Baxter Black, DVM: Header or Heeler

Baxter Black, DVM:  Header or Heeler

If you saw a team roper with his hand behind his back, could you tell if he was a header or a heeler?

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Bovine Time-Share Growing

Bovine Time-Share Growing

Boyd Kidwell

Progressive Farmer

A big part of the Jorgensen family’s cattle business is focused on leasing herd bulls. This year alone, the South Dakota operation has 3,100 bulls on lease to producers in seven states.

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Cattle Futures In Free Fall Confirm Expectations For Collapse In Beef Prices

Cattle Futures In Free Fall Confirm Expectations For Collapse In Beef Prices

Thomas Landstreet

Forbes

Cattle futures are in free fall as you can see here, because the largest cattle herd expansion in history is now underway. In economic terms, price equilibrates supply and demand. With record high beef prices, demand is falling and supply is rising fast. The investor ramifications of falling beef prices are significant.

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The fertilizer farmers apply to corn — which feeds many cattle — also contributes to climate change.

The fertilizer farmers apply to corn — which feeds many cattle — also contributes to climate change.

John D. Sutter

CNN

Editor’s note: Stories of this ilk are included in the blog to inform those in our industry how agriculture is being presented to and perceived by the public.
But eating beef, as I’ll explain, has come to be seen, rightly, in certain enviro circles, as the new SUV — a hopelessly selfish, American indulgence; a middle finger to the planet. It’s not the main driver of global warming — that’s burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation — but it does contribute significantly.

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Carrie Underwood’s crying cows

Carrie Underwood’s crying cows

Joann Alumbaugh

Bovine Veterinarian

Carrie Underwood is a talented musician, but animal physiologist or behaviorist she is not. She grew up on a farm in Oklahoma where she formed her somewhat misguided beliefs about animal agriculture. She’s been quoted as saying, “The worst part of the year for me was when we took some [calves] off to sell, because they would cry for each other for a couple of days. That’s why I don’t eat meat.”

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A Ten-point Plan for Winter Feeding Beef Cows

A Ten-point Plan for Winter Feeding Beef Cows

Matt Poore, Dawn Capucille, Peter Moisan

North Carolina State University

This publication is devised to help cattle producers improve winter feeding management to ensure adequate husbandry of wintered beef brood cows. As cattle producers, we need to optimize performance of our animals, as they provide a part of our livelihood.

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Do you have enough hay to feed?

Do you have enough hay to feed?

Farm Progress

Adam Hady

If you fed large parts of your winter feed supply during the summer, the question you need to answer is, “Do I have enough hay?” If you don’t, the next question you must ask is, “How much do I need to buy?”

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Kansas beef industry seeks sustainability for environment, finances

Kansas beef industry seeks sustainability for environment, finances

Megan Hart

Topeka Capital Journal

The word “sustainability” sometimes gets a bad reputation as a code for expensive environmental mandates, but some in the Kansas beef industry are looking at ways they can help both the environment and their balance sheets.

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Proving the potential merit of probiotics in beef cattle

Proving the potential merit of probiotics in beef cattle

Debbie Furber

Canadian Cattlemen

Caution is the word for now from an Alberta intestinal health research group on products claimed to have prebiotic or probiotic activity to promote health benefits for people and livestock. Use of these products won’t harm cattle or people.

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Beef Isn’t For Dinner Anymore as Americans Devour Cheaper Pork

Beef Isn’t For Dinner Anymore as Americans Devour Cheaper Pork

Lydia Mulvany

Bloomberg

Americans’ love affair with beef is fizzling. In the U.S., a country known for drive-thru burger joints and over-sized steaks, demand for the meat on a per-person basis is slumping to the lowest in more than four decades. With consumers bracing themselves for another slow patch in the economy, shoppers are increasingly choosing cheaper pork and chicken as alternatives.

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