Animal Sciences Commons^™

A Guide To The Natural History Of The Central Platte Valley Of Nebraska, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

This book has been written in the hope that visitors to the Platte Valley may gain a greater appreciation for it through learning some of its animals and plants in addition to the Platte Valley's star spring attraction, its sandhill cranes. Besides the cranes, we have a world-class migration of geese and ducks, a slightly later migration of shorebirds, including what is probably the buff-breasted sandpiper's most important spring staging area between its South American wintering grounds and its arctic breeding grounds. Nebraska also has what may be the largest surviving population of greater prairie-chickens of any state, and an …

A Guide To The Tallgrass Prairies Of Eastern Nebraska And Adjacent States, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

Contents

Part 1: Ecology of the Tallgrass Prairie

Part 2: Plants of the Tallgrass Prairies:
Checklist of Prairie & Grassland Plants of Nebraska; Relative Frequencies of Grasses, Spring Creek and Nine-mile Prairies; Twenty Most Abundant Fall Forbs, Spring Creek and Nine-mile Prairies; Typical Shrubs, Forbs, Grasses & Sedges of Eastern Nebraska Tallgrass Prairies; English: Latin Name Equivalents of 370 Tallgrass Prairie Plants; Latin: English Name Equivalents of 370 Tallgrass Prairie Plants Identification Keys to Some Common Nebraska Grassland Forbs

Part 3: Animals of the Tallgrass Prairies
Greater Prairie-chickens and Native Prairies; Seasonal Checklist of Nebraska Tallgrass Ecoregion Birds (Gage County); …

The Birds Of Nebraska, Revised Edition 2007, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

Persons living in Nebraska often feel that they are living in a cultural wasteland; its citizenry preoccupied with violent sports such as hunting and football. Yet many are unaware that they are actually residing in one of the prime locations in the entire world for observing and enjoying some of the most aesthetically appealing of all the world's biological attractions. The area around Kingsley Dam and Lake McConaughy, for example, is known to have attracted more than 300 bird species, including 104 breeders (plus 17 probable breeders) making it the third-most species-rich bird location in the entire U.S.A. (after Laguna …

Pioneering Lobster Aquaculture In Rhode Island, Michael A. Rice

Michael A Rice

Antagonisms And Protagonisms Of Alternative Energy Sources And Their Effects On Ranchers, Leanne Stevenson

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Over the past 20 years, the United States’ use of power has increased about 25 percent. Couple this with the fact that Americans are looking for more clean energy choices, and it is easy to see the incentive for energy generation and use from alternative energy sources. Agriculture can provide the potential for clean, alternative energy sources.

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) require that affected electricity providers include a specified amount of renewable energy as part of their portfolio of generating fuels. There are many varieties of RPS; of the twenty-six states that adopted RPS, no two states have enacted exactly …

Using Byproduct Feeds In Cow/Calf Programs, Ivan G. Rush

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The topic of byproduct feeds can be a very long list from well known oil seed meals to corn byproducts from the distilling industry to potato waste to orange peels. In addition, people feed chocolate candy, Keebler’s cookies and the list can go on and on. This paper will focus primarily on byproducts from the alcohol and oil industry. Even though byproducts from the oil industry, such as cottonseed meal and soybean meal, have been available for many years, the tremendous growth into the bio-fuels industry has increased the quantity of byproducts available for cattle feed. Historically, we have looked …

Why Did We Change To June Calving?, Paul D. Redd

Range Beef Cow Symposium

We finally admitted we were violating our own principles, for 50 years we have said:
We believe it makes good cow sense to:
1- Use yearling bulls
2- Sell the old bull
3- Buy only top end performance bulls
4- Buy the best bulls you can find.
5- Take advantage of hybrid vigor
6- Don’t buy fat bulls
7- Make Mother Nature your partner. Build a cow herd adapted to work efficiently in your country (your environment). Keep those good producing cows that wean a good calf every year. Cull the cows that don’t pull their weight.
8- Select four …

Small Wind Systems For The Ranch, Home And Business, Antony B. Frank

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Small wind electric turbines intended to serve a ranch, home or business – given the right combination of a good wind resource, favorable utility policies, incentives and relatively high electric costs – are an economically feasible option for many in our region.

Production Systems, Terry J. Klopfenstein, Will Griffin, Aaron Stalker, Dan Adams, Darrell Mark

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Expansion of the ethanol industry is having a major impact on all of agriculture including the cattle industry — the largest impact of any development we have seen in the past 40 years. Cattle feeding has enjoyed relatively inexpensive corn and therefore greater amounts of weight have been put on cattle in feedlots rather than outside of feedlots. Calf-feeding has developed to the point where up to one third of fed cattle might be considered calf-feds. Increased corn production in 2007 is keeping corn prices at moderate levels — higher than the last 40 years but less than the prices …

Monitoring Grazing Lands: How, Why, When, What?, Paul J. Meiman

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Monitoring is the orderly collection, analysis and interpretation of information and data used to make short- and long-term management decisions (Wyoming Range Service Team 2001). Therefore, monitoring is an evaluation process used by animal and natural resource managers to help determine how rangeland or pasture systems respond to management (Holechek et al. 2004). The identification of monitoring as a process is crucial and suggests a number of important considerations. Monitoring has multiple components. This process includes not just collection, but also analysis and interpretation of information and data. Simply collecting information and data (for example taking lots of pictures) does …

Heifer Development – Then And Now, Richard N. Funston, Jeremy Martin, Andy Roberts

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Studies in numerous species provide evidence that diet during development can partially control physiological changes necessary for puberty (Frisch, 1984). Energy balance or plane of nutrition influences reproductive performance in heifers and cows (Short and Adams, 1988; Butler and Smith, 1989; Swanson, 1989; Randel, 1990; Robinson, 1990). Numerous studies have reported inverse correlations between post-weaning growth rate and age at puberty (Wiltbank et al., 1966, 1969, 1985; Short and Bellows, 1971; Arije and Wiltbank, 1971; Ferrell, 1982), and pregnancy rates in heifers were shown to be dependent upon the number displaying estrus prior to or early in the breeding season …

Nutrition During Gestation And Fetal Programming, K. A. Vonnahme

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Historically, considerable efforts have been made to understand how nutrition impacts health and productivity during the postnatal period. While maternal nutrition during pregnancy plays an essential role in proper fetal and placental development, less is known about how maternal nutrition impacts the health and productivity of the offspring. Indeed, the prenatal growth trajectory is sensitive to the direct and indirect effects of maternal dietary intake from the earliest stages of embryonic life when the nutrient requirements for conceptus growth are negligible (Robinson et al., 1977). Not only is neonatal health compromised, but the subsequent health may be “programmed” as offspring …

Delivery Of Supplements Of Rangelands, Kenneth C. Olson, Adele Harty

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Supplementation of cows grazing rangelands is often beneficial to overcome nutrient deficiencies or imbalances. However, supplemental feeds and their delivery to the cow herd are expenses and thus supplementation decisions should be carefully made to ensure that costs are minimized and benefits in terms of cow performance exceed supplementation costs. When supplementing cows, there are questions that producers should ask themselves to determine the best management practices to provide the most cost effective supplement program for their operation. The first among these is the type of supplement to be provided in terms of whether it will provide the correct nutrient …

The Immune System And Recovery From Sickness In Cattle, Gordon W. Brumbaugh

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Ideally, all diseases could be prevented and beef animals on-feed would finish healthy and with the highest quality of meat. That isn’t realistic for most diseases. In spite the best efforts, some animals will become sick and require treatment. Calves with bovine respiratory disease (BRD) that required more than one treatment had decreased quality of meat and economic returns than did calves that did not develop BRD or responded after one treatment. (Hicks, 2006; McNeill, 1999; Wagner, et al., 2006) Calf-hood diseases in heifer calves had measurable effects on maternal performance for several years. (Waltner-Toews et al., 1986; van der …

Gene-Testing For Production And Carcass Traits: What Does It Mean To A Rancher?, Robert L. Weaber

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Marker assisted selection (MAS) is a process that enables the accurate selection of specific segments of DNA that are associated with a measurable difference or effect on a complex trait, like weaning weight or marbling score. MAS can be an effective way to increase or decrease the frequency of specific DNA sequences in a population. It is important to note that many genes control complex traits, like marbling or tenderness; they are polygenic in nature. Markers for specific variations in DNA sequences are available for only a few genes that contribute to marbling or tenderness. There are many other ‘unmarked’ …

Creating Value And Preserving Margin With Commercial Cows, Jim Lerwick

Range Beef Cow Symposium

If the object of the game is to do what one enjoys while making outstanding margin, we in the cow business have enjoyed one of the greatest opportunities in decades. Even though drought has made it an unequal distribution, and disease and politics have added considerable confusion, turning grass and other feed stuffs into marketable calves has been good. We have had challenges to enhance value for specific markets with new technologies. We have seen our aged cow and bull markets influenced heavily by border issues as well as premium meat markets disrupted by embargos and restrictions. Feed price has …

The Impacts Of The U.S. Corn/Ethanol Policy On The U.S. Cattle Industry, Andrew Gottschalk

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The oil shock in the early 1970’s initiated government support for the ethanol industry. Initially, Federal support was primarily in the form of fuel tax exemptions that gave gasoline blenders incentives to blend ethanol with their gasoline blends. As world oil prices began to rise in 2002, governmental support for ethanol began to rise, as did popular demand and industry production. Simultaneously, fear grew amongst gasoline blenders regarding any liability for MTBE pollution. A growing number of studies have detected MTBE in ground water throughout the country. Even low levels of MTBE can make drinking water supplies undrinkable due to …

Improving Human Health With Beef Products, Marilynn Schnepf

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The optimum diet for humans has been the subject of much debate ever since it was discovered in the nineteenth century that certain nutrients in food were essential for human health. Nutrition science is a relatively young science with new information being presented about the role that foods and the nutrients they contain play in human health. The connection between the foods we eat and overall health is becoming more evident. The role that meat and specifically beef plays in our diets continues to be a topic of interest among the public as well as nutrition researchers. The purpose of …

Country Natural Beef….”An Idea To Be Constantly Examined”, Doc Hatfield, Connie Hatfield

Range Beef Cow Symposium

That “idea” is now imbedded in a cooperative with over 100 family ranch’s plus a number of prospective member ranches who together own more than 100,000 mother cows and operate on well over 4 million acres of rangeland. The cooperative which started marketing in 1986 with 35 head per week will in fiscal year 2007 market over 50,000 head of cattle as boxed beef primals, hamburger and hot dogs.

A working partnership with Beef Northwest Feeders in Boardman, OR and ABFoods (formerly Washington Beef) at Toppenish WA allows individual ranchers to maintain ownership and control of our cattle as boxed …

Colorado Homestead Ranches – Our Success Story: How Do We Sell Branded Beef Direct To The Consumer, Robbie Baird Levalley, Dawn D. Thilmany, Dale Dexter, Jim Ayer, Susan Ayer, Karl And Joetta Burns, Jess, Lynda, Calvin, Tracy, And Chad Campbell, Steve And Wendy Kossler, Mark, Hank, And Robbie Levalley, Mark And Jody Roeber, Norm And Susan Smith

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Colorado Homestead Ranches (CHR) markets natural beef, pork and lamb direct to Western Slope consumers. CHR is a partnership of six ranches that own their own USDA packing plant, a wildgame processing facility, and two storefronts. CHR markets direct to consumers via retail and farmers markets, restaurants, and wholesale distributors. CHR produces and markets value added sausage, jerky, meat sticks, and ready to cook entrees. The current strategic position of CHR is marketing of a niche, differentiated line of beef products, targeted at consumers who want a consistent quality product, raised on Colorado ranches, with natural production practices.

Cow Condition And Reproductive Performance, Julie Walker, George Perry

Range Beef Cow Symposium

It has been understood for decades that reproductive performance is the most important factor affecting production efficiency of a cow-calf enterprise. To maintain a yearly calving interval (one calf every 365 days), a cow must re-breed in 80 to 85 days after calving. With the nutrient priority of beef cattle being body maintenance, growth, lactation, fetal growth, breeding, and body reserve according to Short et al. (1990) indicates that reproduction is low on the list. Body condition score at parturition has been implicated as the single most important factor affecting postpartum interval to estrus and pregnancy in multiparous cows.

Benefits Of Weaning Calves At Younger Than Traditional Ages, Trey Patterson

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The term “Early Weaning” tends to be used rather loosely in the Beef Industry, and producers can find many articles claiming benefits of early weaning. A few questions arise. How early is early weaning? Is there economic benefit to weaning early? We will address these questions in this paper.

At the Range Beef Cow Symposium XIV, Whittier (1995) categorized early weaning as 1) weaning before the start of the breeding season (birth to 90 days) or 2) weaning during the breeding season (90 to 160 days). Weaning calves before the start of the breeding season has shown to improve reproductive …

Successful Ai And Synchronization Secrets: It’S In The Details, G. Cliff Lamb

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Estrous synchronization and artificial insemination (AI) are reproductive management tools that have been available to beef producers for over 30 years. Synchronization of the estrous cycle has the potential to shorten the calving season, increase calf uniformity, and enhance the possibilities for utilizing AI. Artificial insemination allows producers the opportunity to infuse superior genetics into their operations at costs far below the cost of purchasing a herd sire of similar standards. These tools remain the most important and widely applicable reproductive biotechnologies available for beef cattle operations (Seidel, 1995). However, beef producers have been slow to utilize or adopt these …

Preparing Calves For The Feedlot, Daniel U. Thomson

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Evidence based medicine is a balancing act between data and experience (Apley and Thomson, 2003). Decision making with just experience and no data has been termed “wizardry.” This would be similar as to saying we used drug A last year and they all died. This year we used drug B and they all lived. Great! Scientists and statisticians need not apply to work in this environment. The friendly drug representative that sells drug B is the expert. Paralyzed indecision is using only data with no experience to make decisions. This is the art of trying to fix problems from a …

I. Basic Principles Used In The “Sandhills Calving System” And How They Apply To Other Production Environments, David R. Smith

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Diarrhea is one of the most likely reasons young beef calves become sick or die.(45) Besides its detriment to calf health and well-being, calf scours is costly to cattle producers due to poor calf performance, death, and the expense of medications and labor to treat sick calves. (3, 41) In addition, catching and treating young calves puts herd owners and their employees at risk of injury, and many producers become disheartened after investing long hours to treat scouring calves during an already exhausting calving season.

Calf scours is a complex disease, with many interrelated causes.(1, 2, 37) Agent, host, and …

Ultrasound-Based Selection: Pitfalls And Rewards, Steve Paisley, Chris Loehr, Frances Niemala

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Ultrasound has become widely used by the seedstock industry as a selection and evaluation tool. Ultrasound estimates of Ribeye Area, or REA, Intramuscular fat, or %IMF (marbling), and Rump Fat have been used to develop several EPD’s for many breed associations. Despite widespread use by seedstock producers, there is still some apprehension by commercial producers. Additionally, the use of ultrasound for commercial herd replacement decisions, used by some producers, is worth discussing. There are both benefits, as well as cautions, to using ultrasound generated information in a commercial beef herd.

Genetic Information Made Easy: How To Sort Through The Chaff To Find The Nuggets, Willie Altenburg

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Altenburg Super Baldy Ranch has been a family owned business for nearly 30 years. The yearly calendar of events may help explain the philosophy and the cattle. The 150 head cowherd is made up of Simmental and Angus, both black and red. They are summered on large, native grass pastures on the Soapstone Grazing Association (20 acres per cow) on the Colorado/Wyoming border. They and their calves are trailed horseback there each June, a 15 mile drive crossing two ranches and using the help of friends and neighbors. After weaning and preg check, the cows are trailed home to graze …

The Value Of Heterosis In Cow Herds: Lessons From The Past That Apply To Today, Matthew L. Spangler

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Beef cattle producers are currently faced with a multitude of challenges. The traditional cattle cycle appears to have deviated from conventional wisdom, in part because of increasing grain prices due to a biofuels ‘industry’ that has become a competitor for grain resources that the U.S. fed cattle industry has grown dependent upon. A suite of genetic tools have been provided, or are in the works, to address issues such as feed efficiency, fertility, and longevity; along with more traditional EPDs for production and carcass/ultrasound traits. Established EPDs have proven to be very successful at allowing producers to take advantage of …

Working With Federal Agencies To Develop Win-Win Programs For Ranchers And The Public, Eric Peterson

Range Beef Cow Symposium

In the west, producers often find themselves working with a federal agency in some sort of partnership. In public land areas, the most common relationship revolves around United States Forest Service (USFS) or Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing permits. However, there are many producers, far removed from USFS or BLM lands, who are involved in some sort of relationship with governmental agencies. The Natural Resource Conservation Service springs to mind as an agency which many producers partner with. Others include Farm Service Agency, state wildlife management agencies, state lands agencies, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, to name …

Creating And Being Rewarded For Value In Calves, Tim Davis

Range Beef Cow Symposium

A. The discovery of BSE that day may very well have changed the way the US beef industry conducts business evermore.

B. Consumers, international as well as domestic, are requiring more standards and better verification behind marketing claims.

C. The Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) of USDA initiated a process to ensure companies and their suppliers could verifiably deliver products to consumers that met their respective product claims.