News Update
March 14, 2018
Lighten Workloads, Pack on Pounds
You go to work well before sunup, and you don’t hang up your hat until after sundown. With so much to get done, hours in the feedyard click by in a hot minute. Cattle are constantly moving — feeder cattle coming in, market cattle shipping out. Your list continues, from processing 100-plus head at the chute to moving and checking on cattle that could be miles from where you’re standing now.
It is more important now than ever for feedlot operators to take advantage of every tool and technology available to increase overall gain and to improve labor efficiencies and operational flexibility.
When it comes to evaluating a feedlot’s performance and average daily gain (ADG) goals, Richard Zinn, renowned researcher and animal science professor at the University of California–Davis, closely examines four things.
“I would first look at the implant program — that’s No. 1,” he says. “No tool has a greater impact on average daily gain and gain efficiency (FE) than the implant, so this is an area that feedlots should pay very close attention to, and then the use of feed additives, feeding management and the effective fiber content of the diet.”
Read the full Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.
Secretary Perdue Statement on Extension
of Agriculture Exemption from ELD Mandate
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue March 13 applauded Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao for her announcement of an additional 90-day extension of the agriculture exemption from the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate. Agricultural compliance with the mandate would have been problematic for the agriculture industry because the devices do not accurately account for the agricultural exemptions currently provided in the law.
The ELD rule went into effect in December 2017, with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) granting the agriculture industry an initial exemption that was set to expire on March 18, 2018.
With the granting of another extension, the agriculture industry will now have additional time to comply.
Secretary Sonny Perdue said in regards to the extension:
“The ELD mandate imposes restrictions upon the agriculture industry that lack flexibility necessary for the unique realities of hauling agriculture commodities. If the agriculture industry had been forced to comply by the March 18 deadline, live agricultural commodities, including plants and animals, would have been at risk of perishing before they reached their destination. The 90-day extension is critical to give DOT additional time to issue guidance on hours-of-service and other ELD exemptions that are troubling for agriculture haulers.”
For more information, read the USDA news release online.
Beef Talk
I did some pondering as I traveled to and from recent commercial bull-selection workshops. The travel time offered the opportunity to ruminate on current news regarding the management of growth in the beef industry and related beef carcass size. Once home, dangling thoughts remain.
Bull-buying season is a great opportunity for beef producers to steer carcass size through sire selection, and as long as a producer is at the steering wheel, that is what one should do.
First, what road does one want to be on? Even when one picks a road and arrives at an intersection, it seems to be rather congested. In fact, some days, the traffic light isn’t even working, and all one gets is a lot of honking horns and lots of opinions.
This is very different from the day the bull quietly walked out to summer pasture to mate with the grazing cow herd. Perhaps we should “take the bull by the horns” and fix the issue, remembering we used genetics to remove the horns decades ago.
Can we not tackle the size issue, as well?
Continue reading this Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.
Grazing Lands Focus of Upcoming National Conference
The National Grazing Lands Coalition will host the 7th National Conference on Grazing Lands Dec. 2-5, 2018, at the Peppermill in Reno, Nev. Conference organizers expect more than 800 ranchers, professors, land managers, researchers, public officials, conservationists and students to attend this national conference and participate in the exchange of ideas and information on the latest grazing land issues.
“We are excited about bringing this national conference to Nevada,” said Chad Ellis, chair of the National Grazing Lands Coalition. “Grazing lands make up more than a quarter of the private land acres in the United States and serve many roles from homes for livestock and wildlife to sponges for rainfall, carbon reservoirs, hunting and fishing grounds, and much, much more.”
Featured speakers include two renowned grazing experts, Jim Gerrish and Fred Provenza. Gerrish is a grazing lands producer and consultant dedicated to aiding farmers and ranchers in more effectively managing their grazing lands for economic and environmental sustainability. Provenza is a professor emeritus at Utah State University who produced groundbreaking research over a more than 30-year career that laid the foundations for what is now known as behavior-based landscape management.
For more information please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events.
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