The USDA has released its final tally for agricultural exports in Fiscal Year 2013, showing a new record of $140.9 billion. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made the following statement on this news:

For cattle ranchers, ensuring livestock have the nutrients they need is a crucial factor in maintaining herd health and ranch profitability. Optimum health and immunity of your beef herd depends on adequate nutrition.

Keeping cattle healthy can be a challenge. For many decades, cattle producers have been using vaccination for prevention and anti-microbial drugs for treatment.

The 2013 cottonseed crop is one of the smallest in years, according to Larry Johnson, of Cottonseed LLC, La Crosse, Wisconsin. Growers harvested 7.78 million acres of cotton in 2013 – the lowest total since 2009. Last year’s crop yielded 5.67 million tons of cottonseed, whereas the 2013 crop is projected to yield 4.357 million tons – a 25 percent decline.

Editor's Note: This is the second of two articles on the Precision Dairy Technology Forum hosted by Penn State University. Click here to read the first article. Group calf housing is back Dr. Jud Heinrichs, a Penn State University professor of dairy science, and Jared Yousey a DeLaval herd management specialist for the northeast region, both spoke about the strengths and challenges of group calf housing and automatic calf feeding systems during the Precision Dairy Technology Forum hosted by Penn State University Extension in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 18.

Accelerated Genetics (AG) is offering scholarships to high school seniors and college students interested in careers in the agriculture industry. Applicants or their parents must be current active customers of AG to be eligible for both types of scholarships, which are as follows:

My Facebook newsfeed has been blowing up with daily notifications about what each of my friends are thankful for.Most posts are thoughtful and what you’d expect around the holidays – faith, family and feeling satisfied with their careers and farms.

Click here to download a PDF of the latest export watch, provided by the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC). PD