Keep Toxic Plants From Livestock

cattlenetwork.com

Summer can often mean dry conditions in pastures, despite the amount of rainfall earlier in the season. Especially if grazing unimproved bluegrass pastures, there can become a general lack of forage available and there may be more temptation by the livestock to feed on toxic plants that may be present as weeds. Livestock would not normally readily eat most of these plants, but under dry or overgrazed conditions, they may try to find more succulent feed.

Plants such as white snakeroot and nightshade growing in pasture areas can be toxic.

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JBS May Buy Rivals as Their Margins Decline, UBS Says

Alexander Ragir

Bloomberg

JBS SA gained in Sao Paulo trading after UBS AG said the world’s biggest beef producer may purchase Brazilian rivals because rising cattle prices have left them vulnerable.

Margen, a Brazilian meatpacker controlled by Mauro Suaiden and Geraldo Prearo, missed a payment this month on 169 million reais ($107.3 million) of bonds that may trigger a change in ownership, Valor Economico newspaper reported yesterday. Margen has been hurt this year by rising cattle prices and the European Union restrictions to Brazilian beef, Valor said.

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New Extension guide discusses custom feeding

Tri State Neighbor

A new publication from South Dakota State University discusses custom feeding arrangements for cows.

It includes a spreadsheet to help producers calculate their variable costs and fixed costs for wintering cows. SDSU Extension Extra 5042, “Custom Beef Cow Wintering/Dry Lot Cost,” is available at http://agbiopubs.sdstate.edu/articles/ExEx5042.pdf.

Additional SDSU spreadsheets, budgets and management tools are available at an SDSU Economics Department Web site, http://econ.sdstate.edu/Extension/otherlinks.htm.

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Country-of-origin labeling to take effect Sept. 30

Megan Parker

The Country Today

Two months remain to comment on mandatory country-of-origin labeling, which takes effect Sept. 30.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued an interim final rule July 28. It requires retailers of meat, fruit, vegetables, nuts and ginseng to label the product’s country of origin.

The rule was part of the 2002 and 2008 farm bills. The 2008 Farm Bill added chicken, goat, macadamia nuts, pecans and ginseng to the list of products that require labels.

Country-of-origin labeling for fish and shellfish took effect in October 2004.

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Cattle take to really slow lane

Seattle Post Intelligencer

A stretch of Interstate 84 is the really, really slow lane once a year.

A Morgan County family drives its cattle from one ranch to another annually and there is no getting around the freeway, which the cattle trod for about half a day as the ranchers control traffic.

The Utah Department of Transportation doesn’t like it, and neither does the Pentz family, but they say there are few other options.

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Farmers pass on rising expenses

Joe Napsha

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

For the past two years, Sewickley Township cattle farmer Regina Carpenter said she and her husband, Derwyn, have absorbed the rising costs of fuel and feed, but they can no longer afford to hold the line this year.

"This summer is the first year we were not able to hold back on raising prices. People don’t realize how the cost of (diesel) fuel has affected all farmers," said Carpenter, who sells beef from the cattle the couple raise on their Shaner Valley Farm Inc. The couple, who raise about 45 cattle on their 92-acre Westmoreland County farm, grow the corn and hay feed for their animals.

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Pasture profits: Cattle producers learn how to manage forages, springs

Clinton Thomas

St. Joe News

With profits tightening in the beef industry, cattlemen are on the lookout for new ways to maximize production on their pastures.

Producers from Andrew County braved the rain for a pasture walk for this reason Tuesday evening at Johnnie Hubach’s farm northeast of Whitesville. The cattlemen compared notes on topics like spring development, weed control and even a forage measurement system developed in New Zealand.

The group initially gathered at a spring that Mr. Hubach had converted into a water source for his cattle. With a concrete pipe, a pump and 1,350 feet of electrical cable, Mr. Hubach can move water from a 2,000-gallon storage area 13 feet deep to any one of seven watering sites for his cattle. Such easy water access takes a lot of the guesswork out of pasture rotation.

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