News Update
June 5, 2017
Practical Sustainability
Improving sustainability within the cattle production chain starts with individual decisions on farms and ranches across the country. Decisions made about genetics, management and marketing all play a role in the overall sustainability of each business and the entire industry.
Dan Thomson with Kansas State University (K-State) weighs in on sustainable beef practices during this week’s The Angus Report.
“Sustainability to the beef industry is looking at the input costs, looking at the income coming back into the industry. Because if we can’t have profitability, we can’t have sustainability,” he says.
You can’t judge one farm in a snapshot in time as being sustainable or not, Thomson says.
“This is something that is done in a continuum, as an industry, whether it’s global or national. And there are things that we can do to improve sustainability on our farms, but we have to understand that this will always be changing.”
Tune into this week’s episode of The Angus Report online. You can also catch the show at 1:30 p.m. CDT Saturday or 7:30 a.m. CDT every Monday morning on RFD-TV.
Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue Travels to Canada
Sonny Perdue will make his first international trip as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture June 5 to Toronto, Can.
“The bilateral U.S.-Canada relationship is important to the prosperity of both of our countries, and I look forward to strengthening this bond with our neighbors to the north moving forward,” said Perdue.
Perdue will meet with Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay and other Canadian officials to discuss priority agricultural issues regarding Canada and the United States.
In addition, Perdue will participate in the 10th anniversary conference of the Southeastern United States-Canadian Provinces Alliance (SEUS-CP), of which he was a founding member while serving as governor of Georgia. At a downtown Toronto restaurant, he will also kick off what will be a two-week-long event showcasing U.S. foods and beverages.
As two of the world’s largest agricultural producers with a shared border, Canada and the United States are key markets for each other’s agricultural products. In 2016, the United States exported $20.2 billion of agricultural products to Canada, making it our second-largest agricultural export market, while Canada exported $21 billion of agricultural products to the United States.
Cattlemen go to Washington, D.C., to discuss COOL, Livestock Hauling, Trade
The United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) will bring a delegation of nearly 30 producers to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with members of Congress and the administration on key issues affecting the industry.
Producers from across the country will make the trip, representing Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas.
USCA President Kenny Graner commented, “The annual USCA fly-in serves as an opportunity for our members to put a face to the issues being discussed and debated in D.C.
“This year, we have a strong contingent of livestock haulers who will be meeting with staff at the Department of Transportation to discuss the pending implementation of electronic log devices and to address concerns with the hours of service rules. Our members have been working on this issue over the course of the past year and have led efforts within an industry-wide coalition to bring commonsense solutions to this issue; they will now have the opportunity to bring the issue directly to policy makers.”
Continue reading this USCA news release online.
Rain Helps Fire-damaged Grasslands Recover in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma
Late spring and early season rains are contributing to what agricultural producers and extension specialists are calling a steady recovery for grasslands ravaged by wildfires earlier this year in southwest Kansas and northwest Oklahoma. In early March, fires in those regions took out an estimated 660,000 acres of pasture, much of which was used to graze cattle.
“This part of the country has never experienced anything like this before,” said Ashland cattleman Matt Ast.
Ast was one of several producers from Kansas and Oklahoma who recently attended a range management meeting at the Snake Creek Ranch, which is located just a little more than 200 yards from the Kansas-Oklahoma border.
The meeting was co-hosted by extension services at K-State and Oklahoma State University.
“These fires don’t respect state lines,” said Laura Goodman, a range management specialist with Oklahoma State University extension. “Our plant communities are growing across these different states. So it doesn’t make sense to have only Kansas or Oklahoma put these on, but really to come together to see what’s working in different areas and what we need to learn to handle situations where rangelands have experienced these wildfires.”
For more information, read the K-State news release online.
Sustainable Rangelands Symposium June 21-22
The influence of drought cycles on rangeland and cattle management options will be the theme for the second annual Sustainable Rangelands Symposium Wed., and Thurs., June 21-22, at the Ruidoso Conference Center, 811 Sierra Blanca Drive, Ruidoso.
New Mexico State University’s (NMSU’s) College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and Texas Tech University’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources are co-hosting the event that will follow the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association conference.
From soils, water conservation and forage production, to livestock and wildlife management, the speakers will provide vital information.
For more information, visit the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events.
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