BeefTalk: After-the-party Blues

BeefTalk: After-the-party Blues

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Beef fever, the 2014 attitude. Ever hosted one of those over-the-top parties? They seem to be enjoyable and many people attend. However, sometimes you look around and ask: Who invited that person because I don’t know who he or she is? As the sun comes up the next day and the dust settles, it seems to be a good time to reflect on the good times had at the party.

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Simplot uses targeted crossbreeding for more efficient cattle

Simplot uses targeted crossbreeding for more efficient cattle

Wes Ishmael

BEEF

A whole new generation can remain hidden within the same old proverbial forest when gazing for too long in the rearview mirror.

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Farmers Deploy New DNA Test for Tastier Meat

Farmers Deploy New DNA Test for Tastier Meat

Jacob Bunge and Kelsey Gee

Wall Street Journal/Meridian Institute

Some United States cattle ranches are using sophisticated genetic tests to identify prize animals whose offspring will yield a larger volume of tastier steaks – and fetch producers higher prices. The technology, developed by companies like Neogen Corp. and Zoetis Inc., allow cattle breeders to assess a bull’s genetic value with the same accuracy as if it had already sired 20 calves.

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J.R. Simplot Co. and Caviness Beef Packers to build new Idaho beef processing plant

J.R. Simplot Co. and Caviness Beef Packers to build new Idaho beef processing plant

The National Provisioner

Amarillo, Texas-based Caviness Beef Packers has formed a joint-venture with the J.R. Simplot Company to build a new Idaho beef processing plant near Kuna, Idaho. Pending approval of permits from all necessary regulatory agencies, construction of the nearly 300,000 square foot plant would begin in spring 2015 with an expected fall 2016 opening.

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Cow-calf sector slow to innovate: rancher

Cow-calf sector slow to innovate: rancher

Karen Briere

The Western Producer

As good as things are in the cattle business, Kit Pharo knows that will change. The rancher from Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, says most people in the industry won’t be ready. “What are you going to do when calf prices go back to where they were three years ago?” he said at the Foraging into the Future conference.

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Definite Advantages to Calves Born in the First 21 Days of the Calving Season

Definite Advantages to Calves Born in the First 21 Days of the Calving Season

Steve Tonn

University of Nebraska

As the calendar turns over, cow calf producers begin to think about the upcoming spring calving season. The length of the calving season is important, but when the calves are born during the calving season is also important. There are definite advantages for calves born in the first 21 days of the calving season.

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Buying bulls by the numbers

Buying bulls by the numbers

Drovers

Beef producers will have an opportunity to participate in bull-buying workshops at four locations in North Dakota during January. Leading the workshops will be Kris Ringwall, North Dakota State University Extension Service beef cattle specialist and Dickinson Research Extension Center director.

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Researchers seek other methods to raise healthy feedlot cattle

Researchers seek other methods to raise healthy feedlot cattle

Jane Moorman

Cattle Trader Center

Northeast New Mexico and the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle, known as “cattle feeding country,” is the largest cattle-feeding region in America. The facilities annually market more than 6 million fed cattle — 28 percent of the nation’s feed-cattle production, according to the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.

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Cowherd care impacts calves and their future calves

Cowherd care impacts calves and their future calves

Miranda Reiman

The Cattle Business Weekly

Ranchers don’t plan to short-change their cows. Yet, the unexpected can leave a herd lacking. “Typically producers do not want to calve thin cows and do not like cows to lose weight during late pregnancy. We know that is bad,” says Allison Meyer, University of Missouri animal scientist, listing the side effects.

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Workshops prepare farmers for succession planning

Workshops prepare farmers for succession planning

Meghan Grebner

Brownfield Network

According to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, the average age of the American farmer is 58. That number has been steadily increasing for the past 30 years. With the rise in age, Spencer County Purdue Extension educator Nick Held says succession planning is becoming even more important. “Over the next few years there is going to be a lot of transition in farmland ownership,” he says. “Farmers will be bringing in the next generation of operators in those farming operations.”

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