News Update
March 20, 2014
Rangeland Management is
Key to Surviving Drought
Improved management adapted to changing rangeland conditions will be a key to surviving three back-to-back years of drought, according to Tim Steffens, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service rangeland management specialist in Canyon, Texas.
“We have just had three of the driest growing seasons in recorded history in a row,” said Steffens, who is also a West Texas A&M University assistant professor, spoke at the recent Panhandle Ranch Management event. “We’ve had one of the driest falls. We’ve had one of the driest winters.
“So this coming year, don’t be in any hurry to increase numbers until we find out for sure how much rain we’ve got, and how much grass we’re going to have that can respond to further rain showers later in the year.”
Steffens warned that if grass starts in bad shape from last year, it probably will remain in trouble this year, even if it rains normally.
“If we don’t get rain in the spring to get things started and have some grass growing by mid-June, it’s probably not going to be a good year. So by early July, you need to assess the conditions and make decisions then. Then look again in the fall and determine if you have enough grass and if you have had enough rain to take care of the grass.”
Steffens said keys to management include providing adequate recovery for grass before grazing, which means letting the plants get a full complement of leaves before cattle regraze a plant.
For more information, please view the article in the Angus Beef Bulletin here.
Steps to Improve Cow Herd Efficiency
Business owners are often challenged to find time to sit down, analyze data, and strategize to make their business more profitable and successful. A beef cow-calf operation is one such business, and improving feed efficiency is a main profit-driver.
Bob Weaber, beef breeding, genetics and cow-calf specialist for K-State Research and Extension, said feed efficiency is converting pounds of feed resources, whether that is a concentrated diet in a feedlot or a diet of range and pasture forage, into pounds of calf gain.
“Feed costs are associated with about 60% to 70% of total beef production costs,” Weaber said. “A large chunk of those are realized in a feedlot, but it’s also important to think about feed efficiency on the cow side.”
Fed cattle only account for 30% of the total calories consumed in the entire beef sector, he said. Ignoring the cow-calf side of the beef production system, which consumes the remaining 70% of the total calories, means producers are missing a great opportunity to not only change feed costs, but also improve efficiency, sustainability and the impact of the beef production system on the environment.
Cattle in the commercial feedlot are easy to evaluate for feed efficiency, Weaber said. On a pen-wide basis, feedlot managers know how much feed the cattle consume, as every feed truck is weighed, and cattle owners are billed accordingly.
“We know how much the cattle cost going into the feedlot and how much they weighed,” he said. “We know what the value is when they leave the feedlot in terms of grid value, carcass merit, live weight or other output measurement. That’s easy to capture.”
Understanding efficiency at the cow-calf level is a much more complicated issue, Weaber said.
For more information, please view the full release here.
AFB Foundation for Agriculture Donations Reach $1.8 Million
Donations to the American Farm Bureau (AFB) Foundation for Agriculture totaled $1.8 million for 2013, the highest-ever in a calendar year.
“We rely on our donors to fund our initiatives so we can have an agriculturally literate society,” said Foundation Chairman Bob Stallman. “Thanks in large part to generous donor contributions, 2013 was a remarkable year for the Foundation, in terms of building awareness, understanding and a positive perception of agriculture through education.”
Volunteer engagement in local communities to foster a deeper understanding of food, fiber and energy is a continuing focus of the Foundation. Urban outreach events, building partnerships in the STEM (science, technology, engineering & math) area, Spanish translations of materials and creation of additional assessment guides for educational resources are planned for 2014.
The Foundation continually updates its tool chest of ready-to-use resources for educators covering a variety of agricultural themes. Learn more at www.agfoundation.org.
Building awareness through a vibrant social media presence is another initiative of the Foundation. Find the Foundation on Facebook (Foundation4Ag), Twitter (@AgFoundation) and Pinterest (AgFoundation).
Discussion of the 2014 Farm Bill Will Take Center Stage
at the Texas Ag Forum Scheduled April 10
The event will bring together producers, commodity and farm organization leaders from across the state, said Joe Outlaw, co-director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University and a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist.
“The 2014 Farm Bill significantly changed the farm program safety net,” he said. “The new law provides producers with a number of choices for both commodity programs and crop insurance. We will take the opportunity to discuss these changes and provide insight on how the new farm programs will work for Texas producers. In short, the conference will focus on what the impacts will be.”
The forum will feature presentations from policy makers, university experts and farm-group representatives.
“Anyone who is interested in production agriculture or the food and fiber system will find this meeting valuable,” Outlaw said. “We are asking some very knowledgeable people for their perspectives. We expect Chairman Frank Lucas of the House Committee on Agriculture to participate via telephone.”
Advanced registration is $125 through the Texas Agricultural Cooperative Council, 1210 San Antonio St., Suite 101, Austin, Texas 78701. To register, call 512-450-0555 and ask for Gloria Johnson. Same-day registration is $150.
The Texas Ag Forum is as an association of agricultural leaders and representatives from across the Texas food and fiber system. It was founded more than 20 years ago to provide a forum for open and public discussion of the problems and emerging issues in agriculture. It is a stakeholder-driven program in partnership with AgriLife Extension.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal’s Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
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