Management of Cows with Limited Forage Availability

Management of Cows with Limited Forage Availability

Chris Richards, Dave Lalman, Glenn Selk, Beef Cattle Specialists, University of Oklahoma

Many producers are faced with limited forage availability due to drought and/or fire. One of the first management tools that should be evaluated for cow/calf producers is to cull poorer producing cows.

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Improving Plant Digestibility

Improving Plant Digestibility

A recent breakthrough at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation holds the potential to produce plants that are more digestible for animals and better suited for biofuel production.

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Nervous Coccidiosis in Calves

Nervous Coccidiosis in Calves

Larry D. Hauptmeier, DVM, Extension Veterinarian, Iowa State University

A variety of clinical neurological syndromes exists in stocker and feeder cattle. Causes may be infectious, nutritional/metabolic, or toxins. A less common syndrome is referred to as "nervous" coccidiosis, named so because of the observation that many of the calves that experience this neurological syndrome concurrently exhibit clinical enteric coccidiosis.

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UT AgResearch expands 2012 field day schedule

UT AgResearch expands 2012 field day schedule

Delta Farm Press

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture will host 20 field days and special events at UT AgResearch and Education Centers across the state in 2012. That’s up five from the 2011 tally.

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BeefTalk: The Uphill Battle of Expanding the Cow Business

BeefTalk: The Uphill Battle of Expanding the Cow Business

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Should we think about data or just ponder? That is the question. With the holiday season quickly slowing us down, now is a good time to ponder and maybe let the data rest for a bit.

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Nebraska cattleman will be next NCBA president

Nebraska cattleman will be next NCBA president

Ken Anderson

Brownfield Network

A cattle feeder and farmer from Pilger, Nebraska is set to become the next president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).

J.D. Alexander will move into the top leadership post of NCBA during the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville in early February.

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Adding More Value Is Packers’ Only Recourse

Adding More Value Is Packers’ Only Recourse

Steve Kay

BEEF

Grand plans and meatpacking are like oil and water. They don’t mix successfully.

Remember Future Beef Operations (FBO) completed in 2001, its plant in Arkansas City, KS, included the most technologically advanced beef processing systems in the world.

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Winter Preparations Reduce Headaches for Beef Producers

Winter Preparations Reduce Headaches for Beef Producers

Andy Eubank

Hoosier AG Today

With La Niña’s arrival, the forecast is for another winter colder and wetter than normal, something a Purdue Extension beef specialist says livestock producers need to prepare for.

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Bedded beef barn first of its kind in south-central Nebraska

Bedded beef barn first of its kind in south-central Nebraska

The Cattle Business Weekly

Getting started in the cattle business is difficult. But young people are doing it, often because they are willing to think outside the box. A case in point is Zach Herz, a twenty-something entrepreneur from Lawrence, Nebraska.

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Will strong meat exports last?

Will strong meat exports last?

Chris Lehner

Agri-View

Did you ever have a friend that you could count on being there with you and for you at all times and you were inseparable? Then suddenly a change came about and you were by yourself. Inseparable one day and separated the next.

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National Western eyes new locations

National Western eyes new locations

The Cattle Business Weekly

For the last 10 years the National Western Stock Show Executive Committee has been researching options for relocating or rebuilding on the current site of the old Denver Union Stockyards north of downtown Denver.

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Beef Sire Selection & Management Seminar set

Beef Sire Selection & Management Seminar set

Dave Seibert

University of Illinois

Illinois cow-calf producers will have the opportunity to learn about the most important decisions for their enterprises at the Beef Sire Selection & Management Seminar from 3:45 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 2, at Wilkey’s Café in the Mt. Vernon Outland Airport.

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Feedlot Bloat

Feedlot Bloat

Nicolas DiLorenzo, University of Minnesota

Now, the animals have been stepped-up to the high-grain diets and they are close to their maximum intake capacity. We have already overcome the plague that respiratory diseases are in those newly arrived.

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Bill For Critical Grazing & Environmental Provisions

Bill For Critical Grazing & Environmental Provisions

Thebeefsite.com

A $915 billion omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government through September 2012 passed Congress over the weekend and is headed to President Barack Obama’s desk.

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Do vegetarian diets cause more harm to animals?

Do vegetarian diets cause more harm to animals?

Mike Archer

Beef Central (AU)

The ethics of eating red meat have been grilled recently by critics who question its consequences for environmental health and animal welfare. But if you want to minimise animal suffering and promote more sustainable agriculture, adopting a vegetarian diet might be the worst possible thing you could do.

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Extra Energy of Young Females After Calving

Extra Energy of Young Females After Calving

University of Nebraska

The 1996 Nutrient Requirements for Beef Cattle indicates that the first-calf-females post-calving needs to consume a diet that is between 62% and 64% TDN and 10% to 11% crude protein, depending on level of milk production.

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Dealing Proactively in the Ongoing Battle with Bovine Respiratory Disease

Dealing Proactively in the Ongoing Battle with Bovine Respiratory Disease

Oklahoma Farm Report

With the winter season now officially here, any movement of cattle can raise the risk of respiratory disease.

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MO Farm Bureau battles HSUS ballot efforts

MO Farm Bureau battles HSUS ballot efforts

Julie Harker

Brownfield Network

Agriculture’s fight to keep the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) from changing the ballot initiative process in Missouri continues. Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst tells Brownfield they are working with other groups on initiative petition reform and on fighting the HSUS initiative petition

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How Does Meat in the Diet Take an Environmental Toll?

How Does Meat in the Diet Take an Environmental Toll?

Scientific American

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.

Our meat consumption habits take a serious toll on the environment. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the production, processing and distribution of meat requires huge outlays of pesticides, fertilizer, fuel, feed and water while releasing greenhouse gases, manure and a range of toxic chemicals into our air and water.

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Two Very Different Ways to Fatten Beef Cattle

Two Very Different Ways to Fatten Beef Cattle

Barry Estabrook

The Atlantic

The first is of the Harris Ranch Beef Company feedlot along Interstate 5, about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. There, up to 100,000 cattle at a time are crowded on top of their own excrement into one square mile of what can be euphemistically called mud (winter) or dust (summer).

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