Ohio Beef Newsletter Available

The May 30, issue # 539, of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter is now posted to the web at: http://fairfield.osu.edu/ag/beef/beefMy30.html

Without adequate water, feed intake and ultimately cattle performance suffers greatly. As the weather heats up, be certain you have ample, high quality water available which allows for optimum forage and feed efficiency. This week, Rory Lewandowski explores that issue.

Articles this week include:
* Forage Focus: Summer Water Requirements for Cattle
* Tips For Better Manure Application In Alfalfa
* “Preg” Check and Cull Replacement Heifers Early
* Factors Affecting Conception Rate

Stan
———-
Stan Smith
Program Assistant, Agriculture
OSU Extension, Fairfield County
831 College Ave., Suite D
Lancaster, OH 43130

e-mail:  smith.263@osu.edu
voice:   740.653.5419 ext. 24
fax:      740.687.7010
Visit:
Fairfield Co. OSU Extension – http://fairfield.osu.edu
OSU Beef Team – http://beef.osu.edu

Hays man (John Brethour), well known in agriculture and cattle industry, loses battle with cancer

Hays man (John Brethour), well known in agriculture and cattle industry, loses battle with cancer

By MIKE CORN

Hays Daily News

Beef giant John Brethour died this morning after a long bout with cancer.

Yet he never stopped thinking about beef or researching the best way for Kansas cattlemen to improve the quality of meat that ultimately makes its way onto a consumer’s plate.

Best known for his groundbreaking work on the use of ultrasound to determine when cattle should be marketed, Brethour, 72, spent 42 years as a research scientist at the Kansas State University Agricultural Research Center at the south end of Hays. He retired in 2005. He also served as a member of the board of directors at Hays Medical Center.

In 2004, Brethour was named by Beef Magazine as one of the top 40 in the cattle industry.

Bill Saba would put him in the top 10.

“He was one of the finest gentlemen I ever met,” said Saba, longtime manager of what is now Hays Feeders.

FULL STORY

Livestock And Ethanol Plants Can Help Each Other

Livestock And Ethanol Plants Can Help Each Other

WJBC

One of the by-products of a dry grind ethanol plant is distillers dried grains. It’s a cheap product, but expensive for the plant to dry down for longer term storage. The experts in Nebraska say it’s not necessary. Terry Klopfenstein is a University of Nebraska Animal Scientist. He explains how much of the wet distiller grains a feedlot cattle producer can add to a ration…

FULL STORY

Extending the grazing season through interseeding

Extending the grazing season through interseeding

By David Bennett

Delta Farm Press Editorial Staff

Interseeding cool-season annual grasses into bermudagrass is a common practice from the Deep South into Oklahoma. By doing so many producers expect to be able to graze the annuals in mid-March like they would with a small grain type field.

“Programs where we’re trying to grow a compatible third species to extend the grazing season can be management-intensive,” said Paul Beck, University of Arkansas Extension animal scientist, at the recent field day the Livestock and Forestry Branch Station in Batesville, Ark.

“We’re trying to keep production high on the bermudagrass while also trying to get good production from winter annuals.”

Beck has been working with interseeding small grains and ryegrass into bermudagrass for the last five or six years. In some research around his base of Hope, Ark., he’s worked with an economist.

FULL STORY

Great Falls, Missoula livestock auction yards up for sale

Great Falls, Missoula livestock auction yards up for sale

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The Western Livestock Auction here is up for sale at a listed price of $1.65 million.

The auction yard’s out-of-town owners are looking to retire from the business.

The yard has been on the market about three weeks, said Richard Smith, one of the owners who lives in Stevensville

The partners also own the auction yard is Missoula, which they are also selling.

“It’s time to downsize,” Smith said, adding that he and the other owners are at an age where they want to fish more and work less.

Western Livestock Auction, on the Vaughn Frontage Road west of Great Falls, has been in business since 1976, said Katie Ward, a real estate broker in Missoula.

FULL STORY

300 head of cattle, bison condemned over brucellosis threat

300 head of cattle, bison condemned over brucellosis threat

Great Falls Tribune Capitol Bureau

About 300 head of cattle, as well as another 300 bison, are to be slaughtered as the result of the detection of brucellosis in a herd near Bridger.

The state Board of Livestock, at an emergency meeting today, gave support for the recommendation by Jeanne Rankin, the assistant state veterinarian. It’s standard procedure to slaughter a cattle herd when brucellosis — a disease that causes pregnant cows to abort — is detected.

FULL STORY

U.S. on mad cow: Don’t test all cattle

U.S. on mad cow: Don’t test all cattle

By MATT APUZZO – Associated Press Writer

Centre Daily Times (PA)

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease .

The Agriculture Department tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.

The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.

FULL STORY

Livestock board comes together despite differences on controversial issues

Livestock board comes together despite differences on controversial issues

By SHANNON RUCKMAN, Newt’s View

The Prairie Star 

It’s easy to understand why the selection of board of livestock members in Montana is so important to the livestock industry and can be controversial and political when you witness a meeting.

It’s also easy to understand why a board member position is such an honor and undertaking – because they have to work their tails off to get the jobs done in Helena, Mont., and still run their own individual operations at home.

These people must have very supportive families to accept this honor, where normally the governor and the industry organizations see them as knowledgeable members of the industry who have the experience and integrity to help guide the state’s livestock industry. Some of the livestock organizations disagreed on the appointment of some new board members this year, but so far I haven’t seen any problems with these new members – they are just green, as am I.

FULL STORY

Tips For Better Manure Application In Alfalfa

Tips For Better Manure Application In Alfalfa

Cattlenetwork.com

If you have manure to spread this summer, sometimes the only place available is an alfalfa field. Be aware, however, that manure can cause problems on alfalfa.

Liquid manure can burn leaves due to salt injury, and dry manure can smother plants if it is applied too heavily or in large chunks. Manure can spread weed seeds, and the nitrogen in manure can stimulate grasses already in the alfalfa to become more competitive. Also, manure application equipment can damage alfalfa crowns and compact soil.

When possible, spread manure on other land, but, if you have no other choice, follow these suggestions:

Apply less than three thousand gallons of liquid manure or ten tons of solid manure per acre to minimize salt burn or smothering. If manure is dry, adjust the spreader to break up large chunks that can smother growth.

Spread manure immediately after removing a cutting to minimize direct contact with foliage.

FULL STORY

Study: Cattle on linseed have enriched meat

Study: Cattle on linseed have enriched meat

FarmNews

Cows fed a diet rich in omega-3 produce enriched meat that has significant benefits for consumers, suggests new research from Kansas State University.

The new research, published in the journal Nutrition Research, suggests that raising cattle on flaxseed diet (10%), rich in alpha-linolenic acid, leads to increases in the omega-3 content of the meat, which could then be passed on to the consumer.

Boosting levels in animal-derived produce is seen by some as having potential in bridging the gap between recommended and actual intake in the modern population.

FULL STORY

Farm Family raises Romagnola

Farm Family raises Romagnola

By Elizabeth Brown

The Atkins Chronicle

“Y’all come on in,” said Roy Chisum from his front door last Friday morning. He was welcoming members of the press to his farm in Hector. After much consideration from a panel of judges, the Chisum family has been selected as the 2007 Pope County Farm Family of the Year.

Roy has two occupations; he is the pastor of Oakland Heights Assembly of God in Russellville and a farmer. Roy is devoted to his farm, but he admits that his church always comes first. “Regardless of how large or complex our operation has become, my first job is always my church,” said Roy. “That is why my wife is constantly involved so she can be the ‘eyes and ears’ if I am called away by the church.'” Roy and wife, Charlotte, work an 898-acre farm at Hector. They own 708 acres and rent 190 acres in pasture land.

FULL STORY

Cattle Preconditioning Forum: Effect Of Body Condition On Rebreeding

Cattle Preconditioning Forum: Effect Of Body Condition On Rebreeding

Cattlenetwork.com

The income and profit of a beef cattle operation is closely related to the rebreeding and reproduction rate of the herd. A 1986 survey of cattle producers in nine counties in central Florida indicated the number of calves sold was only 69% of the breeding age beef cows. Forty-eight percent of the 284 producers that responded indicated that nutrition was their biggest problem with reproduction and another 24% indicated that parasites were their biggest problem.

Nutrition and parasites were factors identified by over 70% of producers surveyed and both will affect the body condition of the beef cow. The body condition of the beef cow is related to reproductive performance and can be used by cattle producers to make management decisions. Grouping of cattle and the type and level of supplemental feed for maximum profit are decisions that must take body condition into consideration.

FULL STORY

Consider several factors when planning a feedlot expansion

Consider several factors when planning a feedlot expansion

Farm and Ranch Guide

By Alfredo DiCostanzo and Grant Crawford, U of M Beef Team

In spite of increasing corn prices, incentives for feedlot expansion exist in the Upper Midwest due to the increased supply of ethanol co-product feeds, relatively inexpensive corn and forage, availability of crop land for manure application, and clearly defined feedlot regulations in states like Minnesota.

FULL STORY

Beef Quality: Reasons For The Seasons

Beef Quality: Reasons For The Seasons

Cattlenetwork.com

The supply of high-quality cattle has trended lower for years, but not on a steady track. Each year follows a seasonal pattern with a late-winter peak in quality before a sharp drop in the spring. As measured by percent USDA Choice in the fed cattle harvest mix, quality improves a bit in midsummer but hits a second valley in September.

Any repeated annual pattern must happen for a reason. Let’s look at one of several.

FULL STORY

Indiana Pasture Walk Is June 12

Indiana Pasture Walk Is June 12

Hay and Forage Magazine

A Purdue University Pasture Walk will cover management plans from creation to implementation to help improve production efficiency at Waukaru Farm, Rensselaer, IN. Barry and Toby Jordan, growers of registered shorthorn cattle, will host the pasture walk June 12 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The hands-on program is free and open to the public. The Jordans recently made improvements to their pasture management plan by implementing a perennial pasture system. They also utilize corn residues to help fulfill grazing needs.

FULL STORY

Gov’t Finds Ribs in US Beef Imports

Gov’t Finds Ribs in US Beef Imports

KBS World

The government has found ribs in U.S. beef imports during quarantine inspection, and will suspend imports from the meat processing company responsible.

The National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service said that two boxes of ribs were found in a 15-ton shipment of American beef.

FULL STORY

Cattle Update: Spring Grazing Decisions Affect Farm Bank Accounts

Cattle Update: Spring Grazing Decisions Affect Farm Bank Accounts

Cattlenetwork.com

Grazing in early spring, prior to pasture readiness, deprives grass plants of needed leaf area and reduces grass growth, herbage production and economic returns. In spring, pasture plants are near the bottom of their food reserves (top of their operating loan). As plants start to grow they use their reserves and just before they reach the 3-leaf stage they max out their “operating loan”. If grazed before the 3 to 3.5 leaf stage they are taken into an “overdraft position”. The interest rate on plant overdraft is a credit card rate. Working on overdraft is a costly financial spot for an operation and a pasture.

FULL STORY

Communities buck ethanol trend

Communities buck ethanol trend

Plant opponents say environmental concerns outweigh benefits

By Scott Bauer

Associated Press

Akron Beacon Journal

Editor’s note: Ethanol, whose fortunes as a gasoline additive have risen and fallen with the price of oil, is in the middle of a boom. Biofuel plants are sprouting up across the Midwest and corn farmers are rushing to cash in. But this agriculture gold rush carries many questions, not the least of which centers on demand. In Part 5, the last of a series of reports, the Associated Press examines the promise and pitfalls of ethanol in detail.

Barney Lavin ought to be the poster child for ethanol.

A fifth-generation corn farmer, working the land his family homesteaded in 1842, Lavin should see dollar signs over a proposed ethanol plant in this small southeastern Wisconsin town.

Instead, Lavin put down his pitchfork and picked up his cell phone, joining the ranks of other unlikely opponents organizing against ethanol plants, fearing air pollution, increased traffic and groundwater depletion.

“I’m unwilling to give up the obvious quality of life we have here for some added income,” said Lavin, who grows corn on a 300-acre farm on rolling hills that include recently restored wetlands. “We feel very strongly about this area and we don’t want it ruined.”

FULL STORY

Rising grocery prices: Don’t blame ethanol

Rising grocery prices: Don’t blame ethanol

By CYNTHIA AUKERMAN

Winchester News-Gazette (IN)

Corn has gone from $2 a bushel in January 2006 to $4 a bushel in February 2007. That’s good for grain farmers, maybe not so good for livestock farmers, and the price increases are probably having some effect on rising grocery store prices.

But Troy Prescott, president of Cardinal Ethanol, says rising grocery prices can’t be blamed all on the higher corn prices brought about by the ethanol plants being built all over the Midwest.

FULL STORY

Lawmakers push for cattle tax credit

Lawmakers push for cattle tax credit

Chris Blank

The Associated Press

Springfield News-Leader

Supporters hope a tax break for cattle farmers and ranchers will encourage them to keep their animals longer, and spur a cattle feeding industry in Missouri.

The beef tax credit is a small part of a huge tax break bill lawmakers passed a few weeks ago that is still under review by Gov. Matt Blunt.

Tax credit backers say they’re trying to encourage an industry that generally has remained farther west. The bill gives a tax break to farmers who sell their cattle later, after the animals weigh 450 pounds, about when they have been weaned from milk.

FULL STORY