What are the basic guidelines for clipping my calves?

What are the basic guidelines for clipping my calves?

Purina Mills Video

Why Should I Synchronize?

Why Should I Synchronize?

Select Sires

Getting the most out of your reproduction program is essential in today’s beef business. Today’s synchronization systems for cows and heifers are more reliable, more productive and more profitable than ever before. Synchronizing cattle reduces costs, saves labor and adds value to both your breeding herd and the calves you sell, creating opportunities for greater profit.

Full StoryPDF

How to Improve Your Percent Calf Crop

How to Improve Your Percent Calf Crop

Dan T. Brown, Extension Animal Scientist, University of Georgia

The number of calves sold is the major source of income from a cow and calf operation. A high percent calf crop increases profit.

Reproductive efficiency is the first factor to consider in a breeding program. A beef cow must conceive in the first 40 to 60 days of the breeding season, have a live calf unassisted, breed back to calve every 12 months, and raise a calf that is heavy enough to be profitable. To accomplish this, she must be managed correctly.

Full Story

Q&A: How do I predict mature weight in my bulls and cows assuming they are in a correct BCS?

Q&A:   How do I predict mature weight in my bulls and cows assuming they are in a correct BCS?

Dr. Rick Rasby, Professor of Animal Science,  Animal Science, University of Nebraska

A:   If you do not have a scales and want to predict weight, then you could use frame size. The table uses frame score at different ages and relates the frame score to body weight. It is assumed that the body condition of the cattle is BCS 5 in the 1 to 9 scale when the frame score is measured.

Full Story

Repro review

Repro review

The Cattle Business Weekly

Reproduction is often called the most important element for cow-calf operations – because without a successful breeding program there is no live calf to sell.

In early December, Colorado State University hosted its bi-annual Robert E. Taylor Memorial Symposium with the focus of this year’s program on improving the understanding and application of reproductive technologies, including AI, estrus synchronization and factors affecting male fertility.

Full Story

Improper Fetal Extractor Use Can Injure Calf And Or Cow

Improper Fetal Extractor Use Can Injure Calf And Or Cow

cattlenetwork.com

As most cows are now out on stalks or winter pasture and in the stage where they don’t require much labor other than feeding supplement and/or hay, and making sure they have access to open water, now is the time to begin planning for the calving season. Check your inventory of calvingrelated equipment and supplies to ensure that you have the right items available and in good working order.

Full Story

Credit still flowing for agribusiness

Credit still flowing for agribusiness

Steve Porter

Northern Colorado Business Report

Agribusiness is one sector of the economy that should not have a hard time getting credit in 2009 to buy equipment, raise cattle for market or get another crop to harvest.

Terry Anders, president and CEO of Mountain Plains Farm Credit Services in Greeley, said the nation’s Farm Credit System continues to be a reliable source of credit for the nation’s agribusiness community.

Full Story

Upcoming winter grazing conferences

Upcoming winter grazing conferences

The Cattle Business Weekly

Heart of America Grazing Conference headlines Joel Salatin

The Heart of America Grazing Conference will be Jan. 21-22, at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Columbus, IN. This five state conference includes Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri, and is hosted by Purdue Extension.

Full Story

Cattle Genomics: Frequently Asked Questions — Arthrogryposis Multiplex

Cattle Genomics: Frequently Asked Questions — Arthrogryposis Multiplex

cattlenetwork.com

Which animals should be tested?

Not all Angus-influenced animals will necessarily need to be tested. AM is believed to have originated with Rito 9J9 of B156 7T26, Registration No. 9682589. Therefore, animals descending from this bull should be highest priority for testing.

What if producers are unsure of an animal’s pedigree or its likelihood of being a carrier?

Animals with unknown pedigrees only need to be tested if producers to mate them to a known AM carrier or an animal of unknown AM status. Using AM-free sires on cows with unknown AM status will prevent AM calves, but not AM carriers.

Full Story

Farmers face 2009 with tempered hopes

Farmers face 2009 with tempered hopes

Nick Gardiner

The Recorder and TImes

Challenge and opportunity.

That’s pretty much situation-normal for farmers these days but it’s certainly no less so going ahead in 2009 as the world navigates through a withering economic crisis.

“Farmers gamble every day. You don’t need to go to the casino,” said Eleanor Renaud, a beef farmer near Frankville who is also local director for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

Consumer confidence, weather and the cost of doing business may be mostly beyond their control, but Renaud said farmers improve the odds by hedging their bets.

Full Story

Ranching for Profitability meeting series set for Jan. 12-15 at various Nebraska locations

Ranching for Profitability meeting series set for Jan. 12-15 at various Nebraska locations

The Fence Post

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.

Full Story

Why Am I Feeding All This Hay?

Why Am I Feeding All This Hay?

cattlenetwork.com

How about this for a New Year’s resolution? Feed less hay next winter. There is nothing you can do about your forage situation for the remainder of this winter, aside from selling cattle or buying more hay. However, if you start planning now, you can put yourself in a position to drastically reduce the amount of hay that you will need to feed next year.

Full Story

Cattle Identification: Freeze Branding

Cattle Identification: Freeze Branding

Authors: John B. Hall, Extension Animal Scientist, Beef; Scott P. Greiner, Extension Animal Scientist, Beef/Sheep; and Cynthia Gregg, Extension Agent, Brunswick County; Virginia Tech

Individual animal identification is essential if beef producers are to properly manage animals and their production records. Yet at present, less than 50 percent of the cattle in the United States have any form of individual identification (USDA-APHIS, 1997). This means most operations are severely hindered in their ability to make selection decisions based on animal performance. Even day-to-day operations such as pairing cows and calves or re-treating a sick animal are made more difficult by the lack of animal identification.

Full Story

Cattle Preconditioning: Common Internal Parasites

Cattle Preconditioning: Common Internal Parasites

cattlenetwork.com

Although there are many species of worm parasites harbored in the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts of cattle, only a few target species are clinically and economically important. These include the brown stomach worm Ostertagia the coccidia Eimeria bovis and the lungworm Dictyocaulus. These are of great significance throughout the United States and worldwide, with Ostertagia considered the single most important parasite of cattle. And this is true for native Missouri cattle as well as for cattle imported into Missouri.

Full Story

Cattle group seeks concessions from packer

Cattle group seeks concessions from packer

TOM LUTEY

The Bilings Gazette

A Billings-based cattle group is calling on the world’s largest meatpacker to surrender its Western feedlots as part of a settlement agreement with state and federal antitrust lawyers.

Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund USA contends that getting Brazilian based JBS S.A. to surrender its feedlots is crucial to Montana cow-calf operations, which are faced with fewer buyers and less competition for their product.

Full Story