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Industry Update
Angus Conference and Tour Next Week
ND Stockmen’s Annual Convention & Trade Show
Grazing School Aims to Provide Helpful Information for Cattle Producers
MARC Calpain Tenderness Test Offered by Frontier Beef Systems
Angus Conference and Tour Next Week
It’s not too late to make plans to attend the National Angus Conference and Tour in Mandan, ND. The one-day conference will be September 25, followed by a two-day tour of North Dakota Angus operations. For more information, visit http://www.angusjournal.com/nationalconference. If you can’t attend you can logon to http://www.angusjournal.com/nationalconference for real-time coverage of the event.
The North Dakota Stockmen's Association will be holding its 74th Annual Convention & Trade Show, "Keeping a Grip on the Issues," Oct. 2-4 at the Hospitality/Travelodge Inn in Dickinson, N.D.
The Cattlemen's College, which will focus on biosecurity, will kick off the convention on Thursday. At the College, members will hear about findings from the Canadian BSE investigation and an emerging front-line defense program being implemented right here in North Dakota. On Friday, Dr. Ken Odde, North Dakota State University's Animal & Range Science Department chairman, will describe progress on the Beef Systems Center of Excellence project. On Saturday, a "Keeping Our COOL" panel discussion will headline the morning. Representatives from each of the four major industry segments will describe the implications of country-of-origin labeling for their segment and how they intend to implement the program.
Throughout the convention, we will honor several outstanding members. At the banquet, the association will pay special tribute to Elmer Agnew of Bismarck and Russell Bueling of Sheldon, the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award winners, and Ted and Kay Tescher of Medora, the Rancher of the Year Award recipients.
Some of the policy issues that are already on the agenda are BSE, the Conservation Reserve Program, federal lands, financing for cattle feeders, an American individual animal identification program and others.
If you have questions please call (701) 223-2522.
Anytime cattle producers can increase the productivity of their land, it assures more grazing days for livestock and a more profitable outcome for the producer.
The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture will offer a two-day grazing school Oct. 14 and 15 at the Bourbon County Extension Office in Paris. Participants will gain valuable knowledge in classroom and field settings.
“We’ll be taking those who attend to a local producer’s farm,” said Donna Amaral-Phillips, UK Extension dairy nutritionist and co- coordinator of the school. “They’ll get to see how she uses rotational grazing techniques to maximize productivity on her farm.”
In the classroom, participants will hear the latest information about the benefits of improved grazing, traditional forages, how grasses and legumes respond to grazing and how to meet nutritional needs on pasture.
Early registration is encouraged because of limited space. A fee of $100 includes all materials, grazing manual, breaks and selected meals. The fee must be paid to hold a place in the grazing school.
For more information contact Donna Amaral-Phillips, (859) 257-7542 or e-mail damaral@uky.edu.
A new tenderness test developed by scientists at the US Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) is being marketed by Frontier Beef Systems, LLC (FBS, Lafayette CO). Meat scientists have known for years that Calpain, a naturally occurring enzyme, plays a major role in beef tenderness by weakening muscle fibers, thus increasing tenderization during the post-mortem aging process. After a decade of gene discovery research and thorough validation, the Calpain marker is ready for release to the beef industry.
MARC geneticists have identified two SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) for Calpain. Research results have shown differences of about one pound of Warner-Bratzler shear (WBS) force between animals carrying zero or two copies of the favorable alleles (genes) for just one of the Calpain SNPs. Just recently, the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium evaluated both Calpain SNPs and found a difference of nearly 1.8 pounds of WBS force between the least and most favorable genotypes in Simmental- and Angus-cross fed cattle.
Frontier Beef Systems is offering a special introductory price of $25 per test through December 31, 2003. According to Dr. Jim Gibb, FBS General Manager, “Providing a powerful, yet low-cost tenderness test to the beef industry has been one of our goals since we founded Frontier Beef Systems two years ago. We are very pleased to have this opportunity.” The name of the new test is TenderGENE.
Hair, blood or semen samples may be submitted for TenderGENE testing. Producers may request test kits, and may inquire about other DNA tests offered by calling Frontier Beef Systems at 303-664-9494 or by visiting www.frontierbeefsystems.com.
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