BeefTalk: Wet and Dry; There Is No Constant

BeefTalk: Wet and Dry; There Is No Constant

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension

The use of the word “sustainability” often is an indication that someone is searching for a simple, normal approach to life. In other words, the ability to fit in without the pressures of uncertainty.

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Feed Supply and Demand

Feed Supply and Demand

Matthew A. Diersen

Livestock Marketing Information Center

In recent weeks people in different livestock sectors have been wondering about the relative price impacts of corn and other feeds. Other people have asked about the longer-run price outlook for feed and for cattle. Having expectations for corn and hay in this setting is necessary as they ultimately feed into the prices for different classes of cattle. For crops using a balance sheet allows for both supply and demand adjustments.

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Tips To Reduce the Risk of Calf Scours in Fall-Calving Herds

Tips To Reduce the Risk of Calf Scours in Fall-Calving Herds

Glenn Selk

Oklahoma Farm report

Fall calving in the Southern Plains has several advantages. One of the least-discussed advantages to fall-calving is the reduction of risk to an outbreak of scours. Neonatal calf diarrhea (commonly called “calf scours”) is one of the most costly disease entities in the beef cattle business.

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Lean beef: Building on a success story

Lean beef: Building on a success story

High Plains Journal

Responding to its market, the beef industry began making important changes in both perceived and actual nutritional properties of its products nearly 40 years ago. Those changes and the resulting impact they have had in marketing beef are more significant than most producers realize.

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Marbling matters as weaning time approaches

Marbling matters as weaning time approaches

NICOLE LANE

Minnesota Farm Guide

Marbling in cattle — the taste fat — was long considered the feedlot’s responsibility, until research pointed to opportunities all the way back to the ranch. Genetic potential is a key, and deposition of this intramuscular fat links to management decisions much earlier than those final months on feed.

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County fair teaches life lessons

County fair teaches life lessons

Tri State Livestock News

Many of you have just finished your county fair. There was a lot of work from both the kids and parents to help prepare the livestock and exhibits. Besides the parents we have the County Extension Agents, judges, cousins, grandparents and other numerous community members involved for the preparation.

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Cattle producers can add revenue through cost-effective calf management

Cattle producers can add revenue through cost-effective calf management

Mac Young

AgriLife Today

CORPUS CHRISTI – A new Farm Assistance study conducted by specialists with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service reveals cattle producers can add significant net cash farm income to their operations on top of already high cattle prices by implementing cost-effective calf management practices.

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Maximum Value Comes at the Optimal End Point

Maximum Value Comes at the Optimal End Point

Becky Mills

Progressive Farmer

Bill and Claudia Tucker believe in setting the mark high and holding it there. Preconditioning is never optional. Tucker Family Farms is a seventh-generation operation in Amherst, Va., expanded in 1992 to include retained ownership through slaughter.

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Two Midwestern governors chastise EPA

Two Midwestern governors chastise EPA

Ken Anderson

Brownfield Network

The governors of Nebraska and Iowa are not mincing words when it comes to their feelings about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In a conference call with reporters, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman called EPA “the enemy of agriculture”.  Heineman says the agency is the biggest regulatory issue that farmers and ranchers face.

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Webinar to Help Producers Expand Profitably

Webinar to Help Producers Expand Profitably

AgWired

CattleFax will hold another of its popular CattleFax Trends+ webinars at 5:30 p.m. MT, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, and registration is now open. Previous Trends+ webinars have attracted nearly 1,500 cow-calf producers, stockers and backgrounders over the past year.

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The King of Cattle Forages

The King of Cattle Forages

Boyd Kidwell

Progressive Farmer

Silage has never gone out of fashion in Bath County, Kentucky, even when the lure of $6- to $8-per-bushel grain made many producers forget about chopping corn. This season, with grain prices down and beef at historically high levels, is a good time to give corn silage a second look.

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The Surprising Reason ‘Pink Slime’ Meat Is Back

The Surprising Reason ‘Pink Slime’ Meat Is Back

Josh Sanburn

TIME

On Aug. 18, BPI reopened one of its shuttered plants. While production is nowhere near pre-freak-out levels, when the product BPI calls “lean finely textured beef” was estimated to be in 70% of the ground beef sold in the U.S., the company has been gradually regaining business.

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Beef cattle producers have options with replacement heifers

Beef cattle producers have options with replacement heifers

Blair Fannin

Southwest Farm Press

Beef cattle producers may find themselves on the, well, horns of a dilemma regarding replacement heifers. They can raise them or sell them. They may want to “take the money and run,” says Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist Stan Bevers, Vernon.

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Rising Calf Prices Warrant Attention to Fetal Protection

Rising Calf Prices Warrant Attention to Fetal Protection

 JAMIE JOHANSEN

AgWired

“The fetus relies on the dam’s immune system for disease protection throughout most of the pregnancy,” said Jon Seeger, DVM, managing veterinarian with Zoetis. “Without protection, the fetus is at risk of abortion due to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) virus, as well as, birth defects or potentially becoming persistently infected (PI) with the bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) virus that can then shed and continue to infect the rest of the herd.”

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Using Ultrasound to Market and Manage Cows and Heifers

Using Ultrasound to Market and Manage Cows and Heifers

Robin Salverson

iGrow SDSU

The use of ultrasound in the beef industry is growing but the question remains, “How can it create more dollars in my pocket?” Traditionally open heifers and cows are sold after weaning when cull prices are at the seasonal low. – See more at:

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Breeding a drought-adapted cow

Breeding a drought-adapted cow

Robert Fears

Progressive Cattleman

The U.S. has been plagued with intermittent drought throughout its history. One of the most noted was the Dust Bowl drought, a natural disaster that severely affected much of our country during the 1930s. The drought came in three waves: 1934, 1936 and 1939 through 1940.

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How kids’ livestock shows became a cutthroat (and expensive) business

How kids’ livestock shows became a cutthroat (and expensive) business

Lydia Depillis

Washington Post

Tiffany LaRue, 17, had not been lucky with her pigs this year. One had its placenta detach, killing the embryos. Another was supposed to have been pregnant when they bought her, but wasn’t. Another, LaRue said, just simply didn’t take.

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Study examined animal welfare perceptions among public and beef producers

Study examined animal welfare perceptions among public and beef producers

Kerri Ebert

Midwest Producer

What is the relationship between consumer perceptions of animal welfare practices on farms and those of producers? Are popular media accounts of animal welfare practices truly reflective of consumer and producer perceptions?

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Times to buy or sell cattle

Times to buy or sell cattle

John Grimes

Drovers

Conventional wisdom tells us that the proper strategy to investing in a business or commodity is to "Buy low and sell high!" I have heard that phrase for years and would agree that it is sound advice. However, the current outlook for the beef industry might put a different spin on the traditional investment advice.

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Southeast Field Day Generates Big Response

Southeast Field Day Generates Big Response

GoBrangus

The Southeast Brangus Breeders Association (SBBA) hosted its annual field day at the Draggin’ M Ranch in El Dorado, Ark., August 22-23, 2014. With more than 225 producers in attendance, the event was fun and informative for all who participated and demonstrated a growing interest in expansion opportunities.

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