Posts Tagged ‘Paleolithic’

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World Ag Expo’s New Forage Challenge

Monday, February 8th, 2010

A total of $18,000 in prizes was awarded today at World Ag Expo to the winners of the 2010 World Ag Expo Forage Challenge, presented by Mycogen Seeds.

Finalists were chosen out of the 39 entries from seven Western states that entered the challenge. The competition challenged farmers and ranchers to enter the bounty of their labor to see who produced the highest-quality forages in the West.

Finalists will be on display in World Ag Expo’s New Product Pavilion on “R” St. and Expo Ln. during the Expo. Attendees can visit educational displays and attend seminars to learn more about forage production.

“As presenting sponsor, Mycogen Seeds is pleased to have played a part in making World Ag Expo’s Forage Challenge a reality,” says Greg Cannon, silage marketing specialist at Mycogen Seeds. “We congratulate the winners and finalists for their dedication to producing high quality forages.”

Lallemand Animal Nutrition North America sponsored the $18,000 in contest awards and prizes. First place winners in all three categories received $2,000, while second place winners were awarded $1,500 and third place winners $1,000.

“Producing the best quality forages possible is the foundation for profitability on the dairy,” said Dr. Bob Charley, Forage Products Manager, Lallemand Animal Nutrition. “Lallemand hopes that this new event will help raise the profile of this key issue and increase the focus on honing best practice forage management skills at all levels.”

Following are the winners of the 2010 World Ag Expo Forage Challenge:

Alfalfa Hay Winners

  • 1st Place- Lazy 2K Livestock, Kellie Hinman, Wheatland, WY.
  • 2nd Place- Roberti Ranch, Dave Roberti, Loyalton, CA
  • 3rd Place- King Productions, David King, Malin, OR

Corn Silage Winners

  • 1st Place – 1 Royal Turf, Kelly Callahan, Royal City, WA,
  • 2nd Place- Ever May Farms, David Evers, Grove, OR
  • 3rd Place – Weststyn Dairy, Jake Weststyn, Linden, CA

Brown Mid-Rib Silage (BMR)

  • 1st Place- Faria Dairy, Nelson Faria, Royal City, WA,
  • 2nd Place- Moo Mtn. Milk, Ray Robinson, Burley, ID
  • 3rd Place- Fernoak Dairy, Greg Fernandes, Tulare, CA

 “Mycogen Seeds is pleased to have the opportunity to help establish this exciting new event at World Ag Expo and focus attention on the production of high-quality forages in the West,” says Greg Cannon, Mycogen Seeds silage marketing specialist.

In 2009, World Ag Expo, Mycogen Seeds and Hay & Forage Grower Magazine invited farmers and ranchers from 11 western states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming—to enter the 2010 World Ag Expo Forage Challenge by submitting 2009 samples from their bales or silos to the University of California, Davis. Entries were judged in three categories: alfalfa hay, standard corn silage and brown mid-rib (BMR) corn silage.

“This new event allowed farmers and ranchers to demonstrate their skills in producing high-quality forage, while challenging each other to some friendly competition at the same time,” said Bernie Cargle, 2010 World Ag Expo Chairman. “We are thrilled with the success of the event this year and are excited to see the reaction from our attendees as they view the samples.”

The 43rd annual World Ag Expo 2010, powering global agriculture, will run February 9–11 at the International Agri-Center show grounds in Tulare, Calif. An estimated 100,000 visitors from 67 countries are expected to attend World Ag Expo this year. The expo is the largest annual agricultural show of its kind with 1,600 exhibitors displaying cutting-edge agricultural technology and equipment on 2.6 million square feet of show grounds.

World Ag Expo tickets are $12 at the gate. Attendees who register for their World Ag Expo Collectors’ badges at one of the three onsite registration centers will receive complimentary admission to West Coast Nationals on the same day and will be automatically entered to win a Yamaha Rhino 700 FI 4×4, “Free Fuel for a Year” from Fleet Card Fuels and 1-year use of a Massey Ferguson 2680 HD. Attendees are encouraged to use the complimentary World Ag Expo Park and Ride buses.

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North Carolina State University Uncovers Parasite Resistance

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Repetitious use of the same deworming drugs has led to a growing number of beef herds showing signs of parasite resistance. A recent set of trials conducted over two years by Mark Alley, DVM, at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Matt Poore, PhD, from the Department of Animal Science at North Carolina State University, presented further evidence that resistant worm populations are increasing and the efficacy of popular deworming drugs like avermectin pour-ons is declining. The research findings were presented at the 2009 World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP) meeting in Calgary.

When calves placed in a weaning feed trial at North Carolina State University’s Upper Piedmont Research Station (UPRS) in Reidsville, N.C., failed to respond to their genetic potential, random fecal samples taken from the calves showed that they were still shedding a lot of parasite eggs, despite recently having been dewormed.

Alley and Poore set out see if the problem existed in a few calves or if it was a problem in the entire group. In doing so, they decided to evaluate the efficacy of four cattle anthelmintic dewormers, including a generic ivermectin pour-on, Ivomec® pour-on, injectable Ivomec®, and Safe-Guard® (fenbendazole) drench.

Using the Fecal Egg Count Reduction Test (FECRT) protocol used by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), the researchers pulled fecal samples from 25 calves assigned to receive each product plus an untreated control group. They then applied the assigned dewormers based on exact weight and then pulled fecal samples from each of the calves 14 days later.

 “Post treatment, the average egg count from each group varied depending on which product was used,” noted Alley. “In the generic topical, brand-name topical and ivermectin injectable groups, there was less than 80 percent reduction in eggs present after treatment. The fenbendazole treated group had 100 percent reduction in eggs present.”

Parasite Identification

The fecal samples were sent to USDA’s ARS Bovine Functional Genomics Lab in Beltsville Ma., where, in addition to the fecal egg count reduction test, parasite identification tests using the latest polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA technology were performed. In the pre-treatment groups, PCR tests confirmed the presence of haemonchus, ostertagia, and cooperia parasites in all groups. Post treatment, PCR tests found cooperia still present in all three avermectin groups and the control, but none in the calves treated with fenbendazole.

Cooperia’s presence in the avermectin treated groups indicates that repeated use of dewormers in the same drug class over time may have resulted in an increasing population of parasites that are resistant to that family of anthelmintic.

Testing is key

Alley and Poore repeated the study at another university farm – the Center for Environmental Farming Systems – in North Carolina. Prior to the test, the mature cows on this farm were only dewormed if testing showed an elevated worm count, resulting in very low product use over time.

In the second study, every product group except for the control showed a greater than 90 percent reduction in average egg counts after treatment.

 “That led us to believe that these potential issues are farm specific, and producers need to evaluate what is going on with the parasite populations on their specific farm,” explained Alley. “As a result we will work to identify farms that need to do fecal egg count testing to give them an idea of how their particular deworming program is working, which will allow us to better customize a control program for that farm. Further research is needed to determine the most economic parasite control program for each farm.”

Source: www.cattlenetwork.com

www.PerryFarmsGrassFedBeef.com

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Talking With Dr. Matt Hersom About Southern Cattle

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Dr. Hersom has experienced the difference between Northern and Southern cattle first hand. He grew up in Iowa and attended Iowa State University before earning his doctorate at Oklahoma State. He got to know Midwestern cattle and their nutritional requirements eye-to-eye, you might say.

His career path headed in a Southeasterly direction, though, taking him to the University of Florida where he’s an assistant professor and Extension Beef Cattle Specialist doing research in the nutritional requirements of Southern cattle. And there is a difference, he noted, especially when it comes to forage.

 “Southern grasses are much different than the legumes and grasses that grow on the Great Plains,” he said. “We’ve got tropical and subtropical grasses here that stop growing when the temperature drops below 60 degrees. Our warm season forages don’t tolerate cold weather and forage quality drops off quickly. We have lower quality grasses with less degradable protein. We need to understand the strategies required to supply proper nutrition, especially for rumen health.”

Talking about supplemental protein resources, he said, “We’re starting to look at DDG’s for the first time. We haven’t done much research because distillers grains weren’t generally available in Florida but we have a new ethanol plant in south Georgia, now, so we need to do some research on how DDG’s effect our feeding strategies.

Dr. Hersom pointed out an advantage enjoyed by Southern cattle feeders; access to other protein resources that give them more flexibility in building an adequate ration. “We can use whole cottonseed and wet brewer’s grains which makes our rations unique,” he said.

Hersom is finishing a study on including soy bean meal as part of the cattle ration. “With soy bean meal, we had good weight gains with heifers. We followed it up with two years of feeding without a soy additive and couldn’t get the gains we wanted. Right now, we’re trying to identify the optimum level. We’re trying to find out how much we need to include with DDG’s but we’re just 56 days into those trials.”

 “The feeding phase should be concluded in late spring next year. We’ll have the data ready mid-summer and take it through peer review. We plan to make our findings available in 2011.”

Hersom is concerned about ‘nutrient synchronization’ which he defines as the balance of nutrients within the rumen to optimize feed utilization and improve animal performance.

Simply put, synchronized cattle nutrition increases ruminal metabolism which causes an increase in intake and digestibility. Your herd benefits by an increase in nutrient extraction. In laymen’s terms, it means they get more out of their feed.

It’s a concept that’s not familiar to many cattle feeders but understanding it can mean the difference between profit and loss. With the recent increases in feed component costs, extracting more nutrients per pound of feed is an attractive concept. Corn prices have been particularly volatile, for instance, creating some serious losses recently. The price of feeder hay has almost doubled in the last half decade and its availability has been spotty.

It might have been a back hand suggestion at a method of reducing those ballyhooed green house gasses emitted by bovines worldwide when Dr. Hersom was quoted this way: “In optimizing the use of the feed going into our cattle, we can minimize the outputs that come out of the back end of the animal.”

In fewer words, Hersom was saying better rumen health can mean fewer methane emissions and less solid waste. “The more efficiently our cattle use their nutrients, the less impact they will have on the environment.”

It seems like a concept that will delight cattlemen everywhere – better use of feed means lower feed bills without losing weight or quality – and please the environmentalists, too.

Source: www.cattlenetwork.com

www.PerryFarmsGrassFedBeef.com

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