Agricultural Technology Solutions Unveils Its New Livestock E-Tracker

Agricultural Technology Solutions Unveils Its New Livestock E-Tracker

Meridian, Idaho– June 17, 2006 – Agricultural Technology Solutions is proud to announce its new product for livestock tracking. The e-tracker is designed for Producers, Ranchers, Sale yards, Feedlots and Packing plants to automate the hands-off data capture of livestock. The e-tracker consists of two auto-sync antennas for reliable detection and identification of livestock. Maintaining a consistent detection rate of 99.9% it is the only full range walk through reader system on the market today. The e-tracker is equipped with wireless auto-sync point-to-point Bluetooth technology eliminating the need to be cabled to your computer (optional WiFi interface available). In order to meet the need for moving calves evenly and quickly, an optional crowd partition may be attached (shown in picture). The new e-tracker reads the full range of FDX and HDX electronic ear tags and is easily installed, whether in existing loading facilities or in remote areas where facilities are set up on demand. The dual auto-sync antenna system is built on a heavy duty metal frame preventing damage to the antenna system ensuring long term trouble free use. The e-tracker represents the latest available scanning technology for livestock tracking and is affordable meeting every customer’s needs.

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TECHNOLOGY USED TO ENHANCE FED CATTLE PERFORMANCE

TECHNOLOGY USED TO ENHANCE FED CATTLE PERFORMANCE

by: Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D, PAS
Cattletoday.com
Part 3

As we’ve discussed the last couple of issues, today’s feeding technology has a lot to offer to the producer. Like most livestock producers, the cattleman or cattle feeder is always looking for a “silver bullet,” that new product that can be used that will solve all his problems and can be used as a major band-aide in circumstances where management may not be the best. Interestingly enough, most products of this nature require better than average management in order to realize the true benefit of the product.

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Farmers sending supplies to bail out Louisiana’s cattle industry

Farmers sending supplies to bail out Louisiana’s cattle industry

BRETT BARROUQUERE
Associated Press / Kentucky.com

CRESTWOOD, Ky. – John Adams couldn’t believe his eyes as he drove around south Louisiana in the weeks after Hurricane Rita went ashore.

He saw drowned cattle, knocked down fences and land inundated with salt water in which nothing would grow.

Now the Kentucky farmer is part of a nationwide relief effort to help bail out Louisiana’s $400 million cattle industry. The relief effort consists of farmers across the nation donating hay, feed and farm supplies.

The relief efforts – provided through the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, the Fellowship of Christian Farmers and county extension agents – started last year shortly after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated parts of Louisiana.

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Cheap cattle feed byproduct of ethanol plants

Cheap cattle feed byproduct of ethanol plants

The Associated Press / Grand Island Independent

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Iowa’s booming ethanol industry is producing cheap feed for cattle that some hope will push Iowa to the top of the pack in beef production.

Every bushel of corn used to make ethanol also produces 18 pounds of a high-protein feed called distillers grains.

Some say the best use of the feed is to expand Iowa’s cattle industry.

“There’s 3 million tons available now and 8 million tons proposed. If we get it cheap today, what will it be like then?” asks Joe Greig, who runs a third-generation cattle-feeding operation near Estherville in northern Iowa.

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Fewer cattle in more cattle out

Fewer cattle in more cattle out
Thursday, June 22, 2006, 4:16 PM

by Jerry Passer
Brownfield Ag Network

If trader estimates ahead of Friday’s USDA cattle on feed report are anywhere close to actual numbers, the report could be extremely bullish.

Trader’s guesstimates have placements in the feedlots in May at 93.5 percent of a year ago in a range of 88.7-98.7 percent. Meanwhile they are showing marketing numbers during May at 107.0 percent in a range of 104 to 109 percent.

Cattle on feed on June 1 are estimate at 106 percent compared to last year in a range of 105 to 107 percent.

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Aid Sought For Alabama Farmers

Aid Sought For Alabama Farmers

Weartv.com

Alabama Governor Bob Riley and State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks went to Washington D.C. Thursday to ask for Federal aid for farmers hard hit by the state’s current dry conditions.

As Channel Three’s Michael Loff reports, farmers say help from the Feds would be nice, but what they really need is rain.

Louis Lazzari/Double “L” Farms:”I’ve been farming like I say for the past 55 years and we’ve had three or four in my life that was severe, this is one of the worst.”

Louis Lazzari says the dry conditions of 2006 are similar to what Baldwin County farmers endured in 1952, 1954 and 1977.

The lack of rain kept Lazarri from planting cucumbers and squash and caused him to lose about 15%percent of his corn crop.

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Age and Source Verification for cow-calf producers

Age and Source Verification for cow-calf producers

By Dr. JOHN B. HALL, Extension Animal Scientist, Virginia Tech
Thursday, June 22, 2006 3:00 PM CDT
Minnesota Farm Guide

(Hall was formerly with the U of M Extension Service.)

As foreign markets reopened to U.S. beef, there is increasing demand for Source and Age Verified cattle.

New beef export regulations have clearly defined the meaning of Age and Source Verification, as age and source claims must be documented and verified through a recognized USDA program. These programs include the USDA Process Verified Program (PVP) or a USDA Quality System Assessment (QSA).

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Human Mad-Cow Disease May Be Latent for 50 Years, Study Says

Human Mad-Cow Disease May Be Latent for 50 Years, Study Says

Bloomberg.com

June 23 (Bloomberg) — Patients may develop the human form of the mad-cow disease more than fifty years after being infected with the fatal illness, researchers said in a medical journal.

The findings suggest the eventual size of a variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease epidemic may be much bigger than previously thought, U.K. researchers including John Collinge of the University College London wrote in this week’s The Lancet.

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Japanese officials to visit Tyson’s Holcomb plant

Japanese officials to visit Tyson’s Holcomb plant

Associated Press
Kansas City Star

GARDEN CITY, Kan. – Tyson Foods Inc.’s nine beef plants, including one near Holcomb, will be part of a nationwide inspection to verify that the U.S. beef industry meets Japan’s import standards.

Japanese officials will be visiting the United States in the next few weeks before lifting the ban on importing American beef. The ban has been in effect since 2003.

Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Tyson, would not release the exact date of the visit to the Holcomb plant, but did say all of the Tyson beef plants would be inspected beginning late next week through the third week in July.

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EPA sets new rules for farm pollution

EPA sets new rules for farm pollution

by The Associated Press
Quad City Times

WASHINGTON (AP) — Large factory-style chicken, hog and cattle farms might soon have to get permits from the Environment Protection Agency when animal waste from their operations finds its way into local rivers, streams and lakes.

The agency proposed the new requirement Thursday, but it said it will leave up to farmers to define what constitutes pollution, and that if it’s only stormwater, never mind.

A federal appeals court had ordered EPA to also consider issuing new standards for controlling disease-causing bacteria, viruses and parasites in farm runoff. The agency opted not to adopt any.

“Basically, EPA has chickened out, they’ve been pressured by the farm lobby,” said Melanie Shepherdson, a staff attorney with Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. “They’re letting the factory farms police themselves, which flies in the face of the whole purpose of the Clean Water Act permitting process.”

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