Records provide the knowledge necessary to make informed and objective decisions. This is why accurate, detailed and accessible records are such a vital part of any successful business, including agricultural production.
The Integrity Beef Alliance is a Noble Research Institute-sponsored, cow/calf program that standardizes management decisions and supports value-added production practices. Producers in this program are already committed to retaining ownership of calves through a 45-day preconditioning program.
To help provide producers options for managing and marketing cull cows, researchers at the Noble Research Institute and Oklahoma State University teamed up and conducted a study that evaluated the economics of two alternative management and marketing systems for retaining open beef cows.
One challenge facing the agriculture industry is the ever changing educational needs of producers. A growing segment of landowners are new producers who want to pursue a rural lifestyle or fulfill a dream of participating in agriculture.
Cattle prices were once again favorable for most cow-calf enterprises throughout 2014. Yet, it was about this time last year that analysts were warning that our bubble was about to burst and prices would soon "level off" and possibly start to decline.