BEEF sessions enhance cattle operations

Editor’s note: Husker Harvest Days is Sept. 10-12 in Grand Island, Neb. Visit HuskerHarvestDays.com .

With the ever-changing dynamics in a cattle operation, one thing remains the same — the producer.

Grab lunch and head to the new BEEF educational sessions to learn strategies to enhance prosperity in any cattle operation. These 30-minute presentations will cover market trends, emerging technologies, communication and mental health.

Chad Engle, Bryan Woodbury, Joeli Walrath, John Sachse and industry partners will offer insights to help producers confront challenges and steer their herd toward sustainable growth. Here’s what to expect:

Cultivating personal growth. Sachse will explore the idea of shifting one’s mindset. His coaching business, RanchFIT, provides farmers with tips to recognize setbacks as opportunities for learning and growth. “Life unfolds for us, not to us,” he says.

Coaching employees. In agriculture and livestock production, creating a successful team isn’t merely defined by hard work and a daily presence, but also perseverance, innovation and collaboration. In this session, Engle, ag production lead for the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), will explain strategies for team building and management within a livestock operation.

Low-stress cattle handling. Informed by cutting-edge animal science, Steve Langrell from Arrowquip will guide visitors in low-stress cattle handling by showing how livestock think and what motivates or demotivates their behavior discovered through decades of testing.

Future of cattle markets. Lee Schulz, Iowa State University ag economist, and Dan Thomson, ISU professor emeritus in animal science, will discuss current and future cattle markets. Ever.Ag sponsors this session.

Advances in livestock tech. In the past 20 years, technology has driven changes in the gathering and processing of information for production agriculture. Woodbury, a USMARC research engineer, will explore how these advancements affect production ag and how producers can use them.

Research roundup. Walrath, communications and public relations specialist at USMARC, will discuss how the cattle industry responds, adapts and innovates to changing daily challenges.

Pour-on applicators offer advantages. Bovi-Jet presents the automatic pour-over applicator to reduce time and labor when working cattle. Dakota Belling, CEO and co-founder of Bovi-Jet, will explain the innovation that he’s brought to the industry.

Future of cattle sales. Russ Princ, director of sales and marketing with Leachman Cattle, will discuss the genetics behind the company’s nationwide bull sales along with its leading beef-on-dairy semen market.

Heat detection and conception rates. McCool Junction FFA members Bailey Hall, Sara Weisheit and Dakota Wollenburg will work with the owners of Nebraska-based HeatSiecker Heat Detection System to learn more about how the technology works and how it can help producers improve their current breeding practices.

All BEEF educational sessions are in the BEEF Building on West Avenue in the new BEEF Showcase area. Producers can find everything beef-related including exhibitors, live cattle-handling demos and more in the BEEF Showcase, located in the northwest quadrant.