K-State beef cattle specialist explains ways to effectively use data in sire selection

K-State beef cattle specialist explains ways to effectively use data in sire selection

Kansas State University

In any team sport, members contribute their physical strengths to help achieve the goal for the common good. It is hard for an athlete to be the best in all aspects of the game. In much the same way, bulls that excel in maternal traits are not always the ones that reach the top of chart for siring calves that rank the best at the time of harvest.

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Late Season Forage Harvest Management

Late Season Forage Harvest Management

Mark Sulc

Ohio Beef Cattle Letter

The best time to take a last harvest of alfalfa and other legumes is sometime in early September in Ohio, for the least risk to the long-term health of the stand. These forages need a fall period of rest to replenish carbohydrate and protein reserves in the taproots that are used for winter survival and regrowth next spring.

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Elanco’s Sara Place Says Converting To a Vegan Diet Would Not Improve The Environment

Elanco’s Sara Place Says Converting To a Vegan Diet Would Not Improve The Environment

Oklahoma Farm Report

If every U.S. citizen went on a vegan diet it would have very little impact on the global environment, says Dr. Sara Place, chief sustainability officer with Elanco Animal Health, Inc. As we look at what’s happening in the world the overwhelming trend continues as people get more money in their pocket, they eat more animal sourced foods. That’s a good thing for humans because there are a lot of people who are protein deficient, she said.

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Six Easy Mistakes to Avoid Working Calves This Fall

Six Easy Mistakes to Avoid Working Calves This Fall

Sharla Ishmael

The Cattleman
Working cattle can be stressful — not just for the cattle, but for the people, too. Before you run cows and calves through the chute this fall, review these basic tips from the Texas Beef Quality Assurance Program to avoid a potential wreck.

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Crafting The Cull List

Crafting The Cull List

Jaclyn Krymowski.

American Cattlemen

Cull cows are a fact of the business. They’re certainly no one’s career highlight, but they certainly do drum up a lot of discussion in cattle circles. Your neighbors might be shocked that you have producing 12-year-olds while a buddy from the sale barn can’t believe you didn’t chop your undesirable two-year-olds last time beef prices were up. Regardless of where you sit, this unglamorous aspect of management has a significant impact.

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Bizarre Bacteria Causing Major Cattle Disease Named by UC Davis Researchers

Bizarre Bacteria Causing Major Cattle Disease Named by UC Davis Researchers

The Cattle Site

“This is a most unusual bug, a ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ bacterium, and the tick that carries it is equally bizarre,” said veterinary immunologist Jeffrey Stott, who has led the effort to develop a preventive vaccine for the malady that western ranchers know all too well as “foothill abortion disease.”

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Op-Ed: If we’re going to eat cattle, let them eat grass

Op-Ed: If we’re going to eat cattle, let them eat grass

Jared Stone

Los Angeles Times

Editor’s note: Stories of this ilk are included in the blog to inform those in our industry how agriculture is being presented to and perceived by the public.

Stories about impending environmental apocalypse circulate almost daily, especially in drought-ravaged California. Many of these stories tend to blame agriculture — and specifically, beef — for gobbling up our resources. Though numbers vary widely and are hotly contested, some researchers estimate that it takes 1,800 gallons of water to produce each pound of beef.

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Cattle quadruple the protein value of corn

Cattle quadruple the protein value of corn

Abby Bauer

Hoards Dairyman

It takes approximately 1,400 pounds of corn to finish out a steer. Would we be better off feeding that corn to humans instead? Associate Professor Tyron Wickersham and colleagues at Texas A&M University have done work to answer that very question. He shared this information during a media event coordinated by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

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How Minnesota’s biggest beef producer is weathering the coronavirus

How Minnesota’s biggest beef producer is weathering the coronavirus

Adam Belz

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Tom Revier said he knew his cattle operation was in for a jolt when the Chinese government cordoned off the city of Wuhan because of the coronavirus. “That scared the heck out of me,” he said. “First time that I can recall a large city being quarantined.” This year has forced his farm, Revier Cattle Co., Minnesota’s largest beef cattle operation, to shift how it raises animals and sells meat.

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Withdrawal times need to be followed

Withdrawal times need to be followed

Donald Stotts

Enid News

“The need to treat infectious ailments such as eye infections or foot rot is not uncommon in the summertime, with treatments often involving the use of antibiotics,” said Bob LeValley, Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance coordinator with Oklahoma Beef Council and OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

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Texas A&M researchers developing first oral anthrax vaccine for livestock, wildlife

Texas A&M researchers developing first oral anthrax vaccine for livestock, wildlife

Canadian Cattlemen

There may soon be a new weapon in the centuries-old battle against anthrax in wildlife thanks to groundbreaking work at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS). Anthrax, a disease caused by a bacterium called Bacillus anthracis, contaminates surface soil and grasses, where it may be ingested or inhaled by livestock or grazing wildlife. This is especially common in the western Texas Hill Country, where each year the disease kills livestock and wildlife.

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Preserving An Industry For Future Generations

Preserving An Industry For Future Generations

Western Ag Reporter

When towheaded Augustus wobbled into the room the family’s eyes lit up and the conversation sashayed to joyous welcomes to which the toddler was very familiar.  It was evident that family and the lifestyle that ranching provides is what drives A & B Cattle.

Visiting in a recently remodeled office with three generations of the Sawyer family, Arlen emphasized the obligation purebred breeders have to the cattle and beef industry.

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A cattle buyer’s thoughts on cash and contract prices

A cattle buyer’s thoughts on cash and contract prices

Greg Bloom

Beef Magazine

For six years, I bought cattle for a small beef packer in Colorado. I bought two ways – on a weekly spot cash basis and on a set advance formula basis. Some call it grid pricing or captive supply or marketing agreements, but I just called it an agreed-upon formula that was negotiated quarterly and based on several factors. The formula I used to buy cattle was based on the market price for live cattle. It factored in the prices for the boxed beef cutout, plus had an overage for high quality cattle and a deduction for low quality cattle.

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The 2020 U.S. Beef Cattle Market and Current Economic Conditions

The 2020 U.S. Beef Cattle Market and Current Economic Conditions

Chris Prevatt

farms.com

The last several months have been exceptionally stressful for all participants in the U.S. cattle industry, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 (coronavirus) in China and its resulting spread throughout the world. The unknowns of this health crisis have resulted in extreme volatility in U.S. cattle markets. The entire U.S. cattle and beef supply chain has been impacted by COVID-19.

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5 adverse silage scenarios and how to deal with them

5 adverse silage scenarios and how to deal with them

Emma Ohirko

Progressive Forage

When weather and growing conditions are less than ideal, it can be hard to know what steps to take to make the most of a subpar forage crop. To address some of these concerns, Renato Schmidt presented a webinar titled “Making Silage Under Adverse Conditions” as part of this year’s Silage for Beef Cattle Conference jointly held by the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Lallemand Animal Nutrition and Iowa State University Extension.

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The fungal battlefield

The fungal battlefield

John Goeser and Damon Smith

Progressive Dairy

Feed hygiene research and impact is not a new area, with researchers such as the late Keith Bolsen, Rich Muck and Limin Kung among the leaders in the U.S., and European leaders such as Antonio Gallo in Italy having investigated, studied and taught many in this area.

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MSU beef specialist honored for Extension work

MSU beef specialist honored for Extension work

Reagan Colyer

Montana State Uniersity

A Montana State University Extension specialist has been recognized for her outstanding community engagement efforts and youth programming by the American Society of Animal Science. Megan Van Emon, MSU Extension beef cattle specialist, is based in Miles City. Van Emon serves the beef producers of the state by traveling to all 56 Montana counties.

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Farmers, ranchers in storm’s path prep to avoid ‘agricultural disaster’

Farmers, ranchers in storm’s path prep to avoid ‘agricultural disaster’

Rolly Hoyt

THV11

A wet spring and summer and now the looming threat from Hurricane Laura have farmers and ranchers across southwest Arkansas bracing for a difficult few days. “Right now we feel like, particularly in here in southwest Arkansas, we’re on a bullseye,” said Vic Ford, an associate vice president with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture from his home-office in Hope.

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K-State Beef Stocker Field Day scheduled

K-State Beef Stocker Field Day scheduled

Kansas State University

Making alternative ration ingredient changes work, beef cattle market outlook and nutrition, management, and economic aspects of limit feeding are among topics planned for the 2020 Kansas State University Beef Stocker Virtual Field Day on Thursday, Oct. 1. The conference will be hosted on the Zoom webinar platform.

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Buyers continue to reward sellers for decommoditizing the product.

Buyers continue to reward sellers for decommoditizing the product.

Nevil Speer

Beef Magazine

The feeder market has been on a solid run of late. CME’s Feeder Cattle Index is encroaching $145 per cwt—that’s up from around $115 in early April. And as noted in this column several weeks ago, the runup has occurred, “despite two black swan events, bigger supply and sharp [feedyard] losses.” And along the way, “…the feeder market has staged a solid recovery and is encroaching the top side of a well-established trading range.”

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