News Update
April 3, 2014
Details of Farm Bill Sign-up to be Provided at Community Gatherings
South Dakota ranch families are invited to attend any of four community gatherings to be hosted in Eagle Butte, Union Center, Hermosa, and Interior on April 14 and 15. At each meeting, a free meal will be followed by presentations from Farm Service Agency (FSA) officials with details about the Livestock Disaster Program application process set to begin April 15.
FSA officials will provide details about reporting and documentation requirements, information about how the disaster programs will be administered and answer questions from producers.
The 2014 Farm Bill signed into law fully funded Livestock Disaster Programs including the Livestock Indemnity Program and Livestock Forage Program that provide financial support to producers who suffered losses in the October blizzard and droughts of 2012 and 2013.
These gatherings are jointly hosted by the USDA Farm Service Agency, the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the S.D. Cattlemen’s Association, the S.D. Farmers Union, the S.D. Farm Bureau, the S.D. Sheep Growers Association, and the S.D. Stockgrowers Association with the generous support of Ag United, First Interstate Bank of Sturgis, South Dakota Dairy Producers, Rushmore Electric Power Cooperative, West River Electric Association, DakotaLand Feeds, Central Life Sciences, South Dakota State University Extension–West River Ag Center, and the S.D. Soybean Research and Promotion Council.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
Voting for Texas State Beef Checkoff Program Set for June 2-6
At the request of Texas cattle industry associations, and in accordance with Texas law, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) will conduct a producer referendum that, if approved, would create a state beef checkoff program for beef promotion, marketing, research and consumer education. This proposed program, to be called the Texas Beef Checkoff, would be funded and managed by Texas beef producers.
Voting will take place June 2 through June 6 to approve a refundable maximum assessment of $1 per head of cattle to fund this program. If approved, the assessment will be collected at each point of ownership transfer in Texas.
Eligible producers can vote at any Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service county office during each office’s regular business hours. Eligible producers are strongly encouraged to vote in person.
If an eligible producer is unable to access an extension service office, a mail-in ballot may be requested from TDA between May 19 and June 2. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked no later than close of business Friday, June 6, in order to be counted.
The Texas Beef Checkoff would be funded solely through this assessment on cattle. It is not paid for by taxpayer dollars and is not a government program. If approved, any assessments collected would be refundable upon request.
The program would be managed by Texas cattlemen and women serving on the Beef Promotion and Research Council of Texas.
Any producer regardless of age who has owned cattle in Texas anytime between June 6, 2013, and June 6, 2014, is eligible to vote. Youth younger than 16 years of age must have a parent or guardian co-sign their ballot.
If approved, collection of the assessment will begin October 1, 2014.
Shortening the Breeding and Calving Season
Calves born in the first 21 days of the calving season are often the heaviest in their contemporary group at weaning, and that advantage often carries through to harvest, if the producer retains ownership. The shorter the calving period, the more uniform those calves are going to be, said Sandy Johnson, beef cattle specialist for Kansas State University (K-State) Research and Extension.
A defined and shorter breeding and calving season could help producers to more accurately time vaccinations, such as a scours prevention vaccination, which needs to be given at a specific interval prior to calving, Johnson said. Tightening the season also reduces the variation in nutritional requirements within the herd at any one point in time. All of this could help producers save time and money on herd inputs.
Johnson said as producers consider keeping back replacement heifers and rebuilding their herd numbers, they should use the opportunity to shorten the breeding and calving season by controlling the duration of bull exposure to the herd, breeding first-calf heifers earlier than mature cows, matching herd genetics to the environment and making committed culling decisions.
According to Johnson, well-managed herds achieve pregnancy rates of 90% or greater with 60-day breeding seasons.
“A lot of people, for management purposes, would rather leave the bulls out until they take cows off grass,” she said. “I can understand that, but in a way, that’s what starts them down this path of allowing later-calving cows to stay in the herd. In most cases, those later-calving cows are not fitting into your system for some reason.”
For more information, please visit the full release here.
Iowa Learning Farms’ April Webinar Focuses
on Gully Soil Erosion
The Iowa Learning Farms’ April webinar Wednesday, April 16, will feature Rick Cruse, Iowa State University agronomy professor. He will discuss soil erosion that is ignored or unreported by most agencies, and even by the Iowa Daily Erosion Project.
The 11:30 a.m. webinar is part of a free series hosted by ILF through Adobe Connect. The series is hosted on the third Wednesday of each month.
Cruse is part of research efforts to more clearly identifying soil erosion that occurs in ephemeral gullies — the small gullies formed by water runoff typically tilled shut by farm operations. Many fields are scarred by gullies that channel soil and chemicals into streams, which are not accounted for in Iowa State’s erosion estimates or those typical of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Rick Cruse is a professor of agronomy at Iowa State and director of the Iowa Water Center. His research focus is on soil management and soil erosion processes. He is co-leading the expansion of the Iowa Daily Erosion Project to states adjoining Iowa and has been actively involved with multiple soil erosion studies in China. Cruse also teaches a graduate level soil management class at Iowa State.
To connect to the webinar, go to https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/ilf/ at 11:30 a.m. on the morning of the webinar and log in using the guest option. A computer with Internet access is all that is needed to participate. The ILF website contains links for archived webinars from all previous sessions at www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf/Webinars/. The webinar archive is also available in a podcast through iTunes. For more information about Iowa Learning Farms, visit the website at www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf/.
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