Form-A-Feed introduces the PerFourMax product line for young dairy and beef calves. PerFourMax incorporates four areas of nutrition for young calves: milk replacers, calf feeds, heifer feeds and dairy-beef feeds. The company states that research and field trials have shown that using the PerFourMax product line, which supplies nutrients above young calves’ requirements, results in a more productive lifetime performance.

Form-A-Feed introduces the PerFourMax product line for young beef and dairy calves. PerFourMax incorporates four areas of nutrition for young calves: milk replacers, calf feeds, heifer feeds and dairy-beef feeds. The company states that research and field trials have shown that using the PerFourMax product line, which supplies nutrients above young calves’ requirements, results in a more productive lifetime performance.

The first annual American Akaushi Association Convention was held Nov. 9-11, 2012. More than 200 members attended the event, traveling to Bastrop, Texas, from states including California and Florida and from countries such as Canada and Brazil.

The National Ice Cream Retailers Association held its 79th Annual Meeting and Convention Nov. 7-10 at the Embassy Suites in Greenville, South Carolina. Several of the association's members are dairy farmers who opened ice cream stores on their farms as a way to supplement their income. Two of these producers – Jim Mitchell of Woodside Farm Creamery in Delaware and Carl Chaney of Chaney's Dairy Barn in Kentucky – won awards in the association's annual Ice Cream Clinic Review.

Nikkel Iron Works recently presented its DARF Hay Rake Top Dealer Award to Doug Ottersberg, general sales manager of Agri-Service.

Agri-Service, which has nine locations in Idaho, Utah and Oregon, has carried the DARF hay rake for more than a decade.

“Our customers like the concept of the DARF hay rake,” Ottersberg said.

The National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance (NAFA) has released the 2013 edition of its popular “Winter Survival, Fall Dormancy & Pest Resistant Ratings for Alfalfa Varieties.” This publication provides a current and comprehensive listing of winter survival, fall dormancy and pest resistance ratings of alfalfa varieties eligible for certification by seed certifying agencies. All varieties listed can be purchased in the U.S.

While December is often a popular time to attend statewide cattlemen’s conventions, many of today’s leaders in the beef industry are making a round-trip to Lexington, Kentucky, to explore the latest advances in nutritional technologies and share ideas for keeping their operations efficient, profitable and sustainable.

It was Christmas of 1914, just months after the chain of events that plunged Europe into the bloody conflict of World War I. A confrontation some leaders had predicted would be a quick and decisive contest between nation-states had evolved into a prolonged war defined by ruthless weaponry and trench warfare. Historian Stanley Weintraub said the carnage of this war was best embodied in the trenches that scarred the landscape, filled with “lice, rats, barbed wire, fleas, shells, bombs, underground caves, corpses, blood, liquor, mice, cats, artillery, filth, bullets, mortars, fire, steel: That’s what war is. It is the work of the devil.”

Let’s begin by comparing owner/managers of two businesses. Our first business is a fast-food franchise that sells products specified by the parent firm to a largely unchanging clientele. Our second business is an upscale independent restaurant in an ever-changing retail location. The businesses are similar in volume of sales and net income. Let’s now compare the roles of the two managers. The first manager works in the business; manages employee hiring, scheduling and performance management; and develops, monitors, and improves all of the processes required to produce a consistent quality food product. He is primarily a working manager.