Mycotoxins & Distiller’s Grains

Mycotoxins & Distiller’s Grains

by Lon Whitlow

Angus Journal

If you pick up any feeding guide on distillers’ grains, somewhere in the text you will find a warning about the potential for mycotoxin contamination. This is not to say that distillers’ grains are more likely than other feeds to be contaminated, but rather that mycotoxins from the original corn can be concentrated in the spent grains.

If the original corn is contaminated with mycotoxins, the distillers’ grains produced from it can contain two to three times the amount of the original mycotoxin concentration. This is because only about one-third of the original grain remains as distillers’ grains residue, resulting in a concentration of the mycotoxins.

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No Animals Were Hurt in the Writing of This Column

No Animals Were Hurt in the Writing of This Column

Gary Truitt

Hoosier Ag Today

Over the Christmas holiday our family went to see the movie The Water Horse. It is the story of the legendary sea monster that lives in Loch Ness in Scotland. Based on the book by Dick King-Smith, the movie is a wonderful story with great special effects. For me, however, the highlight of the film came at the end of the credits when across the screen flashed, “No sea monsters were harmed in the making of this film.” At first I thought it was the filmmakers having a little satirical fun; but, considering the ridiculous state of the animal welfare debate in the country, I think they were serious.

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12 Goals to set for 2008

12 Goals to set for 2008

Troy Marshall

Beef Magazine

Have you ever reached the end of a day, month or year, and set back and asked where all the time went? I’m guessing you started out with a definite “to-do” list and despite the fact you were busy and productive all day, your list was essentially the same size at day’s end. You spent your time, you just didn’t spend it on accomplishing your projects.

Life has many distractions. While some are unavoidable, a good number can be reduced. Experts say that identifying the most frequent sources of distractions in your day is the start of lowering their impact on your daily life.

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Strategies To Improve Reproductive Efficiency Of Heifers

Strategies To Improve Reproductive Efficiency Of Heifers

Cattlenetwork.com

Understanding proper heifer development is key to improving reproductive efficiency and profitability in a beef cattle operation. The first step toward achieving reproductive efficiency is to properly manage reproduction in yearling heifers. Research shows heifers that conceive earliest in the first breeding season have fewer calving difficulties, becoming the most productive and profitable. Giving heifers the chance to conceive early is the goal. Manage so that the age of puberty is reduced, the time from puberty to conception is shortened, and fertility is increased.

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Soil Scientist Recommends Using Manure On Alfalfa

Soil Scientist Recommends Using Manure On Alfalfa

Hay and Forage

Hay growers seem evenly split on whether applying manure to alfalfa fields is a good idea or not, says Michael Russelle, soil scientist with USDA-Agricultural Research Service. About half the alfalfa growers he talks to say they would never do it, while the other half regularly apply manure to alfalfa. He’ll give recommendations on the topic during a Feb. 5 presentation at the National Alfalfa Symposium in Kearney, NE.

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Cattlemen not keen on importing Argentine cattle

Cattlemen not keen on importing Argentine cattle

Tom Steever

Brownfield Network

A cattlemen’s group opposes a USDA proposal to import beef from specific regions of Argentina. The problem, according to Colorado cattleman Doug Zalesky, is that Argentina has had foot and mouth disease.

 “And I think the risk of doing such a regionalization plan in hopes that we could keep foot and mouth disease out is too high of a risk for cattle producers to really be comfortable with,” Zalesky told Brownfield in an interview.

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Beef Producers Discuss Numerous Issues In Minot

Beef Producers Discuss Numerous Issues In Minot

KXMC-TV

To most of us, all cattle look basically alike.

But Shawn Arndorfer sees the differences.

He ought to…Shawn runs the Arndorfer Cattle Company Feedlot near Hettinger.

There, he oversees the feeding and selling of some 12-to-13-thousand cattle.

Today he shared some of his expertise with producers attending a cattlemen’s workshop at the North Central Research Extension Center near Minot.

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Time To Double Check Your Heifer Development Program

Time To Double Check Your Heifer Development Program

Cattlenetwork.com

The first week of January is an extremely important “check-point” in spring heifer development programs. The key to proper heifer development lies in understanding the factors that influence conception in yearling heifers. One key factor regulating heifer fertility is age at puberty. Most producers don=t consider age at puberty of their heifers to be a major problem, yet few know how many heifers are actually cyclic at the beginning of the breeding season. A Nebraska study demonstrated that the proportion of heifers that were pubertal on the first day of the breeding season varied greatly over 5 consecutive years in a single a herd. The percentage of heifers that were pubertal on the first day of the breeding season ranged from only 21% to as high as 64% over the 5-year period. For maximum fertility and reproductive performance, heifers must have had at least one estrus before the beginning of the breeding season. Our goal then is to incorporate reproductive management techniques to reduce the age of puberty, increase fertility, and shorten the interval to conception.

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Producers air concerns about animal ID; Ill. ag director, Hartke, explains program goals

Producers air concerns about animal ID; Ill. ag director, Hartke, explains program goals

By Joy Swearingen

Hancock County Journal Pilot

A plan to help biosecurity of livestock ran head on into concerns of livestock producers about that plan and how it is being applied.

Nearly 200 people attended a meeting with Illinois Agriculture Director Chuck Hartke Monday night at the Hancock County Extension Center. The meeting was organized by the Hancock County Farm Bureau, but those attending came from 13 counties of central Illinois and Iowa.

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Cattle reproduction conference postponed

Cattle reproduction conference postponed

Quad Cities Times

A beef conference slated for later this month in Moline has been postponed due to a lack of early registrations, according to the Iowa Beef Center.

The Applied Reproductive Strategies in Beef Cattle conference was scheduled for Jan. 24 to 25 at Stoney Creek Inn.

Organizers said Wednesday they hope to reschedule, but a new date has not been set.

Cattle Health: Living Without 7% Iodine

Cattle Health: Living Without 7% Iodine

Cattlenetwork.com

Treating the navel cord stump of newborn calves, foals, lambs, kids, and piglets has been done for many years. This practice has been recommended for the prevention of infections of the navel stump and generalized infections of the body that gain access through the navel such as joint infections. Perhaps the most often recommended antiseptic for use on the navel stump has been 7% tincture of iodine or “strong iodine tincture.” If you have attempted to buy this product for the upcoming calving season, you may have found that it is either unavailable or more difficult to obtain. The reason is that, in July, the Department of Justice published the final rules that make iodine tinctures and solutions greater than 2.2% subject to regulatory control by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

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Fermentation process adds value to DDGS

Fermentation process adds value to DDGS

All About Feed

A Kansas State University grain scientist, Praveen Vadlani, wants to learn how to make distillers grains, a byproduct of ethanol production, more valuable. He puts the grains through a secondary fermentation process to add more nutritive qualities to it.

Currently, distillers grains are fed to livestock as a partial replacement for corn or other feed grains. But cattle can only eat so much of it before growth performance and beef quality are affected.

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Beef: The local option

Beef: The local option

By AMY GRISAK

Great Falls Tribune

Montanans raise nearly a million and a half beef cattle annually, making the state the seventh leading producer in the nation, according to a 2006 report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

That means Montanans who want to cook with locally produced beef have plenty of options.

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Cattle Management: Top 10 Traits Of Managers

Cattle Management: Top 10 Traits Of Managers

Cattlenetwork.com

Management is an explicit process. It can be taught, and it can be learned. It takes time, dedication, and self-discipline. Management is often the difference between success and failure. The enterprise analyses of Kentucky Farm Business Management participants illustrate this point. Each year participating farms are classified into top-third and bottom-third categories based on net returns. For any given year, all farms face the same set of weather conditions, the same set of input prices, and the same set of market prices. Generally, the bottom third of livestock farms receives the same price as the top third for what they sell. The prices they pay for feed are often very similar for both groups. Given the same set of market and weather conditions, some farms make money, and some farms lose money. The difference between top and bottom farms is how they manage the resources they have.

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Cloned milk and meat: What’s the beef?

Cloned milk and meat: What’s the beef?

Scientist, consumer advocates disagree on whether products would be safe

MSNBC

Milk and meat from cloned cows could hit grocery shelves in a few years if the FDA approves the process soon, as is expected.

But would the products be safe? Scientists and consumer advocates disagree on the answer.

The Food and Drug Administration has been wrestling for more than five years with the question of whether or not to allow the use of milk or meat from cloned cows, swine and sheep, with a voluntary ban on such products in place for now.

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