Curt Pate shares low-stress livestock handling tips
Gayle Smith
Tri-State Livestock News
Pate has made it his life’s work to improve upon his low-stress livestock handling practices. He shares this knowledge with other livestock producers to create sustainability in the cattle industry.
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Government to proceed with selling Plum Island, move facility to Kansas
KFDI
A report due out later this week recommends the federal government proceed with the sale of New York’s Plum Island.
The remote 840-acre island is off the eastern tip of Long Island. It’s home to the country’s only laboratory that studies infectious animal diseases that could affect the livestock industry.
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Conoco, a boy and a legend
Holly Martin
High Plains Journal
My very first animal science class at Kansas State University was in Weber 123. I filed into the big lecture hall and found my seat among many other wide-eyed freshmen. At the front of the room hung a single photo–one that was taken before I was even born. It showed a young boy, a smoky-colored steer, and a man I would soon learn was a legend in the industry.
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Four steps to reduce shrink loss in bunkers and piles
Keith Bolsen
Country Folks
. . . too often this corn silage never makes it from the bunker or pile to the feed bunk. This loss in feed is commonly referred to as shrinkage and is measured by subtracting the total tons of silage fed from the total tonnage ensiled. It is estimated that about 20 percent of the corn silage in the country is lost to shrink every year at a steep price to producers.
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Farmers short of hay urged to think twice before baling soybeans
Rob L. Kallenbach
University of Missouri
Soybeans were introduced on Missouri farms as a hay crop, not an oilseed crop. That started back in the dry years of the 1930s.
This year, cow-herd owners short on feed are asking about baling soybeans that won’t make a bean crop.
Rob Kallenbach, University of Missouri Extension forage specialist, answers two questions the callers do not ask.
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Sale barns active with ranchers, dairymen downsizing herds as feed becomes scarce
Eric Brown
Greeley Tribune
A small pack of holsteins wandered aimlessly under a hot sun at about noon Wednesday, meandering and moaning around a pen just below a catwalk that stretches over the stockyards at Greeley Producers — an auction barn on the north edge of town.
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Make early assessment of winter’s hay needs
Warren Gill
Southeast Farm Press
Producers are encouraged to not wait until they are running low on supplies in the winter to start looking for hay.
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Cattle judging is no beauty contest
Peter Hagar
Plattsburgh Press-Republican
Cattle showing has evolved since the 1800s. Originally, cattle breeders would bring their cattle to a fair or market as a way to sell their stock or promote their line of breeding. Other farmers would evaluate and judge for themselves the benefits of adding a new line of breeding into their herds.
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US has fewest cattle in at least 4 decades
Fox News
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that the number of cattle and calves in the United States totaled 97.8 million head as of July 1. That’s 2 percent less than a year ago. Beef cattle numbers were down 3 percent at 30.5 million head counted, while dairy cow numbers remained unchanged at 9.2 million.
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71% Of Beef Cows In States With Lowest Pasture Conditions
Len Steiner and Steve Meyer
BEEF
The percentage of total pasture acres rated as being in poor or very poor condition increased to 54% this week, up 4% from one week ago. That number compares to 29% last year at this time.
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The Beef Blog 