The Female Hormones of Reproduction

The Female Hormones of Reproduction

Ropin’ the Web

Hormones are messengers. They are produced and secreted by one part of the body and travel, usually through the bloodstream, to another part of the body to stimulate or depress a particular function. Hormones are the means by which distant parts of the body communicate with each other. Communication disturbances disrupt reproductive function. In the past few years, researchers have discovered that the reproductive hormones are secreted in distinct pulses, a pattern (or code) which varies with the stage of the reproductive cycle. The target tissue, whether h is the ovary, uterus, pituitary or hypothalamus, responds only to specific pattern of hormone secretion that it recognizes. lf the target tissue is unable to recognize the pattern, either due to lack of receptors for the hormone messenger on the target tissue or due to an inappropriate pattern of hormone message, the programmed response does not occur.

In this section, the hormones involved in the regulation of reproductive function in female cattle are presented.

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Health Dollars & Sense

Health Dollars & Sense

By Burt Rutherford

Beef Magazine

If you’ve written a check to your friendly local animal health supply house or looked at a closeout sheet on a set of high-risk calves, you know sickness reduces profitability. But how much and to what extent it affects your banker’s heartburn might be surprising.

Not only do you have the medicine cost, but sickness reduces average daily gain (ADG), carcass price and gross income, according to Clay Mathis, New Mexico State University Extension livestock specialist.

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What Is The Beef Checkoff?

What Is The Beef Checkoff?

Cattlenetwork.com

The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. The checkoff assessment became mandatory when the program was approved by 79 percent of producers in a 1988 national referendum vote.

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BeefTalk: Is What We Say What We Do?

BeefTalk: Is What We Say What We Do?

By Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist

NDSU Extension Service

The top three producer priorities are herd nutrition, pasture and range, followed by herd health.

Recently, the American Angus Association helped sponsor a survey of commercial cow-calf producers and industry specialists about identifying management priorities. The survey information was gathered and summarized by Tom Field of Colorado State University.

The top three priorities were herd nutrition, pasture and range, followed by herd health. The producer participants actually rated herd health second, but almost first. The industry specialists only rated herd health as their sixth priority, a glaring indication as to who actually owns the cattle.

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Baxter Black: To Ethanol or Not

Baxter Black: To Ethanol or Not

by: Baxter Black, DVM

Cattle Today

To ethanol, or not to ethanol, that is the question.

Whether tis better to pay less for a gallon of gas and get less miles per gallon, or to pay more and go further on the same gallon? Tis the question that motorized man has passed down through the ages. Is the perception of being green more important than keeping the price of corn down? It depends on the size of your tank, your tolerance for frequent stops, the coffee at your convenience store, your stock in Chevron or your job at the feedlot.

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New Forage Specialist Joins Mississippi Extension Service

New Forage Specialist Joins Mississippi Extension Service

Cattle Today

An Extension forage specialist with experience across the United States is one of the newest experts to join the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Rocky Lemus will serve as the primary contact for Extension education information on forages and grazing lands technology, said Michael Collins, head of MSU’s Plant and Soil Sciences Department.

“He will develop Extension and applied research programs focusing on forage crops, grazing management, pasture systems, environmental stewardship and other related areas,” Collins said. “In this role, Dr. Lemus will also provide statewide program leadership that assists, supports and strengthens work of other specialists, scientists, county agents and producers. He will work closely with industry to facilitate the adoption of best management practices and technology transfer.”

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Source & Age Verification: Benefits Beyond Qualification For Export

Source & Age Verification: Benefits Beyond Qualification For Export

MFA Health Track Blog

By now, beef producers have been flooded with many other popular press articles describing third-party source and age verification of cattle to meet requirements for export, but thats not the only benifit to be realized. Justin Rhinehart, Mississippi State University Extension Beef Cattle Specialist explains some of those benefits.

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Veterinarians and physicians: Working together for one medicine

Veterinarians and physicians: Working together for one medicine

American Medical News

The AMA and the American Veterinary Medical Assn. are collaborating on the One Health Initiative as human and animal medicine join forces to fight existing and emerging zoonotic diseases.

About 60% of all human pathogens are zoonotic, transmissible between animals and people. Even more striking, approximately 75% of recently emerging infectious diseases affecting humans are of animal origin.

These Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics underscore just how important a new partnership being forged between the worlds of human and animal medicine is to public health. The American Medical Association and American Veterinary Medical Assn. are taking the lead.

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Huffman: In defense of farm subsidies

Huffman: In defense of farm subsidies

Waco Tribune

MCGREGOR — Imagine sitting down to the supper table and your only options on the menu consist of third-world steaks and a side of fritters from who knows where.

Ignore, if you can, the fact that no one knows what sort of care went into the growing of these particular food items. Ignore, too, that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt the processing of these foods leaves something to be desired.

But go ahead and dig in. Food is food, right?

Like many of you, I think the answer to that question is a resounding “no.”

Even the most tolerant of palates has come to expect at least some sort of quality and safety checking.

As someone who makes his living growing those foods, I’m convinced that keeping production here at home is the only way we’ll ever truly accomplish that

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Speaking Up On COOL

Speaking Up On COOL

Press & Dakotan

The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent: One of the stark realities of the current marketplace is that consumers rule. The economic power wielded by the buying public is enormous. Ask Detroit. Japanese cars have run over America’s Big Three like an 18-wheeler over a sleepy possum. …

Another example of a demanding consumer is in their demand to know where their food supply is coming from. A growing list of food recalls has prompted renewed demands for enforcement of the country of origin labeling (COOL) legislation that was passed in 2002.

Food industry and cattle organizations have managed to slow its enactment, but that time is slipping away.

The USDA has asked for another round of public input on the measure. …

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U.K. Probes Laboratory as Source for Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak

U.K. Probes Laboratory as Source for Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak

By Alex Armitage

Bloomberg

U.K. health and safety authorities extended their investigation into a vaccine laboratory southwest of London owned by Merck and Sanofi-Aventis as a possible source of foot-and-mouth disease after cattle became infected at a farm near the site. Merial Animal Health said that so far no breach in its procedures had been discovered.

The virus found at the farm near Guildford, Surrey, was used in vaccine production last month at a facility shared by the Institute for Animal Health and research company Merial Animal Health Ltd., the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement on its Web site. The strain is similar to one from a 1967 foot-and-mouth outbreak, the department said.

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Fly Problem Severe For North Dakota Cattle

Fly Problem Severe For North Dakota Cattle

Cattlenetwork.com

North Dakota ranchers and farmers are reporting high populations of horn flies this summer.

Stable flies also have been more of a problem this year.

The horn fly problem appears to be particularly severe in south-central and southwestern North Dakota; however all regions of the state have been affected, according to Greg Lardy, North Dakota State University Extension Service beef cattle specialist, and Janet Knodel, NDSU Extension entomologist.

These blood-sucking flies feed up to 20 to 30 times per day and cause pain, aggravation and anemia from blood loss. As a result, livestock lose weight and generally are weakened. In cases of heavy infestations, horn flies can reduce weight gain by 0.5 pound per day and milk production by 10 percent to 20 percent.

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How the dark shadow of disease fell across Surrey

How the dark shadow of disease fell across Surrey

David Smith

The Observer

Already hit by the weeks of heavy rains, farmers near Guildford were stunned by the news that the feared cattle disease has struck in their midst. Officials acted swiftly, but were they in time?

‘Police line – do not cross.’ This was the stark message written on tape that turned swaths of the Surrey countryside into a no-go area yesterday. For motorists, it was an irritation. For farmers, it spelt something potentially a lot worse.

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Livestock faces real threat of heat stress

Livestock faces real threat of heat stress

Week’s index expected to reach 100 degrees

By MELANIE THOMAS

Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW — Livestock will be in danger of heat stress for the weekend and early next week as the heat index values approach 100 degrees each day, according to University of Kentucky agricultural experts.

Highs were expected to be mostly in the lower to mid-90s throughout the state through next Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

“It can severely affect milk production and affect weight gains in beef cattle,” said Timothy Williams, a Southern States sales associate. “Animals are like humans when it gets hot … they get cranky and don’t want to be up and moving around.”

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COOL Or Not? Split Decision On House Provisions, Survey Says

COOL Or Not? Split Decision On House Provisions, Survey Says

Cattlenetwork.com

As the House version of revised Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling provisions heads to the Senate for further fine-tuning, Meatingplace.com readers appear split on how well they believe legislators crafted COOL this time around.

Some 59 percent of respondents said they do not think the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill adequately addresses the concerns of meat processors, while 41 percent said they think it does. Results were based on 118 responses to a recent survey on Zoomerang.com.

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