Beef Cattle Management in Uncertain Times

Beef Cattle Management in Uncertain Times

Alabama Extension

Cattle markets have been extremely volatile recently in the wake of COVID-19, and many Alabama stockyards have temporarily suspended operations to keep their staff and customers safe. All this has left many cattle producers considering alternative management options for cattle they were planning to sell now or in the near future, with the very real possibility that those cattle will need to stay on the farm longer than expected.

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Searching for the Bottom of the U.S. Beef Cattle Price Cycle

Searching for the Bottom of the U.S. Beef Cattle Price Cycle

Chris Prevatt

This presentation was recorded on April 14, 2020 as an Ona Beef Cattle and Forage Economics Program Highlight with Chris Prevatt, a state specialized agent at the UF/IFAS Range Cattle Research and Education Center, in Ona, FL.

 

 

 

U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef

U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef

Mike Williams
California Cattleman

For many ranchers the term. sustainability carries a negative connotation. For years, niche markets, and antibeef organizations have used the word to beat ranchers over the head with as they defined sustainability in whatever way supported their personal agenda. Several years ago, when I learned that the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) was heavily engaged in a organization called the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB) and that the California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) was a member of this organization, red flags began to go off in my mind, I feared that efforts like this might have a negative effect and put unwarranted pressure on ranchers. I decided to attend a meeting and find out for myself what it was all about.

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Where Coaching and Culture Coexist

Where Coaching and Culture Coexist

Sarah Beth Aubrey

Hereford World

Every business has a culture, as does every family. In agriculture, culture is not something we spend much time talking about, but we should. While it is hard to define, culture exists, and is felt by everyone. What is most interesting about culture is that it is either created or simply tolerated.

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Leveraging “Good” Genetics in Commercial Heifer Selection

Leveraging “Good” Genetics in Commercial Heifer Selection

Jamie T. Courter
The Beefmaster Payweight

Commercial producers place a large investment in seedstock bulls, with the intention of improving the genetics of their herd by selecting superior replacement fem ales from superior matings. Unfortunately, biology is not their friend in this instance. Due to random sampling of chromosomes from a bull or cow, closely related cattle have shown significant variation in genetic potential for a trait. Some data have shown that a single bull sired calves that ranged from the top 1 % to the bottom 91 % of the breed for calving ease maternal, with other half siblings falling in between. How does someone determine which heifers inherited the “good” genes they paid for, and those who did not? Easy, test them.

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When cash was king of the beef market

When cash was king of the beef market

Wes Ishmael

Beef Magazine

“The daily fed cattle market is characterized by spotty price quotes, small trade volume, few buyers and sellers, and concerns over the representativeness of publicly reported cash market prices.” Rather than a current observation, the above quote is from a 2000 study, “Alternatives to Cash Prices in Fed Cattle Price Discovery,” by Ted Schroeder, agricultural economist at Kansas State University, and James Mintert, agricultural economist at Purdue University.

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NCBA Responds to Beef Packing Plant Closures

NCBA Responds to Beef Packing Plant Closures
Wisconsin Ag Connection

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall released the following statement regarding the announcement that JBS will shutter its Greeley, Colo., beef processing plant in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

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JBS tells 6,000 beef workers to self-quarantine

JBS tells 6,000 beef workers to self-quarantine

Chuck Abbott

Successful Farming

Meatpacker JBS USA said it will close its cattle slaughter plant in Greeley, Colorado, until April 24 while its 6,000 employees self-quarantine in an effort to eradicate a coronavirus outbreak in the community. Two JBS workers have died of COVID-19 and four dozen others have tested positive for the virus.

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Walmart opened a meatpacking plant. What does it mean for the beef industry?

Walmart opened a meatpacking plant. What does it mean for the beef industry?

Sam Bloch

The Counter

Walmart, the largest retailer in the U.S., is getting into the beef business. This afternoon, the Arkansas-based company will make a notable move for a purveyor of groceries: opening a 200,000-square-foot meatpacking plant built specifically to process Black Angus beef. The facility, located in Thomasville, Georgia, is the company’s first such plant, according to the Thomasville Times-Enterprise.

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Trump Administration Aims to Buy Milk, Meat for Coronavirus Aid

Trump Administration Aims to Buy Milk, Meat for Coronavirus Aid

Ag Web

The Trump administration plans to buy milk and meat from U.S. farmers as part of an initial $15.5 billion effort to help them weather the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Wednesday.

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