clicRweight NEWS

It Takes Strategy to Build a Cattle Ranch

2011-10-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

Ittakes a lot of strategy to figure out how you are going to raise your herd ofcattle. Some people say it is best to buy young calves, and others say that thebest means to build a quality herd is to buy older feeder cattle that canprovide an instant revenue factor. The main thing you have to do is to pursueevery resource possible, and that can include local newspapers, the Internet,local farming organizations, and just doing basic homework. Local auctions arethe perfect place to start your business if you have the money to start yourcattle ranch, but networking with local and national cattle ranchers can makeall the difference.

Nextyou have to figure out how to run your ranch, even before the cattle start toarrive. You need to determine the type of grass you want your cattle to thriveon and you need to make sure your land is usable for a large herd. Consulting aveterinarian is important to find out if your land is suitable for raisingcattle. Once again, doing research on the Internet can make a big differenceand save you a lot of time researching the issues you need to deal with beforestarting your cattle ranch.

Manycattle ranchers do not concern themselves with the shelter that will be neededfor their ranch, but it is an important part of the cattle ranching business.Shelter is vital, especially in the Midwest where most cattle is raised and theweather can be harsh throughout certain times of the year. The cattle need to surviveon your land and once the temperature climbs or the winds and rains startkicking up, it is very important to make sure your cattle is safe andcomfortable from the elements.

Remember,cattle need to eat and stay healthy so that they can bring in a big price atthe auction, so finding the right feed is vital. Hay is important and whilemany agree that Legume hay is the best way to produce good cattle that will inturn provide good beef, look at all of the other options. Some are now sayingthat alfalfa is the best fed for cattle even if it the most expensive. It isimportant to weight the bottom line when raising cattle. Also, always be sureto have plenty of salt available for the herd because is crucial to them.

Finally,make sure that your herd is hydrated at all times.

Thetypical cow requires at least 12 gallons of water every day because water isthe main source of nutrients for your herd. Water consumption is vital allyear, but make certain you have tested the water for various types of bacteriathat might affect the consumption and the health of the herd.

JeffBerlinicke

Cattle Ranching Hasn’t Changed Much in 200 Years

2011-10-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Outwith the old and in with the new is not necessarily the best way to examinecattle ranching as it is today. Many of the ways the earliest cattle ranchersfrom centuries ago still work today, even in the Internet and high-tech societythat is overtaking the cattle ranching industry. There are significantdifferences from state to state, but there is one thing that they all have incommon and that is that cattle ranching is thriving and the nation’s love ofbeef is not going away anytime soon.

TheInternet and new marketing strategies are certainly a part of the new cattleranching industry, but there are plenty of ranchers who are sticking to theirold ways, doing things the way they were done long ago. In rural areas, manyranchers do not have the access to the Net and to the endless information thatmay or may not be adequate to suit their needs, so they use the methods thathave been so successful in the past.

Thereare definitely benefits to today’s new technology and it comes in handy forthose that have access, but smaller ranchers still hit the local cattleauctions rather than going to the Net. The local auction is still the favoredway to sell cattle. You can see the cattle on sale instead of just a photo onthe Net.

Internetsales of cattle have not caught on as expected. People everywhere are shoppingon the Net, but cattle ranchers still want to go to the local auctions. Inorder for the Internet sales to grow, they have to compete with the smallauctions that have been a way of life in the Midwest for as long as the countryhas existed.

Also,in rural areas, Internet service does not come quite as easily, so the localauctions are more convenient. Interruptions in service, or even small delays,can cost a small rancher a lot of money because immediacy is vital today.Person to person contact is the way most ranchers do their business despite thechanges taking place today. Studies also indicated a rancher’s reputation impactspricing. According to the study, a rancher with a positive reputation “willrealize a higher price across all cattle marketing channels,” and does not haveto pigeonhole themselves into one particular cattle marketing channel.

JeffBerlinicke

With Cattle, the More Thins Change, the More It Stays the Same

2011-10-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Obviously, the world of cattle ranching is one that isn’t easilyunderstood, but most of the world relies on beef as one of the staples of theirdaily diet and it comes from those people who tend to their herds on a dailybasis, making sure they are healthy and that, ultimately, their beef makes fora product that is healthy. It is not an easy job and since the world eats somuch beef, the market is high and can pay off in a big way if it is donecorrectly. The goal for the cattle rancher is to get the highest productionpossible while keeping overhead to a minimum, so new techniques are alwaysbeing introduced to the cattle ranching business.

The cattle ranching business has certainly changed over time. It is nolonger operated by cowboys roaming the Midwest searching for quantity overquality. The business is a real business and newcomers have a lot to learn.People will always be eating beef and it is up to the cattle ranchers toproduce quality beef at a high rate. It isn’t easy, but at least the policiesthat have been put into place by the United State government has made it muchmore safe and made the quality of beef better and more healthy.

What does the future hold for the cattle ranching business? It will beinteresting as Americans and the rest of the world try to eliminate red meatmore and more and organic cattle ranchers are claiming a larger stake of thebusiness, but eating beef will continue and there’s no doubt about that. Aslong as policies are in place and regulations continue, the quality of beefwill remain up to standard.

As far as the ranchers themselves, it is a way of life that can’t bechanged too much from the way it used to be more than 100 years ago. Technologyand data collection has changed things, but cattle is still cattle and ascattle ranchers continue to live off the land, things aren’t going to changevery much.

The romantic notion of living on the range is outdated, but it is stilla way of life. Drive across the plains of the Midwest and you can still seecattle grazing in the open just as they did a hundred years ago. The beefindustry hasn’t changed as much as you might think despite the changes inbreeding and tending to health issues among the herd. The techniques may changebut beef and the cattle that produce it will always be the same.

Jeff Berlinicke

Make Sure Your Land Can Handle Your Herd

2011-10-16T10:13:00.001-07:00

Justbecause you have plenty of land and are ready to start your own cattle ranch,don’t take all of that land for granted. You are dealing with cattle that carea lot more about their feed than they care about how much land upon which theycan roam. Let’s say you purchase your land in the spring when the grass isgreen and looks healthy. It doesn’t stay that way for long. By summer time itcan become very hard and dry, so make sure you are prepared to deal with thedifferent seasons and the effects they can have on your land and your herd.

Itisn’t what most cattle ranchers think about when they get into the business asromantic visions of cowboy life are glorified, ,but that has nothing to do withtoday’s cattle ranching industry. You have to learn about different types ofgrass and plan the future of your ranch on the type of grass you use. You alsohave to make sure that your land is capable of producing the types of grass youare looking for to supply feed for your cattle.

Itisn’t all about the use of land and grass that produce a successful cattleranch. Shelter is also vital in raising a productive and profitable herd. Youdon’t need to spend a fortune on high-tech shelter, because most of your herdwill be perfectly content to spend their time roaming the land that you provideas long as you make sure they are well fed and have plenty of medicalattention.

Ifyou know your land and understand what your herd wants and needs, the cattleshould feel welcome. Make sure that there are trees so that the cattle can findshade and the trees can also provide shelter when it rains or snows.

Makingsure your fences are in good working order is vital. It doesn’t have to beelaborate, but sturdy wired fencing can keep your cattle from roaming out ofbounds and into dangerous territory. Cattle ranching ahs its challenges but itdoesn’t have to be difficult if you are willing to put up the financialresources and treat the cattle as a little more than a revenue producer. Takingquality care of your cattle will go a long way to producing a quality cattleranch and the financial benefits go a long way.

JeffBerlinicke

To Stress Or Not to Stress When Handling Cattle

2011-10-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Cattlestress is not exactly a hot topic unless of course you deal with cows on aregular basis. With the amount of beef and dairy products that are consumed inthis country it is easy to understand that dealing with cattle is a big job forsome people. It seems that there is always time for improvement in pretty muchanything and handling cattle is no different. While there is no"cow-whisperer" at this point, looking to Bud Williams, a leading experton handling cattle, will help to handle a cow with less stress.

Stressand time management or the lack thereof, seems to go hand in hand. When thingsare done in a rush it will make the time generally more stressful. This is trueof many times in everyday life and true when handling cattle also. Stress makesit harder to get things done with cattle. It is a fact that calves will getstressed and therefore slow down their regular weight gain. If the movement ofcattle involves excitement and wild running then mothers can lose their calves,and that is very upsetting for them.

Whencattle run wildly it is also bad for business in other ways. Besides the cowsbecoming stressed and the aftermath of that, some will be injured. It is alsomore likely handlers will be injured with activity such as this. There is alsogoing to be a much greater amount of wear and tear of equipment when cattle getwild and worked up. That means money and man hours being used to fix and replace these things.

Whilethe idea of taking more time to move cattle seems counterproductive to somefolks, because time is money after all, it is a large part of why BudWilliams’s methods work so well. He takes the natural tendencies of cows anduses that to better handle them. It is simply more time allowed with calm, slowmovement. None of the old scare tactics are employed such as hollering, loudwhistling, and fast movements such as arm waving. Keeping things slow and calmwill not make the cows feel that there is an impending predator attack.

Theseideas work the best with cattle that are generally nervous at the mere sight ofpeople. If cows are used to seeing people all the time then they will not be aseasy to move in such a calm and slow manner that Bud espouses. It is thosecattle that live out in broad expanse of pastureland and are completely awayfrom civilization that are most responsive. Likely that is because the tamercows have had the fear of predatory attack mostly bred out of them because itis so rare.

Keeping Your Cattle Healthy Is Vital to Your Ranch

2011-10-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

Nothingcan be more devastating to a herd of cattle like a virus that spreads quickly.Cattle are not especially immune to sickness and trying to cure the sickness asit roars through the herd can be costly and disastrous when it comes tobreeding in the future. The illnesses may result in the ultimate death of thecattle, so precautions must be taken long before things get out of hand.

Propervaccinations are vital when it comes to preventing illnesses before they causea major problem. The costs of the vaccinations can be steep but it is worth itin the long run because those cattle, if raised properly, can bring in a loadof money and make the precautions worth every cent. If your cattle are notproperly vaccinated it can wipe out the entire herd. Organic ranchers make surethat their cattle are properly vaccinated and that is why their cattle go for amuch higher price when it comes to the bottom line. They have a highermortality rate and need to sell for a much higher rate than regular commercialcattle so that the beef cattle ranchers can make their money back.

TheUnited States government has placed many guidelines to regulate viruses in thecattle ranching industry and they have got to be followed. That is why thereare so many regulations that need to be followed about importing cattle. Thereare feeding controls in place and the guidelines ensure that the cattle arewell cared for and that the people who ultimately consume them are not at risk.

Makesure you have an emergency plan of action just in case there are illnessesamong your cattle. They should immediately be separated from the healthy cattleand all should be examined to determine the healthy and the sick. Isolating theill cattle is important and, remember, with some types of viruses there is anincubation period, so some cattle might not immediately appear ill, so that iswhy it is vital to monitor all cattle at the slightest sign of illness.

Beefcattle ranching is a vital part of the country since so many people eat redmeat. Most of the red meat comes from cattle, so keeping your cattle healthyand safe from the rest of the herd is vital to your business and to the healthof all beef-eating people, as well as the rest of your herd. Taking care ofyour herd is a big responsibility to your business as well as to those whoenjoy your product.

JeffBerlinicke

Cattle Bulls

2011-10-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

If you want your bulls to produce attheir best, make sure to keep them away from older and more experienced bullsduring the mating season so that they can produce the things that are needed tobe prepared and a quality diet is vital to the process. Keeping them close toolder bulls can cause damage and will keep them from growing at a steady rateinstead of maturing more quickly than normal. It is vital to keep an eye on thesteadiness of the growth of a young bull.

The diet of a young bull is very important.Grain is a vital part of their diet, so using the right grains can be one ofthe most important parts of the breeding process. Bulls need about two poundsof grain per day after they are weaned, and that diet should continue to beenforced until the bull reaches about 1,000 pounds. Monitoring the dgrowth andthe diet is vital to the growth of the bulls and needs to be monitored on adaily basis.

There is plkenty of technologyavailable to monitor the diet and growth of the young bulls. A large number ofheifers can be impregnated by a small herd of bulls, so costs can be kept downand, in beef cattle ranching that is very important. The bottom line plays abig part of the success of a cattle ranch, Most experts agree that the overallquality of genetics from the bulls that are available are more important thanhaving an inordinate number of bulls. It is about quality over quantity.

Keeping the bulls away from heiferswhen it is not breeding season is another vital part of the breeding process.They should be separated by pens with no chance of mingling with the heifersand it might even be a good idea to use an electric fence that gives off shocksif the bulls get to close to the pens that hold the heifers. Bulls are verypowerful and very strong and must be kept away by whatever means are necessary.

Keeping the bulls healthy and monitored closely is the most importantpart to ensuring a healthy cattle stock and making sure you get the bestquality beef in return. Regular checkups mean everything and giving

Understanding Cattle Means Understanding Their Stress

2011-10-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Asif there wasn't already enough to do when in the cattle business, people areaccepting more and more how badly it affects cattle when they become stressed.There is a whole list if issues that are stress related in cattle. Making lifeeasier for cows is a way of saving money because these issues always cost somemoney. The stress will take a toll on the cattle and their health and growth.It can also take a toll on employees that become injured and equipment thatgets damaged or wears out faster.

Thereare a few basic reasons why cows become stressed. Understanding a cowsinstinctual nature will help with knowing why they act the way they do and howto better deal with it. Being that a cow is an animal the most frightful andstressful thing to them would be a predator. Anything that makes them feel thatthey are in danger of a predator will get them worked up. If a person tries toherd the cattle by using what they interpret as stalking behavior then the cowswill respond with their own avoidance methods or behaviors.

Thenatural way of a predator would be to walk a full circle around the herd, nowif a person does this in a calm and slow manner it will then encourage thecattle to bunch together, which is good for moving them. It is when the cowsare stressed beyond just being slightly anxious that there are problems. If thecows do become excited past the point of just uneasiness then they will needtime to settle back down before another attempt is made to bunch or move them.

Becausea cow will feel that there is a predator around when they are being bunched ormoved, it is helpful to let them see who or what is doing the bunching. It ispart of their natural instinct to want to see what is making them nervous. Ifthey can see who or what it is, they will continue to move. When they can't seebecause what's bothering them is in their blind spot they will then turn andsometimes circle around to get a look. This can really slow things down when tryingto get them going in a certain direction and can be remedied by moving throughtheir blind spot regularly.

If ahandler understands the idea that each time cattle get moved, they are learningsomething it helps with understanding why treating them a certain way is socrucial. There are tried and true methods that will get cattle used to beingmoved in certain directions, without undue stress.

While these methods do usually take more time,the money that is saved has to be considered. When a cow is regularly handledwell they will learn that they can live without worrying about being scared orstressed, and that makes life easier on everyone.

Herd Behavior and Moving Large Bunches of Cattle - Part 3

2011-10-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

The whole secret to letting (not forcing) your cattle act as a herd is to use cattle instinct to your advantage rather than against you. If you get your motion going and keep it going from the back, you are working against yourself and not keeping the cattle as stress free as possible. Think about it for a second. Most of the time you are moving your cattle to fresh feed, so why should that be stressful to them? It should not, in fact your cattle (if they are being handled in a way they are relaxed in) should want to move for you. Keep in mind you will have to work at this and it will take several moves before they start moving for you with little or no effort. To keep them relaxed:

Do not push them from the back
Let a lead establish itself (and remember a lead is 1 or 2 head in the front, NOT 15 or 20 head abreast !!!)
Keep them loose – They will want to keep several feet to several yards between them while moving
Keep your motion going from the front to back.
If you have cattle wandering off in the wrong direction, try to approach them from the front. They will go by you and try to catch up to the other cattle (often at a trot or lope) without you having to “push” them.
Do not turn the cattle from back to front by riding between them and the fence. This only turns the back of the herd first, which slows the forward motion of the herd and ususally begins other problems. Turn the lead first and the rest of the herd will turn as they approach you.

The first couple of times you may have to ride hard to get them lined out as it is not established in them to follow one another (as we have spent their entire lives keeping them from doing so). Once they begin figuring it out you may have to go at a trot just to keep up with them and get them turned into the right gate. In the following video I picked these steers up in a 640 acre stubble field. They had been there for approximately three weeks, and all but five head were together (and those five head were only about 200 yards away). I had driven the cattle out the first gate and across a field to the fence along a county road. This video will show me turn the cattle off the road and leave as 723 steers go through the gate with no one and noting to turn them. This was the second gate of a six gate, three mile move I made with these steers and no help.

These methods work especially well with pairs if you want to keep them paired throughout the move. A few years ago I was working on a large registered outfit. We were always moving pairs in groups of 350 or more. For some reason these guys were always wadding them from the back. Moves which should have taken a few hours would turn into a long day (or several days). One move was dreaded because the cattle would ball up at the bottom of a mountain and turn the wrong way and would not be paired. The funny thing about this was although there was a 10-foot gate right in the road they were trailed down, they wanted to turn the cattle left to take them through a 30-foot gate followed by another turn to the right. One day we gathered that pasture and I talked one of the guys at the bottom of the pasture into opening that narrow gate. I had a couple of interns with me who allowed the cattle to string out, and I just stayed at the front until about 50 yards from the gate, and let them go. The cattle ran through the gate with calves at side, through three more gates and into the trap where we wanted them. A few calves missed the gate, bawled and their mothers came back for them. Needless to say the guy who had argued about them not going through the gate thought it was “lucky” and had nothing to do with letting them string out.

I want to mention one other thing that causes a lot of stress here. It is something nearly everyone does from time to time to make things easier, but that causes a lot of stress. That is farmering down and leading your cattle with a feed wagon. Cattle have their own pecking order. When you stop in the middle of a pasture with a load of feed the same cattle are there at the truck every day and the same cattle are always out on the fringes. Alphas first on feed and the lower down the pecking order, the longer they have to wait to get on feed. When you start moving cattle with feed, they will line up in the same way. The cattle next to the load will be trying to nibble as they go. The ones on the back are waiting to get to feed. It would be like going to a restaurant and fighting with a bunch of NFL linebackers to see who gets to eat first (and adding to the frustration by having your prime rib moving away from you just fast enough that you can’t get to it) After awhile you lose interest and go to some fast food joint.

This scenario is even more stressful if you are moving pairs. The calves will automatically drop to the back rather than fight for feed with the cows. They lose track of their mothers, want to go back to where they came from and the wreck is on. Just let them move out, keep your motion going from front to back with the cattle going past you and you will never have problems moving your pairs, no matter how young they are. With yearling cattle, this method will instill the instinct for the cattle to follow one another. Once the cattle get the idea one person can move some pretty large groups of cattle. I regularly move from 300 to more than 700 head of steers with only a deaf dog for help and few problems (Anyone who claims to never have a problem probably never does anything.)

http://www.2lazy4u.us/herdbehav.html

Animal Production and Marketing Issues: Retail Meat Prices and Price Spreads

2011-10-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Price Spreads

ERS develops price spreads for beef, pork, broilers, turkey, and eggs as a measure that describes the allocation of the consumer dollar among the various stages of marketing in the livestock/meat industry. The measuring points are the farm, wholesale, and retail levels in the marketing chain. The farm and wholesale prices are from USDA's Market News, and retail prices are from BLS. Prices from these sources are standardized to reflect 1 pound of meat at the retail level. Meat Price Spreads are reported monthly for total (farm to retail), farm to wholesale, and wholesale to retail.
Beef values and price spreads measure the value of a Choice steer at the farm, to the packer, and when sold through grocery stores. Pork values and price spreads measure the value of a slaughter hog at the farm, to the packer, and when sold through grocery stores. Both tables show values for the current month, the previous 12 months, the last 12 quarters, and the last 6 years. A historical series contains many more years of data on price spreads for beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and eggs.
Price spreads can be volatile and may reflect lags in price response at the farm and retail levels due to price changes. Lag lengths may vary depending upon whether prices are going up or down and depending upon expectations about future price changes.
Price spreads on a current-dollar (nominal) basis show long-term increases over time. Marketing expenses reflect costs of labor, utilities, facilities, and non-livestock materials such as packaging. The cost of these items tends to follow inflation. After accounting for inflation by deflating beef and pork price spreads by the Consumer Price Index, deflated price spreads do not show much of a trend over the long term. Some studies suggest that economies of size gained in meat packing have been passed back to the farm, thereby raising livestock prices above what they would otherwise have been absent of consolidation.
More information on price spreads can be found in U.S. Beef Industry: Cattle Cycles, Price Spreads, and Packer Concentration (April 1999); in the Agricultural Outlook article, Controversies in Livestock Pricing December 2002); and in Beef and Pork Values and Price Spreads Explained (May 2004).

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/AnimalProducts/PriceReporting.htm

Animal Production and Marketing Issues: Retail Meat Prices and Price Spreads

2011-10-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Retail Prices

In 2002, ERS began providing monthly average retail price data for selected cuts and aggregate categories of beef, pork, poultry, lamb, and veal, based on electronic supermarket scanner data. The database contains meat-cut categories that correspond to BLS meat-cut categories and provide an alternative way to estimate retail prices. (This alternative process was mandated by Congress in the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999.) Along with the BLS categories, the ERS database includes price data on additional cuts, information on volume sold, and the discount effects of featuring. (An April 2003 Amber Waves data feature contains a few examples on how meat prices respond to featuring and season.) For more information and the data, see Retail Scanner Prices for Meat, which is housed at Colorado State University's Livestock Market Information Center (LMIC) as of October 2004. The pilot program between ERS and LMIC has monthly data running from January 2001 until April 2008.
BLS also publishes average retail prices for selected meat cuts. Scanner data standard table 1 presents average retail prices for selected meat cuts from both BLS and the supermarket scanner data. BLS collects prices from a larger number and greater variety of outlets, but they do not collect data on sales volume. Comparing Two Sources of Retail Meat Price Data (November 2009) compares BLS and scanner data, describing the differences between these two data sets and evaluating their relative strengths and weaknesses.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/AnimalProducts/PriceReporting.htm

Cattle: Inventory on January 1 by Year, US

2011-10-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Herd Behavior and Moving Large Bunches of Cattle - Part 2

2011-09-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

Most of us want our cattle all going together in a bunch and drive them from behind. When cattle are scattered in a pasture, we can create we motion by traveling back and forth in a straight line across the back of the pasture. However, that is only to start them not to drive them the whole move. You will notice in most cases, that moving cattle in this manner if you are going up a steep hill (or getting closer to the pens, or going through a gate) the cattle wind up bunching up and slowing down. This is because they don’t like to be pushed into a crowd anymore than you do and cattle need to have a leader. Fifteen or twenty animals across the front of three hundred steers is not a lead. Even if you happen to think it is, those steers will not remain there for long when you are creating your motion from the back. When creating motion in this manner you get what I refer to as “tank track” milling. I have watched cattle being moved in this manner change the “lead” six times in less than a quarter mile. Rather than going through the gate on their own, the “herd” stops and people will do a “controlled mill” by creating motion on one side and moving it to the front and (hopefully) through the gate.

There are different analogies to describe this situation. The first one that comes to mind is pushing our trailer instead of pulling it. Wouldn’t it be hard for us to see where we are going? Yet that is what we are asking our cattle to do. Go forward blindly and hopefully push the front cattle with them enough to have a place to go.

Another analogy would be going somewhere in heavy traffic. Imagine going to the Stockshow in Denver. If you are going early in the morning before rush hour traffic hits you have plenty of room on the road and truck along at 70 mph with no stress. What happens in as rush hour gets closer? You may still be doing 70mph, but you are now in bumper to bumper traffic and can’t see the brake lights of the second vehicle in front of you. You may get to the Stockshow in the same amount of time, but how are you feeling? Pretty stressed out, no?

What makes you think that your cattle can get crowded in like that without stressing out?

It is even worse if you are moving pairs. Imagine being in a strange city. Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, just take your pick. You have no idea of how to get where you need to go, but you have a friend you are going to follow. Now imagine it is rush hour, bumper to bumper, 70 mph and you loose track of your friend and have way to call him to let him know where you are (and that idiot behind you keeps honking his horn.) How much stress are you under now? Bet you would be under enough stress you would be tempted to just turn around and go back to the ranch!

Now that you have an idea of why your cattle are stressed and don’t hang around together like a herd should, you can learn how do handle them to make them a herd. The biggest mistake people make in this is expecting it to work like magic in only one move. It takes time, and the less you move your cattle the longer it will take. The more often you move your cattle the faster they will begin to act as a herd.
The steers in this picture were moved three times before they began grazing together like in this picture. They were purchased at a sale barn from several different owners and had no idea they were supposed to be a herd until they had been handled in a manner that allowed them to feel as a herd. Notice how all of them are facing the same direction while grazing? When the herd changes where it is grazing (or decides to go to water), the lead steer will begin walking. After he leaves, the rest will follow, but string out in single file to do so. When he stops to graze, the rest will begin stopping when they reach him. When you begin moving cattle so that they act as a herd, you will discover that each group of cattle will have its own lead animal. The other thing you will begin to notice is that nearly always, the same group of animals will be bringing up the drag. This is because each herd will establish its own “pecking” order.

You have spent years teaching your cattle to not be a herd. If you are running a stocker operation, your calves have probably come from several different herds and don’t realize they are supposed to be a herd. This means you have to reverse your actions and teach them to be a herd. Just as in teaching any person or animal this takes time and repetition. There will be signs showing if you are headed in the right direction or not with every move. The biggest and most immediate sign will be how your cattle act when they go into a new pasture. Rather than fanning out in all directions to graze they will, at least for a short amount of time, remain together, grazing in the same direction. Each time you move them correctly, they will remain together for a little longer amount of time. Eventually they will stay together as a herd, like in the above picture.
You need to be aware of the fact that if you push them from the back, even for a short amount of distance, you will undo everything you have accomplished. Just as it takes longer to undo what a bad rider instills in a horse, it will take several moves to undo what one bad move has taken away from the herd instinct of you cattle.

Quality Health Care Is Key to Raising Cattle

2011-09-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Quality land and quality feed are obviously vital in keeping your cattle healthy and much more valuable on the market. THe folks who will be looking over your cattle on the auction block know exactly what they are looking for, so it is vital for any cattle rancher to make sure his cattle is healthy and can bring home the most money and offer the best food that can ensure your reputation as a cattle rancher who is known for bringing the best livestock. Even the female cattle have to have their health heeds filled so that their young will grow up healthy and profitable and in turn, produce livestock of their own to keep the business alive for years.

It is vital to make sure that the reproduction of the cattle is well managed to ensure a healthy and profitable future. That way the rancher doesn’t have to spend his or her profits on replacement cattle. The cattle will reproduce for generations if taken care of properly. That’s not to say the process is cheap, because getting high-profile feed and quality supplements are the key to ensuring a healthy cattle stock. It is a part of the process that is costly in the short term, but can be very profitable in the long term.

Another cost that can never be avoided is high-quality health care, especially for young cattle. Vaccinations are key to maintaining a healthy herd and the vaccinations can also help stop the spread of viruses that can kill large amounts of cattle. For ranchers who survive on beef, a virus can be devastating, so it’s best to take care of any problems well in advance with simple routine care.

Studies show that reducing nursing time on young cattle causes stress for the young and can result in them not growing as large as they should, especially during the key first two years of life. It can also bring about serious healthy problems down the road.

Many ranchers are now taking charge of being active in the birthing of their calves. Many ranchers now think that it is acceptable to have a hand in the process, especially when the heifer delivering the calf is having difficulty. Diligent care may save the lives of the heifer and the calf and save the rancher a lot of money in the long run

Jeff Berlinicke

Range & Pasture

2011-09-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Range and pasture lands are diverse types of land where the primary vegetation produced is herbaceous plants and shrubs. These lands provide forage for beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, goats, horses and other types of domestic livestock. Also many species of wildlife, ranging from big game such as elk to nesting song birds such as meadowlarks, depend on these lands for food and cover.
Primary economic outputs include livestock production, but wildlife values are also a major economic consideration for these lands, especially range lands. Environmental values of these lands are extensive and provide many essential ecosystem services, such as clean water, wildlife and fish habitat, and recreation opportunities. Scenic, cultural, and historic values of these lands provide not only economic benefits, but also quality of life values cherished by many.
Range and pasture lands are located in all 50 states of the US. Privately owned range and pasture lands makes up over 27% (528 million acres) of the total acreage of the contiguous 48 states, and these lands constitute the largest private lands use category, exceeding both forest land (21%) and crop land (18%).

Other Grazing Lands

Most grazing lands are considered either range or pasture, but grazing lands also include grazed forest lands, grazed croplands, haylands, and native/naturalized pasture. These other land use types make up an additional 106 million acres of privately owned grazing lands, or about 17% of the total U. S. grazing lands. These other types of grazing lands provide a significant forage resource for U. S. livestock production.

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=ANIMAL_PRODUCTION&navtype=RT&parentnav=PRODUCERS

Cattle: Operations and Inventory by Size Group, US

2011-09-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

“The Real McCoy’’ moved the Cattle to the East

2011-09-10T13:04:00.000-07:00

There once was a man named Joe McCoy who played a major role in the cattle ranching business that started to spread from Texas across the Midwest as far north as Chicago. By luring livestock to Chicago, that put his business much closer to the northeast and the profitable New York market. He had to battle many of the homesteaders who lived in the Kansas area and objected to the cattle ranchers moving their cattle across state lines since it was believed that they carried a tick that killed many of the other animals in the area. Cattle ranchers didn’t like taking their cattle through Kansas because of the hostile reactions they received and the fierce opposition to their presence.

McCoy was a smart man who knew that the new railroads that were sprouting up along the Midwest could be beneficial to moving cattle from the Midwest to the northeast. The Kansas/Pacific Railroad ran right past a midwestern frontier village, so McCoy built a hotel, stockyard, office, and a bank in the village and basically built the town of Abilene in Texas, one of the first real cow towns. The cattle were to be driven from the Midwest to Abilene, then transported to New York by train. It seemed like an easy idea at the time because Abilene was established as a town at the end of the Civil War as a site that would transport supplies to Confederate troops. The trail to the East was west of Kansas, so the transporters could use it without hostility from the Kansas homesteaders who were afraid of the tick virus,

After the Civil War was ended, McCoy spent an unheard-of $5,000 on advertising and riders. He promised high prices for cattle sold in Abilene and he was able to keep his word. He once sold 6,000 cows for $5,400 and sold them in Abilene for almost $17,000. Between 1867 and 1881, McCoy spent more than 2 million cattle from Abilene to Chicago where they were later moved to the northeast.

His reputation for reliability is the reason for the expression, “The Real McCoy.’’ The cattle trade was at its peak from 1867 until the mid 1880s and the increased number of railroad lines allowed the country to expand thanks to the transfer of cattle. It also led to the removal of Native Americans from the plains to reservations, which allowed for more room for ranching.

In the late 1800s, the cattle industry virtually collapsed as the farmers began to experiment with different breeds of cattle that could not live on the open range. There was less grass available for grazing and in 1883, there was a drought that ruined the little remaining grass that was still in the heartland.

Jeff Berlinicke

Herd Behavior and Moving Large Bunches of Cattle

2011-09-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

The first thing we need to learn in order to handle cattle in a less stressful way is how cattle act in a herd. Unfortunately, this is one of the hardest things to comprehend because most of us have never seen cattle acting as a herd. This is because we create so much stress in moving our cattle from pasture to pasture that we basically blow the herd instinct out of them. We try to do things which we conceive make them easier to move which actually causes a great deal of stress. The very meaning of the word “herd” is a group of animals which remain together, which is what we never see. Fortunately, they still do some things on their own which we can observe to show us the error of our ways. Cattle will follow each other with little effort as long as we start them in the right way, as demonstrated in the following video. These cattle had come in fresh two weeks before this video was taken. They had never been through this gate, or into this pasture before, and the dog "helping" me was just starting out, and deaf on top of it. Even though she makes several mistakes, the steers not only go through the gate, but don't scatter after going through.

http://www.2lazy4u.us/herdbehav.html

All Cattle & Beef Cows: Number of Operations by Year, US

2011-09-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

More Cattle, Not Less, Can Save the Grasslands

2011-09-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

It’s a common myth that much of the American cattle supply was obliterated when America began its westward expansion more than 150 years ago. The grasslands that make up the Midwestern landscape has been changed so much as progress and expansion have moved westward, that hundreds of small communities that owe their economy to livestock are withering right along with the grass. Much of the nation’s Midwest is being destroyed by overgrazing of cattle, which is costing plant life where grass once flourished and fed the cattle that made the grasslands what they were. Not only are the grasslands losing their agriculture, the cattle are losing vast supplies of food.

So what can be done to save the grasslands? Many ranchers, conservationists and investors are determined to rebuild the cattle industry and are looking for answers. There are plenty of answers out there although none of them are guaranteed winners. So was overgrazing the problem that is causing ranchers to go out of business today? The key, according to the people whose livelihoods depend on the cattle industry is how to manage the cattle rather than to cut costs and limit the cattle and the areas in which they graze.

Ranchers can consistently double or even triple their livestock capacity over time if the ranches are managed correctly. It might not be the easiest solution, but if the land is fertile and managed correctly, there is still tons of money to be made in the cattle ranching industry. More cattle per acre rather than less is just one factor. By actively planning and managing the grazing of the cattle, the benefits become more of a solution to the current situation rather than a hindrance to the land.

The dynamic is a simple one and was studied extensively by a cattle rancher in South Africa. Allan Savory saw the connection between roaming animal herds and grasslands and if the animal chews the grasslands so fast that it can stimulate grassland growth by allowing sunlight to shine through growth points. The cattle then move on to another direction to find fresher grass.

While the animals are away from their original territory, the grass grows again and a wise cattle rancher will return his cattle to their original location to allow the grass to grow in the most previous area. The grass grows back and the soil is aerated wile the hoof movements chip away at the hardened earth so seeds can germinate and water can penetrate.

Jeff Berlinicke

A Knowledgeable Cattle Rancher Can Save a Calf

2011-09-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

When heifers give birth, many ranchers want to take part. It’s a new trend among cattle ranchers and, since giving birth is often a difficult process for heifers, especially the younger ones, ranchers are now taking a much larger part in the process and that help may save the life of the heifer and her young offspring. It is important to use every hand possible to save not only the life of the heifer and the offspring, but can also mean a financial windfall down the road as healthy cattle obviously command top dollar on the open market.

It is also the humane way to do everything you can as a cattle rancher to make the birthing process as easy as possible. A young heifer doesn’t go to birthing classes like humans, so the more support you can offer allows for a more comfortable experience for the heifer.

It is typically the first-time mothers that have the most difficulty delivering their calves. The labor can last almost three times as long as veteran heifers, but complications can arise in any birth regarding a heifer, first-time or any time after that. It is a complicated process, even if the heifer has had easy deliveries in the past. Every time is a new experience.

When a young calf is born tail first, someone needs to intervene and that is where the experienced cattle rancher comes in to the play. The process is a difficult one so the cattle rancher needs to know how to handle things on his or her own instead of calling for a vet every time one of his heifers is giving birth. There is not a lot of time for the vet to get there in the first place, so taking care of business themselves is vital for the cattle rancher If the calf starts coming out backwards, there is pressure on the umbilical cord which is not a good thing.

It causes a limited amount of blood supply going straight to the calf’s brain and that can result in death or serious injury. Whether it is a humane thought or not, cattle are moneymakers and the loss of a heifer or a young calf can be very costly. The calf can drown in their own fluids if they aren’t birthed right away. If the calf isn’t born in four minutes at the most, the chance of successful birth is very small.

That doesn’t mean everything is great even if the calf is born mostly healthy. Further evaluation is necessary and one-on-one care is needed by the rancher to see that the calf grows to full size. The heifer might not be able to take care of vital needs. Calves born underweight especially need more help from a knowledgeable rancher.

Jeff Berlinicke

There Are Plenty of Ways to Save Money Raising Cattle

2011-09-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

Cattle ranching can be a lucrative business. It can also be a very expensive business. You can’t just send your cattle into the fields and hope that they someday allow you to reap the benefits raising them. Feed costs, for instance, are soaring and aren’t likely to come down any time soon. Buying feed locally is the best way to go about feeding your cattle, if for no other reason than to save on the cost of shipping in bulk. Many cattle ranchers don’t choose to take the local route and find themselves on the short end of the bottom line. Striking a deal with a local rancher is a great way to buy feed in bulk and to save yourself the money it would cost you otherwise. Deals are easy to make because all cattle ranchers are in the same boat these days when it comes to the cost of raising cattle. Striking a bargain can pay off in more ways than one if you can forge a great relationship with a neighboring rancher.

Don’t just look after your bottom line when it comes to the cost of feed. It is vital to maintain detailed records of your feed purchases as well as any other factors that go into maintaining your cattle. If you can keep the vital records up to date concerning your cost expenditures, you can save in the long run.

Another important record to maintain is exactly what your cattle eat and do not eat. Providing food for the cattle is the right thing to do, but if they aren’t eating it and simply trampling it into the ground, you are wasting money. Cattle do not eat anything that is put in front of them, so keep vital records since every cattle is different and has different tastes, just like humans.

Adjusting your feeding process is another way to make an impact on how much you are spending on feed. Some cattle ranchers throw feed onto dirt, others put it into a trough, and others have special feeders. The design of the feeders is very important in getting the feed to the cattle and having the right type of feeder can ensure that little of that expensive feed is being wasted, not to mention the amount of loss in hay.

To save money, it might be important to reduce your herd or move the livestock out to pasture more frequently. When the feed is supplemented with vitamins, minerals, and protein, you are getting a lot more bang for the buck and the cattle will show the benefits. Working with neighboring cattle ranchers and designing schemes that work for all of the cattle is a great way to save money, not to mention brining cash benefits to you and a healthier diet for your cattle.

Jeff Berlinicke

Cattle: Inventory on July 1 by Year, US

2011-08-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

The Life of a Cattle Rancher Isn't Something From the Movies

2011-08-29T05:04:00.001-07:00

There are still cowboys in Texas and the rest of the Midwest, but they don't necessarily play football. It's a lifestyle that is unique to the Midwest. Cattle ranching has been significant to America since long before it became a country. It's a lifestyle that has been romanticized and has even spawned hundreds of movies and an entire genre of country music. So what do cattle ranchers actually do? Yes they wear cowboy hats and know how to ride a horse, but the industry has gotten a lot different since the first European settlers began the industry in America.

Many mid-westerners, especially in Texas, make their living in the cattle ranching industry. Most are in small towns that dot the Texas land, far away from the metropolises of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, Ranchers typically own a lot of acres and there is not a lot of fancy houses or nightlife in those areas. The ranchers are simply there to make money and do something they love. It is not unusual for a cattle rancher to have more than 1,000 head of cattle at the same time.

The typical rancher goes to sales and tries to move his cattle or purchase more. In the small town of Nixon, Texas, there is an auction every Monday morning and that is not considered unusual. There's a lot of work that goes into cattle ranching. For all of the new cattle, there is the process of branding the cattle and marking the ears of their new cattle. Winter time can be tough because there isn't a lot of grass to graze, so cattle ranchers have to improvise. There's the task of keeping control of more than 1,000 cattle and making sure they are all healthy. Vaccinations take a lot of time.

Besides that, fences need to be kept safe and maintained, and it costs a lot of money to keep the tractors and farm equipment up to date and in running condition while keeping an eye on a large parcel of land. Then, there are the horses that need to be tendered to. Most ranchers ride horses around their tracts of land to tend to their cattle, And that workday usually starts long before the sun comes up. The horses and cattle rule the day and they typically wake up earlier then the 9-to-5 office workers. Rebuilding pens and doing general maintenance takes up a lot of the day, not to mention worming their cattle at least twice a year.

Being a cattle rancher can be a lucrative career. Young cows can sell for as much as $1,600 on the auction block. Most cowboys who ride the range reigning in their cattle look at cattle ranching as a way of life. It's not an easy life, having to feed and tend to so many cattle, but most cattle ranchers say that their way of life isn't something they would trade for anything else.

World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates

2011-08-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

LIVESTOCK, POULTRY, AND DAIRY: The 2011 forecast of total red meat and poultry production is
raised reflecting higher beef production, but lower pork production. Continued large cow slaughter is
expected to boost beef production. A slower pace of slaughter in the third quarter and slightly lower
weights due to heat stress are expected to result in lower pork production compared to last month.
USDA will release its Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report on September 28, providing an estimate of sow
farrowings in June-August and an indication of producer intentions for farrowings into early 2012.
Broiler production is about unchanged as an increased forecast of third-quarter production is offset by
lower expected production in the fourth quarter. No change is made to turkey production and only a
slight revision is made to egg production. For 2012, the beef production forecast is raised but pork
and poultry production forecasts are reduced from last month. Larger forecast early year beef
production reflects marketing of the large number of calves which are being placed as a result of
drought in the Southern Plains. However, production in subsequent quarters will reflect tighter
supplies of cattle and lighter expected carcass weights due to the placement of lighter cattle and
relatively high feed prices. Pork forecasts are reduced as tight feed supplies dampen hog weights.
Poultry production forecasts are reduced as relatively high feed costs limit the sector’s expansion.
The egg production forecast is lowered due to lower hatching egg production.

From The USDA Briefing Room - Part 5

2011-08-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

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Cattle imports from Mexico tend to be lighter cattle for stocker operations and eventual finishing in U.S. feedlots. In past years, cattle imports from Canada tended to be animals for immediate slaughter, of which roughly two-thirds were fed steers and heifers and one-third were cows.
Imports of Canadian cattle into the United States were banned following Canada's May 2003 BSE case. In July 2005, U.S. imports of Canadian cattle resumed for animals less than 30 months of age for immediate slaughter or for finishing in a U.S. feedlot.
In July 2006, Canadian officials announced the discovery of BSE in a 50-month-old dairy cow from Alberta. The animal's birth occurred in the spring of 2002, and thus it was exposed to BSE well after Canada's feed ban was initiated in 1997.
USDA temporarily withdrew a proposal to allow the importation of Canadian cattle over 30 months of age pending the results of the investigation into the July 2006 Canadian case. However, in November 2007, USDA published a final rule in the Federal Register to allow imports of some live animals over 30 months of age and their meat products from countries recognized as presenting a minimal risk of introducing BSE into the United States. Currently, Canada is the only minimal-risk country designated by the United States. All animals born after Canada's 1997 feed ban are eligible to be imported into the United States.

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From The USDA Briefing Room - Part 4

2011-08-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Cattle Trade

The United States imports significantly more cattle than it exports. The countries from which the United States imports cattle are the same ones to which it exports cattle: Canada and Mexico. The geographical proximity of these countries and the complementarity of their cattle and beef sectors explain why they are the United States' only significant cattle trading partners.

U.S. cattle exports to Canada and Mexico vary from year to year in both the total volume of exports and the relative percentage exported to each country. Historically, the United States has primarily exported slaughter cattle to both countries. However, changes in Canada's policies and market situation have led to increased exports of U.S. feeder cattle. U.S. cattle exports declined in 2003 and have remained low through 2006 in response to strong domestic cattle prices and trade barriers related to BSE and other diseases. Weaker cattle prices and larger cattle supplies in Canada due to its BSE situation also reduced Canadian demand for U.S. cattle.

In the Beginning, Cattle Wasn’t Used for Food

2011-08-16T05:13:00.001-07:00

Cattle has been a popular industry in North America since well before the colonies were settled into what is today the United States. Europeans, who first started to settle North America in the late 15th century brought their own cattle over the seas and started an industry that has become large to this day. It took three centuries as America became independent and Texas was won from Mexico before it became what it is today.

Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836 and the Mexicans that had homesteaded Texas left, leaving their cattle behind. It was boon for Texas, which was now an independent country with intentions of becoming one of the United States, but not because of the beef. Eating meat wasn’t as popular as the skins that came with the cattle, and it wasn’t for several decades that the beef became popular enough to make many ranchers very wealthy.

The Civil War actually boosted the cattle ranching industry. Texas ranchers left their farms to fight for the Confederacy and, even though the Confederates lost the war, it proved to be a big boost for the Texas economy. The cattle ranchers in Texas saw their economy destroyed, but that meant that there was a new market in the north. It is estimated that there were more than five million longhorn cattle in Texas and, if they could transport their cattle to the north, there was a huge market for them.

The market was bigger than the Texans expected. They found that if they could get their cattle to the north, they could make as much as 10 times the amount they were making in the south. The beef was becoming as big as the profits the ranchers were making from the skins.

A livestock trader in Chicago, Joseph McCoy wanted to bring more livestock to the north, and then distribute the cattle to the East. It worked for McCoy who built what was one of the first “cow towns’’ in Abilene, Texas. Abilene was near the end of a trail that had been established during the Civil War that stretched through Kansas. Homesteaders who had established themselves in Kansas objected because much of the cattle carried a tick that killed other animals that were indigenous to the area, but McCoy capitalized on the burgeoning freight industry to transport his livestock and it paid off well for him.

McCoy spent more than $5,000 on advertising and promised a good price for cattle that was sold in Abilene. In the next two decades, McCoy sold more than two million cattle from Abilene to Chicago. His reputation gave rise to the term “The Real McCoy.’’