Trent Loos: A little goes a long way

Trent Loos:  A little goes a long way

High Plains Journal

I am quite sure all of you remember the spinach recall in December of 2006. I happen to remember it so vividly because, during that very same week, we were working cattle at our house. When we work cattle, our girls are right there with us. I remember thinking, how is it that our 1-year-old, in the proximity of flying feces from cattle work, never gets sick with such things as E. coli O157:H7. In fact, of the 100,000 farm families I know in the nation, I can only think of one family who has ever had a kid with an E. coli problem. Yet, if other kids eat one little bit of bacteria in their food, they can suffer huge health problems.

FULL STORY

Getting Heifers Bred: Heifer Management Strategies™ Tool Kit

Getting Heifers Bred: Heifer Management Strategies™ Tool Kit

Beefheifers.com

To remain competitive in the cow/calf industry, you must be able to increase efficiencies while reducing costs. When reproductive performance doesn’t meet expectations, it can quickly add up to significant economic losses.

There are many factors that contribute to your reproductive program results. However, anestrus and abnormal estrous cycles are two main causes of infertility and increased days open. The Heifer Management Strategies™ breeding program protects herd reproductive performance by allowing you to synchronize estrus so it occurs during a concentrated period, thus optimizing your time and resources.

FULL STORY

Avoiding Calving Problems

Avoiding Calving Problems

L. R. Sprott, Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, The Texas A&M University System

Beef heifers experience calving difficulty, or dystocia, more frequently than do mature cows. Dystocia is characterized by prolonged or difficult labor due to heavy birthweight and/or small pelvic area of the dam. Death of these calves, and sometimes their dams, is a result of injuries received during difficult delivery. This obviously reduces calf crop and potential profits. Cows that experience dystocia also have lower rebreeding rates than animals that have normal, unassisted deliveries. Consequently, producers should make every effort to avoid dystocia.

FULL STORY PDF

Management for Tetany: The Whole Picture

Management for Tetany: The Whole Picture

cattlenetwork.com

Most cattlemen are familiar with grass tetany (sometimes called wheat pasture poisoning or ryegrass staggers) caused by low magnesium in certain pasture situations. But to look at tetany as a simple magnesium deficiency would be an oversimplification. Prevention strategies are most effective when all the nutrient interactions that are involved in the disorder are addressed.

FULL STORY

Consider Frost Seeding Pastures In February, Early March

Consider Frost Seeding Pastures In February, Early March

cattlenetwork.com

Ames, Iowa — Producers wanting to add forage to their existing pastures should consider using the frost-seeding method in February and early March, said an Iowa State University (ISU) Extension forage specialist.

The frost-seeding method involves spreading forage seed on existing pastures during the late winter or very early spring while the ground is still frozen, said forage specialist Stephen Barnhart, who also works with the Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State University. Freeze-thaw cycles then provide shallow coverage of the seed, with help from early spring rains.

FULL STORY

Nebraska Cattlemen Applaud Sen. Hansen for Prioritizing Animal Drug Bill

Nebraska Cattlemen Applaud Sen. Hansen for Prioritizing Animal Drug Bill

Cattle Today

Nebraska Cattlemen is applauding Sen. Tom Hansen, North Platte, for selecting LB 1022 as his priority bill. The proposed legislation would allow veterinary drug distributors to obtain a state license to sell animal prescription drugs to producers and veterinarians.

The bill under consideration by the Health and Human Services Committee is one of four Nebraska Cattlemen NC had selected as its priorities during this session of the Nebraska Legislature. The NC Board selected the priorities after NC leaders and staff evaluated 189 of 485 bills and legislative resolutions. The Board received recommendations from its Legislative Committee and then took positions on 118 of the bills and decided to designate four of them as priorities.

FULL STORY

NCBA elects new officers

NCBA elects new officers

Tom Wray

 ProvisionerOnline

Members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association elected new leadership and debated industry policy issues at the group’s annual membership meeting on Saturday.

Andy Groseta, a rancher from Cottonwood, Ariz., was elected to succeed John Queen as NCBA president for the coming year, the group said in a statement. Groseta said he wants to continue to grow and strengthen NCBA, especially by creating more opportunities for young people to succeed in the cattle industry.

Gary Voogt of Marne, Mich., was elected NCBA president-elect. Voogt served during the past year as chairman of the Federation of State Beef Councils Division of NCBA.

FULL STORY

Manage calving season

Manage calving season

Frank Hicks

Winchester Sun

Clark County cattle producers with “spring calving” cows are about ready to begin the calving season. Dr. Les Anderson, of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, has offered some suggestions for managing spring calving cows at that time. Providing sound management during the calving season can mean more live calves. Excessive losses can mean the difference between a year’s profit or loss for a beef producer.

FULL STORY

Livestock hold the potential to power Iowa’s future

Livestock hold the potential to power Iowa’s future

Aaron Putze, APR, Executive Director, Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers

Zwire.com

Imagine awaking to music from your radio, percolating your morning cup of coffee, charging the cell phone, adjusting your home’s thermostat and tuning in the day’s first weather forecast on TV. Not a big deal, you say?

Well, it could be if the power to do all those things (and more) was generated by your neighbor, a farm family who raises livestock.

FULL STORY

Tenderloin’s a steal, but at what moral price?

Tenderloin’s a steal, but at what moral price?

JOHN KESSLER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As a rule, I want to know where the beef I purchase comes from, how it was raised and what grade the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its infinite wisdom, bestowed upon it.

But then I find a bargain like the $34 tenderloin at Super H. Mart. Not $34 a pound — $34 for the whole, nearly 5-pound tenderloin. At Whole Foods, they’re asking $27.99 per pound.

Surely this cow was an also-ran brought up on some vast feedlot — some federally subsidized bovine hell on earth set up for the sole purpose of supplying Americans with the inexpensive meat they consider their birthright. I turn this shrink-wrapped torpedo of blood-red Bessie in my hands and think: $34.

FULL STORY

Let’s Talk About Beef

Let’s Talk About Beef

Beth Vaughn

KSNT-TV

The Chinese Ambassador’s short visit to the Sunflower State began discussions about exporting Kansas beef to his home-land.

China is Kansas’ fifth-largest export market, reaching over 400 million dollars in export sales last year. With Kansas beef added to the equation, that trend only promises to grow.

Ambassador Zhou Wenzong says, “We talked about the beef business, China is prepared to buy beef that is 30 months old. So I see a good opportunity there.”

FULL STORY

Natural Beef – Part 2

Natural Beef – Part 2

KXMB-TV

Bismarck

The Natural beef industry is new and exciting. But, it’s also leaving researchers wondering what are the benefits of this new branded beef. Sarah Gustin joins us now with her special report, Natural Beef.

Natural beef has taken the meat market by storm

More and more studies are being performed to see where this natural beef market is headed

FULL STORY

R-CALF: Cattle Producers, Get Involved While You Still Can

R-CALF: Cattle Producers, Get Involved While You Still Can

cattlenetwork.com

While attending a cattle auction a few weeks ago, I was encouraged by the number of young people in attendance to see either their own cattle, or the cattle of a friend or family member, be sold. That’s not an uncommon sight on a January day in Iowa, but the future of what I witnessed that day in Spencer, Iowa, is being threatened. Just 10 years ago, sales of hogs and pigs also commonly occurred at many neighborhood auction barns, yet today there are so few open markets for slaughter hogs that hog auctions are nearly nonexistent. Nine out of every 10 hogs fed in Iowa are owned by someone other than the farmer, and in many cases, the owner of the hog is the corporate meatpacker that also farrows the pigs.

FULL STORY

Parties Shun Beef Decision as FTA Review Begins

Parties Shun Beef Decision as FTA Review Begins

Chosun News

The Korea-U.S. free trade agreement will be reviewed by the National Assembly’s Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee on Monday, starting the parliamentary ratification process 10 months after the bilateral trade agreement was reached.

Political parties are saying that they are willing to ratify the trade deal in an extraordinary parliamentary session this month, but in fact they appear to lack the will to do so. The parties are trying to avoid the issue of fully opening Korea’s beef market to the U.S., hoping to pass the political burden to their rivals for fear of a backlash from cattle farmers ahead of the general elections in April.

FULL STORY

Economist Analyzes USDA Cattle Inventory Report

Economist Analyzes USDA Cattle Inventory Report

Hoosier Ag Today

  After analyzing USDA’s semi-annual report of the nation’s cattle inventory – the American Farm Bureau Federation says a decline in U.S. beef cow numbers in 2007 is largely due to drought in the Southeast and higher prices for land, feed and other inputs. At the first of the month – USDA reported there were 338-thousand fewer beef cows at the end of 2007 than at the end of 2006 – which means herd liquidation has occurred in 10 of the last 12 years.

Farm Bureau Livestock Economist Jim Sartwelle says the report is an indicator of U.S. beef production for the next two to three years. Sartwelle notes Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia accounted for 54-percent of the nation’s beef cow herd reduction. He says severe drought forced the liquidations of herds across the region. As for the economic and structural realities – Sartwelle says high feed and non-feed input costs, skyrocketing land values and slowly recovering beef export markets are all at play.

FULL STORY