News Update
January 26, 2015
2015 NCBA Trade Show
Breaks Another Record
2015 Cattle Industry Convention goers will not want to miss the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Trade Show in San Antonio, Texas, Feb. 4-7. With 337 companies in attendance, this is the largest, most advanced trade show for the cattle industry. Every year groundbreaking technologies and ideas are introduced at the event, in addition to expert demonstrations on topics that will benefit cattlemen and women from across the nation.
“This is going to be our largest NCBA Trade Show to date, with nearly 6 acres of exhibit space, and something for everyone in the cattle industry,” said NCBA President and Victoria, Texas, cattleman Bob McCan. “Now more than ever, it’s critical for cattlemen and women to stay apprised of current industry technology and innovative concepts to help optimize their operations.”
Highlights of the Trade Show include:
Demonstration Area — This area will feature NCBA’s Beef Quality Assurance program Stockmanship & Stewardship. These sessions will teach handling methods that improve gathering, penning, chute work and hauling on horseback. Much of the emphasis is placed on ways to increase cattle performance by reducing handling stress. Interactive discussions will show how cattlemen can actually shape consumers’ perception of beef. Cattle-handling experts Curt Pate and Ron Gill will teach each of these informative sessions.
Efficient, low-stress cattle handling with stock dogs — Don’t miss this entertaining and educational session presented by the National Cattle Dog Association on Wednesday, Feb. 4 only.
Learning Lounge — NCBA Trade Show presents the NCBA Learning Lounge. These 30-minute “lightning sessions” will offer busy attendees valuable educational tips. The Learning Lounge is where attendees can stop in and enjoy informal, face-to-face talks and hands-on technology education in a small intimate theater-like setting right on the trade show floor.
For more information, please view the full release here.
NFB Foundation for Agriculture Distributes
Tornado Disaster Relief Fund to Help Farmers and Ranchers
Nebraska Farm Bureau (NFB) Foundation for Agriculture recently distributed just more than $15,000, which was collected for the Tornado Disaster Relief Fund. Farmers and ranchers from across the state that were affected by the tornados and in need of emergency and residual help were given the opportunity to apply for funding.
The farmers and ranchers who applied for the funds were affected by tornados in Friend, Wayne and Pilger. Those receiving help from the fund are:
- Paul and Deb Segner of Friend who farm and raise hogs in Seward County;
- Todd Nelson of Laurel who farms and raises cattle in Cedar County;
- Eric Von Seggern of Von Seggern Farms in Wisner who farms in Cuming County; and
- Aaron Biermann of Biermann Farm near Wisner who farms and raises hogs in Wayne County.
“When a tornado damages a farmstead or a livestock operation, the needs of farmers and ranchers are a bit different. They need to critically assess how to save their crops and how to address the health of their livestock,” said Deanna Karmazin, executive director of the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.
“Many of these emergency actions and needs are not directly supported by government and other nonprofit disaster relief efforts, which tend to be more community based,” Karmazin said.
“We just think there are unique and extraordinary costs, like the labor involved in the cleanup of the fields and livestock facilities. The costs and unanticipated expenses of trying to get a farm business back in operation is a tremendous burden and most emergency disaster programs don’t include this type of assistance,” she said.
The funds collected for the Tornado Disaster Relief Fund targeted farmers and ranchers that need help with immediate needs and who cannot get assistance from other sources, such as government programs and have losses that are not covered by insurance.
“We are happy to provide emergency assistance for farmers and ranchers affected by the tornadoes for such things as food and clothing, prescriptions/medical supplies, feed/fence/relocation costs, vet costs, field cleanup costs, rental assistance/mortgage payment for home or business, utility and propane payments and other critical unmet needs,” Karmazin said.
Soundness Exams, Genetic Testing Improve Herd Performance
The value of a herd bull is determined not just by his genetic merit, but also by the number of calves he may or may not sire, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service specialist.
Emerging DNA technology offers the opportunity to identify genetic markers for traits of interest and identify individual sires used in multiple-sire breeding pastures, said Bruce Carpenter, livestock specialist, Fort Stockton.
“We know there is a lot of variability that we can’t manage in our herds, so let’s do what we can, and that begins with an annual breeding soundness exam of all herd bulls,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter, speaking at the recent Southwest Beef Symposium in Amarillo, said, “The thing we know about managing bull fertility is the breeding soundness exam performed by a qualified vet is the best and most practical predictor of potential fertility.”
However, it is not a fertility guarantee, he said.
There are reasons some bulls don’t perform, Carpenter said, and with new genetic-testing technology, researchers are learning more about this.
“It is often said the bull is half the calf crop, but that’s not always true — he can be more or less,” Carpenter said. “If he is genetically superior, that is great if he is more. If he provides less desirable traits, but is siring 70%-80% of the calves, that may not be so good.”
He said in the past few years, large-scale studies coming from California and Australia have shed some light on which bulls may be doing their job out in the breeding pasture and which ones may not.
“If you are just hauling pounds of beef to the salering, the most valuable bull may not be the one with the best genetics,” Carpenter said. “It’s the one that puts the most calves on the ground.”
In all these studies, he said the bulls passed a breeding soundness exam, so that potential variable was removed, or bull prolificacy might have been even more inconsistent.
There were some bulls in California that sired a lot of calves, which made them more valuable than those which possessed superior genetics but provided fewer calves to sell, he said. In another California study, steers from 16 different bulls were sold at 10 months of age. Carcass premiums averaged $721 and were similar for all bulls.
“The premiums, due to good carcass genetics sired by all these bulls, were sure nice for the producers to be able to put in their pockets,” Carpenter said. “But when researchers identified which bulls were actually ‘doing the work,’ that ranged from a low of seven to a high of 77 steers sold per bull over five calf crops.”
Because of the variability among individual bulls in number of calves sired, contributions to gross income ranged from $4,881 to $55,889, he said.
For more information, please view the full release here.
Feral Hog Management Workshop Offered Jan. 29 in Seymour
A Feral Hog Management Workshop will be offered by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Baylor County on Jan. 29.
The meeting will begin with registration at 1 p.m. and adjourn at 5 p.m. in the Cliff Styles Activity Center, 1205 Archer Road, Seymour, Texas.
There is no registration fee and those in attendance can earn three hours of Texas Department of Agriculture private pesticide applicator continuing education units — two general units and one laws-and-regulations unit.
To ensure an accurate number of handouts and food, those planning to attend need to RSVP by Jan. 27 by calling 940-889-5581 or emailing Baylor@ag.tamu.edu, said Martin Shaw, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Baylor County.
“Feral Hogs are a big financial concern for producers in Baylor County as they destroy crops and fencing every day,” Shaw said. “This program should provide landowners with different avenues to help with the control of feral hogs within Baylor County as we have several speakers coming to discuss different management techniques.”
Topics will be:
- Basic biology of feral swine and feral hog damage in watersheds;
- Progression of the wildlife industry from survival to sport and profit;
- Feral hog control;
- Feral hog trap demonstration; and
- Information about helicopter hog hunts.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
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