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Does Residue Grazing Affect Later Crop Yields?

Stalk grazing appears to have no negative effect on subsequent corn or soybean yields. Grazing on harvested corn fields provides a fall and winter management option for cattle owners and an income opportunity for landowners. Baling corn residue also provides an option for farmers to sell bales for feed or bedding.  Either process does, however, remove nutrients and organic material from a field, while grazing also recycles some nutrients and organic material in manure. Grazing or baling practices could affect subsequent crop-management...

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Cattle Groups Glad to Continue ELD Conversation

  Two national cattle industry groups are supporting the Department of Transportation's (DOT) decision to delay implementation of electronic logging devices (ELD) for livestock haulers. The United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) both believe continuing discussions on how ELDs will impact hours of service for cattle transport is important. On Nov. 20, DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced a 90-day waiver period would be allowed for agriculture commodity transport starting Dec. 18, 2017. The 90-day...

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TPP-11 Agreement Heightens Concerns about Market Access

The 11 remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)* recently announced plans to move forward with a modified trade agreement. U.S. Meat Exporter Federation (USMEF) Economist Erin Borror explains that if the agreement, now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), is implemented without the United States as a participant, it will create significant tariff rate advantages for competitors of U.S. beef and pork. The U.S. has free trade agreements in place with several CPTPP countries, but...

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Profit Tracker: Margins Decline $28 Per Head

Body: Cash fed cattle prices declined more than $4 per cwt. last week, fueling a $28 per head decline in cattle feeding margins. The cost of feeder cattle calculated against last week's marketings declined $3 per cwt., softening the hit from weaker fed cattle prices, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker. Beef packer margins improved an average of $5 per head to $93. The beef cutout declined $3 per cwt. to $206.53. The Beef and Pork Profit Trackers are calculated by Sterling...

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The Touchy Issue of Pesticide Drift

It’s been 20 years since the RoundUp Ready soybean revolutionized crop production, providing farmers with a powerful tool to control yield-robbing weeds and usher in widespread adoption of conservation tillage methods. However, nature has caught up with the herbicide-resistant technology. Glyphosate-resistant weeds now pose a major challenge for producers, especially in the Southeast. Dicamba has been heralded as the solution to add to farmer’s repertoire to combat RoundUp resistance. Studies have demonstrated dicamba is effective used in conjunction with RoundUp,...

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