Beef pricing worksheet for producers considering direct marketing

Beef pricing worksheet for producers considering direct marketing

Jeannine Schweihofer

Michigan State University

Have you ever been asked by one of your customers how much a freezer full of beef will cost? Do you struggle to convert the live animal value to a carcass based price? Michigan State University Extension and the University of Wisconsin Extension have teamed up to develop a new worksheet to answer these questions. Beef prices are record high but consumers have maintained demand for beef.

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Solving Mystery Deaths of Calves

Solving Mystery Deaths of Calves

Dr. Ken McMillan

DTN/The Progressive Farmer

Plan ahead for a necropsy, or autopsy, to find out why calves between 1 and 4 months of age are dying.

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Benefits of Joining the Herd

Benefits of Joining the Herd

KATHRYN SHATTUCK

New York Times

It was time for the running of the bulls. As Ron Cieri watched from his ATV this summer, his farm manager, Jim Ingram, unleashed five hulking males into a verdant Catskills pasture, where 80 brood cows — a patchwork of red, black and white — grazed with their calves.

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OK Steer Feedout provides helpful information

OK Steer Feedout provides helpful information

Greg Highfill

Enid News

Selection of breeding stock involves balancing production traits that are of economic importance to the ranch with those traits that beef buying consumers would desire. Producers often select traits to emphasize that are not evaluated until long after the calf leaves the home ranch.

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2015 NCBA Beef Recordkeeping Books Available Oct. 1

2015 NCBA Beef Recordkeeping Books Available Oct. 1

Beef Producer

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has published the 2015 Integrated Resource Management Redbooks. The books provide an effective way for cattle ranchers to record pertinent herd information.

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Preservative Cuts Losses In Big Square Bales

Preservative Cuts Losses In Big Square Bales

Neil Tietz

Hay and Forage Producer

Small square bales can be stored safely without a preservative at moisture levels up to 20%, says Coblentz. They have more surface area per pound of dry matter than big square and round bales, so heat and moisture can escape.

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Beef Quality Assurance Continues to Evolve

Beef Quality Assurance Continues to Evolve

Oklahoma Farm Report

Dan Thomson has seen the evolution of the Beef Quality Assurance program. As the Director of the Beef Cattle Institute Kansas State University he has seen how BQA has impacted the producer at the individual herd level all the way to the big picture impact for the entire beef industry.

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Venereal diseases

Venereal diseases

Cliff Lamb

Angus Journal

One of the primary “Keys to Success” of the Angus Journal for the September issue is herd health. Most beef cattle producers realize that having a sound herd health program is important for the success of their reproductive management program. Therefore, producers usually work with their veterinarians to develop a solid vaccination and pest-control protocol.

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Steps To Moving & Penning Cattle With Dogs

Steps To Moving & Penning Cattle With Dogs

 Amanda Radke

BEEF

When it comes to moving cattle, some ranchers rely on horses, others use ATVs, and many utilize the skills of a working cattle dog. Whatever the preferred method, there are many considerations to moving cattle efficiently and with minimal stress.

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Earning Their Keep – Keeping Their Heritage

Earning Their Keep – Keeping Their Heritage

Tracey Koester

American Red Angus Magazine

The Missouri River gently fl ows through north-central South Dakota, winding its path through the rugged terrain known locally as the “breaks.” Ash tree coulees and steep draws cut their way to the top of the breaks where natural prairie grasses and wild flowers wave in the Dakota breeze.

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A pollution-free planet begins with diet

A pollution-free planet begins with diet

Clifford Boyd

Cincinnati.com

Editor’s note: Stories of this ilk are included in the blog to inform those in our industry how agriculture is being presented to and perceived by the public.

The meat industry generates carbon dioxide by burning forests to create animal pastures and by combustion of fossil fuels to confine, feed, transport, and slaughter animals. The much more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are discharged from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively.

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Hawaii ranchers challenged to keep cattle at home

Hawaii ranchers challenged to keep cattle at home

News and Observer

It’s a challenge for Big Island ranchers to keep their cattle in the islands while beef prices climb to all-time highs on the mainland, a University of Hawaii livestock expert said

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Fix Weedy Pastures To Improve Beef Cattle Grazing

Fix Weedy Pastures To Improve Beef Cattle Grazing

Beef Producer

Normally in September, Kevin Bradley would not encourage herbicide control of brush and weeds in pastures. This year’s different. "With vigorous growth from moisture and low temperatures brushy weeds do very well," says the University of Missouri Extension weed-management specialist. "For best results don’t spray if brush is under stress. The weather is lining up for good control this fall."

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Zoetis offers test to quickly screen for Johne’s Disease

Zoetis offers test to quickly screen for Johne’s Disease

Bovine Veterinarian

Zoetis now offers a test to quickly and accurately screen for the detection of antibodies to Johne’s Disease in cattle, the company announced today.

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BQA Programs Continue to Add Value

BQA Programs Continue to Add Value

Clifford Mitchell

Cattle Today

Every work force has some degree of training. Skill will probably differ depending on what level of training you receive. In the corporate world, there are performance evaluations and peer evaluations, but the beef and food industries face the toughest critic of all; the American consumer.

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How to Lose the Argument on Animal Welfare

How to Lose the Argument on Animal Welfare

Troy Smith

Angus Journal

Sometimes all that is required for disagreement, regardless of the issue, is two people with different points of view. According to Dave Daley, fifth-generation California rancher and interim dean of agriculture at Chico State University, the “window” through which a person looks at the issue of animal welfare influences how they see the problem.

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Get Ready To Plant Winter Annual Pastures

Get Ready To Plant Winter Annual Pastures

John Jennings

University of Arkansas

Winter annual pastures make great additions to a forage program. They can supplement low quality hay, fill in grazing gaps and greatly reduce purchased feed cost. The summer rain this year has produced abundant pasture and hay, but overall quality is low due to harvest delays caused by the same rains.

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Family’s Generosity Establishes New Red Angus Youth Scholarships

Family’s Generosity Establishes New Red Angus Youth Scholarships

Troy and Annette Presser, Presser Red Angus, Turtle Lake, N.D., have founded scholarships for youth to participate in national Junior Red Angus Association (JRA) leadership events in loving memory of their daughter, Heather. Heather was taken from her family in an ATV accident in 2012.

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Pricing Standing Corn for Silage Harvest – 2014

Pricing Standing Corn for Silage Harvest

Normand St-Pierre, Bill Weiss, Dianne Shoemaker

Oklahoma State University

If it’s late summer it’s time to talk about pricing a corn crop standing in the field for corn silage.  This is always a challenging question as there are a number of factors that contribute to the final price agreed upon by the buyer and seller that are challenging to quantify.

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Surviving A Silage Avalanche

Surviving A Silage Avalanche

Fae Holin

Hay and Forage Producer

It started out as a typical day for dairy nutritionist Doug DeGroff. He’d pulled up to a client’s corn silage pile for a forage sample, bucket and pitchfork in hand. After filling the bucket, he turned to walk back to his pickup to mix and core a sample.

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