BeefTalk: Review This Spring’s Calving Distribution Report Card
Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
Most producers cull the open cows, make managerial adjustments and anticipate a better calf crop next year.
While memories of the calving season are still fresh in your mind (and your calving book is your reference book of choice), now is the time to review this year’s calving distribution. Evaluate how your management is working.
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Mexico, Canada Largest Markets For US Beef
Thebeefsite.com
The US Department of Agriculture has released the monthly export data for meats and poultry which shows that February was a good month for beef and pork and a difficult month for chicken — owing primarily to Russia, according to Steve Meyer and Len Steiner.
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Cattlemen & Politics
Gary DiGiuseppe
American Cattlemen
How many cattlemen can say they might have launched a politician’s career? That’s the story offered by Kevin Carstensen, an Odebolt, Iowa cattle feeder who’s been promoting producer interests in the political arena since the early 80s. One of his first public actions was to testify in front of the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission on measures designed to protect the state’s waters; afterwards, he says, “I sat down in Steve King’s construction company office and related some of my experiences with the EPC and the DNR, and he to this day attributes that three-hour conversation we had one afternoon in his construction office of getting into politics.” King, of course, is now U.S. Rep Steve King (R-Iowa).
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Interesting questions about the placenta
Bill Beal
Angus Journal
The placenta is a remarkable organ that provides the fetus with nutrients and gas exchange during pregnancy. During a recent laboratory dissection of the reproductive tract from a pregnant cow, college students posed some interesting questions about the placenta. The answers demonstrate how vital and complex placental function can be.
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Season Stretcher, Profit Killer, Be proactive. Don’t let vibrio steal your calves, time and money.
Katrina Waters
The Cattleman
Reproductive diseases are like thieves to cow-calf producers. Without warning, they sneak in and steal calves (through infertile or aborting cows), create longer breeding seasons and add to labor and management costs.
One of these thieves is the often undetected Campylobacteriosis — also known as Vibriosis or vibrio — a somewhat mysterious, always costly disease.
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Reports Detail Why Veterinarians Enter, Leave Rural Practice
Bovine Veterinarian
Two special reports appearing in the April 15, 2010, edition of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) offer some interesting insight as to why veterinarians choose to practice in rural settings – and why some of them choose to walk away.
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Stronger Economy Could Mean Better Meat Prices
Linda H. Smith
Beef Today
Orders for semi-trucks is one harbinger of how the economy is doing as they indicate whether more or fewer products will be moving, says Ann Duignan of J.P. Morgan. The number ordered in 2009 was down 33% from a year earlier, and January 2010’s total was down 18% from last year and the worst month for sales since January 1992.
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