Stretching Hay: Become More Efficient at Feeding Hay

Stretching Hay:  Become More Efficient at Feeding Hay

Russ Quinn

DTN

Whether you call it making forage supplies last longer or maybe eliminating forage feeding waste, cow-calf producers this winter need their supplies to last longer. Short supplies of good-quality forages because of higher-than-average rainfall in recent growing seasons have limited the hay supply in most Midwest locations. This caused prices to climb.

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Genetic factors found in feedlot brisket disease

Genetic factors found in feedlot brisket disease

Kerry Halladay

Western Livestock Journal

On Jan. 13, Dr. Michael Heaton, a research microbiologist at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, presented preliminary findings at the International Plant and Animal Genome conference held in San Diego. The findings strongly suggest that congestive heart failure in feedlot cattle has underlying genetic factors.

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A cow’s body condition affects cold stress

A cow’s body condition affects cold stress

Christopher Petty

FarmTalk

According to Mary Drewnoski, University of Nebraska beef systems specialist, cold stress increases a cow’s energy requirement and can pull down her body condition. We think many cow-calf producers will experience this issue this winter. While we don’t know what Mother Nature has in store for us this year, it is good to think ahead and have a plan.

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Estate planning in five steps

Estate planning in five steps

Kay Ledbetter

Southern Livestock

Estate planning can be overwhelming, but a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service specialist offers a guide to estate planning in five steps to help make the process manageable and ensure family legacies can be passed on as intended.

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State Beef Councils Win Crucial Step in Case Against Beef Checkoff

State Beef Councils Win Crucial Step in Case Against Beef Checkoff

Colter Brown

Northern AG Network

In the long drawn out case of R-CALF vs. Sonny Perdue, a magistrate judge granted summary judgment to the government and the 15 qualified state beef councils targeted by R-CALF and its legal partners at Public Justice.

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Updated guide to Value-Added Producer Grant Program

Updated guide to Value-Added Producer Grant Program

AgriNews

In conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent announcement of at least $37 million in available grant support via the Value Added Producer Grant Program, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has released a newly updated version of its “Farmers’ Guide to Applying for the Value Added Producer Grant Program.”

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Importance of Forage Analysis: Making Sure Nutrient Requirements are Met

Importance of Forage Analysis: Making Sure Nutrient Requirements are Met

Heather Smith Thomas

Tri State Livestock News

Winter forages may need supplementation with protein or minerals.  Jeremy Martin, PhD, ruminant nutritionist and reproduction manager, Great Plains Livestock Consulting, says it’s important to sample and test forages, especially this year, after unusual weather patterns in many regions.

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UK conducts study using drones for cattle monitoring

UK conducts study using drones for cattle monitoring

Taylor Six

Richmond Register

Researchers at the University of Kentucky are looking for ways to help lower the mortality rate amongst cattle for health related deaths, and they believe the answer could be with use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), otherwise known as drones.

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What to Expect from the 2020s

What to Expect from the 2020s

John Maday

Drovers

During the past decade, we saw numerous changes in beef and dairy production, and in the ways veterinarians serve those industries. These include the emergence of remote monitoring, advanced data systems, new diagnostic tools, genomic technologies, acceleration of antibiotic-resistance in cattle pathogens and drug resistance in cattle parasites.

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U.S. CattleTrace advances cattle disease traceability

U.S. CattleTrace advances cattle disease traceability

P.J. Griekspoor

Beef Magazine

CattleTrace has joined forces with other animal disease traceability pilot programs to form a single organization. The goal is to get a single technology for traceability across all partners in the industry. Cattle disease traceability pilot programs have joined forces under the new name U.S. CattleTrace.

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Beef Cattle Institute experts offer advice on post-calving intervention

Beef Cattle Institute experts offer advice on post-calving intervention

Kansas State University

Once the calves are born into a beef cattle herd, there is no better sight than watching them get up and begin to nurse their mamas.

However, experts in Kansas State University’s Beef Cattle Institute (BCI) say that difficult deliveries, inexperienced dams and calves born without vigor sometimes keep that connection from happening. It is at those times when a beef producer may have to intervene.

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Whether or not global temperatures are rising, odds are U.S. agricultural producers will adapt, as always.

Whether or not global temperatures are rising, odds are U.S. agricultural producers will adapt, as always.

Wes Ishmael

F&R

It may be easier to hog-tie a hurricane than decipher whether global temperatures are increasing and if so, by how much, let alone the causes and whether or not they can be mitigated. “Rising temperatures, extreme heat, drought, wildfire on rangelands, and heavy downpours are expected to increasingly disrupt agricultural productivity in the United States. Expected increases in challenges to livestock health, declines in crop yields and quality, and changes in extreme events in the United States and abroad threaten rural livelihoods, sustainable food security, and price stability.”

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Value Added Producer Grants

Value Added Producer Grants

USDA

The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program helps agricultural producers enter into value-added activities related to the processing and marketing of new products. The goals of this program are to generate new products, create and expand marketing opportunities and increase producer income.

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Sale barn keeps office manager on her toes

Sale barn keeps office manager on her toes

Mikkel Pates

Agweek

Marsha Schlecht has been the office manager for the Napoleon Livestock Inc., for nearly 20 years. In that capacity, she does everything but cry auctions. “I have payroll, pay the bills, make sure the books balance, do quarterly reports — pretty much whatever there is to do. I’ve done everything but (cry an) auction, let’s put it that way,” she says, noting she’s loaded and unloaded cattle.

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Vegan senator declares war on big livestock farms

Vegan senator declares war on big livestock farms

Gary Baise

Farm Futures

The Farm Reform Act of 2019, intended to reform U.S. agriculture, has been introduced by failed presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ. Some call it a Trojan Horse. Environmental advocacy group Food and Water Action declared Sen. Booker had introduced “critical” legislation. Sen. Booker claims his bill will “…strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act to crack down on monopolistic practices of multi-meat packers and corporate integrators, place a moratorium on large industrial animal operations, sometimes referred to as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and restore mandatory country-of-origin labeling requirements.”

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3 Ways Innovation Will Change Your Farm

3 Ways Innovation Will Change Your Farm

Margy Eckelkamp

Drovers

At the 2019 AgTech Expo, technology experts from agriculture and other industries showcased the latest tools and trends. Here are a few ways you can expect technology advancements and new information to change your farm business.

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K-State beef experts weigh breeding decisions factors

K-State beef experts weigh breeding decisions factors

Salina Post

One of the most exciting times of the year on cow/calf operations is when the calves are born and producers can see the results of their breeding decisions. Experts from the Beef Cattle Institute at Kansas State University say it can also be stressful and costly if those mating decisions lead to calving difficulties, which is why much care needs to be taken when planning those matings.

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Don’t put all your eggs in one petri dish: IVF a viable option for quick genetic turnover

Don’t put all your eggs in one petri dish: IVF a viable option for quick genetic turnover

Savanna Simmons

Tri State Livestock News

Dave Winninger, an AI technician near Cody, Wyoming, has been working on a project with farmers in Massachusetts who wish to get offspring for very rare and old semen to enhance traits in their dairy cattle that they feel has been lost throughout the years.

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Young California ranchers are finding new ways to raise livestock and improve the land

Young California ranchers are finding new ways to raise livestock and improve the land

KATE MUNDEN-DIXON and LESLIE ROCHE

Intermountain Farm and Ranch

As California contends with drought, wildfires and other impacts of climate change, a small yet passionate group of residents are attempting to lessen these effects and reduce the state’s carbon emissions. They are ranchers – but not the kind that most people picture when they hear that term.

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Nebraska ranchers want to see beef labeled from the country it came

Nebraska ranchers want to see beef labeled from the country it came

LINDA WUEBBEN

Norfolk Daily News

As the American agricultural community eagerly awaits President Donald Trump’s signature on the trade deal between the United States, Canada and Mexico, another significant approval is uppermost in the minds of farmers and ranchers across the United States — the reinstatement of Country of Origin Labeling (COOL).

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