News Update
Dec. 4, 2009

Calf Management Affects Quality Grade

Beef quality grade is important. That’s a matter of fact, said University of Wyoming Animal Scientist Scott Lake while addressing the 2009 Range Beef Cow Symposium in Casper, Wyo.

The National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) reported a leading concern among beef packers and merchandisers is insufficient marbling to achieve a desirable quality grade, Lake noted. Premiums are paid on the basis of carcass quality. And management and marketing practices have been developed around the Choice-Select spread.

“Developing a means to improve the efficiency of production and profitability of high-quality beef carcasses is essential to increase beef quality and the economic viability of producers,” Lake said. Strategic management of nutrition for early-weaned calves could be a viable alternative to traditional ways of feeding cattle, he added.

Extensive research during the last decade suggests that early weaning of calves (at 100 to 150 days of age) is a viable option to improve carcass quality, Lake said. It is now known that marbling development begins early in a calf’s life and can be enhanced by weaning calves early and placing them on diets containing higher levels of energy (grain). However, early weaning generally means more total days on feed, higher total feed costs and the calves usually produce lighter carcasses.

While premiums are paid for higher quality, carcass weight remains the major economic driver of carcass value, accounting for approximately 70% of total revenue from finished animals, Lake said. With the recent dramatic increase in feed costs came incentives to manage calves for slower growth rates and decreased inputs. Cattle feeders want to minimize the length of time cattle are in the feedlot and many have returned to sourcing yearlings for placement rather than calves.

“Given our understanding of muscle growth and fat accretion, it is possible to feed high-energy diets to beef cattle during strategic periods of time [to] produce carcasses with quality comparable to those of early-weaning systems, as well as take advantage of lower-input feeding periods, allowing for similar skeletal growth seen in yearling cattle, thus producing heavier carcasses,” Lake said.

Preliminary data suggests early-weaned calves can be fed a high-concentrate diet for about 100 days, followed by a period when calves are treated more like a yearling. After this period of time on a slow plane of nutrition, they are returned to the feedlot and a high-concentrate finishing diet. The desired results are carcasses of higher quality grade and weights similar to those of traditionally fed cattle.

“The objective is to maximize grain intake strategically, during key periods of time, to keep total feeding costs lower and still achieve heavier carcasses of high quality.”

— by Troy Smith for Angus Productions Inc.

K-State to Team with Other Universities To Host 26th Annual 4-State Beef Conference

Kansas State University (K-State) Research and Extension will team with Extension educators at the University of Missouri (UM), University of Nebraska and Iowa State University (ISU) to offer the 26th Annual 4-State Beef Conference Jan.12 and 13 in four locations.

The conference planning committee has designed a program to include something of interest to all beef producers, said Joel DeRouchey, livestock specialist with K-State Research and Extension.

Each conference session will feature the same speakers and topics, so that participants can attend the conference session at a location most convenient for them. Speakers and their topics for the 2010 conference are: Richard Randle, associate professor, veterinary & biomedical sciences, University of Nebraska — Whole Herd Health: Common Health Problems; K.C. Olson, associate professor, cow-calf nutrition and management, K-State — Mineral Nutrition; Karl Harboth, Extension livestock specialist, K-State — Factors Affecting Sale Barn Prices; John Lawrence, Extension livestock marketing specialist, ISU — Replacement Heifers: Buying vs. Raising.

The conferences are scheduled for Tuesday, Jan.12 and Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. The Tuesday morning session will begin at 9:30 a.m. in Lewis, Iowa, at the ISU Armstrong Research Farm, and the afternoon session will start at 3:30 p.m. in Tecumseh, Neb., at the Community Building. The Wednesday morning session will also begin at 9:30 a.m. in King City, Mo., at the Eiberger Building, and the afternoon session will start at 3:30 p.m. in Holton, Kan., at the Jackson County Fair Building.

The 4-State Beef Conferences are designed to give beef cattle producers in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska an annual update on current cow-calf and stocker topics. The conferences provide a forum of Extension specialists from four of the country’s leading beef cattle land-grant universities.

The registration fee is $25 per person and reservations are requested by Friday, Jan. 8, 2010.  The fee includes a beef meal and a copy of the conference proceedings. To keep registration fees affordable in the future, organizers request that attendees call in their reservations. More information and registration for the conference is available by contacting a local county Extension office in one of the four states, or by visiting the web site at: www.extension.iastate.edu/feci/4StBeef/.

Information in Kansas is also available by contacting Jody Holthaus in the K-State Research and Extension Meadowlark Extension office in Holton at 785-364-4125 or jholthau@ksu.edu or Joel DeRouchey at 785-532-2280 or jderouch@ksu.edu.

— Provided by K-State Research and Extension.

Winter Beef Webinar Series Set

The first of a four-part Beef Webinar sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension is scheduled for Dec. 10 at 6:30 p.m., and will feature a panel to discuss winter nutrition topics. Currin, McCann and Wahlberg of Virginia Tech will serve as the panel who will address important considerations for the upcoming winter feeding season. Questions from the audience can be submitted via an online chat box or over the telephone using a number provided during the program. The initial meeting will also include a discussion of future webinar topics with a poll of the audience to determine priority.

Dates for the webinars are: December 10th; January 14th; February 18th; and March 18th        

Check with your Extension Agent about accessing the program at your local office. If you have high-speed Internet service you can connect at home.  The web address to join the meeting is http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/beefcattlewebinar/.

For more information on this program, please contact Mark McCann at mmccnn@vt.edu.

— Provided by Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Secretaries Chu and Vilsack Announce More Than $600 Million Investment in Advanced Biorefinery Projects

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the selection of 19 integrated biorefinery projects to receive up to $564 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate the construction and operation of pilot, demonstration, and commercial scale facilities. The projects — in 15 states — will validate refining technologies and help lay the foundation for full commercial-scale development of a biomass industry in the United States. The projects selected today will produce advanced biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts using biomass feedstocks at the pilot, demonstration, and full commercial scale. The projects selected today are part of the ongoing effort to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, spur the creation of the domestic bio-industry and provide new jobs in many rural areas of the country.

“Advanced biofuels are critical to building a cleaner, more sustainable transportation system in the U.S.,” Secretary Chu said. “These projects will help establish a domestic industry that will create jobs here at home and open new markets across rural America.”

Joining Secretary Chu, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack noted that U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development has selected San Diego, Calif.-based Sapphire Energy to receive a loan guarantee for up to $54.5 million through the Biorefinery Assistance Program to demonstrate an integrated algal biorefinery process that will cultivate algae in ponds, and will use dewatering and oil extraction technology to produce an intermediate that will then be processed into drop-in green fuels such as jet fuel and diesel. The actual project will be constructed in Columbus, N.M.

“The development of renewable energy is a critical component of our efforts to rebuild and revitalize rural America,” Secretary Vilsack said. “This Farm Bill program is instrumental in increasing our energy independence and expanding new technologies and markets for agricultural and environmental waste material.”

The Biorefinery Assistance Program, authorized through the 2008 Farm Bill, promotes the development of new and emerging technologies for the production of fuels that are produced from non-corn kernel starch biomass sources. The program provides loan guarantees to develop, construct and retrofit viable commercial-scale biorefineries producing advanced biofuels. The maximum loan guarantee is $250 million per project. The loan guarantee will be subject to the availability of funds and contingent upon Sapphire Energy meeting the conditions of the loan agreement.

Of the nearly $564 million in Recovery Act funding announced today, up to $483 million will go to 14 pilot-scale and 4 demonstration-scale biorefinery projects across the country. The remaining $81 million will focus on accelerating the construction of a biorefinery project previously awarded funding. Collectively, these projects will be matched with more than $700 million in private and non-federal cost-share funds, for total project investments of almost $1.3 billion.

The biofuels and bioproducts produced through these projects will displace petroleum and accelerate the industry’s ability to achieve production targets mandated by the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). These investments will help close the gap between the production from the small number of biorefineries currently in operation and the aggressive Renewable Fuel Standard goals for cellulosic and advanced biofuels.

— Release provided by USDA.

— Compiled by Mathew Elliott, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc.