|
|
|
Preg-check and protect
Wouldn't it be nice to protect against scours when it's easier on you
and your cows? Scour Bos® 9 from Novartis Animal Health US, Inc.
lets you prevent scours at the same time you're running cows through the
chute for preg-check. With Scour Bos, you can begin protecting 1st calf
heifers 16 weeks prior to calving and revaccinate cows already on the
program 10 weeks prior to calving. Click on the Scour Bos logo to learn
more.
|
The cattle industry has always prided itself on its peripheral
position in past farm-bill debates. But this year, with a shrinking ag
budget and seemingly more divergent goals and demands than ever, the
industry must be engaged.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Last week, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns urged cattlemen in Nashville
to help make a voluntary National Animal Identification System (NAIS)
work. But despite USDA's rhetoric and all the organizational support for
voluntary national ID, the industry remains in denial about this
process.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Approval of the beef checkoff program is 70%, according to the
latest biannual survey of producer attitudes about the checkoff
commissioned by the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board. The
Dec.18, 2006-Jan. 11, 2007 survey of 1,225 beef and dairy producers was
conducted by Aspen Media & Market Research.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Your Professional Source For:
- Genetics-
o Angus, Red Angus, Limousin & LimFlex Bulls.
- Procurement-
o Program Specific Feeder Cattle. Call us to expand your marketing
opportunities.
- Verification-
o Five Star's QSA program can fast track your verification program for
Source, Age or Naturals.
Office: 970-612-1572
e-mail: info@5starcattle.com
|
Seventy people died in the United Kingdom (UK) from variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) last year. The latest UK Department of
Health figures were lower than the 86 fatalities of 2005. Apart from
2004, when only 67 deaths were documented, the 70 deaths of 2006 are the
lowest number of vCJD-related deaths since 1996, reports InTheNews.co.uk. More than 1,000
Britons are thought to have died from vCJD since government records
began in 1990.
-- Joe Roybal
|
|
Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Jeff Bingaman
(D-NM), and John Thune (R-SD) have asked USDA Secretary Mike Johanns to
withdraw USDA's proposed rule to allow for the importation of Canadian
cattle born after March 1, 1999 and beef from animals over 30 months.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
A Nebraska workshop on livestock risk protection insurance and
livestock gross margin insurance offers insight to producers on how to
offset the risks of changing input prices and sales prices. Workshop
participants will learn the differences between insurance, futures and
options, review policy provisions and underwriting rules; how to create
minimum price hedges for feeder cattle, fed cattle and hogs; and hedge
cattle feeding margins.
Click here for dates, times, locations and contact numbers.
|
|
Technically 2006 will go down as an expansion year with the total
cattle inventory growing by 0.3%. But even that modest expansion only
occurred as a result of the Jan. 1, 2006 number being revised downward.
The beef cow inventory actually was lower by 100,000 cows. Beef
replacement heifers were down by 0.5% and the 2006 calf crop was
actually smaller than 2005.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
The POWER of one BRAND can change your future in the beef
business.
Certified Angus Beef ®, the oldest, most successful branded
beef program in the industry returned more than $50 million in grid
premiums in 2003. The demand for CAB® brand products translates into
fed cattle premiums of $2-$5/cwt. Source-verified, high-percentage Angus
replacement females often top auctions by selling for $50-$100 per head
above cash market. Sale barn surveys conducted at nine auction markets
indicated premiums are paid, not for black-hided cattle, but for
high-percentage-Angus cattle.
One brand, one breed--the power of one can change your future in the
beef business.
www.angus.org
Certified Angus Beef® and CAB® are registered trademarks of
Certified Angus Beef, LLC
|
Beef dollar sales and pound sales were up 3% and 6%, respectively,
in 40 markets during the summer grilling program between June and
September 2006. Meanwhile, beef grilling cuts accounted for 67% of total
beef dollar sales during the 18-week campaign, according to FreshLook
Marketing.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Easy public access to facts, statistics and the personal experiences
that take place from pasture to plate is the aim of a new beef
checkoff-funded Web site -- www.BeefFromPastureToPlate.org. The Web site
covers the entire production chain and features producer profiles, a
live "Ask a Producer" page, a timeline of cattle in North America, fact
sheets, recipes, safety tips and beef trivia.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) introduced legislation to require FDA
and USDA to mandate labels for products from cloned animals or their
offspring. Mikulski said, "I'm strongly opposed to the FDA approving
meat and milk products from cloned animals for human consumption. If
cloned food is safe, let it onto the market, but give consumers the
information they need to avoid these products if they choose to. We need
to let Americans -- many of whom find this repugnant -- speak with their
dollars and choose the food that they feel confident is safe."
-- P. Scott Shearer, Washington, D.C.,
correspondent
|
|
Britain destroyed 159,000 turkeys this week following the discovery
of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian flu on a farm in eastern
England. Ireland, Russia, Macedonia, South Korea, South Africa, Japan
and Hong Kong banned British poultry imports, while the Netherlands and
Norway ordered restrictions on their commercial poultry in an effort to
stem potential spread of the infection, reports the International
Herald Tribune.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Gene Klaft, Los Alamos, CA, was named the Champion Cattlemen's
Auctioneer last week in Nashville, TN. Klaft competed against other top
auctioneers from across the country in the event hosted by the National
Cattlemen's Beef Association's Livestock Marketing Council (LMC).
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Members of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) last
week adopted a resolution urging Congress to end the ethanol tax credit
and the tariff on imported ethanol. The resolution reflects the growing
concern among the livestock and meat industries of the effects of
increased ethanol production on higher feed prices.
The resolution says NCBA "supports transition to a market-based approach
for the production and usage of ethanol produced from livestock feeds"
and "supports the sunsetting of the existing blender tax credit and the
ethanol import tariffs as scheduled and not allowing for renewal in
their current form." The ethanol blenders tax credit expires in 2010
and the import tariff expires in 2009.
-- P. Scott Shearer, Washington, D.C.,
correspondent
|
|
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) has launched a new
weekly television program for America's cattle farmers and ranchers on
RFD-TV. NCBA's "Cattlemen to Cattlemen" airs every Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.
EST, with rebroadcasts Wednesdays at 4:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and
Saturdays at 10 a.m.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
This week, the environmental activist group Greenpeace delivered 1
million signatures petitioning the European Commission to label all
milk, meat and egg products derived from animals fed genetically
modified crops, the International Herald Tribune reports.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Herefords - The Efficiency Experts
Adding Hereford genetics to your herd makes perfect business sense in a
cost-driven economy. Excellent conversion, hardiness, fertility,
longevity and even disposition can help reduce input costs. These
Hereford efficiencies are ideal for your herd, your business and your
plans for the future. Low-maintenance cattle, long-term profit. Now
that's power.
www.hereford.org
|
More than 20 ag groups called on Congress to approve disaster
assistance for U.S. producers as soon as practicable. In a letter to the
Senate and House leadership, the groups said, "We appreciate the
supplemental assistance offered to help some of the victims of the 2005
hurricane season. Unfortunately, this assistance wasn't available to all
farmers and ranchers who suffered devastating losses due to hurricanes,
and none of this assistance was available to producers in other areas of
the nation."
-- P. Scott Shearer, Washington, D.C.,
correspondent
|
|
In his appearance before the National Cattlemen's Beef Association
last week, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns said the administration wants to
lower the adjusted gross income (AGI) limit for commodity program
payments from the current $2 million to $200,000. It's among a number of
items, which also includes elimination of the three-entity rule, and
placing a cap of $360,000 on the amount of payments that can be received
by an individual farmer or farmer and his spouse. The new rules would
produce savings of $1.5 billion.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
President Bush submitted a $2.9-trillion, fiscal year 2008 budget
request with the goal of eliminating the deficit over five years.
Included is a request for $89 billion for USDA. Highlights include:
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed a case of BSE in a
mature bull from Alberta. A CFIA release says the animal's carcass is
under CFIA control, and no part of it entered the human food or animal
feed systems.
Meatingplace.com reported today that preliminary
information suggests the animal was born in 2000, well after imposition
of Canada's ruminant-to-ruminant feed law in 1997.
An epidemiological investigation is underway on the animal's early
feeding and to identify its herdmates at the time.
Under Canada's enhanced feed ban, effective July 12, 2007, BSE should be
eliminated from the national cattle herd within about 10 years. CFIA
expects detection of a limited number of cases to continue as the level
of BSE continues to decline. Learn more at: www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/disemala/bseesb/situatione.shtml.
-- Joe Roybal
|
|
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has eliminated all
bluetongue-related import restrictions on U.S. cattle entering Canada.
It also reduced testing requirements for anaplasmosis, and removed
import bans on U.S. sheep, goats and other small ruminants.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Up to 3,000 cattle and pigs have contracted foot-and-mouth disease
in nine provinces across Vietnam. According to ThanhNienNews.com,
1,060 buffaloes and cows, 191 goats and 1,721 pigs have been discovered
thus far. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat
says provinces have been instructed to isolate diseased livestock, and
instructed on sterilization procedures and vaccination of healthy
animals. Inspections have also been tightened to prevent transportation
of infected animals to other areas.
Meanwhile, Japan confirmed its 32nd case of BSE this week, this time in
an August 2001-born cow from a farm on the northern island of Hokkaido.
-- Joe Roybal
|
|
In a recent study of cattle herds in southern Oklahoma, nearly 17%
of the ranches had at least one BVD persistently infected (PI) calf in
the 2006 calf crop; some had as many as 10 or 12.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Your Traceability Solution Starts Here
For over nine years, AgInfoLink has provided traceability solutions to
the industry's most innovative producers and organizations.
From data collection to secure data sharing and reporting to
Verification Services,
AgInfoLink's wide range of products allows us to design a solution to
meet your needs.
Take advantage of today's opportunities for Age and Source
Verification!
Pick up the phone and call AgInfoLink today to find out what we can do
for you!
Phone: 800.287-8787
Email: info@aginfolink.com
Web: www.aginfolink.com
|
U.S. beef producers and processors continue to improve the
tenderness of beef, according to results from the 2005 National Beef
Tenderness Survey (NBTS).
In fact, the checkoff-funded survey indicates tenderness, as measured by
Warner-Bratzler Shear Force (WBSF), has increased 18% since the last
survey in 1999. At that time, tenderness had increased 20% since the
initial survey in 1990.
In the 2005 NBTS executive summary, researchers say, "The latest
increase could be due to increased aging times, longer and slower chill
rates, processors paying more attention to tenderness parameters, and
participation in more programs focused on beef tenderness."
Though tenderness has increased across all cuts, at retail, bottom round
steaks continue to be the toughest.
"Although the beef industry has made significant advancements through
the beef checkoff program with regard to enhancing beef tenderness and
consistency, it's critical that the industry remains committed to
improving beef tenderness, especially in the chuck and round cuts of the
carcass," says J.O. "Bo" Reagan, National Cattlemen's Beef Association
vice president of research and knowledge management.
-- Wes Ishmael
|
|
Retail beef is getting leaner. More importantly, however, retail
beef is leaner than reported in government nutrition databases. Now, the
beef industry has the science it needs to do something about it.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
Participating in a value-added verification program is extra work,
extra record keeping and extra management, but it also results in extra
dollars in your pocket, says a survey of 100 sale barn operators across
the country.
Click here to read more of this story.
|
|
The 94th annual Kansas State University (KSU) Cattlemen´s Day
is March 2 at Weber Hall in Manhattan. Presented will be the latest beef
cattle research, as well as three symposia, a market outlook and trade
show. The symposia topics are "Ethanol byproduct utilization," "Beef
reproduction" and "Adding value to calves."
The program is followed by the 30th annual Special "K" Bull and Heifer
Sale. Offered are 80 bulls, 10 heifers, two embryo flushes, 50 cows and
semen packages. Visit www.asi.ksu.edu/bullsale for a listing.
Registration ($15/person by Feb. 20 or $25 on-site) covers handouts and
morning refreshments, with a lunch provided by U.S. Premium Beef and
commercial exhibitors. For more info, visit www.asi.ksu.edu/cattlemensday or call Lois
Schreiner at 785-532-1267.
-- Joe Roybal
|
|
| Thank You To Our Cow Calf Weekly
Sponsors! |
|
|
|
| Click on sponsors logo for more
information. |
|
|
