Baxter Black, DVM: HARRY AND THE HOG

Baxter Black, DVM:  HARRY AND THE HOG

Many of us took a meats course in college or have dressed wild game and have a basic understanding of how it gets from the pasture to the plate.

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Beef Webinar Focuses on Calving Management and Neonatal Calf Care – February 18th

Beef Webinar Focuses on Calving Management and Neonatal Calf Care – February 18th

Dr. Mark A. McCann

Extension Animal Scientist, VA Tech

Dr. Jeff Ondrak from the Great Plains Veterinary Education Center at the University of Nebraska will be the featured speaker for the third Beef Webinar sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension and scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, February 18th.  Dr. Ondrak is a Beef Cattle Clinical Veterinarian whose duties include teaching veterinary students, supporting ongoing research projects and veterinary care at the Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center.

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Pilot Project Uses High-frequency Electronic Identification

Pilot Project Uses High-frequency Electronic Identification

NDSU

Source and age verification in the beef industry is the result of requests by consumers to know where their food is coming from.

Beef producers will be able to use high-frequency electronic identification tags on their 2010 calf crop as part of a pilot project by the North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement Association. The NDBCIA is initiating the project immediately.

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Loos Urges Farmers to Take Their Message to the Streets

Loos Urges Farmers to Take Their Message to the Streets

Marilyn Hershey

Lancaster Farming

Trent Loos, a sixth-generation Nebraskan rancher and radio show host, challenged nearly 200 attendees to take a stand and defend agriculture.

Loos delivered his message Monday at a meeting sponsored by Renaissance Nutrition at Shady Maple Smorgasbord.

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PR Nightmare for Wine Company Supporting HSUS

PR Nightmare for Wine Company Supporting HSUS

Corn COmmentary

The folks at Yellow Tail Wine must have thought they were making a great humane statement when they contributed $100,000 to the radical animal rights group HSUS and agreed to have “special [yellow tail] displays bearing The HSUS name and logo in stores across the country.”

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New vaccines for cattle could cut risk from deadly bacteria – but who will pay for it

New vaccines for cattle could cut risk from deadly bacteria – but who will pay for it

Scott Canon

Kansas City Star

How much are you willing to pay for a hamburger?

OK. Now how much more would you pay to drastically reduce — but never fully eliminate — the long odds that it might send you to the hospital?

With a new vaccine for cattle, the beef industry may dramatically cut the risk that a potentially deadly bacteria finds its way to your dinner plate. Yet it’s unclear how, or if, that cost might be passed to the consumer.

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Paradigm Shift

Paradigm Shift

Seattle Post Intelligencer

    "Nature is smarter than we are." —Tom Lasater

Today we toured the Lasater Ranch near Matheson, Colorado with a group from the Society for Range Management annual conference. The title of the conference is "Working Landscapes – Providing for the Future," and is well matched to the Lasater operation.

Tom Lasater developed the Beefmaster breed over 70 years time based on the philosophy that "nature is smarter than we are." Tom Lasater didn’t just think outside the box, he jumped clear out of the box factory.

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E. coli O157:H7

E. coli O157:H7

Dr. JOANNE STOLEN

Summit Daily News

Escherichia. coli or E. coli is a bacteria that is found in your lower intestines. There are many species of E. coli and that are relatively harmless but there are several that can cause disease. One particular strain is called O157:H7 and this strain has a poison which it acquired from a Shigella bacteria.

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Increase the investment

Increase the investment

High Plains Journal

The 2010 Cattle Industry Convention has come and gone, and it was a great one. Of course, any time you get 6,000 cattlemen all in one location, particularly after a long drought in profits with some indicators of "rain" ahead, it is sure to be good–but this was really good.

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New methods aim to keep E. coli in beef lower all year

New methods aim to keep E. coli in beef lower all year

Elizabeth Weise

USA TODAY

The dead of winter may not be the time when most people’s thoughts turn toward the allure of a hamburger on the grill. But from a food safety standpoint, it’s probably the safest time there is to eat ground beef.

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NCBA testifies on antibiotic use in livestock

NCBA testifies on antibiotic use in livestock

KTIC

Kansas State University’s (KSU) Michael Apley, a veterinary clinical pharmacologist, traveled to Capitol Hill yesterday with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) to educate lawmakers and their staff about the use of antibiotics in the beef industry. Dr. Apley and NCBA met with Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-IA) to discuss H.R. 1549, Rep. Slaughter’s bill to ban the use of antibiotics in livestock.

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Students win scholarships for cattle management

Students win scholarships for cattle management

The Des Moines Register

The 15th annual Iowa Cattlemen’s Foundation Beef Scholarship Extravaganza was held in December at Iowa State University in Ames.

Teams from across Iowa and Missouri entered the beef management contest. Teams worked through 10 stations, covering a broad range of beef cattle management practices.

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NCBA statement on new animal disease traceability proposal

NCBA statement on new animal disease traceability proposal

KTIC

The following is a statement from National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Steve Foglesong regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) new framework for animal disease traceability in the United States:

“We appreciate Secretary Vilsack’s commitment to addressing producers’ concerns with animal ID.”

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Ag high schools draw urban students to animal care

Ag high schools draw urban students to animal care

JAVMA Journal

City students learn about agriculture beyond farms, veterinary careers

Chamia Chatman shovels dried manure and hay off the floor of one of her high school’s animal enclosures following a lecture on common animal diseases.

The 16-year-old is interested in becoming a veterinary surgeon, although that interest is split between large and small animal medicine. On Dec. 7, 2009, she was among nearly 30 high school students cleaning animal pens, feeding livestock, and walking in a small pasture among horses, cattle, and sheep at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.

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U.S. Cuts Animal-Tracking Plan Created After Mad Cow

U.S. Cuts Animal-Tracking Plan Created After Mad Cow

 Daniel Enoch and Whitney McFerron

BusinessWeek

The U.S. is scrapping a national system to track livestock from birth to slaughter as industry opposition led to the failure of a voluntary program created after cases of mad cow disease emerged starting in 2003.

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