News Update

March 8, 2017

Talon Youth Education
Learning Program Intern, Host Ranch

The Angus Foundation is pleased to introduce Jessica Janssen, Fowler, Ind., as the first Talon Youth Education Learning Program Intern. Janssen will intern with Maher Angus Ranch, Morristown, S.D.

The Talon Youth Education Learning Program internship is the legacy of Camron “Cam” Cooper of Talon Ranch. Cooper set up the Angus/Talon Youth Education Learning Program Endowment Fund in 2009 to be a holistic educational experience for students.

The internship program pairs motivated Angus youth with working registered Angus breeders/ranches to provide youth valuable education and work experience for a summer. The internship program is open to college sophomores, juniors, seniors, graduate students and recent college graduates under age 25 who are majoring in an agricultural field of study.

Janssen is a junior at Purdue University, where she is pursuing an animal science degree. She has an associate’s in agriculture from Ivy Tech Community College, Lafayette, Ind. Janssen’s career goal is to become a beef nutritionist.

— Adapted from a release by Sarah Hill, Angus Media.

Wildfires Exacting a Toll on Texas Panhandle Producers

Wind-whipped wildfires raced across the Texas Panhandle on March 6-7, leaving in their wake tragic human losses, as well as about 440,000 acres of charred land in eight counties, hundreds of miles of burned fences and an uncounted number of dead or injured animals with the flames still moving.

Flames were still moving, but the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is currently working with county judges to request the establishment of Livestock Supply Points in both Gray and Lipscomb counties to begin aiding producers who suffered losses, said Danny Nusser, AgriLife Extension regional program leader in Amarillo.

“We know there are animal death losses and the Texas Animal Health Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will take care of those issues, however, we also know there are those people who need help with their live animals right now,” Nusser said.

For more information, view the AgriLife news release online.

— Adapted from a release by Kay Ledbetter, Texas AgriLife Communications.

CattleFax Presents Weather Outlook

“Guess what? We have a brand new El Niño developing,” announced meteorologist Art Douglas during the 2017 Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, Tenn. The Creighton University professor emeritus shared his weather forecast during the Convention’s CattleFax Outlook Seminar, explaining that it is unusual for a second El Niño pattern to occur so close on the heels of the previous one.

El Niño is an oscillation of the ocean atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures south of the equator, as opposed to La Niña, which is associated with colder water temperatures. These weather phenomena typically impact weather conditions around the world, influencing both temperature and precipitation.

Douglas called it “very rare” that El Niño events should occur so nearly back-to-back, noting that it hasn’t happened in 20 years.

Continue reading in the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.

— Adapted from an article by Troy Smith for Angus Media.

The Breeding Bull:

LeBron James, Tom Brady, Usain Bolt — these names bring with them a certain performance standard. Each season, fans expect these athletes to be in top form, to perform and to achieve results of which no one else is capable. You expect the same of your breeding bulls each season, but are you treating them like the athletes they are?

“We need to prepare bulls to be athletes for the duration of breeding season,” says Chad Zehnder, cattle nutritionist with Purina Animal Nutrition. “Bulls need to remain sound and active. One way we can help prepare them as athletes is by conditioning them.”

If bulls are too thin at the start of breeding season, they might not hold condition and perform. At the same time, too much condition could be detrimental. Excess weight can affect structure, soundness and the bull’s ability to remain in active form.

— Adapted from an article by Kayla Jentz, Filament Marketing LLC.

Birth Weight and Gestation Length

Several factors affect birth weight in calves, including breed, genetics of sire and dam, length of gestation, age and size of dam (heifers tend to have smaller calves than mature cows, and large cows tend to have larger calves than small cows), sex of the calf, environmental factors, and nutrition and health of the dam. Bull calves in the same breed tend to be larger than heifer calves, partly because males are larger than females and male calves tend to be carried a day or more longer than heifer calves.

Gestation length is heritable, however. Some family lines within breeds tend to have gestation lengths that differ from the “average” 283 days. Low-birth-weight cattle often have shorter gestation length, and high-birth-weight cattle tend to have longer-than-average gestation length. The fetus is growing fastest in the final stage of gestation; several more days of gestation creates a larger calf. One study showed that each extra day of gestation amounts to at least a 1-pound (lb.) increase in calf size.

For more information, view the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.

— Adapted from an article by Heather Smith Thomas for Angus Media.

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