The widening disconnect between rural and urban America was quite obvious given the outcome of last week’s elections. In this segment, Trent Loos talks about how this should be of concern to all involved in food production as the likely outcome will be the continued stifling of science and technology. The U.S. is the world leader in global food production, yet it will be impossible for us to feed and cloth today’s growing population if we are forced to move away from modern production technologies, says Loos.
Aaron Stalker, Beef Specialist, University of Nebraska West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte, NE.
The USDA Economic Research Service estimates purchased and harvested feeds make up almost half of the annual cow costs. Because purchased and harvested feeds are such a large proportion of the overall costs making significant reductions in this area will help reduce overall costs. One way to reduce harvested feed costs is to extend the grazing season through the winter.
Minnesota Cattle Feeder Days present profit strategies for feedlot producers
The Green Sheet Farm Forum
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Extension Beef Team is proud to announce this year’s Minnesota Cattle Feeder Days to be held Dec. 9-11. This year’s program will focus on strategies to assist feedlot producers in discovering and developing new profit sources for their operations. The topics and speakers for this year’s program are: Mixing integrity of diets containing by-products by Dr. Sheri Bierman of Corn Belt Livestock Services; Determining the value of manure in feedlot operations by Dr. Mindy Spiehs of the USDA Meat Animal Research Center; Backgrounding calves: Strategies and Management by Dr. Grant Crawford of the U of M Beef Team; Value of corn crop with various harvesting methods by Dr. Alfredo DiCostanzo of the U of M Beef Team; and an update on bovine TB and the bovine TB assessment by representatives from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Baby Calf Health: Causes & Treatment Of Calf Scours
cattlenetwork.com
There are numerous causes of disease and death in newborn calves. In many locations, the leading causes of beef calf deaths are related to difficult birth (dystocia). After that, however, the most common calf hood problems are infectious diseases.
Managing Sick Cattle is Important to Profitability
by: Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D, PAS
Cattle Today
There are few factors that affect the profitability of a cattle operation like sickness and deathloss in cattle. At this time of the year when producers are weaning phenomenal numbers, cattle are being shipped from one location to another, cattle are received to go onto pastures or into preconditioning or backgrounding operations or if they go directly to the feedlot, animal mortality (death) and morbidity (sickness) is at a high point. Obviously when you loose an animal there is a high cost involved. The producer has paid good money for the animal or has incurred the production cost of getting the cow bred, maintained for nine months until calving and paid the production cost of getting the calf to the point of weaning.
They called him the “King of the Crackers,” a nickname that native-Floridian Jacob Summerlin loved.
Astute businessman, Seminole War veteran, Civil War blockade runner, Summerlin was born to the cowman’s saddle. He learned to crack a cattle-driving whip by age 7.
He turned meat on the hoof into so much money he couldn’t hide it all. By the time he turned 40, Summerlin was one of Florida’s richest men — and one of its more intriguing personalities. He amassed great wealth while often living as a simple landsman. Newspapermen called him eccentric.
Record-high feed and fuel prices combined with weather-related forage shortages and a questionable market for beef down the road are all making the “C” option more attractive, but before you load up those animals and haul them off to the sale barn, you’d better have a plan, or you might be leaving money on the table.
John Cundiff, professor in the Biological Systems Engineering Department at Virginia Tech, notes that culling of beef cattle in response to the prospect of winter hay shortages is a common practice in his region. He cites, as an example, the severe droughts Virginia farmers experienced in 2007.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking public comment on whether it is appropriate to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from automobiles under the Clean Air Act. In order to regulate automobile emissions, the EPA would first have to make a finding that all greenhouse gases endanger public health and safety and should be classified as a “pollutant.”
Farmers fighting farmers. Over water. In the arid West.
Sure, it’s a saga many years old, but a new twist is brewing on Washington’s rural unirrigated lands, where fourth-generation farmers plant wheat and pray for rain. Sometimes there’s a harvest _ sometimes not _ but they soldier on in homesteads whose only water supply comes from wells deep underground.
Some now fear their wells could dry up if a 30,000-head feedlot moves onto neighboring land in southeast Washington’s Franklin County.
Disappointing bull sale seen as reflection of current economy
The Monett Times
Prices were mixed at the 72nd Southwest Missouri Beef Cattle Improvement Association’s bull sale, held at Springfield Livestock Marketing Center. The final prices for the bulls followed the current financial concerns seen across the United States according to Eldon Cole, livestock specialist with University of Missouri Extension.
Canada confirmed its 15th case of mad cow disease since 2003 Monday and identified the animal as a seven-year-old dairy cow born well after Ottawa banned feed practices thought to spread the disease.
Highlands County is known for its citrus but many may not realize that it is big in beef production and dairy, too.
Like citrus, the county’s other ag ventures are facing challenges from development pressures, environmental regulations and the need for better water management.
Randy Gornto, the new livestock agent for the Highlands County Cooperative Extension Service, is trying to ensure that these industries continue to benefit from the latest research needed to stay productive.
Before I read Betty Fussell’s “Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef,” I thought I knew enough about America’s quintessential meal. After all, I wolfed down quite a few myself. And I’d read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “Fast Food Nation.” And there was some additional experience in 4-H. At 12 I wrestled 200-pound calves at the county fair’s Calf Scramble. The next year I was back at the fair with a 1,200-pound steer I’d trained to walk on a leash and tolerate having his tail braided with vinegar and water to give him the perm of a Sarah Palin-era beauty contestant when it was brushed out.
