, are accepted.

Beef meant for the U.S. domestic market, which may contain certain kinds of bone or spinal cord material, cannot be exported to South Korea.

FULL STORY

Prime rare, pricey

Prime rare, pricey

Most tender cuts compete for corn with other beef, ethanol producers

By Lisa Abraham

Akron Beacon Journal

It’s considered the most tender, most flavorful U.S. beef available — corn-fed, well marbled and certified Prime by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And soon it may account for just 1 percent of all beef produced in the country.

The amount of beef certified USDA Prime has dramatically declined, and consumers who want this quality of meat are likely to find themselves paying dearly for it — if they can find it.

Dave Rotilie, meat manager for West Point Market, said certified Prime beef is declining to about 1 percent of all beef produced. Prime beef typically had been 3 to 5 percent of the market, he said.

High-end stores such as West Point Market that carry more expensive cuts of meat will still have supplies and will try to maintain prices, Rotilie said.

FULL STORY

European Bovine Virus Test Now Available For U.S. Herd Management

European Bovine Virus Test Now Available For U.S. Herd Management

Cattlenetwork.com

Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory First to Use BoVir(R)

NAAS, Ireland, June 19 /PRNewswire/ — A highly sensitive test used throughout parts of Europe to accurately detect bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is now available in the United States. BoVir(R) reagents and a proprietary lysis buffer are being first used in the U.S. by the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (KSVDL).

The BoVir(R) reagents and innovative lysis buffer were developed by AnDiaTec of Germany, and are currently under national government contract use by the countries of Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and German states.

The newly available BVDV test identifies and differentiates both persistent infection and transient infection, the two types of BVDV infection in cattle. Persistently infected cattle pose a considerable herd management problem in the U.S. cattle with persistent infection remain infected for life, often without the appearance or clinical signs of the disease, shedding large amounts of the virus and introducing the disease to other cattle.

FULL STORY

Peltons Named 2007 BIF Seedstock Producer of the Year

Peltons Named 2007 BIF Seedstock Producer of the Year

 

FORT COLLINS, COLO. (June 7, 2007)— The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) honored Pelton Simmental/Red Angus with the 2007 Seedstock Producer of the Year Award June 7 during the organization’s 39th annual meeting in Fort Collins, Colo. The ranch is owned by the Lynn and Gary Pelton families and managed by Lynn Pelton.

Pelton Simmental/Red Angus is a family owned and operated seedstock business located near Burdett, Kan.  Gary and Donna Pelton and their sons, Jason, Aaron and Burke; and Lynn and Sue Pelton and their daughter, Shanna, and son, Dustin, began a partnership in 1976, which later was incorporated into a diversified farm and ranch operation.

The Pelton business consists of 4,300 acres of grass, 800 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), 4,700 acres of cultivated land and 500 head of registered Red Angus, SimAngus and Simmental cows.  About 200 cows calve in the fall; the remaining 300 calve in the spring. Aaron, Dustin and Dustin’s wife, Kendra, have joined the business full-time. The purebred operation began in 1972 with 12 bulls being sold to local cattlemen. During the 13th annual sale March 22, 2006, 150 Red Angus, SimAngus and Simmental bulls and 120 females were sold into 13 different states. Including private-treaty sales, a total of 180 bulls were sold in 2006.

With the use of an extensive ET program and proven, predictable genetics, a genetically strong cow herd has been developed by utilizing every available economic and performance measurement.  Along with a strong genetic base, a customer service program was developed and emphasized for the sole purpose of providing “value-added marketing opportunities” for customers.

In the past three years, the commitment to helping market customers’ calves through various avenues has been especially rewarding. Two alliances with which the Peltons are involved provide feedlot and carcass data on animals going through each program. In addition, a Pelton Program Sale, conducted the first Friday of November, has proven very successful for providing customers an opportunity to market replacement-quality females and performance steers. In 2006, more than 1,250 head were sold during the program sale.

Since Lynn’s graduation from Kansas State University in 1975, the program has become very hands-on.  Whether it be day-to-day care of the cow herd, sire selection and mating decisions, heat detection and AI work, ET preparation, weaning and development of bulls and replacements, putting up and grinding feed, various aspects of sale management and promotion, financial and breed association bookwork, computer time, customer service and marketing options, or hosting tour stops and judging workouts— the family works together and utilizes the strengths of each person to better enhance the efficiency of the operation.