Calving process can affect rebreeding
By
John Grimes-
The weather this week gave us a taste of what we have been waiting for through this long winter. Several consecutive days of seventy plus degree temperatures will tend to improve the humor of the most pessimistic. I know that we will need several more drying days for planting to begin, but farmers will start getting anxious to start field work in short order.
Cow body condition changes after calving
Body condition at the time of calving is the most important factor affecting rebreeding performance of normally managed beef cows. Changes in body condition before and after calving will have more subtle effects on rebreeding, especially in cows that are in marginal body condition, according to Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Extension cattle reproduction specialist.
Changes in body condition from the time the cow calves until she begins the breeding season can also play a significant role in the rebreeding success story. This appears to be most important to those cows that calve in the marginal condition score range of 4 or 5. An Oklahoma trial illustrates the vulnerability of cows that calve in the body condition score of 5.
Two groups of cows began the winter feeding period in similar body condition and calved in very similar body condition. However, after calving and before the breeding season began, one group was allowed to lose almost one condition score (from 5.3 to 4.6). The other group of cows was fed adequately to maintain the body condition that they had prior to calving.
The difference in rebreeding rate was significant (73 percent versus 94 percent). Again this illustrates that cows that calve in the body condition score of 5 are very vulnerable to weather and suckling intensity stresses and ranchers must use good nutritional strategies after calving to avoid disastrous rebreeding performance.
Source: Oklahoma State University Cow-Calf Corner newsletter
UN admits flaw in report on meat and climate change
One of the authors of the 2006 United Nations report claiming meat production is responsible for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than transportation, is acknowledging that the comparison is flawed in light of recent research by an American scientist, the BBC reports.
Frank Mitloehner from the University of California at Davis, author of the published study, “Clearing the Air: Livestock’s Contribution to Climate Change,” says it is simply not scientifically accurate to blame livestock for climate change.
Mitloehner traces much of the public confusion to the 2006 report, “Livestock's Long Shadow,” published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which he says overstates the role livestock play in greenhouse gas emissions. “This lopsided ‘analysis’ is a classical apples-and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue,” Mitloehner says. He presented his findings recently at the American Chemical Society conference in California.
Pierre Gerber, a policy officer with FAO, told the BBC he accepted Mitloehner’s criticism. “I must say honestly that he has a point – we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn't do the same thing with transport,” he said.
Applying global numbers to the U.S. are misleading because the vast majority of global greenhouse gas emissions attributed to livestock production result from deforestation and converting rain forests and other lands to grow crops or pasture, contends the American Meat Institute. Such changes do not occur in the U.S., which has seen an increase in the total acreage of forested land over the last several decades even while total agricultural production has increased.
In fact, according to EPA, in 2007 only 2.8 percent of U.S. greenhouse emissions came from animal agriculture. This number has remained nearly constant since 1990, which is impressive considering U.S. increases in meat production of almost 50 percent over the same time period.
The FAO is scheduled to complete a more comprehensive analysis of emissions from global food production by the end of this year.
Source: American Meat Institute
Avoid black knot of plums
Black knot, caused by the fungus Apiosporina morbosa, is a very destructive disease of susceptible cultivars of plums grown in commercial orchards and backyard fruit plantings and on ornamental Prunus species in the landscape. The disease is often found in poorly managed orchards, home fruit plantings, or on abandoned and wild Prunus trees as well as on landscape flowering plums and flowering cherries. This fungal pathogen is also occasionally found on apricot, peach, sweet and tart cherry.
Unlike leaf spots and blights which mar the beauty of the trees during any given season, black knot, by girdling the affected limbs, destroys the trees themselves, affecting the orchard, landscape tree, or nursery investment for many years. Perhaps most aggravating, this disease is sometimes introduced into the orchard, nursery, or landscape in the fall of the year when growers don’t recognize early black knot symptoms on trees already infected. Black knot occurs throughout North America on more than 24 species of Prunus.
Symptoms appear as elongated swellings or knots which may extend a foot or more along the limbs of infected trees. These black corky outgrowths predominate on small twigs and branches but may also be located on larger scaffold branches and on the trunk. Newly formed knots appear olive-green and corky, but turn black and become hard and brittle with age. The knots vary in length from an inch to many inches long and sometimes completely encircle and girdle the branch while at the same time accumulating along the branches.
How trees become infected. In spring, soon after bud-break, black knot fungus ascospores are ejected from fruiting structures called perithecia embedded in the black knots on limbs of infected plums or wild black cherries growing nearby in landscapes, wood lots, or fence rows. Spore release occurs during rainy periods and the spores are then moved by wind currents. A period of as little as six hours of free moisture at 72 F is required to cause infection. Longer wetting periods are required at lower temperatures. Infections occur almost entirely on the young, green, elongating twigs, but they often remain undetected for most of the first season. The warty swellings first become visible on new shoots in late summer or autumn, but many growers may not notice them until the following spring. The typical swollen knots become very obvious the following season, when they enlarge throughout the summer, split the bark, and turn hard and black. The fungus continues to grow in the infected limbs and branches, increasing the size of the knots. Black knot size depends on the species and cultivar of the host plant. These galls begin producing new spores the second spring after the initial infection.
Multiple strategies involving resistant varieties, sanitation, and chemical control are needed to manage this disease.
• Use resistant Prunus species and varieties where possible. Plum cultivars vary in their susceptibility to black knot with Stanley, Bluefree, Damson, and Shropshire being most susceptible; and Fellenburg, Methley, Milton, Bradshaw, and Early Italian only a little less susceptible. Backyard fruit growers should use cultivars such as President (resistant), or Formosa, Shiro, or Santa Rosa (slightly susceptible) for best results where black knot is in nearby landscapes. Little is known about relative disease resistance of flowering Prunus species and cultivars.
• Sanitation is the primary defense against black knot of existing trees. Plum and flowering Prunus trees should be pruned for black knot during the dormant season because the disease is easier to see then. All infected branches and limbs should be cut 3-4 inches below any visible swelling, since the fungus spreads out beyond the knot itself. In addition, black knot infections must be removed from nearby landscape trees and from adjacent wild black cherry trees (Figure 8). The knots must be collected and burned or buried because knots left in the trees or piled in the nursery or landscape can still liberate thousands of ascospores.
• Fungicide sprays are effective in reducing the number of new black knot infections especially if the inoculum load is light. In orchards, nurseries, or landscapes with an established or anticipated black knot problem, fungicide programs ideally should start in early spring just after bud-break once rainy periods with temperatures above 55 F are expected. Applications need to continue while shoots are elongating according to weather and plant development until 2-3 weeks after bloom. The early sprays made just at flower bud appearance are the most important. A combination of captan, and thiophanate-methyl (Cleary’s 3336, Systemic Fungicide 3336 WP, or Topsin-M) will provide protection. Look for products that are labeled for fruiting plums or landscape Prunus as needed. Fungicide applications are not effective if black knots have not been pruned out and destroyed in advance.
Source: Dr. John Hartman, University of Kentucky Plant Pathologist
-John Grimes is the Ohio State University Extension Educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Highland County. Ohio State University Extension embraces human diversity and is committed to ensuring that all research and related educational programs are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or veteran status. This statement is in accordance with United States Civil Rights Laws and the USDA.
Keith L. Smith, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Agricultural Administration and Director, Ohio State University Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868.
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Cow body condition changes after calving
Body condition at the time of calving is the most important factor affecting rebreeding performance of normally managed beef cows. Changes in body condition before and after calving will have more subtle effects on rebreeding, especially in cows that are in marginal body condition, according to Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State University Extension cattle reproduction specialist.
Changes in body condition from the time the cow calves until she begins the breeding season can also play a significant role in the rebreeding success story. This appears to be most important to those cows that calve in the marginal condition score range of 4 or 5. An Oklahoma trial illustrates the vulnerability of cows that calve in the body condition score of 5.
Two groups of cows began the winter feeding period in similar body condition and calved in very similar body condition. However, after calving and before the breeding season began, one group was allowed to lose almost one condition score (from 5.3 to 4.6). The other group of cows was fed adequately to maintain the body condition that they had prior to calving.
The difference in rebreeding rate was significant (73 percent versus 94 percent). Again this illustrates that cows that calve in the body condition score of 5 are very vulnerable to weather and suckling intensity stresses and ranchers must use good nutritional strategies after calving to avoid disastrous rebreeding performance.
Source: Oklahoma State University Cow-Calf Corner newsletter
UN admits flaw in report on meat and climate change
One of the authors of the 2006 United Nations report claiming meat production is responsible for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than transportation, is acknowledging that the comparison is flawed in light of recent research by an American scientist, the BBC reports.
Frank Mitloehner from the University of California at Davis, author of the published study, “Clearing the Air: Livestock’s Contribution to Climate Change,” says it is simply not scientifically accurate to blame livestock for climate change.
Mitloehner traces much of the public confusion to the 2006 report, “Livestock's Long Shadow,” published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which he says overstates the role livestock play in greenhouse gas emissions. “This lopsided ‘analysis’ is a classical apples-and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue,” Mitloehner says. He presented his findings recently at the American Chemical Society conference in California.
Pierre Gerber, a policy officer with FAO, told the BBC he accepted Mitloehner’s criticism. “I must say honestly that he has a point – we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn't do the same thing with transport,” he said.
Applying global numbers to the U.S. are misleading because the vast majority of global greenhouse gas emissions attributed to livestock production result from deforestation and converting rain forests and other lands to grow crops or pasture, contends the American Meat Institute. Such changes do not occur in the U.S., which has seen an increase in the total acreage of forested land over the last several decades even while total agricultural production has increased.
In fact, according to EPA, in 2007 only 2.8 percent of U.S. greenhouse emissions came from animal agriculture. This number has remained nearly constant since 1990, which is impressive considering U.S. increases in meat production of almost 50 percent over the same time period.
The FAO is scheduled to complete a more comprehensive analysis of emissions from global food production by the end of this year.
Source: American Meat Institute
Avoid black knot of plums
Black knot, caused by the fungus Apiosporina morbosa, is a very destructive disease of susceptible cultivars of plums grown in commercial orchards and backyard fruit plantings and on ornamental Prunus species in the landscape. The disease is often found in poorly managed orchards, home fruit plantings, or on abandoned and wild Prunus trees as well as on landscape flowering plums and flowering cherries. This fungal pathogen is also occasionally found on apricot, peach, sweet and tart cherry.
Unlike leaf spots and blights which mar the beauty of the trees during any given season, black knot, by girdling the affected limbs, destroys the trees themselves, affecting the orchard, landscape tree, or nursery investment for many years. Perhaps most aggravating, this disease is sometimes introduced into the orchard, nursery, or landscape in the fall of the year when growers don’t recognize early black knot symptoms on trees already infected. Black knot occurs throughout North America on more than 24 species of Prunus.
Symptoms appear as elongated swellings or knots which may extend a foot or more along the limbs of infected trees. These black corky outgrowths predominate on small twigs and branches but may also be located on larger scaffold branches and on the trunk. Newly formed knots appear olive-green and corky, but turn black and become hard and brittle with age. The knots vary in length from an inch to many inches long and sometimes completely encircle and girdle the branch while at the same time accumulating along the branches.
How trees become infected. In spring, soon after bud-break, black knot fungus ascospores are ejected from fruiting structures called perithecia embedded in the black knots on limbs of infected plums or wild black cherries growing nearby in landscapes, wood lots, or fence rows. Spore release occurs during rainy periods and the spores are then moved by wind currents. A period of as little as six hours of free moisture at 72 F is required to cause infection. Longer wetting periods are required at lower temperatures. Infections occur almost entirely on the young, green, elongating twigs, but they often remain undetected for most of the first season. The warty swellings first become visible on new shoots in late summer or autumn, but many growers may not notice them until the following spring. The typical swollen knots become very obvious the following season, when they enlarge throughout the summer, split the bark, and turn hard and black. The fungus continues to grow in the infected limbs and branches, increasing the size of the knots. Black knot size depends on the species and cultivar of the host plant. These galls begin producing new spores the second spring after the initial infection.
Multiple strategies involving resistant varieties, sanitation, and chemical control are needed to manage this disease.
• Use resistant Prunus species and varieties where possible. Plum cultivars vary in their susceptibility to black knot with Stanley, Bluefree, Damson, and Shropshire being most susceptible; and Fellenburg, Methley, Milton, Bradshaw, and Early Italian only a little less susceptible. Backyard fruit growers should use cultivars such as President (resistant), or Formosa, Shiro, or Santa Rosa (slightly susceptible) for best results where black knot is in nearby landscapes. Little is known about relative disease resistance of flowering Prunus species and cultivars.
• Sanitation is the primary defense against black knot of existing trees. Plum and flowering Prunus trees should be pruned for black knot during the dormant season because the disease is easier to see then. All infected branches and limbs should be cut 3-4 inches below any visible swelling, since the fungus spreads out beyond the knot itself. In addition, black knot infections must be removed from nearby landscape trees and from adjacent wild black cherry trees (Figure 8). The knots must be collected and burned or buried because knots left in the trees or piled in the nursery or landscape can still liberate thousands of ascospores.
• Fungicide sprays are effective in reducing the number of new black knot infections especially if the inoculum load is light. In orchards, nurseries, or landscapes with an established or anticipated black knot problem, fungicide programs ideally should start in early spring just after bud-break once rainy periods with temperatures above 55 F are expected. Applications need to continue while shoots are elongating according to weather and plant development until 2-3 weeks after bloom. The early sprays made just at flower bud appearance are the most important. A combination of captan, and thiophanate-methyl (Cleary’s 3336, Systemic Fungicide 3336 WP, or Topsin-M) will provide protection. Look for products that are labeled for fruiting plums or landscape Prunus as needed. Fungicide applications are not effective if black knots have not been pruned out and destroyed in advance.
Source: Dr. John Hartman, University of Kentucky Plant Pathologist
-John Grimes is the Ohio State University Extension Educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Highland County. Ohio State University Extension embraces human diversity and is committed to ensuring that all research and related educational programs are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or veteran status. This statement is in accordance with United States Civil Rights Laws and the USDA.
Keith L. Smith, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Agricultural Administration and Director, Ohio State University Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868.
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