Can Livestock Eat $6 Corn?
Linda H. Smith
Beef Today
Exceptionally strong exports have been garnering headlines, but livestock remain major consumers of U.S. feed grains and soybean meal. Increasing dairy and livestock prices, combined with reduced feed cost, eased financial pain following the feed price explosion in 2008. Now margins are tightening again. Can U.S. livestock stomach $6 corn?
Posted in Uncategorized
Grassland Gleanings
Kindra Gordon
Angus Journal
Finding lower-cost, more-efficient ways to operate is a mindset that has come back in vogue during the last two years with the downturn in the economy. But, it’s a mantra that good grazing managers know is essential to profitability — and sustainability — no matter what trend the larger economic picture is facing.
Posted in Uncategorized
Appetite For Beef Bodes Well For Cattlemen
KAKE
An industry expert says the recession in the nation’s food service industry appears to be over as people return to eating in restaurants. But consumers want more hamburger and cheaper cuts of steak on the menu.
Posted in Uncategorized
Idaho is Full of S____
Rachael Daigle
Boise Weekly
A few months ago, BW sent reporter Scott Weaver on what we dubbed "the s___ tour," a day-long look at mega dairies and feedlots in the Magic Valley.
Posted in Uncategorized
Cancun Climate Conference Should Take Animal Agriculture Seriously
Mia McDonald
Huffington Post
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.
Cancun — As more than 190 government delegations gather in Cancun, Mexico, for the global climate talks, one topic isn’t on the menu in any substantial portion: the intensive system of rearing animals for food known as factory farming. But conference delegates ignore the rapid spread of intensive animal agriculture at the planet’s — and millions of people’s — peril.
Posted in Uncategorized
Beef Talk: Simple Bull Talk
Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
The targeted ratio is one bull to 30 cows, but the actual number will vary depending on pasture size.
The Dickinson Research Extension Center recently decreased the center’s bull population. The average bull age at the center at turnout has been 3 years of age. Seldom would a bull more than 5 years of age be turned out to breed.
Posted in Uncategorized
Food safety bill is bad for farmers
Galax Gazette
Local farmers and farmers’ market vendors stand to experience a paperwork blizzard, as the way the bill is written, their businesses and facilities will be needlessly included under a proposed industrial regulatory standard. This is a very real threat to our local food producers, and could actually put many of them out of business. We can’t let this happen.
Posted in Uncategorized
A Map of Crowded Cows
Maddie Oatman
Mother Jones
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.
In "Big Meat vs. Michael Pollan," reporter Wes Enzinna profiles the Master’s in Beef Advocacy program, an industry-funded crash course on how to bolster the reputations of cattle farmers and meat producers in a time when livestock prices are falling and beef consumption is the lowest it’s been since 1961.
Posted in Uncategorized
GIPSA Forward Contract Definition All Wrong
Jeanne Bernick
Beef Today
In the last days before the comment period for the new GIPSA livestock reporting rules closed last week, ag groups across the nation asked USDA to make changes in the proposal. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey has many concerns about the proposed GIPSA rule for hog and beef producers, but one that sticks out is the government agency’s definition of a forward contract.
Posted in Uncategorized
USDA Publishes Grassland Reserve Program Final Rule
Beef Today
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) issued the final rule for the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP), which defines requirements for participants and incorporates changes to program implementation requested by the public. The final rule can be viewed at http://www.regulations.gov.
Posted in Uncategorized
The Beef Blog 