Video Feature: From babies to backfat, Ultrasound

Video Feature: From babies to backfat, Ultrasound

Ultrasound technology has made its way as a tool for use in assessing human development to that of meat production potential in beef cattle. Learn more at www.FeedstuffsFoodLink.com

How Will You Be Impacted If A Carbon Tax Is Imposed To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

How Will You Be Impacted If A Carbon Tax Is Imposed To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

The Farm Gate

Climate change legislation was approved in the U.S. House of Representatives last month and the Senate will consider similar legislation when Members return after Labor Day. The contentious debate saw most agricultural organizations in opposition because of higher costs that farmers would have to pay, versus the uncertainty of any real financial benefits from carbon sequestration payments. But until the latter is calculated, what is the real cost?

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Position Announcement: Executive Vice President Georgia Cattlemen’s Association

Position Announcement:   Executive Vice President Georgia Cattlemen’s Association

cattlenetwork.com

The Georgia Cattlemen’s Association (GCA) is seeking an individual to fill the position of Executive Vice President (EVP). Responsibilities include: work and communicate with local chapters throughout the state, including leadership training and chapter development; assisting in membership recruitment and retention; and presenting Georgia Cattlemen’s Association and Georgia Beef Board (GBB) programs during chapter events as needed; represent the beef industry at GCA, GBB and Georgia Junior Cattlemen’s Association (GJCA) activities and other agriculture events; work with Georgia livestock markets to promote the beef checkoff, encourage checkoff compliance and promote the beef industry; oversee GCA, GBB and GJCA program implementation, and; coordinate as needed with GCA office manager.

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Planning a Feeding Program

Planning a Feeding Program

Dr. Chip Poland, Area Livestock Specialist, Dickinson R/E Center, North Dakota State University

Most beef cow and sheep producers in the Northern Great Plains have a substantial forage base (both grazed and harvested) that provides the majority of nutrients to their operation. Appropriately matching available forages to animal demands for nutrients throughout the year is essential for profitable and sustainable livestock production. Secondary to this balancing act, is the need for determining when nutrient demands of livestock are not being fully met and how to go about alleviating these inherent deficits. Appropriately allocating forages and identification of a potential need for supplemental feed is the basis behind planned feeding programs.

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Carcass Weight: The Secret of Chromosome Six

Carcass Weight: The Secret of Chromosome Six

Thebeefsite.com

An area of chromosome 6 that affects cattle carcass weight has been identified using two different Japanese species.

Knowledge of this four-gene region, described in the open access journal BMC Genetics, should be useful in breeding beef cattle.

Akiko Takasuga, from the Shirakawa Institute of Animal Genetics, led a team of researchers who studied Japanese Black and Japanese Brown cattle, two breeds that have survived separately for thousands of years.

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Climate Bill to cost Montana money, jobs

Climate Bill to cost Montana money, jobs

Montana Farm Bureau

The Montana Farm Bureau Federation continues to express dismay with the House-passed Waxman-Markey climate change bill. The organization echoed the words of American Farm Bureau Federation President Stallman who told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that without all countries adopting similar actions, the U.S. would be “embarking on a fools’ errand.”

AFBF is opposed to H.R. 2454, the House-passed climate change bill being examined by the Senate and that will serve as the basis for writing a Senate companion bill.

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Animal welfare at center of debate

Animal welfare at center of debate

Holly Klaft

Advocates for Agriculture

A pair of bills being considered in the state House regarding animal welfare are creating contention between animal-rights groups and farmers.

The bills would set industry-recommended care standards, require farms to be audited by a third party hired by the state and establish a 10-member animal-care advisory council that would review standards set by the legislation at least every five years.

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Cattle Dodge The Worst Of Food Safety Bill

Cattle Dodge The Worst Of Food Safety Bill

BEEF Magazine

The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (FSEA) passed by the House of Representatives last week would apparently spare livestock producers from key concerns voiced by cattlemen.

According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the final House bill clarifies that livestock are exempt from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation – including on-farm inspections and additional authorities currently under the jurisdiction of USDA. Final language in the bill also includes clarifications to traceability and record-keeping provisions contained in the bill.

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K-State Campus is Perfect Place for Bio-Lab

K-State Campus is Perfect Place for Bio-Lab

Beth Bohn

KSAL

When it comes to animal disease outbreaks, Steve Henry, a practicing veterinarian from Abilene, knows from long experience that speed and accuracy in diagnosis, testing and treatment are essential in stopping a disease from spreading.

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NCBA: Legislation Providing Death Tax Relief Welcome

NCBA: Legislation Providing Death Tax Relief Welcome

AgWeb.com

Congressmen Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and John Salazar (D-Colo.) introduced legislation that would provide farmers and ranchers relief from the death tax, according to a press release from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).

H.R. 3524, the Family Farm Preservation and Conservation Estate Tax Act, would exempt working farm and ranch land from the death tax, as long as the land is kept in production agriculture. Should the land be used or sold for other purposes, a recapture tax would be imposed.

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Lower hay prices help ranchers cope with drought impact

Lower hay prices help ranchers cope with drought impact

Ching Lee

California Farm Bureau

Scattered across the parched, brown hillsides of Alameda County in Livermore, rancher Dan Marciel’s cattle scrounge for any last trace of forage left on the pasture as he pulls bales of hay from his pickup.

Hay has been a precious commodity in recent years due to soaring costs. Many California ranchers have had to forego purchasing hay, opting instead to shrink their herds when the state’s drought-ravaged rangeland left little on the ground for cattle to eat.

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Beef Cattle Nutrition Workshop planned for Aug. 13

Beef Cattle Nutrition Workshop planned for Aug. 13

Kay Ledbetter, Texas A&M

North Texas e-news

Monitoring forage intake and quality is a critical element of cattle herd health and profitability, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service specialists and agents.

A free Beef Cattle Nutrition Workshop on Aug. 13 on the Chisum Ranch headquarters in Roberts County, will focus on evaluating forage supply and demand. The workshop will open with a noon lunch provided by Panhandle Plains Land Bank and the program will begin at 12:45 p.m.

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Tri-State Cow-Calf Conference

Tri-State Cow-Calf Conference

Dr. Emmit L. Rawls, Professor – Agricultural Economics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

A Tri-State Cow-Calf Conference will be held at the fairgrounds at Gray, Tennessee on September 22 and 23, 2009.  A tour of three Tennessee cow-calf operations will take place at 1:00 p.m. followed by a light supper and brief program on September 22 with an 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. meeting on September 23.

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The Impact Of Reducing The Length Of The Calving Seaso

The Impact Of Reducing The Length Of The Calving Season

cattlenetwork.com

With the profitability of a cow-calf operation more difficult to obtain, reducing the length of the calving season can be the first step toward improved production efficiency. In a 2009 USDA survey, 54.5% of the beef cattle operations, accounting for 34.1% of the beef cows did not have a set calving season. About one-third of the operations (34%) had one breeding season, and these operations accounted for 48.4% of the beef cows.

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Farm Real-Estate Values Post Rare Decline

Farm Real-Estate Values Post Rare Decline

LAUREN ETTER

Farm real-estate values fell for the first time in more than 20 years, according to government statistics released Tuesday.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said in its annual report that the value of all land and buildings on U.S. farms averaged $2,100 an acre Jan. 1, down 3.2% from last year. The decline in farm real-estate values was the first since 1987, the agency said.

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