Profit Tip: Cattle Health Management Mistakes To Avoid

Profit Tip: Cattle Health Management Mistakes To Avoid

Dee Griffin & Dave Smith, Extension Veterinarians University of Nebraska

Key Mistakes to Avoid:

   1. Not understanding the sequence of disease and recovery

         1. times of occurrence in common diseases …

         2. reasonable outcomes

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Applied Repro Symposium: Physiological Principles of Estrus Synchronization

Applied Repro Symposium: Physiological Principles of Estrus Synchronization

Angus e-List

Development of technologies to increase reproductive efficiency and improve genetic merit has occurred at a rapid pace to include embryo transfer (ET), ultrasonography, transgenics and cloning. Of all available reproductive technologies, University of Missouri (MU) animal scientist Michael Smith ranks estrus synchronization and artificial insemination (AI) among the most powerful and applicable.

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Feeding Straw to Beef Cattle

Feeding Straw to Beef Cattle

Johnny Rossi, Extension Animal Scientist, University of Georgia

Straw is a low quality feedstuff that can be used as an alternative to hay if properly supplemented with minerals, vitamins, and grain. Straw is best suited for dry pregnant cows because of their low nutrient requirements. Dry cows require about 52 to 55 percent TDN and 8 percent crude protein. Lactating cows require 58 to 60 percent TDN and 11 percent crude protein. Straw will require both supplemental TDN and crude protein. Straw has limited use in the diets of stocker calves or replacement heifers. Limit straw to 25 percent or less in the diets of growing cattle.

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Investigation Reveals Flaws in Meat Inspection System

Investigation Reveals Flaws in Meat Inspection System

Hoosier AG Today

  Following the Hallmark/Westland recall of 143 – million pounds of beef products earlier this year, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer requested an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General. The results of that investigation have been made known. The report says that while problems are not systemic, there are vulnerabilities in the inspection system that can lead to situations like Hallmark/Westland where there are humane handling and inspection violations.

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Allen elected KLA president

Allen elected KLA president

RICK PLUMLEE

The Wichita Eagle

Wichitan Todd Allen has been elected president of the Kansas Livestock Association.

Allen, who is president of the cattle feeding operations for Cargill Beef, will serve as the 5,500-member organization’s leader through KLA’s 2009 convention next December.

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Thin Cows Require More Feed Over the Winter – Frequently Asked Questions

Thin Cows Require More Feed Over the Winter – Frequently Asked Questions

Ropin’ the Web

            Do thin cows have more difficulty making it through the winter?

Thin cows have less fat cover than cows in good condition. Fat is a good insulator, which in turn helps reduce energy requirements to keep the animal warm. An additional 1200 pounds of hay is needed to feed a thin cow (condition score 2) versus a cow in good condition (score 3) through the winter. Lower critical temperatures – the point where a cow requires to generate heat from feed consumed to keep warm – is more of a concern with a thin cow. Thin animals cannot tolerate the cold as well as cows in good condition.

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Cattle Breeding: Crossbreeding & Maximizing Heterosis

Cattle Breeding: Crossbreeding & Maximizing Heterosis

cattlenetwork.com

Crossbreeding

Crossbreeding remains one of the most effective low-input, high return management practices that a beef cattle producer can adopt. Effective crossbreeding is more than simply  purchasing a bull and mating it to a cow of a different breed. Crossbreeding systems with varying degrees of complexity offer benefits in proportion to the increased management that they require.

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North Dakota beef cow tests positive for TB

North Dakota beef cow tests positive for TB

AG Professional

A North Dakota Beef herd is being tested for bovine tuberculosis, following the identification of a cow with a TB lesion at a Minnesota meat processing plant.

“We are in the early stages of the investigation, and complete results of the herd tests won’t be known for several weeks,” said Dr. Susan Keller, state veterinarian, Friday.

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Ranching For Profitability UNL Series

Ranching For Profitability UNL Series

KNEB

Ranchers can learn more about current issues and topics important to ranch management and beef production when the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension hosts the popular Ranching for Profitability meeting series across western and central Nebraska January 12-15.

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Report: SoCal slaughter plant abuse not systemic

Report: SoCal slaughter plant abuse not systemic

Hollister Free Lance

The Agriculture Department’s inspector general said Tuesday that there wasn’t a systemic failure behind the cattle abuse that led to the nation’s biggest beef recall last February.

But the IG also said in a report that better management controls are needed to prevent further incidents of the kind of abuse that happened at Southern California’s Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.

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Are livestock “emissions” causing global threat?

Are livestock “emissions” causing global threat?

John Sullivan

Times Herald-Record

According to experts on the front lines in the fight against global warming, the collective belching and defecating of cows and cattle is producing more harmful greenhouse gases than all the pollution from cars, trucks and airplanes combined.

Experts on climate warming suggest that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency consider regulating livestock emissions as part of a new court-awarded mandate to crack down on global warming. But New York farmers argue that such a policy would cost them $120 million a year, devastating their industry.

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Irish won’t halt beef sales despite dioxin scare

Irish won’t halt beef sales despite dioxin scare

SHAWN POGATCHNIKT

The Lompoc Record

Irish officials confirmed Tuesday that cattle at three farms have tested positive for dioxin _ the cancer-causing chemical that has contaminated its pork industry _ but insisted the country’s beef posed no real risk to health.

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Beef cattle industry changing due to economy

Beef cattle industry changing due to economy

Carl C. Stafford

Culpeper Star Exponent

The beef cattle industry is busy talking about what to do next as markets take away value from feeder cattle currently being held to higher weights or until markets turn around. Our sunk costs, those expenses that have already been fixed are at record high levels but some bright spots do exist.

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Geneticist Leaving MARC For Pfizer

Geneticist Leaving MARC For Pfizer

KNEB

Mark Allan, Ph.D is leaving the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) in Clay Center, Neb. to work for Pfizer Animal Genetics. Allan is leaving after five years a Research Geneticist for the United States Department of Agricultural Research Service. Allan provided leadership in DNA mapping of production traits in beef cattle, like feed efficiency and reproductive rate.

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Hearst Ranch Named 2008 California Beef Cattle Improvement Association Commercial Producer of the Year

Hearst Ranch Named 2008 California Beef Cattle Improvement Association Commercial Producer of the Year

Market Watch

The California Beef Cattle Improvement Association (CBCIA) named Hearst Ranch 2008 Commercial Producer of the Year. Spanning 153,000 acres, Hearst Ranch is one of the largest cattle ranching operations on the California coast and is the nation’s largest single-source supplier of free-range, all-natural, grass-fed beef.

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