Tag: beef

4-H Auctions: Teens Making Money


On the very first Saturday of the Minnesota State Fair, 18-year-old Tyler Otte’s champ Angus beef cattle made him $5,600.

That’s the price the Angus sold for in Saturday’s 4-H Purple Ribbon Auction, $1,400 more than the average in 2014’s public auction, according to fair authorities.

The mid-day prior to the public auction, Otte remained in the livestock barn brushing his Black Angus, and he was far from alone. Young adults from throughout the state were preparing their animals for the auction the following day.

The Purple Ribbon Auction occurs each year at the Minnesota State Exhibition. pix-0827ffaresultsjpg-ad5a9576513df593_large“It originated as an extra incentive for kids to participate in the fair activities”, stated 4-H volunteer Corky Modene, that raised animals for the 4-H auction himself in his more youthful years.

To get to the auction, young adults spend the year raising livestock and needs to win county fair competitions to get to the fair.

The auction makes big amounts of cash from purchasers. Kailey Davis of Freeborn County, who raised the champion of the 2010 Grand Champion Market Beef category– the one in which Otte competed– made $14,600. Eighty percent of auction profits go to the young people who raise the animals, while 20 percent, according to Modene, goes to 4-H scholarships and other curricula.

This will be Otte’s third year participating in the Purple Ribbon Auction, so he is no stranger to the process. Otte’s family has been raising cattle since he was in the second grade. “We keep buying them, so we keep raising them,” he claimed, casually.

Daily care throughout the year is the largest commitment when raising cattle for the public auction, Otte said. “You have to wash (bathe) them on a daily basis,” Otte claimed.

And the cattle call for unique, expensive feed, he said.

Bonnie Reed, a member of the 4-H Auction Committee whose kids used to join the auction too, claimed: “It takes hours a day to deal with them.”.

Another commitment in raising cattle is the issue of space to accommodate the animals; but Otte said that it wasn’t a problem for his family. “We live way in southern Dakota County, so it’s fine,” Otte said.

When asked about his feelings about raising cattle for massacre, Otte claimed that it’s not difficult to give them up at the end of the auction. “That could seem rough. But it’s what an animal is, I guess,” he stated, and also shrugged.

“It’s what it’s raised for,” added Reed.

Although Otte is not really connected to the cattle he raises, he is to the people he meets at the auction.

“You meet a lot of awesome individuals”, Otte stated. “You meet people from all over the state. We keep in touch.”

Otte considers visiting the University of Minnesota next year with a bunch of the people he has met via the 4-H auction.

To Plow or Not to Plow Your Farm


A couple of years ago, fresh from college and struggling to endeavor right into science writing, I participated in a workshop on crop biotechnology in Nairobi, Kenya. I clearly recall one man from an international biotech company extol participants that included some poor farmers, agricultural expansion officers, the media, members of parliament and also representatives of non-profit organizations, to consider integrating conservation tillage (CT) into Kenya’s agricultural policies.

constillage4Conservation tillage, he clarified, protects dirt nutrients and also reduces soil erosion. When he mentioned this, one participant soared, wanting to know how weed control would be done. “Make use of herbicides,” the man snapped.

This fired up a highly explosive argument regarding the benefits and drawbacks of conservation tillage that almost derailed the workshop. In a nation where farmers are consistently allegiant to typical farming techniques, conservation tillage showed tough to offer.

Organic Beef


download (9)Organic meat differs from normal meat in the way the farmer raised the animal before butchering. Organic meats must be certified by one of numerous certification organizations, including the Midwest Organic Services Association. Farmers must adhere to strict organic standards in the production of the meat product.
Meats certified organic are frequently born on farms and raised with the utmost respect and dignity. Beef livestock are not raised in pens yet are totally free to wander the ranch with unrestricted accessibility to water, food, sunshine and outside air at all times. Everything that goes into an organic farm animal must additionally be natural. The meadows the animals forage in must be accredited organic themselves. Organic forage and grains grown naturally have to be fed to the animals and also natural bug control should be utilized on these farms. No synthetic or chemical pesticides, herbicides or plant foods are applied to area fields or pastures.

Buy or Sell Your Cattle Online


cattle0013Buy Sell Cows website meets the needs of farmers by setting up an easy to use livestock auction, where you could bid on the sort of cow or bull you need for your farm. You can likewise sell your cattle. Farmers have a diverse range of demands for buying and selling cattle based on their annual livestock requirements. Farmers have all sort of livestocks offer for sale, including milking cows and beef cattle.

Possibly a farmer wants to change from raising livestocks for beef to raising cows for dairy. Farmers could also utilize the website to boost and then lower their headcount to adjust for farm size capacity to enhance ranch earnings and revenue.