News Update

November 9, 2016

Angus Foundation: Champions
Youth, Education & Research

For more than 35 years, the Angus Foundation, the not-for-profit arm of the American Angus Association, has championed the causes of youth, education and research for the Angus breed and beef industry as a whole.

The Angus Foundation celebrated its many generous donors and accomplishments for 2016 at the annual Supporter Recognition Event, hosted Nov. 4 at the Marriott in Indianapolis, Ind., prior to the start of the 2016 Angus Convention.

The evening event honored Angus Foundation supporters who have contributed $250 or more during the past fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2015-Sept. 30, 2016).

“We have made great strides in advancing the Angus breed thanks to those who have served as champions for our organization,” says Milford Jenkins, Angus Foundation president. “We’re truly grateful for those champions’ continued support over the past 36 years.”

— Adapted from an article by Sarah Hill, Angus Media.

Weaning Management, a Year in Advance

If the spring-born calves aren’t weaned yet, then the time isn’t far away now that fall is here. This month we’ll look at recent research from Philipe Moriel and others at North Carolina State University (NCSU) on the role of maternal nutrition in calf performance and health.

Veterinarians and ranchers know healthy weaned calves begin with a well-vaccinated cow herd long before calving, because high-quality colostrum minimizes disease exposure for nursing calves. All true, yes, but even the best established herd immunity can fall short if nutrition falls short in the days before calving.

Work from the 1970s told us calves born to nutrient-restricted cows were more likely to be treated for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) with greater death loss than calves from cows with adequate nutrition. More recent Nebraska field trials suggest protein supplementation to pregnant cows during the last trimester of gestation improves carcass quality grade and weights in steer progeny while decreasing puberty age and improving pregnancy rates in heifer calves compared to those from unsupplemented dams.

Continue reading in the Angus news article online.

— Adapted from an article by Justin Sexten, Certified Angus Beef LLC.

Overseas Markets

Erin Borror, economist with the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), was a recent guest on Angus Talk, a weekly radio program on Rural Radio, Channel 147. Tune in at 10 a.m. CST each Saturday morning on SiriusXM Radio.

Q: Tell us about USMEF.
A: Our mission is quite simple. To increase the value and profitability of the U.S. beef, pork and lamb industries by enhancing demand for their products in the export market through a dynamic partnership of all stake holders. Simply put, we’re putting U.S. meat on the world’s table. A big question that a lot of folks have is where does the money come from? Our funding, over half of it, comes from the beef, pork, corn and soybean checkoff investments in our programs. Those dollars are leveraged with the market access program, which is funding we receive from USDA within the Farm Bill. We partner very closely with the USDA Foreign Ag Service.
Q: When you look at all the beef exporting countries around the world, where does the U.S. rank now?
A: We are actually No. 2 on a value basis and that’s just behind Australia, and No. 4 on a volume basis, just behind Brazil and Australia and India.

For more information, view the Angus Media news article online.

— Adapted from an article by Doug Medlock, Angus Media.

Meat is about Trust, Author Says

Imagine living when there was no supermarket or grocery store where you could buy food, having to grow just about everything your family needs. That could be any rural area in the country a couple hundred years ago.

Livestock were keys to that economy, says author Maureen Ogle, who spoke at the Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand’s annual conference in Tucson, Ariz., last month. Her book, In Meat We Trust: An Unexpected History of Carnivore America, derived from the realization that she ought to know more about this vital food chain.

“Here I am living in Ames, Iowa, which is basically ground zero for all things agriculture,” Ogle said. “My house is built on what used to be, 25 years ago, a cornfield — and I realized I didn’t know anything at all.”

Immersing herself in research for the book, she soon discovered “how wrong” the consensus was.

Read more in the Angus Media news article online.

— Adapted from an article by Katie Alexander, Certified Angus Beef LLC.

ABS to Evaluate Feed Efficiency in Crossbred Animals

ABS Pecplan, a subsidiary of ABS Global, a world leader in bovine genetics, recently partnered with Agropecuaria Fazenda Brasil (AFB), Barra do Garças, Mato Grosso, one of the most progressive ranches in Brazil and a leader in the production of quality crossbred calves from Nellore cows. Under the agreement, individual feed intake data will be collected on crossbred animals utilizing cutting edge equipment, the first time this has been done in a commercial environment.

Work is expected to start this year with plans to test a number of large pens of cattle. Feed intake and growth performance data will be generated using Intergado equipment and, not only will first generation crossbred (F1) animals be evaluated, but also Nellore steers and tri-cross animals.

For more information, view the news release online.

— Adapted from a release by ABS Global.

— Compiled by Paige Nelson, field editor, Angus Media.