News Releases

PCA Field Day '06 | PA Beef Expo | Cattlemen's 2003 Field Day planned for Elizabethtown area | Scholarships

CATTLEMEN’S FIELD DAY SET FOR JULY 22 - For Immediate Release

The Pennsylvania Cattlemen’s Association will join with several other co-sponsors to hold the 2006 Summer Field Day at Swank Farms, and Stanley Auen Feedlot, New Kensington, PA, on Saturday, July 22. Co-sponsors of the event will be the Pennsylvania Grazing Lands Coalition Initiative, Pennsylvania Hereford Association, and Westmoreland County Cattlemen’s Association.

The field day will include up-to-date information on grazing systems, nutrient management, multi-breed expected progeny difference programs, ultrasound pregnancy diagnosis, facility designs, legislative and regulatory challenges, and other contemporarily important issues facing cattlemen. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m., with demonstrations and tours beginning at 9:00. Tours of some of the farm’s facilities and cattle demonstrations will be repeated in the afternoon as well as in the morning. A noon lunch will be provided. A tour of the Stanley Auen feedlot will be conducted in the late afternoon.

There will also be commercial exhibitors demonstrating goods and services available to the cattle industry, and non-profit agencies which provide services to cattlemen will also be in attendance.

Throughout the day, specialists will discuss various production practices. J.B. Harrold, grazing specialist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, will discuss forage utilization through grazing systems, and other land conservation practices. He will also provide information with regard to government programs which provide partial funding for many soil conservation and effective animal management programs. Dr. Doug Beegle, Professor of Agronomy at Penn State, will provide up-dated material on nutrient management and handling waste materials for recycling most effectively through crop and animal production practices.

Dr. Beegle will provide information about assuring that animal waste from beef cattle wintering facilities does not become a pollution problem, and will also provide information with regard to handling of wastes at the Stanley Auen feedlot which will also be visited during late afternoon of the field day. The Auen feedlot will also allow field day attendees to view cattle of different ages, weights and degrees of finishing for beef production.

Ken Reed, cattle manager at Swank Farm, and other specialists will discuss the wintering facility which provides protection from wind chills, during the winter time, and allows collection of wastes which are effectively recycled on pasture and hay land.

Other stops during the morning and afternoon of the field day will include a judging contest for both juniors and seniors and a demonstration of an ultrasound device which determines pregnancy in beef cows, demonstrated by Paul Slayton, Executive Director of the PA Beef Council. The new device for determining pregnancy will be available for use by certified quality-assured cattlemen throughout the state.

The noon lunch will be provided by the Pennsylvania Cattlemen Association, Pennsylvania Hereford Association, and the Westmoreland County Cattlemen’s Association. The lunch will be complimentary to field day attendees. During lunch special presentations will be made by Mr. Doug Gerber, purebred and commercial cattleman from Richmond, Indiana, and past chairman of the American Hereford Association Board of Directors. Mr. Gerber will bring to the field day attendees his views about past, current and future beef production activities, primarily from a genetic improvement standpoint.

Dr. Bob Hough, Executive Secretary of the Red Angus Association, and member of the National Beef Consortium, will bring updates about efforts to devise multi-beef breed expected progeny difference projections across different breeds and even with reference to commercial cattle. Dr. Hough is stationed in Denton, Texas, the headquarters of the Red Angus Association, but is a Pennsylvania native and Penn State Animal Science graduate.

Dr. Gary Weber, Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, will discuss some of the legislative and regulatory issues affecting the livelihood of beef cattlemen and other agricultural producers. NCBA is composed of over 40,000 beef producers throughout the U.S., and serves as a place for cattlemen and other agricultural interests to advocate the policies and legislation which improves the livelihood of beef producers. Dr. Weber recently received a honorary citation for his work in the animal health sector, especially for helping to prevent the spread of BSF.

There will be several other activities throughout the day, including the introduction of legislators and policy makers at county, state and national levels. Judging contests of breeding stock will be available as well as fund-raising activities of the PA Hereford Association.

Pennsylvania Beef Expo

For Immediate Release
Contacts: Elizabeth Ackerman
717-484-0888

PENNSYLVANIA BEEF EXPO BEGINS MARCH 25

STATE COLLEGE, PA (December 12, 2003) - The Pennsylvania Junior Cattlemen's Association (PJCA) will hold their 14th Annual Junior Steer and Heifer Preview Show at the 15th Annual Pennsylvania Beef Expo, March 25-March 28, 2004 at the Penn State Ag Arena, State College, PA. The Expo is an excellent opportunity for PJCA members to exhibit their animals in a weekend of fun and education. Special educational demonstrations and exhibits will be given on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 25, 26 and 27. A special Beef Producer Seminar and Quality Assurance Certifications will be held Thursday afternoon, March 25. The Pennsylvania Livestock Evaluation Center (LEC) tested bull sale, and the Trade Show will be on Friday at the LEC, two miles south of Pine Grove mills, on Route 45. The Trade Show will begin at 1 p.m. on Thursday.

Since its creation in 1988, the PA Beef Expo has expanded to include activities targeted at both junior and senior cattlemen. The PCA Awards Banquet and Annual Meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, March 25, 2004 at the new Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Samuel E. Hayes, Jr. Livestock Evaluation Center. The LEC is approximately 10 miles south of State College. The PCA will recognize cattle producers with several awards including the Industry Service Award, Commercial Cattleman, Seedstock Breeder and Cattle Feeder of the Year. One farm will be recognized with the Environmental Stewardship Award for dedication to preserving agriculture and the environment for future generations. Three scholarships will be presented to college students in agricultural curriculum. Forms for award or scholarship nominations and banquet reservations can be obtained by calling the PCA office at (814) 238-5888, by email llw@psu.edu, or on the PCA website (pacattle.org).

TRADESHOW

The Beef Expo Trade Show will be on Thursday and Friday, March 25 and 26 at the PDA LEC. The trade show will be continued at the Penn State Ag Arena on Saturday and Sunday, March 27 and 28. The trade show is an excellent opportunity to visit and ask questions of equipment, genetics and pharmaceutical companies, as well as show supply, feed, and specialty exhibitors. Once again the trade show also features various displays of different beef breeds.

SKILLATHON & QUIZ BOWL

This year's PA Beef Expo will again provide juniors with an opportunity to test their knowledge at the annual PA Beef Expo Skillathon and PA Beef Expo Quiz Bowl. The Beef Skillathon will be held Saturday, March 27 from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. at the Penn State Ag Arena. The Skillathon is an excellent opportunity for young beef enthusiasts to test their beef industry knowledge. By incorporating project skills and industry basics in a series of mini-learning stations, participants compete in areas such as identification of beef breeds, retail cuts, feed ingredients and feed safety. Divisions for the Skillathon include senior (16-21), intermediate (12-15), and junior (8-11).

The Beef Expo Quiz Bowl will take place on Friday, March 26, beginning with preliminaries at 4:00 p.m. Any teams of four PJCA, 4-H or FFA members are invited to compete. The competition will be divided into two divisions: 14 to 21 year olds (seniors) and 8 to 13 year olds (juniors). Quiz Bowl topics will include nutrition, genetics, reproduction, animal health, marketing and promotion, and cattle breeds. The Penn State University Block and Bridle Club assists with the planning and conduct of these events.

The Beef Skillathon and Quiz Bowl competitions are open to all PJCA members. Individuals can join the PJCA for a $5.00 annual membership fee at the contest site. Four-member PJCA county, club or school teams in any division also are invited to participate. Advance registration is recommended so proper planning can be accomplished. For more information contact Elizabeth Ackerman at (717) 484-0888 or obtain entry forms at www.pacattle.org.

Cattlemen's 2003 Field Day planned for Elizabethtown area

State College, Pa-The Pennsylvania Cattlemen's Association, Pennsylvania Angus Association, Cyagra, Inc., and the Pennsylvania Grazing Lands Coalition will team up to sponsor a field day in conjunction with Cyagra, at the EmTran facilities, located at 190 Bossler Road, Elizabethtown, on Saturday, July 19. A tour of the Dwight Hess Feedlot at Marietta will also take place after the events planned for the Cyagra (EmTran) facilities.

The program will begin with registration at 9:00 a.m., and a wide array of different types of reproductive technologies, plus marketing and management considerations will be discussed from 9:30 a.m. until about 3:00 p.m. There will be two sets of seminars, one on reproductive technologies, and one on marketing and management of beef cattle enterprises. Both seminars will be repeated in the morning and in the afternoon so that attendees at the field day can attend all presentations and benefit from all of the discussions.

Among the new reproductive technologies to be discussed are artificial insemination enhancement through new methods of identifying estrus, embryo transfer, and cloning and genetic preservation (the science, application and challenges).

The marketing and management seminar will include discussions about branded beef programs, selecting genetics for low-input grassland farming, and utilization of by-products as feeds in finishing beef cattle diets.

Throughout the entire day there will be discussions on stream-bank fencing, with a nearly completed project serving as a demonstration and the primary focal point for discussion about the benefits and methods of similar programs. There will also be commercial exhibits for cattlemen and others attending the field day to observe. A special speaker at the noon luncheon will be Mr. Don Coover, SEK Genetics, Kansas, talking about the marketing, breeding and other beef cattle industry benefits from cloning of animals.

At 3:00 p.m. the field day attendees will have an opportunity to tour the beef cattle feedlot owned and operated by Dwight Hess at Marietta, Pa. The Hess Feedlot has fed cattle for many years, and utilizes some of the most modern methods of formulating and feeding least-cost rations to finishing beef cattle. A special presentation by consultants from Agri-Basics, Inc. will be made during the morning and afternoon seminars, and will also be available at the Hess Feedlot. The Hess Feedlot is not only modern in ration formulation and providing nutrients to the cattle, but also have state-of-the-art animal waste disposal and utilization systems.

According to Terry L. Shearer, President of the Pennsylvania Cattlemen's Association "it is difficult to plan a field day program, or any other educational event, that has something for everybody. However, this program, this year, appears to provide information for essentially all the different segments of the beef industry from the purebred breeder, to the commercial cow-calf operator, through feedlot operators and even on through the packer, processor and the ultimate consumer". There will be opportunities for commercial exhibitors to demonstrate their products and services. There will be a noon lunch available courtesy of the co-sponsors and the hosts. Lunch will include rib-eye-on a roll steak sandwiches which the Cattlemen's Association serves at many events throughout the state.

Cattlemen's Scholarships Have Been Available December, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Pennsylvania Cattlemen's Association
Pennsylvania Cattlemen's Association Offer Three Scholarships, State College, PA, December 12, 2003 -- The Pennsylvania Cattlemen's Association (PCA) has announced that a $1,000 scholarship will be available to a young person planning a career related to the cattle industry. Funding for this scholarship is provided through PCA' s previous participation in the IVOMEC: GENERA TIONS OF EXCELLENCE TM program. Two additional $500 scholarships will be presented by Pfizer Animal Health and PCA.

"Nothing is more important than providing a sound education for tomorrow's producers," according to Dan Gross, President of PCA. "Those planning to work in the changing cattle industry into the next century will need to be proficient in animal and crop sciences, business economics, and communications. That's why PCA is providing Scholarships to help deserving young cattlemen or cattlewomen prepare for the future."

The Scholarships will be awarded based on the applicants' interest in the industry, leadership, academic achievement, and organizational involvement. Interested youth should request application forms directly from the PCA office. Completed applications must be postmarked on or before March 1, 2005.

"We are pleased to team up with MERIAL and Pflizer to offer this very special scholarship opportunity to a young person in Pennsylvania," says Gross. "There's no question that education, along with practical experience, is the key to the future competitiveness of the U .S. agricultural industry. Offering these scholarships is just one of the ways in which PCA is helping prepare and develop tomorrow's leaders."

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