Baxter Black, DVM: Camping Out in Wyoming
It was just another camping trip with friends. A gathering, a return to nature, to get a taste of what life was like in the Wyoming forests and plains before Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to Thomas Jefferson in 1803.
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BeefTalk: Beef and Oil
Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
The changing world of western North Dakota is a hot and cold topic. In a sense, most would consider change to be a point of reality. Seldom, if ever, does one get to make a statement about life and then control that point for a lifetime. We call that change.
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Why rotate pastures?
Gene Johnston
Agriculture.com
Grass is the cheapest feed out there. Are you and your cattle taking advantage of it? That’s a question posed by Dennis Hancock, Extension forage specialist at the University of Georgia. He’s watched and helped beef farms and grazing dairies in his state push grazing efficiencies to new high levels.
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Feed options if hay supplies or quality is low
Chris Penrose
Progressive Cattleman
It is nearing July, and many of us are starting to get an idea of how much stored feed we will need for the winter – and how much we will have. Many of us will be faced with two forage problems this year: not enough hay and the hay made may be of very poor quality.
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Storage tips to save more hay
Glen Selk
Drovers
Last week’s Cow Calf Corner Newsletter discussed some of the potential losses to large round bales due to differing storage methods. Continuing with the train of thought of preserving as much harvested hay as possible, other important storage concepts can be used as the hay is being harvested this spring and summer.
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New water rules will drown my company in regulations
J.D. Harrison
Washington Post
Every summer, Jack Field takes his herd of about a hundred cows to graze in the same floodplain — a low, flat stretch of land next to a river — in Yakima, Wash. Under newly proposed regulations, he may not be able to go back next summer. And that’s just one of many problems he says the new rules would create for his business.
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Animal welfare and animal rights are very different beasts
Robert Young
The Conversation
More than 20 years ago, the university department where I was doing my PhD was fire bombed by animal rights activists. At the time, I was conducting research into animal welfare, as were many of the staff in my department. I found it hard to understand why a research department whose main objective was to improve the well-being of animals would be the target for such an attack.
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Ohio State experts: Farmers, first responders need to prepare for agroterrorism
Tracy Turner
Ag Answers
Agroterrorism may be a term many farmers haven’t heard of, but it’s one they need to understand in order to combat it, according to an expert with Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
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Are you a committed beef producer?
John Grimes
Ohio’s Country Journal
Do you ever ask yourself why you are involved in the beef cattle industry as a producer? Of course, the logical answer is that you raise beef cattle as a primary or supplemental source of income to your overall farming operation or off-the-farm career.
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Large US grassfed beef users increasingly turning to Australia
Jon Condon
Beef Central
One of the largest and fastest growing food service restaurant chains in the US is the latest North American customer lining up for grassfed/natural beef supply out of Australia.
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Getting to the bottom of cattle lameness cases: Diagnosis
Russ Daly, DVM
Cattlenetwork.com
Making the right decisions about how to deal with a lame animal depends on how accurately the cause of the lameness can be diagnosed and localized. It’s important for caretakers to determine whether a specific lameness case can be dealt with on the farm or needs veterinary treatment.
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Outsmart stress
Bovine Veterinarian
Stressful situations are practically unavoidable for modern beef cattle. With stress often comes reduced performance or even the opportunity for disease to take hold and cause more significant losses.
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Alfalfa-sainfoin Option will Offer Bloat-Free Grazing
John Dietz
Agriculture.com
Bloat-free grazing in a mixed stand with alfalfa and a new perennial forage variety of sainfoin is being introduced as an option in 2015 in western Canada. Breeders seed for testing will be available to interested American researchers, says Surya Acharya of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Lethbridge, Alberta.
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Build Up Stockers With 24 Hours of Downtime
Becky Mills
Progressive Farmer
Ask veterinarian Ken Blue about the health program in his custom preconditioning operation, and you’ll probably expect to hear about vaccination schedules and medications.
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Southeast Brangus to Host Annual Field Day
Kayla M. Wilkins
Gobrangus.com
The Southeast Brangus Breeders Association (SBBA) will be hosting a field day at the Draggin’ M Ranch in El Dorado, Ark., Aug. 22-23, 2014. All SBBA and International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA) members are encouraged to attend.
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Cattle Industry Shifts
Angus Beef Bulletin Extra
Several news reports the week of May 12 indicate Cargill will close another Texas feedlot in the coming year. The company announced last year that it would close its Lockney yard. Now it appears the lot near Dalhart will close some time in 2015. These closures come on the heels of the company’s shuttering of its Plainview, Texas, beef slaughter plant last year.
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Don’t say goodbye to ‘pink slime’ just yet
Lauren Purdy
Drovers
According to the Wall Street Journal, “pink slime” is back. Better known as finely textured beef by producers, this beef mixture is making a comeback led by Beef Products Inc. and Cargill Inc.
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Conventional vs. Grass-fed Beef
Steve Ellis
Huffington Post
In the world of fast food, Chipotle’s unique approach to sourcing ingredients has earned us a lot of attention. Our vision is to change the way people think about and eat fast food, so nothing is more important to us than serving our customers fresh, delicious ingredients that are raised responsibly and prepared using classic cooking techniques.
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Challenges, opportunities for young to enter beef industry
Jack Whittier, Mariah Fischer
Progressive Cattleman
The U.S. agriculture industry is dominated by farm and ranch establishments that have had the same principal operator for 10 or more years. Farms or ranches with principal operators who started within the past five years only account for 13 percent of all U.S. farms and 7 percent of all sales.
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Iowa State Offers Greenhorn Grazing Series
The popular “Greenhorn Grazing” program is back, with an information-packed schedule of five sessions beginning in mid-June.
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