Cattlemen to meet Monday
Our meeting Monday at 7 p.m. will have a group of special speakers to educate you about meat quality.
Jamie Harris, Warren County 4-H Agent, and the Tennessee Champion Meat Judging team will teach you some things about meat quality and identification that they learned and mastered prior to winning the state 4-H Meat Judging Contest. Jamie and her team are planning on participating in the National 4-H Meat Judging Contest in Denver at the Denver Stock Show in January. They will have a good program for you Monday night; don?t miss it.
We will also discuss a new state grant program for beef producers Monday night. The state is going to pay 35 percent of the cost of a new hay barn ($10,000 max). Come out Monday night and get the details on this program.
This is a first come, first serve program and they will take applications starting Jan. 1.
Come out and be with us Monday night, at 7:00 P.M.
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ASIAN SOYBEAN RUST CONFIRMED IN 18 Tennessee COUNTIES
The past few weeks researchers and Extension specialists have combed the state sampling late soybeans for Asian Rust. The rust has been confirmed in eighteen counties in Tennessee growing on soybean plants. They sampled some fields here in Warren County and didn?t find any rust but they did find some rust on plants down in Lincoln county and seventeen other west Tennessee counties. Please see the web site www.sbrusa.net. There are a present 224 counties in 15 states that have reported soybean rust either on soybean or kudzu. Most of these states are in the South but some rust was reported as far north as southern Illinois and central Indiana.
What does this mean? Well, at this time of the season there will be no measurable damage from rust in Tennessee. However, some states to our south have reported yield damage. Soybean rust is a very serious disease and we still need to stay alert and be ready to take action if the need arises.
Soybean rust can not survive the winter in Tennessee, but rust spores can easily be blown in during the growing season from areas in the Southern U.S. where freezing temperatures do not occur. Asian soybean rust is caused by the fungal species Phakopsora pachyrhizi and is known to infect kudzu and many other legume species. It has the potential to significantly reduce soybean yields but can be managed with the use of fungicides if detected early. UT Extension monitored for rust in soybean sentinel plots and spore traps across the state all summer and only found these few rust lesions on soybean leaves last week. Dr. Newman speculates that the lack of rain in West Tennessee during critical times in the growing season prevented soybean rust from developing earlier.
Several rain fronts passed by West Tennessee, but they developed and caused rain in Western Kentucky. This may be why soybean rust was recently found in 13 western Kentucky counties while none was found in Tennessee until last week At this time there are no commercial soybean varieties resistant to soybean rust. Fungicide applications can reduce yield losses from rust and other late-season diseases, depending on the plants’ developmental stage, the time during the growing season when soybean rust is detected and weather conditions. Soybeans rank among the state’s top crops, earning farmers approximately $232 million in cash receipts in 2005.
It looks like we dodged a bullet this year. Fungicides application properly timed remain our best defense against soybean rust for the next several crop years.
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FEEDER CALF PRICES ARE DOWN
A fellow commented to me last week that feeder calf prices were down and he just couldn?t figure it out. We?re selling meat to Japan again and it looked to him that they ought to be higher.
Calf prices are lower than they were back in August. Many times in the fall of the year when the biggest part of the calf crop comes to market calf prices decline. Japan is buying American beef again and by all reports they are mighty glad they are. However, they are buying only beef that is under 20 months of age and they are shipping some of it frozen on ships. Folks the reason beef is slower is the large number of calves coming to market and the high prices for corn.
The feeder cattle market in Tennessee was called unevenly steady on feeder steers and bulls and steady to $2 higher on heifers. The higher fed futures raised bids on feeder cattle in some places, while the continued upward march of the corn market took money off feeder futures and in places cash prices. Corn in Omaha was quoted at $3.01 per bushel compared to $1.47 a year ago. The impact of higher corn prices has been evident in bids for feeder cattle.
If it takes 40 bushels to finish a 700 pound feeder that animal must be bought $62 per head or about $9 per hundred cheaper if we assume the same selling price when finished at 1200 pounds. Last year in Tennessee the weighted average price for 600-700 lb. feeder steers for the last Friday in October was $107.00 /cwt. Last week they brought $98-100.00 at our feeder calf sale. The corn has continued its march through $2.25 resistance and is about to break $3.35. The fundamentals continue to be quite strong as the market seeks to buy more acres into production next year. If we knew where the top was we would know whether to lock in feed needs now or wait for the market to decline. Since we do not know, do not assume that you must buy all or none now. Covering part of your needs is one alternative that will keep one from being 100 percent wrong. There were a few limited sales of fed cattle mid afternoon Friday at $88 to $90.
Listed below are the prices from last week?s feeder calf sale here at Warren County Livestock. Just over 1,800 head of cattle were sold. The prices listed are for #1 and #2 quality Black, Black Baldy and Charolais X feeders.
Med and Lg 1
Steers Heifers
350-400 — 105-106.5
400-450 121-127 94-101
450-500 119-120.25 95-101
500-550 108.5-110.75 94.5-102.5
550-600 101.75-104.75 91.5-93.5
600-700 98.5-100.25 94-96
700-800 96-98.25 86.5-88.5
Med and Lg 2
Steers Heifers
350-400 121-126 98-101
400-450 111-112.5 101.5-104.5
450-500 104.5-107.5 95-101.5
500-600 96.75-101.5 92.75-96
600-700 94.75-98 90-94.25
700-800 90 82-86.5