Pearl Snaps

Stories of a cowgirl living life by her own lights

Tag Archives: family farms


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Pennsylvania’s Beef Industry

Today I’d like to share with you some interesting facts about my home state’s beef cattle industry.  Most people don’t normally associate Pennsylvania with beef cattle production and would be surprised to find out that the beef cattle industry is very important to agriculture in our state.  My family currently operates a small cow-calf operation in south-central Pennsylvania.  We raise Angus/Hereford crossbred beef cattle.  We mainly sell our steers and some heifers as freezer beef to family and friends when the cattle reach a weight of approximately 1200 lbs.  This year we have decided to retain our heifer calves to expand our herd.

Some facts about Pennsylvania’s beef industry:

  • Pennsylvania farmers had 1,590,000 cattle and calves on January 1, 2009.
  • During 2008, PA had 27,000 total cattle operations, including 12,300 beef cattle operations, ranging in size from 1 – 2,800+ cows.
  • At the beginning of 2009, there were 75,000 head of cattle in feedlots in PA.
  • PA ranks 20th in the country for beef production, 2nd in the country for veal production.
  • PA has 5,000 feedlots feeding 1 to 1,000 head per feed lot.
  • During 2008, PA produced 1,222.6 million lbs of red meat.
  • PA boasts more than 3,000 certified beef and dairy producers in the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Program; BQA certifies producers in best management practices with classroom and hands-on training.

To learn more about Pennsylvania’s beef industry, visit The Center for Beef Excellence.

The Pennsylvania Beef Council has recently created a series of videos featuring some beef producers from Pennsylvania.  I’ve included these videos in today’s post to allow you to become more familiar with Pennsylvania’s beef cattle industry.

John & David McCullough, McCullough Farm, Mercer, PA

The McKeans, McKean Brothers Angus, Mercer, PA

John & Judy Ligo, LiTerra Farms, Grove City, PA


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Forage Facts: 300 Days of Grazing

Harvested feed sources have always been the largest cost of production for cattle producers.  With increasing input prices, many producers are looking for new, innovative approaches to feeding and managing their cattle with fewer of these inputs.  Some are choosing to reduce the amount of fertilizer applied to the field, while others may completely opt out of purchasing fertilizer.  Some producers have adjusted stocking rates, while others look at alternative options.  Either way you try to manage costs, whether by reducing inputs or stocking rates, there’s a chance that you could negatively impact production and your bottom line.

Researchers at the University of Arkansas developed the 300 Day Grazing Program in an effort to help livestock producers manage their “bottom line.”  The researchers took into consideration the rising costs of feed, fertilizer, and fuel to develop this program.  Their goal was to implement management changes to enhance the utilization of grown forages and reduce dependency on fertilizer, supplemental feed, and fuel.  Important parts of this new management scheme included stockpiling forages, improving grazing through rotational grazing systems, utilizing complimentary forages, establishing legumes, and efficiently managing hay to reduce storage and feeding losses.  The 300 Day Grazing Program was able to successfully demonstrate a positive impact by increasing grazing days, reducing nitrogen fertilizer needs, and improving hay efficiency.

To learn more check out this video from the Arkansas Farm Bureau.


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Agriculture is AMAZING—we have a culture thanks to agriculture

via Little Chicago Review

By Kerin Clark, Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation

Take a moment to think about how far technology has brought us in America.  We can golf, go to movies, take a vacation, drive our kids to soccer games or watch a football game with friends because we don’t have to work day and night to grow our own food thanks to agriculture!

If you stop and truly think about this it will fill you with wonder—Agriculture is Amazing!  It is astounding to think that today each United States farmer produces food and fiber for 155 people in the United States and abroad.  Compare that to only 19 people in the year 1940—Agriculture is Amazing!

Advancements in agriculture have freed up people to do things other than grow their own food.   At an Oct. 2010 forum in Torrington, Dr. Gary Sides, with Pfizer Animal Health, said it best when he said:  “There is no culture without agriculture.”

Without technology

Having food that is readily available is all most of us have ever experienced in our lifetime.  The picture would be much different though if technology was frozen in time.

“If technology was frozen in the year 1955, it would require an additional 450 million acres (the total land mass of Texas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma) to produce the beef we are producing today,” Sides commented.

“Globally, if we still achieved yields of 1960, an additional 15-20 million square miles of farmland would be needed to produce today’s food supply,” He continued.

In 1961, the United States population was close to 184 million people.  In 2006, that number was greater than 300 million people.  Sides related those numbers back to 1960.  “If agriculture technology today was the same as 1960, we would either have to 1) expand acres by 63% or 2) decrease food consumption by 63%,” He explained.

21st century food challenge

It is predicted that the world population will increase to nine billion by 2050.  That means we will need a 50% increase in the food supply by 2030 and 100% increase by 2050.

Sides commented there are simply two ways to meet global food demand.  “One is to take more land from nature (divert Yellowstone, the Black Hills or the Brazilian rain forests into agricultural lands).  The other choice is to produce more per acre or per animal on lands currently in agricultural production,” He said.  “Which alternative do you prefer?”

Sides points out that farming technology enables U.S. agriculture to produce 70% more corn from each pound of fertilizer, use 50-80% less water, decrease soil erosion by 43% in the last 20 years and produce 18% of the world’s total food supply on only 10% of the world’s land mass.

We have food

The old quote comes to mind:  “When people have food, they have a lot of problems.  When people don’t have food, they only have one problem.”  Fortunately, thanks to agriculture and the impacts of technological advances, we don’t have to worry about not having food to eat—Agriculture is Amazing!

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