BEEF Daily October 29, 2009

Today, my dad and I are headed up the road to Artesian, S.D. to help our neighbors wean their calves for today's sale in town. I think it's a great resource to team up with neighbors, whether it be borrowing equipment or sharing labor forces. Anyway, it has started raining again, and I think I'm going to be wishing I was back inside blogging instead of working cattle in the mud and rain; however, this blogging/cattle ranching business is truly a balancing act, and I feel very fortunate to be able to do both. Before I head out to the ranch, I thought I would share a conversation I recently had with South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension Service Veterinarian, Russ Daly. Daly, DVM, met with me last week to discuss this ongoing battle between the animal rights activists and farm and ranch organizations. The SDSU Extension Service is currently working on developing an outlet to share unbiased information about agriculture with consumers, and although they are still in the planning stages, Dr. Daly had plenty of thoughts on this particular subject. Read on to learn what he has to say about the animal care debate.

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Ohio voters will decide next week whether to create a board overseeing livestock care in a move that could give farmers in rural America a blueprint for battling animal rights groups intent on outlawing cramped cages for chickens and hogs, writes John Seewer for the Associated Press.
Agriculture industry leaders pushed the issue onto the state ballot, hoping to thwart an attempt by animal rights activists who were threatening to force farmers to change how they house livestock.

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Data suggest that dormant winter native range is deficient in protein for spring-calving cows. Previous data at many Land Grant Universities and the University of Nebraska suggest that protein supplementation of spring- calving beef cows grazing dormant Sandhills range during late gestation does not improve cow reproductive performance (2006 Nebraska Beef Report, pp. 7-9), namely pregnancy rate, despite the fact that nutrient requirements are greater than nutrient content of the grazed forage. In a more recent study (2009 Nebraska Beef Report, pp. 5), spring-calving cows (3 to 5 years of age) were either supplemented a pound of a 28% crude protein cube daily or not supplemented protein while grazing dormant native range and their performance was evaluated.

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A variety of clinical neurological syndromes exists in stocker and feeder cattle. Causes may be infectious, nutritional/metabolic, or toxins. A less common syndrome is referred to as "nervous" coccidiosis, named so because of the observation that many of the calves that experience this neurological syndrome concurrently exhibit clinical enteric coccidiosis.(1) This entity was first reported in 1921.(2) Nervous coccidiosis can occur at any time of the year but appears most often in the fall and early winter, coinciding with the time of the year when many calves move to feedlots. This syndrome reportedly can occur in up to 30% of the calves affected with enteric coccidiosis. As many as 10,000 cattle die annually in the U.S. from this problem.

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Meet BEEF Daily Editor Amanda Nolz. With her boots planted firmly on the ground as both a cattle producer and an agriculture writer and speaker, this young cattle industry professional presents her unique perspective on pertinent industry issues and trends each Monday to Thursday morning.

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