Lawmakers seeking delay of mad cow rule

Lawmakers seeking delay of mad cow rule

The Garden City Telegram

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thirty members of Congress are calling for a delay on new rules that are intended to keep mad-cow disease out of the food supply but have created problems in disposing of dead cattle.

A spokesman for the Nebraska congressman leading the charge said Thursday the rules could make it more difficult to dispose of dead livestock.

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Snow Storm Closes Meat Plants In U.S. Plains

Snow Storm Closes Meat Plants In U.S. Plains

The Post Chronicle

A big snowstorm that began early Friday caused several meat plants to curtail operations in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

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Welfare or Warfare?

Welfare or Warfare?

DVM

Rating the mission/philosophy of organizations, the role of government and direction of veterinary medicine.

From positions on ear-cropping to sow housing, animal-welfare questions are capturing consumer headlines. DVM Newsmagazine asked veterinarians to share their opinions on the issues.

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Government may consider mandatory animal tagging system

Government may consider mandatory animal tagging system

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ

The Fresno Bee

Cattle rancher Seth Nitschke is not one to mince words when it comes to a proposal to create a mandatory federal animal-tracking system.

“I am just not in favor of it,” said Nitschke, a Newman-based rancher who raises grass-fed beef on about 650 acres in Catheys Valley and Turlock. “I think most farmers are pretty independent, and we don’t want any form of government telling us what we should do and not do.” Nitschke may be typical of the small but vocal minority who oppose the U.S.

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Cattle in Missouri rustled by the trailer load

Cattle in Missouri rustled by the trailer load

LAURA BAUER

The Kansas City Star

They pull their trailers up in the middle of the night, often working by the light of a full moon.

In quickstep, they throw up some panels to pen in the cattle. Maybe they let loose a couple of dogs to help corral them. And then it’s time to rattle the buckets of corn.

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New British foot and mouth case confirmed

this story was posted in error, it originally ran 3-30 2007

Cattlemen agree rotating stock is best management practice

Cattlemen agree rotating stock is best management practice

David Burton

Springfield News Leader

Rotational or management intensive grazing was rated as the best management practice being used by cattlemen at the 40th annual “Monett Beef Cattlemen’s Conference” held earlier this month at the National Guard Armory in Monett.

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Jack Dillard: Profit can be made in cattle business if we’re ready for change

Jack Dillard: Profit can be made in cattle business if we’re ready for change

Shreveport TImes

The national media’s sudden knowledge that our cattle numbers are dropping is making the front pages of the press from the local weeklies to the worldwide distributed news. For the past decade, we have seen shrinking cattle herds across America. Why?

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New cattle-slaughter rule tough to enforce?

New cattle-slaughter rule tough to enforce?

BEKAH PORTER

I remember it well.

Around this time last year, the nation watched in horror as workers at California slaughtering company Westland/Hallmark Meat used forklifts, electric prods and water hoses to move cows too sick to walk to the killing floor.

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A way of life slips out of range

A way of life slips out of range

Mike Anton

Los Angles Times

Reporting from Ramona, Calif. — The highway is jammed with people who wanted to live in the country inching their way toward jobs in the city. A few miles and a universe away, the last cowboy is making a living in what’s left of that country.

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BeefTalk: Horses and Beef, They Still Go Together

BeefTalk: Horses and Beef, They Still Go Together

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Annual Horse Production Costs Annual Horse Production Costs

The cost of raising beef cattle continues to go up, as does the cost of maintaining a working ranch horse, which affects the bottom line of the beef business.

The other day was difficult. The discussion centered on the horse industry as the Dickinson Research Extension Center was reviewing program costs. As the horse program was discussed, the updated costs were noted.

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Succeeding in tough times, six strategies

Succeeding in tough times, six strategies

Kindra Gordon

The Cattle Business Weekly

“The good times will come again,” says Vincent Amanor-Boadu, an agribusiness professor at Kansas State University, in speaking about today’s current economic downturn.

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Mississippi Breeders Inducted into AICA Hall of Fame

Mississippi Breeders Inducted into AICA Hall of Fame

Cattle Today

At the AICA Spring Board of Directors Meeting, March 1-2, in Kansas City, Mo., Harlan and Dorotheann Rogers were welcomed into the AICA Hall of Fame as nominated by fellow breeders for numerous years of outstanding excellence of raising Charolais cattle.

Harlan and Dorotheann Rogers live on their 2,000 plus-acre ranch, Rogers Bar HR, near the town of Collins, Miss., where they run over 700 registered Charolais cattle and 9,000 commercial heifers. Their four sons, Oby, Bernie, Doug and Joey are involved in the operation and various businesses in Covington County.

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Farmers face growing climate change dilemma: scientist

Farmers face growing climate change dilemma: scientist

David Fogarty

Scientific American

Farmers of the future will have to use cattle and sheep that belch less methane, crops that emit far less planet-warming nitrous oxide and become experts in reporting their greenhouse gas emissions to the government.

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Beef Industry Fights for Room at the Table

Beef Industry Fights for Room at the Table

The Westerner

The U.S. beef industry is trying to fight recession-related woes by promoting new, cheaper cuts from less popular parts of the steer and pushing beef harder overseas. The industry’s moves mirror those of restaurants, supermarkets and packaged-food companies seeking ways to entice budget-conscious consumers who are dining out less and looking for ways to economize at home.

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Efforts to Keep Ag. and Ranching Alive

Efforts to Keep Ag. and Ranching Alive

The Independent

A tour last week of a ranch in Sunol provided insights into how ranchland and agriculture ares being preserved in this area. The obstacles to preservation were discussed as well. There was also a presentation on the potential for and importance of locally grown commodities.

     The tour was sponsored by the Alameda County Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and hosted by Rancher Tim Koopman. Phil Wente discussed local products. Among those in attendance were representatives from Alameda County and staff from the cities of Livermore and Pleasanton.

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Vanishing Breed, In Growing Demand

Vanishing Breed, In Growing Demand 

Andrew Jenner

Harrisonburg’s T&E Meats Serves As One Of Few Links Between Local Meat Producers And Consumers

Daily News Record

The T&E Meats building sits along Charles Street on the north side of Harrisonburg, one of the neighborhood’s many squat, nondescript and easily-overlooked industrial buildings. And in another sense, it sits on lonely ground as a local, federally-inspected meat processing facility – an essential link between growers and consumers  of animals.

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Lawmakers ask for delay of new BSE rule

Lawmakers ask for delay of new BSE rule

KRVN

Members of Congress are asking the federal government to delay new rules intended to keep mad cow disease out of the food supply. Led by Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and joined by Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt, the lawmakers say the new rules create problems for getting rid of cattle carcasses

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Growth in beef exports needed, say producers

Growth in beef exports needed, say producers

ALEX BINKLEY

Peace Country Sun

Expanding export opportunities and reducing unnecessary regulations are the best ways to restore profitability to the Canadian beef industry, cattle producers have told the Commons agriculture committee.

About 65 per cent of the beef produced in Canada is consumed by Canadians but that is a fairly stable market facing increased competition from imports, John Gillespie, a beef producer and chairman of the Beef Information Centre, told the committee last week.

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Hoosier Ag Groups Come Together in New Office

Hoosier Ag Groups Come Together in New Office

 Gary Truitt

Hoosier AG Today

You have heard of the TV sit-com “The Office;” now Indiana commodity groups have come together for their own version. It has been an idea kicked around for years, to bring together Hoosier commodity groups in one location. That is now beginning to happen, as the Indiana soybean, corn, pork, and beef organizations have all moved their headquarters to the same location.

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