When David Bechtol is honored at the 2013 Feeding Quality Forums with the Industry Achievement Award, colleagues and clients will catch a glimpse of recent history that laid the foundation for many of the ways they handle cattle health today. “As one of the very first veterinary feedlot consultants, he evolved with a very young cattle feeding industry as it was starting up and maturing,” John Pollreisz said. “The role of the veterinary feedlot consultant grew as the industry did – it went hand in hand.”
If you’ve ever tossed leftovers or overripe fruit without considering tomorrow’s lunch or creative baking, you’re part of the problem. “We throw away 242 pounds of food per person per year,” said Brad Morgan, senior food safety and production efficiency specialist with Pfizer Animal Health.
Getting cattle bought right. That’s normally a feeder’s first challenge, but today it’s just plain getting cattle.
“The total size of the cattle industry has been shrinking, and shrinking rather abruptly for the last couple of years,” said Mike Sands, Informa Economics vice president.
Don’t expect corn values to get dramatically lower….this year.
Feeding Quality Forum attendees were probably not surprised to hear Dan Basse, Ag Resource Company, say that pricing inputs would be their top challenge in the last quarter of 2012. But the fact that those costs could normalize in the latter part of next year surely piqued their interest.
From drought and high feed prices to the shrinking cowherd and beef demand, there’s been a lot weighing on cattle feeders’ minds lately.
Producers gathered at last week’s Feeding Quality Forum in Grand Island, Neb., and Amarillo, Texas, to discuss these topics and get ideas for dealing with the ongoing industry challenges
A man of many firsts will add another to his long list in August. Kenneth Eng will be the first feedlot nutritionist to be honored with the Industry Achievement Award at the 2012 Feeding Quality Forum
That’s probably why I always get excited for our Feeding Quality Forum, a meeting we (along with Pfizer, Feedlot Magazine and Purina-Land O’Lakes) have been hosting for six years.
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