Market Advisor: Will H1N1 Flu Affect Cattle and Beef Prices?

Market Advisor: Will H1N1 Flu Affect Cattle and Beef Prices?

Tim Petry, Livestock Marketing Economist

The Cattle Business Weekly

Will the H1N1 (swine flu) influenza virus affect cattle and beef prices? The short answer to that question is yes. However, the total magnitude of the impact

is difficult to forecast at this time.

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Black Ink: Maximize only balance

Black Ink:  Maximize only balance

Miranda Reiman

Stop trying to get maximum production. No more topping last year’s average daily gains, enough with the peak efficiencies and quit angling for record marbling scores every time.

Does that advice cause a pause?

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BeefTalk: Calving Date Equals Latitude and Altitude

BeefTalk: Calving Date Equals Latitude and Altitude

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

As cow-calf producers, we understand where we live, but when we seek advice, we often seek that advice from those who live elsewhere.

As with any major change within a beef operation, each change needs to be thought out and penciled through. Recently, the bull turnout and subsequent calving date have been the focus of considerable discussion.

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Effects of the U.S. horse slaughter ban

Effects of the U.S. horse slaughter ban

Rita Brhel

Capital Press

That horse owners around the nation are starting to feel desperate in finding ways to unload their aging and unwanted stock, is an understatement.

Earlier this month, at least one horse owner hauled his live horse to the Fremont County landfill near St. Anthony, Idaho, before shooting it and unloading the carcass into the dead animal pit.

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Vaccination Time Is Around The Corner- Is Your Refrigerator Ready?

Vaccination Time Is Around The Corner- Is Your Refrigerator Ready?

cattlenetwork.com

Producers know that springtime brings calves and breeding time; however, what most producers don’t think about is How is the refrigerator working? Many producers think that if they hear the motor running, the refrigerator is  working fine and there is no need to worry. Think again! A case study conducted by Arkansas researchers dispelled the myth that if the motor is running, everything is fine. The refrigerator that stores all those animal health products is usually a very overlooked piece of equipment that is just as important as any other tool on a farm, maybe more so.

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The Impact of Influenza on Beef Markets

The Impact of Influenza on Beef Markets

Thebeefsite.com

Even the name has huge implications. Early references to the swine flu have left the pork industry reeling from a variety of impacts. Recognition that this new strain of flu is a combination of swine, avian and human components has led most officials to begin using the name influenza A (H1N1).

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Trace Mineral Deficiencies Can Cause Problems in Herd

Trace Mineral Deficiencies Can Cause Problems in Herd

Heather Smith Thomas

Cattle Today

Some minerals, like calcium and phosphorus, are required in fairly large amounts by the body, but deficiency is generally not a problem because these macro-minerals are often present in high levels in many feeds. Other minerals are needed in very tiny amounts and are thus called trace minerals, but they are also very important to the health of the animal. Serious problems can occur if diet is deficient in these crucial minerals.

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Ground to dust at the hooves of cows

Ground to dust at the hooves of cows

David Fix

Times-Standard

Editor’s note: Stories of this ilk are included in the blog to inform those in our industry how agriculture is being presented to and perceived by the public.

Cattleman Jeff Eisenberg was quoted as stating that environmental groups are attempting to “eliminate the families and communities that have made the West what it is today.” Oh, please! This is old-time fear-mongering. Those groups are not trying to eliminate people. They’re simply trying to reduce the damage done by cattle, which is largely out of public sight and, hence, out of mind. Grazing on public lands in the West today is essentially nothing but a free lunch for federally subsidized ranchers whose cows, in their millions, constitute a most potent earth-changing force: ruining streamsides, breaking branches, polluting waterways, abetting gully creation, and altering and simplifying the makeup and structure of ancient grasslands and shrub steppes.

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Little effect from food labeling

Little effect from food labeling

Argen Duncan

PNTonline.com

Almost two months into the use of country of origin labeling for a variety of raw foods, producers and stores are seeing small effects.

March 16, federally mandated rules went into effect to require that numerous foods must be labeled with country of origin. Included on the list are muscle cuts and ground portions of beef, lamb, pork, chicken and goat; fish and shellfish; fruit and vegetables; unroasted peanuts, pecans and macadamia nuts; ginseng and some processed foods, such as roasted peanuts.

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Higher costs equal smaller cattle herds

Higher costs equal smaller cattle herds

Capital Press

High costs are one reason many South Dakota cattle raisers are managing smaller herds, an ag official and a rancher say.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the 225,000 cattle on feed in April was unchanged from a year ago in South Dakota.

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Senate resolution says fee for animal emissions stinks

Senate resolution says fee for animal emissions stinks

Marc Kovac

Vindy.com

Livestock flatulence is considered a pollutant under the U.S. Clean Air Act.

State lawmakers took a pre-emptive strike Wednesday against a potential federal tax on livestock flatulence.

The state Senate, on a 30-2 vote, adopted a resolution urging federal officials to refrain from plans to charge fees to farmers for livestock emissions.

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Way To Cut Cattle Methane, Threat To Environment, By 25 Percent

 Way To Cut Cattle Methane, Threat To Environment, By 25 Percent

ScienceDaily

Beef farmers can breathe easier thanks to University of Alberta researchers who have developed a formula to reduce methane gas in cattle.

By developing equations that balance starch, sugar, cellulose, ash, fat and other elements of feed, a Canada-wide team of scientists has given beef producers the tools to lessen the methane gas their cattle produce by as much as 25 per cent.

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BVD: Virus Survival & Animal Health

BVD: Virus Survival & Animal Health

cattlenetwork.com

Herd signs will vary depending upon the type of animals you have (cow/calf vs. stocker vs. feedlot), the age at first infection (prior to or after the animal is born), and the level of immunity to the organism.

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New kind of beef for Cherokee

New kind of beef for Cherokee

Sarah Gengler

Chronicle Times

Beef month brings about a whole new kind of beef for the Cherokee area, with a group of six local men creating a limited liability corporation to expand the Cherokee County Beef LLC.

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Artificial insemination easy, profitable

Artificial insemination easy, profitable

Tim Hearden

Capital Press

Though artificial insemination of cattle has been practiced for about 70 years, Herb Holzapfel calls it the best-kept secret in the commercial cattle industry.

Holzapfel, who raises beef cattle on ranches in Northern California and eastern Oregon, said many small operators think the process is too difficult or that they don’t have the proper facilities.

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