News Update
April 20, 2015
The Ultimate Eating Experience
Happy consumers hold the key to the future of beef demand. While definitions of eating satisfaction may vary, Kansas State University Meat Specialist Travis O’Quinn says palatability comes down to three factors: tenderness, juiciness and flavor. For cattle producers, he offers this advice:
“The number one way that we’ve seen, through multiple research studies, to guarantee an overall good eating experience for the beef consumer is to increase the marbling level of the product,” O’Quinn says. “Marbling has a very linear affect — whether we are talking about tenderness, juiciness, flavor and overall liking. The more marbling we put on a product, the overall higher the product scores for all three of those traits, and greatly increases the chance the consumer is going to have a great eating experience on the back end.”
View the complete interview, along with more top news for the week, by watching The Angus Report online or tuning in at 5 p.m. CDT Wednesday; 1:30 p.m. CDT Saturday or 7:30 a.m. CDT each Monday morning on RFD-TV.
World Angus Secretariat, Mexico 2015
The Mexican Angus Association is hosting an event in mid-October that promises to feature the beautiful Mexican countryside alongside Angus cattle.
The World Angus Secretariat, an organization of more than 20 Angus breed associations worldwide, will conduct its biennial meeting to discuss the latest breed information and technological advances — as well as tour some of the region’s locales and, of course, prized breeding stock.
“We anticipate the presence of delegations from 22 member countries, plus other invited nations,” says Billy Estrada, Mexican Angus Association president. “We are very proud to host this important event, which is an unprecedented happening for the livestock industry in Mexico.”
The Mexican Angus Association will host the 2015 event Oct. 12-25 in the Chihuahua, Durango and Mazatlán-Sinaloa regions, and the American Angus Association encourages its membership to consider attending this once-in-a-lifetime event.
For complete details, access the news release online.
Research Shows Late-season Burning Helps Control Sericea
It’s a plant that tends to use many weapons to take over grasslands. Starting at the roots, this plant out-competes native plants for water and nutrients. The roots also leak allelopathic chemicals that can prevent germination of other plants.
Above the ground, the plant can produce several thousand seeds, so it is highly reproductive. Additionally, it uses its canopy dominance to shade out and prevent native species from thriving.
The plant, sericea lespedeza, is a noxious weed that plagues many landowners in Kansas and other U.S. states. Costly herbicide applications have not effectively stopped the plant in many cases, especially when dense areas of the prairie prevent herbicides from reaching and controlling it.
KC Olson, beef cattle scientist at Kansas State University, has studied several ways to manage the growth and spread of sericea lespedeza. Cattle will graze around the plant, because it is high in tannin and therefore, unpalatable — just another reason he calls the weed a “marvel of creation.”
Olson is currently in year two of a four-year study funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to examine the effects of growing-season prescribed burning on the vigor of sericea lespedeza. Results from the first year show what Olson considers a breakthrough sericea control.
“In about a decade of working with this problem, this is probably the most promising thing I have come across,” Olson said. “We are scheduled for four years of data collection. We need to follow through, but the results from year one were so stunning we had to share them.”
View the full article to read more about Olson’s research.
Free Beginning Farmer Workshop for Veterans
Homegrown heroes can learn about help for beginning veteran farmers during a free workshop Monday, April 27, in Rolla, Mo.
Panels discuss resources for those with disabilities through state and national agencies. A producers’ panel will talk about options for raising and marketing meat and eggs, growing produce for farmers markets and forestry products.
Speakers include representatives of the University of Missouri Extension, Missouri AgrAbility, the Brain Injury Association, Vocational Rehabilitation for Veterans, Lincoln University Cooperative Extension and the state Department of Economic Development.
The workshop offers programs for small-scale producers entering farming for the first time or those looking to diversify existing operations.
Forty-four percent of the country’s veterans come from rural farming communities, and many plan to return to those communities after leaving the military, said Karen Funkenbusch, Missouri AgrAbility director and MU Extension safety and health specialist.
Dent County community development specialist Sarah Massengale said the event includes tours of a beef farm and a high tunnel produce operation.
The event begins 8 a.m. at the St. Pat’s Ballroom A, Havener Center, 1346 N. Bishop Ave., Rolla. To register, call the MU Extension Center in Dent County at 573-729-3196 or email hultines@missouri.edu by April 22.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
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