News Update
September 18, 2017
Big-picture Focus Guides Farm, CAB
Don Schiefelbein’s role on his family’s registered Angus farm near Kimball, Minn., is all about managerial and financial oversight. That’s why he’s comfortable looking out for the Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand’s future while serving as chairman of its board of directors.
“It’s important that we continue to push the envelope,” Schiefelbein says, “and make sure what was successful back in 1978 when we began continues to be what makes us successful as we go forward.”
The same holds true back on the farm, which made high-quality beef a priority from its beginning with 50 cows and 170 acres in 1955. Today nearly 60 family members tend 850 registered females, farm 5,600 acres and feed out 25,000 purchased customer cattle each year.
“From those beginnings, I just got involved through having a complete understanding of what Certified Angus Beef does and really wanting to get more hands-on in the direction of the program,” says Schiefelbein.
“Dad grew the farm as he grew his family,” he says.
Each family member coming back to the farm brings his or her own special talent, honed with time away, he explains.
Continue reading this Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.
U.S. Ag Centers’ YouTube Channel Ready
for National Farm Safety Week, Sept. 17-23
The U.S. Agricultural Centers’ YouTube channel provides the quickest way of “Putting Farm Safety into Practice,” the theme for this year’s National Farm Safety and Health Week, Sept. 17-23.
The 11 U.S. Agricultural Centers, funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), have posted 100 safety and health videos related to agriculture, forestry and fishing. The videos, many in both English and Spanish, can be used by Extension agents, agricultural science teachers, producers, first responders, families and others interested in agricultural safety best practices.
The videos have undergone formal review, and only the best are put on YouTube. Popular topics include grain bins, heat illness, tractor rollovers and needlestick injuries.
Agriculture is among our most hazardous industries, with a work-related death rate of 22.2 deaths per 100,000 workers annually, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, far ahead of transportation (13.1 per 100,000) and mining (12.3 per 100,000).
NIOSH joins the Ag Centers in recognizing National Farm Safety and Health Week as an opportunity to emphasize the importance of working together to prevent injuries and illnesses to agriculture workers.
For more information, read more online.
Rangeland Grasses Recover Quickly After Wildfires
There is good news for beef producers in western states: They might not have to wait two to three years after a spring wildfire to graze cattle on federal rangelands.
Lance Vermeire, an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) ecologist in Miles City, Mont., found grazing within a year after a wildfire doesn’t harm grass and can provide just as much forage as sites that haven’t burned.
About 4 million acres of U.S. rangelands burn every year. Not all of that acreage is suitable for grazing, but millions of suitable acres do annually burn in wildfires.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the USDA Forest Service generally recommend waiting up to three years after a fire before allowing grazing, believing that grasses native to the dry climate of the northern prairies need that much time to recover. However, both agencies are shifting away from that position — in large part because of findings by Vermeire and his colleagues.
In studies, Vermeire has found that native grasses usually survive wildfires. When a fire sweeps through, it takes the dead plant material from the surface, but most of the plant, which is below ground, escapes long-term damage.
Read the full ARS news release online.
USCA Concludes Annual Meeting of Members
On Sept. 15 the United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) hosted its Annual Meeting of Members at the Big Horn Resort in Billings, Mont. In addition to USCA leadership, committee chairs, and members, senior staff members from five different agencies at the USDA and U.S. Department of Commerce provided updates on trade, country-of-origin labeling, checkoff, Mandatory Price Reporting, food safety, and animal health and ID issues.
“As a grassroots, member-driven organization, the USCA Annual Meeting is where new policy goals are identified and old policy is reviewed and updated,” USCA President Kenny Graner stated.
“The Annual Meeting serves the important purpose of bringing everyone together under one roof to outline organizational objectives for the new year. Our members are a critical part of this process — all of our policy is brought forward and voted on exclusively by our membership. After new policy is approved, it becomes the road map for USCA’s staff and establishes the goals and directives for our committees and members.”
In addition to policy discussions, the meeting also serves to elect executive officers and members of the board of directors.
Learn more in the USCA news release online.
Pearls of Production, Nov. 3-4, Offers Talks and Tours
on Locally Raised Meat
The executive director of Missouri Farmers Care will headline the fifth annual Pearls of Production: Women in Agriculture workshop Nov. 3-4.
University of Missouri (MU) Extension and MU’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources sponsor the event, which is geared toward helping women in livestock production in Missouri.
Ashley McCarty, executive director of Missouri Farmers Care, will talk about the organization’s Agri-Ready county certification program, which promotes Missouri’s top industry through the joint efforts of 36 commodity groups and agribusiness leaders. Missouri Farmers Care designates counties “Agri-Ready” after reviewing county ordinances and other activities.
McCarty and her husband operate McCarty Cattle Co. on their Kirksville farm. The MU graduate is a representative on the Missouri Clean Water Commission, has worked for the Missouri Department of Agriculture, and served on her local MU Extension council.
The first day of the event will be in Fulton this year, said Marcia Shannon, MU Extension swine specialist. The change was made, in part, because there is an MU football game during the event.
Pearls of Production kicks off 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, at the MU Extension Center in Callaway County.
For more information, visit the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events.
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