News Update
July 29, 2010

Cattle Industry Summer Conference Unfolds Online

If you aren’t able to attend the 2010 Cattle Industry Summer Conference but would still like to know what’s going on or be part of the discussions — or if you are attending but can’t make all the meetings you’d like to — there is a solution: Use the My Beef Checkoff Meeting Blog, which tracks the goings on from every checkoff meeting during the conference and offers an avenue for feedback.

At http://www.MyBeefCheckoffMeeting.com/, you’ll find minutes from past meetings and agendas for current meetings, then actions from each committee after it meets. In addition, you’ll get feature reports from various committee, Beef Board and Federation of State Beef Councils leadership, and from a host of other conference participants. Each posting offers an opportunity for producer comment or feedback. ZimmComm Media Owner Chuck Zimmerman will be blogging the entire conference, so stay tuned before, during and after summer conference for your full report! For additional information about beef checkoff programs, visit www.MyBeefCheckoff.com.

— Release by the Beef Checkoff Program.

Hispanic Materials Cause Significant Increases In Beef Volume Sales For All Major Subprimals

A recent pilot test of beef checkoff-funded Hispanic point-of-sale (POS) elements revealed the Hispanic marketing materials increased sales of fresh beef by remarkable percentages. Volume sales of beef cuts increased across all major subprimals:

• Round, up 35.5%
• Chuck, up 60.1%
• Rib, up 26.9%
• Loin, up 41.7%

Volume sales of beef variety meats showed the biggest increase with 82.7%.
The test was conducted for 12 weeks in three Dillons stores in Kansas. Results also revealed that the Hispanic POS elements increased grocery shopping trips from 8.2 trips per month to 11.1 trips per month.

Nineteen percent of respondents said they will shop for meat at Dillons much more often and 51% say they will shop for meat at Dillons somewhat more often due to the new POS elements at the meatcase.

Test store shoppers also reported consuming beef more often as part of their daily meals. The percentage of meals including beef grew from 62% to 77%.

“With a growing Hispanic population in the U.S., the need to reach out to this group is increasing,” says Jim Henger, executive director of marketing for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), which contracts to manage retail programs for the beef checkoff. “The beef checkoff-funded Hispanic point-of-sale materials were developed to meet the needs of this growing segment of the population.”

The beef checkoff-funded research was conducted with assistance from the Iowa Beef Industry Council, in order to compare the performance of Dillons stores without the Hispanic point-of-sale materials to test stores with the materials. The point-of-sale materials in test stores included a shopper brochure with a dictionary of cuts, channel strips, counter posters, on-pack recipes, a theatre floor sign and a “Hablo Español” employee button.

Dillons stores in Wichita, Garden City, and Liberal, Kan., served as test stores. Researchers conducted the test prewave in July 2009 and a test and control postwave in November 2009. Sales data, consumer intercepts and a retailer survey evaluated the effectiveness of the materials.

For more information about the Dillons Hispanic Pilot Test, click here. Hispanic point-of-sale materials and ordering information is also available at beefretail.org/hispanicpos.aspx. For more information about your beef checkoff investment, visit www.MyBeefCheckoff.com.

— Release by the Beef Checkoff Program.

Wet Weather Causes Problems With Hay Harvest

Rainfall and high humidity this summer have made it hard for farmers to harvest hay, said a Purdue Extension forage specialist.

“Some farmers got their hay mowed, but then they lost yield and quality when it rained,” Keith Johnson said. “Others did not get it cut in [a] timely fashion, so the quality of their hay went down.”

The heat and humidity have caused more problems than normal, Johnson said. Because high moisture can cause mold in the hay and other bacteria and fungi can form and cause combustion, it is important to monitor hay after harvest and to store it properly.

Part of proper storage means farmers need to monitor the crop’s moisture content, he said. Small rectangular bales should have a moisture content of less than 20%, while large rectangular bales and large round bales should be closer to 18% moisture content when baled.

Hay can be packaged at slightly higher moisture levels if farmers have the proper equipment to apply propionic acid, a preservative, at baling.

Hay producers also need to be sure the mower-conditioner is properly set for each field harvested, Johnson said. A mower-conditioner increases the hay drying rate as compared to use of a mower without mechanical conditioning.

“Farmers using the forage on the farm might want to consider investing in a single bale wrapper or an in-line tuber,” he said. “An in-line tuber lines large round bales in a row and automatically wraps them with several layers of plastic. Moisture content at wrapping is recommended to be around 50%. The crop is stored in the wrapped plastic as silage.”

Producers also should continue to monitor alfalfa for the presence of potato leafhopper and make forage testing a priority as there is likely to be some lower quality first cutting hay this year.

After harvest, Johnson recommends soil be tested for fertility level and pH if it has not been tested for several years. Fertilizer and lime application can then be based on the soil test information received from the laboratory.

— Release by Purdue Extension.

Free Webinars in August on Wildlife Management, Organic Dairy Farms and Reducing Air Emissions from Livestock Farms

Webinars are free from eXtension, provide current research and answer today’s pressing questions.

eXtension, a network of researchers and educators from Cooperative Extension Services across the United States, provides objective, research-based and credible information. Experts from land-grant universities, government and industry present information on seasonal topics and current research in free webinars.

This month’s free webinars are:

• Aug. 19 — remote sensing cameras for wildlife management,
• Aug. 20 — a tool for determining opportunities to reduce air emissions from livestock farms and
• Aug. 20 — dry matter on organic dairy farms.

A webinar is an acronym for a web-based seminar. Instead of traveling somewhere to attend a seminar, you meet in a virtual conference room on the Internet. If you miss a webinar at the scheduled time, they are archived at http://www.extension.org.

— Release by eXtension Research.

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