Improving fertility rates in cows through feed

Improving fertility rates in cows through feed

Chris Casey

The Cattle Business Weekly

On a cellular level, it’s something like the line of scrimmage on a football field. A hormone rushes toward an embryo, but for completion to occur – in this case a pregnancy in a cow – the hormone must be blocked.

The blocker is a fatty acid found in fish.

Serving as coach, so to speak, in this biological blend of hooves and fins is a biology professor at the University of Northern Colorado. Pat Burns hopes his latest research not only improves bovine fertility – which could save millions for U.S. beef and milk producers – but also yields applications to human fertility and health.

He recently won a $98,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct a two-year study.

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Cold cows eat ranch profits

Cold cows eat ranch profits

As temperatures drop, feed bills rise for area cattle operations

TOM LUTEY

The Billings Gazette

The fourth-coldest December on record is hitting Montana ranchers hard as feed costs nip at pocketbooks already chilled by shrinking beef payments.

“We’re going through the hay now,” said Jon Paterson, extension beef specialist for the Montana Beef Network. “We kept them out on range and pasture as long as we could, but that’s over.”

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Marketing Seedstock To Purebred & Commercial Breeders

Marketing Seedstock To Purebred & Commercial Breeders

cattlenetwork.com

There is no question that the beef cattle business has undergone a very tumultuous period over the past few years. Significant changes within the beef industry combined with national and world economic woes have impacted every member of the entire beef production chain. No segment of the industry has been immune to these impacts including cow-calf producers, stocker operations, feedlots, packers, and even those involved in seedstock production.

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Iowa Family Pitches In To Make Profit Off Livestock

Iowa Family Pitches In To Make Profit Off Livestock

John Biewen and Rob Dillard
National Public Radio-All things Considered

The growing season is over in all but the warmest parts of the country, but for most farmers the work goes on.

For nearly a year, NPR has been following the Griffieon family of Ankeny, Iowa, who live in a white clapboard house on 1,150 acres that have been in the family since the late 1800s.

This past growing season, the Griffieons raised a successful crop of corn and soybeans.

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Illegal dumping may result from new mad cow rule

Illegal dumping may result from new mad cow rule

Leslie Reed

Nebraska’s state veterinarian is among those worried dead cattle could be left to rot in windbreaks or ditches because of a federal regulation intended to prevent mad cow disease.

The new rule, which takes effect April 27, says cattle over 30 months of age can’t be rendered for animal feed unless their brains and spinal cords are removed first.

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Replacement heifers – Keep feed on track for next year’s breeding season

Replacement heifers – Keep feed on track for next year’s breeding season

Ryon S. Walker, University of Minnesota Beef Team

The Prairie Star

What are your heifers currently weighing? How many pounds/day are your heifers gaining? What is the quality of winter feed your replacement heifers are receiving? Do you feed your replacement heifers separately from your cow herd? When do you plan to breed your replacement heifers?

These are important questions to ask yourself so that you know if your heifers are on track for their first breeding season.

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Roberts Named Next NCBA CEO

Roberts Named Next NCBA CEO

PRWeb

– The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association announced today Forrest L. Roberts will be its next chief executive officer. Roberts, 42, will start January 20, 2009.

‘We are thrilled Forrest will be joining us as CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. We are certain Forrest brings the right experience, vision and optimism to lead the nation’s oldest, largest and most respected cattle organization,’ said Andy Groseta, rancher from Cottonwood, Ariz., and NCBA president.

Roberts grew up on a family-owned, diversified livestock operation in Uvalde, Texas. He worked side-by-side with his family when the operation expanded to include a retail meat market for ‘locally grown, corn-fed’ beef and pork. Forrest went on to earn a Bachelors of Science in Animal Science from Texas A&M University and a Masters of Business Administration from University of North Carolina.

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