TheBeefSite Newsletter - 16 September 2009

Wednesday 16th September 2009

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial - Mixed Fortunes for Beef Industries

This week has revealed once again the widely differing fortunes for the beef industries in different countries. While Tyson Foods in the US reported strong returns in its Beef division, ever more Russian meat farmers are deciding to sell their business due to huge losses suffered in the current financial conditions. Beef farmer representatives claim that income is plunging dangerously low, as current beef prices are 30 per cent less than a year ago.

Also in the news is a new feed ingredient that appears to offer the potential to reduce feed costs for beef producers. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) studies have shown that 'wet distiller's grain with solubles (WDGS) may be an inexpensive alternative to traditional feed ingredients when fed to livestock.

WDGS is a common ethanol by-product that could replace more costly traditional feed ingredients such as corn, soybean meal, urea and mineral supplements, according to the researchers. WDGS typically costs about 10 per cent less than corn when used as livestock feed.

ARS scientists studied the effects of feeding WDGS to cattle: feedlot performance, energy utilisation efficiency, post-harvest meat characteristics and cattle manure emissions. Generally, the cattle fed up to 40 per cent WDGS performed as well as or better than the controls. The only disadvantage appeared to be that as the concentration of WDGS increased in the diet, greater concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur appeared in manure. This was attributed to excess crude protein.

And finally, new research published last week suggests that the prion that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE; mad cow disease) can be spread in deer faeces.

Jackie Linden

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 4 new features this week:

Early Weaning Management
Weaning time is a stressful time for the cow, the calf and the rancher, writes TheCattleSite Junior Editor Charlotte Johnston. It is critical to business success deciding when and where to wean, particularly with last year calf prices plummeting between September and December. Research suggests that early weaning can in the long-run save time and money.

Adapting Livestock Production Systems to Climate Change
Greenhouse gases such as methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂0) are both primarily increased through agricultural practices such as land clearing, soil degradation, fires and ruminants, Chris Stokes, a Systems Ecologist at the CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Laboratory in Australia, told the 43rd Nottingham Feed Conference. Charlotte Johnston, TheCattleSite Junior Editor reports.

Breeding Feed-Efficient Herds: a Near Future Possibility
Feed constitutes approximately 60 per cent of production costs, and with current economic and environmental conditions pushing up feed prices many beef farmers are struggling to keep profit margins. University of Missouri researchers are determining why some cows need less food to achieve weight goals. Through this knowledge they hope to be able to aid farmers in breeding feed-efficient herds.

World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates - September 2009
According to the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report from the World Agricultural Outlook Board, weak demand for cattle, hogs, turkeys and broilers continues to put prices under pressure. The milk production forecast is raised for 2009 and 2010 as milk per cow is forecast higher.