With rising corn prices, a clear understanding of total-tract starch digestibility is as important as ever, says Dr. Bill Mahanna, coordinator of global nutritional sciences for Pioneer Hi-Bred. Additionally, Bill explains the differences when starch is digested in the rumen of the cow versus in the intestine, and how this balance works. New research and tests are giving producers a … Read More
Value Added Milk
Value added is a term used in a lot of different places but not one you normally hear associated with milk. But that’s changing. There are some new kinds of milk in the dairy case these days. The Dairy Checkoff is working on this area and we’ve got a Brian Baxter report about it. Coming soon to a grocery store … Read More
Aging Population in Japan is U. S. Opportunity
Brian Baxter was busy at last week in Denver between the Dairy and Beef Checkoff meetings taking place. Here’s one of the reports he put together for the U. S. Dairy Export Council. Japan is one of the strongest economies in the world, but its population is aging. Those market realities are providing opportunity for U.S. dairy producers to grow … Read More
Bringing Together Beef and Dairy
One of the members of the National Dairy Board attending the Cattle Industry Summer Conference is Paula Meabon, pictured here with her husband, Randy. I talked with Paula about the new emphasis on beef and dairy working together. She’s all for it. That makes sense since Randy is on the Beef Board! Talk about some beef and dairy collaboration and … Read More
Learning More About The Dairy Checkoff
I don’t know about you but I’ve always been a little confused about how the different dairy checkoff and promotion groups relate to each other. To help explain that I spoke with Tom Gallagher, CEO of Dairy Management, Inc. (DMI). Tom spoke at the joint beef/dairy issues forum held here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. He starts out explaining … Read More
Good Time To Think Pre-Conditioning Prior to Weaning
Here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference I learned more about Merial’s SureHealth program by talking with Dr. Van Ricketts. He’s Director of Corporate Accounts for the company. I thought you might be interested to hear what he had to say. The main message he had here for beef producers had to do with pre-conditioning of cattle prior to weaning. … Read More
Dr. Gary Smith Says it Like it Is
You don’t ever have to wonder how Dr. Gary Smith (Colorado State Universtiy) really feels. He’ll just plain tell you in his presentations. Yesterday he was the speaker at the Dairy Producers Education Forum lunch here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. This session is put on by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. It was the biggest attendance yet for this … Read More
Dairy and Beef Working Together
To get a dairy producers’ perspective on the collaboration between the beef and diary checkoffs here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference I met Kimberly Clauss pictured on the right here with Joe Bavido, DMI. I want to thank Joe for introducing me to Kimberly. Kimberly is a dairy producer from California who currently serves as Vice Chairman of the … Read More
Igenity For DNA Profiling at Weaning
I’m working out of a nice media room here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. It’s being sponsored by Merial. Pictured here are Kevin DeHaan, director of technical services, Igenity, a division of Merial, and Wendy Mayo, Bader Rutter. I talked with Kevin about Igenity and what it can do for cattle producers, both beef and dairy. He says that … Read More
Beef Board Meeting Overview
The executive committee of the Beef Board is already at work here in Denver. They get together to make sure everything is in order before everyone else arrives at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. At their lunch meeting I spoke with CBB chairman, Ken Stielow (3rd from left). He provides us with an overview of the conference from the Checkoff … Read More