Creep Feeding - Does it Cost? Does it Pay?
from Ropin' The Web
With a drier than normal fall and winter, it is taking longer for pastures to green up and have sufficient growth to support grazing this spring. To compound this problem, many pastures were overgrazed last fall and will not produce as much forage compared to a year with normal weather conditions. This summer's weather is predicted to be hot and dry, and that is also not very encouraging for good grass growth.
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Keeping Your Cool When the Pressure is On
from Cow-Calf Weekly
In some ways, agriculture can be brutal – BSE and the global economic picture really aren’t under our control. Nor are the weather, the markets in general, or even whether a top-end heifer has a calf with a leg back. We’re at the mercy of all these developments and we must simply react.
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Branding: How Remarkable Customer Service Can Turn Trust into Devotion
from www.customerthink.com
The branding of cattle began in this country because cattle shared open grazing range throughout the West. Barbed wire fence would later alter the practice. When it came time to drive cows to market, the hot tattoo was a convenient way to identify a particular cow.
The golden arches today help us identify a particular fast-food restaurant; an apple with one bite removed identifies a particular computer company. Brands are powerful tools for customer trust. They spell "consistency" and "reliability."
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Maximizing Value from Backgrounded Calves
from Agri-News
“With last fall’s calf prices being unacceptable, many cow calf producers had chosen to keep their calves over the winter on a backgrounding ration to try to market the calves into a stronger market,” says Ken Ziegler, beef specialist, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, Rocky Mountain House.
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Planning next year's grazing today
from Beef Cattle Production
Extra grass is not normal. If you are lucky enough to have more grass than needed this year, don’t forget that next year could be hotter and drier than this year – producing less grass.
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Label lies?
fromMeatandPoultry.com by Steve Bjerklie
A new report states that 'humane,' 'free range' and even 'organic' on meat and poultry labels mean little. A new report published by Farm Sanctuary, an animal-protection organization, states that the labels the meat and poultry industry uses to identify humane-handling practices are largely meaningless in terms of animal welfare and comprise little more than marketing ploys to pacify a gullible public. The report, titled "The Truth Behind the Labels: Farm Animal Welfare Standards and Labeling Practices," charges that while some labels may be well-intended, key words such as "access" are not clearly defined and that auditing isn't yet effective enough to give the labels credibility.
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Management Practices to Improve Marbling and Beef Quality
from Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
In Canada meat quality is measured by the amount of intramuscular fat in meat, which is referred to as marbling. The meat quality grades in Canada are A, AA, AAA, with single A grade beef having the least amount of marbling and triple AAA grade beef having the most, with the exception of Canadian Prime which has a slightly abundance amount of marbling.
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Don’t Let Your Refrigerator Be A Vaccine Spoiler
from beefmagazine.com
Those cattle pharmaceuticals you stick in the ice box, just like the label says, may still be compromised or rendered useless if you're not monitoring the temperature.
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Some Tips on "Story Marketing"
from beefmagazine.com
Over the past several years, Dan Frobose, Ohio State University Extension marketing educator, has worked with livestock producers in developing a "Story Market" (branding) program to add value to their farm businesses.
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Watch Cattle Nutritional Requirements in Cold Weather
from USAgNet
Very cold temperatures and bitter wind chills make managing cattle nutrition critical for ranchers.
Low temperatures and wind can increase cattle nutrient requirements by 20 to 30 percent, South Dakota State University Extension Beef Specialist Cody Wright said.
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Election Of Obama May Not Be Most Pertinent Result
by Troy Marshall for BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly
While it’s human nature to focus on returns of the presidential and congressional elections, the factor that might be the most concerning following the Nov. 4 balloting was California ballot initiative Proposition 2. The proposition, which won’t become law until 2015, requires that all farm animals, "for all or the majority of any day,"not be confined or tethered in a manner that prevents an animal from lying down, standing up, turning around or extending its limbs without touching another animal or an enclosure such as a cage or stall.
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Food marketers must prepare for 'YouTube' Generation
by Bryan Salvage , for MEATPOULTRY.com
International food industry executives attending the Healthy Foods Summit in London were urged by Lori Colman, chief executive officer of Chicago marketing firm Colman Brohan Davis, when looking toward the year 2020 to step up their efforts around accountability, sustainability and transparency. "Kids who are ages eight to 18 today the adults of 2020 will expect information instantaneously from shared digital networks, word-of-mouth and viral sources, social sites, smart phones or other devices," Ms. Colman said. "They've grown up green and already express a point of view about healthy eating and sustainability. They and their networks not companies will control messaging about a brand."
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Loopholing through COOL
by Steve Bjerklie , for MEATPOULTRY.com
After unprecedented cooperation last month by mainstream and advocate livestock and farming organization in meetings to develop procedures and language to effectively implement the U.S. Department of Agricultures country-of-origin labeling regulation, which takes effect Sept. 30, the old division separating meat packer groups and some livestock and farm organizations has opened again..
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Research reveals some cases of B.S.E. are genetic
by Keith Nunes, for MEATPOULTRY.com
New findings about the causes of bovine spongiform encephalopathy show that in some cases it may be genetic. The research showed, for the first time, that a 10-year-old cow from Alabama with an atypical form of B.S.E. had the same type of prion protein gene mutation as found in human patients with the genetic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (C.J.D.), also called genetic C.J.D.
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Creating Cellulosic Ethanol: Spinning Straw into Fuel
by Diane Greer, for BioCycle
Thanks to advances in biotechnology, researchers can now transform straw, and other plant wastes, into "green" gold - cellulosic ethanol. While chemically identical to ethanol produced from corn or soybeans, cellulose ethanol exhibits a net energy content three times higher than corn ethanol and emits a low net level of greenhouse gases. Conventional ethanol and cellulosic ethanol are the same product, but are produced utilizing different feedstocks and processes. Conventional ethanol is derived from grains such as corn and wheat or soybeans. Cellulosic ethanol can be produced from a wide variety of cellulosic biomass feedstocks including agricultural plant wastes (corn stover, cereal straws, sugarcane bagasse), plant wastes from industrial processes (sawdust, paper pulp) and energy crops grown specifically for fuel production, such as switchgrass.
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Forget oil, the new global crisis is food
By Alia McMullen, for Financial Post
A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club's 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday. "The greatest challenge to the world is not US$100 oil; it's getting enough food so that the new middle class can eat the way our middle class does, and that means we've got to expand food output dramatically. You're going to have real problems in countries that are food short, because we're already getting embargoes on food exports from countries, who were trying desperately to sell their stuff before, but now they're embargoing exports," he said, citing Russia and India as examples.Those who have food are going to have a big edge." With 54% of the world's corn supply grown in America's mid-west, the U.S. is one of those countries with an edge. But Mr. Coxe warned U.S. corn exports were in danger of seizing up in about three years if the country continues to subsidize ethanol production. Biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America's grain harvest in 2007.
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Why Ethanol Production Will Drive World Food Prices Even Higher in 2008
By Lester R. Brown, for Environment News Service
WASHINGTON, DC, January 25, 2008 (ENS) - We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before.
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Bridging the Technology and Agriculture Gap
By Nikki Wiese, for The University of Alberta, Technology Training Centre
A colleague of mine who recently visited vineyards in France was amazed to see the centuries-old agricultural traditions combined with the best of new e-business technologies; these farmers enjoy the best of both worlds.
The minimum benefit that internet technologies can provide to farmers would be an increased convenience. However, the economic muscle of the internet can do far more for your business.
The Technology Training Centre provides a wide range of course based and one-on-one training on basic computers, Internet, creating documents, e-business, and Ranch or Farm software. We will come out to your farm or ranch to provide training for you or your club/group.
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A Chat With Randy Blach On The Beef Economy
By Wes Ishmael, for Beef Cow-Calf Weekly (BEEF Magazine)
Summing up the state of the cattle business has never been easier: input costs are historically high and likely to climb higher, in a volatile manner that often defies logic.
Figuring a way to the other side has never been tougher: cow numbers are declining, the traditional cattle cycle is in hibernation, and dog-eared rules of thumb no longer apply.
“Though costs are at extreme levels, that doesn’t mean they’re as high as they’re going to get,” says Randy Blach, Cattle-Fax CEO. “None of us thought we’d see Minneapolis wheat selling on top of $20, but we have. None of us ever thought our economy could support oil prices at $120/barrel, but the market has marched right through it.”
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Producers Make Pots & Profit From Cattle Manure
A pair of enterprising producers utilizing a methane digester on their East Canaan, CT dairy have found a way to add a new profit wrinkle into their manure management – CowPots™. [read more...]
Five Minutes With Ted Haney, Canada Beef Export Federation
The Canadian beef industry has been hit with a one-two punch lately; the loonie-greenback parity and a stout legal battle mounted by R-CALF to keep Canadian cattle out of the U.S. The first has radically altered the financial underpinnings of the business. The second might force Canadian hands to seek off-shore markets with a greater sense of urgency. It’s kept Haney hustling. [read more...]
Five Minutes with Jim Clark, Canadian Food Marketing Evangelist
One change agent who has created quite a stir, at least in his native province of Ontario, Canada, is Jim Clark, Executive Director of the Ontario Cattle Feeders Association. In the space of only a few months, he’s managed to help jump-start a remarkable new branded beef program, with consumer-labeled “Ontario Corn-Fed Beef” products delivering eye-opening sales numbers in more than 120 Loblaw’s supermarkets and 50-plus independent retail outlets across Canada’s most populous province. [read more...]
Pain Control In Food Animals Is A Growing Issue
I can guarantee you that many in the 98% of society with no direct ties to agriculture see prevention or treatment of pain in farm animals as a moral issue. In fact, it's possible that within the next 5-10 years, some type of analgesia will be required for castration of bull calves more than 60 days of age, and for dehorning. [read more...]
Re-evaluate Traditional Postweaning Heifer Development
Traditional approaches to postweaning development of replacement heifers during the last several decades have primarily focused on feeding heifers to achieve or exceed a target weight to maximize pregnancy rates. But changes in cattle genetics, economics and research may suggest it’s time to re-evaluate those traditional approaches. [read more...]
Alberta Trade in Beef and Live Cattle - A Five-Year Perspective, 2002-2006
The report "Alberta Trade in Beef and Live Cattle, A Five-Year Perspective " presents Alberta international trade in beef and live cattle from 2002 to 2006. The purpose of this report is to provide a five-year trend analysis of Alberta's exports and imports of beef and live cattle. Selected comparative data for Canada and the provinces are also provided. [read more...]
Aussie Scientists Find Muscling Gene
North American Limousin Foundation
Researchers at Adelaide University in Australia have identified a gene that explains a large increase in retail beef yield. While the gene, called myostatin F94L, isn't the only gene that influences retail beef yield, it has a large effect. Homozygous animals have 13% larger ribeye areas and 4% more total retail yield, according to the research.
The gene is most commonly found in Limousin cattle, researchers say. According to the North American Limousin Foundation (NALF), the gene's high-yielding form occurs in 83% of the Limousin breed, meaning 68% of Limousin animals are homozygous for the trait and 28% are heterozygous.
"This gene appears to explain a much larger proportion of the genetic variation of the (retail yield) trait than any of the currently available gene markers for marbling, tenderness or feed efficiency," says Alex McDonald, general manager of the Limousin Society in Australia. "The discovery of what appears to be a major gene, which can be used to increase retail beef yield in all breeds of cattle throughout the world, is an exciting breakthrough."
Negotiations are underway with an Australian laboratory to provide a commercial gene test for the F94L modification.
What is good carcass data, and what is it worth?
Troy Smith, Beef Quality Connection
For some calf-sellers, ignorance is bliss. What happens to their calf crops after the critters are sold is of no concern. Some other cow-calf producers never forget that someone is going to feed their calves. Those producers know performance in the feedlot matters. So does the value of the finished product. Animal performance and carcass merit will determine whether that “someone” wants to feed more calves from certain sources. [read more...]
Producers Say Ultrasounding Commercial Heifers Pays
Burt Rutherford, BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly
Remember those old World War II movies? The ones where the Navy ships are trolling for enemy submarines and the only sound that cuts the tension-thick air is the "ping" of the sonar? [read more...]
Follow the Facts, Advise Oklahoma Stockers
BEEF Stocker Trends
"I never felt so sick in my entire life because I realized how far behind we were," says Tom Gallery of the Gallery Ranch at Dewey, OK. He's remembering the winter of 2002 and a demonstration of management software that opened his eyes to what was possible when you collected and analyzed cattle data in a systematic way. [read more...]
Studies Support E. Coli Vaccine
Drovers Alert
University of Nebraska researchers have published results of two studies indicating that a vaccine can effectively reduce E. coli O157:H7 colonization of the gut in feedlot cattle and reduce probability of cattle shedding the pathogen. One of the trials, using 608 cattle, compared the efficacy of one, two or three doses of the vaccine with control cattle that received no vaccine. Each of the vaccination treatments reduced pathogen shedding compared with controls. The researchers also noted that vaccinating a majority of cattle within a pen helped protect unvaccinated cattle within the same pen. In a second trial, the researchers collected cell samples from 288 cattle and found that vaccinated cattle were 98.3 percent less likely to be colonized by E. coli O157. Both studies are published in the Journal of Food Protection. The company that owns commercial rights to the vaccine, Bioniche Life Sciences, currently is working to gain USDA approval for its use in the United States. For more information, follow this link.