Merck Animal Health Releases 'Five-Step Approach Ensuring Responsible Beef' 

In the wake of a revelation by Tyson Foods that it would no longer purchase beef that had been fed Zilmax, Merck Animal Health released a statement yesterday outlining a five-step plan to review its product and how it is administered:   

1. Merck Animal Health is committed to re-certifying every feeder/nutritionist/veterinarian that feeds Zilmax to cattle. The re-certification process will begin immediately. Special attention will be given to feed mixing and determining which cattle are good candidates for the use of beta-agonists. We will engage third party experts to provide periodic review of certifications. 

2. Within the next 30 days, Merck Animal Health is committed to reaching out to packers and suppliers to initiate a scientific audit, which will focus on the feeding of Zilmax, and will follow those cattle from the feedyard to the packing plant to determine potential causes of lameness and other mobility issues during feeding, transportation, offloading and staging at the processing facility. 

3. Based on our findings, Merck Animal Health is committed to reinforcing appropriate management practices for feeder customers to include overall nutrition and feeding objectives, animal handling, low-stress environments and transportation.

4. Continuing in our work to advance animal well-being, we will form the Merck Animal Health Advisory Board within the next 30 days, made up of representatives from small, medium and large feeders, packers, cow-calf operators, as well as animal health and nutrition experts, to review available data. If additional recommended management practices are needed, these will be identified, shared and promptly implemented.

5. Merck Animal Health takes our responsibility very seriously and is committed to sharing all of these findings and to be transparent.

For more details, click here.

 

NCBA Applauds Merck's Five-Step Plan to Ensure Responsible Beef 

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) commends Merck Animal Health for taking meaningful action to address questions about the impact of Zilmax on animal welfare. America's farmers and ranchers take animal care very seriously and support Merck's efforts to ensure that Zilmax can be used responsibly to raise beef without compromising the health and well-being of cattle.

Beta-agonists, like Zilmax, are FDA-approved feed additives that, when added to feed in small amounts at a specific time in their lives, help cattle make the most of the food they eat resulting in more lean muscle instead of fat. Extensive research shows that beta-agonists are metabolized quickly by cattle so they are not stored in the body and therefore are not present in the meat. Beta-agonists are approved for use in the United States, Canada, Australia and two dozen other countries across the developed world.

Cattlemen and women believe in making decisions about the use of animal health products like beta-agonists based on science, not speculation. At this time, there is no scientific basis for saying the use of beta-agonists caused the animal welfare concerns cited by Tyson in their decision to stop buying cattle fed Zilmax.

You can read more of the statement from the NCBA by clicking here.   

State Veterinarian Encourages Colleagues to get Involved During Fair Season

Fair season is right around the corner and State Veterinarian Rod Hall encourages all veterinarians to get involved. He says the work is rewarding and is a valuable outreach to the public.

"Even those of you who don't do any livestock work, I would encourage you to get involved with the Fair Board and OSU Extension in your county so you can have input into the county fair. We've tried for the past two years to get information to the fairs about biosecurity and how to prevent animal to human or human to animal transmission of disease. If you are a part of the fair planning you can be very valuable in educating the fair management and help put some safeguards in place."

 Swine flu is back in the news again, and Hall says that everyone, not only veterinarians, can help prevent its spread.

"We all need to be aware again of H3N2 variant influenza. This is a type of influenza that some swine carry that can be passed to humans (or vice versa) when there is close contact between swine and people. There have already been some cases reported in the upper Midwest where they start their fairs earlier than we do. This causes routine flu symptoms in people and pigs. Our goal is to help prevent the transmission of the disease for the health of people and animals, but also to prevent undue poor publicity regarding agriculture in general and livestock exhibitions in particular."

To read more and to find links to lists of county fairs and fact sheets regarding swine flu and PEDv, please click here.

Oklahoma Rancher Joe Mayer Uses Genetic Testing for Selection

Oklahoma rancher Joe Mayer says, "There's a lot of difference in performance in good cattle and in average cattle."

He knows that in any given pen of cattle, several hundred dollars can separate the top from the bottom. Even the most acutely trained eye can't often pick which will earn money and which will lose money when they show up in the feedlot, he says. Unless they have more information on what's under the hide.

"It's one thing for somebody to tell you how good these cattle are, but it's another thing to show you. And you can show how good these cattle are based on the genetic component, by the EPD's on the sire that the cattle are out of. There's a lot of black cattle out there so some are much better than others. And if you have the genetic component, the EPDs or the sires that those cattle are out of, that tells you a lot more than just the fact that they're black cattle." 

Click here to read more or to watch a video version of this story.

Senator Tom Coburn Schedules Town Hall Meetings

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) announced the schedule for a series of town hall meetings that will take place in August at various locations across Oklahoma. Dr. Coburn will take questions and address important issues for Oklahoma and the nation at each event.

Coburn has appearances scheduled August 21 in Miami and Muskogee.  He will be in Stigler, Hugo, Atoka and Shawnee on August 22nd.  For times and locations, please click here.

OAEAA Recognitions of Excellence Announced

The Oklahoma Association of Extension Agriculture Agents honored its own recently, for excellence of service and commitment to the land-grant mission of helping to improve the quality of life for Oklahomans.

"Our Extension educators work side-by-side with individuals, county and state agencies, schools, businesses, commodity organizations and civic leaders to solve concerns of importance to Oklahomans, their families and their communities," said James Trapp, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service associate director. 

Under the state and federal land-grant mandate, Extension educators take scientifically proven, research-based information and create innovative learning opportunities that address local issues.

"Extension has more than a statewide presence, we're an active part of the communities in which we work and live," said Wes Lee, OAEAA president and McClain County Extension director and agricultural educator. "Given the land-grant mission, our successes - by definition - represent the successes of others."

You'll find a complete list of awards and recipients on our website.  Click here to go there.

This N That- We've Got a Picture of Label That's Causing All the Trouble, a Big Iron Kind of Day and Diamond Hats Gala

Our Beef Buzz today features our conversation that we featured in full on Monday of this week with Colin Woodall of the NCBA.  Click here to listen to the fill conversation.

However- you may want to click here for our Wednesday Beef Buzz where we focus specifically on the Litigation efforts of NCBA and other livestock and meat industry groups as they ask for an injunction from keeping the new COOL rule from being enforced by USDA.  In checking our ground beef stash in the Hays household- I discovered that the new labels are already on packages of beef- and we featured that as the picture that is associated with this Beef Buzz.  Click here to see the label as well as to listen to Woodall's comments on the efforts to stop USDA and perhaps even get the courts to toss out COOL altogether.  

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It's Wednesday- and that means another round of closing bids will be happening today on the Big Iron website- the home of the no reserve auction of farm equipment, construction equipment, trucks and more.  

A total of 268 items will be sold today on Big Iron- and one of the featured sellers is Dennis Kincaid of Nardin, Oklahoma. Click here to check out the entire lineup of items closing today- starting at 10 AM central time on Big Iron- and you might notice that over 500 items will be offered in the sale next Wednesday on line at Big Iron.

You can contact Mike Wolfe with Big Iron if you have questions about how the process works- either as a buyer or a seller- his phone number is (580) 320-2718.

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Finally- just a really quick reminder- tickets are now on sale for the 2013 Diamond Hats Gala- to be held Friday September 6th at the Reed Center in Midwest City.   

More information and the ability to buy your tickets can be found at their website- click here to jump to Diamond Hats.Org.   

The money raised in this and other projects that these fabulous ladies operate are used to primarily support the Premium Sale at the Oklahoma Youth Expo.