Welcome

Welcome to the Summer 2017 edition of Protein Producers. It seems that each new year in agriculture presents us with new challenges. Late winter and early spring on the Great Plains exposed many of our producers to adversity. Fires have ravaged ranches in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, and the western Kansas feedlot corridor endured one of the most difficult spring blizzards in recent memory. As I am writing this letter, we received word that one of our PAC client feedyards was struck by a tornado last evening.

The good news is that with each tragic event, there are always showers of blessings. Just the other night, I was having dinner with some farmers and ranchers, and we were discussing how difficult the weather has been over the past several months. The wife of a local rancher commented on how amazing people in agriculture are when it comes to helping each other during difficult times. I couldn’t agree more.

We are truly blessed to work with operations full of wonderful, generous and caring people. As we celebrate Memorial Day each year, we should all remember why we have the ability to provide wholesome protein to the people of the United States and to the world. The PAC team would like to send out a special “thank you” to all who serve our country. They keep us safe so we can continue to do our work. What an unbelievable privilege it is to live in this great nation.

The Production Animal Consultation team held their annual spring beef summit in Kearney, Nebraska, on April 4th with a successful attendance of over 180 producers and caregivers. Dr. Pete Anderson did a nice job of educating attendees about the biology of developing a feeder steer into a finished steer, while Dr. Simone Holt discussed how to alleviate heat stress for finished cattle. We learned about stressors that the immune system endures while cattle are being finished from Dr. Chris Chase, and Dr. Kev Sullivan finished up the morning discussing heat stress and shipping. Amberley Snyder kicked off the afternoon session with her compelling life story of courage while overcoming tremendous adversity. Ted Howard and Dr. Tom Noffsinger discussed correct pen emptying and cattle handling during shipping. We also had a loading demonstration in the arena with the help of Daniels Manufacturing, who provided the portable facilities. Ward Carpenter graciously had two cattle trailers on-site for attendees to walk through, showing the differences between a conventional and a modified trailer. This modification has proven to reduce bruising during loading and unloading.

On behalf of the PAC team, I would like to thank all of our sponsors for helping us provide this educational opportunity. We appreciate everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to attend.

Our next beef summit will take place on July 13th in Oberlin, Kansas, and will focus on how producers and caregivers can positively influence the end product with teamwork. We will feature experts from the packing industry, including a veterinary inspector, a procurement specialist to discuss market demands, a meat scientist to educate us on what’s new in the industry, and a professional beef advocate to help us all become better spokespersons. There will also be some interesting new imagery of the bovine upper respiratory tract, and you may even get a glimpse of a new GPS technology we have been working on over the last several months. Our keynote speaker will be Ted Cunningham, who is a nationally recognized leadership expert and relationship comedian. Ted will provide us with new tools that encourage us to become better personally and professionally. We are excited to bring this information-packed meeting to you and hope you will join us for a great day of education and fellowship.

Our hope is that this magazine provides a unique presentation of animal stewardship for our feedyard, dairy, swine and cow-calf producers. We intend for it to be an additional resource for the producers we help and a supplement to our monthly operation visits and annual summit meetings. I look forward to seeing all of you in Oberlin this summer.

Contributors

Dr. Rick Funston

Dr. Funston is the Reproductive Physiologist at the University of Nebraska’s West Central Research and Extension Center. He received his Ph.D. in Reproductive Biology, from the University of Wyoming in 1993 and continued his postdoctoral work in reproduction/biotechnology at Colorado State University. His research interests include heifer development and re-breeding of the first-calf heifer.

Dr. Jeremy Martin

Dr. Martin is a nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting, Inc. and resides in Lexington, NE. He has a Masters and Ph.D. in ruminant nutrition and reproductive management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The Pot Roast

We want to showcase the talented chefs that read our magazine. In this issue we are featuring Arturo and Wrenn Pacheco who run cattle in the Flint Hills of Kansas while also maintaining a fun and unique cooking blog which can be found at cookingwiththe cowboy.com. If you have a recipe that you would like to feature in The Pot Roast section of the magazine, please email us at kelly.terrell@pacdvms.com. Our goal is to continue discovering recipes from agriculture’s finest.

Thank you to all those contributing multiple stories and insights to Protein Producers

Cover Photo Credits : Thank you to Darcy Howard from Oakley, KS for the photograph that was taken in Australia. Read more about their trip on page 14.

Thank you to all sponsors for supporting PAC & Protein Producers.

Alltech

American Animal Health

Animal Health International

Bayer

Boehringer Ingelheim

Chr. Hansen

Daniels Manufacturing Co.

Diamond V

DOCTalk

Elanco

Lallemand

Micro Technologies

Midwest NetPro

Newport Laboratories

Norbrook

Nova Microbial Technologies

Randall Bumgarner

SSG Fusion

Zinpro

Zoetis