BeefTalk: Visit Your Breed Association Website for Maternal Breed Indexes
Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
Hidden treasures for beef producers are the various breed association websites, which are the doorway to better understanding the performance of the cattle available within each breed.
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Know your customers
Laura Mushrush
Drovers
“When you know this information, it is going to help you find the right advertisers,” Grant says. “When breeders talk to their customers, they should also ask them where they are getting their information. And if a producer has 10 new breeders show up at his sale, he needs to make a note to follow up with them on how they found his genetic program.”
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The Case for Low-Stress Livestock Handling
Whit Hibbard
On Pasture
The purpose of this article is to make the case for LSLH. I will argue briefly that it accrues benefits over conventional livestock handling in several categories, including performance, efficiency, safety, animal welfare, and quality of life.
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Why Use Native Warm-Season Grasses? Heifer Development
Dr. Pat Keyser
University of Tennessee
Achieving adequate gains from weaning until puberty is a key to successful heifer development. Depending on weaning weight and birth date of the calf in question, average daily gains (ADG) need to be 1.4 – 1.8 lb per day. Keep in mind though, that gain does not have to be consistent throughout the weaning-breeding period. So if feed is available that provides low-cost, accelerated gains for a portion of that time, it can make an important contribution to successful development. Likewise, during pregnancy, higher quality feed can supplement forages that produce lower gains.
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Meat judging contests introduce students to USDA
Beef Producer
For many years, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has been involved in the Intercollegiate Meat Judging Program. The program serves as a tool to recruit and train future meat and livestock industry leaders. Judging is a competitive event for youth through college students and it has a rich history in the U.S. meat industry.
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Timing is everything (for baby calf colostrum)
Glen Selk
FarmTalk
Producers should provide high risk baby calves (born to thin first calf heifers or calves that endured a difficult birth) at least 2 quarts of fresh or thawed colos-trum within the first 6 hours of life and another 2 quarts within another 12 hours.
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How Will Cattle and Beef Markets be Different in 2016
Derrell S. Peel
AgWeb
Cattle markets in 2015 transitioned from what 2014 was to more like what 2016 will be. Beef production will be up three to four percent annually from 2015 levels, which was the lowest since 1993. Increased beef production in 2016 is still a low number historically.
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Tim Pennell, Cattlemen’s Beef Board Member, learned the business the hard way
Chuck Jolley
Drovers
Tim Pennell stands apart from the typical Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) member. Most of them were raised on a cattle ranch, learning the ropes almost from birth. They are part of a multi-generation family of cattle raisers who loved the lifestyle and can’t think of anything else they would rather do. Tim’s father was a CPA.
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Three-part beef cattle production series offered to Central Texas producers
Kara Matheney
Agrilife Toady
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas Beef Council have teamed up to present a special Beef 706 program, a three-part series of hands-on sessions focusing on beef quality management and marketing opportunities.
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Tension between ranchers and federal officials is dangerously high in Nevada
Molly Hennessy
Los Angles Times
Gerald "Jerry" Smith grew up in Nevada and went to work for the Bureau of Land Management right after college. As a local, he figured he was uniquely suited to work with the ranchers who have long resented the federal government’s role in land management here.
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