BeefTalk: Flexible Planning Starts With Practical Cow Sort Lists
Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
Cowherd planning requires sorting, and it is best done when the cows come home. Don’t join the “I wish I had sorted the cows!” club. Things change. Weather turns colder or harsher than expected, draining feed resources. A mild winter may make everyone happy until drought forecasts show up. Families may change, the help may change or even the boss may change.
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Range Beef Cow Symposium Outstanding Speakers
Julie Walker
iGrow
Producers who attend the Range Beef Cow Symposium on November 17 -19, 2015 at The Ranch, an event center on the Larimer County Fairgrounds in Loveland, Colorado will have the opportunity to hear leading experts and producers from across the country as they address topics on cattle markets, cattle reproduction, animal health, range management plus many current issues facing cattlemen such as volatility of cattle prices, new technologies and effects on trade.
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Is your refrigerator keeping its cool?
Drovers
Storing animal health products at the correct temperature is one key aspect of dairy beef quality assurance (BQA) programs, because improper storage can cause products to lose their effectiveness.
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Genomics: Another Tool in the Toolbox for Cattlemen
Oklahoma Farm Report
Cattlemen have more and more information on their cattle with new advances in science and technology. One of the newest and most exciting tools producers have access to is called genomic technology. Dr.Tonya Amen, Genetic Service Director for Angus Genetics, Inc. said having genomic technology has changed the way and rate in which cattle can be improved.
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Selection for Cattle that are Less Susceptible to BRD
Alison Van Eenennaam
A Steak in Genomics
The long-term goal of this project is to reduce the incidence of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex through genomic selection. We would not want to challenge our herd to see if they are susceptible or not; too many would end up dead! Genomics helps us select for traits that are difficult to measure or have a low heritability.
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Capture more profit through the winter
R.P. “Doc” Cooke
Beef Producer
My buddy Gordon Hazard of West Point, Miss., has likely made more money wintering cattle thru more years than any living Rancher in North America. Hazard has shared his principles and techniques with thousands of producers. A few ranchers have taken Doc’s principles and made successful duplication at their place. Others have left the teaching and a lot of money on the table
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Ranchers Try to Rebuild Beef Herds in North Texas
Meredith Yeomans
NBCDFW.com
Years of drought forced many ranchers to cut back on their cattle, but there’s a new effort to help them rebuild their herds. "Rebuilding the Beef Herd" was started by the Collin County Agriculture Extension Office.
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Planning to frost seed pasture in 2016? Start the prep work now
Jerry Lindquist
Michigan State University
Improving pastures with late winter frost seedings of certain legumes and grasses can be successful. If the planning and preparation is not started until seeding time however the odds of success may be diminished. Frost seeding of clovers, birdsfoot trefoils, and some grasses such as annual and perennial ryegrass can be a very economical way to improve pasture forage growth and nutritional quality. Frost seeding is usually performed in late winter typically 40 to 50 days before grass growth begins in the spring.
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Super winter stockpiling
Alan Newport
Drovers
While many of his fellow Floridians are feeding hay four months each year, Jaime “Jim” Elizondo uses managed grazing to completely forgo hay and to build the soil for higher stocking rates.
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Monitoring What’s Left Behind In Your Pastures
Kathy Voth
On Pasture
Sometimes things don’t go as well as you’d hoped even though you were trying your best to manage and meet a particular pasture growth goal. In this case, Dave is managing his pastures to leave a 6 to 8 inch residual. That’s good for grass regrowth and good for the soil.
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Selecting for More Fertile Females
Jared Decker
A Steak in Genomics
It has frequently been stated that reproductive traits have low heritabilities, meaning little of the variation in reproductive traits is due to genetic differences. Due to this catchphrase, producers may not emphasize reproductive traits in their breeding decisions. Further, cows and heifers may sometimes receive a “Get Out of Jail, Free” card when their reproductive performance is lacking.
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Mark Parker: The Top 10 warnings about trick-or-treating at some farm houses
FarmTalk
10. Wake up a grouchy old farmer who’s nodded off in the recliner and he may look like Jason without the hockey mask.
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Maintain body condition between calving and the breeding season. (“Don’t let ‘em slip”)
Glenn Selk
Feedlot Magazine
Body condition score at calving is the single most important trait determining when a cow resumes heat cycles and therefore when she is likely to re-conceive for the next calf crop. However, it is also very important to avoid condition loss between calving and the breeding season to maintain excellent rebreeding performance.
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Meeting the new feedlot health challenge
Kenneth Eng
Drovers
During my first 20 years in the feedlot consulting business — 1965-1985 — if I asked feedlot managers what their death loss and medicine costs were, the answer was probably 0.5 to 1.0 percent death loss on yearlings and 2 to 3 percent on calves. Medicine costs in excess of $10 to $20 per head were the exception rather than the rule.
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Give beef calves the best start
Beef Producer
During the initial six weeks on feed calves must successfully adapt to a new environment with new sources of feed and water. Ideally, all calves would be well prepared on the ranch for life in the feedlot. In reality, there will always be some cattle that have not been prepared as well as others, says South Dakota State University cow/calf specialist Warren Rusche.
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Distillers Grains Diets May Lead to Beef That is More Tender
Cheryl Anderson
KRVN
Cattle consuming a diet containing distillers grains may produce beef that is more tender, according to recent research by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student.
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Snapshot of today’s stocker operater
Wes Ishmael
BEEF
Cow-calf producers continue to be the largest portion of the stocker sector, but the number of those exclusively in the stocker business and those who have both stocker cattle and cattle feeding enterprises is growing.
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Women in Ag: You Gave My Husband the Wrong Finger
Heather Barnes
Agriculture.com
On Sunday, My Farmer was moving equipment from one field to another. This meant he had to drive on the main road in our town, which is full of houses. Mailboxes line the road. He was passed on this road by a car with a sunroof. The driver felt strongly enough about my husband’s presence on the road that he opened the sunroof, put his hand through it, and held up a finger.
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Brad White named interim director of Beef Cattle Institute
Midwest Producer
Brad White has been appointed interim director of Kansas State University’s Beef Cattle Institute (BCI), which was founded in 2007 to create an important connection with the beef cattle industry.
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CSU meat sciences grad student takes on Capitol Hill
Diego Felix
The Rocky Mountain Collegian
This fall, Maggie Weinroth is beefing up her resume. The Colorado State University student, pursuing a degree in meat sciences, is interning for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in the District of Columbia.
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