Farewell!

With the end of the semester right around the corner, this will be my last blog entry. However that doesn't mean that you have to stop increasing your knowledge of the livestock industry!

Over the past three months we have covered many topics relating to the agriculture industry. Some of those topics have been the Veterinary Feed Directive,  how cattle should be finished, what you need to be prepared for calving season, and how Cargill is cutting back on antibiotic use. Yet, these topics barely even start to inform you about all of the different aspects of ranching, the government policies, and the controversial issues.

In an earlier post, we talked about how the Working Ranch Magazine/website was a great tool for the public to gather information from. Still, this is not the only resource out there. There are many agriculture websites, magazines, and newspapers available to the public. Another one that I really like is Agweek. Agweek has a website and produces a newspaper. Agweek shares news about happenings in agriculture. I highly encourage you to check it out for yourself at http://www.agweek.com/.

With that, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and don't forget to support America's farmers and ranchers!

Beef! Its What's for Dinner!

There are many campaigns in the agriculture community to help market and promote agriculture. In the beef industry one common brand is "Beef-Its What's For Dinner!" Many of you have probably heard this saying before or seen one of its commercials. This is the commercial from 2000.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association is responsible for the promotion of beef. They use this brand in many of their advertisements. They are widely seen on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They also have a website. On this website, they provide information about beef and include many recipes for consumers to try their hand at preparing beef. 

These promotional campaigns are all funded by the Beef Checkoff. The beef checkoff was started by the 1985 Farm Bill. This program is then essentially funded by America's farmers and ranchers. Every time a producer sells livestock, they have to pay $1 for every head sold, regardless of sex, to the Beef Checkoff.  The Beef Checkoff then uses the money to help fund programs to promote beef and research.

In conclusion, the brand Beef Its What's for Dinner, is a very common sight. Many consumer know this saying so it has been used effectively to market beef products. So next time your at the grocery store, make sure to pick up some beef!

For more information visit these sites:

Beef-Its Whats For Dinner

Beef Checkoff

Cargill is Cutting Back on Antibiotic Use

For quite some time now, antibiotics have been a popular topic. People argue whether or not antibiotics should be used in livestock. Recently Cargill toke a stand on the issue by declaring that they are going to cut back on antibiotic use by 20%.

Cargill is one of the largest meat processors in the United States.  Cargill has four feedlots located in Texas, Colorado and Kansas. February 26th Cargill started eliminating 20% of the antibiotics they used. According to Agweek, they are only going to treat sick animals. They won't be using antibiotics for growth promotion. Cargill said this will affect about 1.2 million animals.

Cargill is practcing step 1 with the reduction of antibiotic use.

Cargill says they are trying to please consumer desire by eliminating the use of antibiotics. Consumers are worried about human bacteria becoming antibiotic resistant because of the antibiotics given to the livestock
.  They are hoping to ensure long term effectiveness in both human and animal antibiotics. 

On Cargill's website, they are claiming that this will meet the consumers needs. Consumers want antibiotic free meat. By reducing the amount of antibiotics used, they can help provide this to the consumers. Yet at the same time, they are making sure to practice animal welfare. They will give antibiotics to sick animals. But they will be sure to wait to process the animals until they have completed the withdrawal period. 

There are many organizations that are saying this isn't right for Cargill to do. However it seems that Cargill has a plan on how they will handle this. And after it is all said and done, hopefully reduce the amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria affecting humans.  

Working Ranch Maganzine

There is many websites available that contain information on topics affecting the livestock community. For this weeks blog, I choose to look at the Working Ranch Magazines website. As you probably guessed from the title of this website, Working Ranch is also magazine that you can subscribe to.

I really like Working Ranch because it does such a nice job presenting news that helps to keep farmers and ranchers
informed. It covers controversial issues, yet also talks about happenings around the country. I also like their journal entries that people submit. These journals are ten day journals that tell about real events that happen on the their farm/ranches.

As a website, Working Ranch is easy to see and uses colors appropriately to highlight topics and catch the readers attention. The editors of the magazine also use hyperlinks appropriately and don't have an overabundance of them.

The editors of the magazine and website also write the articles so that livestock producers understand the topic. Yet at the same time it is really easy for people who know little about the livestock industry to understand. What I don't like is how you can read the magazine on the website. Instead of just putting all the articles in list for for you to click on and read, they have the magazine in PDF form. This is harder to read on a computer.

Overall I like this website a lot as it is a good resource for the public. In addition it is easy to read and really catches the readers attention.

Check it out for yourself at Working Ranch!