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Feedyards, Packers Disrupted by Weather and Energy Shortage

A winter storm and the coldest temperatures in decades has created another crisis for cattle feeders and beef packers. Rolling power outages and natural gas shortages at many High Plains feedyards has hampered efforts to keep cattle fed during these brutal conditions. The deep freeze this week in Texas, which relies on electricity to heat many homes, is causing power demand to skyrocket. At the same time, natural gas, coal, wind and nuclear facilities in Texas have been knocked offline by the record-low temperatures.

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Four Star Pork Industry Conf - Back to Basics: Fundamentals drive vaccine performance

Video: Four Star Pork Industry Conf - Back to Basics: Fundamentals drive vaccine performance

At a time when disease pressure continues to challenge pork production systems across the United States, vaccination remains one of the most valuable and heavily debated tools available to veterinarians and producers.

Speaking at the 2025 Four Star Pork Industry Conference in Muncie, Indiana, Dr. Daniel Gascho, veterinarian at Four Star Veterinary Service, encouraged the industry to return to fundamentals in how vaccines are selected, handled and administered across sow farms, gilt development units and grow-finish operations.

Gascho acknowledged at the outset that vaccination can quickly become a technical and sometimes tedious topic. But he said that real-world execution, not complex immunology, is where most vaccine failures occur.