Chandler Keys Says Cattlemen Should Bypass Congress for Beef Checkoff Increase

Chandler Keys Says Cattlemen Should Bypass Congress for Beef Checkoff Increase

Oklahoma Farm Report

The nation’s beef checkoff has been in place for 30 years. The original beef checkoff was established under the 1985 Farm Bill, where producers set up $1 per head assessment for marketing, education and promotion. Since that time a lot has changed, including what that dollar will buy you today.

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BeefTalk: Cow Size and Success in the Beef Business

BeefTalk: Cow Size and Success in the Beef Business

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

What do you do with a group of 98 heifers in which 5 percent have a frame score of 1 and 2, 11 percent have a frame score of 3, 21 percent have a frame score of 4, 28 percent have a frame score of 5, 27 percent have a frame score of 6 and 8 percent have a frame score of 7 and 8?

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Genetic evaluation is now in the hands of commercial cattle producers

Genetic evaluation is now in the hands of commercial cattle producers

Troy Marshall

BEEF

It seems that everyone in seedstock circles is talking about genomically-enhanced EPDs and the rapid changes occurring in the seedstock industry. With the advent of multi-breed evaluations and improvements in national genetic evaluations, the rate of progress is unprecedented.

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What to do if you have Lost Cattle Due to Flooding

What to do if you have Lost Cattle Due to Flooding

The Hennessey Clipper

Several inches of heavy rain over the past few weeks have some cattlemen looking for missing cattle. The high waters have washed fences out on some ranches and cattle wonder onto another landowner’s property.

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You Know You’re a Farmer When…

You Know You’re a Farmer When…

Fastline

The weather forecast will determine how your day will go.

Your work clothes weigh quite a bit more by the end of the day due to all of the tools and other miscellaneous things you pick up through out the day.

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Ag groups push House for fast track authority

Ag groups push House for fast track authority

Carol Ryan Dumas

Capital AG Press

Most U.S. ag organizations are urging House members to pass Trade Promotion Authority after the Senate’s passage on Friday night, contending TPA is critical in free-trade agreements and the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership in particular.

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Safe travels

Safe travels

John Maday

Drovers

Just about every cattle producer with a pickup truck also has a stock trailer to connect to it, but many don’t give their trailer a lot of thought. They hitch it up when they have cattle to haul, and park it under a tree when they’re finished.

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GMO Scientists Could Save the World From Hunger, If We Let Them

GMO Scientists Could Save the World From Hunger, If We Let Them

TOM PARRETT

Newsweek

A Nebraska Cornhusker frets as he surveys his drought-stunted crop. A Nigerian yam farmer digs up shrunken tubers. A Costa Rican coffee baron lays off hundreds of workers because a fungus has spoiled his harvest. I planted cherry trees in upstate New York last spring. One summer morning, they were denuded by Japanese beetles.

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How to Store Hay to Make It Last

How to Store Hay to Make It Last

Sue Weaver

Hobby Farm

Sky-high machinery and fuel costs and the lack of affordable haying-crew labor is driving up the cost of putting up hay. At the same time, hay shortages have become a way of life. When you harvest quality hay, it’s dollar-wise to preserve it so it lasts.

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What Does the WOTUS Rule Actually Do?

What Does the WOTUS Rule Actually Do?

Nebraska Cattlemen

Expands definition of tributary by broadening terminology and specifically adding new categories of tributaries like: ditches and certain ephemeral water features

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Pregnancy diagnosis options for beef cattle producers

Pregnancy diagnosis options for beef cattle producers

University of Florida

Generally, beef herd pregnancy rates after a 60–120-day breeding season tend to range from 80 to 94 percent. Pregnancy diagnosis identifies the 6–20 percent of open cows in the herd so they can be culled after their calves at side are weaned, instead of waiting to the end of the subsequent calving season.

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Build a “Bud Box” to Make Livestock Handling a Breeze

Build a “Bud Box” to Make Livestock Handling a Breeze

Rick Machen and Ron Gill

On Pasture

The term “Bud Box” describes the kind of handling facility preferred by low-stress livestock handling expert Bud Williams. By moving animals quietly and standing in the right spot, you can quickly and easily move animals into a chute for treatment, weighing or loading. Here’s information on how to build your own, including a video showing how it works.

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Disease transmission in livestock is not uniform

Disease transmission in livestock is not uniform

Dr. Ron Clarke

Canadian Cattleman

The unprecedented increase of emerging infectious diseases in wild and domestic animals and humans does not follow predictable patterns.

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Early vaccination can help boost calf performance

Early vaccination can help boost calf performance

BEEF

By vaccinating calves at branding time or turnout, ranchers can help prevent bovine respiratory disease (BRD) – the No. 1 health and economic issue facing the beef industry today.

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Lab-Grown Beef Is Becoming Dramatically More Affordable

Lab-Grown Beef Is Becoming Dramatically More Affordable

Whitney Filloon

Eater

Would you eat a test tube burger? Could beef created in a laboratory mean the end of traditional cattle farming as we know it? The scientist who unveiled the world’s first so-called "test tube beef" burger back in 2013 seems to think so.

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Farm Bureau’s New ‘Grocery Grab’ Game Explores Cooking With Beef

Farm Bureau’s New ‘Grocery Grab’ Game Explores Cooking With Beef

AgriMarketing

"Grocery Grab," a new game aligned to national learning standards for third- to fifth-grade students, was recently launched on the My American Farm website. The free game focuses on nutrition and cooking with beef, as well as beef quality.

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Assessing transportation stress

Assessing transportation stress

John Maday

Bovine Veterinarian

Farmers, ranchers and veterinarians have long known that transportation can induce stress in cattle, and have adopted practices intended to minimize that stress. Information is limited though, on the effects of specific stressors, the range of variables involved or even which types of practices are used in shipping cattle.

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More lessons in beef demand

More lessons in beef demand

Derrell S. Peel

Feedlot Magazine

Choice retail beef prices jumped over 9 cents per pound in April to a new record level at $640.2 cents per pound, up 9 percent from one year ago and up 22.5 percent from April, 2013.  Choice retail beef prices have averaged 12.4 percent higher for the first four months of 2015 compared to last year.

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COOL retaliation threat against U.S. real

COOL retaliation threat against U.S. real

Bill Graveland

The Chronicle Journal

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says it’s time for the United States to come to terms with country-of-origin labelling rules. The World Trade Organization ruled Monday that the U.S. labelling requirement, known as COOL, violates that country’s trade obligations. It said the labels put Canadian and Mexican livestock at a disadvantage and rejected a U.S. appeal following a similar ruling last year.

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Planning and Building Hay Barns that Work

Planning and Building Hay Barns that Work

Erin G. Wilkerson, Ph.D., P.E..

University of Kentucky

Hay is an important investment for all livestock operations and should be made and stored in a way that maximizes the amount of available feedstuff, nutritional quality, and palatability. Storing hay inside a permanent shelter is considered to be an excellent option for many livestock and commercial hay operations.

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