Jim Shoulders, Winner of 16 Pro Rodeo Championships, Dies at 79

Jim Shoulders, Winner of 16 Pro Rodeo Championships, Dies at 79

By Vince Golle

Bloomberg News Service

Jim Shoulders, winner of a record 16 world championships in professional rodeo from 1949 to 1959, died yesterday of complications from heart disease. He was 79.

Shoulders was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1979 after a rodeo career that included seven titles in bull riding, four in bareback, and five all-around championships.

He died at his home in Henryetta, Oklahoma.

Shoulders was the only cowboy to win the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo’s all-around, or multiple events, title four times in Wyoming, and was a seven-time winner at the Calgary Stampede.

“Jim Shoulders was to the rodeo, western-industry world what Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio were to baseball,” Don Gay, who won a record eighth bull-riding championship in 1984, said in an interview from Dallas. “He did what no ordinary human being can do.”

Shoulders was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Edmond, Oklahoma, and is the only rodeo cowboy honored in the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame in New York, according to the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association. The Oklahoma Hall of Fame inducted Shoulders in 1975 and he was selected as a member of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.

FULL STORY

Short term negative energy balance can affect conception rates of replacement heifers

Short term negative energy balance can affect conception rates of replacement heifers

Dr. Glenn Selk, Extension Cattle Specialist, Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma State University researchers have studied the impact of short term energy restriction on ovulation rates of cycling replacement heifers.  This trial is reported in the 2001 OSU Animal Science Research Report.  The effects of acutely restricting nutrition on ovulation and metabolic hormones were evaluated in Angus x Hereford heifers. Heifers were housed in individual pens in a barn and fed a diet supplying 120% of their maintenance requirements for protein and energy (1.2 M) for 10 days to allow time to adjust to the environment and diet. 

FULL STORY

 

Premise ID relieves Hoosiers of paperwork

Premise ID relieves Hoosiers of paperwork          

By MEGGIE I. FOSTER

Farm World

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — While Hoosier livestock exhibitors clean, trim and train show-stoppers for the summer fairs, one thing will be different this year.

They don’t need health papers to show at the Indiana State Fair, and they don’t need papers to show at county fairs, according Denise Derrer, public information officer for the Indiana Board of Animal Health (BOAH).

 “A certificate of veterinary inspection (CVI, commonly known as health papers) will not be required by Indiana exhibitors at Indiana fairs anymore,” confirmed Derrer. “However, if a county fair wants to require it, it’s up to them.”

FULL STORY

A Closer Look at Indiana’s Livestock Industry

A Closer Look at Indiana’s Livestock Industry

Indiana State Department of Agriculture

Introduction

The livestock industry has changed dramatically over the past 25 years, but in many ways it has stayed the same. Modern production systems allow farmers to increase the number of animals they raise at a lower cost while adhering to the highest environmental standards. At the same time, most Hoosiers’ remember the farms of their grandfather’s days and are concerned about changes. Yet the values and principles of family farming that were seen in previous generations have been passed down through the generations and the vast majority of today’s modern farms are run by the children and grandchildren of the same farm families. This document will address both the myths and the facts surrounding livestock farming in our state and provide a sound resource to enable communities to learn more about this important sector of our economy.

FULL STORY PDF

AMI Tells Lawmakers to ‘Peel Away’ the Rhetorical Wrapping Paper on Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling

AMI Tells Lawmakers to ‘Peel Away’ the Rhetorical Wrapping Paper on Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling

In an ad in Roll Call newspaper today, the American Meat Institute (AMI) urged readers to “peel away the rhetorical wrapping paper” on mandatory country-of-origin labeling and see that the costly and burdensome law is actually an effort to block meat and livestock exports from other countries.

In the ad, AMI stressed that the U.S. already has a country of origin labeling program for imported meat and poultry. Finished products like Danish hams or New Zealand lamb bear labels saying “Product of Denmark” or “Product of New Zealand.” AMI questioned the notion that consumers are willing to pay more for products that tell where an animal was born, raised and slaughtered. Roll Call is the newspaper of Capitol Hill.

FULL STORY

Reduce Heat Stress in Cattle to Maintain Profits

Reduce Heat Stress in Cattle to Maintain Profits

by: Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D, PAS

Cattle Today

When you work in the livestock industry it’s fairly common to hear at least a few stories each summer about someone who suffered fairly extensive animal or production losses due to excessive heat or heat stress. Last year in California, thousands of dairy cattle died as they endured days of temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. Several years ago, in July 1995, approximately 3,750 head of feedlot cattle in a yard in Western Iowa died over a 24 hour period due to the heat and humidity. Even this year, when many areas of the southern United States have been cooler for longer periods of time than normal cattle are showing signs of heat stress. We normally think of heat effects as isolated to the southern and lower middle states. Unfortunately that’s not true. We also tend to think that the heat affects only dairy or feedlot cattle. That is not true either. The animal and production losses represent millions of dollars not to mention the time and effort of dealing with the situation. This is true in all phases of the beef industry.

FULL STORY

USDA Program Offers Hay, Pasture Relief

USDA Program Offers Hay, Pasture Relief

Gilesnews.us

With ongoing dry conditions and a rainfall deficit affecting Tennessee, producers enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) are reminded that opportunities for managed haying and grazing exist.

With a modification to their conservation plan, certain CRP stands established to permanent grasses (cool-season and native warm season grasses) are eligible to be cut for hay or grazed. Most eligible areas for managed haying and grazing are land that was enrolled in a general sign-up. Beginning July 2, CRP participants who have received written permission can hay or graze CRP stands.

According to Gregg Brann, NRCS grazing lands specialist, “Native grasses will be an excellent source of hay during this drought. Due to deep rooting of natives, they will be more vegetative and higher quality than other forages that have dried up.”

Brann said it is important to harvest native grasses as soon as possible after the July 2 date. The ideal height to harvest natives for hay is 30 inches tall or when the first seedhead appears.

“My calculations show if CRP yields 4 tons per acre and half of the hay is given to the contract harvester for cutting, raking and rolling the hay, the producer would still have four rolls of hay for a cost of only $4 per roll,“ Brann added.

FULL STORY