The prolonged wet weather is causing calf scours to become a problem in fallborn calves, according to the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. Scours is a broad, descriptive term referring to diarrhea. Its not a specific disease with a specific cause, but rather a clinical sign of a disease complex with many possible causes.

Now is the most perfect time to think entrepreneurially and to start some sort of small business, because there are opportunities now, said a University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) Extension educator.

Beef producers are increasingly finding their industries under attack from all angles, including misinformed national media articles, and environmental and nutrition activism.

Feed accounts for 65 percent to 80 percent of total beef production costs. With grain prices at their highest levels ever, finding a way to lower those costs is important to cattle producers. Feed management practices go only so far, however. A more promising tool for cattle producers is genetic selection for improved feed efficiency.

The U.S. beef industry is renewing its push to get USDA to act on a years-old request to use irradiation on beef carcasses to kill harmful pathogens such as E.coli bacteria.

Cattle producers have a new tool to help them develop a marketing strategy, thanks to the work of livestock economists working with the Iowa Beef Center and Iowa State University (ISU) Extension.

Corn crop residue is practical for feeding dry, gestating beef cows in mid-gestation providing they have average or better body condition. Managed correctly, one acre of corn residue can yield up to 60 animal unit grazing days (60 days of grazing for a 1,000-pound animal).

At the recent Century Farm Ranch Ceremony, 17 farms and two ranches from 11 counties were inducted as century farms, and Steve Gilbert of Gilbert Ranches in Linn County and Samuel Dement of Dement Ranch in Curry County were honored at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, bringing the total number of Oregon century farms and ranches to 1,101.

Within the last year, many uncertainties have sprouted in the beef industry. Two major areas important to the future survival and success of the beef industry are potential governmental policy changes affecting beef production systems and beef pricing.

Artificial insemination (AI) techniques that work well with cattle and swine can be difficult or costly to perform in sheep, but helps on the way, thanks to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) studies in Fort Collins, CO.