CSU researchers study whether ethanol byproducts are dangerous

CSU researchers study whether ethanol byproducts are dangerous

High Plains Journal

Colorado State University researchers, following up on a study in Kansas, are trying to determine whether ethanol byproducts are too dangerous to be used as cattle feed.

The Coloradoan reported that a Kansas State University study found that distillers grains, the leftovers from producing corn ethanol, are linked to a 50 percent increase in E. coli when fed to cattle.

Researchers and cattle ranchers maintain the product, a byproduct of converting starch from corn into ethanol and carbon dioxide, can be a good source of nutrients when blended with other cattle feeds.

The CSU research is going on at the university’s research feedlot in Lamar.

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Cattle benefit from both hi tech, low stress

Cattle benefit from both hi tech, low stress

SHELBY FILLEY

Newsreview.info

Technology. Stress levels. These are words you would normally associate with the business world. However, lately we in the cattle business find ourselves immersed in technology and exploring the ideas behind low-stress livestock handling.

Here is a short synopsis of recent educational programs. I hope you can join us for some upcoming classes.

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House Ag Committee hears testimony on promoting USA beef

House Ag Committee hears testimony on promoting USA beef

High Plains Journal

In middle March, Kansas Cattlemen’s Association testified before the Kansas House Agriculture Committee supporting a resolution to urge the United States Congress to enact revisions to the Federal Beef Promotion and Research Act to allow for a minimum of 50 percent of those assessments to be used for the promotion of USA born, raised, and processed beef.

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National eXtension website brings expertise from across U.S. together

National eXtension website brings expertise from across U.S. together

High Plains Journal

A groundbreaking new website, eXtension.org, offers a gateway into some of the nation’s leading expertise on just about any topic one can imagine.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension is a leader of the national effort, with Nebraska extension faculty providing their expertise in several content areas. Also, the national director of eXtension is based at UNL.

“University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension has long been proud of its development and delivery of educational programs to Nebraskans,” said Elbert Dickey, dean and director of UNL Extension. “This new partnership with extension colleagues nationwide brings together the best of the best in the land-grant university system.

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College of Ag receives major grant to study cattle’s Johne’s Disease

College of Ag receives major grant to study cattle’s Johne’s Disease

Penn State Live

Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has been awarded a four-year, $4.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service to support phase two of a major international effort aimed at promoting animal biosecurity and mitigating losses from Johne’s disease in livestock.

The Johne’s Disease Integrated Program (JDIP) — a consortium of 170 scientists from more than 50 leading academic institutions, government agencies and industry organizations around the world — is led by Vivek Kapur, head of Penn State’s Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences.

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Welcome to the bovine maternity ward

Welcome to the bovine maternity ward

by Andrew Travers

Aspen Daily News

The rancher kneels in hay-strewn manure, his cold blue eyes and straight jaw shaded by his cowboy hat. He holds a lassoed day-old calf in his arms as its mother cow sniffs at him, its breath visible in the bitter March cold. A constant chorus of moos rings from the surrounding herd.

He pushes a plunger of pink liquid into the calf’s mouth as it wriggles. He holds its snout shut for a moment to make sure it swallows, then lets it go. It lays stunned for a moment before he pats it on its backside and it springs up, walking in a daze back to its mother’s side.

The pink liquid is Pepto-Bismol.

“She’s got some diarrhea,” says the rancher, hopping up, his red-checked flannel shirt and leather chaps smeared faintly in pink. Lasso in hand, he moves to the next newborn calf.

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JBS Swift & Co. executive tells governor company will keep growing

JBS Swift & Co. executive tells governor company will keep growing

Bill Jackson

Greeley Tribune

JBS Swift & Co. has been a part of Greeley for less than a year, but the company’s CEO said Friday it intends to keep growing.

Wesley Batista joined Gov. Bill Ritter for the first Greeley Chamber of Commerce CEO Forum at the Greeley Country Club and told a sold-out crowd that the company will have 300 employed for its new transportation division by the end of the year and may eventually have as many as 500 trucks based out of Greeley.

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U.S. shelters saddled with unwanted horses

U.S. shelters saddled with unwanted horses
Oren Dorell,

USA TODAY

The forced closure of the last horse-killing facilities in the USA, done at the urging of animal rights activists, has caused a herd of unwanted horses in animal shelters nationwide, according to breeders, ranchers and horse rescuers.

The surplus threatens to worsen if Congress passes a bill to ban the selling of unwanted horses to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico.

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York Native to be Recognized During Little I/Dairy Expo Weekend

York Native to be Recognized During Little I/Dairy Expo Weekend

PA Farm News

William H. Rishel, York County native and owner of Rishel Angus, North Platte, NE, was named the 2008 Penn State DAS Animal Science Distinguished Alumnus and will be honored during Little I/Dairy Expo weekend, April 18 and 19.

Rishel received his B. S. and M.S. in animal industry in the College of Agricultural Sciences, in 1967 and 1969, respectively.

Well known for his successful breeding program, Rishel has bred Angus sires that have played a dominant role in American Breeders Service and Accelerated Genetics.

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Beef business expanding; many want healthy options

Beef business expanding; many want healthy options

By Sara Ganus

News OK

Despite the string of U.S. beef recalls over the last year, one Oklahoma cattle operation hasn’t been paying much attention to the recent health scares, E. coli outbreaks or animal abuse scandals.

Instead, this business is thriving, partly because of them.

In eastern Wynnewood — about 70 miles south of Oklahoma City — this 1,200-acre operation goes by the name NoName Ranch.

That’s right — “NoName” is its name.

That designation appeared on menus at The Metro Wine Bar & Bistro and The Coach House in Nichols Hills almost six years ago and had people scratching their heads then, too.

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Heat Stress Model Keeps Cows Cool

Heat Stress Model Keeps Cows Cool

cattlenetwork.com

It’s hard to relax if your cattle are stressed, so the ability to predict and avoid potential stressors is essential.

Fortunately, an online model developed by scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) provides information to help cattle—and producers—keep their cool when temperatures rise. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific research agency.

For years, producers relied on the National Weather Service for livestock weather warnings. When that service was discontinued in the mid-1990s, many producers turned to university websites. The university warnings, like those they’d replaced, were based on temperature and humidity predictions, but did not account for other influential factors.

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N.D. Stockmen’s Association requests oversight

N.D. Stockmen’s Association requests oversight

John Odermann

The Dickinson Press

The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association’s board of directors at its quarterly meeting on March 12 agreed that recent events in the meat packing industry were cause for concern.

On March 5, JBS, the world’s largest meat processor. stated its intent to purchase National Beef and Smithfield Beef Group.

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Feed Efficiency Getting Attention In Beef Industry

Feed Efficiency Getting Attention In Beef Industry

CTN

The rising cost of feeding cattle is causing producers to look for ways to improve the efficiency of the animals consuming expensive feed.

“The major cost in producing cattle is feed,” says John Dhuyvetter, area livestock specialist at North Dakota State University’s North Central Research Extension Center in Minot. “The high demand and price for corn and other commodities is raising finishing costs and devaluing feeder cattle. It’s also impacting land use decisions, which puts inflationary pressure on pasture and forage costs.”

Feed storage, processing, additives and delivery that minimize waste and maximize utilization are critical to improving efficiency, according to Dhuyvetter. He believes large economic impacts also might be possible through genetic improvements that make cattle more metabolically efficient in their use of feed. Research has identified heritable differences in cattle for feed efficiency.

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Disillusioned cattle ranchers go it alone

Disillusioned cattle ranchers go it alone

Independent group says WSGA is selling out on key issues

Billings Gazette

After four months of cold and gray and seemingly endless snowstorms, spring has finally come to Empire Ranch.

In the feeding pens, dozens of the winter-wooly Herefords jostle with hired hand John Miles for corn cake treats. The sky is blue, and a tentative green is showing under the winter grass. For once, the south wind is warm on Judy McCullough’s ranch.

She watches the calves butt and play, but her mind is on a new, statewide cattlemen’s group she’s the president of, Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming, or ICOW.

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