Baxter Black, DVM: The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Emperor’s New Clothes is a fairy tale wherein two swindlers convinced the vain emperor they could weave the most elegant clothes so uncommonly fine, only those with the highest refinement, good taste and intelligence would be able to see them.
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Third Party Audits for Feedlots
Boyd Kidwell
Progressive Farmer
Anne Burkholder isn’t your grandpa’s feedlot owner. Burkholder grew up in West Palm Beach, Fla., and attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
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Factors that Influence Heat Stress
Heather Smith Thomas
Angus Beef Bulletin
“When assessing the factors that lead to heat stress, we know that the nighttime temperature is very important. If it doesn’t drop down below 70° [F] during the night, cattle start getting too hot,” he says. The heat is cumulative, and if they can’t dissipate heat into the cooler night air, their body temperature will slowly rise during a multi-day heat wave.
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UC Davis veterinarians help rancher determine sex of unborn calves
Red Bluff Daily News
When the Graysing Cattle Company needs to diagnose pregnancies in their cows and determine the fetal sex of the unborn calves, they call on the Livestock Herd Health and Reproduction Service from the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.
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Access to China key to meat export growth
Feedstuffs Foodlink
THE U.S. red meat industry has achieved outstanding export growth in recent years, enhancing profitability for all members of the supply chain. In 2014, both beef exports and pork exports shattered previous records for export value, at $7.13 billion for beef and $6.67 billion for pork.
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Summer Heat and Forage Growth
Bruce Anderson
University of Nebraska
Summer heat hit us hard the past couple weeks. How do these high temperatures affect different types of forage plants?
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Three-ring circus’: Changes keep coming at NAILE
Rebecca Miller
Farm and Dairy
A back-and-forth debate over what to do about managers ousted after recent, sweeping changes to the North American International Livestock Exposition has one insider comparing it to a “three-ring circus.” The ruckus, however, has led Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear to offer an honorary title to one of the long-running leaders.
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Thinking of leasing bulls? 17 things to consider when writing the lease
Cari Rincker
BEEF
Bulls are expensive to buy and they’re expensive to keep. They work three months of the year, then spend the rest of the time lying around, tearing things up and eating expensive feed. And those are just a few reasons why a cattleman may choose to lease a bull.
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Key performance indicators can lead to cattle profits
Texas A&M University
Key performance indicators have been used in business applications for many years, but not so much in cattle operations. Stan Bevers, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist in Vernon, discussed 13 key performance indicators, also known as KPIs, at the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course in College Station recently.
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The Beef Blog 