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August 1, 2008

Features

Do Preconditioning Programs PAY?

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Burt Rutherford Senior Editor

Trying to decide whether or not to spend the money to precondition your calves, given the profound incentive that cow-calf producers have to cut costs,...

Matching Consumer To Rancher

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Wes Ishmael Contributing Editor

It's not as easy as finding a niche market and sticking with it, explains Mary Forman, who co-founded Country Natural Beef (CNB) with her husband, Lowell....

Taking It To THE STREET

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Meghan Sapp

The summer of 2008 may well be remembered as the year farmers stood up to say to falling prices and higher production costs. Or, at least in Europe. Earlier...

Keeping The Faith

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Burt Rutherford Senior Editor

Tom Woodward doesn't take his hat off very often. You know that by the sweat-stain circle where brim meets crown, and by its sunburned and wind-beaten...

ID Feedback

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Lee Schulz and Glynn Tonsor

Because cow-calf producers are the first player in the beef-supply chain, their priorities and concerns in the design of a national, individual animal...

BEEF Feeder

Locking In Your CORN

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Larry Stalcup

Incredibly high grain prices apparently aren't going away, and plentiful supplies of corn might be harder to find for feedyard managers. But by contracting...

Hard To Manage

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Burt Rutherford Senior Editor

Trying to manage fuel costs in a feedyard is a bit like paying taxes. Your options are fairly limited. There's just not an easy fix for it, says Sam Stevenson,...

Hedge In A Profit?

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Larry Stalcup

Cattle feeders haven't had much to smile about in the past year or so, what with ethanol-fueled corn prices and persistently strong feeder cattle prices...

2008 Alliance Yellow Pages

Gearing Up Or Gearing Down?

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Amanda Nolz BEEF Intern

With skyrocketing production costs and tough consumer economic conditions, the beef industry is facing challenging times. But do those margin-squeezing...

Still Tough Sledding

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Wes Ishmael Contributing Editor

Never mind the logistics of supplying cattle so that retailers can offer a particular brand of beef every day of the year. Ignore the need to sell enough...

Editor's Roundup

Do the right thing

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, by Joe Roybal editor

At press time, officials, retailers and consumers were scanning their ground beef supplies, on the lookout for 5.3 million lbs. potentially contaminated...

BEEF XPress

This month in brief

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM

As feeder-cattle and feeder-calf prices adjust to new market dynamics of corn, ranchers are left with little leverage regarding the cost of gain beyond...

Beef exports booming

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM

Beef (including variety meat) exports in May hit 184.6 million lbs., the largest volume since December 2003, reports the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF)....

Flood relief

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association and state cattlemen associations are teaming up to provide disaster assistance to farm and ranch families impacted...

New chief lobbyist

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM

J. Burton Eller, former National Cattlemen's Association executive, has been named head of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's Washington, D.C....

State of the industry

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM

Find BEEF magazine's annual state-of-the-industry report at: beefmagazine.com/advertisers/BEEF%20SOI%202008_0609.pdf. Penned by Shane Ellis, Iowa State...

Reader's Viewpoint

Temple Grandin on prods

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM

I would like to make an additional comment on Boone Carter's article on low-stress cattle handling regarding the use of electric prods (Don't Stress,...

Market Advisor

Find your red flags

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, by Harlan Hughes contributing editor

Part IV in a series on the changing corn environment. The original renewable fuels standard (RFS) triggered the current expansion in ethanol production...

Cattle Economics

The question is premiums

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, by Wes Ishmael contributing editor

With high feed prices, producers might be tempted to skip preconditioning calves this fall to save on costs, but if producers get a premium of $6/cwt.,...

My Perspective

Half-empty or half-full?

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, by Ron Torell guest contributor

Those of us in the agriculture industry are generally the rather than type of people. That is, we tend to see the positive side of a situation, but our...

Vets' Opinion

What is a premium?

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, by Dave Sjeklocha contributing editor

As a veterinarian, clients frequently ask me: Can I get a premium for my preconditioned calves? I always respond with: What is a premium? Premiums can...

BEEF Tech

Tag and tissue collection

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, compiled by Alaina Burt managing editor

Merial has combined a radio-frequency ID (RFID) tag and tissue-collection device for use with the Igenity profile. Producers can now collect tissue samples...