The Cattle Blog 2014

Written by: Sandra Avant, ARS News Service Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are investigating methods to help beef cattle producers further improve genetic evaluations for routinely measured traits such as growth and calving ease. They are also targeting economically important...

While the long and often controversial effort to develop a national animal identification (ID) system may not be completely finalized yet, complying with animal ID and movement regulations is now the law of the land. And it has been for a while. U.S. cattle producers and their veterinarians...

The U.S. beef industry is confronted with a significant long-term decline in cattle numbers driven in part by record input costs and severe drought conditions in many major cattle-producing states. These recent challenges only add to the long-term issues the industry has faced, which include an...

The Food and Drug Administration released its National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) 2011 Executive Report this week, showing...

I found this short, but great article.  I do know that it works!As calving season approaches, think about how to make your job easier and potentially save more calves at calving. Calving season can be challenging for producers. Long hours, not enough labor, and Mother Nature are only a few...

Here's an interesting read.  I found this on the BovineVet website. Maintaining high levels of nutrition plays an important role in a cow's reproductive performance, but recent research from two separate studies indicates that nutritional management immediately following artificial...

I found this article interesting.  With IL attempting to have a referendum, it may help shed some light. Every dollar invested in the Beef Checkoff Program between 2006 and 2013 returned about $11.20 to the beef industry, according to a study by Dr. Harry Kaiser of Cornell University. "It...

FOLLOWING on the discovery of a genetic mutation in certain breeds of dairy cattle that links high milk production to infertility (Feedstuffs, Jan. 13), researchers in Germany reported another genetic defect linked to infertility in cattle. To verify the small anomaly that may have "...

Hello all.While I am not an authority on the whole antibiotic issue, I do try to keep abreast of pertinent research.  Here's an interesting one that I read that was on the Feedstuffs website.  (see the following url for the original posting:...

Hello all,I thought this is a rather important topic for cattlemen - parasite resistance to dewormers.  While I have provided programming to small ruminant producers about anthelmintic resistance, it is also an issue for cattlemen.  If we keep using dewormers indiscriminately, we may lose...

Maintaining healthy livestock can be achieved through knowledge of which chemical parameters affect nutritional status, the natural occurrence of chemicals, plus regional and seasonal variability of water quality, A.M. Dietrich of Virginia Tech explained here at the 2014 Joint Annual Meeting of the...