Ultrasounding For Profit
Southern Livestock Standard
How important is ultrasound data to a producer making genetic selections?
“The only way to make decisions is to look at performance data and ultrasound data,” says Blake Crawford of Adair, Iowa. Crawford runs a commercial beef operation he describes as ‘farrow to finish.’ “If you have animals that are not measuring up, you have to rely on ultrasound to identify the reason and improve future generations.”
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Planning for a Good Calving Season
Francis L. Fluharty, Ph.D., Department of Animal Sciences, The Ohio State University
While most people are thinking of holiday plans and family get-togethers, many beef producers are concerned with the rising price of feed ingredients and how winter storms are impacting their cow herds.
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Disease Protection for Baby Calves
Glen E. Selk, University of Oklahoma
A successful cow/calf operation requires that a large percentage of cows wean a live calf every year. A live calf at weaning time requires survival of the offspring from birth to weaning. USDA beef researchers and rancher surveys report that diseases, including scours and pneumonia, were the second leading cause of baby calf deaths. Difficulty at birth was the single largest source of death loss.
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Culling the Beef Cow Herd
Jeremy Powell, Associate Professor Veterinarian, University of Arkansas
Deciding which cows to cull and which cows to keep in the breeding herd impacts future herd performance and profitability. There are many factors to consider when choosing which cows to put on the cull list. Production and market conditions can influence the priority that is placed on different culling criteria.
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Supplementation, cow condition and fetal programming
Ivan Rush
Tri State Livestock News
The last third trimester of pregnancy is near for most spring calving cows. Now is the time when maintaining adequate cow condition is very important.
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Caring for hypothermic (cold stressed) newborn beef calves
From “Beef: Questions & Answers” newsletter*
by Ron Torell, Dr. Bill Kvasnicka and Dr. Ben Bruce, University of Nevada-Reno Extension Specialists
Mortality in beef herds from birth to weaning range from three to seven percent. The majority of this occurs within the first 24 hours of life, with slow and difficult births (dystocia) and cold stress (hypothermia) the leading causes of death. As prevention is the best cure, advice for care and treatment of hypothermic or cold stressed calves is given below. We will also review a case study conducted in Elko County, Nev. that examined the use of calf warmers to overcome hypothermia.
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U.S. Beef Beats Out European Beef in Taste Test
Prairie Farmer
The world’s largest international food and beverage trade exhibition, SIAL, was the setting for a unique blind taste challenge this fall that put U.S. striploins, top blades and flank steaks in direct comparison, side by side with top-quality striploins from Argentina, Ireland, Germany and France.
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Cutting Costs, Not Corners: Managing Cattle in Tough Times
R. Lawton Stewart, Jr., Ronnie E. Silcox, R. Curt Lacy, Dennis W. Hancock, Glen H. Harris, Roger W. Ellis, university of Georgia
The beef cattle industry is going through quite a dynamic time. Feed prices are volatile, and the economy has affected the demand for beef and the ability for many producers to borrow money to run their operations. Many producers have chosen to exit the business while others are struggling just to break even.
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Cattlemen cut costs, boost income with goats
Mindy Ward
Missouri Farmer Today
It only took two days for the Richard and Brian Pemberton to realize one thing about raising goats, good fencing is a must.
The father and son purchased 13 goats to help control weed and brush on their cattle farm.
They brought them home and turned them out on pasture. Two days later, they disappeared.
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Reason to Keep Those Females
Kindra Gordon
Angus Journal
With the economy beginning to recover — both here in the United States and globally — consumers are eating beef again. A 5% increase in beef demand has already been reported for 2010, with export demand especially strong.
Add to this the fact that the world population is projected to increase by another 700 million people around the globe in the next 10 years — 27 million of them in the United States — and even more demand for beef is anticipated in the decades ahead.
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