Adding Value to Your Calves

http://vimeo.com/10249443

Don Hubbell

Don Hubbell speaks on ways to add value to your calves.

Plan now for heat stress

Plan now for heat stress

Geni Wren

Bovine Veterinarian

On a Friday in mid-July 2010 the area around west central Kansas was forecasted for high heat, high humidity and virtually no wind. Temperatures that afternoon were in the mid-90s, humidity was above 80%, and the air was still.

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Steve Cornett: Packers’ Congressional “Minions” vs. USDA

Steve Cornett:  Packers’ Congressional “Minions” vs. USDA

Beef Today

USDA and APHIS must be wondering where they went wrong. They seemed to have so much momentum.

Yet, somewhere in the halls of USDA lingers a rule that a year ago Secretary Vilsack promised  “would provide significant new protections for producers against unfair, fraudulent or retaliatory practices.”

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First-born beef advantage

First-born beef advantage

Tuff Birmingham

Agriculture.com

Early-born calves have a better chance than the later born of making a profit for their owners.

That’s what a 2010 study of Iowa Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity (TCSCF) data helped confirm. The analysis looked at birth date and age of Angus-Simmental rotational crossbred calves, compared to their feedlot performance and carcass traits.

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Does your stocking rate fit your cow size?

Does your stocking rate fit your cow size?

Ken Olson

Tri State Livestock News

I have talked about issues with increasing cow size in my last few columns. I would like to address this topic one more time from the perspective of how it impacts stocking rate on pastures. In my last article, April 16, I discussed the inability for large cows with high-nutrient requirements to meet those requirements in a grazing situation.

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How to deal with dead farm animals? Composting might be answer

How to deal with dead farm animals? Composting might be answer

Janet Patton

Kentucky.com

Every living animal dies. When it happens unexpectedly on a farm, it can be inconvenient and expensive to deal with. But a natural method of disposal is catching on that gives a whole new meaning to "chipped beef."

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Producer Pushes For More Profitable Herd

Producer Pushes For More Profitable Herd

Boyd Kidwell

Progressive Farmer

Terry Slusher, of Floyd, Va., received a wake-up call several years ago. Slusher sent five steers to a feedlot as part of a commingled truckload in an Extension demonstration project. The Blue Ridge Mountain cattleman expected his calves to be top performers.

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On-Pasture Finishing Viable for Smaller Feeders

On-Pasture Finishing Viable for Smaller Feeders

Alan Newport

Beef Producer

Researchers in Oklahoma and Illinois recently released cost-saving details of their experiments with feed-finishing calves in a pasture setting.

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Invite a Cow to Lunch

Invite a Cow to Lunch

Tom Bechman

Indiana Prairie Farmer

Many of you may bring a cow to lunch, only not in the form the cow might like. Whoever invented the ‘Eat More Chicken’ commercial was a genius. Often, the cow comes to the table in the form of a steak or hamburger.

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Auburn University hosting statewide Beef Field Day

Auburn University hosting statewide Beef Field Day

The Wetumpka Herald

The Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Association working with the Auburn Animal Sciences Department and The Alabama Cooperative Extension System will host a statewide Beef Field Day.

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Identifying Cull Cows

http://vimeo.com/13862924

Identifying Cull Cows

Eldon Cole

Eldon Cole discusses identifying candidate cows for culling.

Eldon Cole is a University of Missouri livestock specialist for southwest Missouri headquartered at Mt. Vernon. He was raised on a livestock farm at Potosi, Mo., and graduated from the University of Missouri College of Agriculture in 1962 and received a Masters in Animal Husbandry in 1963. Mr. Cole began his Extension career in 1964 in Marshall and in 1968 transferred to Mt. Vernon as livestock specialist. His programs include beef and forage production and utilization, Missouri Steer Feedout, Show-Me-Select Beef Heifer Replacement Program, bull breeding soundness clinics, and grazing schools to name a few.

USDA Sticking by GIPSA Rule

USDA Sticking by GIPSA Rule

Jerry Hagstrom

DTN

The Obama administration will not withdraw the proposed Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration rule regarding the marketing of livestock and poultry, even though a bipartisan group of 147 House members wrote Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging that it be rewritten, a USDA spokesman said late last week.

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Cattle Producers Join Forcers for Better Sales

Cattle Producers Join Forcers for Better Sales

Linda Breazeale

Cattle Today

Cattle producers and buyers are finding a win-win method of marketing cattle in the Cattlemen’s Exchange and Homeplace Producer Sales.

Mississippi State University’s Extension Service is partnering with several organizations and sale barns to offer auctions in Winona and Hattiesburg for cattle that may never pass through either of those cities.

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BeefTalk: Little Money Available for High-cost Producers

BeefTalk: Little Money Available for High-cost Producers

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Times are good and perennial grasses, or should we say perennial plants, are doing a little more waving in the wind this spring than their annual grass counterparts.

If one mentions grass, then cattle discussions are soon to follow. Even when times are good, with good grasses and good prices, survival is not to be taken for granted by grass and cattle producers.

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Cattle Producers Complain USDA Is Playing It By Ear

Cattle Producers Complain USDA Is Playing It By Ear

David Blanchard

Materials, Handling and Logistics

There’s a burning issue (sorry) in the world of the beef production supply chain: whether cattle ranchers should continue to identify cattle using hot brands, or to instead opt for ear tags.

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Montana ranchers push for Korea trade deal

Montana ranchers push for Korea trade deal

Great Falls Tribune

Eager to expand beef markets, Montana ranchers are throwing their weight behind a pending trade agreement with South Korea.

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NCBA: WTO Preliminary Ruling on COOL Good for Producers

NCBA: WTO Preliminary Ruling on COOL Good for Producers

Western Livestock Journal

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) reported that the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) preliminary ruling on Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) reinforces what the group, which is the oldest and largest national organization representing the U.S. cattle industry, has stated all along.

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Beef and Forage Field Day will be held June 9

Beef and Forage Field Day will be held June 9

The Daily Times

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture’s annual Beef and Forage Field Day will be held June 9, this year’s event will once again be held at the East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center located at 4341 UT Farm Road, Louisville, at the intersection of U.S. Hwy 129 (Alcoa Highway) and Singleton Station Road.

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Know the meanings of special meat labels

Know the meanings of special meat labels

WRAL

Fat-free, sugar-free, and carb-free used to be the big buzz words. Now, meat labels have all kinds of special phrasing – words like free range, no antibiotics, natural and organic. Some people are passionate about those labels and are willing to pay more for them.

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Producing dairy beef for today’s consumer

Producing dairy beef for today’s consumer

Dairy Herd Network

John Ligo (pron. lie-go), dairy/beef producer from Pennsylvania and 2011 checkoff-funded Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) award winner, says business success is his farm’s key driver.

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