- Author: Dan Macon
The Camp Fire, which started a week ago today in the foothills northeast of Chico, has devastated the communities of Paradise and Magalia. As of this writing, the fire has consumed nearly 150,000 acres and destroyed more than 10,000 structures. Sadly, the fire has also claimed the lives of at least 56 people. The local impacts, obviously, have been overwhelming.
Over the last several days, those of us downwind of the Camp Fire have begun to feel its effects, as well (although certainly not to the extent of the local community). The UC Davis and CSU-Sacramento campuses have been closed all week. Closer to home, the Rocklin and Nevada County campuses of Sierra College will be closed tomorrow. My daughter's high school soccer practices have been curtailed, and high school football playoffs throughout the region will be postponed until after Thanksgiving.
Today, my morning started with feeding livestock guardian dogs and checking sheep on the way into the office. While our weather continues to be dry, our morning temperatures have finally become more seasonable; this morning there was frost in our pastures. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we had freezing temperatures AND wildfire smoke in the middle of November. Once I arrived at the Auburn UCCE office, I discovered that our air quality index for Auburn for fine particulate matter was well over 200 - into the "very unhealthy range." What looked like normal mid-November tule fog in the foothills was actually smoke from the Camp Fire.
Wildfire smoke has well-understood impacts on human health (hence the school closures and athletic cancellations). Those of us who raise should also be aware of the potential impacts on our animals. Unlike me, our sheep are not able to stay inside and breath filtered air.
This evening, I checked out some recommendations from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) - you can visit their Wildfire Smoke and Animals page here. Here are a few tips for caring for livestock and working dogs in these conditions:
- Avoid activities that require animals (livestock, horses, or working dogs) to substantively increase airflow into and out of the lungs - in other words, limit exercise.
- Provide plenty of fresh water.
- Limit dust exposure - put off working animals in the corrals if possible (or at least make sure to wet down corrals beforehand).
- If possible, give livestock 4-6 weeks to full recuperate. During this period, watch for signs of respiratory infection, fatigue or weakness, or loss of appetite.
With our sheep, we'll plan on taking extra time moving them in the next couple of days. We'll also keep a close eye on our dogs (both herding dogs and livestock guardian dogs).
Finally, it's important to think about our own health during these conditions, too. For most of us who raise livestock, the well-being of the animals comes first. If the sheep need to be moved, we move them - which involves moving fence, packing electric fence equipment, and moving water troughs. But this kind of strenuous activity can affect us just like it does our animals. We need to pay attention how we're feeling - and remember not to overdo the physical activity. Hopefully the rain that is in our forecast for next week actually materializes!
For real-time air quality information, check out the Spare the Air website.
- Author: Dan Macon
As a commercial sheep producer who is also the father of two daughters who have shown lambs at our local fair since they were nine years old, I'm sometimes conflicted about the value of showing livestock. Selecting the best lambs (or the best steers) in 15 minutes of watching them walk and evaluating their muscle and fat cover by eye or by feel can be challenging for even the most accomplished judge. Stock shows, for me, can seem like superficial beauty contests. As a commercial producer, I get paid for the quality of the meat I produce. Sure, structural correctness and conformation are important – as is the appropriate feeding regimen – but ultimately I get paid to produce meat that provides consumers with a delicious and nutritious meal.
To me – and I suspect to many commercial producers - carcass contests, where fair animals are judged on the quality and quantity of product post-harvest, are an important way to enhance the educational value of youth livestock projects. These contests recognize those youths who produced the best meat product, rather than those who raised the most stylish animal. Thanks to the Tahoe Cattlemen's Association and Superior Farms, our beef and lamb carcass contests for the Placer County, Nevada County, and Gold Country Fairs were especially innovative in 2018.
Beef Carcass Contest
The Tahoe Cattlemen's Association (TCA), which represents beef cattle producers in Placer and Nevada Counties, has long sponsored the beef carcass contest for our three local fairs. The affiliated Placer-Nevada CattleWomen have concurrently sponsored a rate-of-gain contest (which also brings economics into the equation). Like many local cattlemen's associations who sponsor these competitions, TCA has used criteria established by the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association to provide monetary awards for Carcasses of Merit and Gold Seal Carcasses. This year, these criteria were as follows:
|
Carcass of Merit |
Gold Seal Carcass |
Hot Carcass Weight |
600-950 lbs |
650-900 lbs |
Quality Grade |
Low Choice or better |
Choice or better |
Yield Grade |
2.9 or less |
2.5 or less |
TCA Award |
$50 |
$100 |
These criteria, obviously, are designed to reward those exhibitors who select and feed steers that best meet consumer demand for tender, delicious beef. Here are the results for this year's fairs:
|
Carcass of Merit |
Gold Seal Carcass |
Placer County Fair |
7 (54%) |
2 (15%) |
Nevada County Fair |
12 (48%) |
0 |
Gold Country Fair |
8 (38%) |
1 (5%) |
TCA, however, takes the beef contest one step further. To select the top carcass in each fair, TCA uses a modified version of the Certified Angus Beef carcass grid to help exhibitors understand the economic value of specific carcass parameters. Each carcass received premiums or discounts depending on its merit:
Criteria |
Premium (Discount) $/CWT Hot Carcass |
Quality Grade Prime Choice(+) Choice / Choice(-) Select Standard |
$25/cwt $16 $10 $0 ($25) |
Yield Grade YG 1 (Choice or Better) YG 1 (Select) YG 2 (Choice or Better) YG 2 (Select) YG 3.0 – 3.49 YG 3.5 – 3.99 YG 4 YG 5 |
$5/cwt $2 $3 $1 $0 ($2) ($10) ($15) |
Carcass Weight 549 lbs or less 550-599 lbs 600-799 lbs 800-899 lbs 900-999 lbs 1000 lbs or more |
($25/cwt) ($5) $0 $2 ($5) ($10) |
These premiums and discounts are designed to provide incentive to produce what consumers want to buy – and to reward producers (youth exhibitors, in this case) for producing beef that generates profit for all sectors of the beef production chain (from producers to processors to retailers).
TCA provides a trophy buckle to the exhibitor of the top-placing steer from each fair, based on this grid. This year, TCA also provided the actual monetary premium that each of the top three steers at each fair earned. In other words, the top three exhibitors actually made extra money on their fair steers based on the quality of the product they produced! All told, TCA awarded more than $3,000 this year to the next generation of local beef producers – and provided a valuable lesson about the economics of raising beef in the process!
Lamb Carcass Contest
While Placer and Nevada Counties do not have an active local sheep producers organization like TCA that supports our lamb carcass competition, we are fortunate to have the ongoing support of Superior Farms, the foremost processor of lamb in the western United States. I should note that Superior also donated lamb for the tacos we served for dinner – for some families, this was their first experience tasting lamb - I think they're hooked!
In the last year, Superior implemented an innovative electronic grading system at their Northern California facility. Using digital photography and a computer algorithm that estimates carcass quality and product yield, Superior can now accurately grade lambs electronically at normal processing speeds – the grading process no longer requires a human grader to measure backfat or loin eye area.
This year, each fair used electronic ear tags in exhibitor lambs to facilitate data collection at Superior. Superior, in turn, provided carcass-specific data generated by its electronic grading system. Each exhibitor received information about his or her lamb's quality and yield grade, retail product yield (a new component Superior calls “ovine carcass cutability”), and primal cut yield (that is, the weight of the rack, loin, leg, and other primals). Superior then developed a point system designed to emphasis optimal traits in the following areas:
Trait |
Optimal Range (maximum points) |
Quality Grade |
Choice |
Hot Carcass Weight (HCW) |
75.1 – 80 lbs |
Ovine Carcass Cutability (% of HCW) |
>74% |
Yield Grade |
2.0 – 2.2 |
Leg % (% of HCW) |
35.1 – 37% |
Rack % (% of HCW) |
>14.1% |
Loin % (% of HCW) |
>14.1% |
Similar to the grid used in our beef carcass contest, Superior's scoring system rewards those exhibitors who hit the bulls eye in terms of product quality and yield of high value cuts (leg of lamb, rack of lamb, and lamb loin). And thanks to a generous donation from Laura Farmer (who served for many years on the Gold Country Fair Junior Livestock Association), the top exhibitor from each fair went home with a trophy buckle - and (hopefully) with a greater appreciation for what it takes to be profitable in the sheep business!
Youth livestock projects, whether through 4-H or the Future Farmers of America, teach young people invaluable lessons about responsibility, animal care, and marketing. The livestock shows and junior livestock auctions at our county fairs are a culmination of the hard work of these young producers. Ultimately, however, I believe it's important to also learn about the responsibility that goes into raising food – and this includes a responsibility to understand meat quality and economic viability. The innovative new approaches developed by the Tahoe Cattlemen's Association and Superior Farms help provide this real-world focus!
2018 Lamb Carcass Awards
Beef Carcass Presentation 2018
- Author: Dan Macon
As some readers may know, I put out a quarterly newsletter (The New Foothill Rancher in Placer and Nevada Counties; The New Ranch Update in Sutter and Yuba Counties). Once a newsletter is out, I start compiling topics for the next one - but sometimes issues and opportunities arise that can't wait another 3 months! This is one of those times!
California Department of Fish and Wildlife Grazing Lease Opportunity
CDFW is seeking bids for grazing cattle on approximately 1500 acres of its Quail Valley Unit in Yuba County. Bids are due by November 19, 2018; there is a mandatory pre-bid tour of the property on November 7 at 2:30 p.m. For more information, contact Gail Turner at gail.turner@wildlife.ca.gov or 916/358-1075. For more information, check the California eProcure website.
IRM "Red Books" Available
I have a limited supply of 2019 IRM Red Books available for ranchers! These pocket-size books are a great tool for beef producers to use in tracking everything from pasture use to calving records to vaccination information. They also include a 2019 calendar. Contact me at dmacon@ucanr.edu to get yours! These will be available on a first-come-first-served basis.
The Dreaded "D" Word...
Drought, that is.... Here in Auburn, we measured close to 1.5 inches of rain in the first week of October - enough to get our grass started. Other locations in my four county region got far less rain - the Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center, for example, measured just 0.14 inches this month. Even with the rain in the Auburn area, the dry weather and north wind we've experienced since the first week of October have taken their toll on the grass - I'm starting to see the newly germinated annual grasses wither, suggesting this first germination was a false start.
It's too soon to use the "D" word in our region, but other parts of the state are even drier than we are. And grass growth, obviously, is not the only impact. Much of the annual rangeland in the foothills is grazable only if livestock have access to water. At this point of the fall, many of our stock ponds and intermittent streams have dried up.
The latest California drought map shows that the western half of Placer and Nevada Counties, as well as all of Sutter and Yuba Counties, are "abnormally dry." These maps are generated each week - and those of us who live and ranch in these areas can improve the accuracy of drought maps. You can enter your observations (like lack of germination, dry stock ponds, etc.) in the Drought Impacts Reporter.
For more general information about drought, be sure to check out the Drought Information Hub on the UC Rangelands website!
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- Author: Dan Macon
Note: This article first appeared in the October 2018 issue of The New Foothill Rancher and The New Ranch Update newsletters. You can subscribe to these quarterly newsletters here!
In an order adopted last year, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a new regulatory program for “confined bovine feeding operations.” To quote the Order:
“'Confined Bovine Feeding Operation' means commercial operations where cattle (cows, bulls, steers, heifers, or calves) representing 6 or more Animal Units (AU) [for purposes of this order, 1 animal unit equals 1000 pounds of animal weight] are confined and fed or maintained for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period, and where vegetation is not sustained over a majority of the confinement area during the normal growing season.”
Sounds serious, right?! Fortunately, the Order provides further clarification:
“Confined Bovine Feeding Operations do not include operations where animals primarily graze on pasture or rangeland, including any corrals that are an integral part of the grazing or pasture operation. However, corrals or other confinement areas used to finish cattle for slaughter at a grazing operation are considered Confined Bovine Feeding Operations requiring coverage under this Order.”
In plain English, what does all of this mean for ranchers in Placer, Nevada, Sutter and Yuba Counties?
- If you are not feeding cattle in a confined area to prepare them for harvest, you are not subject to the requirements of this order.
- If you do periodically feed cattle in your corrals or in a holding pen without vegetation, make sure the cattle have access to pastures. In other words, leave the gate to the pasture open!
- Winter or temporary lots on your ranch are exempt (unless you are using the lot for finishing cattle).
The Order also includes separate tiers for Limited Time and Limited Population Operations (which are considered to be a low threat to water quality). A Limited Time Operation houses cattle for fewer than 24 days per calendar month. A Limited Population Operation houses between 6 and 99 Animal Units. These tiers include additional requirements for handling manure and containing storm water runoff. Finally, even if your operation falls under these regulations, your fees will be based on the number of animals in your facility. Currently, confined feeding operations with fewer than 100 cow/calf pairs, 300 calves, or 100 finishing steers/heifers are not assessed any fees.
If you have questions about whether this Order applies to your operation, contact me at dmacon@ucanr.edu or (530) 889-7385.
/span>- Author: Dan Macon
My friend Ryan Mahoney, who manages Emigh Livestock near Dixon, California, has embraced a variety of new ranching technologies. He's invested in electronic identification systems, automated weighing and sorting systems, and other technology designed to utilize critical resources (land, labor, and water, especially) more efficiently. But while Emigh Livestock is definitely a larger-scale operation, Ryan also stresses the importance of human intelligence and experience when it comes to raising sheep and cattle. "Nothing can ever replace the 'eye of the shepherd,'" Ryan told me recently. "but these technologies can help us make better decisions - and make our operation more profitable in the long run."
Most of our foothill ranches operate at a smaller scale, but the combination of the "eye of the rancher" and new technology is equally important. For example, we've started using electronic identification systems to make better decisions about our sheep while reducing labor at lambing and weaning (see Electronic ID Systems: Can They Pay for Small-Scale Livestock Producers?). We rely on portable electric fencing systems to allow us to graze rangeland and irrigated pasture that we couldn't safely access otherwise. And for the last several years, we've used Facebook and Google Calendar and Google Earth to track our management activities (see My Virtual Day Book).
Several years ago (before I became the livestock and natural resources advisor for Placer, Nevada, Sutter and Yuba Counties), a group of us formed what we somewhat jokingly called the Foothill Grazing Geeks. Our common interest was (and still is!) learning all we can about grazing livestock in the Sierra Foothills. We meet on a somewhat regular basis on each others' ranching operations. The host ranch sets the agenda (which usually includes both new ideas and nagging questions about some aspect of grazing cattle, sheep or goats). Occasionally, we even organize field trips to visit operations outside of the foothills. Almost always, we talk (at least tangentially) about some of the technology we use. And as the photo at the top of this post suggests, we spend a great deal of time staring at grass!
During the course of these visits, I've learned about using a trash pump to fill portable water tanks to haul water to livestock (from Brad and Alana Fowler at The Goat Works). I've learned about pod irrigation systems and pasture mapping applications (from Rob Thompson at Legacy Ranching and Spencer and Melissa Tregilgas at Free Hand Farm). I've learned about single-wire electric fencing (from Albert and Connie Scheiber at Scheiber Ranch). I've learned about new forage varieties and the potential for embryo transfer to accelerate genetic progress (from Joe Fischer at Bruin Ranch). I've seen first hand how drones can help manage and monitor grazing (from Roger Ingram at Flying Mule Farm).
Each of these ranchers has embraced technology as a way to improve efficiency and manage information more effectively. Even so, the "eye of the rancher" is still important in their operations. Real-world experience - and the powers of observation - are still critical in the day-to-day management of grazing animals. Technology can help, but there does not seem to be any short cut to developing this "eye" - experience is a journey all ranchers must take. I still rely on my experience to estimate the number of grazing days in a particular pasture, or to notice an individual animal that looks a little off. Technology has helped to train the eye of this shepherd, but it hasn't replaced it!
On October 30, our Foothill Grazing Geeks group will co-host a Grazing Technology Field Day in Auburn (from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.). Each Geek will show case specific technology - but we're hoping that others will share their favorite grazing and ranching tech as well! The event is free-of-charge, but we are asking folks to RSVP here (after all, we need to know how much coffee and how many donuts we'll need to provide!). Hope to see you there!