Baxter Black, DVM: RUSSELL AND THE PIRATE

Baxter Black, DVM:  RUSSELL AND THE PIRATE

Russ normally would not have kept the heifer he called “The Pirate” but, he did.  It was one of those chilly 5:30 spring mornings in southeast Idaho. 

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Pigeon Fever Spreading

Pigeon Fever Spreading

Dr. Ken McMillan

DTN/The Progressive Farmer

An outbreak of Pigeon Fever is most likely to affect horses, but in some cases the disease can occur in cattle herds.

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Steve Cornett: USDA’s anti-meat “mistake”

Steve Cornett:  USDA’s anti-meat “mistake”

Beef Today

Texas Ag Commissioner Todd Staples says USDA’s "unauthorized" endorsement of meatless Mondays was "treasonous."

A little over the top, maybe. It’s not like meatless Mondays are cooked up by Iran or North Korea or something.

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Drought-driven changes in feedlot cost of gain and feeder cattle prices

Drought-driven changes in feedlot cost of gain and feeder cattle prices

Dillon Feuz

Tri-State Livestock News

How can feeder cattle prices decline more than $20 per hundredweight in five weeks when fed cattle prices remained unchanged? Answer: when projected feedlot costs per hundredweight of gain increase more than $25 during that same time period.

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Science Vs. Perception Is The Industry Struggle

Science Vs. Perception Is The Industry Struggle

Troy Marshall

BEEF

If there was anything the media debacle over “pink slime” taught the industry it was that we have to take a hard look at issue management and be more proactive in our response to such issues. It also raises the philosophical debate about whether or not good science or public perception is more important.

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Clemson experts look to offset corn costs for cattlemen

Clemson experts look to offset corn costs for cattlemen

The Newberry Observer

Clemson cattle researchers see green pastures as a way for ranchers and consumers to cope with the costs of the 2012 corn fizzle. Scientists are investigating pasture-finished beef, where cattle grow to market size on grasses instead of feedlot corn.

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Investing in quality corn silage can pay off

Investing in quality corn silage can pay off                                  

Chad Howlett   

Progressive Cattleman

While the future of this corn crop is still very much in doubt, it goes without saying that we want to try and make the best feed we can for our cattle and generate the most return per harvested acre. If that means making lemonade

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State’s ranchers hit by Midwest drought

State’s ranchers hit by Midwest drought

Carolyn Lochhead

San Francisco Chronicle

California ranchers may be hit harder by the drought in the nation’s heartland than farmers in the corn belt.

Most corn farmers have subsidized crop insurance, a program so generous that farmers who lose their entire crop could wind up making more money than if there were no drought at all.

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Cattle-Fax: It’s not all doom and gloom

Cattle-Fax: It’s not all doom and gloom

John Maday

Drovers

While this year’s drought has profoundly affected the cattle outlook, Cattle-Fax analyst Kevin Good presented some signs of hope Friday during the Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver.

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Fewer cattle, lower prices

Fewer cattle, lower prices

Chris Lehr

Agri-View

Every once in a while when I write a report explaining why I am bearish or have a negative slant on prices I get a call or email saying if it wasn’t for people like myself or “those Chicago traders” prices wouldn’t fall or fall as hard.

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Low-stress cattle handling tips from Curt Pate

Low-stress cattle handling tips from Curt Pate

B. Lynn Gordon

iGrow

Cattle and horse handling expert Curt Pate, from Helena, Mont., demonstrated low-stress cattle handling techniques at the recent AgXchange Conference jointly sponsored by SDSU Extension held near Pierre, S.D.

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Drought Forces Move to Emergency Haying, Grazing

Drought Forces Move to Emergency Haying, Grazing

Lindsay Calvert

DTN

USDA authorized emergency grazing and haying of eligible Conservation Reserve Program land in 11 states, but that won’t solve all of livestock producers’ woes.

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Feedlot ruling pulled by EPA

Feedlot ruling pulled by EPA

The Cattle Business Weekly

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has withdrawn its proposed Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 308 CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) Reporting Rule

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2011 Beef Quality Audit Documents Improvement

2011 Beef Quality Audit Documents Improvement

AgriMarketing

The 2011 NBQA results show that the industry has made significant improvements in producing safe and wholesome beef that is consistently higher in quality, as proven by several measurable standards.

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Beef Demand is Still the Key

Beef Demand is Still the Key

Derrell S. Peel

TSCRA

The continued worsening of the drought has cattle markets on the defensive in just about every respect. Loss of forage and reduced hay production is causing early feeder cattle sales and additional cow culling. The signs of additional beef herd liquidation are everywhere; the mid-year total cattle inventory is down 2 percent while the beef cow herd is down 3 percent.

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Take Precautions When Feeding Drought Damaged Corn as Silage

Take Precautions When Feeding Drought Damaged Corn as Silage

Iowa State University

When a corn plant is stunted, or not growing normally, nitrates can build up in the plant. Typically, nitrogen that is taken up by the corn plant is converted to amino acids ― the building blocks of protein ― but in the stressed plant this conversion does not occur.

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Indiana farmers get tips on surviving drought

Indiana farmers get tips on surviving drought

Journal Courier

Drop by drop, animal nutrition consultant Bill Doig dripped a solution of sulfuric acid onto a longitudinal cross-section of a corn stalk. The acid-covered areas immediately turned midnight blue — a sign, Doig said, that corn stalks from the same field could kill cattle that eat too much of it.

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New breed of ranchers shapes a sustainable West

New breed of ranchers shapes a sustainable West

Todd Wilkinson

The Christian Science Monitor

Zachary Jones is a saddle-hardened fifth-generation rancher even though, on the surface, he may not look like one. As he threads his pickup truck through the back pasture of a quintessential Western expanse – one carpeted in flaxen-colored grass in the shadow of Montana’s Crazy Mountains – he bears little resemblance to the stereotype of the Stetson-wearing cowboy.

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US researchers claim angus cattle on the way out

US researchers claim angus cattle on the way out

Leone Knight

ABC Rural (AU)

The angus breed is becoming a "terminal breed", according to the US Meat Animal Research Centre.

Australian beef breeding consultant Dick Wale has returned from a study tour of the centre with a wake-up call for Australian breeders.

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“Veggie” diet blamed for poor performance of China’s women volleyball team

“Veggie” diet blamed for poor performance of China’s women volleyball team

Merco Press

Fearing tainted meat, China’s women’s volleyball team has stuck to a strict vegetarian diet for the last three weeks, which the team’s coach is now blaming for his athletes’ abysmal performance.

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