DairyCast Update

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Having trouble locating hay and forage? The #HayTalk Twitter conversation for this week centered on growers in various regions sharing their hay/forage availability and prices.
Also this last week, Temple Grandin's presentation to Agri-professionals highlights that the agriculture industry needs to communicate with the public directly and openly.

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The USDA crop report won't slow heavy supplies of cattle at slaughter near term.  Even though corn harvest is anticipated to boost 2010 production levels by 4%, that's still down from earlier estimates and markets reacted higher. 

We're featuring a conversation on the mass of beef moving to market due to drought in many southwest states.  Meat counter prices are being supported by a jump in exports, in no small part courtesy of the weak dollar.  The 'new normal' translates to volatility in all market segments.   

With the heat domes over many parts of the USA, livestock are at risk of heat stress. What are some of the symptoms of livestock heat stress? And what are some of the actions you need to take to protect them? This post offers several resources to help understand the issues of heat stress and what steps to take to reduce and limit it.

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Information To Help Your Operations

• Audio: Alternative Ingredients In Animal Feeds - International Ingredient Corporation locates and identifies alternative feed components.  These materials are scanned with NIR technology to determine nutrient value and blended into traditional feeds for significant cost savings.
• Resource: Milk Goes Bad in High Heat! The midwest is experiencing high heat and humidity this summer. These high temperatures not only make you feel terrible but your livestock can feel bad too. It is important to keep an eye on the animals and take action before they start to get heat stress. This resource link offers a color-coded table showing the severity of heat stress potential.
• Audio: How to properly detect heat stress in your herd - Dr.

Feed cost and production efficiency will determine those dairies which remain in business.  On display at the recent American Dairy Science Association meeting in New Orleans is the Greenfeed System by C-Lock, Inc.   While still in development, methane emission monitoring of individual cows will provide a real-time evaluation on feed use and efficiency and may shed insight on health issues as well.

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Information To Help Your Operations

• Audio: Does Methane Production Vary By Individual Cow? - A new process to monitor methane production on individual cows might provide supporting information to help manage methane and improve cow health.
• Audio: Why Foreign Disease Threats Keep Industry On Edge - In this special episode with Tech Nation's Dr. Moira Gunn, Tom Thornton, president and CEO of the Kansas Bioscience Authority discusses the need to tighten our international biosecurity firewall.
• Video: How Does Animal Disease Surveillance Work? The UC Davis' Disease BioPortal is a realtime disease surveillance suite that can help researchers understand and track the issues around human and animal disease outbreaks.
• How Much Food Will Be Needed In 2050? - Dr.

Jack Welch, past Chairman and CEO of General Electric, shares his thoughts on leadership and management training with MIT's Sloan School of Management students and others in attendance.  Some good content on how to find the right people for your team and why its important.

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Information To Help Your Operations

• Audio: Why Foreign Disease Threats Keep Industry On Edge - In this special episode with Tech Nation's Dr. Moira Gunn, Tom Thornton, president and CEO of the Kansas Bioscience Authority discusses the need to tighten our international biosecurity firewall.
• Audio: Do You Have The Right People? - Jack Welch on leadership and management planning, via MIT's Sloan School of Management.
• Video: Making Safe, Abundant Food Supply a Global Reality - Ted McKinney, Senior Director of Global Affairs, Elanco Animal Health, from the2011 Animal Ag Alliance Stakeholders Summit, May 5-6, Arlington, VA, USA.
• Nutrition and Restaurants - What are your food selection & nutrition options for your rural areas? Do healthy choices play a part in your restaurant choices? Or do you pick on convenience and price?

Dealing with heat stress is an annual concern when those summer days turn hazy.  Iowa State's Dr. Lance Baumgard shares background on the bio-health issues in heat stress and offers some suggestions in dealing with it.

A good presentation on the front page at DairyCast.com this week... "Food Plate Tectonics, Are The Right People At The Table?"  It's a presentation from the National Institute for Animal Agriculture's annual meeting looking at the changes in agriculture and suggesting those conversations with stakeholders and consumers need to be ratcheted up.

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Are you interested in and enthusiastic about sharing your dairy agriculture story through social media? The AgChat Foundation has developed a conference to help grow farmers', ranchers', and producers' skill sets with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, YouTube, and smart phones. The 2011 Agvocacy 2.0 Training Conference will include large and small group learning to help you establish the confidence you need to "agvocate" through social media. Applications are due June 24th.

The U.S. Country Of Origin Labeling Law is back in the news following a World Trade Organization finding that the regulations aren't accomplishing the original intent and are an impediment to international trade.  A special presentation features the U.S. perspective and Canada's view of the legislation and recent finding.

While we wait for dry weather to finish planting... some thoughts on better connections with consumers.  Aaron Putze shares Iowa agriculture's effort to connect consumers with producers.  Who you are and what you do is widely a mystery to those second and third post-farm generations. And yes, it's important that they know.

While we wait for dry weather to finish planting... some thoughts on better connections with consumers.  Aaron Putze shares Iowa agriculture's effort to connect consumers with producers.  Who you are and what you do is widely a mystery to those second and third post-farm generations. And yes, it's important that they know.