As if raising cattle in harsh conditions wasn’t hard enough, today’s beef producer faces an enormous uphill battle on the landscape of public relations. Eating beef remains popular, healthy and affordable in today’s market. And yet the growing percentage of the population with no direct ties to agriculture creates a complex obstacle for the beef industry.

Watch calving on TV in the comfort of your home on a wireless camera with night vision in protective housing. Receive clear, color pictures up to 2,000 feet away. The Koehn Calf-cam is waterproof, weatherproof, wide angle and is in a protective case for years of service.

Natur’s Way Inc. has released a direct-fed microbial (DFM) specifically designed for automated feedlot systems using micro-machines. Each 0.5-gram dose of MSE MAX is guaranteed to deliver 5.4 billion viable microorganisms (CFU) per head per day. The convenient seven-pound jugs contain 6,356 doses and can be safely frozen to prolong viability.

Mark Schatzker is a travel writer and columnist for the Toronto Globe and Mail and author of the book “Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef.” An ardent defender of beef consumption, he traveled to Scotland, Argentina, Japan and Italy, learning their beef production methods and tasting their unique brand of beef. He also writes about raising his own two head of cattle on a small farm outside Toronto, purely for his own family’s beef consumption. He shared with Progressive Cattleman Editor David Cooper thoughts about the book and the response it has generated. Q. How long did it take to actually write the book?A. I would say about three years, with a lot of travel. The concentrated writing was something like six or seven months, but there was obviously a great deal of travel before that … I felt it was very important to really see many different beef-eating and beef-loving and beef-producing cultures to see the difference.

It may seem like a trivial matter, but to the IRS, commingling of funds suggests your ranch or farm is a hobby rather than a business. What exactly is “commingling?” The usual situation is depositing checks made payable to your business into your personal bank account, or using your business account for personal expenditures.

There once was a time when you could, and did, rely on another person’s word when conducting business. Unfortunately, “the gentlemen’s agreement” is now a relic of the past. The time of doing business this way is over.

How do other cattle producers ensure a successful calving season? We’ve gathered their advice. Every cowboy knows that the cardinal rule of calving is that calves need colostrum as soon as possible within their first few hours of life. That’s when they have the ability to absorb the colostrum’s immunity-boosting antibodies directly through the gut wall and into the bloodstream – the opportunity for that direct absorption ends after the calf is about 24 hours old.

The cow’s first milk is crucial to the health and survival of her calf. It contains fat that provides energy (and generates body warmth in cold weather), acts as a laxative to help pass first bowel movements and provides important antibodies against disease.

Calving difficulty (dystocia) is an important economic problem in the U.S. beef cattle industry. According to the USDA, the economic impact of calving difficulty is $350 million each year, and approximately 3 percent of all beef calves born in the U.S. will be lost due to calving difficulty.