With the average planted corn acreage over the past 15 years at about 78 million acres, the market's dilemma was finding a source for all the extra acres needed, he said. The increase in intended acres for corn was partially offset by fewer expected acres of soybeans and cotton, the USDA said. producers to meet projected demand for corn, 90 million acres of the commodity would have to be planted, according to Tom Fritz, a grain analyst and principle of New World Trading. producer was able...

Good news for this year's rainfall-drenched cattle operations: Sprouted wheat can be used efficiently in beef cattle rations, as long as an aflatoxin screening is performed if mold is present. Ingestion of aflatoxins in contaminated food or feed can result in poisoning called aflatoxicosis. Once an accurate assessment of the potential health risk has been verified, a producer still should follow a series of general guidelines when feeding sprouted wheat to cattle. Sprouted wheat can be fed...

It is now widely accepted that the future of ethanol is cellulosic: Rather than distilling corn for ethanol to fuel our cars, accepted wisdom is now that we will be able to replace a large fraction of our current fuel consumption with ethanol distilled from agricultural and forestry waste, as well as dedicated energy crops, such as switchgrass and hybrid poplar. It is now widely accepted that the future of ethanol is cellulosic: Rather than distilling corn for ethanol to fuel our cars,...

Cattle producers more than some other livestock producers can use a greater variety of feed sources. Nebraska cattle producers have good access to distillate grains, a byproduct of ethanol production that can be used for feed. A recently unveiled website, balancedfoodandfuel.org, sponsored by cattle, beef, dairy, poultry and egg producers, focuses on side effects of the booming ethanol sector, including rising feed and food costs. Higher corn prices mean higher feed costs for cattle, hog...

The British Columbia purebred dairy cow, reported in May with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease, was fed rations that were processed at a feed mill that also handled material fed to pigs and poultry, the agency said. BSE is spread when cattle eat feed that includes protein rendered from diseased livestock. Canada completes probe of May mad cow case.Reuters. Pigs and poultry were allowed to eat feed made from cattle protein until a ban on the practice came into effect...

The cheapest and easiest method of using these residues as cattle feed is field piling or field collection with an attachment on the combine, followed by field grazing. Instead of the crop residue being baled and hauled to the cattle, the piles are left in the field for the livestock to graze on during fall and winter, Klein explained. It collects the chaff and straw and dumps the material in piles approximately three feet high, four feet wide, and five feet long. It s only mid-summer, but...

With the average planted corn acreage over the past 15 years at about 78 million acres, the market's dilemma was finding a source for all the extra acres needed, he said. The increase in intended acres for corn was partially offset by fewer expected acres of soybeans and cotton, the USDA said. Futures prices for corn this week dropped to their lowest level since October, a far cry from five months ago when prices climbed past $4 a bushel to their highest level in about nine years....

While we may be seeing pastures green up and forage become available for livestock, however, many producers are also looking at empty hay barns and overgrazed pastures. While these summer annuals can definitely produce substantial amounts of forage in a relatively short amount of time, there are a couple of things that producers should keep in mind when considering summer annuals as an option. With this situation in mind, many producers have looked or are looking at the possibility of...

Leaders of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and executives at Monsanto co. and DuPont co., two biotech crop giants, said they hoped the plan, which includes third-party auditing, would help agricultural players around the world feel confident that biotech crop development was subject to stringent safety standards. Biotech firms plan new guidelines - Los Angeles Times. Leaders of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and executives at Monsanto co. and DuPont co., two biotech crop...