By Darrin Pack
Beef producers have a new resource to help them keep up with rapidly changing trends and topics in the industry - a monthly, 15-minute video webcast produced by Purdue University's Department of Animal Sciences in cooperation with BEEF Magazine.
The moderators of the webcast, called "The Beef Roundtable," are Ron Lemenager, Purdue Extension beef specialist, and Burt Rutherford, senior editor at BEEF. Each program features expert guests from the production and business sectors.
The format encourages frank discussion of issues, Lemenager said.
"All of us, the guests and hosts, have a passion for this industry," he said. "We won't be shy about sharing our opinions, but we want the discussion to be both informative and entertaining."
The first episode, on the use of antibiotics in the livestock industry, ran in July. Guests were Kristina Butts, executive director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and Mike Apley, professor of production medicine and clinical pharmacology at Kansas State University.
August's program focused on how the new federal Clean Water Act will affect farmers and ranchers. Guests were Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, and Steve Foglesong, owner/operator of the Black Gold Ranch and Feedlot in Astoria, Illinois.
The next program in the series will address marketing strategies for beef cattle operations. It is scheduled to be posted Sept. 15.
"The Beef Roundtable" is part of Extension's expanding efforts to reach out to producers and agribusiness professionals through digital media, said Phil Reid, distance education coordinator and producer of the webcast.
"We are keeping up with the technology," Reid said. "We are out there on the leading edge."
Advanced editing technology enables Reid to combine digital images of Lemenager and Rutherford to make it appear that they are sitting together at the anchor desk when they are actually separated by about 1,000 miles. Lemenager records his part of the show in the Purdue animal sciences studio in West Lafayette while Rutherford is based in Amarillo, Texas.
"The fact that we can bring Ron and Burt together digitally with guests from all over the country really demonstrates the capabilities and potential of distance education," Reid said.
All programs in the series are available for viewing on "The Beef Roundtable" website at http://beefroundtable.com and the BEEF Magazine website at http://beefmagazine.com/, as well as on iTunes and YouTube.