I’m an admitted sports junkie. I’ve sometimes wondered about just where I could have gone in life if I’d used some of my limited brainpower to store important information regarding physics, the arts or molecular biology. Instead, I’ve expended considerable energy memorizing more “useful” data.

When to calve is a decision that has many factors, and much has been written and discussed about this question.

One of the unwritten rules that city people live by is that if you haven’t heard a rumor by 10 o’clock in the morning, then you are supposed to start one. Ordinarily, I don’t care about such gossipy town talk, unless it’s about me of course, but years ago my wife and I were the victim of a very damaging rumor. And it was started by none other than the local police in the town where we leased a ranch.

“The data is clear – Calves that arrive healthy and stay healthy at the feedlot make more money.” This was printed in bold letters at the beginning of an article in one of our industry publications. What? I read the headline again. I turned it over and read it upside-down. It must be a trick question. A play on words? There must be a deeper meaning to this bold statement. Should it have said … “Calves who stay healthy, etc., have better eyesight, higher IQs, are tastier, are better at hopscotch, have a better chance of being featured in a vaccine ad?”

Beef flavor is important to consumers, and fortunately beef quality grades do a good job of predicting it, says Deb VanOverbeke, of Oklahoma State University. This video news is provided by Certified Angus Beef LLC and the American Angus Association.

More than 80 percent of producers in North Dakota likely had bulls actively breeding cows on their pastures on Aug. 1 (summary data from the PregCard project, The Research Corner; The Ranch Hand, November 2012).

With beta-agonists being in the news lately, I find myself frequently being asked questions about these animal feed ingredients and why they’re used in raising some livestock today. Beta-agonists have been used in U.S. swine production since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1999 and in U.S. cattle production since 2003. Approval for use in turkey production has followed, but is not used as widely as in cattle and swine.

Beef herd owners would be shocked to learn they’d lost 25 percent of cow pregnancies in two weeks. It happens all the time. And owners never know it.

Merck Animal Health, the makers of the beta-agonist cattle supplement Zilmax, announced Aug. 16 that it will temporarily suspend sales to study and audit its uses by cattle feeders.  

New landowners interested in learning to better manage their ranch’s resources while protecting the environment can do so during the annual Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Ranch Management University on the Texas A&M University (TAMU) campus in College Station.