Eastern Livestock Founder Receives 10 Year Sentence In Cattle Fraud Case

Eastern Livestock Founder Receives 10 Year Sentence In Cattle Fraud Case

AgriMarketing

Thomas "Tommy" Gibson, founder and former CEO of New Albany-based Eastern Livestock, was sentenced to 10 years in prison today in Metcalfe Circuit Court, according to a news release from Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway.

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Keeping The Factory Running

Keeping The Factory Running

Trey Patterson

HeiferPRO

If you were building a factory to produce a product, you would want the factory to have quality and efficiency built in.

But, you would also be very aware of the cost to build that factory. Why?

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Creep feed conversions for calves

Creep feed conversions for calves

Glenn Selk

FarmTalk

Feed conversions of calves fed creep feeds have been quite variable to say the least.  Conversions of 5:1 or five pounds of grain consumed to one extra pound of calf weight are very rare and the optimum that can be expected when producers are using a "typical" high energy creep feed. 

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Organic Compounds Eliminate Disease Pathogens

Organic Compounds Eliminate Disease Pathogens

Thebeefsite.com

Natural compounds may offer an alternative to certain antibiotics in the future for treating young animals that are susceptible to bacterial infections, thanks to work by US Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists.

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Toxic grass behind mysterious cattle deaths

Toxic grass behind mysterious cattle deaths

Noel Brennan

KXXV

The recent deaths of 15 cows in Elgin, Texas has Central Texas ranchers taking a closer look at what they’re feeding their cows.

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“Meat without Drugs” could be inhumane

“Meat without Drugs” could be inhumane

Scott Hurd DVM, PhD

Bovine Veterinarian

As a public health veterinarian, I am concerned that a campaign such as “Meat without Drugs” could result in “Animals without Health”. A new report from Consumer Reports provides some public opinion data that are not surprising.

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Going Local With Beef Sales

Going Local With Beef Sales

Becky Mills

Progressive Farmer

Building a market to sell home-finished beef is all about consistency. You not only have to provide tasty, tender beef one year, but every year.

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BeefTalk: Does Late Calving Mean Late Weaning?

BeefTalk: Does Late Calving Mean Late Weaning?

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Does late calving mean late weaning? The Dickinson Research Extension Center changed calving dates, so the bull turnout date this year will be Aug. 1.

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Developing A Ranch Biosecurity Plan

Developing A Ranch Biosecurity Plan

Burt Rutherford       

BEEF

Consider the term “biosecurity” and what do you think of? People running around in hazmat suits conducting chemical warfare on some dreaded disease?

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Texas livestock tragedy compounded by Internet misinformation

Texas livestock tragedy compounded by Internet misinformation

Greg Henderson

Drovers

A livestock tragedy in Texas earlier this month spawned an Internet butchering of the facts, leading to further misperceptions about agriculture and the technology used to produce food.

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5 Ways to Help Cattle Beat the Heat

5 Ways to Help Cattle Beat the Heat

June 27, 2012

Kim Watson Potts

Beef Today

Hot, muggy weather is already here, which means it will be a long hot summer, especially for livestock. "Animals, cattle included, have difficulty regulating their body temperature during extreme heat," says Missouri veterinarian Dan Goehl. That heat stress can lead to death.

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Vaccine could aid in horn fly control

Vaccine could aid in horn fly control

CLAY COPPEDGE

Country World

A lot of technologies, or at least the seed for those technologies, exist in sort of a vacuum between the university lab and the field where a farmer or rancher has to make a living.

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Survey Shows Producers Tolerate Aggressive Cows

Survey Shows Producers Tolerate Aggressive Cows

Brooke Aitken & Joseph Stookey    

BEEF

Each year, beef producers are injured by overly aggressive cows at calving time. In fact, 23 people were killed by cows over a recent 15-year period in Canada. In the U.S., injury reporting by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 14% of fatalities caused by cattle are due to beef cows with calves.

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EPA might get earful about flyover program

EPA might get earful about flyover program

Joe Duggan

Omaha World Herald

Nebraska livestock farmers bent out of shape over a federal aerial surveillance program will get a chance next week to bend the ears of officials with the Environmental Protection Agency.

And it looks like Iowa producers will get to sound off at the end of August.

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Farmers, ranchers & consumers fight USDA animal ID scheme

Farmers, ranchers & consumers fight USDA animal ID scheme

Bandera County Courier

Agribusiness-friendly proposal viewed as threat to free commerce

A coalition of agriculture and consumer organizations from across the nation is challenging the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decision to push ahead with a complicated and expensive Animal ID program.

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Lack of Pastureland Increases Cattle Sales

Lack of Pastureland Increases Cattle Sales

Clint Misselhorn

WSIL

It’s brown, it’s dead, and it’s not growing. Area pastures are in poor shape. Anna cattle owner Oliver Ridgway says it’s time to sell cattle.

"Our pastures already dried up. The hayfields are cutting 50 percent less. CRP ground hasn’t been released so we can’t get hay there. So we’re forced, we’re in a bind" Ridgway said.

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Unlike Chicken And Pork, Beef Still Begins With Small Family Ranches

Unlike Chicken And Pork, Beef Still Begins With Small Family Ranches

Peggy Lowe

GPB News

In the chicken and pork industries, nearly every aspect of the animals’ raising has long been controlled by just a handful of agriculture conglomerates. But the cattle industry is still populated by mom-and-pop operations, at least at the calf-raising level.

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Anne Burkholder focuses on final product for calf success

Anne Burkholder focuses on final product for calf success

Cassie Payne Webb   

Progressive Cattleman

Anne Burkholder was unlikely to become the nationally recognized feedyard operator and beef industry advocate she is today.

A native of West Palm Beach, Florida, she was a student athlete and psychology major at Dartmouth when she met her husband, Matt.

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Don’t cheat on mineral and vitamins for beef cows when managing their diet.

Don’t cheat on mineral and vitamins for beef cows when managing their diet.

Kevin Gould

Michigan State University

Adequate mineral and vitamin nutrition is vital for optimizing animal growth, lactation, reproduction and immune response. Once the mineral status of the animal drops below threshold levels, it may affect response to vaccination, immunity to disease and parasite challenges and growth.

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Summer’s Heat Means Watching Cattle for Heat Stress

Summer’s Heat Means Watching Cattle for Heat Stress

Terry Mader

University of Nebraska

With summer just starting and temperatures already approaching 100 degrees earlier this spring, cattle producers need to take steps to ward off heat stress in their herds, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln beef specialist said.

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