Beef

Voters chose to send Donald Trump, who served his first term as U.S. president from 2016 to 2020, back to the White House in the Nov. 5 national election.

Chef Bryan Flower hurries toward one of the raised “free-to-pick” vegetable, flower and herb beds that flank Neptune North residence and dining hall on the Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb.

Charley Jordan retired from the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer 4 in 2017, after more than 28 years of service.

As a high school student, Richard Siedenburg did not plan to join his dad farming, but that changed after spending time in other countries in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves.

Ron Dykstra knew from a very young age that he wanted to farm.

Lt. Col. Dan Rooney will be the opening general session speaker at CattleCon 2025, Feb. 4-6, in San Antonio.

Agricultural economic activity has been flat to down modestly since early September, with some crop prices remaining unprofitably low.

For more than 30 years, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has offered the annual Redbook to help cattle producers effectively and efficiently record their daily production efforts.

What a great harvest we had, huge crop and great weather to harvest in. Aside from the dusty road conditions, I do not recall an easier harvest ever.

Once again, no shortage of things to do on the farm and couple that with the planning and office work that continues to be done, there won’t be much time for rest or slacking.

If you buy nearly two billion pounds of beef a year — an on-the-hoof equivalent of seven million cattle — you’d think you’d get the best deal ever from your suppliers. Think again, says McDonald’s.

Harvest is on pace for the Rahn family to finish earlier in 2024 than they have in many years.

The Beef Quality Assurance training and certification program will be offered at 11 sites in Indiana.

With the current crises we face on all fronts, foreign and domestic, we need a strong leader and God’s help to get us through.

The National Cattlemen’s Foundation is accepting applications for the 2025 CME Group Beef Industry Scholarship. Ten scholarships of $1,500 each will be awarded to outstanding students pursuing careers in the beef industry.

The focus at Schoepp Farms LLC is to keep soil and nutrients on the land.

Multiple research projects focused on making a difference for cattle producers has earned Lizzie Schafer the honor of being selected a finalist for the American Star in Agriscience award.

For more than 30 years, Cattlemen’s College sponsored by Zoetis has provided cattle producers with valuable information to help improve their herds and businesses.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is reminding students of internship opportunities available for the spring 2025 semester.

Will we someday return to a more diversified Midwest agriculture economy incorporating livestock into row crop operations?

We have all but finished our harvest for the year. Corn chopping went extremely smooth with no rain delays and to my recollection only one truck needing pulled all season long — surely a record.

Who would have thought that hurricanes would impact Illinois weather so much, but that is what has happened. Not just one, but two of those storms made their way to southern Illinois with ample amounts of rain.

Like farmers and ranchers, veterinarians love to pour concrete. Many build customized facilities dedicated to their animal health mission: examination rooms, operating theaters, cattle chutes, holding pens, loading docks.

Seedstock breeders should be identifying bulls they plan to consign to the 2025 Illinois Performance Tested Bull Sale.

Farmers are increasingly turning to high-moisture corn silage, specifically earlage or snaplage, due to its high energy content and easy digestibility.

Corn harvest started on the Rahn farm at the middle of September, which is typical for them.

We’ve gone more than a month now without any rain and none in our forecast, so the pastures are thirsty. In spite of that, the cover crops on our wheat stubble are looking surprisingly well.

Nominations are now being accepted for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Environmental Stewardship Award.

Beef production spans generations in the Hanson and Kuipers family in Iroquois County where they operate a forage-based program utilizing a paddock grazing system along with growing corn, soybeans and wheat.

Disaster assistance for producers and training new staff has been among the many focuses of the Farm Service Agency’s Illinois offices over the last several months.

After waiting, not so patiently, for the corn to mature, we finally had a field last week get mature enough to start chopping. Now we will race to stay ahead of the corn getting too mature.

It certainly has dried up in a hurry and pastures are showing the ill effects of that. We have had some hot days, but for the most part temperatures have been moderate, so it could have been worse.

Armyworms are appropriately named. They definitely work like an army, moving their line forward as efficiently and rapidly as possible, attempting to overwhelm the enemy and gain territory.

America’s farmers and ranchers are getting hit hard this year with low commodity prices and another record-setting agricultural trade deficit.

The stories across the Corn Belt’s Federal Reserve Districts mirrored one another in the agriculture sector with concerns over lower commodity prices and favorable crop conditions.

For Cliff Behrmann, bacon runs in the blood. Behrmann is the owner of Behrmann Meat and Processing, a business started by his maternal grandfather and Behrmann’s father.

Working as a veterinarian means every day is different — and that’s what Taryn Pfeiffer really enjoys about her career.

Registration is now open for CattleCon 2025, which will be held Feb. 4-6 in San Antonio. This annual event is “where the beef industry meets” to conduct business, attend educational sessions and enjoy family fun.

Wheat is strategically planted on the Rahn farm to provide opportunities for manure applications and tiling projects.

Agrivoltaics works and it is going to keep growing in the United States.

The annual Orr Beef Research Center Field Day will take place at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Ag Sciences Complex and Fred Bradshaw Learning Center at the John Wood Community College Agricultural Education Center.

Applications are now being accepted for the annual W.D. Farr Scholarship program. The scholarship recognizes outstanding graduate students pursuing careers in meat science and animal agriculture.

Sixty young livestock exhibitors vied for the title of Grand Champion Overall Master Showman during the 2024 Illinois State Fair Master Showmanship Contest.

The Indiana State Fair celebrated “The Art & Nature of Fun” in collaboration with Newfields.

Sometimes, you just need to let the rest of the world go and enjoy those moments that bring you joy.

Livestock managers and owners are invited to join University of Illinois Extension for the Storing Forages: Balancing Cost and Performance workshop on Thursday, Sept. 19.

While the dictionary doesn’t include the word “stockmanship,” most livestock producers know what it means: handling livestock in a calm, quiet manner that results in animals that are healthier and gain faster.

Demand for high-quality beef and a tight cattle supply has experts predicting historically high cattle markets for the next several years.

Things are really green everywhere. I feel very good about where we are in the grazing year. That is, we are ready to start the last rotation on our fescue, before we begin stockpiling for winter grazing.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates more than 10 million acres will be converted to solar energy by 2050, and the American Farmland Trust projects over 80% could be sited on agricultural lands.