Vintage Video Feature: Meat: From Range To Market (1955)

Gives an overview of the meat industry, including methods of inspection methods of cutting and packaging meats and uses of by-products.

Hot Weather In Late Pregnancy Affects Gestation Length

cattlenetwork.com

Fall-calving cows and heifers don’t always read and follow the published gestation tables for their respective breeds.  It is has been reported on several occasions that fall calving cows have lighter birth weights than spring calvers.  Part of the reason for those lighter births may be attributed to shorter gestation lengths.  Oklahoma State University physiologists studied early fall (August) and late fall (October) calving cows.

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Increase knowledge, profitability through beef quality assurance

News-star.com

Oklahoma beef and dairy producers can learn how effective quality assurance strategies will improve profit potential from their cattle and calves at an Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance seminar 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 21, at the Kiamichi Vo-Tech Center in McAlester.

Oklahoma’s Beef Quality Assurance (OBQA) program, funded through the beef checkoff, outlines best practices for safe and wholesome beef production. It seeks to keep producers abreast of the most current information that helps producers provide consumers with a satisfactory and enjoyable eating experience every time they choose beef.

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Hay quantity down, but quality good

IAN KUCERAK

Peace Country Sun

The alfalfa is looking pretty good around the Peace Country as farmers continue to bale hay. Quality is good but quantity is down says Amber Havens. – File photo

Driving around the Peace Country, the sight of farmers haying is a scene repeated for decades, as they bring in the crop. This year, those haying are bringing in a smaller crop due to moisture problems that have also stunted canola, wheat and other crops in much of the Peace.

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Beef short course gives tips to cattle producers

Derek Scasta

Corsicana Daily Sun

Facing a triple threat of high fuel, feed and fertilizer prices, more than 1,400 cattle producers heard from experts at the 54th Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course on ways to maintain profitability. The event, sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, continues through Wednesday on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station.

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Jack Dillard: Celebrate the end of ‘dog days of summer’

Shreveport Times

Monday could be a day to celebrate as Aug. 11 is the end of the "dog days of summer." Will the weather change? Probably not; however, we can start looking for a change to less heat and humidity. We may not find it, but it won’t hurt to look for it.

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Fuel costs are eating farmers’ profits

Joe Napsha

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW/Philadelphia Inquirer

For the last two years, cattle farmer Regina Carpenter said, she and her husband, Derwyn, absorbed the rising costs of fuel and feed, but they can no longer afford to hold the line.

"This summer is the first year we were not able to hold back on raising prices. People don’t realize how the cost of fuel has affected all farmers," she said. The Carpenters, who raise about 45 beef cattle on 92 acres in Westmoreland County, grow the corn and hay feed for their animals.

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Age-old industry gets new spin; Farmers turning to tourism to generate additional income

By Naomi Smoot

The Journal

CHARLES TOWN – On the surface, these fields – like the industry they represent – seem much the same as they’ve always been. But look a little closer, and things have changed.

The land is still covered in the same green grass. The pastures are still dotted with sorghum and shrubs. There is still tall growth in some places, and open fields in others.

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Bottom-line boost: Oil boom, exports and drought helping Montana hay growers

PAMELA J. PODGER

Missoulian

Stopping his tractor to chat, Kale Gardner said his custom-haying operation around Arlee has fared well, given this year’s unprecedented hay prices.

He’ll start cutting his second harvest of alfalfa-grass hay this week and, even before it’s baled, Gardner has it presold at $140 a ton.

Hay prices, which have risen gradually in the past, have soared recently and helped growers’ bottom line after years of selling small bales for a few dollars each.

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Cattle Feed Byproducts: Assessing The Economics Of Co-Product Storage

cattlenetwork.com

A new UNL software tool can help ranchers and farmers assess the economics of co-product storage. In the July 23 issue of Cornhusker Economics, Josie Waterbury, Graduate Research Assistant, and Darrell Mark, Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, discuss the current co-product market and what the software shows.

"In the last few years the decrease in co-product price, particularly that of wet distillers grains plus solubles (WDGS) during the late summer months, has provided incentive for producers to purchase co-products during this period. This provided producers the opportunity to store the co-product and feed it at a later date. Although current co-product prices are not mirroring the “typical” ethanol co-product seasonal price trend, storage opportunities still exist for cattle feeders and cow/calf operations.

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New intranasal vaccine protects calves as early as three days of age

High Plains Journal

Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health, Millsboro, Del., recently announced the availability of Onset 5 IN, the first intranasally administered, five-way modified-live virus (MLV) vaccine for healthy cattle 3 to 8 days and older.

Onset 5 IN is designed to stimulate at the site of infection an immune response to Bovine Virus Diarrhea (BVD) Type 1 and Type 2, Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR), Parainfluenza3 (PI3) and Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (BRSV)–the costliest diseases impacting beef and dairy herds.

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Neb. beef industry gets help marketing to Japan

KCAU-TV

Nebraska’s beef industry has teamed with a U.S. trade association to get help marketing its Japan-bound exports.

Japan had been the United States’ top destination for beef before concerns of mad cow disease led to a ban in 2003. The restrictions were later eased, but beef exports to the foreign nation have lagged.

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COOL Considerations For Cow-Calf & Stocker Cattle Producers

cattlenetwork.com

Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling will take effect on September 30, 2008.  There are specific rules on the definition of retailers and on processed foods (which are exempted) and on food service establishments (which are also exempted) but in general, beef sold in retail markets must bear a label or notice to consumers about the origin of the beef.  Only beef from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S. may be labeled Product of U.S.A. Other product must identify the country or countries of origin, which might include the U.S. and other countries.

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New Mexico to lose bovine tuberculosis free status

Current-Argus

New Mexico is within days of losing its’ bovine tuberculosis Free status, according to New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association President Alisa Ogden of Loving. The loss will be triggered by publication of an emergency rule in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Agriculture which is expected by mid August at the latest and will become effective immediately, she reported.

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Japan halts beef imports from U.S. Cargill plant

Reuters

Japan has suspended beef imports from a Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] meatpacking plant which shipped a package of minced beef that is banned under current bilateral agreements, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Friday.

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