Baxter Black, DVM: JAKE WORKING OVERTIME

Baxter Black, DVM:  JAKE WORKING OVERTIME

In an effort to make managing the 20 section ranch more efficiently, the boss bought Jake a Ranger, a 4-wheel drive muscle car ATV.

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One Cow, One Calf, Every Year

One Cow, One Calf, Every Year

Progressive Farmer/DTN

Rhonda Brooks

One high-quality calf per cow, every 12 months. That’s the No. 1 goal for Ohio cattleman Keith Burgett and his sons, Phillip and Bryan.

To reach that objective consistently, the Burgetts use detailed management practices with their seedstock herd of 260-plus Black and Red Angus.

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Happiness is a Dead Animal

Happiness is a Dead Animal

Gary Truitt

Hoosier AG Today

Consumers have a split personality when it comes to animals and meat. They love “happy cows” making California cheese, and they get outraged when they see downer animals in PETA videos and want chickens to run free. Yet, they also demand that their meat products be low-cost, government-inspected, tasty, and easy to prepare.

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Steve Cornett: How Would You Spend the Checkoff Dollar?

Steve Cornett:  How Would You Spend the Checkoff Dollar?

Beef Today

If the folks who allocate your beef checkoff dollars asked, where would you suggest they spend the most time and money? What is the most important problem facing the cattle industry?

I bring it up because they did just that. They asked.

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Cattle award-winner shares the success

Cattle award-winner shares the success

CRAIG D. REBER

Thonline.com

Mark Riechers and his family, who operate Riechers Beef located west of Darlington, feed and market 1,000 to 1,400 steers annually — enough to meet the needs of a Platteville-sized community for a year.

Last weekend, Riechers received the 2010 Cattleman of the Year from the Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association.

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Commentary: What I Would Tell The President

Commentary: What I Would Tell The President

Steve Foglesong, NCBA President

BEEF Magazine

In talking to cattlemen and women across the U.S., I’ve discovered when all is said and done, cattle people are optimists. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be in the cattle business. On our operation in central Illinois, we’re about to start calving, just like some of you.

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The Future of Cattle Feeding

The Future of Cattle Feeding

Ryan Cody

NewsChannel 10

Ethanol production in the United States is becoming bigger business by the day. And all of the ethanol plants popping up across the nation use corn to produce their product. But not all parts of an ear of corn are necessary for that production, leaving a valuable by-product that could be the future of cattle feeding in our area.

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UNL Research Focuses on Mycobacterial Diseases

UNL Research Focuses on Mycobacterial Diseases

KRVN

Tuberculosis kills humans at the rate of one every 15-20 seconds, while bovine tuberculosis and Johne’s disease can cause economic losses in the range of billions to the beef and dairy cattle industries. What ties these diseases together is that all are caused by mycobacteria, bacteria with unusually thick, waxy cell walls that make them especially hardy and difficult to fight.

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U.S. Weighs How to Track Diseased Livestock

U.S. Weighs How to Track Diseased Livestock

SCOTT KILMAN

Wall Street Journal

The meat industry is up in arms over a federal decision to abandon a $120 million livestock-tracking system designed to limit the economic and human-health impact of animal-disease outbreaks.

Meatpackers worry that a narrower program proposed by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack could exacerbate worries abroad about U.S. meat exports, while state officials are concerned the federal government is creating a new regulatory burden for which states have scant resources.

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Carcass Data Maintains Producer Focus

Carcass Data Maintains Producer Focus

Clifford Mitchell

Cattle Today

The humbling nature of the beef business has changed more than one rugged, tough cowboy. As cattlemen work away from authoritarian into more of a listening mode, most try to soak up each nugget of information that may help establish future production parameters. The elusive word profitability always tied to most of this information.

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Watch Stored Grain So Little Problems Don’t Become Big

Watch Stored Grain So Little Problems Don’t Become Big

Thebeefsite.com

Some people are worried about possible freezing, thawing and refreezing of grain, resulting in hard-to-handle chunks. But keeping the grain just about the freezing point of water should prevent this from happening. If the grain is below freezing now, running aeration fans when the outdoor air is just above freezing should reduce problems.

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Racketeering Lawsuit Filed Against HSUS

Racketeering Lawsuit Filed Against HSUS

Western Livestock Journal

In a landmark RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuit certain to have far-reaching implications for the animal rights movement, Feld Entertainment and the Ringling Brothers circus sued the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), its lawyers, and several other animal rights groups last week. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) unearthed the lawsuit in federal court records today. CCF is making the lawsuit available online at its newest website, www.HumaneWatch.org.

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Picture Perfect

Picture Perfect

Allan McGinty

Beef Today

Almost everyone has a digital camera or a cell phone with a camera, and these can be useful tools for monitoring forage in pastures.

Monitoring rangeland is important because it improves your ability to make proper decisions. Rangelands are complex. Any given pasture may be composed of several different range sites, each with different plant communities.

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Replacement Females: Better to Buy or Raise?

Replacement Females: Better to Buy or Raise?

The Cattleman

Cow numbers are down and producers are analyzing their options, weighing the costs and considering what move to make next.

Many producers have sold off their older cows due to age and, drought, and many have cut their numbers because they have less forage and hay going into winter due to decreased fertilization this past year.

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Yellow Tail turns tail on HSUS – $100,000 donation to HSUS declared a mistake

Yellow Tail turns tail on HSUS – $100,000 donation to HSUS declared a mistake

Janet Ford

Examiner.com

Yellow Tail, an Australian based winemaker received a lot of press over their $100,000 donation to the HSUS. That may have been their intent from the beginning in their efforts to grow their brand here in the US but the type of press the winemaker received was anything but positive.

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