BeefTalk: Ponder This: $2,000 Each for Your Steer Crop

BeefTalk: Ponder This: $2,000 Each for Your Steer Crop

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

Calving is just finished or winding down for many. Although some would say this is premature, now actually is the time to start thinking about cash flow and income the 2017 calf crop will generate. Many opportunities in the beef business exist when time is taken to explore, discuss and plan for them.

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Is cattle feeding a ‘noble’ profession?

Is cattle feeding a ‘noble’ profession?

STEVEN THOMPSON

FarmTalk

For the past 36 years, Bob Noble, whose cattle feeding operation is located west of Riceville, has seen many changes in cattle feeding among many other areas of the beef industry. Bob, his wife Jayne and their three children, lived on the farm where Bob was raised. Nobles have fed cattle on the farmstead for the past 36 years. “My dad, Harlan, was a general farmer with different types of livestock including milk cows. The last 20 years Dad fed cattle,” Bob said.

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Shade That Moves Where You Need It – On Pasture

Shade That Moves Where You Need It – On Pasture

Kathy Voth

On Pasture

Shade can solve a lot of problems. It can improve livestock grazing and production. Cattle without shade gain less weight and produce less milk than their cool counterparts. Fertility rates drop too. Shade also impacts productivity by changing where animals deposit manure, and how much of your pasture gets grazed.

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Dehorning: The Least Fun Job on the Farm

Dehorning: The Least Fun Job on the Farm

Faith Cullens

Bovine Veterinarian

Dehorning, or disbudding, is necessary in raising naturally horned animals to keep them from injuring workers and themselves. Since cattle have a social hierarchy, horns are used to assert dominance, resulting in bruises and cuts in their herd-mates, and potentially serious injury or death to humans.

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Former Oklahoma Beef Council employee charged with wrongdoing

Former Oklahoma Beef Council employee charged with wrongdoing

Jacqui Fatka

Feedstuffs

Melissa Morton, the former accounting and compliance director for the Oklahoma Beef Council, was charged May 10 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Oklahoma with embezzling $2.68 million from the Oklahoma Beef Council over a seven-year period.

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Predicted beef dollars really add up

Predicted beef dollars really add up

Fence Post

Cattle genetics have made big improvements since the American Angus Association released its beef value ($B) index in 2004. Often called "dollar beef," it was one of the first tools to combine expected progeny differences (EPDs) for feedyard and carcass traits with economic measures.

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Beef Farm Thrives in Rugged Upstate Hill Country

Beef Farm Thrives in Rugged Upstate Hill Country

Paul Post

Lancaster Farming

Working with nature, instead of trying to master it, his beef farm in Washington County’s rugged hill country is now the focal point of a thriving business that delivers locally sourced foods to dozens of New York City and Hudson Valley CSAs throughout the year.

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Searching for 365 days of grazing

Searching for 365 days of grazing

James Rogers

Hay and Forage Grower

In 2015, the Noble Foundation undertook a foundation-wide research initiative called Forage 365 with the main objective to develop forages and grazing systems that provide grazeable forage year-round. Within this initiative, there are several projects taking place across the three operating divisions of the Noble Foundation.

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Big Leagues, Extra Innings

Big Leagues, Extra Innings

Hannah Johlman 

Angus Media

Braden Schaal had always dreamed of playing professional baseball. From Little League to high school and college ball, the right-handed pitcher knew if he was going to be the best, he had to work hard. So he did, perfecting his pitches for nearly 15 years.

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Producers invited to Grazing 102 course

Producers invited to Grazing 102 course

Morning AG Clips

Producers can get first-hand tips from experts on how to incorporate management-intensive grazing techniques during a two-day seminar hosted by Purdue Extension. Grazing 102, which will take place June 23-24, will cover numerous topics on best management practices, including plant growth and development, soil fertility, forage identification, fencing and watering systems.

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