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Feed represents the largest single production expense for cattle operations. There are many different feedstuffs that can be included in rations for cattle, and there is nothing special about particular ingredients. What matters is the nutrients they provide.

Agricultural producers are under constant pressure to minimize the impact their management practices have on the environment. Although most environmental concerns related to animal agriculture have focused on water quality during the past two decades, air quality issues have become an increasing concern. Odors have been the main air quality concern related to agricultural animal production. However, ammonia emissions from livestock and poultry operations have recently received significant attention. New air quality standards that cover ammonia emissions in the United States were adopted in 1997. These regulations will have a significant impact on the future of animal production operations. The purpose of this publication is to provide an overview of ammonia production associated with animal agriculture and to explain why it is receiving greater attention from those concerned with environmental quality.

Anaplasmosis is an infectious disease of cattle caused by several species of the blood parasite Anaplasma. A. marginale is the most common pathogen of cattle.

Worldwide there are more than 250 breeds of beef cattle. Over 60 of these breeds are present in the United States. However, a relatively small number of breeds (less than 20) constitute the majority of the genetics utilized in the U.S. for commercial beef production.

It is widely agreed that prevention rather than treatment is the most economical approach to keeping disease losses low. Treatment of a disease after its onset is not always

Dr. Ben Tracy, Associate Professor, Dept. of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences at Virginia Tech, will be the featured speaker for the Beef Webinar sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension and scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 15th.

Virginia BCIA is proud to present the 2011 Virginia Outstanding Seedstock Producer Award to McDonald Farms, owned and operated by the McDonald family- Martha, Bill, along with his wife, Teresa, and son, Joseph, and Jim McDonald, Jr. of Blacksburg, Virginia.  After graduating from Virginia Tech in Animal Science, Bill joined the family operation and has been a driving force in developing the genetics and marketing programs of the operation and currently serves as the manager.

Body condition scoring (BCS) is a useful management tool for distinguishing differences in nutritional needs of beef cows in the herd. This system uses a numeric score to estimate body energy reserves in the cow.

Calving difficulty, technically called dystocia, is a major cause of death loss in cow-calf herds. CHAPA (Cow-calf Health and Productivity Audit) studies indicate that dystocia is responsible for 33 percent of all calf losses and 15.4 percent of beef cattle breeding losses.

Individual animal identification is essential if beef producers are to properly manage animals and their production records. Yet at present, less than 50 percent of the cattle in the United States have any form of individual identification (USDA-APHIS, 1997).

Creep feeding is the managerial practice of supplying supplemental feed (usually concentrates) to the nursing calf.

The economic climate of today’s beef business is challenging. Commercial cow-calf producers are faced with optimizing a number of economically important traits, while simultaneously reducing costs of production in order to remain competitive. Traits such as reproduction, growth, maternal ability, and end product merit all influence productivity and profitability of the beef enterprise.

Many advances have been made in the field of livestock parasite control over the past few years. Because parasites decrease production, usually through decreased weight gain, advances in the control of parasites can have a direct economic impact on beef cattle operations.

Developing replacement heifers is the most expensive enterprise in the cow-calf operation. You can increase returns to heifer development if the heifers calve at 24 months of age and calve early in the calving season.

Disease represents a major problem in most feeder and stocker settings. In some instances, outbreaks of disease can result in as much as a 30% death loss. In addition, treatment costs, feed efficiency losses, and the expenditures and labor necessary for treatment, as well as the necessity of culling animals which fail to respond to treatment, make disease loss substantial in many situations.

Foot rot is a common disease of cattle that can cause severe lameness and decreased weight gain. Other common names for the disease are sore foot and foul foot.

The beef industry consists of various segments of production. The function of this diverse industry is to produce a live beef animal from which high quality beef is ultimately delivered to the consumer. Newcomers to the business should have some understanding of the structure of the beef industry.

New systems of synchronizing estrus (heat) in cows for artificial insemination (AI) have been developed using commercially available Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH). These systems allow producers to artificially inseminate cows with little or no heat detection. For the first time, producers have a reliable system that results in acceptable pregnancy rates to timed AI.

Early spring is usually the peak period for the occurrence of grass tetany in lactating beef cows in Virginia.  Grass tetany is caused by low blood levels of magnesium and is worsened by high levels of nitrogen and potassium and low levels of calcium and magnesium intake.  The lush new growth of cool season perennials and annuals consumed by spring calving cows is a recipe for trouble.  Heavy nitrogen and potassium fertilization intensify the problem.  This makes it more of an issue in the poultry production areas where litter is used routinely as a pasture fertilizer. Similar risks can be observed on pastures fertilized with other animal manures or bio-solids.

Hay is a necessary part of cow-calf production systems in Virginia. Hay is forage which is harvested and stored in a dry form when an excess of forage is available, and fed at times when forage is limited or unavailable.

Cull cows and bulls represent a significant portion of the net income of Virginia beef farmers. According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) 2007 Market Cow and Bull Beef Quality Audit, the sale of cull beef and dairy cows and bulls accounts for as much as 20 percent of the income generated on these farms in the United States (NCBA 2007). Management and marketing strategies that enhance the value of these animals are worth considering. Research has also demonstrated that consumers are concerned about the well-being of the animals that produce the meat they consume (Bowling et al. 2008). Producers cannot ignore this trend.

Mycoplasma is a tiny bacterium that has a long history of causing disease in the cattle industry. Beginning in the early 2000s, it has emerged as an important entity in Virginia.

Essential nutrients are nutrients that are needed by all living things. These nutrients must either be fed or made by the animals from building blocks obtained through eating, drinking, or breathing.

Developing diets and feeding strategies for the cowherd is facilitated by a basic understanding of the production cycle of the cow and her changing nutrient requirements. By knowing and anticipating the changing nutritional needs of the cow, producers can plan their feeding programs and lower feed costs.

Pinkeye, also known as infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK), is one of the most common diseases of beef cattle in Virginia. It is a highly contagious disease, causing inflammation of the cornea (the clear outer layer) and conjunctiva (the pink membrane lining the eyelids) of the eye.

Reproductive efficiency is a major determinant of cow-calf profitability. The bull’s contribution to pregnancy rates is often overlooked.

R. L. Blanton and Son is a fourth generation farm in Amelia County with 1500 acres that includes over 600 acres of improved pasture in a well managed rotational grazing system, 500 acres of crops in corn, soybeans and small grains, 100 acres of small grain hay, as well a managed timber stand with a combination of hardwoods and planted loblolly pines.

The recognition and treatment of Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex (BRDC) is vital to the economic well-being of the stocker cattle producer. This disease is also known as shipping fever, or simply pneumonia.

If you raise dairy cows, broilers, layers, turkeys, horses, beef cattle, sheep, goats, alpacas, or swine for income or a hobby, you will have to deal with the manure they produce. The amount of manure produced by the birds or animals you keep depends on their type, age, size, and diet.

Bovine respiratory disease complex (BRDC), or shipping fever, remains the most important health issue facing stocker-cattle producers. Despite many advances in our understanding of BRDC, vaccine technology, and new antibiotics in the last 40 years, the percentage of cattle that develop BRDC and the number that die from it have remained relatively unchanged.

Expected progeny differences (EPDs) provide estimates of the genetic value of an animal as a parent. Specifically, differences in EPDs between two individuals of the same breed predict differences in performance between their future offspring when each is mated to animals of the same average genetic merit.

Profitability of the cow/calf enterprise within any particular year is impacted by several factors. A cursory analysis of the most basic farm records can quantify important issues affecting herd success such as reproductive performance, calf growth and weaning weight, calf health performance, market price, and herd turnover.

Zoonotic diseases are diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans and from humans to animals. Zoonotic diseases may be acquired or spread in a variety of ways: through the air (aerosol), by direct contact, by contact with an inanimate object that harbors the disease (fomite transmission), by oral ingestion, and by insect transmission.