th e virginia cattlemanvacattlemen.org/pdf/2014/va cattleman dec 2014 electronic.pdf · th e...

Th e Virginia Cattleman

P. O. Box 9

Daleville, VA 24083-0009

Non-Profi t

Organization

U. S. Postage

PAIDDaleville VA 24083

Permit No. 8

Offi cial Publication of the Virginia Cattleman’s Association • PLEASE NOTIFY SENDER IF ADDRESS LABEL IS INCORRECT

What’s Inside…Selection For Marbling In A Cowherd ....................................... Page 6

Innovations In Beef Cutting..................................................... 2

Dairy Cattle Beef Up Beef Industry ......................................... Page 16

– SEE NEW CONTEST ON PAGE 35 –

Th e Virginia CattlemanVolume 36 Number 11 Circulation 8,000 December 2014

PHOTO BY ROBIN DICKERSONWintertime in Thompson Valley Virginia

fromThe Virginia Cattlemen’s Association

, DECEMBER 2014, THE VIRGINIA CATTLEMAN

Dan Henderson

It was a clear, Christmas Eve night in Tennessee. It was not so long ago as you might think, even though Clarabell was just a little calf when it happened. Clarabell was special, even for a Jersey calf. If she weren’t special, how then could all this have happened?

Jack Frost had come to paint the wide fi elds in silver and dia-monds. Wind whistled through the cracks in the barn wall. The cold made white clouds out of Clarabell’s breath.

All the cows on Wilburn Farm but Clarabell were asleep. Even Hermann the Bull was quiet tonight.

It was the coldest night Clara-bell had ever seen. The heat lamp in her stall had gone out. Her sawdust was damp. The water in her bucket was hard, and made her nose sting when she touched it.

Clarabell could smell the smoke from the chimney where the Wilburns lived. She knew if little Billy was awake, he would come and make her warm.

But he did not come.Clarabell turned her brown,

big eyes longingly toward his house. They were very good eyes.

How else could she have seen what she saw?

She poked up her big, choco-late-colored ears. They were very good ears. How else could she have heard what she heard?

She stood up on her long, skinny legs. The Wilburns’ house was all dark. She sniffed with her wet, shiny nose. It was a very good nose. How else could she have smelled what she smelled?

What she smelled was pepper-mint. And what she heard was bells. And what she saw -- well, you wouldn’t believe.

The sound of the bells grew louder. They made a sound she had not heard before. It was mu-sic, sweet music, music like the sound the herd makes as it lies down for the night. It was coming from the Wilburn house, where little 6-year-old Billy was asleep.

Clarabell liked Billy. He was gentler than the other humans. He was nicer. He never talked. Clarabell did not know that this was strange for a human. She thought it was nice.

She opened her brown eyes wide. Something was on the top of the Wilburn house! But she could not tell what. It frightened her to think someone might be after Billy.

She waited. She waited a long time.

No cars came down the road.Nothing moved on the farm.Stars shone like candles in the

sky. Even the wind died down to a whisper.

And then, in a twinkling, like a leaf sucked up by a dust devil, it was fl ying. Whatever-it-was -- for Clarabell still did not know -- was

fl ying. Bells jingled happily as it climbed into the sky. Stars went

dark as it passed.Clarabell caught her breath at

what she saw. There wereeight of them that fl ew across

the yellow moon. They were calves! Calves like her! But they had funny things like tree branches on their heads.

And they could fl y.

The eight calves-with-branch-es pulled a box behind them. In it sat a man. He was a fat man. He had a beard. He laughed, for Clarabell could hear his laughter echoing in the night. It was good laughter, joyous laughter, ho-ho-ho laughter.

And then the calves and the man and the laughter were gone.

Clarabell waited, but they did not come back. She waited until her eyelids were very, very heavy. Finally she could keep her eyes open no longer. She slept.

She dreamed of peppermint and a man-who-laughed and of calves-with-branches who fl ew.

Since it was Clarabell’s first Christmas, she could not have known she saw Santa Claus. Nor could she know that animals get a special present, too.

As he passes over, Santa sprin-kles dust that lets animals talk on Christmas morning, just like humans do. He has dust for every kind of animal.

He has dust for Jerseys.He had dust for Clarabell.“Wake up, wake up, Clarabell,

honey. We have so much to talk about, and the morning is, oh, so short.”

Clarabell woke up. The voice

Clarabell The Christmas Cow

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THE VIRGINIA CATTLEMAN, DECEMBER 2014, PAGE 3

To receive a catalog for upcoming BCIA sales, please check theappropriate box and mail to VA BCIA

December 13 – Culpeper Senior Bull SaleMarch 28 – Southwest Virginia Senior & Junior Bull Sale

Name_____________________________________________________Address___________________________________________________City______________________________State_________Zip_________

Mail to: VA BCIA, Dept of Animal & Poultry Sciences, Virginia Tech,Blacksburg, VA 24061

Saturday, December 13, 2014 – 12:00 PMCulpeper Agricultural Enterprise, Culpeper, VA

Selling 62 Angus, SimAngus, Braunvieh Beef BuilderPerformance Tested, BCIA Bull Guarantee, Stringent Sale Qualifications

Complimentary Lunch Provided by Central Virginia Insurance AgencyBCIA web site: www.bcia.apsc.vt.edu

VA BCIA Presents the 57th Annual

VA BCIA Office:Dr. Scott Greiner,

Educational Advisor540-231-9159

e-mail: [email protected] Station:Tom Nixon

540-672-7396www.glenmaryfarmllc.com

Can’t make the sale?Let DVAuction bring the sale

to you!Busy during the sale?

Let DVAuction represent your bid!

Visit www.DVAuction.com andRegister Today

For General QuestionsPlease Contact Our Office:

(402)316-5460 [email protected]

Scott P. GreinerExtension Animal Scientist,

Beef, Virginia Tech

The 57th annual sale of the Vir-ginia BCIA Culpeper Senior bulls will feature 62 fall-born yearling bulls on Saturday, December 13, 2014 at 12:00 noon at the Cul-peper Agricultural Enterprises located on Route 29 just south of Culpeper, Virginia. These 62 fall-born bulls represent the top end of the 97 Angus, SimAngus, and Braunvieh Beef Bulder bulls currently being developed.

The majority of the bulls selling are sired by trait-leading, highly proven AI bulls of each breed. All bulls selling meet minimum genetic requirements (EPDs) to sire calves for the VQA Purple Tag Feeder Calf Program. Bulls have been screened for reproduc-

tive and structural soundness, and sell with the BCIA enhanced guarantee for soundness and fertility. Complete performance information will be available on all bulls, including growth, maternal, and carcass EPDs, detailed test performance infor-mation, and ultrasound data. Many of the bulls will sell with

genomically-enhanced EPDs, and all SimmAngus bulls will be genotyped for homozygous black status.

Again this year, we will feature video clips of each of the bulls available for sale. These video clips provide buyers a good op-portunity to preview the bulls prior to sale day, and can be

found on the BCIA website www.bcia.apsc.vt.edu . Virginia BCIA would like to thank Southern States and Mike Shanahan of Shanahan Cattle Promotions for their support of the video feature.

As a new sale feature for 2014, the sale will be available via the internet through DV Auction at www.dvauction.com . Producers

will be able to view and purchase bulls over the internet with live streaming video in conjunction with the sale.

For video clips as well as cata-logs and detailed information on the bulls visit the website www.bcia.apsc.vt.edu, or phone Virginia BCIA at 540-231-9159 or Glenmary Farm at 540-672-7396.

2014 Culpeper Senior Bull Sale

Consumers are willing to pay more for meat products that are labeled and linked to a single, environmentally friendly pro-duction standard — like water conservation in beef production — according to a new study. The study led by researchers at the Washington State Uni-versity found that consumers who paid 10 percent more for environmentally labeled meat products could have an impact-ful infl uence on water conserva-tion in livestock production. Based on the 26 billion pounds of American beef produced in 2013, researcher Robin White estimated that between 76 bil-lion and 126 billion gallons of water could be saved each year as a result of such labels.

“It’s important to know that small changes on the consumer side can help, and in fact may be necessary, to achieve big results in a production system,” said White, who conducted the research as part of her doctoral studies in the Department of Animal Sciences at WSU. She added that the areas where water conservation could be reduced in livestock produc-tion include improved pasture management and greater sus-tainability efforts. More effec-tive labeling would also wind up covering the cost of such measures, which can increase costs for producers, said White.

Food Labels Study


A well designed crop rotation with an emphasis on forages selected for digestibility is one key to successful livestock management. It’s critical for production and animal health, nutrient

A well designed forage program goes beyond corn silage and alfalfa. High yields and the ability to feed forage increases by adding improved cool season grasses and BMR sudangrasses to a forage program. This, in turn, reduces the need for purchased grains. High yielding crop rotations produce

Warm Season CropsMC Corn Silage, BMR Sudangrass

Cool Season CropsAlfalfa & Late Heading Orchardgrass Winter Annuals; Triticale & Ryegrass

Aggressive Management1. Balanced Fertility2. Correct Planting Practices3. Harvest Management

Feeding Management1. Balanced High Forage Rotation2. Correct Supplementation3. Adequate Effective Fiber

Maximum Production ProgramBalanced Crop Rotation

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December 13th

index bull-A Final Answer sonout of an Impression daughter.123 YW ratio at 1315 pounds!-.4 BW EPD & +109 YW EPD

indexbull-A Right Answer son out ofan In Focus daughter. -.6 BW EPD & +112 YW EPD

Hill Angus Farm Facebook Page! Contact Dennis Pearson 540-326-2222 or Scott Greiner

540-231-9159 for additional information.

ANGUS FARM

Burt Rutherford,BEEF Magazine

While the long and often con-troversial effort to develop a na-tional animal identifi cation (ID) system may not be completely finalized yet, complying with a n i m a l I D and move-ment regula-tions is now the law of the land. And it has been for a while. U.S. cat t le pro-ducers and their veteri-narians have been work-i n g u n d e r USDA’s Ani-mal Disease Traceability (ADT) rule for the past 18 months. H o w e v e r , USDA and state animal h e a l t h o f -ficials have been empha-sizing edu-cation and cooperation rather than enforcement in an effort to achieve compliance with the ADT rule, accord-ing to Chel-s e a G o o d , L i v e s t o c k M a r k e t i n g Association (LMA) vice president of government and industry affairs.

Speaking during a we-binar spon-sored by Glo-balVetLINK, Good says the ADT rule be-came effective on March 11, 2013. For the fi rst year the

rule was in place, USDA and state animal health officials concen-trated on education, explaining the requirements and nuances of the rule to cattle producers. In March 2014, USDA announced it would begin phase 2 of imple-menting the rule, which includes

enforcement. However, Good says USDA doesn’t intend to take a heavy-handed approach to enforcing the rule. “But they are going to pursue penalties in situations where an individual is repeatedly failing to comply with ADT requirements, despite

receiving education and opportu-nities to come into compliance.” Good says quite a few letters of information have been sent to producers regarding compliance with the ADT rule and LMA is beginning to hear about some

USDA Eases Into Enforcement Of Animal Disease Traceability Rule

The VirginiaCattlemen’s Association

Affi liated with theNational Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc.

P.O. Box 9Daleville, Va 24083-0009

540/992-1009www.vacattlemen.org

The Virginia Cattleman540/992-1011

540/992-4632 - FAXpublished monthly by the

Virginia Cattlemen’s Association

Editor ...................................... Jason [email protected]

Publication Coordinator ...Jacquelynn [email protected]

Issued the fi rst week of each month. Copy deadline the 15th of the previous month.

The Virginia Cattleman is sent to members of the Virginia Cattlemen’s Association. Annual dues are $50/year or

participation in the Association’s Feeder Cattle marketing Program. Complimentary copies are sent to various

supporters of the Virginia Cattle Industry.

A Member of:

LPCLIVESTOCK PUBLICATIONS COUNCIL

Jason Carter ....................... Stuarts Draft Executive Secretary

Butch Foster.................................. Bristol Field Manager

Troy Lawson...........................Churchville Field Manager

FEEDER COUNCILGlenn Wheeler ............................... Atkins

Region 1Chuck Miller ................................Crockett

Region 2Joe Meek .......................................Dublin

Region 3Forrest Ashby .............................Staunton

Region 4Rick Matthews .........................Browntown

Region 5Steve Hopkins ...............................Louisa

Region 6Tom Nixon .................................. Rapidan

Region 6Lin Jones .............................New Canton

Region 7Brett Stratton ........................ Appomattox

County Cattlemen

POLICY & INDUSTRY ADVOCACY BOARD

Gene Copenhaver ...............Meadowview District 1

Joey Davenport ...................Glade Spring District 1

Bill McDonald .........................Blacksburg District 2

Steve Furrow .......................Rocky Mount District 2

Bill Tucker .................................. Amherst District 3

Jon Repair ................................ Glasgow District 3

Jared Burner .................................. Luray District 4

Allen Heishman ......................... Edinburg District 4

John Goodwin ............................. Orange District 5

James Kean ..................................Louisa District 5

Jay Calhoun .............................. Callands District 6

Mike Henry ........................... Chesterfi eld District 6

Continued on Page 16


Jason Smith andScott Greiner

Department of Animaland Poultry Sciences

Virginia Tech

One of the major factors that has led to a shift in the U.S. beef industry from its roots as a commodity-based market to its current state as a quality-based, value-added market has been the ability of cattlemen to identify and select for animals of superior carcass merit. This shift has provided the industry with the ability to ensure a remarkable degree of reliability in prod-uct quality and the consumer satisfaction that ensues. Fol-lowing the turn of the century, the push for improvements in USDA carcass quality grade and overall consumer acceptance led to a strong desire amongst cattlemen to place at least some degree of emphasis on selection for marbling.

As a result, a large number of producers have selected for cowherds that possess an abun-dance of marbling potential. Until recently, little was known about the existence of relation-ships between marbling and maternal traits, leading many producers to question if inten-sive selection for marbling and quality grade will affect cowherd productivity. In order to address these concerns, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to summarize and interpret the results of research that has evalu-ated genetic and phenotypic relationships between marbling and factors affecting maternal productivity. In addition, the Fall 2013 Angus Sire Evaluation Report was analyzed to evaluate the presence of existing relation-ships between marbling and maternally relevant EPDs and dollar value ($Value) indices for Angus sires, due to their popularity and widespread use in commercial operations.

Based on the results of this review, our interpretation of existing reports suggests that selection for marbling will not negatively impact many traits that are considered important for maternal productivity; includ-ing scrotal circumference, age at

puberty, heifer pregnancy, calving interval, or mature weight. Inter-estingly, there currently appears to be favorable relationships between marbling and the birth weight and calving ease EPDs, as well as the $W index within Angus sires. Additionally, these efforts identifi ed the existence of relationships between marbling and the milk EPD, the $EN index, and the mature height EPD with-in the Angus breed. This direct correlation appears to be much higher amongst the most heavily used Angus sires (based upon number of registered daughters with progeny weaning weight records).

It is important to note that a relationship does not affi rm cau-sation, as simultaneous selection pressure for more than one trait can create potentially unfavorable relationships. Such a scenario could help to explain some of the negative perceptions associated with selection for elevations in marbling, even within balanced-trait selection. Additionally, these results suggest that many of these perceptions could be the result of elevations in milk that have been

Selection For Marbling In A Cowherd

simultaneously bred into certain high marbling Angus sires, rather than a direct result of selection for marbling, as level of milk produc-tion can impact maternal nutrient requirements, body condition and reproductive success.

Research conducted in Hun-garian and German Angus cattle has identifi ed the existence of a genetic link between marbling and milk yield of Angus cattle, through the existence of a single nucleotide polymorphism of the gene that controls the fi nal step in

fat synthesis. The existence of this polymorphism, however, has yet to be evaluated within U.S. cattle populations, making the origin of this relationship difficult to determine. Additional genomic analysis and applied research of U.S. beef cattle populations is nec-essary in order to more effectively characterize these relationships, as well as to identify their origin.

Nonetheless, the impact of these relationships will remain largely dependent upon indi-vidual production scenarios, both

in terms of selection pressure for marbling, and feed resource availability to support its related traits. As such, cattlemen are encouraged to remain cognizant of these relationships when mak-ing selection decisions, and as always, practice multiple trait selection that allows progeny to be matched to a producer’s respec-tive management strategy.

To view the full version of the review article, visit http://www.cabpartners.com/news/research.php.

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she heard was gentle, and soft, and not like a human’s at all. She opened her eyes. At the other end of the barn, by the wooden gate, she could see her mother. Her name was Heads Belmont Star. She was very pretty. She had a white star in the middle of her forehead.

And it was her mother who was talking!

Since Clarabell was a very smart calf, it took her no time at all to get loose from the rope that tied her in her stall. She trotted down to the barn to meet her mother.

Heads Belmont Star fi rst had to explain why Clarabell could talk. “It takes very strong mag-ic,” she said. “It is very, very hard for an animal to talk. And that is why we can only talk this one day.”

The mother and daughter had a splendid time. They talk-ed about all the ordinary cow things. About how much better the hay had been lately. About how fi ne Mrs. Star’s new win-ter coat looked. About the new cows that had joined the herd.

And then they talked about Billy. “It’s very sad,” Mrs. Star said. “All the humans can talk except him. There’s something wrong with him.”

But Clarabell said, “There’s nothing wrong with him! He’s the nicest human of them all.”

“That’s the way it works sometimes,” Clarabell’s mother said. “It’s very hard to under-stand.”

And then they talked some more about Christmas. Mrs. Star laughed at Clarabell’s story of calves-with-branches. “You saw reindeer. They’re not calves at all. They help Santa spread the talking-dust.”

“That would be a fi ne thing,” Clarabell said. “That’s what I’m going to do when I’m grown!”

“Sweetheart, you must be happy with what you are. A Jersey cow is a fi ne thing to be. Why, you could have been a goat or a pig or even a weasel.”

Clarabell listened, but she didn’t believe. All she could think of was how grand it would be to fl y. And there was some-thing else. She might be able to get Billy some of the talking dust. Lots of children are like Clarabell: They listen to their mothers, but they still must try

Continued from Page 2Clarabell

things for themselves.She decided to be a reindeer

when she grew up.Mrs. Star kept talking. She

talked about Hermann the Bull and the time he chased the hired man across the pasture. “Her-mann’s mean,” she said. “But he’s kind of handsome in an ugly sort of way.”

Suddenly, Mrs. Star’s ears perked up. She sniffed the air. “There’s a human near. Be good. Humans are not supposed to hear us talk.”

Her mother walked away.Clarabell turned around. She

saw no one.She walked back to her stall,

her hooves going clippity-clip.Billy came out of her stall. He

had a new red cap on. She could tell by the way he looked at her that he had heard the two cows talking. That was not good. Bil-ly’s eyes were wet and shining.

At first, Clarabell did not understand. But then she re-membered that Billy could not talk. It would be like being a cow and having no tail. It would be worse. It would be like having no tail and then meeting a hu-man who had one. That would make you feel very bad, indeed. Continued on Page 10

No wonder Billy had tears in his eyes.

Clarabell walked over and rubbed her head against his corduroy pants. She didn’t say anything. That might only make things worse.

Billy began to scratch Clara-bell at the little nubs where her horns were beginning to grow. It felt good.

She saw that Billy had put fresh water in her bucket. He had fi xed her heat lamp. He had put dry sawdust in. He was real good for a human, Billy was.

Then tall Mr. Wilburn came into the barn. His face was red

from the wind. “So there you are,” he said. “Here with Clara-bell, of course. That makes it easier. I’ve got a special present for you.”

Mr. Wilburn, a man with a friendly, round face, reached into the big pocket of his wool overcoat. He took out some papers. “What these will do, Billy, is give you Clarabell as your own cow. She’s all yours. Yours to take care of, too. Treat her right, and maybe someday she’ll be the mother of a whole bunch of little calves.”

Clarabell looked at Billy. His mop of red hair gleamed in the

sunlight. His eyes shone like a summer sky. He smiled so big that all his teeth showed.

Clarabell smiled to herself. Being a Christmas present was almost as good as getting one.

Christmas passed, and New Year’s and Valentine’s Day and Easter. Clarabell was growing fast. Spring came and Clarabell thought she had never smelled or seen or felt anything so good.

She was put out to pasture in May. There were woods in the pasture, and they reminded her of something. Of Christ-mas. Woods meant branches. Branches meant antlers. Clara-bell went ‘round and ‘round sticking her head in this bush, that tree, and those thickets.

Surely some would stick for antlers!

But none of them ever did.Clarabell also learned that

fl ying was hard to do. She tried climbing up on haystacks and hills and even one little shed. But every time she jumped off, she fell straight down. She was never hurt -- but she couldn’t for the life of her fi gure out what she was doing wrong.

And she was getting fat.There was so much food in


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Cattlemen’s Supply

Scott P. Greiner &Mark A. McCann

Extension Beef Specialists, Virginia Tech

Short days, cooler tempera-tures, and the end of the year characterize December. With the end of the year just around the corner, December is an opportune time to refl ect on the year experienced with your cattle enterprise. As you review receipts and expenses it important to keep the big picture in mind as you assess the details. The key to making signifi cant changes is identify-ing weaknesses in important areas which have a major im-pact on your bottom line, along with addressing those which will have the largest impact. Production and economic re-cords are the necessary tools to begin the identifi cation of the variables where the smallest changes will have the greatest impact on your profi tability. Likewise, it is important to understand which key invest-ments will have the potential for the biggest return on in-vestment (items such as facili-ties, fencing, genetics, etc.). As you take advantage of the short days and work on your enter-prise records, what pieces are you missing? The 2015 record year is less than a month away.

Spring Calving Herds (January-March)

GeneralBegin preparation for calv-

ing season by checking inven-tory and securing necessary supplies (ob equipment, tube feeder, colostrum supplement, ear tags, animal health prod-ucts, calving book, etc.)

Evaluate marketing options for calves not yet sold.

Evaluate cull cow marketing strategy, take advantage of seasonality in cull cow price.

Conduct forage tests to de-termine nutritional content of hays.

Nutrition and ForagesEvaluate body score cows

that you identifi ed as thin and gauge if your management is making adequate progress.

Continue strip grazing ac-cumulated fescue growth as needed.

Continue to manage first-calf heifers separately; give

them the best forage. Thin mature cows could be added to this group.

Feed lower-quality hay to dry cows, saving the best hay for calving season

Continue to feed high Se trace mineral salt. A forage/hay analysis can reveal what other minerals should be supple-mented.

Harvest impacts on feed costs have taken affect. Work to contract or lock-in winter feed needs at the most economical price.

Herd HealthIn consultation with your vet-

erinarian, fi nalize vaccination and preconditioning protocol for calf crop.

ReproductionCull open, old and thin cows

and cows with problem udders, eyes and soundness issues.

GeneticsMake plans for winter and

spring bull-buying season. Evaluate potential sources for bull purchase. Using herd ge-netic goals, establish bench-marks and selection criteria for bulls to be purchased. Secure new natural service sires in ample time to acclimate to your management and environment prior to breeding season.

Identify replacement heif-ers using objective measures including genetic background, dam performance, and indi-vidual performance, along with

phenotype. Keep only heifers born in defi ned calving season.

Fall Calving Herds (September-November)

GeneralCalving season is completed

for most. Continue to observe late calving cows frequently.

Calving records should be complete and up to date.

Monitor calves for scours.Begin breeding season.Conduct forage tests to de-

termine nutritional content of hays.

Initiate breeding season.Nutrition and ForagesAs the breeding season be-

gins, remember that maintain-ing or gaining weight have a major impact on pregnancy

rate. As available forage be-comes scarcer and of lower quality, be prepared to supple-ment as needed.

Offer high magnesium miner-al. Generally, fall calving cows are not as predisposed to grass tetany. As cows transition from grazing to hay or silage, hi-mag minerals can be discontinued.

Use strip grazing as a tool to increase the effi ciency of utiliza-tion of cool season pastures by cows post-calving.

Herd HealthConsult with your veterinar-

ian concerning pre-breeding vaccination schedule for cow herd, yearling heifers, and

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the world! Clover and corn, oats with sorghum molas-ses, special treats that Billy brought.

It got so that she would close her eyes when she went to the pond to drink. It wor-ried her more than a little to see how fat she had become. She could not remember see-ing a fat reindeer -- and she knew being fat would make it even harder to fl y.

October came, and Clara-bell was fed her fi rst silage. It was good stuff. It was sweet like molasses and crunchy like


grass and warm like milk.Clarabell was very fond of

food, she was.It was late November when

she got her big scare. It hap-pened when Hermann the Bull got loose. He broke through the fence between where he and the calves like Clarabell were kept. Billy was with Clarabell when it happened.

When Hermann saw Billy, he bellowed. He snorted. He kicked up dirt with his hooves. Then he charged. It was like a huge diesel truck had started rolling.

And he headed right toward Billy.

Billy began to run. His short

legs hit the ground, ratta-tat-tat. If he could have talked he could yell for help -- Mr. Wilburn was nearby. But all he could do was run. He ran, and he ran very fast. But then he tripped. He fell down, and he did not get up.

Clarabell saw what was hap-pening. She was scared of Her-mann, but she knew she had to do something. She ran to get between Billy and the bull.

She stopped and faced Her-mann. He kept coming. Clara-bell was very scared. But she knew she had to help Billy. There was only one thing to do.

She bellowed. And she charged right toward Hermann. It was like a little Volkswagen

going head-on into a trailer-truck. Hermann could run right over her.

But he didn’t. He stopped. In all his born days, Hermann had never seen a cow anywhere act like that. Hermann might do a lot of things, but he wasn’t going to mess with a cow as crazy as this one. He backed up.

Clarabell stopped. Her heart was pounding. She bellowed some more. She sounded like a foghorn, like two foghorns, like three! Mr. Wilburn heard and came running.

Clarabell relaxed. She knew Mr. Wilburn would take care of Billy.

Clarabell thought about Billy

most of December. Because Billy could not talk, he could not call for help. That was a dangerous way for a farm boy to be.

But as Christmas neared she thought more and more of being a reindeer. But now the fl ying did not seem so important -- if she were a reindeer, she might get Santa to help Billy talk.

Christmas Eve, after ever so long, fi nally arrived. Clarabell waited until dark. She waited until all the lights at the Wil-burn house were off. Then she escaped from her pasture. It was easy to do. No fence around can keep a determined cow in.

She went down the black-Continued on Page 13


Continued from Page 9

Advisorbulls. Plan early to allow 30-day vaccination window prior to breeding season.

Begin planning vaccination and preconditioning protocol to be used for calf crop at weaning

Castrate commercial calves if not done at birth, consider castrating bottom end of male calves in seedstock herds.

Monitor calf crop for health, have treatment options on

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hand.ReproductionReproductive tract score

and measure pelvic area on yearling replacement heifers.

Implement plans and pro-tocols for breeding season fol-lowing pre-planned calendar and synchronization program. Confirm schedule with AI technician, have supplies and semen on hand. Take time to be precise with protocols for syn-chronization, estrus detection, and semen handling.

Breed heifers 2-4 weeks ahead of mature cows to al-

low longer post-partum inter-val prior to second breeding season

Use 48 hour calf removal for thin cows and fi rst-calf heif-ers at beginning of breeding season

Schedule and conduct breed-ing soundness exams on herd sires, including annual vacci-nations prior to turn-out.

Manage bulls properly dur-ing the breeding season. Ob-serve frequently to confirm breeding activity and sound-ness, and monitor cows for repeat estrus. Avoid com-

mingling mature and young bulls, as older bulls will be dominant. As rule of thumb, yearling bulls should be ex-posed to number of cows equal to their age in months (ie. 18

month old bull with ~18 cows).GeneticsFinish collecting yearling

performance data (weight, height, scrotal, ultrasound) in seedstock herds.


FOR THE LATEST INNOVATIONS IN HAY TOOLS, GO TO NHSMART.COM/HAY

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Drovers CattleNetwork

I n the development of new beef cuts that add value to cattle and stimulate consumer de-mand, discovery is just the fi rst step.

This week in Denver, repre-sentatives of the Beef Checkoff and the Beef Innovations Group at NCBA outlined progress and challenges in product develop-ment to a group of trade media. Bridget Wasser, executive direc-tor of meat science and technol-ogy with NCBA, explained the product-development process and demonstrated meat-cutting methods for established and emerging beef cuts.

Take for example the Flat Iron steak. This cut, which is the second-most tender muscle on the beef carcass, comes from the “shoulder clod” portion of the Chuck. Traditionally, the muscle was included in Chuck roasts or ground beef. But muscle-profi ling research, sponsored by the Beef Checkoff and conducted at the Universities of Florida and Nebraska in the late 1990’s, iden-tifi ed the Flat Iron as an excellent steak-quality cut that could offer consumers a delicious eating experience while adding value to the Chuck portion of the carcass.

However, the Flat Iron is not easily removed from the Shoul-der Clod. Extra labor is required to separate the muscle and re-move a large strip of connective tissue that runs between the two Flat Irons on each side of beef, and some yield is lost in the process. Beginning around 2002, the Beef Checkoff engaged in a “push-pull” marketing strategy, educating chefs and retailers about the quality of the cut while also convincing packers and processers they could add value by making the effort to cut and package Flat Iron steaks. It took time – a “10-year overnight suc-cess story” Wasser calls it. But the Flat Iron caught on, and in 2013 the industry sold about 71 mil-lion pounds of Flat Iron steaks, topping the total for Porterhouse and T-Bone steaks of 65 million pounds. Flat Iron steaks today retail around $8 per pound, well above most cuts from the Chuck.

That same muscle-profi ling re-search also identifi ed the “Petite Tender,” which also comes from

the shoulder clod. This muscle, in contrast, is easy to remove, and packers today routinely cut the small piece for packaging and sale to food-service cus-tomers prior to packaging the shoulder clod. Restaurants buy all they can produce and wish there were more than two Petite Tenders on each carcass.

Today, the Beef Innovations Group continues to research and develop markets for innovative cuts, both from the Chuck and Round and from middle meats such as the Sirloin and Ribeye.

From the Chuck, these include the Ranch Steak, or Shoulder Center Steak, which is similar to Top Sirloin in tenderness, America’s Beef Roast, Boneless Country-Style Beef Ribs, Sierra Cut and the Denver Steak.

In the case of middle meats such as the Top Sirloin and Ri-beye, the development of new cuts focuses largely on portion control. As cattle have grown larger, cuts become too big, and have to be cut too thin, to meet restaurant specifications and consumer preferences. So, researchers and marketers are exploring options for alterna-tive cutting methods to provide excellent eating experiences for consumers and value for retail-ers and restaurateurs.

These include removing the Sirloin Cap, or Coulotte, from the Top Sirloin, for use as a grill-ing roast or steaks, and creating Top Sirloin Fillets, which are smaller and thicker than typical Sirloin steaks, from the remain-ing muscle. In a similar process, meat cutters can remove the cap from the Ribeye, creating a new, ultra-tender (and expensive) set of steaks. The remaining “eye” portion, or Longissimus dorsi muscle, becomes Ribeye Fillets, a lean, tender and flavorful steak that can be cut thicker at the same portion weight as a traditional Ribeye Steak.

As with the Flat Iron steak, change will take time. Packers, processors, retailers and food-service operators will need to test these cuts and determine how they perform economi-cally. Some retail and restaurant customers will continue to prefer traditional cuts. But continuing innovation will provide choices as markets, production systems and cattle genetics evolve into the future.

Innovation In Beef Cutting


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topped road, then up the gravel drive to the Wilburns’ house. There she waited. She did not have to wait long.

She heard the far-off bells first. Soon she saw the rein-deer team moving across the sky. And, quickly enough, the sleigh had landed on the roof. It landed as quietly as cotton falling on the fl oor.

In a fl ash, Santa was inside the house. In the wink of the eye, he was back out again. Presto, he was in his sleigh.

Clarabell mooed. Not loudly, but very determinedly.

Santa came to the edge of the roof and looked down.

“Well, what have we here?” he said. He threw down some of the special talking dust. Clarabell began to moo again -- but in the middle of the moo, it changed to words.

“I want to be a reindeer,” she blurted out. Santa stroked his whiskers thoughtfully.

“I see,” he said. “How do you like this warm weather?”

“Warm weather?” Clarabell said. She shivered. “Warm? Why, there’s ice on the ground. When I talk, you can see the clouds of my breath.”

“But this is warm compared to the North Pole,” Santa said. “It’s so cold there, sometimes the snow turns blue. And you can only see your breath on the warmest of days. Sometimes your words freeze and fall on the ground, it gets so cold. You have to take them in and thaw them out to hear what you said.”

Clarabell gulped. But if she could help Billy, it would be worth it. “That’s OK,” she said.

“All right then,” Santa said. “Let me get my scissors and I’ll be right down.”

“Scissors? What for?”“Why, to cut off your tail,”

Santa said. “Have you ever seen a long-tailed reindeer?”

Clarabell thought about it and realized that she hadn’t. But she was very fond of her tail. All Jerseys are. And it was a very good tail, even for a Jersey. And it would hurt.

But it would make her a rein-deer. Then she could help Billy.

“Come on down,” she said.Santa chuckled. “You’re very

brave for a cow, Clarabell. But you’re not telling me all the


truth. Maybe you should tell me why you want so much to be a reindeer.”

He listened and scratched his head.

He frowned.“There is only one way I

could help,” he said. “I could take someone’s dust and use it on Billy. It would cure him, sure it would. But that would mean some animal would never get to talk again. Never. Not ever. And I couldn’t do that to anyone. It wouldn’t be fair.”

Clarabell thought about it. She would never be a reindeer. And if she did what she had to do, she would never be able to talk to her mother again. But

cows don’t have to talk. Humans need to.

“Let him take mine,” she told Santa.

He winked down from the rooftop. He was back in the house in a jiffy. He was out. He was gone.

Clarabell did not even bother to watch the sleigh leave. It was late, and she was tired. It had been a hard night. She walked slowly back to her pasture. But as soon as she thought of Billy, she didn’t feel tired anymore.

THAT WOULD BE the end of the story -- if Clarabell had been an ordinary cow. The story could end on Christmas morn-ing, with Billy coming out and hugging her. It could end when he said, “Merry Christmas,” for the fi rst time.

But the story doesn’t end there. It could end with Billy growing up, which he did. And the fact that he had his own farm, which he did. And that

Clarabell had calves, and grand-calves and great-grandcalves, which she did.

But that is not all the story, either.

Clarabell lived to a very old age for a cow. It could be said that she never wanted to be a reindeer again -- but that part of the story would not be true.

Clarabell did live very long.

And she never regretted giving up her talking dust for Billy. Cows don’t need to talk, and hu-mans do. But every Christmas, when she heard the bells, a tiny part of her still wanted to fl y.

It turned out Santa had not told Clarabell everything about being a reindeer.

He did not tell her that the reindeer who pulled his sleigh

were magic. Reindeer, you see, are just ordinary animals. They can’t fl y.

But the reindeer who pull Santa’s sleigh are animals changed by Christmas magic. Most of them had never been reindeer before. One was a cat who had led police to find a




Emma Reeves,Virginia Tech Beef

Leadership Council ReporterDr. Dan Eversole, Dept. of

Animal and Poultry Sciences

On the rainy evening of Oc-tober 31, 2014, students, alum-ni, and supporters gathered in the Livestock Judging Pavilion at Virginia Tech to make his-tory at the 20th annual Hokie Harvest Sale. The trusted VPI prefi x that has been featured in bull studs worldwide was added to the herds of buyers from Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and South Caro-lina at this event that has be-come a tradition in Blacksburg. This year’s record-setting sale registered 161 buyers from 12 states and grossed an all-time high of $204,700 on a total of 55 purebred and commercial lots with record averages of $4,404 and $3,064, respectively.

There were four Angus and two Simmental cow/calf pairs sold with averages of $7,000 and $5,850 for each respective breed. The highest-selling pair consisted of Lots 1 and 1A which commanded a $7,700 total. Lot 1 is a two-year-old GAR Composure daughter that ranks in the top 1% for CED and the upper 5% on $F and $B. Her heifer calf is a product of Connealy Confi dence 0100, one of the most popular ‘heifer bulls’ in the Angus breed. Lot 1 cow was purchased by Hart Farms of Blacksburg, VA while her Lot 1A fancy daughter sold to Blue Willow Angus of Ceres, VA. Lots 4 and 4A were the sale toppers at $6,700 in the Simmental cow/calf division. This SimAngus fi rst-calf heifer ranks in the upper 3% for calv-ing ease and is sired by the high growth Angus sire, Sydgen Mandate 6079. She sold to Hart Farms of Blacksburg, VA for $3200. Her herd sire prospect posts elite cutting-edge EPDs in Marbling, API, and TI and sold to Craig White of Buckingham, VA for $3,500.

In the Hereford breed, Lot 11 was the most sought-after ani-mal in both the bred cow and bull categories. She is a three-year-old MSU TCF Revolution 4R daughter bred safe to THM Durango 4037. She hails from the productive Victoria cow family and ranks in the elite

1% for WWEPD, YWEPD, Milk & Growth, and CHB$. She sold for $3,700 to David Campbell of Abingdon, VA.

Fifteen Angus, Simmental, and Hereford yearling bulls brought an average of $4,113. The group was topped by Lot 19, an Angus bull sired by Con-nealy Consensus 7229 who sold for $5,800. Lot 19 was also the highest-selling individual ani-mal in the sale. His calving-ease genetics combined with tremen-dous curve-bending $W and $B will certainly turn a profi t for his new owner. This promising Angus bull was purchased by Carl Benson, Jr. of Daleville, VA.

Lots 23 and 24 were the high sellers in the Simmental bull division, bringing $4,800 per head. Lot 23 is a polled, hetero-zygous black, TNT Axis X307 son who ranks in the top 3% on WWEPD and YWEPD. This SimAngus bull was purchased by Okes Family Farm of Cool Ridge, WV. The purebred, ho-mozygous black Lot 24 is sired by SVF Allegiance Y802 and boasts impressive individual performance for weaning and yearling weight. He found a new home with Hanson Cattle Company of Renick, WV.

The 28 head of commercial bred heifers and cows sold this year averaged $3,064, which is signifi cantly higher than the 2013 sale average of $1,990. Bidding was lively and numer-ous, and buyers swept the ring on female groupings. Wilbert Snider of Newport, VA and Max Campbell of Lebanon, VA were the volume buyers of these spring-calving females.

The 67 students in the 2014 Livestock Merchandising class did an excellent job organizing the Hokie Harvest Sale in an ex-periential learning environment. For the past 20 years, this class has served as valuable hands-on experience for students in all as-pects of organizing and hosting a livestock sale. The nine student committees were clerking, ani-mal display and sale prep, food and beverage, registration, clip-ping and photography, sale ring prep, advertising, catalog and social media, and decoration. Students James Comstock of Winchester, VA, Zayne Williams of Wytheville, VA, and Santerra Boyd of Tazewell, VA served as bid-takers for the sale while Jake Bailey, Fishersville, VA, and Will Strecker, Lexington, VA worked the sale ring. Nikita Burke of

20th Annual Hokie Harvest Sale Boasts Several RecordsDayton, VA was the student clerk in the block.

Special thanks are extend-ed to Col. Ken Brubaker of Brubaker Sales and Marketing, Harrisonburg, VA for guest lecturing and serving as the sale consultant and auctioneer. A huge ‘thank you’ is extended to our guest speakers Tom Burke, American Angus Hall of Fame, Smithville, MO; Julie and Martin Macqueen, High Road Livestock Photography of Covington, VA; Dr. Terry Swecker of the VT College of Veterinary Medicine, Blacks-

burg, VA; Aaron Ray Tompkins, Cowbuyer LLC of Ennice, NC; and Chris Terembes, Executive Sires of Charlottesville, VA for sharing their expertise and time to support this year’s class and the 20th anniversary of the Hokie Harvest Sale.

The Food and Beverage Com-mittee, with assistance from the Block and Bridle Club in the Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences, served a deli-cious, complimentary BBQ din-ner to over 450 guests before the sale. Their continued support


K.C. Williamson Extension Specialist

Animal Science Department

The 41,427 calves sold through special sales in Virginia during the fall of 1979 were about 5 percent more than last year. The number of steer calves increased by 11 percent, while the number of heifer calves decreased by about 4 percent. Heifer calves made up 41 percent of the total offering in 1979, compared with 44 percent of the two previous years which is the lowest per-centage since 1974 when beef herd expansion was still in prog-ress. The decrease in the number of heifers sold in 1979 suggests

beef producers in Virginia are starting to keep a few more heifers for herd replacements than they have in the past four years. During the late sixties and early seventies, when beef cow numbers were expanding rather rapidly, heifer calves made up only 37 to 38 percent of the total number of calves sold.

All of the steer calves sold through the 1979 series of special fall sales in Virginia averaged $89.00 per hundred weigh. This price was $18.76 per hundred higher than a year earlier and the highest on record for a fall series sales. The average weigh of all the steer calves sold was $442.61 per head.

REMEMBER WHEN IN December 1979VIRGINIA’S FALL FEEDER PRICES – HIGHEST EVER

The heifer calves sold av-eraged $75.20 per hundred with an average weight of 460 pounds each, returning an aver-age $345.79 per head.

The price of heifer calves was $16.60 per hundred higher than the previous year and were selling for 84.5 percent of the price of steer calves, a slight improvement percentagewise over the last year.

If we combine steer and heif-ers on an equal basis, the aver-age calf sold through the 1979 Virginia sales averaged 478.5 pounds, $82.11 per hundred, and $394.20 per head. This was about $85.00 per head more than the average calf brought in the sales a year earlier.

The weight of the calves sold in 1979 was practically the same as the calves weighed a year earlier, indicating the extra good grazing season had little effect on the average weight of the calves.

In 1969 the average calf sold through Virginia sales aver-aged 460.5 pounds per head indicating calf producers in Virginia have increased wean-ing weights by 18 pounds per head over the past 10 years.

Crossbreeding continued to expand in the state as those calves classifi ed as crosses in-creased to 42.3 percent of the total number sold. This is a 2.5 percent increase over the 12 percent crossbreds recorded at the 1970 sales.

Yearling Cattle Numbers Down

There were 40,042 beef year-ling sold through the fall series of yearling sales, about 12 per-cent less than last year. Contrary to the trend noted in calves, the number of yearling heifers sold was up 19 percent while the number of yearling steers was off almost 6,000 head, or about 15 percent fewer than the previ-ous year. Traditionally steers make up about 90 percent of the cattle sold through the fall yearling sales, so the increase in heifers fell short of making up the reduction in steers.

The yearling steers averaged $76.31 per hundred, a $16.63 increase over the prices received a year earlier but $5.00 to $7.00 per hundred below the price of similar weight cattle bought in the Spring sales of 1979.

Yearling heifers averaged $69.21 per hundred, up almost

$15.00 per hundred over prices a year earlier but well below prices received in the spring of 1979.

The yearling steers sold av-erages 743 pounds per head, 5 pounds heavier the last year, and the heaviest average weight since fall yearling sales were started in 1952. Yearling heifers averaged 633 pounds per head, 22 pounds heavier the last year.

As we look at the price trend on yearling cattle for the 1979 sales season, we note prices were very good during early September and held up well throughout most of the month.

By late September, slaughter cattle prices started trending lower and the announcement of higher interest rates in the early October created an even greater bearish attitude toward feeder cattle. The bottom in prices for the fall season was around mid-October. By late October and early November prices had made some recov-ery but the special sales season ended before any great amount of enthusiasm had been gener-ated and prices at the late sales continued to average below the sales held in September.

and cooperation are greatly appreciated.

There continues to be a very strong interest among Virginia Tech students and prospective buyers in hosting future Hokie Harvest Sales. Due to the his-torical prices in today’s cattle market and the reputation of this student-run sale, we are

Hokie HarvestContinued from Page 14 optimistic to host the 21st An-

nual Hokie Harvest Sale on Friday, October 30, 2015. Mark your calendars now and we hope that you can ‘Come and Experience the Harvest’! If you would like to be added to the mailing list for future Hokie Harvest Sales, email Dr. Dan Eversole at [email protected] or call 540/231-4738.


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Fed dairy calves account for 14% of beef production in the U.S. and have helped keep feedlots full.

W hile dairy producers are seeing profi tability from milk checks there is also a tremen-dous opportunity to market cattle into the beef supply thanks to record high beef prices.

Dairy Cattle Beef Up Beef Industry

According to Lance Zimmer-man, an analyst with CattleFax, dairy cattle ac-count for 1 in 5 pounds of beef production in the U.S . , so they are vital part of the beef supply chain. Z i m m e r m a n gave a presen-tation on the topic of mar-k e t i n g c u l l cows and dairy calves at Dairy Today’s Elite Producer Busi-ness Conference in Las Vegas.

The cattle industry has seen a drop in total numbers from a peak in 1982 at 50 million cows to this year’s low of approxi-mately 38 million cows. Some of those losses can be attributed to drought experienced. In 2012, drought affected 80% of the beef cow herd and 85% of corn production. Dry periods from 2008 to 2014 caused 3 million cows to leave beef operations.

While drought is still affect-ing dairy producing regions like California it is not as wide-spread. Currently only 12% of beef cow herd and 5% of corn production is being affected by drought.

As we’ve transitioned from the dry period of 2012 to a wetter 2014 we’re seeing beef cow slaughter drop off Zim-merman says.

Many beef producers are holding back more cows to capitalize on record high calf prices. In the past 4 years 550

lb. feeder calf prices have in-creased 83%.

Other ani-mal prote in sectors have also seen re-c o r d h i g h prices thanks to demand and a drop off in production.

P o r k p ro -d u c e r s h a d to deal with P E D V a n d broilers had fertility issues. However, both

of those industries can rebound much quicker because it takes weeks to hatch more chickens and months to farrow more piglets. Beef and dairy produc-ers need 3 years to develop a heifer into a cow.

“We’re going to have larger protein supplies next year by just a couple of pounds, but it is all going to be due to the other proteins, not beef,” Zimmer-man adds.

Zimmerman believes it is likely that fed cattle and cull

cow prices will still be in the same area next year for the highs, with maybe a $5/cwt increase. It will still be nothing like the $20 to $30/cwt increase from this year.

“Where we’re going to get the depreciation is the lows. I think $1/lb. is going to be pretty nor-mal for the low in the cull cow market,” Zimmer says. “The high on those cull cows is going to be right in that $1.20-$1.30/lb. range.”

Looking forward the beef industry will be in a supply driven environment.

“Anytime we’re in a supply driven environment, it doesn’t matter if it is beef, chicken or Mercedes Benz, the leverage situation changes where the guys down the food chain hand leverage to the guys up the food chain,” Zimmerman says.

Retailers can’t stand open shelf space so they will bid more on a product to keep their stores full. In the case of the beef industry that price gets handed down to the packer.

Zimmerman relates packers will have to bid more for cattle


investigations as the fi rst cases of enforcement come to light. “But in terms of actual case numbers, we’re pretty low at this point,” she adds.

For cattle producers, the big-gest area of compliance is mov-ing sexually intact cattle 18 months of age or older across state lines. The rule does not ap-ply to cattle moved in-state, she says, nor does it apply to feeder cattle. USDA plans to address rules for feeder cattle movement in a separate regulation to be published later, she says. Cattle that fall under the rule must be identifi ed and have an Interstate Certifi cate of Veterinary Inspec-tion (ICVI), commonly called a health certifi cate. However, the ADT rule gives states quite a bit of fl exibility on what can be con-sidered an offi cial ID and offi cial paperwork, so check with your local veterinarian and your state veterinarian’s offi ce for specifi cs.

According to Good, USDA has outlined three enforcement priorities. “First, the cattle that are required to be officially identifi ed are, in fact, identifi ed; second, that ICVIs or health certificates are properly ad-ministered; and third, that the collection of ID is happening at packing houses.” Given the flexibility that states have in implementing the ADT rule, Good says developing a re-source, such as a smartphone app, as a one-stop information source for all state and federal requirements is important. The United States Animal Health Association and the National Institute of Animal Agriculture, along with state animal health officials, are pursuing such a resource, she says.


USDA


Virginia Simmental Association

www.virginiasimmental.com

VIRGINIA SIMMENTAL

ASSOCIATIONDana Campbell, VSA Secretary/Treasurer

[email protected] Lowesville Rd.

Lowesville, VA 22967434-277-9104

Merry Christmas

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Brookneal, VA 24528434-665-7591

Frank Walton222 Smokey Haven Rd.

Amherst, VA 24521434-944-1830

Crop Production ServicesP.O. Box 64

501 West DanvilleSouth Hill, VA 23970

434-447-7603

Moneta Farm & Home CenterStuart Woodford

11739 Moneta Rd.Moneta, VA 24121

540-297-5558

Tanyard Branch FeedStephen Hite732 Hite Drive

Nelson, VA 24580

R.G. Cattle, Co.Floyd, VA 24091540-651-8626

Amelia EquipmentService, L.P.

18085 Genito Rd.Amelia, VA 23002

804-561-5885

to help cover the fi xed cost of keeping plants open and hopefully make a profi t.

“The guys holding the sup-ply, whether it’s day-old Hol-stein calves, cull cows or a cow-calf producer in central Kansas, you guys hold the chips for a little while longer,” Zimmerman says.

These tight supplies should last for another year to 2 years before it will transition to-wards the retailer and packer.

Dairy cows account for 6% of beef production, while fed dairy calves account for 14%. Even though the beef cow herd has declined in the past few years, the dairy herd has remained relatively stable.


Dairy Cattle55-60% of U.S. consumption this year is ground beef,” Zim-merman says. “For years the beef industry cried ‘we need our own chicken nugget or chicken breast.’ My message to everyone in the beef industry that will listen is you have it.

It’s called a hamburger.”Trim accounts for approxi-

mately 65% of a cow carcass, and it accounts for a lot of value. At one point in 2014 trim was worth 75% of the total value of a cow carcass.

“Dairy-infl uenced beef will

continue to be a bigger part of the beef story. Dairy cull cows are increasingly important to beef production,” Zimmerman adds. ”Feedlot overcapac-ity has made dairy-infl uenced calves attractive and veal isn’t the only market.”

The drought forced the ma-jority of beef cows out of the tra-ditional feedlot region south of Interstate 70 in the High Plains of Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma. To help fill those pens and keep packers near capacity feedyards had to buy an increasing number of dairy calves, driving up prices. Addi-tionally, more grower yards and heifer development facilities have been taken on at feedlots in the region.

The biggest driver in all of this will be consumer demand.

International markets will help drive the boat more and more as countries like Chi-na continue to eat increasing amounts of protein. Domestic demand will be the primary market, particularly for grind-ing meat.

“I think you could easily say

Patrick Comyn, DVM C: 540-829-3625

[email protected]

Amanda Weakley, DVM C: 540-718-5176

[email protected]

Office: 540-948-5238 Fax: 540-948-3564 www.vhhms.com

110 South Main Street PO Box 555

Madison, VA 22727

- Embryo Transfer & On-Farm Freezing o (Cattle, Sheep & Goats) o International Shipment

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www.vabeef.org

Beef! It’s What’s For Dinner!®

A Monthly report on your Checkoff Dollars at work

from the Virginia Beef Industry Council

The Northeast Beef Promotion Initia-tive (NEBPI) invited Virginia Beef Industry Council to participate in their plans for the Marine Corps Marathon this October in Washington DC. This marathon is the 3rd largest marathon in the US, and attracts people from around the world. Unlike the Boston Marathon, which requires you to qualify to enter, the Marine Corps Marathon is done by a lottery system, including run-ners of various levels. Not only was this a great chance to interact with the DC demo-graphic, but was a great event to attend with our own Virginia Team Beef being rolled out in early 2015.

NEBPI set up a booth at the Expo the week leading up to the event. All runners had to show up to the Expo to receive their running bib and registration information. It was also open to the public. An estimated

30,000 people attend the expo. Jason and Valerie were able to assist with the booth. We both learned quite a bit from NEBPI’s strategies to interact with the public. The beef jerky and Team Beef brochure (outlin-ing how beef helps fuel an active lifestyle) went over very well. NEBPI also recruited a triathlon trainer, Kim Schwabenbauer, who spoke at the First Timer’s Pep Rally on Friday Night and was widely acknowledged as the best speaker of the event.

Virginia Beef Industry Council plans to launch our own Team Beef in the early spring. Team Beef is a group of athletes that value the importance of beef in a healthy, active lifestyle, and are willing to be ambas-sadors of the brand, so to speak. Updates and information about the program will be available in early December at www.vabeef.org/team.

BEEF AND BLUE CHEESE STUFFED MUSHROOMS

These perfectly bite-sized mushrooms are stuffed with a savory blend of Ground Beef, blue cheese and chives.

• Total Recipe Time: 40 to 50 minutes

• Makes 36 to 40 mushrooms

I NGREDIENTS

1. 1/2 pound Ground Beef

2. 1/4 teaspoon salt

3. 36 to 40 small button or cremini mushrooms (about 1-1/2 to 2-inch diameter)

4. 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

5. 1/4 cup soft whole wheat bread crumbs

6. 3 tablespoons minced chives

7. 1/2 teaspoon steak seasoning blend

8. Minced fresh chives (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR BEEF AND BLUE CHEESE STUFFED MUSHROOMS

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Remove and reserve stems from mushrooms. Season mushroom caps with salt; set aside. Mince stems to yield 1/2 cup; discard remaining stems.

2. Combine Ground Beef, minced stems, blue cheese, bread crumbs, 3 tablespoons chives and steak seasoning. Spoon beef mixture evenly into mushrooms.

3. Place stuffed mushrooms on rack in broiler pan. Bake in 375°F oven 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with additional chives, if desired.

Patty Melt, the NEBPI mascot, and volunteers cheer on Team Beef members as they run the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday, October 26th.

• Test Kitchen Tips

• Cooking times are for fresh or thoroughly thawed Ground Beef. Ground Beef should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160ºF. Color is not a reliable indicator of Ground Beef doneness.

Marine Corps Marathon


The Blue Ridge Cattlemen’s Association, in conjunction with the Northern Virginia An-gus Association, held their fall quarter meeting on September 30th , at Lazy Lane Farm (Up-perville, VA), with over 165 attendees.

Lazy Lane Farm hosted the meeting, and provided a tour of the cattle and horse opera-tions. Participants loaded on four wagons to tour the cattle herd, visit the brood mare fa-cilities, and see “Hansel” the Thoroughbred stallion bred by Lazy Lane Farm.

” Hansel” is the oldest living winner of the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, having won both in 1991.

After a great tour, the group sat down to a RibEye steak din-ner prepared by Rodney Lillard of Mill Valley,Inc. The dinner

was topped off with homemade ice cream provided by Don and Helen Taylor of Windy Knoll Farm.

Our special guest of the eve-ning was Mr. Colin Woodall, NCBA Chief Lobbyist and Vice-President of Government Af-fairs for BeefUSA. Mr. Woodall spoke about several issues that may impact cattle producers. He encouraged participants to contact their government representatives to express how WOTUS and COOL programs directly effect their cattle busi-ness. In addition, he encour-aged joining the NCBA to support and promote our cattle industries.

The Blue Ridge Cattlemen’s Association was originally formed in 2003 as the Loudoun Cattlemen’s Association. The Association started with 18

Blue Ridge Cattlemen’s Association Fall Quarter Meeting

Left, Jim Wylie, Farm Manager of Lazy Lane Farm & Director of BRCA. Middle, Colin Woodall,Vice President of Government Affairs Beef USA & NCBA Cheif Lobbist. Right, Gary W.Hornbaker, Secretary / Treasurer & Founder of Blue Ridge Cattlemen’s Association.

original members. As member-ship and interest grew from adjoining counties, the Associa-

tion changed the name to Blue Ridge Cattlemen’s Association in 2011. Currently the BRCA

has 157 members from Virginia and West Virginia, and repre-sents over 18,000 head of cattle.


A coalition of advocacy groups sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, seeking to vacate its approvals of several livestock-feed supplements that are widely used in Nebraska and elsewhere to add weight to farm animals, especially beef cattle and pigs, but also turkeys. In lawsuits fi led Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Francisco, groups including the Center for Food Safety, the Humane Society of the United States and United Farm Workers of America argue that in approv-ing feed additives used to pro-duce lean muscle, the FDA failed to adequately consider the drugs’ effects on animal welfare, worker safety, wildlife and waterways.

The legal action is the latest dispute over a class of drugs known as beta-agonists that are widely used in U.S. livestock farming to promote lean muscle gain. The products are based on ractopamine, which the FDA fi rst approved for use in pigs in 1999. Merck & Co. in August 2013 suspended sales of a simi-lar product, Zilmax, because of fears in the beef industry that the drug made some animals lame. Some governments ban the drug, including the European Union and China. Russia has banned imports of meat from livestock treated with ractopamine. Elan-co, the animal-health unit of Eli Lilly & Co., makes Paylean for pigs, Topmax for turkeys, and another ractopamine-based prod-uct called Optafl exx for cattle. An Elanco spokeswoman said the company remains confi dent of its products’ safety and the FDA’s approval process.

Elinore White, a spokeswoman for Zoetis, which recently won approval for two generic racto-pamine products for cattle and pigs said, “We at Zoetis stand by the safety and effi cacy of our generic ractopamine products and believe they deliver value to our customers.” Zoetis has an animal vaccines plant in Lincoln. An FDA spokeswoman said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation. The exact extent of the drugs’ use in Ne-braska isn’t clear, but livestock industry sources say most cattle and almost all pigs are treated.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuits say that in approving 11 new and combined animal drugs contain-ing ractopamine between 2008 and 2014, the FDA failed to fulfi ll its duties under the National

Environmental Policy Act, which requires the agency to conduct an environmental analysis on the drugs. According to the law-suits, residue from the drugs can remain active in animal waste,

and when applied to fi elds, or escaped from manure lagoons, it can imperil the surrounding habitat, contaminate groundwa-ter and endanger wildlife.

In its report on the toxicology

of ractopamine, FDA says that exposure to the drug for humans can lead to heightened heart rate and a higher systolic blood pres-sure. Over time, exposure to the drug can lead to abnormal heart

rhythms, tremors, nervousness and metabolic problems. But the drug is safe, says the agency, since the residues left in animals after slaughter don’t reach harmful levels.

Lawsuits Aim To Reverse Use Of Livestock Supplement

“Our cows work for us; so our bulls will work for you!”

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POTTS CREEK FARM

JASPER & ALICEPERSINGER, JR.

2917 POTTS CREEK ROADCOVINGTON, VA 24426

[email protected]

HARRY & BARBARA KNABE

2074 Gravel Hill Rd.DILLWYN, VA 23936

(434) 983-31102.2 MI. EAST ofU.S. 15 on 617

FAUQUIER FARM

6470 BEVERLYS MILL ROADBROAD RUN, VA 20137

HOME 540-347-4343OFFICE 540-347-7188NORTHERN VA areaCATTLE FOR [email protected]

CEDAR PLAINS FARM

R.E. BALTIMORE, OWNER, MANAGER, FIELD HAND

150 Cartersville Ext.Cartersville, VA 23027

(H) 804-375-3071(O) 804-399-7409

“All Cattle Made In America”

BAY BROOK FARM

RODNEY & BARBARA PHILLIPS4277 FACTORY MILL ROAD

DABNEYS, VA 23102804-556-3810

[email protected]“Hereford Bulls for sale

at all times.”

KNOLL CREST FARMJAMES, PAUL, JIM, BRIAN BENNETT

17659 RED HOUSE RD.RED HOUSE, VA 23963434-376-3567 OFFICE

434-376-7008 FAXJAMES BENNETT - 434-376-7299

PAUL BENNETT 434-376-5675JIM BENNETT 434-376-5760

BRIAN BENNETT 434-376-5309

DEER TRACK FARM3320 Deer Track Rd.,

Spotsylvania, VA 22551BOB SCHAFFER

540-582-9234 (FARM)[email protected]

HICKORY SPRINGS FARM

JOHN BRASUKRT. 2 BOX 211-A

FAIRMONT, W.VA. 26554304-363-5918

[email protected]

NORVUE FARM

JACK SHEEHAN4442 Factory Mill Rd.Dabneys, VA 23102

Telephone: 804-556-4947email: [email protected]

FROGTOWN ACRES

JERRY & REBECCA FUNKHOUSER417 Frogtown LaneEdinburg, VA 22824Home: 540-984-8833

Jerry Cell: 540-333-1019Rebecca Cell: 540-333-1019

email: [email protected]

MEADOW RIDGE FARMS, INC.

DOUG & MELISSA HARRISON2184 Hillyard Drive

Broadway, VA 22815540-896-5004

[email protected]

DUNROVIN

DON & SHEILA RICHARDSON3473 DUNROVIN FARM

CROZET, VA 22932434-823-4438

e-mail: [email protected], DARK RED, HEAVY MILKING COWS

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DIAMOND “W” FARM

Ken & Doris Worley25052 Rich Valley Rd.Abingdon, VA 24210

276-944-3458cell: 276-356-3458

[email protected]

WILLINGHAM FARM

Daron CulbertsonP.O. Box 91

Remington, VA 22734540-270-2185

[email protected]

“In memory of Alton Willingham”

ROLLING HILLS FARM

420 NORTH HAYFIELD RD.WINCHESTER, VA 22603

Sid & Dorothy RogersHOME - 540-888-3134CELL - 540-539-3352

[email protected]

MAPLEWOOD FARM

JOHN AND KAREN FLEISHMANDANIEL AND ELIZABETH5442 Daniel Cupp Road

Dayton, VA 22821John - 540-421-9511

Daniel - [email protected]

MOUNTAIN LION MEADOW

TODD, LYDIA, LAYLA AND LILLY SCOTT1191 Spring Mill Road

Concord, VA 24538434-665-1224434-993-2502

OAK CREEK FARM

BILLY AND JACKIE KOONTZ25840 Independence Road

Unionville, VA 22567540-854-6567

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ROCK MILLS HEREFORDS

PAUL AND KIM NOVAK240 THUNDER VALLEY LANE

Castleton, VA 22716540-937-5553

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HEREFORD HILLS FARM ROY AND KIM DEAN 9311 BRADY LANE

Harrisonburg, Virginia 22802 (540) 432-9805

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COTTAGE HILL FARMMIKE TAYLOR

20 Cottage Hill RoadPetersburg, WV [email protected]

304-257-1557 (home)304-668-0580 (cell)

PIONEER FARMSCHARLES, MEREDITH AND

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To today’s average consum-ers, the vast majority of whom are generations removed from the land, the terms “feedyard” and “foodie” don’t seem to share much compatibility. Anne Burk-holder is out to change that, and she loudly trumpets that mis-sion in the name of her popular blog called just that: “Feedyard Foodie.”

Perhaps there’s no better per-son to take up that challenge. Burkholder is herself a contra-diction of sorts. She’s a city kid raised in Palm Beach County, FL, and Ivy League-educated with a degree in psychology from Dartmouth University. Yet, to-day, she operates Will Feed Inc., a 3,000-head capacity feedyard in Cozad, NE.

She’s also in the vanguard of beef producers reaching out to establish relationships with consumers and provide a face to beef production.

“I think the industry is behind the eight ball on transparency, in particular when it comes to feedyards. Consumers have a pejorative idea of a cattle feed-yard. I think a lot of it is just because consumers don’t know what a feedyard is, and we’ve allowed activists to portray it as things they’re not. We can fi x that by being more transparent,” she says.

Feedyard Foodie is designed to be that window. Through her blog, Burkholder educates visi-

tors about the beef industry, and cattle feeding in particular. But perhaps as important, she shares with readers her personal story, her values and life philosophy. A big part of that public persona is her family — husband Matt and their three daughters.

“I certainly talk about produc-tion practices on my blog site, but the other half of that is that if you’re going to ask someone to trust you, they have to know who you are and what kind of person you are,” she says.

The passion of a convertThere’s perhaps no stronger

passion for a cause than that in the heart of a convert. Unfet-tered by tradition, such folks are perhaps more prone to examine an issue critically, more open to adopting new methods and management philosophies. A confi dent, articulate and person-able young woman, Burkholder certainly embodies that.

Her urban-to-rural journey began her freshman year at Dart-mouth when she met fellow stu-dent and future husband Matt. He grew up on a farming/cattle feeding operation in the Platte River Valley. Three years later, Anne and Matt were married.

Once Anne fi nished her de-gree in psychology, the couple decided they wanted to come home and raise their future fam-ily in small-town America. Even more than that, however, they wanted a lifestyle that would

Anne Burkholder, The Feedyard Foodie,Is BEEF Magazine’s 2014 Trailblazer

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allow their kids to participate.So they came home to Cozad,

located on I-80 in central Ne-braska, population just under 4,000. Matt joined the family farming operation, and Anne considered her options.

“I’m known for saying what I think, but if you don’t push and don’t look for things that can get better, then you never get better.” Anne Burkholder

“I didn’t know what a feed-yard was when I came to Cozad the first time. I didn’t think negatively of it, I just didn’t know it existed.”

Intrigued, she says, by the animals and the process, she decided it was something she wanted to try. “So I asked my father-in-law, Dave, if he would give me a job. He took a tremen-dous leap of faith when he said

yes,” she says.A determined Burkholder

started at the bottom, at $6.85/hour. “I learned how to run a feed truck and a scoop shovel and how to walk pens; most of these jobs I still do today.” In fact, she says, the operation’s small size is one of the big at-tractions for her. “My feedyard is small enough that I don’t have a desk job. I’m out there every day handling animals, working with my crew,” she says.

She credits “two very won-derful men” as instrumental in her professional growth. “My father-in-law is a tremendous mentor and businessman, with an MBA from Stanford [Uni-versity]. I learned the business side from Dave,” she says. Meanwhile, Archie Curtice, the feedyard’s longtime manager

who is now retired, was an in-valuable resource, too, she says, as were other crew members at the time.

“They were willing to take me in and teach me, and I was will-ing to work very hard. I tried to work harder than anyone else because I had to prove myself,” she says.

It wasn’t an easy transition for a city kid with no background in agriculture. “But I tell my chil-dren that the road to excellence is never comfortable. Excellence isn’t about comfort; it’s about digging deep and trying hard to achieve more than you ever thought you could. That’s very much the way I’ve lived my life, and I hope my kids do as well.”

Between farming and feed-ing, she and Matt were success-



Anne BurkholderContinued from Page 23

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ful in involving their children. “Fall and winter are busy times for the feedyard, and spring and summer are busy for farm-ing, so our schedules were complementary for spending maximum time with the kids. We have a lifestyle where we don’t travel or vacation much, but we’re able to raise the kids doing what we do,” Anne says. The eldest child, Ashley Grace, turns 15 in December, while Megan is 12 and Karyn is 10.

Low-stress cattle managementBack at the feedyard, Anne

has taken over the operation. She’s owner, assistant cowboy, bunk reader, environmental steward and marketing man-ager. She does all the cattle buying, mostly in the local area and direct off the ranch. Will Feed Inc. feeds mostly its own cattle, but does a little custom work and some partnering with ranchers who want to retain ownership.

She buys direct because she seeks to establish relation-ships, so that information can be passed up and down the system. All cattle are sold on the grid.

Beef quality assurance (BQA) principles are a cornerstone at Will Feed Inc., and low-stress animal management is prac-ticed religiously. Buying calves locally and direct minimizes the transportation stress, she says, while fi nished cattle have only a 20-mile transport to the Tyson plant down the road. Anne even spends time each morning for several days ac-climating new arrivals to their home pen, getting them used to calm movement and being handled on foot.

Burkholder served on the Nebraska BQA advisory group for a decade and currently serves on the national commit-tee. In fact, she worked on the team that created the Trans-portation Quality Assurance program. Will Feed Inc. was also one of the fi rst practitioners of the BQA feedyard assess-ment tool.

But Burkholder wanted to move beyond BQA, to “some-thing we could use possibly to build a brand, an even more powerful management tool to ensure that our feedyard was running as well as it absolutely could,” she says.

Her industry volunteer work

put her in touch with John But-ler, CEO of Progressive Beef, and they discussed participa-tion in the Progressive Beef Quality System Assessment (QSA) program. It’s a third-par-ty-verifi ed series of protocols in the areas of food safety animal welfare and sustainability. She signed on.

A few months later, Will Feed Inc. became part of the Beef Marketing Group, a producer cooperative focused on creating value throughout the beef sup-ply chain. “With a 3,000-head feedyard, I don’t have enough cattle to exert a lot of say rela-tive to the actual selling of my animals and my beef. I’ve al-ways dreamed about taking my beef to the consumer, and it was obvious to me that that wasn’t something I could do myself. I needed partners,” she says.

Together, Burkholder says the two affi liations have proven out. “These have been a great group of people to work with, and we’re out there producing good cattle using the Progres-sive Beef QSA to make sure out management is outstanding, and we’re trying to reach back to the consumer to create some relationships and try to sell some beef,” she says.

Long industry shadowWill Feed Inc. casts a shadow

way beyond its 3,000-head size. In 2009, Burkholder was awarded the first BQA Pro-ducer of the Year Award. She’s also a member of the Tyson Fresh Meats Animal Well-being Committee for Farm Check, as well as the National Beef Qual-

ity Assurance Advisory Com-mittee. She’s a director of the Nebraska State Beef Council, and she’s testifi ed before Con-gress on animal care issues. Will Feed Inc. was recognized by Certifi ed Angus Beef Feedyard of the Year in 2012.

“Anne doesn’t just talk the talk. She walks the walk,” says Daren Williams, director of the industry’s Masters in Beef Advocacy (MBA) Program. He points out she was one of the fi rst graduates of the industry program that media-trains in-dustry members for consumer outreach.

Subscribe now to Cow-Calf Weekly to get the latest indus-try research and information in your inbox every Friday!

“Anne behaves on a daily basis as if every beef consumer is watching over her shoulder. If she can’t justify it to our con-sumer, she won’t do it. She is constantly searching for newer and better ways to care for her animals to meet our consumers’ expectations. In industry meet-ings she asks tough questions and expects straight answers, much like our consumer. She is a driving force in our journey towards continuous improve-ment,” Williams says.

Burkholder credits the BQA award and the MBA experience for giving her the opportunity to reach beyond her farm gate. “Those are what really got me started in telling my story. But I couldn’t travel much because of my kids and my feedyard. So that’s where the idea of blog-ging came in.”

Williams calls her a “one-

woman trust-building ma-chine” on behalf of the entire beef community. “By mak-ing herself so accessible, she benefi ts everyone in the beef community by addressing con-sumer concerns about the way beef is raised. She isn’t just a beef advocate. She is an advo-cate for the consumer, and I think that’s what makes her so effective,” he says.

Burkholder responds this way: “I hope I’ve proven my-

self. I’ve worked hard to try to do a lot of volunteer work to give back to the industry that’s given me a profession. I do be-lieve I bring a unique perspec-tive because I didn’t grow up in the beef industry. I’m known for saying what I think, but if you don’t push and don’t look for things that can get better, then you never get better.”

And she hopes more produc-ers, but particularly cattle feed-ers, will follow her lead.


Katie Allen, K-State Research & Extension News

Abolish? Make further tweaks? Or perhaps, make it voluntary? On the heels of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) latest ruling on U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL), debate on both sides of the issue con-tinues. It’s a debate that has spanned more than a decade, and fi nding a solution that will please everyone involved is likely impossible.

For the second time, the WTO has sided with two top U.S. trading partners—Canada and Mexico—saying COOL has caused less favorable treatment to imported livestock from those countries compared to U.S. livestock, and furthermore, it has caused a detrimental impact on the competitive trade opportunities of imported livestock. “(Mandatory COOL) puts Canadian and Mexican livestock producers at a disad-vantage to U.S. livestock pro-ducers,” said Glynn Tonsor, K-State Research and Extension livestock economist. “As an economist who has looked at it, the additional costs that come with the more precise tracking and segregating get built into what U.S. feedyards and pack-ing plants are willing and able to pay for animals not born in the United States.” More pre-cise tracking and segregating were the results of the revised and current U.S. mandatory COOL ruling implemented in May 2013 due to the WTO’s fi rst siding with Canada and Mexico.

“In 2009, we had the first implementation of manda-tory COOL that led to labels such as ‘Product of U.S. and Canada’ showing up on beef steaks, for example, for an animal that might have been born in Canada, then came into the United States to a feedyard and was processed here,” Ton-sor said. “Then we had some WTO disputes, discussions and rulings,” he continued, “that led the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to change some specifi cs of the rule. In May 2013, we had a new rule, the most recent rule, with up-dated requirements.”

The current rule requires that several fresh foods, in-cluding meat sold at grocery stores, indicate the individual country or countries where the product was born, raised and slaughtered on the product’s label. “The main difference consumers saw from that rule change was meat labels, such as that on a beef steak, would now be labeled as ‘Born, Raised and Slaughtered’ in different countries,” Tonsor said. “Stick-ing with the same example I mentioned before, the label would now say, ‘Born in Can-ada, Raised and Slaughtered in the U.S.’”

Not only has mandatory COOL shown to be costly and hinder trade, concerns have also come to light questioning if U.S. consumers overall are aware of origin labels or use them to make purchasing deci-sions. In his research, Tonsor said he’s found no evidence of demand for origin information by the typical meat consumer in the United States. Furthermore, he’s found most U.S. consumers don’t know that COOL even ex-ists. “Nearly two years ago, we wrapped up that research after the 2009 rule was implement-ed,” Tonsor said. “We’re able to see how actual consumption patterns did or didn’t change, as opposed to doing it beforehand and speculating. We found no evidence of beef demand increase following implementa-tion of origin labeling. We found

no evidence of pork demand increase. We found no evidence of poultry demand increase.”

The meat products Tonsor studied were all covered prod-ucts through the grocery store chain, as these products must abide by the ruling. Many prod-ucts he didn’t study because they are exempt from manda-tory COOL, such as a food item sold in a restaurant and further processed items, such as cured bacon. “We also did a lot of survey work that shows most of the public isn’t aware of COOL, and origin information is not the most important piece to them (when buying meat products),” he added. The advocates of COOL might say more precision and detail on labels now lends itself to enough information to actually show a consumer de-mand benefi t, Tonsor said, but he’s still skeptical if those ben-efi ts would be there if a majority of the public still isn’t aware of origin labeling. “How do they value something they don’t know is there?” he questioned.

The U.S. Department of Ag-riculture and trade negotiators on behalf of the United States have yet to make statements as to whether or not they will appeal the latest WTO ruling or focus on modifying the rule for another time, Tonsor said. Many people and groups are politi-cally involved in the issue and want different outcomes. “The groups believing there is no con-sumer demand benefi t and are

concerned with additional costs would have a strong preference to abolish (mandatory COOL) or get as close to abolishing to the policy as possible,” he said. “The groups that are advocates of mandatory COOL are point-ing out the United States has the right to label origin. Compo-nents of the WTO ruling have also said the United States has that right.”

Tonsor said he believes it would be diffi cult to technically redesign mandatory COOL in a way the WTO would view as giving information to consum-

ers while not continuing to negatively affect U.S. trading partners. “Moreover, I don’t know if it has to be a manda-tory COOL policy,” he said. “Perhaps we could have de-veloped (COOL) in a voluntary sense.” Voluntary COOL might still be a possibility to consider, as it would allow packers and retailers the option to label the origin. Consumers could continue to shop for foods by origin preference, if the packers or retailers decided the added cost of labeling would be offset by consumer demand.

Mandatory COOL: Still Detrimental To Trade, Still No Easy Solution

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With strong numbers in Sep-tember, U.S. beef exports broke the $5 billion value mark dur-ing the fi rst three quarters of the year, according to statistics released by USDA and com-piled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), a contrac-tor to the beef checkoff.

Year-on-year beef exports in September increased 6 per-cent in volume to 220 million pounds and skyrocketed 25 percent in value to $631.9 mil-lion. For year-to-date through September, beef exports rose 3 percent in volume to nearly 2 billion pounds and 15 percent in value to $5.18 billion.

“These are impressive re-sults, especially given the head-winds we faced in September – including a very strong U.S. dollar and a significant de-cline in beef production,” said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng. “It was just three years ago that U.S. beef exports eclipsed the $5 billion mark for the fi rst time in an entire calen-dar year, so it’s very gratifying

to see our industry reach this milepost by the end of the third quarter.”

Beef exports surge despite lower slaughter numbers

With herd rebuilding gain-ing traction in the U.S. beef in-dustry, fed slaughter numbers have trended lower. Still, the value of exports in September reached $313.67 per head of fed slaughter – down from the record set in August, but 26 percent higher than September 2013. For January through Sep-tember, per-head export value was $283.29 – up nearly $40 from the same period last year. Exports equated to 14 percent of total beef production and 11 percent for muscle cuts only – up from 13 percent and 10 percent, respectively, last year.

Market leader Japan was the pacesetter for September beef exports, with volume to Japan climbing 36 percent year-on-year to 51.1 million pounds and value up 55 percent to $155.7 million. For January through September, exports to Japan

were steady in volume at 406.3 million pounds and 7 percent higher in value to $1.17 billion.

Other January-September beef export highlights include:

Exports to Hong Kong were up 26 percent in volume to 234.6 million pounds and 45 percent in value to $768.3 mil-lion.

Export volume to South Ko-rea was up 12 percent to 187.1 million pounds while value soared 41 percent to $590.5 million.

The summer surge in exports to Taiwan moderated in Sep-tember, but the market remains on a record pace in both vol-ume, which is up more than 9 percent to 56.1 million pounds, and value, up 16 percent to $215.1 million.

Exports to Mexico were up 19 percent in volume to 394.2 mil-lion pounds and up 34 percent in value to $860.8 million. (As USMEF has previously noted, however, data from early 2013 may have understated last year’s exports to Mexico.)

Solid Results For Beef Exports Through September

Save the Date for Virginia Cattlemen’s Association 2015

Winter Producer Meetings

All meetings will be free to VCA members and in the evening from 4:30 – 8 PM with supper included. Topics will range from nutrition/vaccination response to calf preconditioning to operation investment strategies in times of record profitability. Meeting locations and dates will be as follows:January 26th – Orange/Madison areaJanuary 27th – Weyers CaveJanuary 28th – ChathamJanuary 29th – AbingdonWatch for more details to come from local Virginia Cooperative Extension and January 2015 edition of The Virginia Cattleman newspaper.

Meals at each meeting will be proudly sponsored by MultiMin


VIRGINIA CHAROLAIS ASSOCIATION

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124 Kindig Road

Waynesboro, VA 22980

Walt Winkler

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Billy Crews, Barry CrewsBilly C. Crews, Brent Crews

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2013-2014VCA Offi cers

Bill Thompson – President1295 Park AvenueClifton Forge, VA 24422540-968-1987

Kaitlin Smith – Vice President454 Old Farm RoadLexington, VA 24450540-463-6778

Deidre Harmon – Secretary1445 Pipers Gap RoadGalax, VA 24333276-233-8852

Walt Winkler – Treasurer124 Kindig RoadWaynesboro, VA 22980540-943-6144

Rob Farmer – Past President8030 Greenwich RoadCatlett, VA 20119540-270-3886

Chad Joines –Southwest DirectorJunior AdvisorVirginia TechDept of Animal & PoultryScienceBlacksburg, VA 24061540-557-7263

We would like to invite anyone interested in becoming a member of our association to call one of the offi cers listed above.

Data from the Spring 2012 Across-Breed EPD Genetic Trends presented at the Beef Improvement Federation documents Charolais and

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D o W h a t W o r k s

more pounds at weaning!

more pounds at yearling!

Below are some facts about our 14th Fall Herd Improvement Sale, hosted by Virginia Tech on November 8th.

Auctioneer: Smith Reason, Sale Manger: Bob Morton of Morton Marketing

Thanks to consignors, bidders and buyers for participating in our sale. A very large crowd was on hand and the phone stayed busy with bidders.

Total gross sales: $105,200 with an average of $4, 046

Top selling lots:

$10,250 Bull from VA Tech to Todd Thompson, White Cottage, OH.

$10,050 Pair/heifer calf split from J-Mar Genetics, VA. Cow for $7,750 to Happy 11 Charolais, Zapata, TX. Heifer calf for $2,300 to Snyder Farm, Maysville, WV.

$4,800 Bred heifer from VA Tech to J-Mar Genetics.

$4,250 Open heifer from Testerman Charolais, True, WV to Travis Steffensen, Arlington, SD.

During this holiday season, we need to keep Christ in Christmas.

All members of the Virginia Charolais Association are entitled to join all the sales we sponsor.


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... your beef checkoff will soon be launching a multi-pronged approach to beef literacy?

Building on the popular educational platform www.MyAmericanFarm.org, the checkoff will launch a new Beef Heritage game, celebrating how producers care for animals, care for the land and provide quality beef products using a variety of production methods. Other platform details include a volunteer kit, containing resources to conduct beef literacy classroom visits and activities; a second My American Farm game, emphasizing nutrition and health benefi ts of beef products; a mobile applica-tion featuring both new beef games; and, a new Beef Ag Mag elementary school reader, targeting parents, teachers and families of young learners

Steve Lucas

If God had chosen cowboys, instead of those fellers herdin’ sheep

To welcome the Baby Jesus, while the world was fast asleep,

Would the Christmas story, and the carols that we sing

Be a little different, maybe have a different ring?

When the cowboys got the message from them angels heard on high,

They’d have ridden into town, shootin’ their pistols in the sky

And thundered to the stable bathed in that star’s bright light,

I’m telllin you boys, it would not have been a silent night.

And little town of Bethlehem, you would not lie still

When the cows, spooked by the angels, stam-

peded over the hill.And that bunch of rowdy cowboys had to

turn ‘em all around,And not quit lookin’ until every calf was

found.

Then come back into town, and belly up to the bar,

To buy a round for them kings who’d trav-eled from afar.

The next morning on the mountain they’d tell outfi ts far and near

About the angels, and the stampede and the savior who’d come here.

“The Lord is my cowboy” would begin the most familiar psalm, andThe parable of the lost calf is the story that would calm

The sad and lonely cowboy spending Christ-mas on the trail.

If God had chosen cowboys to headline the Christmas tale.

A Dirt Road DiaryIf God Had Chosen Cowboys

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2014 Dublin Feeder Cattle

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End of Year Tax Strategies for CattlemenSpeakers include:Larry Kopsa, CPA & Partner, Kopsa Otte, York, NE

Update from Colin Woodall and

Visit BeefUSA.org for more information and to register!

John B.Rhudy I am the man on the cut gate.

There are other jobs on shipping day, but this one is mine. I am the last line of defense between a clean sort and having to bring them back again. Whether heat and dust, rain and wind, or fro-zen tracks and blowing snow, if there are trucks to be loaded, I am on my gate.

When I fi rst started here, we

had an older, more experienced day work hand on the gate. I learned a lot pushing up cattle and watching him work. Now it’s my job. The boss does the sorting, with an eye for cattle I’ve seen few match. With one hand to push out of the sort, and sometimes another to keep the fl ow, we break them down. It’s not too tough when several are coming and they all go one way. It is a bit different when

Gate Man I hear; “By. By. By, uh, catch that baldy in the back.” Then I swing, pun intended, into action. Stay out of the hole, no wasted motion; let the cattle think it’s their idea to go that way. Step, either up or back, as the steers turn the way I need, the gate in time with my steps and an extension of my arm. Halfway down the gate; too close to the end and the cattle won’t go, too close to the hinge and the swing of the gate is too slow. You’ve heard of the

bucking horse ballet, poetry in motion between horse and rider. This is more like a waltz crossed with a dramatic inter-pretive dance.

No tolerance for whooping and hollering; the help learn quick that’s not our style. They also learn to not second-guess the boss’s call, even I don’t do that unless I see that look. Then I just hold ‘em up until he gives the word, or I might ask if a steer is the one he’s eyeing to help out on a tough call.

I would like to say I never miss one, or never have one get away. Alas, I’m getting older, and sometimes my swing of the gate, or step, is a little slow when there are two going dif-ferent ways. And, the snot blowing, get in your pocket type often wins the battle. But I’ll win the war, after I go bring them back and correct my mistake. Yes, I’m the man on the cut gate; to say I take pride in my job would be an understatement indeed.


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FOREIGN MARKETING, as defi ned in the Beef Promotion & Research Act, means promotion, research, consumer information and industry information conducted in foreign markets. This includes checkoff-funded market development and promotional programs worldwide.

Expanding Market Share in Japan — A total of more than 500 food distributors, grocers and restaurant buyers from Fukuoka, Osaka and Nagoya – three major cities in Japan – recently participated in a series of seminars that pro-vided detailed information about U.S. beef production. Funded in part by the na-tional beef checkoff and the Texas Beef Council, the semi-nars were part of an effort to

boost sales of beef in regions for which these cities serve as hubs. Cutting demonstrations at the seminars focused on the top blade and shoulder clod heart to show how U.S. beef can help meet their specifi c product needs. For details, visit Seminars in Japan.

Sharing U.S. Beef Benefi ts in Taiwan — The checkoff helped fund a recent branded-beef seminar that drew almost 100 food-service and retail operators in Taipei, Taiwan to learn about

high-quality, branded U.S. beef. Information conveyed through the two-day semi-nar included new prepara-tion methods and other ways that U.S. beef can help grow beef business for restau-rants and grocery stores in Taiwan. This event featured four chefs, who created and shared innovative dishes

that combined U.S. branded-beef products with popular local ingredients. For more about this event, visit U.S. Beef in Taiwan.

Educating Beef Importers from China — Checkoff funding

brought a 13-member team of senior-level beef importers from China to the U.S. for a tour that included a Meat 101 class at Kan-sas State University, as well as tours of cattle ranches in Kansas and Nebraska, processing plants in Nebraska, and numerous U.S. retail outlets. Before returning to China, the visiting team also participated in a product showcase with 120 international buyers and 21 U.S. beef exporters. Learn more at China Team

Tours U.S.Maximizing Food-Pro-

duction Technologies — The beef checkoff helped fund participation of a team of Mexican meat scientists in the American Meat Science Associa-tion’s fi ve-day 2014 Recip-rocal Meat Conference (RMC), which draws meat

scientists, regulators and academics from throughout the Ameri-cas to examine food production and safety-related issues in the U.S. The team from Mexico represented food companies and government agencies here to learn more about important food-production/safety practices and discuss issues and challenges that involve food-production technologies. For more about the visit Researching Beef Technologies.

Checking In On The Checkoff: FOREIGN MARKETING


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As the U.S. animal protein industry relies increasingly on exports, recent dollar strength bears watching, according to BB&T Capital Markets analyst Heather Jones. The U.S. dollar index is 5 percent stronger than last year, and, critically, the dol-lar has advanced against major U.S. beef, pork and chicken importers as well as against competing protein export coun-tries. “Our analysis shows a strong inverse correlation between the dollar and com-bined protein exports,” Jones wrote in a note to investors. She cited as mitigating factors, however, increased pork and chicken production next year, which should pressure pricing, and the fact that dollar strength also weighs on the corn and soybean meal prices, pushing down key producer input costs.

Exports comprise 20 percent to 25 percent of U.S. chicken and pork production and 10

percent of U.S. beef produc-tion. While dollar depreciation since 2009 has boosted exports, dollar appreciation in the past three months has been signifi -cant. The dollar has appreciated 5 percent relative to the Japa-nese yen, 12 percent relative to the to the Brazilian real, 7 percent against the Australian dollar and 4 percent against the Mexican peso. For example, because of the U.S dollar has appreciated over the past three months relative to the yen and peso, Importing U.S. pork and beef is now 4 percent more ex-pensive for Japan and 5 percent more expensive for Mexico. Because of the deterioration in currency rates in Brazil and Australia relative to the yen, pork and beef from Brazil are now 6 percent less expensive and Australian beef is 2 percent less expensive in Japan.

The currencies for major chicken imports such as Saudi

Dollar Strength Leaning On Beef, Pork, Poultry Exports

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Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also appreciated against the Brazilian real, mak-ing Brazilian chicken export pricing favorable in those mar-kets. “It is diffi cult to say how long the dollar strength will be sustained as many factors are at play, but we believe it is something for producers, buy-ers and investors to be mindful of,” Jones wrote.


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Now that they’ve secured the Senate, Republicans have a clear avenue for doing away with EPA’s Waters of the U.S. rule and the USDA’s new school lunch standards: spending leg-islation. Even with many indi-vidual contests still unknown election night, it was apparent the GOP had wrested away control of the Senate from the Democrats. Republicans needed to gain just six seats and Sen. Thom Tillis’ victory in North Carolina gave it to them. Now it’s time for Congress to get back to work, and a top prior-ity when both chambers open for business again on the Hill next week will be to address the current short-term spending bill that only funds the government through Dec. 11.

Senate Appropriations Chair-woman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) is hoping to pass a full omnibus spending bill, wrap-ping 12 separate bills into one that will last until the end of the fiscal year in September. But some GOP lawmakers are already lobbying for another plan: pass a second short-term continuing resolution that will expire in March or April, giving their party enough time to get a fi rm grasp and more control

over both the House and Senate before putting their full imprint on fi scal 2015 spending. A third plan could be to move forward with a long-term continuing resolution, lasting until the end of the fi scal period and essen-tially carrying forward with the spending practices maintained in the earlier CR. And yet a fourth approach might be to pass a combination of a mini-bus spending bill that covers several of the less controversial federal departments and agen-cies while putting others off with a CR until the spring.

In all four approaches, the GOP would have an opportu-nity to attach riders that could sink their least favorite of Presi-dent Barack Obama’s initiatives — either by defunding or other-wise weakening key policies. It all comes down to what newly minted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants. The Kentucky Republican, fresh off his victory over Alison Lun-dergan Grimes, has signaled he would like to use the fi scal 2015 appropriation bills to push through GOP objectives in the 114th Congress. “We’re going to pass spending bills, and they’re going to have a lot of restric-tions on the activities of the

bureaucracy,” McConnell told POLITICO in a recent interview. “That’s something [Obama] won’t like, but that will be done. I guarantee it.”

Sen. John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Appropriations, Agriculture and Energy com-mittees, indicated in a recent interview that this could be the Republican plan for getting rid of the EPA’s Waters of the U.S. rule. “Clearly, we have a better shot to defund or de-authorize Waters of the U.S. if Republicans take the Senate,” the North Dakota Republican said. The EPA’s proposal, pub-lished in April, seeks to clarify the reach of the Clean Water Act in response to a pair of Supreme Court cases that found the cur-rent statute leaves a lot of grey area in where the agency’s authority starts and finishes. However, the regulation has drawn considerable pushback from farmers, manufactures, home builders and lawmakers who say it is far too expansive and amounts to little more than EPA attempting to regulate land uses. Efforts to stop the rule could “be successful, especially if they are wrapped up in a CR, an omnibus, or whatever comes next year that’s diffi cult

GOP Victory Clears Path To Weaken Wotus, School Lunchto veto,” said Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory affairs for the American Farm Bureau Federation, adding: “I think where the focus will be is in the omnibus, and I do think there will be one.”

But whether a Waters rule defunding measure will make it into a spending bill could depend on how high the rule ranks on the GOP wish list and whether leadership is willing to be more flexible in what outcome it wants to see, said Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “There’s going to have to be some pick-ing or choosing” of issues for an omnibus, Hoefner said. Trying to push through every Republican priority in the ap-propriations bill would set up a battle with the White House and may not look good to vot-

ers in 2016, he said. “Where that one ranks relative to all the other [issues] I don’t know. … It’s big in agriculture, but agri-culture is small potatoes in the scheme of things. … I assume at some point one or two people at the White House and senior leadership staffers sit down and bargain and we will wait for the smoke to come out.”

Another issue that could be on the table during budget negotiations is child nutrition. Health advocates are very concerned about what the new landscape will mean for the Ag-riculture Department’s efforts at implementing the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 — a legacy issue for fi rst lady Michelle Obama. Advocates and the White House say they expect Republicans will look to



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GOP VictoryContinued from Page 33an omnibus spending bill as a chance to revive their push to give waivers to schools losing money under the new nutri-tion rules. The fi rst lady has pledged to fi ght against such efforts “until the bitter end.”

But the omnibus play is only one of two options for a GOP-controlled Senate. Lawmakers looking to scale back the nutri-tion policies also have Child Nutrition Reauthorization next year. Rep. John Kline (R-

Minn.), chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, has made it clear he is staunchly opposed to HHFKA. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) — the presumptive chairman of the Senate Ag-riculture Committee after he survived a close race Tuesday night — has raised concerns in the past about plate waste, serving enough calories for student athletes and what kind of impact the rules are having on school food pro

lost little girl. Another was a parakeet, another a dog, and so on. All they had in common was that they had given, time and again, when it would have been real easy to do nothing. That’s all Christmas magic is.

The magic doesn’t take effect until they’re old.

It happens on their last Christ-mas.

It happens at midnight.Clarabell could feel the cold

in her bones. It was cold like her very fi rst Christmas, many, many years before. Even colder. She knew this would probably be her last Christmas.

She had been hoping to see Santa one more time -- but she was surprised when he ap-peared in her barn.

“There are so many children in the world today that eight reindeer can hardly carry all the presents,” he said.

Clarabell smiled. “I’m too old,” she said.

Santa just smiled. And wait-ed. The hands on the clock in the Wilburns’ house swept toward

midnight.Clarabell felt suddenly warm.She felt something happen-

ing to her horns. She felt lighter and lighter, and younger and younger. She felt like a little calf again.

Santa knelt beside her and put the reindeer bells around her neck. “Come, Clarabell,” he said.

“The children are waiting.”And they stepped out into the

night together. ...

ABOUT THIS STORYToday’s M section features

“Clarabell the Christmas Cow,” first published in The Com-mercial Appeal in 1976. The story was written by the late Dan Henderson, who was an assistant managing editor of the newspaper. Illustrations were done by the late Charles Tuthill, who was an artist at the newspaper. In 1997, the story was turned into an animated fi lm, “Annabelle’s Wish.”


Clarabell


NCBA And PLC TELL EPA: Don’t Drown Land Owners In Regulatory FLOOD

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The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Public Lands Council filed comments calling for the im-mediate withdrawal of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed “wa-ters of the United States” rule. The proposed rule vastly expands the agencies’ jurisdic-tion and attempts to regulate all land uses.

“The agencies’ proposal jeopardizes private prop-erty rights and violates Su-preme Court precedent by subjecting nearly all waters to regulation,” said NCBA Environmental Counsel Ash-ley McDonald. “Through the use of broad and ambiguous language, the proposal is a limitless expansion of author-ity that cannot be supported by the Clean Water Act or the U.S. Constitution.”

In the eight months the pro-posal has been public, cattle-men and women have voiced

their concerns only to have them deemed “ludicrous” by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. NCBA and PLC state the agencies must start over with a transparent and inclusive process with more stakeholder involvement.

Dustin Van Liew, Public Lands Council executive di-rector, added that while there is a need for clarifi cation, this attempt by the EPA and the Corps will only add layers of bureaucracy and subjectivity to the Clean Water Act, further muddling the landscape.

“The proposed rule places no limit on the federal govern-ment’s authority over water, violating the Clean Water Act as articulated by the Supreme Court, and will eviscerate over a century of settled water law in much of the country,” said Van Liew. “Contrary to the agencies’ claims, the ex-clusions and exemptions in the proposal are unclear and provide the livestock industry

no certainty.”McDonald added, “Through

this process, cattlemen and women have learned one thing; the only thing that is completely unregulated is the arrogance of the EPA.”

The EPA and Corps are re-quired by law to consider pub-lic comment; therefore it is im-perative livestock producers voice their opposition to this land grab either online or by sending the original and three copies of your comments to: Water Docket, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 2822T, 1200 Pennsylvania Av-enue NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention: Docket ID No. EPA-

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