Tips for capitalizing at the seedstock showcase Buying seedstock is a fun and exciting event for many ranchers.

Recently, there have been dramatic increases in input costs for feed, fertilizer and fuel which have again narrowed profit margins of many cow-calf producers and others in the beef value chain.

As cattle producers prepare for 2013 production sales – whether as buyers or sellers – one goal remains the same: To receive a clear return on their investment.

Over the last two-decade to three-decade period, the beef industry has made great use of genetic selection tools to improve economically important traits. Much of that improvement is due to the implementation and use of expected progeny differences (EPDs).

Traditional recommendations may not fit your ranch business goals This is an era where you can customize virtually anything imaginable, from license plates and jewelry to M&Ms and burgers.

If you want to live a long time, I have some good advice for you. Stay away from doctors. Before health insurance was invented most people did just fine living on prunes and proverbs. No prescriptions. With this in mind, I have collected the following cowboy cures and home remedies.

Grandpa Tommy was reminiscing, “It’s a shame everybody couldn’t go through the Great Depression.” I know what he meant – I think. He didn’t mean it like, “It’s a shame everybody hadn’t been in a concentration camp or had polio.” He was remarking that most of us baby boomers and younger are unable to appreciate how technology has pampered us.

The improvement of genetics, expected progeny differences, with higher pregnancy and conception rates, are just some of the components paying off with higher premiums on beef cattle, said Certified Angus Beef Vice President Larry Corah.

Cow-calf producers probably won’t be surprised to learn how a cow’s calving date is linked to her lifetime longevity and productivity. But there’s a distinct line between tradition and scientific data, said Eric Mousel of Northwest Missouri State University, which means observational studies showing those connections take time.