BeefTalk: Bedding Beef Cows Is Essential

BeefTalk: Bedding Beef Cows Is Essential

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Challenges abound this year as North Dakota and many surrounding areas are living through a tough spring.

This spring is certainly one to remember. At the Dickinson Research Extension Center, calf death loss is just more than 11 percent, almost quadruple the typical loss of 3 percent for North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement Association members.

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Mysterious occurrences in Colorado

Mysterious occurrences in Colorado

Cattle ranchers finding mutilated cows

Anthony A. Mestas

The Cattle Business Weekly

Two more Southern Colorado ranchers say they have discovered cows mutilated under strange circumstances.

A cow on a ranch near Walsenburg was found with its udders cut off and a calf on a ranch near Trinidad was found missing the entire center of its body as well as its ears.

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Animal Agriculture Taking a Proactive Approach to Activist Community

Animal Agriculture Taking a Proactive Approach to Activist Community

Andy Eubank

Hoosier AG Today

The activist community has changed the rules for today’s livestock producer and there is plenty of state and national support for those producers so they can learn the rules and how to win the battle. Isabella Chism is one trying to fire up the troops. The Indiana Farm Bureau 2nd Vice President has been speaking at Indiana district meetings.

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Foot Rot in Beef Cattle

Foot Rot in Beef Cattle

John F. Currin, D.V.M., Extension Veterinary Specialist, Virginia Tech

W. Dee Whittier, D.V.M., Extension Veterinary Specialist, Virginia Tech

Nancy Currin, D.V.M., Veterinary Extension Publication Specialist, Virginia Tech

Foot rot is a common disease of cattle that can cause severe lameness and decreased weight gain. Other common names for the disease are sore foot and foul foot. Technically the disease is called interdigital necrobacilosis, meaning a bacterial disease creating dead tissue between the toes, the interdigital area of the foot.

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Livestock evacuated, Wait begins for cattle producers along Red River

Livestock evacuated, Wait begins for cattle producers along Red River

 Codi Vallery

The Cattle Business Weekly

Frank and Lucille Matejak spent the last week making preparations for their Angus cattle to be relocated from their farm that sits directly on North Dakota’s Red River near Grand Forks.

On Monday, Lucille reported their cow/calf pairs had moved to Edinberg, N.D. where a gentleman who once raised cattle and had a supply of hay volunteered to watch after the herd. Lucille said their local vet helped set up the arrangement.

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Bovine Trichomoniasis Update

Bovine Trichomoniasis Update

Citizen Telegram

The Colorado Department of Agriculture sends regular updates for bovine trichomoniasis cases in cattle across Colorado.

As of March 30, there is one trichomoniasis quarantine in Colorado. In 2009, four Colorado counties have had trichomoniasis quarantines. In 2008, 43 Colorado facilities in 18 counties had trichomoniasis quarantines. In 2007, there were a total of 14 counties with trichomoniasis quarantines.

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Cattlemen strained, but demand strong

Cattlemen strained, but demand strong

Jackie Kingston

Amarillo Connection

ProNew 7 wondered what the effect of the $3 million loss due to last week’s storm, combined with low beef prices, are having on the cattle industry.

Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) officials told Pronews 7 the industry is suffering, and the loss of 3,500 cattle because of the blizzard is just an added stress.

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Cowboy life virtually extinct in California

Cowboy life virtually extinct in California

Charleston Daily Mail

The highway is jammed with people who wanted to live in the country inching their way toward jobs in the city. A few miles and a universe away, the last cowboy is making a living in what’s left of that country.

Steve Tellam is bent over in a foul patch of mud and cow dung stroking a calf and feeding it milk from a bottle. He is wearing a straw Bangora hat, checkered shirt, Wranglers and a belt buckle the size of a salad plate. His hands are misshapen by decades of labor, hard as ax handles and rough as an old baseball glove.

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Cook named new Director of Agricultural Division at Noble Foundation

Cook named new Director of Agricultural Division at Noble Foundation

KXII

Billy Cook, Ph.D., has been selected as the new Senior Vice President and Director of the Agricultural Division at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation.

Cook, who currently manages the Agricultural Division’s research team, assumed his new post today, providing a seamless transition as former director Wadell Altom retired after 42 years of service at the Noble Foundation. Altom’s final day as director was March 31.

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Obama battles bad beef

Obama battles bad beef

Kelley Diekman

Minneapolis Examiner

March gave animal rights groups, meat lovers, and cows alike a reason to celebrate. In an effort to improve the safety of meat used for human consumption, President Obama announced a new federal ban against the slaughter of downed cows. In 2003, the USDA placed a ban on the use of downed animals for food after Mad Cow Disease was found in a downed cow that was processed for meat. However, the laws put in place had many loopholes that allowed slaughterhouses to continue the practice anyway.

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Cattle Is Still King

Cattle Is Still King

Wet Mountain Tribune

2008 wasn’t exactly the best year for Custer County ranchers and the Colorado cattle industry. Rising production costs, which spiked with $4 per gallon gasoline, and a softening of the market due to folks buying more burger and fewer T-bones, took an economic hit on the industry.

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TTU takes over operation of large cattle farm

TTU takes over operation of large cattle farm

Cookeville Herald Citizen

For an annual lease rate that’s less than the average cost of a steak dinner, Tennessee Tech University’s School of Agriculture now has the charge of a farm supporting possibly the second largest beef cattle herd in the state.

The 1,800-acre farm, which is owned by Millard and J.J. Oakley, is located in two tracts — one around 1,350 acres near Monterey and the other around 450 acres near the Roaring River in Putnam County — and has approximately 600 head of brood cows.

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BRD – Find ‘Em & Treat ‘Em

BRD – Find ‘Em & Treat ‘Em

cattlenetwork.com

Given the high price of calves, pasture rents, fuel and other inputs to a stocker operation, protecting animal health becomes even more critical for profitability. Without early diagnosis and treatment, respiratory disease, particularly during the first few weeks after arrival, can cause considerable losses.

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The latest in synchronization

The latest in synchronization

The Cattle Business Weekly

More than three decades ago, all producers had to work with were beef cattle synchronization systems involving feed-based progesterone products and prostaglandin. Today, researchers from the Beef Reproduction Task Force continue to do research trials and develop new and better systems for synchronizing the heat cycle of the beef heifer and cow.

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NCBA Talks to Vilsack on Trade, ID and Conservation

NCBA Talks to Vilsack on Trade, ID and Conservation

Thebeefsite.com

The Public Lands Council (PLC) and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) met with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack and Deputy Chief of Staff Carole Jett earlier this week.

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