News Update
March 22, 2013
Taste is King for Beef Consumers
Despite tighter budgets and busier lives, it’s not price or convenience that tops the list for deciding whether to buy beef — it’s taste. The most recent Consumer Beef Index, based on a Beef Checkoff-sponsored survey, showed an impressive 88% of consumers polled said when choosing between beef, chicken, pork and fish, a great tasting product was very or extremely important.
Mark McCully, vice president of production for Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), said that’s good news for cattle producers.
“Not only is beef already America’s favorite protein,” he said at the recent Illinois Cattle Feeders Meeting in Oregon, Ill. “But we know what it takes to make sure consumers get the consistently delicious product they expect.”
He explained that the characteristics of beef that affect palatability are flavor, juiciness and tenderness, and those are primarily reflected in the USDA quality grade of each carcass. The main difference between a Select, Choice or Prime stamp comes down to marbling, which is a highly heritable trait.
“That’s why it’s so important to stay focused on increasing marbling in our cattle,” McCully said. “It’s still our best strategy to meeting consumer demands for our end product.”
Management factors like health, pre-feedlot nutrition, disposition, the use of growth technologies and days on feed also affect quality grade, he said, so utilizing best practices throughout the animal’s lifecycle is another way to increase the odds of a favorable rating.
The annual Power of Meat survey released in February identified some notable trends in meat preparation.
For more information and the full release, click here.
South Texas Drought Taking its Toll on Cattle Ranchers
The unrelenting drought is taking its toll on South Texas cattle ranchers who are resorting to a centuries-old emergency method of feeding cattle, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agent.
“Ranchers down here commonly refer to it as ‘chamuscando,’ the Spanish word for the process of burning off spines from prickly pear cactus so cattle can eat the pods for food and water,” said Omar Montemayor, an AgriLife Extension agent in Starr County. “For many of our aging ranchers, chamuscando (pronounced chah-moos-KAHN-doh) and hauling hay and water to their livestock are last ditch efforts to stay in the cattle business.”
Burning cactus is a practice that dates back to the mid-1700s when Spanish settlers moved here from Mexico City and raised cattle for sustenance along both sides of the Rio Grande, Montemayor said. The pioneers burned cactus over mesquite fires, which eventually gave way to kerosene burners until the 1950s when ranchers switched to butane, then propane.
“In times of drought, when pastures have no grass or hay for cattle to feed on, ranchers use a propane-fueled torch to burn the needles off nopal, or cactus. The pads or stems of the plant contain moisture and fiber, but very little protein. Ranchers supplement their cattle’s diets with protein pellets called range cubes.”
Chamuscando and hauling supplemental feed, hay and water to cattle are costly measures, Montemayor said, but for many South Texas ranchers, time may be too short to sell their herds now and rebuild if and when the drought breaks.
“Many of our ranchers are in their late 60s and 70s,” he said. “If they sell their cattle and the drought ends next year, they’ll have to buy young cattle back. If a rancher pays $2,400 for a ‘pair,’ a cow and a young calf, he or she will have to wait four to five years to sell four or five calves just to recoup their investment.
“For a lot of ranchers, that’s time they think they may not have, so they’re doing everything they can to keep their cattle alive now. But it’s hard work and very expensive.”
For more information and the full release, click here.
Corn Stover: What is its worth?
Corn stover is made up of the stalk, leaves, husks and tassels left in the field after harvesting the grain with a combine. This stover can be used to make advanced biofuels or be used as a low quality, emergency livestock feed. There are a number of factors you should consider before you set a price for corn stover. These include nutrient removal, soil erosion and maintaining soil quality. This article discusses these three issues and how they should influence your decision whether or not to sell corn stover from your farm.
When you remove stover, you are taking nutrients with you. The value of the nutrients needs to be calculated into the value of the stover. Since fertilizer prices vary widely through the year and from year to year, you might consider developing a simple pricing index. During the past five years, they have ranged from $499 to $853 per ton. The price you pay for these nutrients will depend on the time of year you purchase them and the volume of fertilizer you buy. Make sure to use the price you pay — not a national average. Use previous farm records to determine your average cost of nutrients over the past five years and use your own judgment about whether you think prices this year will be higher or lower.
For more information and the full release, click here.
Contract Grazing Fact Sheet Series Now Available
A new four-part series of fact sheets on contract grazing for cattle is now available on the Iowa Beef Center (IBC) website. The resource was developed by a specialized working group within the Green Lands, Blue Water project, including two Iowa State University (ISU) specialists. Joe Sellers, ISU Extension and Outreach beef specialist, and Andy Larson, small farms specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach, worked with project members from Wisconsin and Minnesota to identify needs and information for those who graze cattle.
“Our group has been working on the fact sheets as a source of assistance to graziers and cattle owners who use custom grazing in their management schemes,” Sellers said. “As cow numbers increase and available pasture acres decrease, we want people to recognize and learn more about options for their operations.”
One such option is the development of working partnerships with other producers to access pasture through contract grazing. Each fact sheet focuses on one topic related to contract grazing: contract grazing basics, evaluating land suitability, rental and lease agreements, and contract grazing rates.
The fact sheets can be viewed, downloaded and printed at no cost from these links:
The Basics of Contract Grazing, click here.
Evaluating Land Suitability for Grazing Cattle, click here.
Pasture Rental and Lease Agreements, click here.
Rates Charged for Contract Grazing Arrangements, click here.
This resource can be used to supplement existing grazing-related information on the IBC website, specifically under “Cattle Grazing Survey 2007.”
Conservation Stewardship Program Back on Track With Passage of Government Funding Bill
A bill to fund the federal government for the remaining six months of fiscal year 2013 is now awaiting the President’s signature. The House of Representatives passed the government funding bill Thursday morning, March 21, by a vote of 318-109. Senate passage occurred on Wednesday, on a 73-26 vote.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is pleased to announce that the final bill removes all remaining obstacles to farmers and ranchers having the opportunity to enroll this year in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). USDA can now proceed with enrolling approximately 12 million acres of agricultural land in the program this year, an amount that will bring the program to a grand total of 62 million acres by year’s end. NSAC has been campaigning for this result since last October 1 when the first government funding bill for fiscal year 2013 accidentally shut off the CSP enrollment for the year.
Once the President signs the bill, USDA will receive the go-ahead from the Office of Management and Budget to begin the enrollment process. USDA has not yet decided what the deadline for farmer applications will be, but it is believed it will be sometime during the month of May. Interested farmers and ranchers can apply at any time and should check with their local Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) office for further information.
CSP is a working lands conservation program that rewards farmers and ranchers for the environmental benefits they produce. It is available on a nationwide basis. CSP offers technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers for adopting and maintaining high standards of resource conservation and environmental stewardship. Assistance is provided for actively managing and improving existing conservation systems and for implementing new conservation activities on land in agricultural production.
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