Video Feature: Combating Heat Stress with Cattle Shades

Learn how to reduce heat stress on cattle by constructing auxiliary cattle shades and water troughs. Commentary by Extension Cow/Calf Field Specialist Jim Krantz & Ag Engineer Steve Pohl.

 

Cows Overheating in the Drought? There’s an App for That

Cows Overheating in the Drought? There’s an App for That

Riverfront Times

. . . The program also takes in the cow’s breed, its diet, whether it’s beef or dairy, in a feedlot or a field, etc. Thermal Aid then spits out a prediction on whether the cow is comfortable or in danger of heat stress

Full Story

University of Illinois issues beef production strategies during the drought

University of Illinois issues beef production strategies during the drought

Agri Marketing

As the weeks continue to pass without any significant rain in the Midwest, it is getting increasingly difficult to find feed for livestock, said University of Illinois assistant professor of animal sciences Dan Shike.

Full Story

Tracing Trouble: Animal identification debated

Tracing Trouble: Animal identification debated

CLAY COPPEDGE

Country World

Two years after the United States Department of Agriculture abandoned the National Identification System (NAIS) because of widespread protests from producers, the department has unveiled new proposed rules for animal disease traceability. Again, there are protests, but not from as many quarters.

Full Story

Indiana Farmer Puts Purchases on Hold as Drought Breeds Doubt

Indiana Farmer Puts Purchases on Hold as Drought Breeds Doubt

Bloomberg

. . . This year things are different. Hayhurst is farming right in the heart of the 2.5 percent of the country that is in “exceptional drought” — the worst rating. A combination of little rain and record heat has roasted corn crops, dried up ponds and streams and caused farmers like Hayhurst to postpone purchases of everything from grain bins to smartphones.

Full Story

New Research Casts Practice of Breeding Cattle for Fall Calving in a Different Light

New Research Casts Practice of Breeding Cattle for Fall Calving in a Different Light

David Burton

University of Missouri

For a number of years, the trend in southwest Missouri has been toward fall calving. The practice been prompted, to some extent, by the inability to breed cows and heifers for spring calves on endophyte infected fescue.

Full Story

Who’s your daddy? Solving sire mysteries

Who’s your daddy? Solving sire mysteries

 Miranda Reiman

Angus.org

Give or take a week or more, gestation varies enough to make cattlemen wonder: Is this an AI (artificial insemination) calf or a natural service? Multi-sire pastures raise even more questions.

Full Story

University of Nebraska to offer Feedlot School at multiple locations in mid August

University of Nebraska to offer Feedlot School at multiple locations in mid August

The Stock Exchange

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be offering a Beef Feedlot School at Mitchell and two other locations across the state in August. Feedlot employees in the panhandle are encouraged to attend the event on August 16th at the Scotts Bluff County fairgrounds in Mitchell. The goal of this program is to assist with the training of feedlot employees in the areas of animal health and feeding.

Full Story

Beware of Nitrate Toxicity in Drought-Stressed Corn

Beware of Nitrate Toxicity in Drought-Stressed Corn

Kansas State University

With drought stretching across the United States, plants such as corn and sorghum tend to accumulate high levels of nitrate in the lower leaves and stalk of the plant.

Full Story

Drought and the Cattle Industry

Drought and the Cattle Industry

Chris Hurt

University of Illinois

The beef industry has already experienced a number of difficult years characterized by falling cow numbers and declining per capita beef supplies. There was hope in the first-half of this year that this downward production phase was coming to an end, but the drought of 2012 has erased those hopes. So, where is the cattle industry today, and what do we know about the impacts of this year’s drought?

Full Story