K-State’s Winter Ranch Management Series Set for January and February

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Profit enhancing strategies included in the topics for the 2020 Kansas State University Winter Ranch Management Seminar Series. Hosted at five sites across the state of Kansas, the meetings will feature presentations and comments by extension educators to enhance management and marketing strategies employed by cow-calf producers. The meetings will also feature a popular "town hall" style question-and-answer session between Kansas cattle producers and extension specialists. "The series has a history…

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University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension Beef Economics Team Annual Beef Heifer Replacement Forecasts for the 2019 – 2020 Production Season (Summary Briefing)

Randy Saner, Nebraska Extension EducatorMatt Stockton, Nebraska Extension Ag Economics Specialist While the selection of replacement animals in a herd of beef cattle may differ from ranch to ranch, there are three factors seen by the authors as critically important that affect their value as replacements. Photo credit Troy Walz. What is a respectable value of a beef replacement heifer for the coming 2019-2020 production season? This can be a complicated choice, but…

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Breaking the Ice

Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County, OSU Extension Happy Holidays readers! With holiday gatherings a plenty right now, I thought maybe you would appreciate a suggestion for a conversation starter. Why not break the ice about breaking the ice? Owners of livestock and pets will probably sympathize with you over a cup of hot cider by the tree. With the cold finally settling in, keeping free flowing water available can…

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Differences Between High-, Medium-, and Low-Profit Cow-Calf Producers: An Analysis of 2014-2018 Kansas Farm Management Association Cow-Calf Enterprise – A Review

Good production with cost control differentiated the most profitable producers from those that were the least profitable. Photo credit Troy Walz. Listen to a discussion of the content in this article on this episode of the BeefWatch podcast. You can subscribe to new episodes in iTunes or paste http://feeds.feedburner.com/unlbeefwatch into your podcast app. This study by Whitney Bowman, Dustin L. Pendell Ph.D. and Kevin L. Herbel can be found at the Kansas State…

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Use the Numbers (correctly) this Bull Sale Season

Matt Spangler, UNL Associate Professor and Beef Genetics Extension Specialist This bull sale season do not make the process more complex than it really needs to be. Photo credit Troy Walz. This bull sale season, profit-minded cattle producers will utilize expected progeny differences (EPD) and economic selection indices when selecting their next group of bulls. These tools are far more accurate at predicting the average difference in offspring than visual appraisal or actual…

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A Strong Finish to the Year

Stephen R. Koontz, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics – Colorado State University Without a doubt, the cattle markets are closing the year far stronger than I expected.  Live cattle futures have pushed into new highs and cash fed cattle prices are back to tracking the price levels and seasonal patterns of last year.  There were some unique market drivers that I discussed last month.  Most are still present, are not typical, and…

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Castration Timing, Technique Options and Pain Management

Animal welfare is ever present in the beef producer's mind when considering the optimal management strategies to maximize the productivity of the calf. One of the most stressful times in a male calf's life is when he experiences castration. Optimum Castration Timing In regard to the optimum time for the procedure, Kansas State veterinarians Dr. Bob Larson and Dr. Hans Coetzee recommend castrating bull calves in the first few days of life after…

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Economics of Traceability

While no beef producer ever wants to experience a catastrophic disease outbreak in the herd, in seeing the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and FMD (food and mouth disease) outbreaks that have occurred in the world, cattle raisers must prepare for that possibility. One way to minimize the risks to the herd is to adopt a cattle tracking system such as CattleTrace. With that system cattle are given an ultra high radio frequency tag…

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Antibiotic Stewardship: Protecting Animal and Human Health

By Myriah Johnson, Ph.D.Economics Program Leader and Agricultural Economics Consultant Promoting the proper use of antibiotics in animal agriculture to preserve their efficacy for both animal and human health is of prime importance. That’s a goal of the International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Agriculture (ICASA), which Noble Research Institute became a founding member of in 2018. The industry-oriented program was created by the nonprofit Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research to advance…

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The hidden cost of cow depreciation

K-State experts advise beef producers on ways to minimize this expense MANHATTAN, Kan. –  When asking cow-calf producers what it costs to raise cattle, often they will list feed and equipment as two of the largest expenses they have. Others might include labor on the list. But experts at Kansas State University say that one cost not often thought of or accounted for is the decreasing value of the cow over time. “Labor,…

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