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November 1, 2007

Features

Competing with the Big Boys

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Larry Stalcup

Gerald Scheckel the farmer added more corn acres this year. An ethanol-fueled price near $4 will do that for a Midwest grower with about 5,000 tillable...

Horse Traitors

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Wes Ishmael Contributing Editor

Horses are free for the asking. Sometimes they're even free without asking as unwanted horses turn up in sale barn pens, tied to someone's corral or are...

TAX DAY!

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Larry Stalcup

Thanksgiving dinner is planned. Christmas carols will soon tease the senses with promises of glad tidings to come. A New Year is just around the corner....

STOP, Thief!

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Burt Rutherford Senior Editor

Mention livestock identification nowadays and you're likely to get a wide range of reactions. Mention it to a rustler, however, and the reaction is likely...

Paying Ahead

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Joe Roybal Editor

It's customary for time-burnished veterans to give back to their profession, but what about fresh-faced hopefuls yet to formally join the working ranks...

Beef Quality Advocate

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Clint Peck Contributing Editor

The beef industry must work day to day to keep its eye on the target. That's the motivation for Carl Crabtree, a Grangeville, ID rancher, in his efforts to make sure Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) programming remains “job one” throughout the U.S. beef industry.

For nearly 20 years, BQA educational programming has reached thousands of beef and dairy producers in nearly every state. BQA concepts have been instrumental in...

Redefining Carcass EPDs

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Burt Rutherford Senior Editor

Back in the day, when the cash market dominated the packer-feeder buying relationship, a packer buyer never perched a boot on a feedbunk, cast a critical...

Computer Savvy: Accounting

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Alaina Burt Managing Editor

For the past 15 years, Damona Doye, Oklahoma State University Extension economist from Stillwater, has helped producers transition from shoeboxes of receipts...

Wheat Shift

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Wes Ishmael Contributing Editor

Used to be, the primary question concerning wheat pasture was whether or not Mother Nature would make a crop. Now the questions are as much about whether...

Risky Business

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Burt Rutherford Senior Editor

In the past, about the best any feedyard could do with lightweight, high-risk calves was to treat with an antibiotic, give them a good-luck pat on the...

Talking The Talk

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Burt Rutherford Senior Editor

Isaias Delgado walks into the processing barn at Garden City Feedyard and smiles. He's in his element, and he's among friends. The processing crew looks...

A Long, Thin Line

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Burt Rutherford Senior Editor

There are some words in an obscure country song that the tick riders along the Rio Grande River between Texas and Mexico can appreciate. It's a long,...

Editor's Roundup

National Stocker Survey is underway

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, by Joe Roybal editor

BEEF editors are excited about the magazine's latest venture into better serving the stocker/backgrounder segment of the U.S. beef industry. In cooperation...

BEEF XPress

This month in brief

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Given agriculture's new biofuels era, Market Advisor columnist Harlan Hughes says he's receiving quite a few phone calls these days from ranchers looking...

Interstate shipment

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM

The House farm bill provision that would allow for the interstate shipment of state-inspected meat has met objections in the Senate....

PSA enforcement

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Twelve senators have written the Senate Agriculture Committee urging provisions in the farm bill that improve enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards...

Food safety commission

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, plans to mandate a Presidential Commission on Food Safety in the farm bill. Harkin...

ID surveyed

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM

More than 85% of those completing an informal survey at the recent ID-INFO EXPO 2007 believe the U.S. is falling behind other developed countries in animal...

Running for office

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM

USDA Secretary Mike Johanns resigned his post to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Chuck Hagel (R-NE). Johanns, a former Nebraska governor,...

BEEF Book Corner

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM

This handy, 148-page manual is aimed specifically for small-scale operations and includes everything one needs to know to get started or restarted in...

Reader's Viewpoint

The brush was too broad

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM

As a full-time rancher, and one who works closely with my veterinarian and vaccine representative, I take issue with the comments by veterinarian John...

Market Advisor

Marketing 2007 calves

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, by Harlan Hughes contributing editor

Given the emerging biofuels era in agriculture, I've received quite a few phone calls recently from ranchers looking at retaining their weaned calves...

Cattle Economics

Playing smaller

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, by Wes Ishmael contributing editor

Forget ethanol; the key long-term driver of change and opportunity in the U.S. beef cattle industry is its continued decline in size. Since 1980, this...

Research Roundup

Heterosis boosts bottom line

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, compiled by Alaina Burt managing editor

Crossbreeding has the potential to significantly boost return in a vertically coordinated marketing system, California State University-Chico researchers...

BEEF Tech

Heat for waterers

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, compiled by Alaina Burt managing editor

Ritchie Industries' 250-watt, 120-volt Immersion Heater features an epoxy coating to protect against corrosion and metal contact with water. An upper-end...

News Closeout

Ethanol subsidies unnecessary, study finds

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, compiled by BEEF staff

An Economic Perspective, a study by Thomas Elam of FarmEcon.com, indicates the ethanol industry no longer needs a high level of federal support. Elam...