The transition period, from three weeks before to three weeks after calving, sets the stage for a successful lactation. As you are preparing for the summer heat, evaluate your feed management program for transition cows. Score your management from one to five in the following areas with a five for always to a one for never.

Those who can’t attend the 44th Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Research Symposium & Annual Meeting April 18-20 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Houston, Texas, can watch a live webcast hosted by Liveauctions.tv. To view the webcast, viewers will need to sign in here with a Liveauctions.tv username and password. Those who do not have an account can sign up for one through BIF or Liveauctions.Sessions will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, with keynote speaker Larry Cundiff, retired director of the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), discussing the impact of Bos indicus genetics on the beef industry.

Pfizer Animal Health and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) Foundation are now accepting applications for the 2012 AABP Foundation — Pfizer Animal Health Veterinary Student Scholarship Fund. The AABP Foundation — Pfizer Animal Health Veterinary Student Scholarships are funded through a unique partnership with veterinarians, animal health suppliers and dealers. Scholarships are awarded to beef and dairy veterinary students to help offset the cost of veterinary school. In 2011, 23 students each received $5,000 scholarships through the AABP Foundation — Pfizer Animal Health Veterinary Student Scholarship Fund, for a total of $115,000 in awards.

Houston-based Mahindra USA, the No. 1 selling tractor in the world based on volume, recently announced the Mahindra dealers that have achieved the level of “Red Carpet” as part of the tractor giant’s first ever Dealer Excellence Program.

In its third year, the AgChat Foundation’s Agvocacy 2.0 event is poised to be its most dynamic social media training opportunity yet. The conference will be held Aug. 23-24 in Kansas City, Missouri, where farmers and ranchers from across the nation will convene to learn how to better support agriculture and engage with non-farm consumers. Advocacy 2.0 is hosted by the AgChat Foundation, a primarily volunteer organization that aims to empower farmers and ranchers to “agvocate” by connecting consumers with accurate information about farming and food production using social media.

Gerald “Jerry” Steuernagel of Dresser, Wisconsin, received the National Dairy Herd Information Association’s (DHIA) Outstanding Service Award March 7, in Fort Worth, Texas, in conjunction with the association’s annual meeting. With an extensive background in dairy records processing and educating dairy producers on effectively using DHI records, Steuernagel has spent more than a decade as the Quality Certification Services (QCS) Dairy Records Processing Center (DRPC) auditor.

On March 7, famous Holstein bull Jocko Besne passed away from natural causes. He was 17 years old. Jocko, the most prodigious breeding bull in France, died at a breeding research center in Blain, Loire-atlantique, on the coast of France. Jocko was one of the most used sires across the world with 161,888 daughters recorded in 21 countries.

Elanco Animal Health recently launched Dairy Source, which offers real-time market prices, industry news, local weather and product information. It can be downloaded for free on iPhone and Android devices. Merck Animal Health has released Dairy Market Central. The app features brief summaries of dairy commodity markets with more detailed information available by selecting the commodity.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan has been crisscrossing the country, visiting college campuses to educate young people about careers in agriculture. Merrigan's efforts are spurred by the rising age of farmers in America, which is 57. (In 2002, it was 55.) Agricultural census figures show that the fastest-growing group of farmers and ranchers is the segment over 65. For every one farmer and rancher under 25, there are five who are 75 or older.

The beef checkoff strives to help simplify beef for the consumer – from the supermarket to the table. In order to do that, the checkoff created a “Confident Cooking with Beef” brochure