Importance for crossbreeding in beef industry stressed

Importance for crossbreeding in beef industry stressed

Jeff Jaderborg

Farm and Ranch Guide

Many are just finishing their calving season and will soon be changing over to breeding season mode looking to answer that question of what sire to breed my cows to this year. Well, this year I ask you to consider what heterosis could do for your operation.

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Nominate Your Fellow Cattlemen for the National BQA Award

Nominate Your Fellow Cattlemen for the National BQA Award

Beef Today

Applications for the third annual National Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Award are now being accepted. The National BQA Award will recognize one outstanding beef and dairy producer that best demonstrate animal care and handling principles as part of the day-to-day activities on their respective operations. A common trait among all contest entrants must be a strong desire to continually improve BQA on their operations while encouraging others to implement the producer education program.

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BeefTalk: New Things Are Happening, So Stay Tuned

BeefTalk: New Things Are Happening, So Stay Tuned

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Trying to eyeball a set of previously owned cattle among a sea of predominately black or red cattle is impossible.

Is the subject of animal identification still relevant? The thought behind the comment was the news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was not going to pursue an animal identification system.

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Help Heifers Adapt

Help Heifers Adapt

Kindra Gordon

Cattle Business Weekly

If you AI heifers, George Perry, a beef reproduction specialist at South Dakota State University, has an important management reminder. Perry reports that how heifers are managed after they are artificially inseminated (AI’d) can have a significant impact on pregnancy success.

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Wal-Mart to tighten beef safety measures

Wal-Mart to tighten beef safety measures

Provisioner Online

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced that it will implement additional beef safety measures designed to further protect customers against foodborne illnesses. The new process controls standards and goals are additions to a food safety program that already requires ground beef suppliers to test for E. coli O157:H7 and achieve prevention-based certification against one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) internationally recognized standards.

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AgrAbility finds good neighbor in local rancher/school teacher

AgrAbility finds good neighbor in local rancher/school teacher

Sun Advocate

Agriculture in today’s world is a complicated business. It requires participants in production, marketing, regulation, education and support to constantly be aware of the influence of global markets, climate and weather, land and natural resource use issues, government initiatives and regulations, and the influence of larger society on consumer preference.

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Bleeding Calf Syndrome baffles scientists

Bleeding Calf Syndrome baffles scientists

Andrew Arbuckle

Business.scotsman.com

VETS and livestock researchers remain baffled by a disease first reported three years ago in mainland Europe which causes internal and external bleeding in young calves.

It has been suggested Bleeding Calf Syndrome is linked to Pregsure, a vaccine used to control bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD). However, both the Scottish Agricultural College and NFU Scotland this week cautioned against making this connection.

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Animal welfare legislation introduced into Congress

Animal welfare legislation introduced into Congress

DALE HILDEBRANT

Farm & Ranch Guide

In early March a bill was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives that was, according to sponsoring Representatives, designed to promote the well-being of farm animals by requiring federal agencies to procure food products derived from animals that were raised under conditions free from cruelty and abuse.

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E.U. Push on Animal Welfare May Open New Trade Front With U.S.

E.U. Push on Animal Welfare May Open New Trade Front With U.S.

The Westerner

One of the first things the European Union’s new health and consumer affairs commissioner did after taking office was to approve the planting of a genetically modified potato in Europe — riling environmentalists but giving hope to U.S. officials that an end to a long trade dispute over biotech crops might be in sight. But John Dalli, who began his first official visit to Washington on Monday, may open a new, potentially disruptive front: animal welfare.

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Pollan and Hurst Debate the Future of Agriculture

Pollan and Hurst Debate the Future of Agriculture

Iowa Public Television

Claiming that high-calorie school lunches pose a threat to national security, a group of retired military officers advocated for passage of a nutrition bill that aims to make the cafeteria food healthier.

The officers say 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too fat to join the military. And the group, which calls itself, "Mission Readiness" is calling on Congress to mandate more rigorous nutrition standards for school lunches.

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Cattle Feeders College to be held

Cattle Feeders College to be held

Cattle Business Weekly

The first-ever K-State Cattle Feeders College will be held in two locations -May 12 in Cimarron, Kan. and May 13 in Scott City, Kan.

The program at both locations will be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will feature the same schedule. Attendance is free and a complimentary meal, sponsored by Intervet Schering Plough Animal Health and Walco International, Inc., will be provided but participants must register by May 7.

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University Farm tasks give valuable experiences

University Farm tasks give valuable experiences

Jennifer Lewis

Truman State Index

The calves might be taken on by Truman’s Beef Cattle Show Team, be sold at livestock auctions or become part of the herd as a breeding cow or a bull. One steer, Bubba, is a research and outreach tool. He is fistulated, which means he has a rubber portal in his side where people can reach into his stomach and analyze the digesting material or the inhabiting bacteria and protozoa.

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Cattle Feeding: Make Better Use Of Available Forage

Cattle Feeding: Make Better Use Of Available Forage

cattlenetwork.com

With the cost of fertilizer and equipment increasing, it is important that minimal forage is wasted by cattle. With a little extra expense and labor, beef producers can make better use of available pastures.

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Steve Cornett: Calvinball and Customs

Steve Cornett:  Calvinball and Customs

Beef Today

We got a news release last week from R-CALF USA in which they argue that, by considering a regional Foot and Mouth differentiation in Brazil,

“USDA is engaged in a high-risk and dangerous exercise of granting undeserved deference to the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health), making optimistic conclusions when faced with scientific uncertainty, and acting in a reactionary manner following the occurrence of FMD outbreaks rather than exercising precaution to protect U.S. livestock from the introduction of FMD.”

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ND cattle feeder will have to have imported Canadian cattle tested

ND cattle feeder will have to have imported Canadian cattle tested

The Cattl Business Weekly

A North Dakota cattle feeder will have to have imported Canadian cattle tested for certain diseases before bringing them across the border to his feedlot in Carrington, N.D.

Korby Kost wants to import Canadian cattle from Alberta and Saskatchewan to finish at his feedlot near Carrington for slaughter in Minnesota

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Video Feature: Baxter Black: A “Cowful”

Video Feature:  Baxter Black: A “Cowful”

Baxter Black offers a rather detailed definition for what a “cowful” can add up to. From US Farm Report.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpCJQfaFlGA

Resolution urged defending right to raise animals

Resolution urged defending right to raise animals

Bob Watson

News Tribune

Missouri senators should join the House and send a proposed constitutional amendment protecting Missourians’ right to raise animals to a statewide vote.

That was the message Wednesday afternoon from a coalition of agriculture groups at a Capitol news conference urging Senate passage of a resolution proposing to add language to the state Constitution’s "Bill of Rights."

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Pew Statement on Congressional Hearing Regarding Antibiotic Resistance and the Threat to Public Health

Pew Statement on Congressional Hearing Regarding Antibiotic Resistance and the Threat to Public Health

AgriMarketing

Laura Rogers, project director of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, issued the following statement Wednesday, commenting on a hearing of the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health, where representatives of the Obama administration are expected to present testimony regarding the need to protect Americans from the growing problem of antibiotic resistance:

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Eliminating Weeds Could Put More Cows On Pasture

Eliminating Weeds Could Put More Cows On Pasture

Thebeefsite.com

A weed calculator developed by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist tells ranchers the number of additional cows they could raise if they eliminated one or two widespread exotic invasive weeds.

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Business-Like Approach Prevents Hobby Loss Audits

Business-Like Approach Prevents Hobby Loss Audits

John Alan Cohan, Attorney at Law

Cattle Today

In hobby loss audits, the IRS sometimes views various types of ranching activities as a means of generating tax losses, rather than a profit-oriented venture. Many cases that have ruled in favor of the taxpayer in livestock activities involve people who developed a superior line of animal. Taking a scientific approach to breeding is evidence showing a businesslike approach to the activity.

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