Baxter Black, DVM: FOOD DESERTS

Baxter Black, DVM:  FOOD DESERTS

Many of us in the food producing business are watching with a suspicious eye, Mrs. Obama’s pending federally funded efforts to combat obesity in children.

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Steve Cornett: Competition Rule Casualties

Steve Cornett:  Competition Rule Casualties

Beef Today

If you didn’t believe that the Obama administration meant to declare war on conventional agriculture, you should have been sitting in on the press conference when Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Dudley Butler, head of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), announced their proposed new rules governing producer-processor relations.

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How to Add Gates, Corrals for a Fraction of the Cost

How to Add Gates, Corrals for a Fraction of the Cost

By Boyd Kidwell

Progressive Farmer/DTN

When John Brewer sees metal objects headed to the scrap pile, light bulbs go off in his brain like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Immediately, the cattleman from Oxford, N.C., visualizes new corrals, smooth-working handling facilities and strong pasture gates. When sunlight glitters on discarded steel, his welding arm starts twitching.

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Antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance

David L. Morris, DVM, Ph.D.

The Fence Post

Antimicrobials are critical tools in promoting both animal and human health. Because animals, humans and the potential microbes that are associated with disease and those that do not cause disease are all biological organisms, dynamic processes for survival of each occur continuously

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Meat Industry Insists Everything is A-OK With Antibiotic Use, Despite Everyone Else’s Conclusion That It Isn’t

Meat Industry Insists Everything is A-OK With Antibiotic Use, Despite Everyone Else’s Conclusion That It Isn’t

Melanie Warner

Bnet

Editor’s note: Stories of this ilk are included in the blog to inform those in our industry how agriculture is being presented to and perceived by the public.

The FDA’s guidelines on antibiotic use in meat production formalize what many government officials, scientists, doctors and even consumers have known for years — that antibiotic use in agriculture has gotten out of hand and should be curtailed.

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Animal Agriculture Under Siege – How To Be A Force For Truth

Animal Agriculture Under Siege – How To Be A Force For Truth

Bovine Veterinarian

According to polls, approximately 83% of Americans approve of the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS), a speaker reported at the recent American Agri-Women (AAW) Symposium held in Washington, D.C. and titled “Animal Agriculture under Siege –How to be a Force for Truth.” The symposium , sponsored by the Past Presidents Council, was part of AAW’s annual Fly-In.

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FDA Takes on Antibiotics Used in Animals for Food

FDA Takes on Antibiotics Used in Animals for Food

First Coast News

The Food and Drug Administration issued a document Monday stating that antibiotics important for human health shouldn’t be used to help animals grow faster.

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Northwest Cattle Rustling Spike Spurs Law Enforcement Crackdown

Northwest Cattle Rustling Spike Spurs Law Enforcement Crackdown

Anna King

KUOW

The term "cattle rustling" might conjure scenes from an old spaghetti western. But in the vast desert range of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada, cattle rustling is a very modern–day problem.

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World beef production expected to decline

World beef production expected to decline

Lisa Boetel, Wisconsin Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist

Southeast Farm Press

For a third consecutive year, world beef production is expected to decline. USDA’s Foreign Ag Service has forecast a 0.7 percent decline in world beef production for 2010, as compared to 2009.

Four of the five largest beef producing nations are expected to produce less beef. U.S. beef production is forecast to be down 0.8 percent.

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Stronger demand, rising prices have hog and cattle producers seeing green

Stronger demand, rising prices have hog and cattle producers seeing green

DAN PILLER

DesMoines Register

Fewer hogs, along with a recent rally in cattle prices, is likely to continue upward price pressure for both livestock and meat prices, reports Friday showed.

The likelihood of the first profitable year for livestock producers since 2007 will help farm incomes rise by an average of 10 percent this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

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Consumers Trending Toward Grass-Fed Beef

Consumers Trending Toward Grass-Fed Beef

Beef Today

A new USDA report suggests consumers are trending toward grass-fed beef even though it remains a niche product at the present time. And if there is to be substantial growth in grass-fed’s market share, USDA noted there are significant obstacles to overcome.

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USMEF Watching New Beef Agreement

USMEF Watching New Beef Agreement

KTIC

The U.S. Meat Export Federation is interested to see what a new agreement to open China to Canadian beef will mean for U.S. beef.

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Leave marketing options to cattlemen

Leave marketing options to cattlemen

Bryan Nagel

Argus Leader

On behalf of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association and our 1,000 beef producer members across the state, I’d like to offer a different producer perspective than that represented in the June 22 Argus Leader article entitled, "S.D. livestock groups encouraged by USDA proposal to level competition" and the follow-up article of June 23 entitled, "Livestock producers praise rule proposals."

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E. coli lurks in some unexpected places

E. coli lurks in some unexpected places

JODI MAILANDER FARRELL

The Miami Herald

Thought contaminated raw lettuce and undercooked ground beef were your only worries when it comes to potentially dangerous bacteria? In the age of E. coli outbreaks and food recalls, scientists are finding the virulent bug in the most surprising places.

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Farmers “Diversify” to Stay Viable

Farmers "Diversify" to Stay Viable

WHSV

In response to a challenging economic period and rising in demand in locally grown food, managers of the Virginia Farm Bureau say farmers are increasingly "diversifying" their farms and getting into several aspects of agriculture at once.

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