[00:00:00] Speaker A: Summertime herd health. We focus on bloat and lots of dollars going towards low methane emitting livestock. Crew, let's ranch it up.
Good day everyone and thanks for riding with us on this all new episode of the Ranch it up radio show. I'm Jeff Tigger Earhart.
A big thank you goes out to our partners. Ranchchannel.com wolf cattle Jorgensen Landon Cattle Trans over genetics Axio to Animal health bringing us multi minute Lactopro the American Galvi Association Imagene Ingredients Bringing Us Pharma 10 Westway Feed Products Medora Boot and Western wear Allied Genetic Resources and Allied feeding partners livestock market.com equine market.com auction time.com the Tri State Livestock News RFD TV Wrangler and this fine radio station Cow Country News. You know the cow stuff.
All right, we're going to dive right into this one. Social media has been blowing up about the $4.85 million grant that the American Angus association received from the Bezos Earth Fund and the Global Methane Hub as part of a larger initiative to reduce methane emissions in livestock. Now I've seen a lot of things blow up on social media, but this one, this one has taken the cake. I mean there is miles and miles and miles of comments and I have received numerous phone call on this topic. Here is the breakdown. Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and one of the world's wealthiest individuals with a net worth exceeding $190 billion, is now turning his attention to livestock production through the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion climate focused initiative he launched back in 2020. Bezos is investing in projects designated to reduce methane emissions and in cattle. Now methane, according to climate scientists say, is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over the next 20 year period. Now to address this, Bezos and the Global Methane Fund have jointly launched a $27.4 million initiative aimed at breeding low methane emitting cattle and and developing technologies to curb livestock emissions globally. Here is the complete breakdown of that $27.4 million $8.7 million for low emission dairy breeding in Holstein, Jersey, Brown Swiss and Red breeds led by a university in the Netherlands $8.1 million towards research at universities in Uruguay and Australia and for rumen microbiome analysis $4.85 million to the Angus foundation to integrate low methane traits into beef cattle breeding programs across North America, oceania and Europe $3.35 million to support methane efficient breeding in indigenous African cattle populations and $2.34 million to the university of Nebraska to research methane reduction in commercial and crossbred beef cattle herds. Now, according to this initiative, they seek to reduce emissions without requiring producers to drastically change how they feed or manage livestock. Instead, the focus is on genetic selection and scientific innovation, including vaccine development and even virtual fencing technology. Now it is important to note, listen to this, that the US cattle industry is valued at $89 billion. That according to the NCBA, $89 billion.
That's less than half of Bezos personal wealth and his entry into this space is what is causing many to be concerned. Now I am going to be following this as much as I possibly can and I'm going to be reaching out to a number of individuals to get reactions and find out a little bit more of why the acceptance of these grant dollars. Now in other news, the World Organization for Animal Health this week declared Brazil to be free of foot and mouth disease without vaccination, which opens more markets to a major export competitor to the US Beef industry.
From now on, Brazil will be able to reach markets that were previously closed to the country and offer higher prices. Brazil is the world's second largest producer of beef behind the United States and the global leader in exports. The National Cattlemen's Beef association, or ncba, has been critical of Brazil's compliance with sanitary and and animal disease standards and they're encouraging the USDA to suspend imports of beef from Brazil until a thorough audit can be conducted to verify Brazil's claims of providing an equivalent level of food safety and animal health. And sustainable beef officially began operations last week at its $325 million beef processing facility in North Platte, Nebraska, marking a major milestone for the producer owned company that aims to modernize beef production in the region. The facility plans to ramp up gradually to 1500 head per day and employ right around 850 people by the end of the year. All right, crew, we're going to head into our first commercial break and here's what we got coming up yet on this episode, number 240 of the ranch it up radio show. Of course, we're going to talk with Kirk Donsbach from Stonex Financial, Inc. Recapping the markets from last week, we've got updates of hay and cattle sales. Pay attention to that one. Mark Vanzi's jumping on with livestock market.com and in terms of summer herd health, we're focusing this week on bloat. I know a number of you are still grazing on wheat pasture before the harvest begins. In fact, I heard from a producer earlier in the week from Texas that said he was buzzing around and still saw some cattle grazing on some wheat that was starting to head out. So this week we're focusing on bloat. I know a number of people battle bloat that are great grazing, excuse me, wheat, pasture cattle and even those individuals that are grazing alfalfa. We have tried that a few times as well. But one of the big things we needed to always watch out for and battle was bloat. And if you're grazing cattle, that's one of the things that you're going to be battling. And we're focusing on a product that you've heard me talk about before about feeding to the cows 90 days prior to calving to prevent scours and coccy.
Now we're going to discuss how it's been used to battle bloat. You're listening to the Ranch it Up radio show and we'll be back right after this.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: Livestock Market.com we hear from the
[email protected] every week. Bulls, cows, bread, heifers, open replacement heifers, cow calf pairs, feeders and stockers, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, showstock hay and straw and even alpacas. All listed on livestockmarket.com private treaty, online auctions and on site auctions. Buying or selling. Gauge the market, do some research. Check out livestock market.com and don't forget.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: They brought you auction time.com and equinemarket.com.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Ranch channel.com I'll give you just a few seconds to head there on your phone. Ranch channel.com your farm and ranch network on demand bull sales, western events, product information right at your fingertips on the ultimate cowboy friendly platform.
Want to follow up to date markets ranchchannel.com no need to dig for information on all these different websites. It's all right there on ranchchannel.com y' all are loving it now, aren't you?
[00:07:55] Speaker C: We run a lot of high milk producing mama cows in our herd.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Mitch Kenobi of Norfolk dealt with scours in his herd so bad that we.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: Sent samples off to South Dakota State and Kansas State. Heard about farmertan. As a producer I know it's our.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Job to limit our inputs, but when.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: It comes to farm a tan, dad.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: And I don't blink an eye. It is a must for every calving season. Adding farm a tan to your livestock's nutrition this fall will rid your new herd of scours in the spring. Go to farmitanusa.com call Joe Knopp at 340-3323 cattle battle.
Welcome back to the Ranch it Up radio show. The most Information packed into a 30 minute program that you can find. It's your all things ranching newscast. And so glad to be hanging out with each and every one of you for 240 episodes. That's what we're on. Questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, rants, it doesn't matter. Give us a call or text at 707-Ranch 20. That's 707-726-2420. Our email is ranch it up showmail.com make sure you have show in there. Ranch it up showmail.com and prowling around social media, Ranch it up show. Our series on summertime herd health continues. Today. We're talking about bloat. Now if you're grazing wheat pasture, cattle may be grazing alfalfa. We've done that a number of times. That's interesting. Or just grazing in general, Bloat can devastate a herd in record time. We know that there are many different ways and various products out there. So today we're going to focus and highlight on one of those products. Farmitan. Yep, y' all heard me correctly on that one. Farmit.
Normally we talk about using Pharmatan 90 days prior to calving to prevent scours and coccidiosis in calves, right? Well, today we're talking about using it to fight bloat. Joining us is Joe Knopp, key account manager for Imogene ingredients, who brings us Farmitan. Joe, thanks for coming on the show. Tell us about this bloat situation in Texas that you ran into and how you used pharmatan.
[00:10:01] Speaker C: Well, I had a gentleman from Cheyenne, Wyoming called ordering product for himself some liquid pharmatan.
And I told him what all we could do. And then after we got all the the particulars out of the way, he said, you need to call my buddy in Texas. He's having cattle blood.
I said, okay, how many head does he got? I'll give him a call.
I called the gentleman and he said he had 10,000 cows and that's about how many six weight cattle they had out on wheat pasture. So we went down there and the day they said the day they put it in the cattle, quit bloating. We were going a gallon of our Farmitan liquid to 400 gallon of water.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: You were just applying it right to the water is what you were doing.
[00:10:38] Speaker C: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah, because the water with what we were working on, the water just is so much quicker as far as the availability of it. So anyway, we got called down there and we put in a gallon of our farm a 10 liquid to 400 gallon of water. We were putting it right out on the pasture. The cattle were grazing wheat. And we put it right out in the pasture. And basically what we're doing is it slows down the digestion of the feed and it dissolves. You know, you get, you get a big foam mat. Once you get that rumen, it starts backing up. You get a foam mat in there and then it just continues to ferment. And you know, as you know, the rumen is a fermentation bat. So it just got hotter and hotter and literally these guys were losing animals. And we put this format in liquid in there and that's all we did. And it changed everything.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: And this changed everything. Sorry, I didn't mean to step on you there, Joe, but wheat pasture cattle, Is that what you said these were grazing on?
[00:11:33] Speaker C: Yes, sir. Yeah, they were out, all out on wheat. You know, they had, oh my gosh, 9 and 10,000 cattle grazing wheat.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: You know, many times that we've, we've talked about problem situations and going and using Pharma 10 and of course, I mean, we have to say it's on a case by case basis. And also we need to say you need to visit with Joe, you need to visit with the Pauls and talk about your situation. And of course results aren't guaranteed. We got to say that as well. But however, it seems so many times that we've had these discussions, it's been based on an existing problem.
So let's talk about preventative care for a little bit.
Like these guys down in Texas and you said you were adding it to their water. Are they continuing to use pharmatan and everything that they're doing and they're now trying to get ahead of the problem, to be proactive instead of reactive.
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Yes, they are. And I have to tell you this because from my point of view, three dollar meat. Okay, we got three dollars meat going across the counter. I told them, digger, when they put it in, I said, guys, be careful, be ready for this because when you get an animal to drink more, they will eat more.
I was down there last week for four days.
The cattle that are supposed to be weighing 795 to 800 coming off the wheat are weighing 865 and 870.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:57] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. So they are seeing what we've done. So now, yeah, to go to your preventative, we're working to go through the dry feed into the feed yard. We're gonna start going on the receiving cattle. We're Trying to get everything in place to set up a water program. For the first 10 days, leave the farmer tan in the water but get it in the receiving ration, get it in those rations.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Joe, I know that you said that you used farmitan in a liquid form in Texas. But now thinking of the future and ease of using the product, even easier. What about in like a block format, like salt blocks that we can just throw out there. And you know that cow, she can manage herself the amount of intake that she needs.
[00:13:40] Speaker C: We have. Man, you've been reading our mail. We are putting it in. I know there's a company called C90, C90 Agri Minerals. We're, we're already in their blocks. They make a 40 pound block that is working very well for us. We are making blocks for this certain operation I'm telling you about. We have, we put it together with the block maker and we are making a semi loaded block. So yeah, you want to block with the formitan. Okay. Certain number of blocks or we put it in the mineral. But yes sir, we have the lick tubs which we've talked in the past. But we do have a good mineral block with the farmitan in it. Consumption is not a problem. We spend a lot of time with the right people to get our consumption.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: Right kind of going forward. Is it. And I know it's an army of just a few of you with Pharmatan it's slowly growing and, and you work on a outfit by outfit basis. It's literally one producer at a time and visiting and putting together a program for them. So in terms of preventative or just maintenance maybe I think is the best way to say this. Are you working towards Joel of saying okay, here's kind of our 365 maintenance program where it can help augment with some of your other mineral programs. Is that kind of where we want to start moving versus just focusing on the, the problem side per se? Because I know we do that in terms of getting it in front of the cows prior to calving. But now I'm kind of looking after calving and I'm literally looking at this time of year.
[00:15:11] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yes sir. Yeah. And you know, everybody's finally starting to get some rain and that's good for morale. But we are we working so how can we. That's a great, great point. Because we want to be proactive. How can I do it? It's easier to keep them healthy than it is to straighten them out. So yes, we are working to try to be proactive and like the cow calf program, like you alluded to earlier, you know, the 60 to 90 day, we'll do that and that's 15 grams per head. But we've got guys starting to go year round. We put it in a 10 gram and we go to there. We go to their mineral manufacturer and they put it in.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: So just kind of landing a plane on this farm a 10 in and of itself, if I'm kind of understanding everything correctly, it helps augment your existing nutritional program. Really kind of keying in. Is that the right way to really kind of describe how Pharmatan works? Not to replace an existing mineral program or an existing nutritional program, Correct?
[00:16:12] Speaker C: That is correct. We do not want to do that. We want to work hand in hand with whoever you're using. If there's a way we can improve your bottom line, please give us a call. In a nutshell, it does enhance what you're feeding.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: Joe Knopp with Imogene ingredients. Thank you so much for the time and coming on the program now if you have any questions about Farmitan or how it may work on your operation, you can give Joe or the Pauls a call at 515-745-1639 or check out farmatanusa.com and if you can't catch the crew at Farm A Tan, no problem. Get a hold of Beck and I and we will make sure that we personally get you in contact with a rep near you. It is time for a commercial break. You're listening to the Ranch it Up radio show crew. Keep it parked.
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Welcome back to the Ranch it Up radio show. That time of the program we check in with Kirk, Don Box, Stonex Financial Incorporated Recap in the markets from last week. Maybe some insight of what may be happening in the future. So Kirk, numbers wise, what's going on?
[00:18:55] Speaker D: Good morning Tigger and all your listeners out there. As of Friday, May 30th, August feeder futures closed week at 298.67 and a half. That's down $1.82 and a half on the weekend. The CME feeder index was up $3.84 at 299.30. That left the basis at a positive 62.5 cents versus August futures. So futures and cash are very closely tied as we closed that Friday. June live cattle closed the week at 215.47 and a half. That's down 42 and a half cents on the week with cash trading 223 to 225 in the south and 234 to 237 in the north. That all happened late on Friday and was not represented in the 5 area weighted average which was down 98 cents at $228.50 on Thursday.
That left the basis at a positive $13.05 with futures very much lagging the cash market as June moves into expiration. Choice boxes were $5.37 at 366.34. The weekly slaughter was a very light 477,000 head. Some of that was the holiday shortened kill, but that is still historically small at 93,000 head less than the last week and 62,000 had less than the same week last year. Dress weights were down 2 pounds at 872 pounds. That's 21 pounds higher than this week last year. The combination of lighter slaughter and higher weights has left the yearly production at 2.9% less in the same week last year, so production is still lagging. To wrap this up, September Corn closed the week at 423. That's down 14 cents on the week. The funds continue to press prices lower as the moisture subsides as a prevent plant acre discussion becomes less prevalent in the market.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Now, Kirk, I don't know if you heard about this or not, but just listen up to this one in last week, Friday at Harriet livestock in Harriet, South Dakota. I'm gonna tell you what some pears sold for. Now here we are moved into a new month. This was the end of May. Here's 40 head of red first calf heifer pears. They sold for 4900 bucks. Yeah, almost $5,000. Here's another group from Harriet, South Dakota. These were from Eureka. Actually, there was 17.
Another set of 17 red first calf heifer pairs. They were weighing right around 11, 30, by the way. They brought 48.75. Here was the cheap ones.
The cheap ones, Kirk, they were broken mouth cows. They were pears. They were weighing just a tick under 1400 bucks. Broken mouth pears sold for $3100 for pears. So how many, how many do you need, Kirk? I'll put together a potload for you.
[00:21:46] Speaker D: I think I'll just hold tight for the time being.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Thank you very much.
[00:21:49] Speaker E: Wow.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Exceptional prices.
[00:21:52] Speaker D: No doubt about that. Very, very good prices. We did have. I saw advertised here we'd had some short term, probably a year or two type of pairs that went for 26, 27.
I don't need to buy any cows. I've got plenty for the grass I got. But that's kind of interesting. That puts you needing about 700 bucks for that cow.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly right. Well, get the checkbook out, Kirk.
[00:22:15] Speaker D: It's only money, Tigger.
[00:22:18] Speaker E: Hey, all Mark Van Zie With LivestockMarket.com coming up this Wednesday, June 11, we have an online hay and straw auction. Bidding opens at just a dollar, no reserves. All lots will sell. Featured lots include 120 large round straw bales. It's five by six, net wrapped, clean, no weeds. 1450 pounds. From Cass Auction in Carlton, Missouri. 44 large round alfalfa bales selling on three separate lots. It's 5x6 poly twine from Cobes Auctions in David City, Nebraska. 40 large round alfalfa grass mixed bales selling on three separate lots. 45x6 poly twine from Cobe Auction. And 756. That's a full semi truckload of small square alfalfa bales. It's in 21 bale bundles. There's 36 bundles total. The bundles are 4 foot by 7 foot 3 inches. This is second cutting. 2024 alfalfa from Frank Farms in Avon, South Dakota. And 300 small square prairie hay bales filling on three. 100 bale lots. This is wire tie shredded. It's nice and bright from C and H Auction in Hillsborough, Kansas. Bidding is currently live but all lots will sell the morning of Wednesday, June 11th at 10:00am Central Time. You got hay to sell Online hay auctions every Wednesday on livestockmarket.com and auctiontime.com.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: What'S the true impact of pre Breeding nutrition? Hey hey. I'm Shay Wanner and I host the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast. Here's what a few experts from Westway feed products have to share about the topic.
[00:23:47] Speaker F: There's been enough research today to know that when cows are in a deficient state, protein wise, energy wise, in calves that are in their first and second gestation period, we can actually have a reproductive impact on those heifers out of those cows where they don't breed back near as good when they were in utero and they had a protein deficiency. Same thing with steer mates, right? Steer mates to those heifers, when taken to the feed yard and finished out, they didn't grade as good as the ones that had proper nutrition during the wintertime. And so we know there's impacts on the calf itself when that calf is in utero, when the nutrition is not right for the cow.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: Listen to the full story by searching for casual cattle conversations on your favorite podcast player. Happy ranching folks. I tip my hat to you from one legend to another. And before we say fare thee well, we want to give a big old tip of the hat and a shout out to all of you who unfortunately have been affected by the wildfires, who have been affected by tornadoes, who have been affected by flood. And you know what? If you've got friends in those areas, just reach out to make sure that they're doing okay. Fire them a text. They may not be in that infected area, but just say, hey, I'm thinking about you. I saw this on the news that there's fires in the north, there's tornadoes in the south, there's floods in the east, there's droughts in the West. Drop a line to those friends. I guarantee you they're gonna appreciate it. And now that's gonna wrap it up for today. A big thanks goes out to our crew. Joe Knopp with Farm A Tan Kirk Donsbach, Stonex Financial Incorporated. Mark vanzie with livestock market.com Shea Warner with Casual Cattle Conversations, the boss lady, Rebecca Wander, AKA Beck, who is under the weather. A big thanks goes out to our partners, ranchchannel.com, wolf cattle Jorgensen land and Cattle, Transova Genetics, Axiota Animal Health bringing us Multi Minute Lactopro, the American Galvi Association Imogene Ingredients who brings us Farmitan Westway Feed Products, Maduro Boot and Western Wear, Allied Genetic Resources and allied feeding partners livestockmarket.com equinemarket.com auctiontime.com the Tri State Livestock News RFD TV Wrangler in this fine radio station and crew. So glad you all came with us one more time as we Ranch it up. Be sure to follow and like us on Facebook at Ranch It Up. Show our email ranch it up showmail.com and you can call and text 24. 7. That phone number is 707 Ranch 20 that 707-72-624 420. Spread the good word and join us again next week where it's always Tigger and Beck approved. Stay Ranchy and Ranch it Up.
