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Angus Journal

News Update

June 8, 2016

Autogenous Vaccines for Cattle

Autogenous vaccines are custom-made vaccines (often called a herd-specific vaccine), utilizing a pathogen that a veterinarian isolates from an animal or several animals within that herd. The pathogen sample is sent to a laboratory that cultures and grows it, creating the vaccine specifically for that herd. There are a number of reasons that autogenous vaccines may be needed. Due to high costs of research and development, there may not be a vaccine for a certain pathogen that only exists in one region of the country or affects only a small segment of the livestock industry.

Gary Spina, national sales manager for Hygieia Biological Laboratories in Woodland, Calif., says his company creates a variety of autogenous vaccines for livestock.

“We offer autogenous pinkeye vaccines and occasionally salmonella. Those are the two main ones in beef cattle and dairy. If something else comes up that they are not being protected against, if we have the means to grow the bacteria or the viruses, we can do it,” he says.

For instance, some ranchers have problems in calves with Clostridium perfringens causing acute toxic gut infections.

For more information, please view the full Angus Media news article online.

— Adapted from an article by Heather Smith Thomas, Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA.

In the Cattle Markets

As producers continue to make both short-term and longer-term decisions in managing their operations, it is useful to periodically step back and take stock of characteristics depicting the industry more broadly. The recently updated estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) of production costs and returns offer an opportunity to increase our understanding of regional variation in the U.S. cow-calf sector.

Twice a year, USDA ERS considers returns in nine different regions, as well as the country as a whole (see map above). Table 1 provides a summary of how production costs and returns per bred cow varied regionally in 2015. Overall, the significant variation across regions reflects a host of factors, including differences in land use, weaning weights and operation size.

Table 1 also highlights how western production zones are characterized on average by larger operations than those in the East. Note the regional ranges for total cost are nearly $200 per cow larger than operating cost. To further highlight the role of operation size in regional variability, note returns over total cost are very highly correlated (0.87) with the number of bred cows USDA estimates for a representative operation in each region.

For more information, please view the full Angus Media news article online.

— Adapted from an article by Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University.

Making the Most of Your Feedstuffs

Carl Dahlen, North Dakota State University beef cattle specialist, was a recent guest on Angus Talk, a weekly radio program on Rural Radio, Channel 147. Tune in at 10 a.m. CST each Saturday morning on SiriusXM Radio.

1. Q: So tell us from a nutrition perspective, what should Angus producers be doing now to get their cows into optimal breeding condition?
2. A: The things that we need to realize right now: our cows and calves have a dramatic increase in the demands on their body, so their milk production goes up to feed that calf, the nutrition intake goes up — but we never get that intake quite as high as milk production. That’s called a negative energy balance. So what happens is that after these cows calve they have a negative energy balance, so they lose body condition. Our goal right now is to minimize the body condition loss and then also get those cows turned around so we can be gaining body condition. If they are not gaining body condition, we have to come into that breeding season on that increasing plane of nutrition.

For more information, please view the full Angus Media news article online.

— Adapted from an article by Doug Medlock, Angus Talk.

Peterson Statement on House Poverty Proposal

House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson June 7 made the following statement on the release of the House Republican Task Force proposal on poverty. The plan includes changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under the Agriculture Committee’s jurisdiction.

“Political documents in a political year are not the answer to improving nutrition programs. This proposal is strikingly similar to amendments that nearly derailed the 2014 Farm Bill. I believe that if the House chooses to go down this path we will never be able to pass another farm bill.

“I have been supportive of the Agriculture Committee’s 14 hearings to learn more about SNAP and look at ways for the program to be improved. But this proposal’s focus on political ideology ignores the larger picture and areas where we can find some agreement. The Agriculture Committee has a tradition of working together, and I hope we can continue that moving forward.”

— Adapted from a release by the House Committee on Agriculture.

K-State Recognizes ‘Top Hand’ at 2016 Cattle Feeders College

Kansas State University in cooperation with Merck Animal Health recognized Kendall Lock of Triangle H as the recipient of the “Top Hand” award at the 2016 Milling and Maintenance Session of the Kansas State University (K-State) Cattle Feeders College hosted May 24 in Garden City, Kan.

The “Top Hand” awards were initiated in 2010 to recognize outstanding employees in the commercial feeding industry.

“The cattle feeding industry is full of honest, hard-working men and women that do their jobs and do them well,” said Justin Waggoner, K-State Research and Extension beef specialist and coordinator of the awards and the Cattle Feeders College. “The Top Hand award provides cattle feeders with a unique opportunity to thank the men and women of their operations that go above and beyond their job descriptions every day. These individuals have shown an exceptional amount of dedication to their employers and the industry.”

Lock began working for Triangle H in 2005, but began his career in the cattle feeding industry shortly after his graduation from K-State in 1991.

For more information, please view the full release online.

— Adapted from a release by Justin Waggoner, K-State Research and Extension.

— Compiled by Paige Nelson, field editor, Angus Journal.

 
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