Research reveals value of selecting calm cattle
Justin Ammon
Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station
Recent research has demonstrated the value of cattle with calm temperaments and the price producers pay for keeping wilder animals in their herds.
A five-year Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station study found that cows with poor temperaments can affect the entire herd and reduce producers’ bottom lines.
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BeefTalk: Source and Age Verification
Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
One could say the future of beef starts with a calving book. Certainly, source and age verification starts with a calving book. Now is the time to be planning on getting cattle ready for source and age verification for next fall.
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(200) Cows done in by bad spuds
Terry Devitt
University of Wisconsin
Anyone taking the recent, mysterious deaths of 200 steers in a Portage County, Wis., feedlot as a sign of the apocalypse can rest easy. The cows, according to the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, were done in by bad spuds.
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The Industry Needs A Tea Party Movement
Troy Marshall
BEEF
The U.S. cattle industry needs a Tea Party-style movement. I’m not talking about revolution or politics per se, but a grassroots involvement to make sure our voice is heard.
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U.S. cattle herd lowest since 1958
Des Moines Register
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said today that as of Jan. 1 of this year, the 92.6 million head of cattle in the U.S. were the lowest total herd in 53 years.
The USDA said the 2010 calf crop of 35.7 million head was the smallest calf crop since the 34.9 million born during 1950.
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For those showing calves, success takes patience
John Henry
Fort Worth Star Telegram
It’s just a little after 1 p.m. Friday when Megan Lee-Smith leads her "little" girl into the parade route.
Black Beauty, in her maiden voyage on the show cattle stage, didn’t appear to make any attempt to hide her anxiety.
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Bull tests positive for rabies in central Illinois
KWQC
A bull in central Illinois has been diagnosed with rabies. State officials say the animal began showing symptoms Monday. It then tested positive and was destroyed.
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Improper cow nutrition proves costly for beef producers
AG Answers
Thin cows can be economically devastating as beef producers head into spring calving season, said Purdue Extension beef specialist Ron Lemenager.
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Winter pinkeye
Kenny Barrett Jr., DVM, MS
Tri State Livestock News
You will be hard pressed to find a fly in South Dakota this time of year. We have always been taught flies cause pinkeye. So where does winter pinkeye come from? Obviously there must be more to the story; and there is.
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Farmer has big plans to make the Valley beef central
Rebecca Martinez
Staunton News Leader
For all the cattle raised in Augusta County, they sure don’t stick around.
Calves were sold, often in lots, at the Staunton Union Stock Yards Friday. Most of them will be sent to Pennsylvania or the Midwest, where there are enormous feedlots and meat processing facilities. The buyers there stand to make a bigger profit by finishing, processing and selling the beef.
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A Better Way to Feed Hay
Kindra Gordon
Hereford World
It may sound peculiar, but Neil Dennis of Wawota, Saskatchewan, Canada, starts putting out bales for winter feeding in the fall — long before the snow and winter weather sets in. He may position 600 bales in a pasture, each about 20 feet apart.
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Steve Cornett: Taco Bell’s No-Win Defense
Beef Today
We should have been suspicious when we heard they called that rat-looking little “Quiero Taco Bell” dog “Senor Filler.”
Ok. That’s unfair, but Taco Bell got themselves into this, and it will be entertaining to watch them dig their way out.
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Proper Written Contracts Important for Ranch Managers
John Alan Cohan, Attorney at Law
Cattle Today
We all know that recordkeeping is important for tax purposes, as well as for keeping track of day-to-day activities on the ranch, but most ranchers do not keep the right kind of records.
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What Number Nerds Don’t Know About Country Store Arithmetic
John Harrington
DTN
While the current bull market in livestock futures is as fun to watch as a fireworks display at Disney World, there’s something about the exploding sky that just doesn’t add up.
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The High Price of High Prices
Gary Truitt
Hoosier AG Today
One of the most successful and long running television programs is The Price is Right. First broadcast in 1956, the show has contestants compete to win cash and prizes by bidding on the pricing of the merchandise. The original program involved four contestants bidding on expensive products, doing so in the manner of auctions, except that the host Bill Cullen did not act out the role of auctioneer.
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Plenty of questions remain about chronic wasting disease
Post-Bulletin
Can livestock (beef or dairy) contract chronic wasting disease? A couple weeks ago, I was driving by the Elk Run area near Pine Island and noticed beef cattle grazing on the same land where elk tested positive for CWD in 2008.
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Wes Ishmael : Growing Amid Contraction
BEEF
At least 20 years ago, I heard Dave Nichols of Nichols Superior Beef Genetics in Bridgewater, IA, tell a group of cattle producers that the nation’s cowherd at that time was the largest in our lifetimes. History has proven his foresight. He told me recently that for all practical purposes the same statement can be made today.
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Addressing Cattle Feeding Strategies
Thebeefsite.com
The future of Midwest cattle feeding will be discussed at the 2011 Cattle Feeders Day on February 16 at the DeKalb County Farm Bureau in Sycamore, Illinois.
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Young Sand Hills ranching couple are rare species
DAVID HENDEE
World-Herald News Service
Shane and Kristi Daniels traded buckets of sweat equity for the chance to own a ranch in Nebraska’s Sand Hills.
Five years ago, the Daniels signed a lease with the Nature Conservancy that included an option to buy Horse Creek Fen Ranch north of Mullen at its 2005 appraised value.
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Red Angus Association Adds New Carcass EPDs for Profitability
Cattle Today
Red Angus stakeholders now have access to updated tools that will enable them to achieve their ultimate profit goal. The newly released Red Angus Association of America (RAAA) 2011 Spring EPDs include two new genetic prediction tools for Carcass Weight (CW) and Yield Grade (YG).
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