Cheating in the Show Ring, Part 2
Cattle.com
In the last article I discussed the history of animal fairs and exhibitions, the price to raise a show-quality animal, and briefly touched on some reasons why some ethical people may be driven to cheat. This week, I plan to explore the reasoning behind cheating, some statistics on cheating and some of the “gray” ethical issues that come up when discussing cheating.
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Gathering Information Can be a Means of Survival for Producers
Clifford Mitchell
Cattle Today
Finding ways to improve methods rather than re-invent the wheel has always been sound business. Using the tools available to make the right choices often makes a CEO look smart or become unemployed, depending on the result.
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Some Forages Present Potential Risk to Livestock
Beef Today
Many landowners have had questions about the risk of grazing or haying johnsongrass or sorghum sudan forage.
The exceptionally dry weather has placed a lot of stress on the plants and increased the risk of prussic acid and/or nitrate poisoning according to Eldon Cole, livestock specialist with University of Missouri Extension.
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Mobile meat processing coming to Nebraska
Gayle Smith
Tri Stat Livestock News
Livestock producers in rural areas of Nebraska may soon have better and closer access to meat processing facilities thanks to a mobile meat processing unit that has been built, and is currently awaiting USDA approval.
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Meat eating can be an environmentally friendly choice
Bonnie Azab Powell
The Grist
Guardian columnist and well-known environmentalist George Monbiot ate the above words yesterday — with a dash of salted crow, one imagines. In a column titled "I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat — but farm it properly," he tells how a book released in England this week has persuaded him that meat eating per se isn’t environmentally irresponsible, it’s the current industrial farming model that is.
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Grass fed beef, leaner and takes care with cooking
C.W. Cameron
Atlanta Journal and Constitution
The way Lynne Sawicki explains it, the difference between grass-fed beef and grain-fed beef is a lot like the difference between people who eat mostly vegetables and people who eat a lot of pasta and bread. The vegetable eaters tend to be leaner. And so are the cows who eat mostly grass, she says.
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Threshold to Profit
Steve Suther
Angus Journal
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. Paul Dykstra, beef cattle specialist with Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), developed a calf price breakeven calculator to do just that.
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Scientists Learning More About E.coli in Cattle
Hoosier AG Today
Scientists working with the Agriculture Research Service have discovered key gene and chemical interactions that allow E. coli O157:H7 bacteria to colonize the gut of cattle. They says the bacteria senses a key chemical that plays a critical role in allowing the bacteria to colonize inside the cattle’s gastrointestinal tract. This is an important finding because cattle not only host, but can shed the deadly human pathogen.
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Livestock markets a delicate balance
Chris Clayton
Tri State Livestock News
Some groups leading up to the meeting had questioned whether comments made about the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration rule would be part of the public record for the public-comment period. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made it clear that was the case.
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Don’t Skip Respiratory Vaccinations
Beef Today
Passing on respiratory vaccinations can leave producers and cattle vulnerable.
No matter the type of operation, bovine respiratory disease (BRD) can be difficult and costly for all producers to manage. In fact, BRD cost producers nearly $1 billion in economic losses last year from death, reduced feed efficiency and treatment costs, yet a 2007-2008 study showed that only 40% of beef operations typically vaccinated calves against respiratory disease before a sale.
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