The 22nd Annual National Belted Galloway Sale has come and gone for yet another year, along with a great youth show that just keeps growing each year. It is always such a wonderful way to start the spring of a new year, meeting new Beltie enthusiasts, seeing all the breeders that support the sale year after year, and conversing with the buyers on sale day. The addition of The Maine Event - Elite Heifer Sale made it possible this year for any of the youth that wanted to purchase other beef breeds besides the Belted Galloway the opportunity. It also enabled breeders to purchase top quality animals to enhance their own herds.

Live Lots Sold: 31

Live lot Average: $2,735.00

Total Sales: $84,800.00

Highest Selling Lot for the Belted Galloways was Lot #8 Breezy Knoll Gypsy-Rayne - consigned by Breezy Knoll Farm (ME), purchased by Harmony Meadows Farm (RI).

Highest Selling Lot for the Elite Heifer Sale was a Simmental Lot #51 PCSC Explore The Night - consigned by Pine Creek Show Cattle (ME), purchased by Sunny Barn Farm (Canada).

Special Thanks to all the consignors, bidders and buyers, without each and everyone one of you this sale would not be possible. Thank You to Matt Thurston for putting together The Maine Event - Elite Heifer Sale, all your efforts putting this sale together proved invaluable to all your consignors. Thanks to Marc from Edjecast, who keeps coming back year after year to help make it all happen for the people who aren't able to attend but are able to view, bid and buy through his online broadcast. Thanks to the State of Maine and the Belted Galloway Society Inc. for their support of the sale throughout the years. Thanks to the NEGG members that help with the set up and tear down of the grounds. Thank you everyone for your support in making this a successful event each year. Here's to seeing all you again next year at the 23rd Annual National Belted Galloway Sale. 

Submitted by: Scot Adams 

The beef checkoff's Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program recently released two educational videos geared toward cattle producers and quality assurance educators.

The first of the two videos titled "BQA Cattle Handling Tips for Cow/Calf Producers", was created to demonstrate how to handle different types of cattle (bulls, cows, heifers, calves, and pairs) on cow/calf, stocker and seedstock operations. Experts Dr. Ron Gill, Curt Pate, Dr. John Maas, and others take producers though different production settings and the changing cycle of a cattle operation to understand how the handler and the cattle react to these differing situations. 

The second of the video series titled"BQA Facilities Design", was created to help farmers, ranchers and cattle feeders of any size operation better understand how to properly design facilities to best suit their needs.

1. Assess the condition of the field, your goals and your resources.
2. Get a soil test
3. Mow the field with a rotary  mower.
4. Lime and fertilize
5. remove rocks and stumps
6. Till (if necessary)

If you have time, and the field is smooth enough for your purposes, regular mowing (three times a season) plus appropriate fertilizer and lime additions will produce a good field in three to four years. Regular mowing will improve the forage species composition and allow various clover species to come back into the field.  

Source: This Old Hayfield: A Fact Sheet on Hayfield Renovation, # 2491. http://extension.umaine.edu/publications/2491e/

1. Test the soil and apply nutrients and lime as needed
2. Keep smooth bedstraw plants from flowering, setting seed and spreading seed (seed rain), no matter which additional control option you use. Mow haycrop before bedstraw sets seed.  Be aware of a second flowering and seed-production period in August.
3. Control the spread of the seed by cleaning mowers, balers, rakes and tedders between infested fields and clean fields.
4. Tillage and rotation is very effective in killing the crowns and new seedlings that may develop, but bedstraw seed rain must be prevented.
5. Herbicides such as Crossbow, Milestone or Forefront R&P can be effective as long as you prevent the weed's seed rain during the season prior to application and understand that all broadleaf plants (including clovers or alfalfa) will also be killed. Glyphosate use to renovate pastures and kill perennial crowns of bedstraw is effective, but controlling seed rain is also critically important.   

A well-managed, fertilized hayfield with a dense stand of perennial forages will be a good defense against invasion by smooth bedstraw.  

Source: Controlling Smooth Bedstraw in Hayfields and Pastures # 2278 http://extension.umaine.edu/publications/2278e/