Breeding Season is over, what should I do with the bull?
University of Wisconsin
This is a frequently asked question from farmers who are striving for a short and definite breeding/calving season in their efforts to produce a uniform calf crop as well as how to manage and feed the bull until the next breeding season. My question back is, “Have you considered selling him and purchasing a better bull prior to the next breeding season?”
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Conventional Beef Is Sustainable Beef
Bovine Veterinarian
For the last 10-15 years it seems the world has jumped on the “sustainable” bandwagon, but you seldom hear how different people define sustainable. For the beef industry, some consumers would say sustainable means a small family farm raising grass-fed cattle with no inputs. They might say a large feedlot using technologies such as implants is not sustainable.
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Montana ranchers receive Beef Quality Assurance Training
Ariel Overstreet
The Cattle Business weekly
The Montana Beef Quality Assurance Program (BQA) held several educational "Twilight Trainings" across the Montana this summer. Many Montana ranchers have learned valuable tools to ensure that their cattle are handled in a low-stress manner-which benefits not only the cattle, but also the ranch’s crew and its bottom line.
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Teen cattle herd manager named S.C. Star Farmer
Shawn Catrone
The Sun News
In this summer’s stifling heat, while many teenagers are sleeping with air conditioning till noon, Lauren McGill is up before sunrise.
She feeds cattle, prepares her heifers for show competitions, drives to a nearby ranch to manage a herd of 77 cows then takes over running her family’s general store.
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BeefTalk: Fed-calf Value a Plus
Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
One of the driving factors in the beef business is cost. As a producer, even a producer with poor records, the cost of doing business keeps going up. Survival means balancing cost and income.
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Researcher studies causes of grass tetany
High Plains Journal
Cow chemistry keeps revealing secrets as Dale Blevins delves deeper into the causes of grass tetany, a nutritional disorder than kills cows.
Blevins, a University of Missouri plant scientist, studies the makeup of grass that the afflicted cows eat. He’s making progress.
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Nitrate poisoning, heat stress and body condition scoring
Rusty Evans
Leaf Chronicle
Due to the dry weather some folks may want to turn their cattle into graze on Johnsongrass or Sorgham/Sudan grass hybrids. Before doing that we urge you to check with us in the University of Tennessee Extension Office so we can do a quick test to see if it may have excessive nitrates that can cause nitrate poisonings.
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Calf Preconditioning: More Than the Right Thing to Do
KRVN
With greater attention given to beef quality and safety, good animal husbandry practices and preventive health measures have become increasingly important. However, producers don’t have to turn their animal health program upside down to achieve a high-quality product.
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Distillers byproduct grain boosts bad-hay nutrients
Chris Zumbrunnen
Byproduct feeds from ethanol plants offer beef herd owners a way to supplement bad hay being baled for winter feed this year.
“Distillers grains can pick up the slack when the hay quality falls short,” said Chris Zumbrunnen, MU Extension regional livestock specialist, Milan, Mo., who spoke at field days at the University of Missouri Forage Systems Research Center Aug. 3 and the Greenley Research Center Aug. 10.
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Defining the language of beef
BCRnews.com
I thought I’d start my first column off by explaining the various choices of beef that are available and what they mean.
The different types and names can be confusing. I’ll start off with grain-finished or grain-fed beef which is the most widely produced method and the type you most often see in the supermarket.
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The Beef Blog 