Flies Must be Controlled in the Beef Herd

Flies Must be Controlled in the Beef Herd

Beef producers must control flies on their beef cattle. Flies can spread pinkeye, annoy animals and reduce gains.

Flies can be controlled if recommended insecticides are applied to the animals. Insecticides used to control flies on beef cattle are from two chemical families, organic phosphates and pyrethroids. Entomologists recommend using organic phosphates for two years, switching to pyrethroids the next year and then starting the rotation over again to reduce the possibility of developing a resistance to the chemicals.

Control can be achieved by using one or more application techniques. The most popular method is insecticide impregnated ear tags. These tags work quite well, however, they will last only four to five months. Some other method of fly control must be used prior to this time or tags must be applied a second time during the fly season.

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Ethanol plays greater role in farming

Ethanol plays greater role in farming

Pacific Business News

Half of U.S. cattle and hog operations fed ethanol co-products to their livestock or considered doing so last year, the National Agricultural Statistics Service reports.

Among dairy operations, 38 percent indicated that they fed co-products during 2006 and another 22 percent considered it. Among cattle on feed operations, 36 percent fed co-products and 34 percent thought about it. Among beef cattle operations, 13 percent reported that they fed co-products and 30 percent considered it. For hog operations, 12 percent fed co-products and 35 percent considered it.

NASS contacted more than 9,000 livestock operations in 12 Midwestern states. Of the various types of co-products available to operations for feeding, corn gluten feed was used by 46 percent of beef cow operations and 38 percent of cattle on feed operations, while distillers dried grains were used by 45 percent of dairy cattle operations and 44 percent of hog operations.

Where do livestock operators get their ethanol co-products? Most dairy cattle, beef cattle and hog producers purchase them through feed companies or co-ops, while a majority of cattle on feed operations purchase them directly from ethanol and other processing plants.

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Ethanol Co-Products Use

Ethanol Co-Products Use

Domestic Fuel.com

NASSRoughly half of the cattle and hog operations in a 12-state region either fed ethanol co-products or considered feeding them to their livestock last year, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) with the support and funding of the Nebraska Corn Board.

NE CornAccording to Dan Kerestes, chief of the USDA NASS Livestock Branch, USDA contacted some 94-hundred dairy cattle, cattle on feed, beef cattle and hog operations in 12 states. Kerestes says USDA didn’t have too many expectations going into the report - but he says the percentage of operations already feeding co-products was a surprise.

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Animal welfare issue boiling

Animal welfare issue boiling

Many firms in the industry have moved to undertake a number of changes in response to customer concerns.

FOX 13

Veterinarian Bud Stuart was delighted when he was given a live lobster by a client as extra thanks for saving a dog — at least until the Santa Barbara seafood lover thought about cooking it.

Stuart put the lobster in the freezer, expecting the chill would anesthetize it. Yet, when he later held it above a boiling pot of water, it was still alive and pinching. The crustacean was tasty, but he now vows “never to bring another live lobster into this house. It was one of the most traumatic things I have done.”

Stuart credits the lobster with making him think more about how the food he eats is raised. He no longer consumes foie gras — fatty liver produced by overfeeding ducks and geese — and now “supports in any way I can the humane treatment of food animals.”

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Suber: We fought to keep the bureaucrats out

Suber: We fought to keep the bureaucrats out

By Jim Suber

Topeka Capital Journal

Why would we impose Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) on our beef producers as the law will require soon? Why not impose it on importers of meat, if at all? Why should our cow-calf producers bear the brunt via reduced bids from feed yards of another good-sounding but ill-conceived regulation aimed at protecting consumers from buying any other nation’s beef? It’s going to cost $2 billion in 2002 dollars, and more.

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Cattle Producers Should Prepare For Mandatory COOL

Cattle Producers Should Prepare For Mandatory COOL

cattlenetwork.com

The long-delayed mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law appears to be likely to take effect on or before the scheduled date of September 30, 2008.  Although nothing is final yet, full implementation may affect some or all of the 2007 calf crop and certainly will affect the 2008 calf crop.  USDA has reopened the comment period to allow interested parties to have input into the final rule for COOL implementation.  Producers have until August 20, 2007 to submit comments on the proposed final rule for COOL.

Producers should also start thinking about how they will comply with the law.  Some details may change with the final rule but the general requirements of the law are clear.  The proposed final rule states “Any person in the business of supplying a covered commodity to a retailer, whether directly or indirectly, must maintain records to establish and identify the immediate previous source (if applicable) and immediate subsequent recipient of a covered commodity, is such a way that identifies the product unique to that transaction by means of lot number or other unique identifier, for a period of 1 year from the date of the transaction.”  Producers should think about whether they have records that will meet these requirements, whether new records are needed and how those records must be organized and maintained to be available as required.

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Grain prices not at fault for food costs

Grain prices not at fault for food costs

BY PHYLLIS JACOBS GRIEKSPOOR

The Wichita Eagle

Listen up: There is no “food or fuel” crisis, say industry and government experts.

Yes, corn and grain prices have increased, in part because of the demand for corn to produce ethanol. But growing demand in Asia also has affected prices, as have adverse weather conditions in major corn growing areas.

Those increases have not generated skyrocketing food prices, say industry observers. And they have virtually nothing to do with recent increases in the price of milk.

Food prices, in reality, are edging up only 1.5 percent more than they did last year and the year before, an annual rate of increase between 3 and 4 percent, according to the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“There has been a lot of inaccurate information out there about corn prices and alternative energy and it just keeps getting reported,” said Ephraim Leibtag, an economist with ERS. “But it is just not true.”

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Biofuels pursuit: Cheaper, faster, better

Biofuels pursuit: Cheaper, faster, better

ISU professor endeavors to make plants more efficient and profitable to attract investors.

By PAULA LAVIGNE

DesMoines REGISTERUsing what they call a “giant tea bag,” inventors say they have devised a way to make biodiesel cheaper, faster and better without the support of government subsidies.

The method is the brainchild of an Iowa State University professor who developed his idea with backing from a California venture capital firm.

The biodiesel invention is just one example of new technology designed to make ethanol and biodiesel plants more efficient, flexible and environmentally friendly. Renewable energy analysts say technology is now vital in biofuels as profit margins narrow and investors and lenders get more selective about the companies they decide to finance.

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Wabash welcomes ethanol producers

Wabash welcomes ethanol producers

By Becky Manley

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

WABASH – While most northeast Indiana counties strive to attract new industry, ethanol plants and big livestock operations often aren’t considered desirable and can meet resistance from officials and residents.

The exception is Wabash County, where such businesses are welcomed by officials and don’t often generate a lot of protests from county residents.

In other counties, those protests can either delay or shut down plans to build ethanol plants or livestock operations.

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The price of being green

The price of being green

Toledo Blade

COULD it be that ethanol, now being widely and loudly touted as an answer to the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, has a downside?

It certainly seems that way.

The potential problem isn’t the fuel itself, but the impact it may have on other products that are reliant, to some extent, on corn. Like milk.

Because of the demand for corn, with 20 percent of the crop going to ethanol production, the price is skyrocketing. In fact, with a price increase of more than 60 percent in the nine months through May, the crop used to feed the cattle that produce the milk is pushing up the cost of the end product that we put in our coffee and on our cereal.

Talk about a pass-through price increase.

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San Diego CowBelles educate the city folk

San Diego CowBelles educate the city folk

By Jean Barton

Red Bluff Daily News

San Diego County CowBelles (yes, they are still CowBelles, not CattleWomen) do an incredible job educating the public about beef at the San Diego County Fair for nearly two million people in 22 days. The fair opened June 8 running through July 4, with only five days being closed.

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Average ages of farmers by occupation

Average ages of farmers by occupation

Chicago Tribune

By The Associated Press

The average age of farm operators by farm type, according to the 2002 U.S. Census of Agriculture.

Oilseed and grain farming: 54.6

Vegetable and melon farming: 53.9

Fruit and tree nut farming: 57.7

Greenhouse, nursery and floriculture: 53.8

Tobacco farming: 54.7

Cotton farming: 52.4

Sugarcane, hay and all other crops: 57.5

Beef cattle ranching and farming: 56.7

Cattle feedlots: 53.3

Dairy cattle and milk production: 50.2

Hog and pig farming: 49.2

Poultry and egg production: 51.6

Sheep and goat farming: 52.9

Aquaculture and other animal production: 52.5

Declining opportunities change face of next farm generation

Declining opportunities change face of next farm generation

By JAMES HANNAH

Chicago Tribune

CARROLL, Ohio — Abe Bluck studies business in college and hauls grain and operates farm machinery in his spare time.

He wants to run his own farm just like his family once did. But his grandfather had to sell the family farm in the early 1980s to pay off debt, and Bluck is struggling to return to the land in a changing agriculture industry.

“Land prices are high, and I don’t have much capital,” the 21-year-old junior at Ohio University said. “It’s proven to be kind of difficult, but I’m making some progress.”

The opportunities for beginning farmers are dwindling as the cost of farmland goes up — it was a record high $1,900 per acre nationwide last year — and established farmers hold on to their property well beyond normal retirement age.

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Illinois horse slaughter plant shut down again

Illinois horse slaughter plant shut down again

Horsetalk

The doors have been shut once again on Cavel International, America’s only operating horse slaughter plant. Just hours before its temporary restraining order expired at midnight on Thursday night, US District Court Judge Frederick Kapala held an emergency hearing and denied Cavel’s request that the court allow it to continue to evade prosecution under state law, pending the outcome of an appeal related to the case in the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

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Older farmers changing US agriculture, rural communities

Older farmers changing US agriculture, rural communities

International Herald Tribune

PEMBERVILLE, Ohio: Like many farmers, Roger Burtchin is approaching an age when others are thinking about retiring. But he has no plans to stop planting corn and soybeans.

“Farming’s one of those things that gets in your blood,” he said. “Even when things get tough, you still enjoy it.”

So many American farmers are working longer than ever before that one in four is at least 65 years old. Computerized gadgets that steer tractors and deliver feed to hogs allow farmers to work past traditional retirement ages. Many stay on because they don’t have a retirement plan or because their children have no interest in farming.

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U.S., South Korea sign trade pact; face Congress fight

U.S., South Korea sign trade pact; face Congress fight

By Doug Palmer

Washington Post

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and South Korea signed a free trade agreement on Saturday that will face tough opposition in the U.S. Congress because of Democratic Party concerns that it will cost auto industry jobs.

The pact, which needs to be approved by both countries’ legislatures, is the biggest such U.S. deal since the North America Free Trade Agreement 15 years ago. Two-way trade between the United States and South Korea, its seventh largest trading partner, is about $80 billion annually.

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More U.S. meatpackers win approval

More U.S. meatpackers win approval

The Japan Times

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The U.S. Agriculture Department said Friday it has approved another four meat-processing plants for beef exports to Japan, bringing the total to 39.

The addition of the four plants — three in Nebraska and one in Illinois — comes after the Japanese government found no problems with them through its own inspections, the department said.

Unlike other beef, exports from U.S. government-certified facilities will not be subject to Japanese re-inspection, apart from a sampling system.

The outcome of the on-site inspections and a recent decision by the World Organization for Animal Health to enable the U.S. to export beef regardless of cattle age have prompted Washington to press Tokyo to relax mad cow-related restrictions on U.S. beef even further.

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Cow Calf: Wet Conditions Bring Foot Rot Problems

Cow Calf: Wet Conditions Bring Foot Rot Problems

Cattlenetwork.com

Foot rot is an ongoing problem, especially in the early summer, in Oklahoma.  With the wet conditions over much of the state this year we can expect even more problems than usual.  It is important to know, however, that not all lameness problems are foot rot and with a little care and planning the incidence and severity of the problem can be controlled.

Foot rot is caused by a bacteria, Fusobacterium necrophorum, that invades the tissues between the toes.  It enters the tissue through abrasions or areas softened by extremely wet conditions.  Once established, the bacteria releases toxins that cause swelling and decay of the tissues.  As the infection works into the deeper tissues, the signs become more severe and control becomes more difficult.  Infected animals shed organisms into the environment where they can infect other cattle for up to 10 months.

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Vita Ferm is Title Sponsor for Junior National Hereford National

Vita Ferm is Title Sponsor for Junior National Hereford National

Kansas City, Mo. — Vita Ferm®, a product line of BioZyme® Inc., has announced its $35,000 title sponsorship of the 2007 Junior National Hereford Expo (JNHE), July 7-14, in Denver.

The JNHE is an event of great magnitude and importance to Hereford families all over the country. Last year’s event featured more than 600 exhibitors from 38 states, making it one of the largest junior breed shows in the U.S. The experiences, opportunities and friendships gained are so great that many families choose the JNHE as their annual vacation destination.

Participating families are not the only ones who find value in the Hereford extravaganza. Bob Norton, BioZyme Inc. president, explains that Vita Ferm gives financial support to the JNHE because it encourages young people interested in the future of production agriculture. Helping them along their way is a priority to Norton and his company. “We are merely stewards,” he says. “If we don’t take the blessings we’ve been given and try to return them, we’re not doing our jobs as stewards. These young folks are our future.”

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