Yesterday, I attended the Mitchell Area Chamber’s annual agriculture tour, featuring a prominent feedlot in the area, Hostler Farms, LLC. Larry, Travis and Kenny Hostler own and operate the 3,996 head capacity feedlot, which is located near Mt. Vernon, S.D. With over 80 people in attendance, the tour highlighted the nuts and bolts of the feeder cattle business, explaining the challenges and environmental obstacles, as well as showcasing the improvements being made on their operation. I spoke with Larry Hostler about his operation at the end of the tour, and we had a great conversation about kids in production agriculture, trials of the feedlot business, educating the general public about agriculture and advice for the next generation. Read on to learn all about it!

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A few weeks ago, I spoke to students at South Dakota State University in an opening keynote for their brand new Beef Leadership Experience Program that was launched this year. I had the opportunity to catch up with an up and coming leader in the beef industry, Matt Dybedahl, who spent his summer in New York City as an intern with Pfizer Animal Health in the Cattle Marketing Division. This experience allowed Dybedahl to interact with consumers, and he quickly discovered firsthand how many different impressions they have about where their food comes from. Dybedahl shared these experiences and offered some advice for producers to effectively tell the agriculture story in a “New York minute.”

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“Ohio families need the safe, nutritious, affordable, locally grown food that Ohio farmers provide each and every day,” opens up the description at the new URL that promotes the upcoming vote on livestock care in Ohio. “But consumers also want to know more about how their food is produced on Ohio’s farms. That means knowing that animals are healthy and well cared for, that the food they buy is safe and of the highest quality, and that farmers are running their farms responsibly and following all regulations. Consumers also want choice at the grocery store, both in the foods they buy and in how those foods are produced.”

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This weekend, BEEF Daily will be celebrating its one-year anniversary as an online resource for BEEF Magazine readers. On September 26, 2008, I wrote my first blog post introducing BEEF Daily as a brand new offering for today’s beef cattle issues. As a college student and cattle producer, I was excited to chronicle my experiences and share my views on the agriculture industry, as I see it. In my first week of posting, I wrote:

This week marks the beginning of the BEEF Daily Blog. You may have read that I’m a South Dakota cattle producer and a college student. What you haven’t read is that I’m not afraid to dig into the big issues facing the industry today. I’m not scared to stand strong by my beliefs, and I’m not worried about blasting them to the world. I hope you will join me every Monday through Thursday as I dive into some of the hot topics of the agriculture industry today. Love me, or hate me; it’s not so important. What’s important is healthy discussion. So don’t hold back, let me have it. Only then, will we discover some of the vital truths about our industry’s issues.

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At our operation, we are gearing up for weaning time. That means hauling manure, getting the working chutes set up, lining up the appropriate vaccines, updating records and preparing to have calves in the feed yards once again. With harvest and weaning just around the corner for many of us, I thought I would take the opportunity to hear your stories before everyone gets really busy outside. So, what’s going on in you neck of the woods? What concerns do you have about the agriculture industry today? My goal has always been to meet the needs of the readers, and I need to hear from you! This week, I’m hosting a BEEF Daily Reader Review Survey to figure out the issues and topics you would like to read about in my blog in the upcoming months. Please, leave your suggestions in the comments section for a chance to win fun prizes!

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A reader sent me the link to an article that was published in Discovery Health, placing beef and dairy in the fats category and linking them directly to obesity. The article was titled, “Tasty Foods Send Signal to Brain to Keep Eating,” and it explained a study that appeared in the September issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Unfortunately, this is another example of the medical community jumping to conclusions about animal products in the diet, while completely ignoring the studies that prove beef and dairy are a vital addition to a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle. Read on for an excerpt from this article…

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You’re going to want to stay close to your laptop this week! The National Beef Ambassador Team will be doing a live internet broadcast today through Thursday of this week at the 2009 National Beef Cook-off in Sonoma, Calif. 15 home cooks and six professional chefs will be highlighting their best “Sonoma-style” beef recipes at the cookoff, where participants will vie for the “Best of Beef Honors” at the event. Watch the suspense as the action unfolds, envision the sensation of tasty beef and show your support to the National Beef Ambassadors and the National Beef Cook-off. The broadcast begins at 12:00 p.m. EST. Read on for the links to view the broadcast.

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I’m absolutely sickened and disheartened by the recent actions of the Physician’s Committee For Responsible Medicine (PCRM). This pro-vegan group is taking advantage of an eight-year old girl named Jasmine Messiah to push forward their agenda. As printed in my local newspaper, The Daily Republic, in the Kids News section, “Enthusiastic vegetarian Jasmine Messiah is now the real-life poster child of a campaign aimed at persuading Congress to require schools across the country to offer students more fruits, vegetables and vegan meals. Posters bearing the girl’s beaming face went up recently at the Union Station Amtrak near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., as part of a campaign by the PCRM. The group spent $20,000 on the 15 posters; they’ll stay up for a month as part of an effort to influence Congress as it reauthorizes the Child Nutrition Act.”

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Monday, I asked all of you to write your definitions for an American cowboy. This definition varied from one reader to the next, but they all had one thing in common: pride in American agriculture and dedication to get the job done right. That pride and dedication is a trait we share with America’s troops, who are working everyday to ensure our safety and protect our nation’s freedom, so that we can do our jobs as farmers and ranchers.

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While at the state fair last week, I attended the 2009 Titanium Chef Beef Competition, sponsored by the South Dakota Beef Checkoff and the South Dakota Beef Industry Council. This second annual contest paired chefs with America’s favorite protein in a challenging event to create a “Sensational Beef Salad.” This event was aimed at getting chefs to expand their horizons when using beef to ultimately increase beef demand and cattle producer profitability. I had a chance to interview the student chef division winner, Kris Lavallee on why he likes cooking with beef, and I was pleased to see his passion and eagerness to utilize America’s favorite protein in his meal creations!

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