For many down on the farm, the wolf is at the door

For many down on the farm, the wolf is at the door

Harwood D. Schaffer and Daryll E. Ray

AgriNews

We hate to sound like the little boy who cried wolf, but for U.S. farmers there really is a wolf out there and that wolf is called low prices. While the pain is not evenly spread across the nation and across farm types, for those involved it is serious.

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Parts of Michigan Designated “Potential High-Risk Area” for Bovine TB

Parts of Michigan Designated “Potential High-Risk Area” for Bovine TB

AgWeb

Officials in Michigan have designated parts of the northern region of the state as a “Potential High-Risk Area” for bovine tuberculosis. On April 12, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development the designation was made for parts of Iosco and Ogemaw counties.

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Sending flood relief in time of crisis

Sending flood relief in time of crisis

Mickayla Overholt

Farm and Dairy

In mid-March, Dustin Sheldon, who farms near Sydney, Iowa, watched as 2,200 of his 2,500 acres of crop ground went under water. Now, nearly a month later, “it’s receding, but we still have a good portion of land under water,” he said.  “It’s hard to believe unless you can see it with your eyes,” said Sheldon, who grows corn and soybeans with his family and runs cattle on pasture.

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Mark Parker: The Top 10 photos farmers post on social media

Mark Parker:  The Top 10 photos farmers post on social media

FarmTalk

10. The classic “bull stuck in a hay ring.”
11. Mired-in-mud tractor hooked to bigger tractor (now stuck), hooked to even bigger tractor (now stuck).

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Summer Stocker Outlook for 2019

Summer Stocker Outlook for 2019

Greg Halich and Kenny Burdine

Cow Country News

As we progress through the end of winter and pastures start to grow, stocker operators are looking to place calves into summer grazing programs. Calf prices typically rise in the spring and our calf market has risen by roughly $8 per cwt from fall 2018. At the time of this writing (March 11, 2019), fall 2019 CME© feeder cattle futures were trading around $153 per cwt, which was roughly a $10 premium over the March contract. This expected increase in feeder cattle prices between now and fall suggests there is a lot more upside price potential for calves as we move closer to grass growth.

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Modeling efficiency and robustness in ruminants: the nutritional point of view

Modeling efficiency and robustness in ruminants: the nutritional point of view

Daniel Sauvant

Animal Frontiers

Over the past decades, livestock production and breeding have been mainly focused on improving performance because more productive animals have a better feed efficiency and present a higher margin over feed cost. Efficiency is also gaining renewed interest following Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) analysis, which shows that one of the major approaches for ensuring global food security is to increase the efficiency of processing food resources in animal products (Makkar and Beever, 2013).

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Cattlemen’s Beef Board names Hanes as new CEO

Cattlemen’s Beef Board names Hanes as new CEO

Feedstuffs

The Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion & Research Board (CBB) has named Gregory Hanes of Colorado as its new chief executive officer, effective June 17, 2019. “Knowledge of beef producers and the overall beef industry is a must in this role,” noted Chuck Coffey, CBB chairman from Davis, Okla. “Greg is well regarded – both here in the U.S. and abroad – for his background and understanding of promoting beef and building industry relationships.”

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