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That may be an easy question to answer anecdotally, especially for the old-timers. But Livestock WX looked at the question a little more scientifically.
Using several different evaluation methods, they found, to nobody’s surprise, that the country west of the Mississippi river is more drought-prone. But which states are the worst?
The map shows the percent of time in the last 20 years that each state has been “in drought” based on the Drought Monitor criteria. Drought may typically be expected to occur about 30% of the time, but states that are shaded dark orange, red, and maroon experience drought more than that. Interestingly, Nevada and Arizona (encompassing some of the driest regions of the country) have experienced drought more than half the time the Drought Monitor has been in operation.
Beef producers spend thousands of dollars on vaccines for calves, replacement heifers and adult cows and bulls. Each vaccine can cost over $3 per head, and if stored improperly, can be rendered useless. Producers cannot afford to overlook the importance proper storage plays in their herd health, according to the Oklahoma Farm Report.
"Most biological products should be stored under refrigeration at 35 to 45 F unless the nature of the product makes storing at a different temperature advisable,” says Glenn Selk, animal scientist emeritus at Oklahoma State University. “Read the insert or box label carefully to discover the recommended storage temperature. If vaccines are not stored within this temperature range, efficacy to the calf can and will be reduced.”
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A long-term study at the University of Nebraska’s Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory located near Whitman, Neb., found calf birth weight, weaning weight and adjusted 205-day weight were not statistically different between progeny from cows that were identified with bad udders and cows that were identified as having good udders, reports onpasture.com.
Steer calves from cows with bad udders and cows with good udders had similar feedlot entry body weight, final feedlot body weight, dry matter intake, average daily gain and feed to gain ratio. However, there was a difference in carcass performance.
Steers that nursed cows with good udders had greater hot carcass weights and backfat at harvest than their counterparts from cows with bad udders. Although feedlot entry weight and final weight were similar, they were numerically greater for steers coming from cows with good udders, which may have increased hot carcass weights at harvest.
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While fed cattle live weights have been moving higher in the last two months, we have not seen a significant increase in the number of Choice-grading cattle coming to market. This has significantly impacted the Choice-Select spread, especially pricing of items for which there is strong retail/foodservice demand, such as ribs. In early May, a little over 70% of fed cattle harvest was grading Choice. For the last week of July, that percentage increased by less than 0.5%. Last year, we saw a 2% improvement in the number of Choice-grading cattle during this two-month period, according to the Daily Livestock Report.
In addition, fed heifers are making up a substantial part of the slaughter mix. Steer slaughter has been running about 9,000 head lower than a year ago while heifer slaughter increased by 119,000 head. The shift in the slaughter mix as well as the good marketing rate of the last three months and conditions earlier in the year may have contributed to the decline in the number of Choice-grading cattle this summer. The supply constraints have come at a time when demand at both retail and foodservice appears to have improved.
Cow turnoff (culling) has reached record levels in Australia as severe water shortages across many key beef production regions have accelerated the pace of drought-induced destocking, according to Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) Cattle Industry Projections August Update. MLA Senior Market Analyst, Adam Cheetham, said total Australian adult cattle slaughter for 2019 is now forecast to increase 3% year-on-year to 8.1 million head.
Cheetham said the national herd is estimated to have declined 7.3 per cent, to 26 million head for the year ending June 2019, while estimated branding rates have also fallen, reducing the number of calves on the ground this season, according to Australia’s Food and Beverage magazine.
