Baxter Black, DVM: SWING BAG BETTY

Baxter Black, DVM:  SWING BAG BETTY

Nicole was a tomboy…no, more accurately she was a COWboy!  She favored cow work to Barbie Dolls.  She was Dad’s right hand man.  By age 15 she could pull her weight from building fence to pulling calves.

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Understanding and Coping with Summer Slump

Understanding and Coping with Summer Slump

Dr. Mark A. McCann, Extension Animal Scientist, VA Tech

As beneficial as late spring moisture has been for Virginia pastures and cattle performance, everyone typically cringes at the thought of the heat and many times the dryness of our July and August.

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Bradley Honored with Master Breeder Award

Bradley Honored with Master Breeder Award

Western Livestock Journal

Oklahoma State University (OSU) has named Minnie Lou Bradley, the first woman to major in animal husbandry at the institution, as its 2010 Master Breeder Award recipient.

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Pasture Management: June is a Transition

Pasture Management: June is a Transition

Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator, Athens County, Buckeye Hills EERA

Ohio Forages

June is often a transition time for pasture management. Generally in early June moisture and temperature are still favorable for good cool season grass growth. It is also a time when grasses are maturing if seed heads have not been clipped or grazed off and, even if an earlier clipping was done to remove seed heads; there can be new seed head production.

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BeefTalk: Is the Time Right for Breeding Systems?

BeefTalk: Is the Time Right for Breeding Systems?

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

The real answer to the management of genetics is the need to return to where it started, which is the breeding systems.

Growth and more growth has been an industry norm for some time. Like the dairy industry, individual beef cow output has increased through the years.

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Cattle Grazing: Summer Storms & Wild Cherry Trees

Cattle Grazing: Summer Storms & Wild Cherry Trees

The Dairy Network

Following some of the rain storms and winds that have moved through our area recently, I received a phone call from a farmer who had noticed that a large wild cherry tree had fallen down into a pasture paddock.

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Once Thrown, Do We Really Have To Get Back On?

Once Thrown, Do We Really Have To Get Back On?

Troy Marshall

BEEF Magazine

We’ve all had them – the pen of cattle that burned through money and accumulated enough losses to eat up a year’s worth of work. A friend recounted to me a recent business deal that turned really bad; he made the comment that when you get bucked off, you have to get back on. Everyone who rides knows this mantra; it’s part of the cowboy ethos.

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Ordering Up Beef That Roamed the Range

Ordering Up Beef That Roamed the Range

Wall Street Journal

PETER KING

For some steak lovers, their dinner menu is determined by their dinner’s menu.

Pasture-raised, or grass-fed beef is an increasing alternative to grain-fed beef sold in supermarkets and in most restaurants. While all beef cattle eat a grass-based diet for part of their lives, most beef sold in the U.S. comes from animals that spend their last months in feedlots where they are fattened on corn or other grains. The term "grass-fed" beef has come to mean animals that spend their entire lives foraging and eating grass.

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The Economics Behind The Cow

The Economics Behind The Cow

Thebeefsite.com

It’s inevitable that cow/calf producers will continue to see increases in the cost of production for their operation, according to R.S. Walker, University of Minnesota Extension, Andover.

Cow/calf producers across the US have seen an increase in cost of production due mainly to the rise in feed, fuel, and fertilizer while seeing weak calf markets.

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NALF Names New Activities Director

NALF Names New Activities Director

The North American Limousin Foundation (NALF) has hired Kasey Woolam, formerly of South Windsor, Conn., as its director of activities. She joined the staff May 17.

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Live test for mad cow disease discovered at U of C

Live test for mad cow disease discovered at U of C

Calgary Herald

Scientists at the University of Calgary have developed what they say is a simple and inexpensive blood test to detect bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in live animals.

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Cattle and conservation covered in new museum exhibit

Cattle and conservation covered in new museum exhibit

Susan McDonald

SanLuis Obispo.com

The sprawling Hearst Ranch in San Simeon and Cambria’s midtown Fiscalini Ranch Preserve are the subjects of “Ranchers and Stewards,” the museum’s latest exhibit premiering Thursday, June 17.

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Consider Microbial Products in Feeding Programs

Consider Microbial Products in Feeding Programs

Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D., PAS

Cattle Today

The cattle producer has at his disposal numerous tools and management practices which can serve to improve the health, performance and productivity of his animals.

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Beef Improvement Federation June 28 – July 1

Beef Improvement Federation June 28 – July 1

The Cattle Business

Research scientists, seedstock producers, and cow-calf producers will gather to discuss recent developments of importance to the genetic improvement of beef cattle at the 2010 Beef Improvement Federation Annual Research Symposium and Meeting in Columbia, Mo. June 28-July 1 at Holiday Inn Select Executive Conference Center.

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New Tool Calculates “Breakeven” Calf Prices

New Tool Calculates “Breakeven” Calf Prices

Cattle enterprises are risky business. You can invest a year’s input into one annual calf sale, or look into ownership in the growing and finishing phases. As market prices move up and down, you have to appreciate a new tool that calculates “breakeven,” the threshold to profit.

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Utilizing Performance Records in Commercial Beef Herds

Utilizing Performance Records in Commercial Beef Herds

John Massey, Department of Animal Science, University of Missouri

Herd profitability is based on costs and total herd production. Evaluation of herd production, in a simplified and straightforward way, can be extremely enlightening and result in obvious management deficiencies that can be changed many times easily Today many commercial beef producers are using simple performance evaluations to determine which animals to cull.

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