BeefTalk: Add Value to Market Cows and Bulls

BeefTalk: Add Value to Market Cows and Bulls

Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension

Preparing market cows and bulls is a timeless function of beef operations.

Individual producer goals determine how many cows will remain in the herd and how many will shift to the market column. The resulting two numbers – market cow rate and replacement rate – impact the base cow herd. Managers match cattle numbers to given resources. The numbers are the foundation to expanding and/or contracting herd numbers.

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Boost Animal Performance When Forages are Stressed

Boost Animal Performance When Forages are Stressed

Becky Mills
DTN

“Research suggests ionophores improve animal performance in a grazing situation or feedlot,” says Auburn University Extension animal scientist Kim Mullenix. “A rule of thumb is they improve gain 10%, almost the same as the increase from implants.”

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Overcoming a mycotoxin nightmare

Overcoming a mycotoxin nightmare

Neil Michael

Progressive Cattleman

It was a cowboy’s worst nightmare. Pen after pen of lethargic cattle. Feed intake down by 50 percent. Skyrocketing pulls. Even heavy 1,300-pound cattle heading to the hospital pen in higher-than-normal numbers.

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Does beef demand impact you?

Does beef demand impact you?

Beef Magazine

I got a call recently from a reader who had several concerns. Space doesn’t allow me to address all of them, but let’s look at a couple. He wondered why good beef demand both here and abroad hasn’t translated into better prices at the ranch level. On the other hand, I’ve been amazed that prices have stayed robust this year. So I did some checking and found some interesting numbers.

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Managing millennials in agriculture

Managing millennials in agriculture

Chris Zoller

Farm and Dairy

This is considered to be the most energetic, educated and diverse generation — one that is also technology savvy and conscious of social issues. Members of this generation have been influenced by terrorist attacks, school shootings, and the emergence of the internet. Approximately one-third of the U.S. workforce is made up of millennials and it’s estimated they will comprise nearly one-half of the workforce by 2020.

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Tyson Fresh Meats Changes Choice Plus Grid

Tyson Fresh Meats Changes Choice Plus Grid

Gary Fike

Red Angus News

Effective Oct. 1, 2018, Tyson Fresh Meats has altered the Choice Plus Grid to reflect a pricing change brought about by a shift in the industry towards more Choice beef, which has raised the bar for quality. In effect, Choice is not as “special” as it once was 10 years ago.

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Man in Oklahoma Surrenders on Cattle Embezzlement Charges

Man in Oklahoma Surrenders on Cattle Embezzlement Charges

Wyatt Bechtel

Drovers

A man in Oklahoma surrendered to police on six counts of embezzlement following an investigation by a Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) special ranger. Johnny Ray Simmons, 52, of Stilwell, Oklahoma, surrendered to Harper County authorities on Sept. 12 and was booked in the Harper County Jail.

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Beef stocker field day blends new technology, traditional feeding strategies

Beef stocker field day blends new technology, traditional feeding strategies

Raney Rapp

FarmTalk

Cattlemen from across Kansas gathered at Kansas State University’s Beef Stocker Unit to share information with researchers and other cattle producers on upcoming changes in the beef industry. This year’s conference focused on continuing market trends, innovative uses of a traditional feedstuff and emerging veterinary technology.

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Tyson leads transparency push on beef production

Tyson leads transparency push on beef production

Steve Kay

Canadian Cattleman

Consumers in the U.S. and Canada increasingly want to know how their food is produced. As far as beef is concerned, they want to know how animals are cared for, they want guarantees that beef is safe and that it has been produced in an environmentally sustainable way. Until now, the beef industries in both countries have done a poor job in making beef production more “transparent.” Some branded beef programs offer this but they are tiny. Beef industry detractors have used the lack of transparency as a weapon to attack beef eating.

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Pollak to coordinate the Nebraska Integrated Beef Systems Initiative at UNL

Pollak to coordinate the Nebraska Integrated Beef Systems Initiative at UNL

The Fence Post

John Pollak, former director of the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, has been named coordination lead for the Nebraska Integrated Beef Systems Initiative at the University of Nebraska. The Nebraska Integrated Beef Systems Initiative was launched in 2016 in the university’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It is designed to leverage the many systems-based efforts underway at Nebraska to advance science-driven innovation in development of resilient systems for food animal production, health and well-being, and to train the diverse workforce required.

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Mark Parker: The Top 10 bits of critical information you can pick up in any small town coffee shop

Mark Parker:  The Top 10 bits of critical information you can pick up in any small town coffee shop

FarmTalk

10. An absolutely true story about a guy in Texas who had some steers electrocuted by electronic ID tags.
11. Ted Turner, the Mormons or some Japanese or maybe Chinese conglomerate is buying half the county.

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Unless You Treat the Underlying Cause Don’t Expect Results-Treatment Failure

Unless You Treat the Underlying Cause Don’t Expect Results-Treatment Failure

Oklahoma Farm Report

Bovine Respiratory Disease or BRD, is the No. 1 disease cattle producers will face when they deal with incoming stockers onto their operations. However, according to Extension Veterinarian Dr. AJ Tarpoff, there are many other ailments that cattle develop that are oftentimes misdiagnosed as a BRD related symptom and then treated as such. In such cases, Tarpoff says this results in the affected animal’s “treatment failure

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Why are hay lab test results different?

Why are hay lab test results different?

Glenn Shewmaker

Progressive Forage

Hay producers often ask, “Why are forage quality test results for the same haystack different among laboratories?” There are significant sources of variation, or error, hay producers and consumers should realize.

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Support animal agriculture disease preparedness in 2018 Farm Bill

Support animal agriculture disease preparedness in 2018 Farm Bill

Lee Reeve

Topeka Capital-Journal

With negotiations on the 2018 Farm Bill expected to heat up soon, Kansas cattle producers have a lot at stake. The Farm Bill authorizes many programs designed to support farmers and ranchers. One new provision that deserves special attention is the creation of a Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) Vaccine Bank.

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Staying in the Game on WOTUS

Staying in the Game on WOTUS

Farm Bureau

It feels a lot like that last quarter of the game when it comes to the Waters of the U.S. rule right now. Farmers have gotten some tough calls along the way, and we’ve come back strong in the fourth. But we cannot stop driving down the field until we have a win for clean water and clear rules.

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How to protect your farm from extreme activists

How to protect your farm from extreme activists

Casey Kinler

Animal Engage

It’s no surprise that animal rights activist extremists are not fond of farmers and ranchers who raise animals. No matter how well the animals are treated under the farmers’ care, it will never be enough for the activists because their goal is a world without meat, milk, poultry and eggs.

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How feeder cattle price slides work, and why

How feeder cattle price slides work, and why

Nevil Speer

Beef Magazine

Over the past month, this column has focused on the feeder cattle market and various value drivers in an effort to help producers better understand market principles while marketing is fresh on their mind.

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Tips for minimizing feedlot shipping stress

Tips for minimizing feedlot shipping stress

Doug Scholz and Nathan Meyer

Progressive Cattleman

As beef producers prepare to transition their cattle to the feedlot, reducing stress is something to keep top of mind. Chances are, some of these animals have never even set foot on a trailer. Just that in itself is going to be stressful, and whatever we can do to improve animal welfare and reduce stress at this time will have a positive impact for you, your cattle, the feedlot operator and, in the end, the consumer.

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Defunct Oregon beef packer plans for auction

Defunct Oregon beef packer plans for auction

Mateusz Perkowski

Capital Press

A defunct Oregon beef packer is planning to auction its assets because a buyer hasn’t yet committed to purchasing its facilities as a package. Bartels Packing of Eugene, Ore., shut down in March with a debt of $8.3 million, including $4.6 million owed to cattle suppliers and feedlots.

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3 Issues Squeezing Livestock Producers

3 Issues Squeezing Livestock Producers

Portia Stewart

Drovers

n a political environment as fraught as the current climate, issues such as work force immigration put tremendous pressure on employers. Dr. Corbin Stevens, a veterinarian for Production Animal Consultation in Scott City, Kan., works with several feedyards, and all of them struggle to fill open positions.

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