Increasing Percent of Cows Bred in First 30 Days Improves the Bottom Line

Increasing Percent of Cows Bred in First 30 Days Improves the Bottom Line

Kindra Gordon

2015 Range Beef Cow Symposium

 “Pregnancy has a four times greater economic impact than any other production trait in a cow herd, yet how many producers select for pregnancy first?” That was the question Cliff Lamb posed to attendees at the 24th Range Beef Cow Symposium on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Lamb, who is with the North Florida Research & Education Center, shared findings from research with the Center’s cow herd when an emphasis was placed on selecting for pregnancy.

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Partial-Confinement Systems for Cows

Partial-Confinement Systems for Cows

Troy Smith

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Why would cow folk accustomed to maintaining their breeding herds on range and pasture consider keeping cows in confinement? According to University of Nebraska Cow-Calf and Range Specialist Karla Jenkins, drought may be the reason. It might be because conversion to crop production or other uses has limited the availability of grazing land. It could be because pasture rents have become expensive.

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Fall Calving: Who has a Marketing Plan?

Fall Calving: Who has a Marketing Plan?

Dr. Andrew Griffith

University of Tennessee

The fall calving season is in full swing and many fall calving herds will be wrapping up the calving season by the end of November. For many producers, their thoughts rest on winter feeding and trying to keep cattle healthy.

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Rental Agreements for Cover Crop Grazing

Rental Agreements for Cover Crop Grazing

Beef Today

Jay Parsons and Mary Drewnoski

Cover crops are becoming increasing popular throughout Nebraska and the surrounding region. As their name implies, cover crops cover the ground helping prevent soil erosion outside of the growing season for the primary crop.

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Acidosis

Acidosis

Bob Larson

Angus Journal

Cattle are an amazing animal species for many reasons. One of the most important reasons is because they can thrive when fed a wide variety of diets and feedstuffs.

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Sale Barn Calves Success Tips

Sale Barn Calves Success Tips

Don Ashford

On Pasture

Are you afraid to buy calves at the sale barn? Don’t be. Don shares how you can buy them and bring them up right to end up with a profit.

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Where’s the beef? Trucker steals 40,000 pounds of meat

Where’s the beef? Trucker steals 40,000 pounds of meat

Mynorthwest.com

Where’s the beef? That’s what authorities would like to know after someone stole 40,000 pounds of it from a meat plant in central Pennsylvania. State police say it happened Nov. 21 at Nicholas Meat near Loganton. According to troopers, a trucker loaded $110,000 worth of meat into a trailer during a scheduled pickup and drove off. He was supposed to deliver it by Monday to a company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — but never showed up.

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Montana Ranchers on Canadian Border Watch

Montana Ranchers on Canadian Border Watch

Judi Mcleod

Canada Free Press

The rhetoric of politicians like Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau are cold comfort to the the roughly 100 ranchers who span Montana’s border with Canada.

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Open Season Is Seen in Gene Editing of Animals

Open Season Is Seen in Gene Editing of Animals

Amy Harmon

New York Times

Other than the few small luxuries afforded them, like private access to a large patch of grass, there was nothing to mark the two hornless dairy calves born last spring at a breeding facility here as early specimens in a new era of humanity’s dominion over nature.

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Missouri Cattle Industry Convention to provide timely information

Missouri Cattle Industry Convention to provide timely information

KMALand

Missouri Cattlemen’s Association (MCA) Vice President Butch Meier said the 48th Annual Missouri Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show will feature industry experts that will focus on timely information valuable to anyone in the beef cattle business. The event will be held Jan. 8-10, 2016, at the Tan-Tar-A resort in Osage Beach, Mo. Meier, who raises cattle near Jackson, Mo., said the three-day event is expected to attract cattle producers from all regions of the state.

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Bids taken for beef cattle for the US government’s military use

Bids taken for beef cattle for the US government’s military use

Wyndridge Farm

As the Civil War moved into its second year, the Federal government found itself with a shortage of beef cattle to feed the seemingly ever-expanding Union armies. Ads were taken out in various newspapers across the North to seek bids from contractors to supply cows. Among the collection points for the cattle secured by this government bid process was York, Pennsylvania.

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BeefTalk: Who Gets the Weight?

BeefTalk: Who Gets the Weight?

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Traditional management sells Dickinson Research Extension Center steer calves at 609 pounds, and nontraditional management sells the center’s long yearling steers at 1,264 pounds. Have you ever added water to a dried sponge and watched the sponge expand? The cow-calf industry resembles the sponge.

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How Expensive is “Cheap” Hay?

How Expensive is “Cheap” Hay?

Stephen B. Blezinger, PhD, PAS

Cattle Today

Every year, countless cattle operations find themselves in a similar situation. For one reason or another it becomes necessary for them to purchase at least some of the hay they will need for winter feeding.

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Producer preps by adding windbreaks, watching feed

Producer preps by adding windbreaks, watching feed

Bill Tiedje

Iowa Farmer Today

As nights grow colder and the days get shorter, many cow-calf producers are now busy with upkeep of their winter cattle buildings and lots. In Central Iowa, Matt Cibula of Cib’s Gelbvieh prepared his equipment and buildings for winter Nov. 7.

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The trick with winter water to keep your cattle drinking

The trick with winter water to keep your cattle drinking

Steve Kenyon

Canadian Cattlemen

The leaves are turning a bit early this year and we are gearing up for another winter season here at Greener Pastures. The “drought of 2015 has taken its toll on producers in our area. My neighbour stated to me that he has not seen it this dry in 55 years. Hay is very expensive so bale grazing is not looking like an economical feeding method this year.

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What the market wants in cull cows

What the market wants in cull cows

John Maday

Bovine Veterinarian

Of the roughly 32 million head of cattle slaughtered every year in the United States, about 20 percent are culled cows and bulls. And the sale of cull cows represents a significant enterprise for ranchers, typically accounting for about 15 to 20 percent of annual returns to cow-calf operations.

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Management decisions for fall-calving beef herds

Management decisions for fall-calving beef herds

Beef Producer

As producers with spring calving herds are completing weaning and moving cows to winter range, fall calving herds are gearing up for the next breeding season.

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Fattest-Ever U.S. Cattle Herd Signals End to Record Beef Prices

Fattest-Ever U.S. Cattle Herd Signals End to Record Beef Prices

Linly Lin

Washington Post

Cattle in the U.S. are now the fattest they’ve ever been, signaling an end to the seven-year run of record beef prices just as losses begin to mount for American feedlot owners.

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Jeremy Rifkin: ‘Number two cause of global warming emissions? Animal husbandry’

Jeremy Rifkin: ‘Number two cause of global warming emissions? Animal husbandry’

EurActiv

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.

An estimated 40% of all the agricultural land in the world today is used to grow feed grains for beef production, a trend that is set to worsen with the rise of the middle class in Asia, warns Jeremy Rifkin.

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Tom Brink Named CEO of Red Angus Association of America

Tom Brink Named CEO of Red Angus Association of America

redangus.org

Tom Brink, Brighton, Colorado, has been named CEO of the Red Angus Association of America. President Kim Ford made the announcement today at the Association headquarters in Denton. She noted the extensive selection process, the approval of the Board of Directors and is looking forward to the future of the breed and the organization.

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