May Beef Roundtable: Calf Management During the Grazing Season

May Beef Roundtable: Calf Management During the Grazing Season

Spring has arrived and most producers have turned cows and calves out to pasture and life for many of us seems just a bit easier. Now we need to turn our attention to considering calf management during the grazing season to keep calves healthy, and gaining at an optimal rate during the summer, so we can have heavy, high quality calves at weaning.

BeefTalk: Cut Expenses Smartly, Not Quickly

BeefTalk: Cut Expenses Smartly, Not Quickly

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

In difficult financial times, proper management decisions are critical and could make the difference between remaining in the cattle business or not. Forward or backward are two options. Once the clutch is engaged and the accelerator pressed, action is necessary. Is the operation in “drive” to move forward or in “reverse” to move backward? Let’s hope cattle producers are moving forward, but slowly, however.

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Building upgrades enhance production

Building upgrades enhance production

Jeff DeYoung

Iowa Farmer Today

Brandt Ferry admits he actually enjoyed feeding cattle during the dog days of last summer. And the Shelby County producer says even the winter was more bearable than usual. Last summer, Ferry put the finishing touches on a 600-head gabled-roof cattle barn to replace an open feedlot. He worked with the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers on the project.

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Grassley says he’ll reintroduce packer ban legislation

Grassley says he’ll reintroduce packer ban legislation

Beef Producer

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, introduced S.2911, a bill amending the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act to make it illegal for a packer to own, control or feed livestock, on May 10, 2016.

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Paint-On GMOs Could Create Cattle, Dogs with Custom Fur

Paint-On GMOs Could Create Cattle, Dogs with Custom Fur

Antonio Regalado

Technology Review

It sounds crazy, and it is. A startup says it can use genetic engineering to change the color of animal coats. Imagine a Dalmatian covered with hearts instead of spots. Or a black cow whose rear end had a perfectly etched bar code of white fur. These things are possible, according to AgGenetics, a Nashville, Tennessee, startup now raising $5 million on AgFunder, a crowdfunding site for agricultural technology projects.

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Survey tackles consumer perception of added hormones

Survey tackles consumer perception of added hormones

Feedstuffs

The latest Oklahoma State University department of agricultural economics “Food Demand Survey” delved into consumers’ beliefs about the use of added growth hormones in livestock and poultry production, revealing that many are misinformed on the topic.

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One Louisiana parish has seen an economic shift

One Louisiana parish has seen an economic shift

RFD TV

A few miles from the Logansport, Joey Register works his cattle on horseback. However, what is happening now is a lifetime in the making for Register. “I always always, always knew that I wanted to farm when I grew up," says Register.  "I had a desire, and my brother the same — if we played in the backyard in the dirt, we were building little farms in the dirt.”

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Putting Money in the Bank by Implanting Calves

Putting Money in the Bank by Implanting Calves

Warren Rusche

iGrow

If someone was offering a deal promising that for every $1 invested there would be a $25 payoff four to six months later, how many takers would there be? Sounds too good to be true, but that is exactly the payoff from using implants on nursing calves this year.

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Fencing Out Streams Win-win for Livestock, Conservation

Fencing Out Streams Win-win for Livestock, Conservation

Gallagher

Streams and riparian areas play many important roles in pastures. They serve as water sources for livestock and wildlife and provide habitat for a multitude of species. When managed properly, riparian areas also lessen the impact of adjacent land uses by trapping sediment from eroding lands and absorbing nutrients from overland flow of water.

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Every Calf Counts

Every Calf Counts

Jake Troutt

Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA

 “Every calf counts.” It’s a phrase most often heard around calving season. Certainly an important time, a calf’s first two weeks of life play a vital role in its future productive success. Ensuring each addition to the herd hits the dirt with ease, vigor and a strong will to live is essential. Additionally, providing the proper vaccination protocol to treat and prevent sickness and disease in susceptible areas is good management. Long before any of that can take place, however, the calf must be conceived, and proper care for bulls is a must.

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