Kris Ringwall is the director of the newly minted Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence near Saskatoon, Sask.

Kris Ringwall takes the reins at Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence

Extension’s role is “always to make producers think,” says former NDSU extension director

It’s a foggy November morning south of Clavet, Sask. Cattle grazing bales gradually emerge from the mist to eye strangers. Near the grazing cattle is the Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence. The recently opened centre is focused on research, teaching and working with the livestock and forage industries. It comprises 27 quarters of land […] Read more



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Alberta’s PED outbreak so far held to one spot

The probe into Alberta’s first-ever outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea hasn’t yet shown any paths by which the PED virus might have got to the farm — nor any new cases anywhere else in the province. The provincial government on Jan. 7 confirmed the first case of PED to appear in hogs in Alberta, at […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Cattle ease on technical selling ahead of storm

U.S. livestock: Cattle ease on technical selling ahead of storm

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange livestock futures were lower on Thursday, with live cattle prices easing from recent contract highs on technical selling ahead of a major winter storm forecast to hit U.S. cattle country, traders said. Feeder cattle futures fell to a roughly 1-1/2 week low, pressured in part by rising corn […] Read more


New Year’s resolution: Get better beef grades

New Year’s resolution: Get better beef grades

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

Youthful carcasses from feedlot-finished cattle are graded for yield (amount of meat in the carcass) and quality (marbling score). Federal grading began during the Second World War to ensure quality standards during wartime price controls. Canada’s last major beef grading change occurred in the early 1990s, when Canada added quality grades to the grading system. […] Read more



Whiskey Creek Ranch runs 150 head of Simmental/Angus cows, which calve out in March.

Rotating pastures to reduce scours in calves

Whiskey Creek Ranch uses ’tried-and-true’ pasture-rotation system that sees calving in February and March

Solid herd management practices mitigate the threat of a scours outbreak. While rotating calves through pastures is less common than some of the more obvious measures taken, those who do use it swear by its effectiveness. One such cow-calf operation is Whiskey Creek Ranch, owned by Clay and Jesse Williams. Jesse is a past Cattlemen’s […] Read more

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Louis Dreyfus to exit dairy by mid-2019

Paris | Reuters –– Louis Dreyfus Co. said on Wednesday it would sell or wind down its small dairy business by the middle of this year as part of an overhaul to revive growth at the agricultural commodity giant. Privately-held Louis Dreyfus had previously earmarked dairy as one of several activities to be sold or […] Read more


U.S. livestock: Live cattle hit contract highs on storm forecast

U.S. livestock: Live cattle hit contract highs on storm forecast

Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures rose to life-of-contract highs at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, lifted by worries that severe winter weather could prompt beef packers to pay higher prices for animals in the U.S. Plains, traders said. Technical buying and short-covering also buoyed cattle prices while lean hog futures finished narrowly […] Read more

If you’re feeding alfalfa hay, you may actually have to restrict intake to prevent your cows from becoming over-conditioned.

‘As fed’ or ‘dry matter’ — does it matter?

Nutrition with John McKinnon

When I visit with beef producers about their feeding program, I often sense confusion when I talk feed dry matter (DM) values or express intakes on a DM basis. Most producers, when they think of their feeding program, think “as fed” and have difficulty converting to DM. Getting this conversion correct, however, is critical to […] Read more