Veterinary Scholarships in High Demand

Veterinary Scholarships in High Demand

Cattle Today

In its inaugural year, the Fort Dodge Animal Health Legacy Scholarship received 158 scholarship applications from students across the country. This new scholarship program was announced at the 2008 Cattle Industry Annual Convention. Made possible by Fort Dodge Animal Health and administered by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation, five scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference, which will be held July 15-19 in Denver. In addition to the scholarship, all five recipients will receive an expense-paid trip to attend the conference.

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North Dakota Attorney General: JBS Acquisitions Will Lessen Competition

North Dakota Attorney General: JBS Acquisitions Will Lessen Competition

KRVN

R-CALF USA was pleased to learn that North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem has joined several other attorneys general in writing to the U.S. Department of Justice to voice concerns over the proposed JBS acquisitions of National Beef Packing Co., Smithfield Beef Group, and Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, the largest operator of feedlots in the United States, and how the mergers would “lessen competition to the detriment of many of the groups involved in the industry, including consumers.”

Several R-CALF USA members from North Dakota took time to contact Stenehjem with their concerns, two of whom were Link Reinhiller and Patrick Becker.

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University of Tennessee to Host Field Day at Highland Rim Research and Education Center

University of Tennessee to Host Field Day at Highland Rim Research and Education Center

Cattle Today

Tobacco and beef production will be the focus of the June 26 field day at the University of Tennessee Highland Rim Research and Education Center in Springfield. Bioenergy crops and fruit, vegetable and forage production will also be discussed.

Tours will begin at 7:30 a.m., and the event will run through 1:00 p.m. A sponsored lunch will be provided.

University of Tennessee experts and others will be on hand to explore topics related to tobacco production, including better tobacco varieties, irrigation strategies that pay, effective tobacco sucker control programs, and new Ridomil® use patterns.

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NCBA to USDA: Nice Gesture, But Wrong Solution

NCBA to USDA: Nice Gesture, But Wrong Solution

KRVN

According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association – the plan to open certain CRP acres to haying and grazing is well-intentioned – but doesn’t provide the right solution for cattle producers. NCBA does support managed haying and grazing of CRP acres during times of shortage – but only with a corresponding reduction in CRP payments. USDA’s plan does not include a payment reduction – and without it – NCBA says producers raising or obtaining their hay and forage from non-CRP land are placed at an unfair disadvantage.

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Safe Food: Could it be compromised?

Safe Food: Could it be compromised?

Lockergnome.com

Living in Missouri, a state that produces a large amount of the nation’s food supply, I am very much aware of the possible dangers of agricultural terrorism.

Of the 17 critical national infrastructures that have been identified by the U.S. government, agriculture is listed as one of the most vulnerable to terrorist attack. That is according to Amanda Marney, agriculture preparedness special, University of Missouri extension because the agricultural sector of our economy produces about 13 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and accounts for 18 percent of domestic employment. This is a large proportion for the nation but for Missouri itself it makes it the mainstay of our local economy.

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Mandatory price reporting gives producers transparency

Mandatory price reporting gives producers transparency

American Farm Bureau Federation/Prairie Star

The American Farm Bureau Federation hailed a final rule issued by the Agriculture Department that requires meat packers to report prices paid to producers for food animals. Farm Bureau has been an ardent supporter of the livestock mandatory price reporting (LMPR) law and has worked tirelessly toward its implementation.

“The implementation of LMPR will allow for more accurate and timely reporting of most wholesale and retail meat prices and increase transparency in the reporting of livestock sales,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “The LMPR also offers new market information on pricing, contracting and demand conditions, which will greatly benefit livestock producers.”

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National Beef Will Reduce Slaughter on Lower Profits

National Beef Will Reduce Slaughter on Lower Profits

Carlos Caminada

Bloomberg

National Beef Packing Co., a U.S. meat processor being acquired by Brazil’s JBS SA, plans to reduce the cattle slaughter at three plants starting this week as rising costs erode profit.

Operations at plants in Liberal and Dodge City, Kansas, and Brawley, California, will be reduced to five days a week from six, cutting the slaughter weekly rate by 15,000 head of cattle, Kansas City, Missouri-based National Beef said today in a statement. The company’s daily capacity was 13,900 head in 2007, based on estimates by industry magazine Cattle Buyers Weekly.

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Cattle Feed Byproducts: Ask The Nutritionist – Nutrient Content

Cattle Feed Byproducts: Ask The Nutritionist – Nutrient Content

cattlenetwork.com

Q: I’ve heard that distillers’ grains plus solubles (DGS) are quite variable in nutrient content. Is this true? If so, is it a concern, and what can I do to manage this situation?

A: In short, the answer is “yes”, DGS can be quite variable in nutrient content. A more detailed answer considers the factors that make up that variation. First, the feed grains that are used to make ethanol (such as corn and grain sorghum) are themselves variable in nutrient content. This source of variability is difficult to control and is magnified in the DGS because the nutrients that remain after starch is removed from grain are concentrated in the DGS. Second, some ethanol plants add variable amounts of the solubles portion back to the grains themselves. This source of variability can change from day to day, depending on both marketing conditions for the DGS and current supply of byproducts at the plant. Third, research indicates that variation between ethanol plants is another source of variation. Not every plant has the same degree of commitment to distillers’ grains quality.

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Farming Cliques?

Farming Cliques?

Ethan Book

Epicurious.com

Today I am continuing on with the questions that were submitted in this post (remember you can still post a farming question there). I have to admit that at first the opening sentence in this question made me chuckle, but as I spent some time this past weekend around a table with some farmers at a graduation party, I realized that the question was more valid than I had thought. Read more after the question and the jump.

Within the farming community are there cliques? Like farmers who maybe raise cattle (or are they called ranchers and aren’t a “farmer”?) along with crops? Or, farmers who grow only, say, corn and soybeans vs. farmers who grow heirlooms. Hydroponics vs. traditional grow in the field sort of farming, etc.

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Sanilac farmers support organic trend

Sanilac farmers support organic trend

MARGARET WHITMER

Sanila County News

What can you do to ensure the purity of your food, support your local economy and improve the environment at the same time.

Sanilac farmers are increasingly jumping onto the organic food wagon, raising produce, grain, beef, pork and poultry, and selling it directly to customers.

“Many people think organic food is more expensive. It’s not, if you buy it locally,” said Sandy Bowerman, who last year started a weekly farmer’s market in Sandusky that proved to be a tremendous success.

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Soaring costs pinch ranchers; farmers enjoy higher grain prices, for now

Soaring costs pinch ranchers; farmers enjoy higher grain prices, for now

COLIN GUY

The Enterprise

While farmers are reaping the rewards of climbing commodity prices, ranchers are watching their livestock eat into dwindling profit margins.

Chuck Kiker, a 48-year-old Beaumont cattle rancher and rice farmer, said cattle prices haven’t been rising enough to offset the climbing cost of fuel.

Fuel prices affect not only how much it costs to run trucks needed for feeding and caring for the cattle but how much ranchers have to pay for feed, he said.

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Calf Health: Receiving & Health Management Program

Calf Health: Receiving & Health Management Program

cattlenetwork.com

A planned receiving program is the most important part of an overall health plan for purchased calves. Effective planned programs help improve performance, cut death losses and treatment costs, and reduce time spent caring for sick cattle.

A basic receiving health program for purchased calves is not as easy to formulate as a program for home-reared calves. The prior health history of the calf or the herd it originates from is generally unknown as is the relative level of stress it encountered in marketing channels. Excessive time in transport, lack of weaning, inadequate water and feed intake, and exposure to diseases influence a calf’s potential of developing sickness at the receiving farm. Generalizations relative to these factors, oftentimes assuming the worst, enter into the design of basic receiving health programs for purchased calves.

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Ultra Saber Pour-On

Ultra Saber Pour-On

The Prairie Star

Schering-Plough Animal Health Corp. announces the release of Ultra Saber, a new pour-on insecticide that controls horn flies on beef cattle and calves. Ultra Saber is a new type of pour-on insecticide that contains 1 percent lambdacyhalothrin and 5 percent piperonyl butoxide, a synergist which improves insecticidal activity.

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Slaughterhouse High

Slaughterhouse High

A Brief Lesson in Abbatoirs -

Saute Wednesday

Bruce Cole

Although this article is specific to Northern California, it adresses some of the issues facing small grassfed/finished beef ranchers today. It was originally published in the spring issue of Edible San Francisco.

The last time you picked up an apple at the grocery store you probably had a pretty good idea of where it came from. Besides the identifying label conveniently stuck to it’s side, you also know it came from a tree. Pretty simple really. The tree blossoms, the blossom turns into fruit, the fruit ripens (well, sometimes), then it’s picked and shipped to the supermarket.

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Cow-yearling programs may be more profitable with current markets

Cow-yearling programs may be more profitable with current markets

SHANNON RUCKMAN

Farm & Ranch Guide

Evaluating current and future cattle markets is more than just a matter of supply and demand. There are numerous other factors that come into play.

Current feed costs and the role the ethanol industry plays in determining that, as well as the U.S. economy, foreign markets, cattle inventory and cattle cycles are also factors, said economist Jim Robb, director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center, during the Montana Livestock Forum and Nutrition Conference in Bozeman.

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