Trump, Cruz can’t avoid ag issues at CNN town hall

Trump, Cruz can’t avoid ag issues at CNN town hall

Wyatt Bechtel

Drovers

CNN’s recent presidential town hall in Wisconsin offered a chance to hear Republican candidates’ thoughts on agricultural issues, in particular immigration, labor and trade. The first agriculture-related question came from Jason Vorpahl, a dairy farmer from Random Lake, Wis., where he milks 2,800 cows on the farm his great-grandparents started in the 1800s.

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Calf losses before birth concern for producers

Calf losses before birth concern for producers

Agri View

An “abortion” is the discharge of the fetus prior to the end of the normal gestation period. Abortions have many causes, including physiological problems such as hormonal imbalances, metabolic problems, toxicoses and/or infectious diseases caused by protozoa, fungi, bacteria or viruses, according to Neil Dyer, director of the North Dakota State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

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Bovine Economics 101

Bovine Economics 101

Gary Truitt

Hoosier AG Today

One of the biggest collections of worthless, timewasting, slanderous, untrue, irrelevant, scandalous, obscene, and unnecessary information can be found on Facebook. Yet this popular social media channel can every now and again produce a nugget of pure inspiration. One such gem was posted on my page this past week.

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Tool helps maximize distiller’s grains in the diet

Tool helps maximize distiller’s grains in the diet

Dean Peterson

Beef Producer

Overall dry matter intake decreased as the calcium oxide percentages increased when feeding distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS). The efficiency of gain (pounds of gain per pound of feed) increased as the calcium oxide percentage increased and peaked at slightly more than 1% of the total dry matter. Steers fed close to 1% calcium oxide required fewer days on feed.

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Push for “meaningful” grass fed meat label

Push for “meaningful” grass fed meat label

Julie Harker

Brownfield News

Nine ag and consumer groups are urging the USDA to reinstate a “meaningful grassfed label for meat.” The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) had overseen a voluntary label standard but determined in January that it did not have statutory authority over it.

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Stewardship Is Good for This Cattle Business

Stewardship Is Good for This Cattle Business

Loretta Sorensen

DTN/Progressive Farmer

In the past, conservation and confinement operations have not always been thought of as compatible. But times have changed, and when fourth-generation beef producer Lance Sennett started planning to expand the family’s confined feeding operation, he had stewardship, the environment and a profitable business all as part of the overall goal.

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Take precautions to avoid Trichomoniasis this breeding season

Take precautions to avoid Trichomoniasis this breeding season

The Cattle Business Weekly

Trichomoniasis, a reproductive disease of cattle, is experiencing somewhat of a resurgence in South Dakota this past winter and spring.  As such, cattle producers should keep the disease at the top of their mind when preparing for the upcoming breeding season, said Russ Daly, SDSU Extension Veterinarian.

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Summer Annuals, the Nutritious Pasture Refresh Button

Summer Annuals, the Nutritious Pasture Refresh Button

Genevieve Slocum

On Pasture

Planting summer annuals is an extra cost for your system, but if managed correctly, the high yields and quality of quick-growing summer annuals and the average daily gains they produce make it well worth it. Their summer growth will of course be far from what you’re used to from perennial stands and will take some adjusting in your grazing program.

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Packers Pay $1 Million a Week for CAB

Packers Pay $1 Million a Week for CAB

The Stock Exchange

Rewards for hitting the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand target have never been greater, even after 11 consecutive years of growing supply. A survey of CAB-licensed packers Cargill, JBS-USA, National and Tyson showed they paid a record $51.8 million in grid premiums in 2015, and more than $550 million over 20 years.

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Start Horn Fly Control Earlier than Later

Start Horn Fly Control Earlier than Later

AgWeb

Start a fly control program early to capture higher rates of gain They will come. Every spring, as surely as tulips and taxes, horn flies are guaranteed to land. The best strategy for control is to start early.

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Tube Feeding Colostrum – an Essential Skill for All Producers

Tube Feeding Colostrum – an Essential Skill for All Producers

Michelle Arnold

Ohio Beef Cattle Letter

“Failure of passive transfer” of immunity occurs when a calf does not absorb enough good quality immunoglobulin before closure of the intestine that occurs at approximately 24 hours after birth. This failure leads to increased calf sickness and death. If the calf survives, it will have a slower growth rate and use feed less efficiently. It is estimated that of the calf deaths occurring in the first 3 weeks of life, approximately a third are due to inadequate colostrum intake.

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What to know about calving cows out on corn stalks

What to know about calving cows out on corn stalks

The Cattle Business Weekly

Calving season is getting underway and many producers choose to calve out on cornstalk fields. Residue fields can be a good place to maintain cowherds until cool season grasses are available but often times, calving occurs during February and March to avoid the busy farming responsibilities later in the spring. Lactation begins while the cows are on low quality forage (50% total digestible nutrients or TDN) and supplying 2-2.5 lb of a 20% crude protein supplement will only provide the cow with about 13 lb of TDN per day.

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BIF Announces June Program

BIF Announces June Program

Angus Beef Bulletin

Preparations are being finalized for the 2016 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Annual Meeting and Research Symposium themed “Progress on the Prairie.” The annual event will be hosted June 14-17 in Manhattan, Kan., and headquartered at the new Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center.

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Long-term impacts of estrus synchronization and artificial insemination

Long-term impacts of estrus synchronization and artificial insemination

Cliff Lamb

Drovers

Estrous synchronization (ES) and artificial insemination (AI) are reproductive management tools that have been available to beef producers for over 50 years.  Synchronization of the estrous cycle has the potential to shorten the calving season, increase calf uniformity, and enhance the possibilities for utilizing AI.

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2016 presidential candidates have little awareness of farming and ranching issues

2016 presidential candidates have little awareness of farming and ranching issues

Progressive Cattleman

Most Progressive Cattleman readers believe that the 2016 presidential candidates have little awareness of farming and ranching issues. In a recent online poll, Progressive Cattleman asked, “How would you rate 2016 presidential candidates’ awareness of farming and ranching issues?”

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Avoiding more of a bad fescue thing

Avoiding more of a bad fescue thing

Hay And Forage Growwer

It’s a basic axiom of forage production: Fertilize grass with nitrogen. Another more widespread axiom: There are exceptions to every rule.

“If a livestock producer calls me in the spring to ask how much nitrogen they should apply to their tall fescue pasture or hayfield, I return the question and ask what kind of fescue they have,” says Craig Roberts, extension forage specialist at the University of Missouri.

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Breaking the Pasture-Parasite Cycle

Breaking the Pasture-Parasite Cycle

Victoria G. Myers

Progressive Farmer

Cattlemen across the South are generally blessed with the kind of weather that keeps pastures productive well into the winter months. It’s an enviable advantage but one that poses a serious challenge when it comes to parasite control.

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Profit suckers

Profit suckers

Laura Mushrush

Drovers

While there hasn’t been any recent academic institution research on the economic impact of parasites in cattle, a 2007 study, “Economic Analysis of Pharmaceutical Technologies in Modern Beef Production,” by researchers at Iowa State University, found deworming to be one of the most beneficial technologies available to beef producers.

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Cattle 529 Plan for Funding College

Cattle 529 Plan for Funding College

Doug Ferguson

On Pasture

Ever since I was a little kid all I wanted to do was farm and raise cattle.  Everything seemed so simple back then.  Just grow up and do what you want to.  We all had that dream.  When you get older, and especially when you have a kid, things get real.

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Comparing Weaning Dates for Fall Calving Cows

Comparing Weaning Dates for Fall Calving Cows

The Stock Exchange

Cow calf producers with fall-calving cows have options as to the optimum date to wean the calves.  Traditionally fall-born calves are weaned at an older age than spring-born calves.

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