Fertility and Longevity the New Keys to Success
Boyd Kidwell
Progressive Farmer
Duane Strider sells a lot of bulls, but he believes it’s family that counts. Cow families, that is. This North Carolina cattleman has built a business around identifying cows with longevity and multiplying those genetics.
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Supplemantation Strategies Affected by Many Factors
Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D., PAS
Cattle Today
Often as we approach times of the year when forage availability becomes greater, many cattlemen feel that they no longer need to provide mineral supplementation since the grass is so succulent and plentiful.
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Can you afford to hold back heifers?
David Koupal
HeiferPro
As we are seeing all-time highs in feeder calf prices, we are also looking at all-time high prices to purchase bred heifers. Logically, it would make sense to keep back your own and breed them, but at the current prices of selling calves, can you afford not to sell them?
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A Feeder’s Perspective On Beta Agonists
Wyatt Bechtel
Beef Today
The voluntary removal of Zilmax from the market left several cattle feeders scrambling this past year. For Cactus Feeders it meant a technology that had successfully added profitability to 6 million head of cattle since 2006 was no longer available.
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Why You Must Remove Net Wrap On Round Bales Before Feeding To Cattle
Heather Smith Thomas
BEEF
Big round bales are a staple of raising cattle. You see them unrolled in the pasture, placed in feeders, chopped and windrowed by a bale processor, ground up and mixed with other feedstuffs in a total mixed ration, or placed in the field to be “bale-grazed.”
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Secretary Vilsack is Shooting for a New, Separate and Supplemental Beef Checkoff by 2016
Oklahoma Farm Report
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called some of the groups involved with the Beef Checkoff Enhancement Working Group into his office in Washington this past week and told them he was so frustrated with the current working group’s failure to reach an agreement that he has plans to start a second checkoff under the 1996 generic checkoff act.
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NCBA vows to fight USDA plan to create 2nd beef checkoff program
Mary Soukup
Bovine Veterinarian
The largest contractor of the Beef Checkoff Program, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), said today that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s idea to reform the checkoff by creating another beef checkoff fund is dead on arrival with the grassroots organization.
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Angus Association Refines Genetic Evaluation
Dr. Jared Decker
A Steak in Genomics
I had a brief meeting with Dan Moser of Angus Genetics Inc today in which he informed me of several updates to the American Angus Association’s genetic evaluations.
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Ted To Retain Hay Nutrient Levels
Hay and Forage Grower
When it rains on cut hay, growers need to act quickly to save as much of the crop’s nutritional value as possible, notes Steve Norberg, regional forage specialist with Washington State University Extension.
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Fall Calving Needs Just Enough Green Grass
R. P. "Doc" Cooke
Beef Producer
Cool-season grasses (C3) generally have less energy and more non-protein nitrogen (NPN) than warm-season grasses (C4). C4 grasses are higher in more complex cell-wall starch and lower in simple sugars than C3 grasses.
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The Beef Blog 