Baxter Black, DVM: The Virus, Formerly know as swine flu

Baxter Black, DVM: The Virus, Formerly know as swine flu

When the Asian Flu hit the country in 2003, were people warned to stay away from Chinese restaurants and Japanese cars?

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The Carrot Has Been Replaced by the Stick

The Carrot Has Been Replaced by the Stick

Gary Truitt

Hoosier AG Today

Over the past 6 months, there has been a wholesale change in the approach the government is taking toward food, agricultural, and environmental programs. Instead of rewarding people, the new programs being rolled out focus on mandates and penalties. In addition, the underlying reason for many of these programs is based on a particular social agenda.

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Smooth-working Layout Boosts AI Success

Smooth-working Layout Boosts AI Success

Boyd Kidwell

Angus Journal

Keeping cows calm is a key step in achieving a high artificial insemination (AI) conception rate, says J.F. Lancaster of Rocky Mount, N.C.

Lancaster has been AI breeding at Ann Angus Farms for more than 20 years. Throughout the past few years, he’s honed his skills to reach a first-service conception rate of 68%-71%. A smooth-working set of handling facilities contributes to a quiet working environment, and the North Carolina cattleman has changed the way he handles cows to keep them calm.

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Beef Institute Helps Create Animal Health Course

Beef Institute Helps Create Animal Health Course

Thebeefsite.com

Kansas State University will offer a new 16-credit-hour online graduate certificate in the management of animal health-related organizations beginning this fall.

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Purebred Cattle Business is Journey, Not a Destination

Purebred Cattle Business is  Journey, Not a Destination

Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D., PAS

Cattle Today

A few years ago I wrote an article entitled “So You want to be a Purebred Cattle Rancher. . .” I was amazed at the follow up calls I received from this article and still get calls and e-mails even to this day – generally 2-3 per week. It is interesting who the folks are that are making the inquiries. A lot of times this is someone who has inherited the family farm or who has decided to invest some of their hard-earned dollars into farming and ranching property and would subsequently like to start “running a few cows.”

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Spontaneous Combustion of Hay

Spontaneous Combustion of Hay

Steve Fransen and Ned Zaugg, Washington State University

The recent flooding on Washington’s west side requires close monitoring of stored hay for signs of spontaneous combustion. Dry hay (stored at 15 percent moisture or less) is safe for long-term storage. However, if the hay has become wet the quality has been permanently changed and the potential fire hazard from spontaneous combustion increased.

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NCBA Members Adopt Policy on Animal ID

NCBA Members Adopt Policy on Animal ID

Angus e-List

Beef producers approved policy on issues including the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and immigration reform during last week’s Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver. Nearly 800 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) members attended the meeting.

Members approved a resolution expressing continued support for NAIS to be voluntary. Producers voted to work toward an efficient identification (ID) program that meets their needs, minimizes additional costs and maintains the confidentiality of participants. The resolution calls for a system that operates at the speed of commerce, integrates private-sector databases and is phased in within and between species.

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Grazing a mixed bag

Grazing a mixed bag

The Westerner

There’s a lasting and fiery debate between some conservation-minded people and beef ranchers and eaters: Do cows harm the land? The parties in this argument have become polarized, to the point of dueling research stating vegetation absolutely can or absolutely cannot thrive without cattle, said Tom Sisk, a professor and conservation biologist at Northern Arizona University.

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Balanced rations

Balanced rations

Barbara Quinn

ConnPost.com

From the shores of California to the Sand Hills of Nebraska, my daughter has become a real expert in nutrition. She just has a different type of clientele. Stephanie is a "ruminant" nutritionist — and most of her clients are real cows, no pun intended.

On a recent visit to western Nebraska we bumped around in a feed truck at the university research facility she helps manage. And I began to see the difference between her specialty and mine. For one, ruminants — animals with a rumen-centered digestive system — are not humans.

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Cows not a problem

Cows not a problem

The Topeka Capital Journal

Gwyn Mellinger is to be commended for the conclusion in her July 16 column that a greenhouse gas emissions tax on livestock producers "would be a bad idea for all of us." However, her criticism of livestock producers for "digging in their heels" against such a tax isn’t based on accurate information.

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Ranchers who lost livestock can apply for aid

Ranchers who lost livestock can apply for aid

WHITNEY PANDIL-EATON

Minot Daily News

North Dakota ranchers who lost livestock due to the winter snowstorms and springtime flooding can now apply for federal assistance under the Livestock Indemnity Program, one of several disaster assistance programs written into the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, commonly known as the 2008 Farm Bill, that was passed by Congress more than a year ago.

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Mobile slaughterhouse in use in California

Mobile slaughterhouse in use in California

KTIC

The end of the line for cattle raised at Elizabeth Poett’s spread on the Central Coast used to come at an inland slaughterhouse after a five-hour drive crammed in a trailer with other spooked animals. Now death comes to Rancho San Julian in the form of a mobile butchering vehicle that caters to small ranchers offering premium meats marketed as free-range, grass-fed and sustainably raised.

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Texas agriculture losses reach $3.6 billion

Texas agriculture losses reach $3.6 billion

BETSY BLANEY

Columbian.com

Drought in Texas has led to an estimated $3.6 billion in crop and livestock losses, and without ample rains, the year’s final tally could top the state record set in 2006, Texas agriculture officials say.

Crops and rangeland are scorched from lack of rainfall and record triple-digit temperatures throughout parts of Texas – the nation’s second-largest agriculture state behind California. Much of the central and southern parts of the state have been in the two most severe stages of drought for months.

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Adulterated Animal Feed Seized

Adulterated Animal Feed Seized

Medilexicon.com

At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. marshals today seized livestock and horse feeds stored under filthy conditions at the Bi-County Farm Bureau Cooperative Association, Inc., in Florence, Ky.

"The FDA will not tolerate a company’s failure to adequately control and prevent filth in its facility," said Michael Chappell, the FDA’s acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. "The FDA is prepared to use whatever legal means are necessary and appropriate to keep potentially contaminated products out of the marketplace."

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Farm Groups Say Food Safety Bill Would Make it Tougher for Farmers to Produce Safe Food

Farm Groups Say Food Safety Bill Would Make it Tougher for Farmers to Produce Safe Food

Marie Magleby

Major farm groups are concerned that a bill in Congress intended to shore-up food-safety guidelines could actually make it harder for some livestock and poultry producers to guarantee safe food.

A panel of national agricultural experts testified before the House Committee on Agriculture last week about the potential dangers of food-safety legislation currently under discussion in the House.

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