Exports Key to Beef Demand
Feeders focus on the high-quality beef that leads to brighter future
Opportunities hide within every challenge, but beef producers can find them through analysis and planning. That was part of the take-home message at the Feeding Quality Forums Nov. 10 in South Sioux City, Neb., and Nov. 12 in Garden City, Kan.
"While domestic demand struggles, tremendous economic growth in Asia points to market potential for high-quality U.S. beef," said Dan Basse, president of the Chicago-based AgResource Co., who reprised his 2007 role as lead speaker.
The fourth annual sessions were sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health, Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), Feedlot magazine and Land O' Lakes Purina Feed LLC. More than 150 cattle feeders and allied professionals attended. Read more.
Rod Wesselman
Association Perspective
Utilize the registration paper when buying seedstock.
This issue of the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA brings with it fall weather, with the first of many hard frosts on the ground. Spring calves are being weaned and data collected here in the Northwest. The Angus business here is holding its own, with bull sales being strong and female sales being variable.
One of the strong points for buying cattle at these sales of registered bulls and females is the registration paper that comes along with the animal. Within that registration paper you will find large amounts of information. I am referring to a pedigree of known bloodlines and genetics, as well as expected progeny differences (EPDs) and other performance information. The registration paper will also inform you of the individual's known status, and the status of relatives in its pedigree, with regard to genetic defects. These are valuable tools for both the buyer and the seller. Read more.
AGI Accepting Samples for Genomic-Enhanced
EPDs
Angus breeders can now gain inside information from the first breed-specific DNA profile.
Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI) is now accepting DNA samples for analysis with the industry's first breed-specific DNA profile from Igenity®. Angus breeders are one step closer to putting the power of DNA to work in combination with expected progeny differences (EPDs) by using the first genomic-enhanced EPDs available for multiple traits. Read more.
Hall of Famers Inducted
Meat Industry Hall of Fame inducts its first group of charter members.
It's official: The 21 industry legends elected in June as the Class of 2009 are now charter members of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame.
In a formal setting at Chicago's Union League Club, members and guests were treated to a moving journey through meat industry history delivered by renowned broadcaster, author and keynote speaker Bill Kurtis, followed by introductions from presenters and acceptance remarks from members. Read more.
What’s Inside …
The November Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA features several valuable articles, including specific sections devoted to management, marketing, and health and nutrition information. Select from the tabs at the top of the page to access this month’s entire information-packed edition, a portion of which includes the following:
• Cattle Producers Predicted to See Profitable 2010
• Super-sized Cows Require Appropriate Management
• Grasshoppers Can Transmit Virus to Cattle
• How Traits Correlate to Grid Premiums
• All-weather Feed Structures Ease Winter Chores
• Fever Tick is More Than a Texas Problem
• Manual Offers Guide for Managing Stockers for High-quality End Point
• AngusSource®/Gateway Offer New Tag Option
• Climate Can Help Predict Spread of Disease
• Companies Premiere New Products for Cattlemen
Human Resource Management Tips for Ranches
"Can you think of a business or sports team that is succeeding while its people are failing?" That was the question Bob Milligan, an emeritus professor from Cornell University, posed to attendees during the keynote address kicking off the 6th Annual HOLT CAT Symposium on Excellence in Ranch Management Oct. 29-30 on the Texas A&M University-Kingsville campus.
With the focus of this year's conference on human resource management on ranches, Milligan went on to say, "The over-arching goal of any business should be to make people a management strength." This goal applies whether you are a family business or a ranch or feedlot with several employees.
Milligan, who today works as a human resources consultant in the livestock industry, emphasized that the good news is that anyone can become a good human resource manager.
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"It's about the choices you make," he said. Read more.
This is Your Brain on Fatty Acids
Scientists discover lipid may be vital to learning.
Saturated fats have a deservedly bad reputation, but Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a sticky lipid occurring naturally at high levels in the brain may help us memorize grandma's recipe for cinnamon buns, as well as recall how, decades ago, she served them up steaming from the oven.
The Hopkins team, reporting Oct. 29 in Neuron, reveals how palmitate, a fatty acid, marks certain brain proteins — NMDA receptors — that need to be activated for long-term memory and learning to take place. The fatty substance directs the receptors to specific locations in the outer membrane of brain cells, which continually strengthen and weaken their connections with each other, sculpting and resculpting new memory circuits. Read more.
Technology: The 70% Solution to Feeding the World
Elanco President Jeff Simmons was featured speaker at World Food Prize Symposium.
As the world grapples with the challenge of producing enough food, Elanco President Jeff Simmons says that we cannot lose sight of the solution — technology. Simmons, a featured speaker at the 2009 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, addressed the role that technology can play in making food safe, affordable, abundant and sustainable. His remarks echo the United Nations' (U.N.) 2008 call to double world food production, and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's assertion that 70% of the increase must come from efficiency-improving technologies. Read more.
Predicting Impacts From Climate Variations
The ARS is trying to make NOAA climate forecasts more useful to farmers.
"Weather" is the temperature, wind, rain, humidity, sunshine and cloudiness that we see on a daily basis. But "climate" is the average of day-to-day weather, over months, years, or centuries.
Climate varies over time, and forecasts of next season's through next year's climate are being issued monthly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are working to translate these climate forecasts into useful information for farming and water management in the coming year.
"It's the short-term variations or departures from the long-term averages — like droughts and floods during the crop-growing season — that farmers are concerned about. Those are the climate and weather issues we focus on," says Jeanne Schneider, a meteorologist at the ARS Great Plains Agroclimate and Natural Resources Research Unit in El Reno, Okla. Read more.
New Executive Director Takes Reins of BIF
Joe Cassady will assist Beef Improvement
Federation Board in efforts to improve the efficiency
of beef production.
Joe Cassady
Joe Cassady of Raleigh, N.C., took the reins as executive director of the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) during the organization's mid-year board meeting in Saint Joseph, Mo., Nov. 9.
An associate professor in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Cassady has research interests in quantitative and molecular genetic applications to improve food animal production, including feed efficiency in beef cattle. Part of his research is supported by the American Angus Association. Read more.
News Briefs …
• New Feature for the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA
• Saddle & Sirloin Club Honors Mick Colvin
• Six Inducted Into Angus Heritage Foundation
• Superior Livestock Under New Ownership
• Producer Input Sought for International Livestock Congress
• Students Encouraged to Apply for Beef Industry Scholarships
• Reproductive Strategies Workshop Slated for Jan. 28-29
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