News Update
August 8, 2014
Plan for Angus Shows
at the 2014 NAILE
In a few short months, Angus cattle enthusiasts will travel to Louisville, Ky., for showring competition during the 2014 North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE). Both the Angus Junior Heifer Show and the Super-Point Roll of Victory (ROV) Shows take place Nov. 16-18.
All shows will begin at 8 a.m. in the Kentucky Exposition Center (KEC) Freedom Hall. The junior heifer show takes place Sunday, Nov. 16; the ROV bulls, cow-calf pairs and females (in that order) will show Tuesday, Nov. 18. Chan Phillips and Keith Phillips, both of Maysville, Ky., will judge the Super-Point ROV Show. The junior heifer show judge is to be announced.
Ownership deadline for the junior show is Sept. 15, and all cattle must be entered to show with the NAILE by Oct. 1. Entries can be submitted on the website at www.livestockexpo.org. Visa® and MasterCard® are accepted. For more information, call 502-595-3166.
Exhibitors and other show attendees are encouraged to plan now and secure a hotel room for the events. The Crowne Plaza will serve as the Angus headquarters hotel, and rooms are available for $133 per night. Give them a call at 502-367-2251 or go online for more information. The room-block ends on Oct. 15.
The American Angus Association will host a reception for attendees at 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 17, at the Crowne Plaza. Please attend take this opportunity to socialize with breeders from throughout the country.
To learn more about upcoming Angus cattle shows, visit www.angus.org.
Relief From Heat Stress May Help Quality Grades
July and August are considered “the dog days of summer,” and for most cattle folks, a very busy time of the year.
It’s a time when heat and humidity most affect those in the cattle feeding industry, especially in the Midwest and Central regions of the Great Plains. Still, the magnitude of problems varies from year to year, often isolated to specific pockets of the feeding belt.
Presenting at the recent American Society of Animal Science’s (ASAS’s) annual meeting, University of Missouri (MU) scientists estimated heat stress costs the beef industry $369 million annually, while the dairy industry numbers are approaching a billion dollars.
Here are some things you likely did not know about heat stress, and we'll even start them in the form of questions.
Question 1 — Does it impact quality grade? Because elevated heat reduces feed intake, it would be easy to speculate quality grade would be reduced. As we have looked at windows where temperatures exceeded 100 °F for weeks on end, we expected a drop in quality grade. However, a casual observation of weekly grade data showed no effect.
So we asked Chris Reinhardt, Kansas State University (K-State) feedlot specialist, to analyze the carcass data in our feedlot database to see if there were any heat/grade relationships. Again, he was not able to show a heat-stress impact on grade.
Question 2 — If we could provide shade, would we see any benefits? Jerry Bohn, manager of Pratt Feeders (Kan.), decided to find out. Working with K-State, the team designed a study to split cattle pens so part of the cattle had access to 50 × 48-foot (ft.) steel frames with canvas covers. Shade had little benefit on feedlot performance, but the slight improvement in carcass quality resulted in a slight economic advantage.
Better marbling could be a result of comfortable cattle eating more, Reinhardt speculates. Gain and feed efficiency did not improve, but dry matter intake improved by about 0.55 pounds (lb). per day. “That may explain at least a portion of the grade improvement with shade,” he says. “Extra energy every day above maintenance equals more energy available for retained energy in the form of fat deposition … marbling.”
Bohn’s concluding statement, however, may be the key takeaway: “Sometimes I think we’ll be forced to do things in the future that might not have good economic reasons, but you’ve got to do it the right way.”
Cattle Producers Discuss Policy Priorities
at Industry Summer Conference
Members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) addressed current policy priorities at the 2014 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Denver, passing new resolutions and directives for the 2014 Policy Agenda.
“Our policy committees are tasked with a broad spectrum of issues, with everything from environmental regulation to nutrition policy to trade barriers on the agenda,” said Bob McCan, NCBA president and Victoria, Texas, cattle producer. “Cattle producers gather from across the country to discuss the biggest issues facing the cattle industry right now and make specific decisions on how to move forward on these priorities.”
Along with revisions to current policies, NCBA members analyzed the overall state of the industry in one-on-one discussions with top government representatives, trade officials and other industry leaders.
“Right now, priority issues include the EPA’s proposed waters of the United States rule, tax reform and ongoing international trade issues,” said NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall. “We are engaged in a long list of policy priorities all year long. After the meetings in Denver, NCBA’s D.C. staff is headed back to Washington, ready to hit the ground running with the list of recommendations and policy updates.”
In the Property Rights and Environmental Management committee members passed a resolution to lead the development of a beef sustainability program, inclusive of the beef value chain and stakeholders, that addresses the continued advancement in areas such as economic viability, production efficiencies, animal care and handling, environmental conservation, human resources, and community support.
The Cattle Marketing and International Trade Policy passed a resolution for NCBA to support changes to Mandatory Price Reporting. Accurate and detailed market information is imperative for sound decision making, and the directive calls for support of changes to ensure the data reflects the market place.
The full NCBA 2014 Policy Agenda can be found online at www.beefusa.org.
For more information, please view the full release here.
Perfect Storm Points to Rosy Picture for Cattle Industry, According to CattleFax Analysis
The cattle industry is transitioning from the liquidation phase to the expansion phase in terms of cattle numbers, according to Kevin Good, senior market analyst for CattleFax. When combined with a very robust domestic and global demand for beef, it helps point to a rosy picture for the industry. Good made the remarks during a general session of the 2014 Cattle Industry Summer Conferences in Denver August 1. The conference ran through Aug 2.
“It’s one for the ages,” Good said, referring to the cattle market. “It’s been a tremendous change from a year ago.”
Good said the industry is accelerating the rate of expansion, and “it’s a great opportunity to take advantage of the trend.” However, while the fundamentals are “friendly,” he said, “the market will have a correction.” That correction could be soon. “Something needs to give. You have to be prepared for that ceiling,” he told the hundreds of cattle producers in attendance.
Good said a “perfect storm” was in place for the industry in terms of profitability. There’s a tighter animal supply in general, with the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) in the pork industry and hatchability and genetic issues in the poultry industry keeping pork and chicken supplies in check. With all animal protein supplies stable and prices increasing, beef is not that far out of line, he said.
Good said calves in 2014 are averaging $2.40 per hundredweight (cwt.), while feeder cattle are $2 and fed cattle $1.50. He said CattleFax expects prices should be stronger again on average in 2015, but larger supplies of beef by 2016 and larger total meat supplies will limit prices by then.
Low corn prices are giving the industry some relief. They are the lowest since 2010 and are expected to average in the $4 per bushel (bu.) range, and possibly in the upper $3s, for the year. Production in 2014 is expected to be in the 14-billion-bu. range, he said.
Range conditions are the third best they have been in the past 20 years, Good said. El Niño has been moderately strong, and is also providing relief to much of the country devastated by drought. However, he said the industry is still in the midst of a 20-year drought, so producers should still be cautious about conditions for 2015, 2016 and 2017.
For more information, please view the full release here.
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