Hereford Breed Remembers Orville Sweet

Hereford Breed Remembers Orville Sweet

Hereford World

Orville Sweet, 83, died in Springfield, Mo., April 19. Orville will be fondly remembered as a leader and friend to the Hereford breed and livestock industry. He served as president/executive secretary of the American Polled Hereford Association (APHA) from 1963-79 and authored Birth of a Breed: The History of Polled Herefords – America’s First Beef Breed.

“Mr. Sweet was truly one of the fine gentlemen to serve the beef industry,” says Craig Huffhines, American Hereford Association (AHA) executive vice president. “And he had a wide sweeping influence in the livestock industry. Of all the people I have ever met that had the opportunity to work with Mr. Sweet, they all held him in very high regard.”

Orville served as a U.S. naval air crewman in the South Pacific during World War II. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oklahoma State University and then taught vocational agriculture, managed a beef cattle ranch and was a beef specialist at the University of Georgia. After his years of service with the APHA, he was hired as executive vice president of the National Pork Producers Council. He worked for the council until 1989 and spearheaded the “Pork. The Other White Meat®” campaign.

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Cattle Preconditioning Forum: Injection Sites

Cattle Preconditioning Forum: Injection Sites

Cattlenetwork.com

When injecting a medication or vaccine into a beef animal, remember to target the neck region. The landmarks outlining this region are noted in the injection zone triangle shown in Figure 2. Regardless of the animal’s age, all intramuscular and subcutaneous injections should be given in the neck region, never in the rump or back leg. Figure 2 IM Injections in DARK Area ALL Shots in the Neck

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Why cattle don’t make the grade

Why cattle don’t make the grade

By Larry Corah, Certified Angus Beef Vice President

With so many factors lined up to reduce marbling in cattle today, its no wonder the beef industry struggles to maintain 55% USDA Choice grade. Acceptance levels in cattle identified for the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand languish in the 14% to 15% area.

That’s a problem, because consumers prove every day they will pay more for beef with higher marbling. When we don’t produce it, we leave profit opportunities on the table. We can produce what the consumer wants, if we understand why we are missing the target.

USDA quality grades are in a long-term decline, with the related drop in consumer demand only reversed by the influence of premium brands and new products in the past eight years. Higher quality helped support record high beef prices; despite those records for all beef, consumers paid still more for a better flavor profile.

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Experts Predict Double Digit Growth in Natural Beef

Experts Predict Double Digit Growth in Natural Beef

Cattle Today

Nashville, Tenn. — Speaking at the Ivy Natural Solutions (INS) Marketing Forum during the recent NCBA convention, Erica Kuhlmann, managing director and head of BMO Capital Markets’ Food Group, and John Stika, president of Certified Angus Beef,© both predicted double-digit growth in the natural beef segment. Kuhlmann said, “The global natural and organic food market has been experiencing double-digit annual growth for the past two years. Based on the investments being made in the industry, BMO Capital Markets expects that rate of growth to exceed 15 percent in 2007 and 2008.”

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Farmers Balance Off-Farm Work, Technology Adoption

Farmers Balance Off-Farm Work, Technology Adoption

by Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo

Angus Journal

Effectively managing land, water, machinery and other inputs — as well as adopting new technologies and production practices — can help ensure the success of a farm business and the economic well-being of a farm household. Yet farm operators and their household members are increasingly relying on offfarm employment to improve their bottom lines.

While contributing to the economic wellbeing of farm households, off-farm jobs compete with on-farm responsibilities for managerial time, which, in turn, may affect the economic performance of the farm business. Consequently, time-saving benefits are driving the decisions of certain farm operator households to adopt new technologies and practices.

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Progression of prion infectivity in asymptomatic cattle after oral bovine spongiform encephalopathy challenge

Progression of prion infectivity in asymptomatic cattle after oral bovine spongiform encephalopathy challenge

CITEULIKE

The presence of BSE prion infectivity in asymptomatic cattle and its tissue distribution are important concerns for both human and veterinary health and food safety. In this work, a collection of tissues from asymptomatic cattle challenged orally with BSE and culled at 20, 24, 27, 30 and 33 months have been used to inoculate intracerebrally BoPrP-Tg110 mice expressing bovine PrP to assess their infectivity. Results demonstrate that BSE infectivity in asymptomatic cattle is essentially restricted to the nervous system, Peyer’s patches and tonsils, as reported previously for terminally BSE-diseased cattle. BSE infectivity was detectable in Peyer’s patches and tonsils at all time points analysed, but infectivity in nervous tissues (brainstem and sciatic nerve) was only detectable after 27 months from inoculation. Infectivity in brainstem increased markedly at 33 months after inoculation. All other investigated tissues or fluids (spleen, skeletal muscle, blood and urine) revealed no detectable infectivity throughout the time course studied.

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Senator writes to S. Korean president about beef as shipment awaits approval

Senator writes to S. Korean president about beef as shipment awaits approval

Yonhap News

A U.S. senator sent a letter Wednesday to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urging his country to fully reopen its markets to American beef as a large shipment was awaiting inspections at the Asian nation.

If approved, it will be the first U.S. beef export to South Korea in over three years.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) reaffirmed his stance that his support for the free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea hinges on whether Seoul commits to lifting its ban on American beef. Montana is a major beef-producing state.

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