Advice To Bank On
Kindra Gordon
Angus Journal
Tough financial times require better financial management. That’s the mantra that farmers and ranchers need to be reminding themselves during this uncertain economy. So, how can you get better about managing your finances? Sandy Priest, a financial officer with Farm Credit Services of America — in the heart of ranch country at Broken Bow, Neb. — offers these five tips:
Posted in Uncategorized
Of Udder Importance
KATRINA WATERS
The Cattleman
They are usually associated with dairy herds, but udder problems, including mastitis, are costly for beef cattle producers, too. At a 2008 TSCRA member gathering in Cleburne, Dr. Glenn Rogers spoke briefly on the topic, one he considers important and underestimated among beef cattle producers, especially outside of seedstock operations.
Posted in Uncategorized
Former Ag Secretary Questions Climate Change Benefits for Ag
Gary Truitt
Hoosier AG Today
US agriculture groups are divided on whether climate change legislation, now being crafted in Congress, will benefit farms or produce burdensome regulations and increase costs. Former Secretary of Agriculture John Block (1981-86) is one that questions the touted benefits of the legislation, “The legislation is very complicated, and most people don’t understand what it will do.
Posted in Uncategorized
Diversification, niche markets key to success for Deer Forks Ranch
Gayle Smith
The Fence Post
In American agriculture, some of the most successful operators are those who don’t put their eggs into one basket. At the Deer Forks Ranch, the producers have diversified and looked toward niche markets to keep the nearly 50 year-old family ranch thriving.
Posted in Uncategorized
Corn-fed vs. grass-fed
Monica Eng
Fox17online.com
Beef conference raises some interesting questions about what consumers want in their meat.
Food enthusiasts brought their curiosity — and some beefs about the cattle industry — to the recent Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance conference on "Beef, From Plains to the Plate."
Posted in Uncategorized
Idaho college class offers new skills to old business
SHARON STRAUSS
The Idaho Press Tribune
After a lifetime of family ranching, a local couple now manages their operation with more business savvy thanks to the help of a class designed to help people in agriculture make better financial decisions.
It’s a sign of how the valley’s traditional agricultural roots can merge with its increasingly urban business environment.
Posted in Uncategorized
Ken Midkiff: Absolutely nothing further from the truth
Joplin Globe
The Missouri Pork Producers Association, the Poultry Federation and other advocates for agribusiness have labeled those concerned about concentrated animal feeding operation as “anti-CAFO”.
The implication is that the many, many organizations (including the Pew Commission, Johns Hopkins Medical Center and the American Public Health Association) finding fault with CAFOs are just knee-jerk opposed to non-traditional agricultural practices.
Posted in Uncategorized
Beef Cattle Reproductive Strategies Workshop slated for Jan. 28 and 29
High Plains Journal
The Beef Reproduction Task Force and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is teaming up to offer the Applied Reproductive Strategies in Beef Cattle Workshop at the 2010 Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio Jan. 28 and 29, 2010.
Posted in Uncategorized
Symposium Draws Big Names in Beef Industry
Missouri Ruralist
Missouri Livestock Symposium set for Dec. 4-5 in Kirksville.
The Missouri Livestock Symposium has announced its lineup of beef section speakers, and according to Symposium Chair Garry Mathes, the program includes several "big hitters."
The lineup includes Lee Leachman, who will give two talks. In the first talk, Leachman will offer "2010′s Top Profit Tips." His second talk will be on "Selecting for Feed Efficiency".
Posted in Uncategorized
Outstanding YF&R Finalist – Ernest J. Bailes IV
Texas Farm Bureau
They replaced their dairy stock with more beef cattle—he runs more than 200-head of commercial cattle and registered Angus stock today—while at the same time purchasing a nearby tract of primarily timber acreage.
Posted in Uncategorized
Moving manure: It can be a “drag”
Urban C. Lehner
TriState Livestock News
Using manure as fertilizer benefits bottom line and the environment
Commercial agriculture’s critics idealize farms that raise both crops and livestock and use the manure as fertilizer. Here in central Indiana, Meadowlane Farms lives that idea, though not in the Jeffersonian-yeoman, small-plot fashion the critics worship.
Posted in Uncategorized
The Beef Checkoff is starting a food fight
High Plains Journal
With a virtually constant flow of anti-meat rhetoric in mainstream media of late, it’s easy to get frustrated when you (beef and dairy producers) are working the land and cattle in environmentally sound and caring ways. Of particular concern is the fact that so many of the attacks on our industry are based on unfounded information and emotional pleas rather than facts or science.
Posted in Uncategorized
Holy cow! What a hobby
Janet Podolak
The News Herald
The pure bred Black Angus cattle raised in Auburn Township by Craig Sirna and his family meet their destiny as ground beef for those who want healthy, good-tasting meat.
During the spring-through-fall market season, the meat is sold by the Sirnas at their farm market and at farmers markets throughout the area.
The whole animal — steaks, filets and all — is processed into ground beef. The result, Sirna says, is 90 percent-lean beef that’s lower in both fat and calories and higher in omega-3 fatty acids — the so-called "good fats."
Posted in Uncategorized
Power Grab Threatens US Agriculture
Gary Truitt
Hoosier AG Today
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan picked an Illinois hog farmer to run the USDA. For the next 8 years John Block was a tireless spokesman for the interests and values of American farmers. He oversaw a revamping US farm policy from the supply control approach of the 1970s to the market driven approach of the 1985 Farm Bill.
Posted in Uncategorized
How you really get your food
The Gazette
With everyone from New York City to Hollywood adding their 2 cents about how food is raised these days, it’s important you hear from the people who are actually doing the raising.
I am a cattle rancher from Simla, Colo. Simla is located near what some would call the end of the earth on the eastern plains of Colorado.
Posted in Uncategorized
