Month: March 2020

Impact of Reported Coronavirus Cases on Live Cattle Futures: Implications for Future Feedlot Placements and Risk Management

– Dr. Elliott Dennis, Assistant Professor, Livestock Marketing Economist, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

The media and market attention surrounding coronavirus (COVID-19) has been near deafening. Uncertainty surrounding the severity, transmission rates, case fatality, and government policies has induced large amounts of volatility into the markets. Market analysts are still trying to sort through and estimate the impacts that COVID-19 will have on country specific economic growth, consumer spending, and food purchases away from home.

Beef is currently wading through how COVID-19 will impact domestic (retail vs. grocery) and export demand. The recent government suggestions on “social distancing” and “self-quarantine” have many wondering how this will affect food service demand. Given that beef has a large market penetration in food service and roughly half of total US food expenditures is consumed away from home there is likely to be some decrease in domestic beef demand. Beef export demand is going to be largely affected by the number of growing cases and government imposed containment strategies in countries where the US exports large amounts of beef.

Prior to the sustained market impacts of COVID-19, beef supplies were already Continue reading →

Are Genetics the Key to Dealing with Fescue Toxicosis?

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County, OSU Extension (originally published in The Ohio Cattleman, Expo 2020 issue)

One of the sessions that I attended during the American Forage and Grassland Council at the beginning of 2020 explored the possibility of identifying genetic markers in cattle for tolerance of the endophytic fungus that lives within the KY-31 tall fescue forage, which is the most prominent pasture grass in our region. This endophyte provides survival benefits to the plant but causes vascular constriction in the animals that can cause mild to severe symptoms and overall reduced productivity.

For decades forage managers and scientists have been working on ways to mitigate the impacts of this endophyte on livestock production. Most successes have come from the forage management side rather than the livestock side. We suggest dilution with other types of forage, rotational grazing, and conversion to novel- endophyte fescues (those containing an endophyte that benefits the plant, without harming the grazing animal).

From observation and record keeping, we know that Continue reading →

Managing Mud Season

– Ted Wiseman, OSU Extension, Perry County (originally published in Farm and Dairy)

This is not a new topic or an issue that we haven’t seen before.  But this past year has really been a challenge for ruminants.  In a normal year mud season was early fall, then freeze in the winter and then reappear in March.  This year it started after last September’s dry weather, and since then it’s been mud season.  This has made feeding forages and maintaining pastures very difficult.  To further compound the problem last year’s first cutting hay was of very low quality.  I hope that you have taken forage samples and are maintaining body condition scores in preparation for the newborns arriving soon if not already.

Not only is the mud situation bad for our pastures and feeding areas, it also increases the nutrient need for our livestock.  Reports have indicated that cattle in muddy conditions may require 30% more net energy for maintenance.  Shallow depths of mud (4-8”) can reduce feed intake 5-15% and when mud is 12-24” deep, feed intake can be reduced by Continue reading →

Semen/Nitrogen Tank Care

– Dean Kreager, Licking County Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator

Handle with care. The inner container is only attached to the outer container at the neck and a crack in this connection will cause the tank to quickly fail!

It is almost time to start breeding for the 2021 calf crop. Last week I talked about proper semen handling so this week I thought it was worth providing some information on care and handling of the liquid nitrogen tanks. The nitrogen tanks on our farms are likely storing semen and embryos that are very expensive to replace or maybe can’t be replaced. We need to take care of these tanks to make sure we don’t lose the contents.

Many people may be heading to the Ohio Beef Expo to pick up straws of semen and there are some things you should keep in mind.

Ideally you would have a dry shipper tank to pick up your straws. This is the small tanks they use to send semen to your farm. These are called “dry shippers” because they should not have liquid in them. They contain an absorbent material that soaks up the liquid nitrogen and can maintain a temperature close to the temperature of liquid nitrogen for 1 to 3 weeks. The problem is that these tanks will cost as much or more than your standard storage tank and you need to recharge them with liquid nitrogen before using them.

Legally you can not carry a tank containing liquid nitrogen in an Continue reading →

Benchmarks for the Cow/Calf Producer

– Dr. Andrew Griffith, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Tennessee

The past couple of meetings I have spoken at I have briefly discussed some benchmarks for conception rate, calving rate, and weaning and marketing rate. The reason this has been a topic is because of the concern about cattle prices. Many producers are concerned about cattle price, but I would contend that many cow-calf producers are losing more money from not getting cows bred and not getting calves to the age of marketing than they are through market price swings.

The benchmark values I suggest is a 95 percent conception rate, 94 percent calving rate, and a 90 percent weaning and marketing rate. Thus, a producer with 30 cows needs to have 27 marketable calves each year while the producer with 100 cows needs 90 marketable calves.

For many producers, these benchmarks are not being met which means the market price has no impact on animals that never make it to marketing. This is meant to encourage producers to focus on management aspects that improve the likelihood of actually having something to market.

Risk-Off

– Stephen R. Koontz, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University

So today (March 9, 2020), oil prices are down about 20% and a variety of stock market index futures are off at least 5%. It’s a great opportunity to write about cattle markets. No, not really. In actuality, it is a good opportunity to review market fundamentals after we contrast them with unknown unknowns as revealed by today’s charts. The outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel and new coronavirus, identified as CORVID-19, continues. The outbreak first started in Wuhan, China, but cases have been identified in a growing number of other locations internationally, including the United States. There are several interrelated unknowns: What will be the magnitude of the spread, what will be the loss of life and degradation in human health, and what will be the extent of this exacerbation to the global economic slowdown? These are big and far-reaching questions and there is little information about their answers. Therefore, markets are currently revealing an enormous amount of risk protection taking place and there appears to be no market and certainly no asset market with a risk that is Continue reading →

Preserving Semen Quality

– Dean Kreager, Licking County Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator

If you are using artificial insemination to maximize the genetic potential of your herd, proper semen handling is critical to fertility.  Frozen semen will never be more fertile than the day it was frozen but there are many things you can do that decrease the fertility.

To help understand the importance of semen handling I will give you a brief background in the science.  Semen is frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen because nitrogen is stable and relatively safe to work with compared to alternatives.  Liquid nitrogen has a temperature of -320° F.  Originally dry ice, -109° F, was used but its ability to keep the samples cold enough was limited and liquid nitrogen provided superior results with extended storage.

It would seem like frozen is frozen so why would temperature fluctuations at Continue reading →

Forage Focus: Fungal Growth in Stored Forages

In this edition of Forage focus host Christine Gelley, an Extension Educator with The Ohio State University Agriculture & Natural Resources in Noble County, visits Harrison County for an interview with Erika Lyon, OSU Extension Educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Jefferson & Harrison Counties. Erika and Christine address concerns about fungal growth in stored forages.

Moldy hay is a common problem associated with the moisture content of hay at baling and in storage. It is also an issue in stored grains. Erika introduces us to the biology of fungi and symptoms that indicate a problem with fungal ingestion in ruminant livestock. Some important points and the Continue reading →

Can annuals on cropland extend the grazing season?

– Victor Shelton, NRCS State Agronomist/Grazing Specialist

Can annuals on cropland extend the grazing season?

We got a bit too far into numbers and math last issue, but understanding grazing math is important and powerful information and can certainly impact your bottom line. You certainly don’t want to wait until this time of year to find that you don’t have enough winter feed so we must constantly be looking ahead.

There is more than one way to reduce the amount of hay or winter feed needed and we probably need to take advantage of them. We’ve discussed some of these before, such as the use of crop residue, cover crops, annuals of all kinds and stockpile, of course. I can’t stress enough that this does require thinking ahead.

The biggest advantage, which can produce nice dividends, is getting livestock off pastures in late summer and keeping them off as long as possible. You are able to do this IF you have somewhere else you can go with the livestock. This doesn’t mean letting them “accidently” roam over onto your neighbor’s farm, but honestly that could be a viable option . . . with Continue reading →

Steers Outsell Bulls by $11+/cwt

Recently, University of Kentucky economist Kenny Burdine shared the chart below. It carries a significant economic and quality assurance message that needs little additional explanation . . . over the last 10 years, a 550 lb steer has outsold a 550 lb bull by an average of a little over $11 per cwt in Kentucky auction markets.