Baxter Black, DVM: KATRINA’S GOOD SPORTS

Baxter Black, DVM:  KATRINA’S GOOD SPORTS

In the fall of 2008, before the election, as the recession crashed down around us I gave up on politics.  It appeared that no one on either side, on Wall Street, in Detroit or in the media had a clue.

Full Story

Indiana Sets the Standard on Animal Care

Indiana Sets the Standard on Animal Care

Gary Truitt

Hoosier AG Today

In Ohio, Michigan, and several other states, the issue of who should set the standards for animal care is a controversial battle between farmers and radical animal rights groups. But in Indiana the issue has been settled without a fight and may set the slandered for the rest of the nation.

Full Story

CattleSense: Feeding The Immune System

CattleSense: Feeding The Immune System

Bovine Veternarian

We intuitively know we want healthy herds. Disease prevention is not only basic to animal welfare, it also carries economic value. Performance (rate and composition of growth and reproductive efficiency) is driven by chronologic age, physiologic age, nutrient intake, hormone status, net tissue turnover, cell numbers, and cell activity. . . and disease can negatively impact all of these except chronologic age.

Full Story

Col. Ray Sims to Receive Saddle and Sirloin Honor

Col. Ray Sims to Receive Saddle and Sirloin Honor

American Angus

At a recent meeting, the Kentucky State Fair Board — upon recommendation of the Saddle and Sirloin Committee — approved Col. Ray Sims of Raymore, Mo., as the recipient of the Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Award. It is the highest honor bestowed upon influential leaders of the livestock industry as awarded by their peers.

Full Story

New D.C. animal group poses danger for ranchers

New D.C. animal group poses danger for ranchers

Mike Mehren, Oregon Feed and Grain Association

Natural Resource Report

This little beauty will be quite a bit different than any of my columns. This is about an organization calling itself ‘Global Animal Partnership’. The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Members of the Board include Wayne Pacelle of the H.S.U.S. and Steven Gross from P.E.T.A. Neither of these groups represented on their board have been friends of animal agriculture.

Full Story

Match cattle size to forage resources

Match cattle size to forage resources

Donald Stotts, Oklahoma State University

Southwest Farm Pres

Commercial cow-calf operators must become more cost-efficient to maintain or improve profit margins, making matching animals to forage resources more important than ever.

Land, fertilizer, feed, fuel and labor costs continue to increase relative to the value of carcass beef and weaned calves, says David Lalman, Oklahoma State University professor of animal science.

Full Story

Steering toward Calhoun Stockyard

Steering toward Calhoun Stockyard

Doug Walker

Calhoun Times

Agriculture remains the single largest industry in Georgia, despite dwindling numbers of producers. Like just about every other sector of the economy, fewer numbers of farmers are being called on to feed a growing population.

Full Story

The Nutritional Superiority of Pasture Raised Animals

The Nutritional Superiority of Pasture Raised Animals

David Kirby

Huffington Post

You are what you eat – and the same goes for the animals whose meat, milk and eggs you put in your mouth. We should not only be concerned about what we eat, but what our food eats as well.

Full Story

Winter Keeps On Giving

Winter Keeps On Giving

BEEF Magazine

“The extreme winter weather has exacerbated the seasonal decline in dressed weights of cattle slaughtered. The potential is high for dressed weights well below the 2009 levels,” Economic Research Service (ERS) analysts said in the most recent “Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook.”

Full Story

RICK HIRSCH: Cow-Calf Clinic to focus on issues impacting the beef industry

RICK HIRSCH: Cow-Calf Clinic to focus on issues impacting the beef industry

The Athens Review

Athens — Market outlook, animal welfare issues and the latest word in calf working. How do these issues impact the beef cattle industry?

The 2010 Henderson County Cow-Calf Clinic scheduled for Thursday, April 1 at the Henderson County Fair Park Complex will focus on these important issues and many more.

Full Story

Young SD ranch couple use social media to urge farmer-ranchers to speak up (against HSUS & PETA)

Young SD ranch couple use social media to urge farmer-ranchers to speak up (against HSUS & PETA)

Mikkel Pates

Free Republic

Stacy and Troy Hadrick of Vale, S.D., take the stage as quintessential young Dakota ranchers — except they’re talkers.

They say young farmer-rancher types like them have been too trusting of others to use the Internet and social media to fight back against groups they consider anti-animal agriculture. They urge farmers to tell their own stories, rather than have their industry twisted by journalists with hidden agendas.

Full Story

UNL award to honor Neb. man for ag contributions

UNL award to honor Neb. man for ag contributions

KTIV

A Franklin native will be posthumously honored for his efforts promoting the beef cattle industry and working with young people.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Block and Bridle will honor Vance Uden at an April 23 banquet. Uden will be the 76th member of the group’s Hall of Fame.

Full Story

Meat Safety and Accountability Act Introduced

Meat Safety and Accountability Act Introduced

KRVN

Montana Senator Jon Tester has introduced a bill to improve meat traceback. The Meat Safety and Accountability Act would require USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to design and implement an initiative to trace tainted meat back to the original source of contamination. Food safety experts have said the lack of a meaningful traceback requirement is a big flaw in the meat safety system.

Full Story

Produce more meat! Eat more veggies!

Produce more meat! Eat more veggies!

John Stossel

Fox News

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.

Congress is now considering the "Healthy School Meals Act," which would give schools extra money for serving kids more fruits and veggies. Politicians in Washington think they know better than individual schools what food should be served. But bloated government breeds many contractions: These are the same politicians who set our farm policy, which gives massive subsidies to meat producers.

Full Story

Investigators Battle Cattle Rustling

Investigators Battle Cattle Rustling

KENNETH DEAN

TylerPaper.com

While cattle and equipment theft continue to plague Texas ranchers, a special group of investigators work the cases and recover some of the property. Last year, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association special rangers were able to recover $4.8 million in losses for cattle raisers and farmers.

Full Story