Does 4-H desensitize kids to killing?

Does 4-H desensitize kids to killing?

CNN

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.

4-H stands for "Head, heart, hands, health" and apparently a fifth – for "haters."

To many, 4-H Clubs are all about nurturing sweet little calves, adorable children winning ribbons, urban garden patches and proud future farmers grooming prized pigs for show. To others, it’s a calculated system for turning the youth of America into cold, unfeeling animal killers.’

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Producers Face Challenge of Keeping Cattle Productive

Producers Face Challenge of Keeping Cattle Productive

Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D., PAS

Cattle Today

Every cattle operation is affected by sickness and or even death loss in some manner. At this time of the year, when many producers are weaning and “transitioning” large numbers of calves, this is especially true.

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Market Calves as BVD-PI-free and Earn More

Market Calves as BVD-PI-free and Earn More

Beef Producer

For the second consecutive year, research shows cattle buyers are paying a higher premium for calves that test negative for being persistently infected with bovine viral diarrhea.

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Beef’s Bumper Bummer

Beef’s Bumper Bummer

John Harrington

DTN

. . . cattle feeders find themselves locked at the bottom of the production cycle. It will be years until they can significantly expand the bunk line population, cheap corn be damned.

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Best Management Grazing Principles Boost Beef Returns

Best Management Grazing Principles Boost Beef Returns

Hay and Forage Grower

The use of what University of Arkansas beef-cattle researchers call best management grazing principles (BMPs) can increase the carrying capacity of warm-season grass pastures and drastically reduce winter stored-feed requirements, they say.

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Why Montana is doing beef right

Why Montana is doing beef right

Eve Andrews

Grist

The die-hard romantic’s image of Montana features a cowboy herding cattle across a wide-open prairie. In the age of industrial meat production and factory farms, this vision is less of a reality. But Garl Germann is trying to change that by fostering the growth of Montana’s organically raised, free-range beef industry.

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Cattle at the Crossroads

Cattle at the Crossroads

Paul Peterson

University of Illinois

The year-long across-the-board rally in cattle prices has been driven by a combination of favorable supply and demand factors which have aligned to push prices to record levels. On the supply side, the starting point is cattle numbers. Beef cow numbers are the lowest since 1962, and last year’s calf crop was the smallest since 1949.

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Highlights From Beef Today’s Inaugural Cowboy College

Highlights From Beef Today’s Inaugural Cowboy College

AgriMarketing

Nearly 140 beef producers from 17 states assembled in Omaha during the Beef Today Cowboy College held Sept. 9-10, 2014. Hosted by Farm Journal Media’s Beef Today magazine, the two-day educational program was designed specifically for feedlot cattle crews-processing teams, cowboy doctors and others involved in the day-to-day care and welfare of beef feedlot animals.

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Feedyard placement weight affects production returns

Feedyard placement weight affects production returns

Ryan Reuter

Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation

Stocker cattle production is a major component of the cattle business in Oklahoma and Texas. Stockers are weaned calves that are typically grazed on pasture to add 200 to 400 pounds of body weight and are then sold as a "feeder" to someone who puts the calf on feed in a feed yard.

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Cattle prices hit record highs, but industry doesn’t see expansion

Cattle prices hit record highs, but industry doesn’t see expansion

DAVID ERICKSON

Helena Independent Record

Due to high demand and limited supply, cattle prices are the highest they’ve ever been. Montana’s livestock production industry, with roughly 1.5 million cows and 1.2 million calves statewide, is expected to bring in more than $1 billion in gross receipts this year, accounting for 40 percent of all agricultural sales.

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