The American Farmer Needs a Cowboy Image

The American Farmer Needs a Cowboy Image

Gary Truitt

Hoosier AG Today

No image of America is more widespread and more enduring than that of the cowboy. Over a century after the heyday of the western cattleman, the image of the tough, independent, hardworking man on a horse against an expansive western sky is known worldwide.   This highly romanticized legacy was not the creation of a slick marketing campaign, although advertisers often use this image to sell products.

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Creep Feeding Beef Calves

Creep Feeding Beef Calves

Johnny Rossi, Extension Animal Scientist – Beef cattle, University of Georgia

Creep feeding is the practice of providing supplemental feed (grain or forage) to nursing calves. This is usually done with the use of a creep gate, large enough for calves to enter the feeding area but too small to allow cows to pass. A lactating beef cow can supply only 50 percent of the nutrients needed for a three to four month old calf to maximize growth. Depending on availability and quality, forage may not be able to supply the other 50 percent of nutrients the calf needs. The nutrient deficiency is more pronounced when calves are grazing late summer or drought stricken pastures, and during the winter when no grazing is available.

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Nitrate poisoning in cattle

Nitrate poisoning in cattle

Shane Gadberry, Ph.D. Extension Livestock

Southern Livestock Standard

Nitrate poisoning in cattle is caused by the consumption of an excessive amount of nitrate or nitrite from grazing crops, hay, silage, weeds, drinking water, lubricating oil, fertilizer, etc. In addition, drought is also a major cause of nitrate poisoning. Drs. Shane Gadberry and John Jennings, Arkansas extension livestock specialists offer the following information concerning nitrate poisoning, its causes, effects and ways to avoid it in your forage program.

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GnRH Based Estrus Synchronization Systems for Beef Cows

GnRH Based Estrus Synchronization Systems for Beef Cows

John B. Hall, Extension Animal Scientist, Beef; W. Dee Whittier, Extension Veterinarian; Jim Myers, Senior Extension Agent; Mark Cline, Graduate Student and David Cuddy, Graduate Student; Virginia Tech

New systems of synchronizing estrus (heat) in cows for artificial insemination (AI) have been developed using commercially available Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH). These systems allow producers to artificially inseminate cows with little or no heat detection. For the first time, producers have a reliable system that results in acceptable pregnancy rates to timed AI.

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R-CALF Wants NAIS Abandoned

R-CALF Wants NAIS Abandoned

Hoosier AG Today

  R-CALF USA has asked Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack to completely abandon what they call the flawed National Animal Identification System. In a letter, R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry has recommended instead that Congress and USDA focus on targeted solutions to the legitimate livestock disease-related challenges faced by U.S. livestock industries. T

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Prevent Pinkeye

Prevent Pinkeye

Mick Kreidler

Beef Today

You’re checking the cowherd on a hot summer day when you spot a calf with a weeping eye. Is it just a weed seed or is it the start of pinkeye? What should you do? Pinkeye, or infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK), is a contagious bacterial disease that affects the eyes of beef cattle. Estimated to cost the cattle industry $150 million annually, pinkeye causes tearing, inflammation and ulceration of the cornea. Permanent blindness can occur in severe cases.

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Forage Nutrition for Ruminants

Forage Nutrition for Ruminants

North Dakota State University

Plants utilized in the feeding of livestock have long been a fundamental link in the food chain. Native grasses supported grazing animals well before man began to domesticate livestock. Forages have always been an extremely important source of nutrients in livestock rations. Additionally, they provide fiber in the ration which enhances proper digestion in forage-consuming animals. Through their conversion into milk and meat products, forages continue to be one of the primary sources of nourishment in the human diet.

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Cattle rustling thriving in southwest in bad economy

Cattle rustling thriving in southwest in bad economy

University of Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK – Hard economic times have led to a drastic increase in cattle rustling across Texas and Oklahoma, and Arkansas could be next, warns Dr. Tom Troxel, extension professor of animal science for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

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Meeting Addresses Antibiotic Use in Food Chain

Meeting Addresses Antibiotic Use in Food Chain

Thebeefsite.com

A conference last week entitled Minimizing Antibiotic Resistance Transmission Through the Food Chain revealed widespread concern among academics and the USDA that antibiotic resistance remains a problem.

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“Climate Change Cover-Up”

“Climate Change Cover-Up”

Ron Epstein

The Ukiah Daily Journal

Editor’s note: Stories of this ilk are included in the blog to inform those in our industry how agriculture is being presented to and perceived by the public.

Are you aware that there has been a widespread cover-up of a major cause of global warming, and that former Vice-President Al Gore, our current President Barack Obama, and the EPA are all complicit? What is being covered up? Meat-eating is a major cause of global warming. Big Macs and bacon are destroying the planet.

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AVMA Warns of Continued Veterinary Shortages

AVMA Warns of Continued Veterinary Shortages

Thebeefsite.com

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) expects the shortage of farm animal veterinarians to continue despite producers cutting back their flock and herd sizes.

Meat, poultry, and dairy producers have overall been cutting back the sizes of herds and flocks, according to the AVMA. But there will be ‘huge demand’ for food supply veterinarians for a long time, said Dr David M. Andrus, who headed a research team for the May 2006 Food Supply Veterinary Medicine Coalition Report and is a professor at Kansas State University’s College of Business Administration.

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Where’s the beef?

Where’s the beef?

Chris Honoré

Ashland Daily Tidings

Editor’s note: Stories of this ilk are included in the blog to inform those in our industry how agriculture is being presented to and perceived by the public.

You likely know this: The American diet has resulted in a public health crisis. As a population, we grow evermore obese. The Centers for Disease Control projects that one in three children born in 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes, resulting in amputations, blindness and early death.

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Ag Expo encourages residents to buy beef, vegetables locally

Ag Expo encourages residents to buy beef, vegetables locally

Doug Cook

The Daily Courier

For the second straight year Saturday, farmers and ranchers from across Yavapai County congregated outside the Gateway Mall to give residents an idea about what they grow and cultivate during the “Fill Your Plate” Agriculture Expo.

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Georgia schedules beef cattle field day

Georgia schedules beef cattle field day

Southwest Farm Press

Current cattle farmers and those who want to become one will find useful knowledge at the annual University of Georgia Mountain Beef Cattle Field Day April 15 in Blairsville, Ga.

Registration starts at 9 a.m. at the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center. The field day ends at 3 p.m. Participants will learn the most up-to-date, research-based information from UGA, University of Tennessee and U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists and industry representatives.

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K-State Research Shows Potential in Feeding Cull Cows

K-State Research Shows Potential in Feeding Cull Cows

Deciding which cows to cull from the beef herd is a decision that all producers make from time to time. Recent studies by Kansas State University scientists indicate that once the decision is made, it may be worth a producer’s time and money to keep those cows a bit longer before sending them off to market.

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