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By Lee Pitts

• It’s been estimated that Brazil has about 260,000,000 acres of undeveloped fertile grasslands – a territory larger than the combined area of France and Spain to further expand.•While 90 percent of the beef produced in Brazil is grass-fed they do have the potential to produce a grain-fed product. Slowly but surely, crop by crop, Brazil is overtaking the U.S. in a variety of farm goods.

There’s another reason American ranchers should be concerned about more beef from Brazil: they are fast learners. Brazil has massively expanded its beef production while reducing the area of land used to pasture cattle. Since that day 50 years ago when I chose Australia over Brazil beef productivity in the South American country has risen 146 percent. At the same time, the area on which beef cattle are pastured was brought down by 13 percent. Food production costs are lower in Brazil than in Australia. That’s because labor is cheaper, fresh water is more abundant and Australia doesn’t use slave labor. But that’s a story for another day.

BANDITOS cont. from page 1

If one takes the time to look behind the numbers, you’d find an even more chilling reason why Brazilian beef imports increased 500 percent in one month. In the past, beef imports from Brazil con sisted of heat-treated beef products, used primarily in the burger busi

Then in 2009, JBS acquired Pilgrim’s Pride Chicken Company that has operations in the U.S. and Mexico and customers in more than 100 countries on six continents.

EDITORIAL and ADVERTISING STAFF CAREN COWAN Publisher LEE PITTS Executive Editor CHUCK STOCKS ......Publisher Emeritus RANDY SUMMERS LMD Sales Rep FALL MARKETING EDITION AD SALES RANDY SUMMERS, 505-850-8544 email: rjsauctioneer@aol.com ADMINISTRATIVE and PRODUCTION STAFF CAROL PENDLETON Production KRISTY HINDS Graphic Design www.aaalivestock.com Livestock Market Digest (1SSN 0024-5208) (USPS NO. 712320) is published monthly except semi-monthly in September in Albuquerque, N.M. 87104 by Rainy Day, Inc. Periodicals Postage Paid at Albuquerque, N.M., and Additional Mailing Offices POSTMASTER Send change of address to: Livestock Market Digest, P.O. Box 7458, Albuquerque, N.M. 87194 Subscribe Today CITYADDRESSNAME STATE ZIP — MY CHECK IS ENCLOSED FOR — One Year: $25 Two Years: $35 Single copy: $10 Clip & mail to: Livestock Market Digest, P.O. Box 7458, Albuquerque, N.M. 87194

How did JBS get so big in the U.S. you might wonder? On July 12, 2007, American regulators let JBS purchase Swift & Company in a US $1.5-billion, all-cash deal. The acquisition made the newly consol idated JBS Swift Group the largest beef processor in the world. Then in 2008 American regulators let JBS purchase the beef operations of Smithfield Foods for $565 million. (They allowed the Chinese to buy the pork part of Smithfield, the largest pork producer in the world)!

FAST LEARNERS

That transaction overnight dou bled Marfrig’s sales and makes the Brazilian company the second larg est beef processor in the world. Headquartered in São Paulo, the company has an operational base in 22 countries, exporting to over 100. Marfrig has about 90,000 employ ees with 33 units of cattle industry (24 in Brazil, five in Argentina, and four in Uruguay), 21 industrial units of chickens (14 in Brazil, four in Europe, and three in the United States), 48 plants for industrial goods and processing (16 in Brazil, five in Argentina, three in Uruguay, eight in the US, one in China, one in Thailand, one in Malaysia, one in South Korea, one in Australia, and 11 in Europe), four industrial pig units in Brazil, two industrial units of turkeys (one in Brazil and one in Europe), five plants of lamb (one in Brazil, three in Uruguay and one in Chile), 27 factories of feed for chickens, turkeys, and pigs (21 in Brazil, three in Europe and three in the U.S.), two trading companies (Chile and the United Kingdom), 14 industries and commercial offic es for leather (one in Brazil, four in Uruguay, one in China, one in Germany, two in the U.S., one in Argentina, one in Mexico, and three in South Africa). The daily capacity is 31,200 head of cattle, 10,400 pigs, 10,400 sheep, 350,000 turkeys, and 3.7 million chickens!

For Box Albuquerque,7458 N.M. 87194 505-243-9515 www.aaalivestock.com505-349-3060

America,BILLIONForBrazilianPerhapsdeforestation.mostimportantly,ranchershavethefullbackingofBrazilianpoliticianswhorealizethevalueofagriculture.Orisitbecausethey’reboughtoff?example,JBSwentonits20dollarbuyingspreeofmeatpackersaroundtheworld,includingacouplecrownjewelsinwithmoneyfromBrazilianbanksthattheownersofJBS,JoesleyandWesleyBatista,securedillegallybybribing1,900Brazilianpoliticiansandmeatinspectors!Inapleadealthebrotherstoldprosecutorshowtheybribedbankandgovernmentofficialstoreceivelow-interestloans.Theyagreedtopaya3.2billiondollarfineandgotojailbutthebrothersarebothfreeandarenowworthsixbilliondollars.(Theylaterwentbacktojailoninsidertradingchargesbutarecurrentlynotincarcerated).ThatgivesyousomeideahowfartheBraziliangovernmentiswillingtogotohelptheirmultinationalcorporations.They’vebeencultivatingnewmarketsaroundtheworldandinjustthefirst11workingdaysinJuly,Brazilexported89,100tonsofeitherfresh,chilled,orfrozenbeefwithadailyaverageofbeefexportsof8,102tons.ThetopdestinationfortheBrazilianbeefin2021wasChinabuttheBrazilianshadtosuspendshipmentstoitsnumberonecustomerafterconfirmingcasesofatypicalmadcowdiseaseinearlySeptember.ButBeijingquicklyresumedimportsofBrazilianbonelessbeefproductsfromcattlelessthan30monthsold.

ness. But January’s numbers includ ed 83 million pounds of FRESH beef made possible because in February 2020, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service determined that fresh beef from Brazil was safe and eligible for import into the U.S. As a result, imports of fresh beef from Brazil have exploded upwards on a trajectory that does not bode well for American ranchers.

Telephone:

I was correct in thinking interna tional agriculture was the next big thing and I decided upon Australia because I thought they’d be our biggest beef competitor. But I made el-biggo-mistako!Ishouldhavelearned Portuguese, studied communicable diseases of beef cattle, packed my bags and headed for Brazil.

In picking Australia over Brazil I could not have been more wrong. Just consider these facts:

Fax:

• Brazil is now the world’s largest beef exporter accounting for 23 per cent of all global beef exports. They export two million tons in carcass weight each year or one-fifth of their production.•Thetwo biggest beef packers in America and the world are Brazilian owned.•Economists estimate that Brazil can produce beef for 30- to 50 per cent less than U.S. ranchers.

WHO’D HAVE EVER THOUGHT?

What prompted this story was a chart produced by the USDA’s Economic Research Service that graphed monthly U.S. beef imports from Brazil. The chart begins in January 2015 and goes through January of this year. The chart shows we’d been slowly but steadily increasing imports from Brazil, but when plotted on a graph the imports looks like a flatlined hospital patient until January of this year when it goes straight up like a gymnasium climbing wall with the amount of beef imports into the U.S. increasing 500 percent in the first month of this year! IN JUST ONE MONTH!

According to the Brazilian pack ers most of the world is under the wrong impression when they accuse Brazil of getting big at the expense of virgin Amazon rainforest. Just consider that the Amazon states of Amazonas, Roraima and Amapá were responsible for only one hun dredth of one percent of that 146 percent growth! But Brazilian envi

lion. Brazilian ag backers brag that their country has now overtaken the United States as the “breadbasket of the world.”

Page 2 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition ON THE COVER ... “MORNING REFLECTIONS” by Tim Cox tells the story of the cowboy headed for his “office.” For this and other works by Tim Cox please contact Tim Cox Fine Art, Phone: 505.632.8080 Fax 505.632.5850, 891 Road 4990, Bloomfield NM 87410. timcoxfineart@timcox.com

We’d better get used to such shocks to the system. With the continuing war between two of the world’s largest grain produc ers, Ukraine and Russia, and cash strapped, inflation-riddled countries across the globe desperate to accu mulate more stable American dol lars, the only way they can get the greenbacks is to sell us more farm goods.Who’d have ever thought that the day would come in this country when we’d depend on the rest of the world to feed us, instead of the other way around?

Then there’s another Brazilian packer grabbing U.S market share you may not have ever heard of. That would be Marfrig that regula tors let buy 85 percent of National Beef, the fourth largest American beef packer. Leucadia, an invest ment firm, invested $868 million to acquire 79 percent of National Beef eight years ago and by the time they sold out to Marfrig they’d gained 3.3 times their original investment.

For example, Brazil has become the world’s largest producer of soybeans with $28.6 billion in sales compared with the United States’ $25.6 bil

THE PACKER HATH NO COUNTRY

In January 2022 Brazilian beef imports to the U.S. totaled 352 million pounds, nearly 57 percent higher year over year and 47 percent above the 5-year average, accord ing to the USDA. On the surface one could conclude that the higher poundage from Brazil was a result of China’s embargo on Brazilian beef due to mad cow concerns. China had been the destination for more than 40 percent of Brazilian beef exports so Brazil was forced to look else where for customers, and they found one with a fat wallet in America. So when the Chinese embargo was lifted in December 2021, Brazil had already found more new customers to which they’d already redirected their beef. So now they had those new markets in addition to an old customer in China. This year, the major destinations for the Brazilian beef, after China, have been Hong Kong (155.6 thousand tons) and the United States (66.49 thousand tons).

In addition, the company has an

How did Brazil become the biggest beef bully on the block? It was largely achieved by three Brazilian meat companies going on a shopping spree. The most wellknown is JBS, a leading processor of beef, pork, lamb, poultry and prepared foods. With its American headquarters in Greeley, Colorado, JBS includes 65 production facili ties, 49 prepared foods facilities, six feedlots, six live hog operations and eight transportation terminals with operations in 28 U.S. states, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. There are more than 100,000 JBS employ ees who process more than 200,000 cattle, 500,000 hogs, 45 million chickens and 80,000 small stock (lambs, sheep, goats and veal calves) PER WEEK, providing more than 32 billion pounds of product each year to markets in the U.S., Mexico,

• Brazil has the world’s second largest commercial cattle herd (India is first). At the end of July of this year Brazil had almost 190 million head, compared to 98.8 mil lion in the United States. (This July marked the first time we’d fallen below 100 million head since 2015).

to study international agriculture. (I skipped the language training because I mistakenly thought they spoke English in Australia.)

Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

BREAD BASKET OF THE WORLD?

advertising, subscription and editorial inquiries write or call: Livestock Market Digest P.O.

ronmentalists say that the Brazilian cattle sector is responsible for onefifth of all emissions from commod ity-driven

installed capacity around 126,000 tons of processed products, and more than 178,500 pieces of leather processed per month. Marfrig is the global leader in hamburger pro duction and the second largest beef protein company on the planet.

ometimes oil field workers and cowboys get along, some times they don’t. I’ve played both roles and have come to the conclusion that the degree to which they get along is dependent on whether the cattleman is receiving royalty checks.

The boss told Buster, “You might ask the guys in the doghouse but I haven’t seen him.”

HerdRiding

characters, like Buster who owned the ranch that surrounded the oil field where I worked. Buster was an old, single, miserable cuss who drank a lot and raised roping steers out of the worst cows I’ve ever seen.

R CALF’s Bill Bullard, “What’s been clear in our yearslong relationship with Brazil is that its government cannot be trusted to comply with U.S. beef import requirements. What is equally clear is that our Agriculture Secretaries are slow to respond, and may only partially respond, to known food safetyBrazilianthreats.”slaughtering plants have consistently failed to pass U.S. food safety audits. After conducting at least 18 audits of food safety practices in Brazilian slaughtering plants, all failed due to numerous food safety issues.

▫

The oilfield where I worked was not conducive to running cattle because it was almost straight up

Duringmiles?my second summer, Buster came into the doghouse where we ate lunch and played cards and gave us all the evil eye. “Where’s your boss?” he demanded.

and down, had no water, and was rockier than my boss man’s mar riage. And there wasn’t enough feed to keep a goat alive. That’s why it seemed odd during my first summer to see this mysterious bull appear out of the fog and then disappear after terrorizing the place. I only saw the bull they called El Diablo (The Devil) once and I can tell you he was a huge monster with horns that were wider than a Sherman tank and twice as deadly. The pumpers who checked the wells every day were refusing to exit their pickups for fear of being shish-kabobbed by the mysterious El Diablo. And these were not sissy men, but guys who regularly engaged in barroom fisticuffs and squashed rattlesnakes with pieces of drill pipe.

We all pointed to the office door and Buster barged into the office and demanded to know if the boss had seen El Diablo lately? “I haven’t seen him but why should you care about him Buster, I thought you said he wasn’t your bull?”

2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 3

In addition to working at a gas station pumping gas, washing win dows, inflating tires and fixing flats, I worked three summers in the oil fields to pay my way through col lege. I’ve mentioned previously that after I got my animal science degree, I took a job as a cowboy making $650 per month which was $200 less than what I was getting in the oilfields as a roustabout with no col lege degree. Both sides of my family worked in the oilfields so it was easy for me to get a job paying $5.25 per hour when the minimum wage was $1.25. It was a good job, I learned a lot and I met some interesting

So Buster demanded to know if any of us peons had seen El Diablo recently. “Now that you mention it,” said Bob, a former Golden Gloves champion who weighed 250 and was six feet five, “we haven’t seen him. But would you like a piece of jerky? I made it myself.” ▫

S

By the time I arrived on the scene El Diablo had already put a big dent in the boss man’s Lincoln Continental, had knocked over several stands that held 55-gallon drums filled with vile chemicals and made a mess of the pipe farm where El Diablo liked to hang out. After every episode the boss would phone Buster to come and get his bull but Buster insisted the bull wasn’t his,

but who else could El Diablo belong to, there wasn’t another cattle ranch within 30

The third leg in this three-legged stool of Brazilian beef domination is another firm I bet you’ve never heard of. That would be Minerva who owns 27 industrial units and 3 processing units, 14 distribution centers and 11 international offices from which they sell meat to over 100 countries.

The biggest safety problem with Brazil is Foot and Mouth disease. As usual, R CALF’s Bill Bullard hit the nail on the head when he said, “American FMD safeguards subjects the U.S. cattle industry to a clear and significant danger of FMD introduction and consum ers to unsafe beef for which there will be no origin designation due to Congress’ repeal of mandato ry country-of-origin labeling. This means the only meaningful protec tion available to U.S. cattle pro ducers against the introduction of FMD and to U.S. consumers against consuming unsafe beef will be sheer luck.”It’s not only their beef that smells a little rotten, it’s the power that Brazil seems to have over American regulators. It makes one wonder if Brazil has been up to its old tricks and are buying off American poli ticians, bureaucrats and inspectors the same way they did in their own country.

Brazil has repeatedly failed to report outbreaks of mad cow disease. In 2010 when mad cows showed up in Brazil’s herd notifica tion was not made until 2012. They did the same thing in 2014, 2019, and in June of 2021 when two new BSE-infected cattle were detected by Brazilian authorities but were not reported for months. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) requires countries to report within 24 hours any animal disease event that could be of international concern.Inearly 2017 Brazil was found to be exporting rotten and tainted beef containing blood clots and lymph nodes. After that the U.S. imposed a very weak partial suspension of beef imports. That suspension only applied to fresh beef and not precooked beef, and the partial sus pension did not occur until several months after the scandal was dis closed.Says

In the past Brazil has tried to cover its black eyes with tainted beef. There’s the ongoing practice of using slave labor, questionable production financing and Brazil’s reputation for covering up its ani mal health issues.

DiabloofLegendTheEl

SOMETHING SMELLS ROTTEN

Buster had good reason to be mad at oilfield workers because the same oil company that leased the land where I worked also had a lease on Buster’s land, only they never drilled on it. Which meant Buster was get ting no royalty payments while his next-door neighbor was cruising the world in his yacht with his beautiful 24 year old girlfriend.

Buster told everyone that the rea son the oil company had not drilled on his land was because they were using directional drilling to drill under his land and get all Buster’s oil for free. I wouldn’t put it past them but in the oil company’s defense the field where I worked consisted of a couple hundred shallow wells that were drilled before directional drilling was even invented. I’d say on average the wells produced about 30 barrels every day since 1889.

“He’s not,” said Buster who was just trying to avoid paying for all the damage El Diablo did.

ing with the House Agriculture Committee to protect our most vul nerable producers, and we appre ciate the Chairman’s attention on this important issue,” said Ethan Lane, vice president of government affairs at NCBA. “Unfortunately, H.R. 8590, the Small Family Farmer and Rancher Relief Act, as intro duced prompts more questions than it provides answers. While collec tively we would have preferred to provide input into the drafting of this legislation, we look forward to working with our partners in the livestock community to address the blind spots in this proposal.”

Scott’ssales.proposal offers an increased premium subsidy for small ranchers, for insuring a herd of 100 cattle or less under Livestock Risk Protection insurance policies.

Bill Bullard at R-CALF USA said, “We’re concerned that the Small Family Farmer and Rancher Relief Act does not fix the broken mar ket, and is only a stop-gap measure to prevent the ongoing exodus of ranchers from the industry while we continue working to restore genuine competition to the marketplace. In addition, the measure leaves out what we believe to be the core of the industry – ranchers with herd sizes between 100 and 500 head, which is the group of the 67,000 beef cattle operations most likely to be exclu sively dependent on cattle income for their livelihoods. The group with 100 head or less would either have to have a second job or be a diver sified farm/ranch operation as 100 head is less than needed for an eco nomically viable operation.”

Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act of 2021 – The Act includes all the important reforms needed to fix the broken cattle mar ket such as mandatory country of origin labeling (MCOOL) for beef, requirement for large packers to buy 50 percent of their cattle in the cash market, a ban on unpriced contracts and a ban on packer owner ship of cattle for more than 7 days.

American Beef Labeling Act of 2021 – To restore mandatory coun try of origin labeling (MCOOL) for beef.

When he introduced this bill, Scott said that according to USDA data, the average beef cattle herd in the U.S. is 44 head, and operations of 100 or fewer beef cattle account for 90 percent of all farms and 44 percent of the beef cattle invento ry. “Yet, we are losing an average of 17,000 cattle ranchers per year. Therefore, my bill will target these small family farmers and ranchers so that they will be able to secure their fair share of the food dollar and we can at the same time stem the tide of losing 17,000 farmers per year,”

Meat Packing Special Investigator Act – This legislation would address anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industries that hurt consumers and producers, threaten the nation’s food supply and endanger America’s food security. Packer concentration in the beef industry is more consolidated today than it was when the Packers and Stockyards Act was first signed into law over 100 years ago. The Meat Packing Special Investigator Act would create the “Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters” within the USDA Packers and Stockyards Division.

I

by Heather Smith Thomas

SMALL FAMILY FARMER AND RANCHER RELIEF ACT –

H.R. 7501 – A bill to foster efficient markets and increase compe tition and transparency among packers that purchase livestock from producers.NewMarkets for State-Inspected Meat and Poultry Act of 2021 –This act allows meatpacking plants inspected by state jurisdictions to sell meat in inter-state commerce.

AMPLIFYING PROCESSING OF LIVESTOCK IN THE UNITED STATES –

The FAIR Meat Packing Act (Feed America by Incentivizing Rural Meat Packing Act) – This bill allows a 25 percent investment tax credit through 2025 and a refundable income tax credit for the startup and organizational expenditures of livestock processing facilities with fewer than 500 employees. ▫

n the past few years a number of bills have been introduced in Congress to try to remedy the cri sis of a shortage of marketing options for livestock producers. There were several additional bills proposed in 2020 after the pandemic revealed flaws in the food supply chain, but with the new administration and a new Congress, all bills from 20182019 and early 2020 had to be re-introduced. There is still no new action on the main three --- the New Markets for Sate Inspected Meat, the PRIME (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption) Act and the Strengthening Local Processing Act. Two new ones were introduced this year.

Legislation to Help Market Beef More Effectively

Scott“Mysaid.bill creates a new program that strengthens the Federal safety net and makes insurance products work better for small cattle farmers and ranchers, both in terms of cov erage and accessibility. The second pillar establishes a grant program at USDA to help small farmers and ranchers and producer-owned

It would also create a USDA indemnity program that provides relief to small producers when the price spread dramatically exceeds historical average. The Beef Cattle Spread Coverage Program would provide relief when the farmer’s share of the retail dollar drops below 51.7 percent. The rate is calculat ed based on the spread between the price of fed beef cattle, boxed beef sold at the wholesale level, and beef sold at retail. It would also offer incentives for insurance agents to better market Livestock Risk Protection policies to small producers, and provide resources to USDA to educate producers and insurance agents on the utility of the livestock insurance programs and the safety net program.

The new USDA special investigator would have a team of investiga tors, with subpoena power, dedicated to preventing and addressing anti competitive practices in the meat and poultry industries and enforcing our nation’s antitrust laws. They would coordinate and act in consulta tion with the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create a new bridge between the USDA and the Department of Homeland Security to protect the continuation of the food supply and increase national security. With a team of dedicated staff, the USDA would have the ability to investigate the tough issues facing producers and hold bad actors accountable.

S.949 – A bill to amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to foster efficient markets and increase competition and transparen cy among packers that purchase livestock from producers. This bill requires beef packers with more than 1 plant to purchase at least 50 percent of their cattle in the cash market each week for each plant and requires those cattle to be harvested within 14 days of purchase.

The PRIME Act (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act) – This Act repeals the federal ban on the sale of meat from custom slaughterhouses, returning control to the states to permit producers to sell meat processed at a custom slaughterhouse within the state.

In the House of Representatives, David Scott (D-Georgia), House Agriculture Committee Chairman, introduced H.R 8590–the Small Family Farmer and Rancher Relief Act--legislation focused on helping small farmers and ranchers.

This legislation would generate a Small Rancher Market Access com petitive grant program run through the Agricultural Market Service. The money would be used to help cooperatives and small producers add value and market meat in local and regional areas, with a focus on direct-to-consumer and direct-to-in stitution

Also in the House, Vicky Hartzler (R-Missouri.) and Jimmy Panetta (D-California), introduced the Amplifying Processing of Livestock in the United States (A-PLUS) Act, which aims to remove the regula tory roadblocks to increasing meat processing capacity. It would allow livestock auction market owners to invest in small and regional packing facilities.This legislation directs the Secretary of Agriculture to amend the Packers & Stockyards Act to allow livestock auction market own ers to hold ownership in, finance,

H.R. 1258 – A bill to amend the Poultry Products Inspection Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act to support small and very small meat and poultry processing establishments.

Expanding Markets for State-Inspected Meat Processors Act of 2021 Strengthening Local Processing Act of 2021 – The act would increase the federal share of costs for state inspection programs and Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) facilities to encourage more states to operate state inspection programs and participate in CIS.

“By developing more direct-to-consumer and direct-to-in stitution markets, my legislation will give small farmers and ranchers more control over where they sell their cattle or meat products and provide them with opportunities to add value to their products and increase their profitability.”

Bills supported by R-CALF USA

Page 4 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition

cooperatives to undertake innova tive business initiatives,” he said.

This bill has many supporters but also some sceptics. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) had reservations about the initial“NCBAdraft. is committed to work

“For decades, livestock auction mar kets have played by an outdated and restrictive book of rules which lim ited capacity and created a system where large meat packer behemoths literally and figuratively slaughtered the competition. The A-PLUS Act would even the playing field and fix these regulations for the benefit of our livestock auctions and small packers--regional packing facilities.”

CATTLE PRICE DISCOVERY AND TRANSPAENCY ACT –

2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 5 300 acres or more relatively level, clean farm or pastureland with a large transmission line crossing? Lease Your Land for Solar Power Production Extraordinary income to the right property owner(s) If your property qualifies or your property along with neighbors qualify you may potentially receive long term income. (20 – 40-year lease) $800 - $1500 Per acre Per year with incremental increases CALL (828)-817-5400 or (828)-817-9101 Email Us at: InnovativeSolarFarms@gmail.com Visit our website at innovativesolarsystemsllc.com to view recent projects Please Note the Four Essential Requirements Below Do You Have Power Lines Like This On Or Adjacent To Your Land? • Can Not be Subtranssmision Lines • Must be Transmission Power Lines • Must be 115 Kv to 345 Kv Do You or You and Your Neighbor Have 300+ Acres of withinlinesTransmissioncrossingor200yardsofproperty State or roadmaintainedcountyborderingthepropertyNo timberland or clear cuts 300 or more acres (must be in cultivationrecentor in pasture or clear open range) Clean Farm or Pasture Land? Lease Us Your Land! or participate in the management or operation of a meat packing entity with a cumulative slaughter capacity of less than 2,000 animals per day or 700,000 animals per year. This cap would exclude investment in the top 10 meat Livestockpackers.auction markets (mar keting agencies selling on commis sion) are not currently able to own, invest in, or participate in the man agement or operation of a packing plant or meat marketing business because of a Packers and Stockyards Act regulation. In today’s envi ronment, however, where there is increasing packer competition for livestock, most people feel this unnecessary barrier should be removed.Congresswoman

There is support for the bill from the Nebraska Farm Bureau and the Nebraska Famer Union and some other facets of agriculture, but this bill is not supported by everyone in the meat industry.

eighth year.”

Congressman Panetta said: “The livestock industry continues to deal with supply chain disruptions. The federal government needs to remove any unnecessary barriers that are hurting our producer’s ability to compete in a global marketplace. This bipartisan legislation will remove outdated regulations from the early 1900s and better reflect the needs of our modern-day live stock producers. Allowing for live stock auction market investments in regional packing facilities will support small businesses, increase competition, and drive down costs for Livestockconsumers.”Marketing Association

“The need for new packing facilities has become a critical issue for the cattle industry. Huge amounts of capital are required to get new facil ities up and running. Understanding the need for these new facilities, producers themselves have invested in these efforts but outdated regula tions still prevent livestock markets from having ownership in packing facilities. The A-PLUS Act paves the way for the marketing segment of the cattle industry to be included as investors in these facilities, helping reduce dependence on major pack ers and improving the competitive ness of the live cattle market.”

This legislation would require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish five to seven regions across the continental U.S. and then estab lish minimum levels of fed cattle purchases made through approved pricing mechanisms. Approved pric ing mechanisms include fed cattle purchases made through negotiated cash, negotiated grid, at a stockyard, and through trading systems that multiple buyers and sellers regularly

Bullard says his group also does not support the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022 that would establish pricing mechanisms for live animal purchas es. In a statement from R-CALF USA, the group noted it was “strong ly opposed to the initial version” of the bill and called for its rejection by the Senate Ag Committee.

Hartzler said:

Bullard (R-CALF USA) said: “We don’t like the Amplifying Processing of Livestock in the United States (A-PLUS). That measure would allow for the vertical integration of packing plants and auction markets, which we believe will reduce com petition.”

Violations of the regulation would result in a maximum penalty of $90,000 for packers that have slaughtered five percent or more of the nation’s harvest over the past fiveTheyears.bill also includes provisions to create a cattle contract library, mandating box beef reporting to ensure transparency, expediting the reporting of cattle carcass weights, and requiring a packer to report the number of cattle scheduled to be delivered for slaughter each day for the next 14 days.

He said R-CALF fears many more ranchers and cattle feeders will leave the business without mar ket reforms, and that the group has asked Congress to take “deci sive action” in the past. “While we reserve our opinion regarding the modified compromise bill pending our ongoing analysis, we remain concerned that at its heart, the pro posal authorizes the USDA to take up to two more years before it even establishes minimum cash volume requirements; to set those minimum requirements at the same inappro priate level that they’ve been at during the past two years; and then to keep them at that inappropriate level following the required review after the first two years of imple mentation and periodic reviews after each five-year increment,” Bullard said.“We were hoping Congress would provide a measured response to this serious crisis and we will continue wading through this complicated proposal to determine if it provides any meaningful reform worthy of America’s independent cattle pro ducers’ support,” he said. ▫

United States Cattlemen’s Association President Brooke Miller said: “The Packers & Stockyards Act is over one hundred years old –it’s time to modernize parts of this historic legislation that no longer make sense in the modern world. Today’s livestock auctions are often family-owned and regionally based. If one of these entities wanted to invest in a local processing facility to increase processing capacity for pro ducers in their area, there shouldn’t be an outdated regulation holding them back from doing so.”

President Larry Schnell said the A-PLUS Act would reduce a regu latory barrier that currently prohib its livestock auction owners from investing in much-needed packing capacity expansion. “This bill will spur additional capacity and espe cially additional packers to increase competition and improve profitabil ity for Nationalproducers.”Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Livestock Market Council Chairman Clint Berry said:

The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) President and CEO Julie Anna Potts said, “Leading agricultural economists have deter mined that the Grassley-Fischer bill’s latest draft remains costly to producers, especially producers in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas where the majority of US fed cattle are raised. Due to a shrinking herd

can make and accept bids.

There is also skepticism. Bill

and sustained consumer demand, cattle prices are at seven-year-highs without federal intervention in the market.”NCBA also opposed the legisla tion; Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane stated that “despite overwhelming feedback in opposition to a cash mandate, this latest version of the Fischer/ Grassley bill expands the concept to ensure that every single producer in the country selling fat cattle would be subject to a business-altering gov ernment edict. This is an indication of just how far the sponsors of this bill have strayed from the wishes of the majority of cattle producers around the country. It is time for the sponsors to finally consider the perspectives of all those who this bill would impact, not just those in their own backyards – and we are ready to have that conversation whenever theyRegardingare.” the new revision, R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said his group “remains deeply dis appointed that Congress has not yet taken any meaningful action to address the serious crisis in the cat tle industry that is now entering its

■ DALLAM CO, TX – 1,216.63 ac. +/- of CRP/ ranchland w/irrigation, re-development potential, wells & pipelines already in place.

■ PRICE REDUCED! LET’S LOOK at these two choice 80 acre tracts of dryland located in close proximity one to the other in Wilbarger County near Vernon, Texas.

■ PRICE REDUCTION! TURN-KEY RESTAURANT READY FOR BUSINESS! One of the best steak houses in the nation just

■ COLFAX COUNTY NM GETAWAY – 1,482.90 ac.+/- grassland (1,193.59 ac. +/- Deeded, 289.31 ac. State Lease), great location near all types of mountain recreation.

270 AC Miticelle Co., TX 1 mi off I-20, 6 Elect, Trurans

Price $2.2 million

BottariRealtyPaulBottari,Broker775/752-3040 Nevada Farms & raNch PrOPerTY www.bottarirealty.com PLAZASOCORROREALTYOnthePlaza Donald Brown Qualifying Broker 505-507-2915505-838-0095 116 Plaza PO Box 1903 Socorro, dbrown@socorroplazarealty.comwww.socorroplazarealty.comNM AGLANDLOANS AsLowAs3% OPWKCAP2.9% INTERESTRATESASLOWAS3% 521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130 575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax Buena Vista Realty Qualifying Broker: A.H. (Jack) Merrick 575-760-7521 www.buenavista-nm.com or the listing agent 575-825-1291 Many good pictures on MLS or www.buenavista-nm.com A SOURCE FOR PROVEN SUPERIOR REDGENETICSANGUS 14298 N. Atkins Rd., Lodi, CA 95240 209/727-3335 ELM ESCALON HWY 120 HWY HEADQUARTERS99 HWY 4 FARMINGTON MANTECA SALE MODESTO VALLEY J17 MARIPOSA RD Facility located 25525 East Tree Escalon,Road,# N ESCALON LIVESTOCK MARKET, INC. LIVESTOCK SALES 3 days per week on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday MONDAY: Beef Cattle FRIDAY: Small Animals WEDNESDAY: Dairy Cattle Poultry – Butcher Cows www.escalonlivestockmarket.com • escalonlivestockmarket@yahoo.com CONSIGNMENTSME! C WELCO alloreforminformationonsigninoncgyourstock. MIGUEL A. MACHADO President Office: 209/838-7011 Mobile: 209/595-2014 JOE VIEIRA Mobile:Representative209/531-4156 THOMAS BERT 209/605-3866 CJ BRANTLEY RepresentativeField 209/596-0139 Advertise andCattlementoRanchers! Call 505-243-9515 for more information

DURO CREEK.

■ Co. NW Canyon,

Joe Priest Real Estate joepriestre.net1-800/671-4548•joepriestRE@gmail.com

CONTRACT

CAPULIN FAMILY COMPOUND, Union County, NM. 40.88 +/- deeded acres 1.5 miles off Hwy. with stunning 3,000 sqft plus main home with attached apart ment over large garage. Pinon/juniper, two wells, short gravel drive off blacktop. $725,000 $612,000

TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES

■ DRIP IRRIGATED FARM – Castro, Co., TX1,715 ac. +/-, excellent farm with good water.

■ PRICE REDUCED! UNION CO., NM – 2,091.72 ac. (1,771.72 Deeded, 320 ac. -/+ State Lease), well watered w/three wells, two sets of steel pens.

COLFAX TAVERN & DINER, Colfax County, NM. Aka “COLD BEER”, turn key legendry regional icon and destina tion, with anchor staff/team willing to stay on. Prime business on front range. $1,500,000

198 AC Fanninco, TX

■ ELK CANYON RANCH#2 – Harding Co., NM

Good Country Rd. Frontage, Rural Water, Electricity, 35 mi NE of Dallas, SO of Bonnam $20,000 Per Acre

Rock Formation Irrigation Well and Sprinkler. All Bring Case, Modest Home & Barns

■ ANGUS, NM – 250 +/- acres with over a 1/2 mile of NM 48 frontage. Elevations from 6,800 to 7,200 feet. Two springs along a creek. Ideal for future development or build your own getaway home.

CIMARRON BUSINESS, Frontage opportunity, house, big shop and office buildings, easy view off Hwy 64. Formerly known as “The Porch.” $295,000 MIAMI 40 ACRES, Colfax County NM, private 2 bedroom getaway with elevated fantastic view, nice porch, little casita, irri gation and pole barn. Extremely private setting. Right below mesa. $450,000

UTE PARK RIVER PLACE 6.83 +/ACRES, 450 +/- feet of the Cimarron River and more than that of Ute Creek are the south and east boundaries of this unique one of a kind water property. 2 bedroom 1 bathroom cabin, year round access off Hwy 64. $589,000 $570,000

270 AC Pine Timber & Hunting, Anderson Co., TX Co. Rd. Frontage, Small Lakes $7,250 Per Acre

PENDING

HIDDEN GEM – 941 acres +/- in Randall

of

Page 6 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition REAL ESTATE GUIDE Livestock Market Digest Page 7 CHICO CREEK RANCH, Colfax County, NM. NEW LISTING. 6,404.26 +/- Total Acres, Located approximately 10 miles east of Springer New Mexico. 3,692.60 +/- deeded acres with balance in state lease. Excellent grass and water. Two plus miles of the Chico Creek meandering through the center of the property. Additional wells and dirt tanks. Nice historic head quarters pri vately located with shade trees and excellent views of the prop erty. Shipping pens in central portion of property. $2,837,318 O’NEILL LAND, llc P.O. Box 145, Cimarron, NM 87714 • 575/376-2341 • Fax: 575/376-2347 land@swranches.com • www.swranches.com CIMARRON ON THE RIVER, Colfax County, NM. 7.338 +/deeded acres with 4.040 acre-feet per annum out of the Maxwell-Clutton Ditch. Custom country-chic 2,094 +/- sq ft home. Owns both sides of river in places. Horse/cow/chicken/ vegetable garden/greenhouse/orchard set up. Country living at it’s finest, in town, but in a world of your own. Very special on river. Appointment only. $650,000. kaltyer40 rmserTY y com PLAZASOCORROREALTYOnthePlaza Donald Brown Qualifying Broker 505-507-2915 cell 505-838-0095 fax 116 Plaza PO Box 1903 Socorro, NM dbrown@socorroplazarealty.comwww.socorroplazarealty.com87801 COLETTA RAY Pioneer Realty 1304 Pile Street, Clovis, NM 88101 575-799-9600 Direct 575.935.9680 Office 575.935.9680 www.clovisrealestatesales.comcoletta@plateautel.netFax Selling residential, farm,ranch, commercial and relocating properties. AG LAND LOANS As Low As 4.5% OPWKCAP 2.9% INTEREST RATES AS LOW AS 4.5% Payments Scheduled on 25 Years AG L AND LOANS As Low As 3% OPWKCAP 2 9% INTERE % Pay m en s J o e 13 83 521 West Second St • Porta es, NM 88130 575 226 0671 or 575 226 0672 fax Buena Vista Realty Qualifying Broker: A H (Jack) Merr ck 575 760 7521 www buenavista nm com NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RANCH PROPERTY 31 years in the ranch business - see www.ranch-lands.com for videos & brochures BILL WRIGHT, SHASTA LAND SERVICES, INC. 530-941-8100 • DRE# 00963490 • www.ranch-lands.com DUANE & DIXIE McGARVA RANCH: approx. 985 acres Likely, CA. with about 600+ acre gravity flood irrigated pastures PLUS private 542 AU BLM permit. About 425 acres so of the irrigated are level to flood excellent pastures with balance good flood irrigated pastures. NO PUMPING COST! Dryland is perfect for expansion to pivot irrigated alfalfa if desired. Plus BLM permit for 540 AU is fenced into 4 fields on about 18,000 acres only 7 miles away. REDUCED ASKING PRICE - $3,125,000 BEAVER CREEK RANCH: about 82,000 acres - with 2,700 deeded acres plus contiguous USFS & BLM permits for 450 pair; 580+- acres irrigated alfalfa, pasture, and meadow from Beaver Creek water rights and one irrigation well. 3 homes, 2 hay barns, 4 feedlots each w/ 250 ton barns, 2 large reservoirs, can run up to 500-600 cows YEAR ROUND. REDUCED ASKING PRICE - $5,400,000 BEAR CREEK RANCH: Approx. 1,278 acres winter range ground and recreational property. Located on Bear Creek and accessed from South Cow Creek Valley Road. Should be great hunting for deer, wild turkey, wild pigs, quail & owner states good trout fishing in Bear Creek. Deeded access easement thru neighbor ranches. No improvements & very private inside the ranch. Now only $700 per acre - $894,600 • 83 acre wood home with barns, meadows and woods. Fronts State Rd. $545,000 • 160 acre Ranger Eastland Co, $560,000 • 270 acre Mitchell County, Texas ranch. Investors dream; excellent cash flow. Rock formation being reduced to $1.25 million. • 840 Immaculate, Hunt Co, TX. Ranch. Pastures, 40 tanks, and lakes. Beautiful home, barns, and other improvements. Some minerals, game galore. All for $1.35 million. TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES Joe Priest Real Estate joepriestre.net1-800/671-4548•joepriestre@earthlink.com ranch that has been owned and operated miles southeast of Corona, NM in Lincoln BLM Lease Acres and 2,240 NM State AUYL. Water provided by five wells and corrals. The ranch had a good summer for a brochure or view on my website. city limits of Roswell, NM. Six total acres Improved with a 2, 200 square foot residence,CONTRACTUNDER listing agent 575-825-1291 www.buenavista-nm.com ESTATE GUIDE Dimmitt, TX 79027 Scott - Broker Qualifying www.scottlandcompany.com5:00am/10:00pmBroker OR SMALL! Guadalupe Co., deeded & 519 ranch on both (strong flow daily) Sumner; wildlife, buyer looking New Mexico 980 ac. +/past, land lays side of Hwy. 54. Union Co., NM –grassland w/staterecently surroundedotherac.oninremodeledverygoodpvmt.+/-heavilylivestockw/fencesetc.,onthefrontgate.scenicac.+/-onbyLincolninPines&coveredmeadowPenasco.Thisbuildalegacy472.4ac.irr.,onMexico,adjoinsPotential. POTENTIAL Texline Special, +/- w/water & a beautiful 3 metalbathrooms,shop. AG LAND LOANS As Low As 3.5% OPWKCAP 3.5% INTEREST RATES AS LOW AS 3.5% Payments Scheduled on 25 Years Joe Stubblefield & Associates 13830 Western St., Amarillo, TX 806/622-3482 • cell 806/674-2062 joes3@suddenlink.net Michael Perez Associates Nara Visa, NM • 575-403-7970 SCOTT MCNALLY www ranchesnm com 575/622 5867 575/420 1237 Ranch Sales & Appraisals Ba r RealM Es t a te MAJOR PRICE REDUCTION – CALL PAUL FOR DETAILS 10 Acres of commercial property, incredible highway visibility and access from either east or west directions on Hwy 60, 3 miles East of Garden Inn Truck Plaza and 4 miles west of Willow Springs. Natural gas may be available on site. LOCATION PLUS! This property is well suited for many types of businesses (Restaurant, Retail, Motel, Business of any kind!) A MUST SEE PROPERTY. MLS#11402703 See all my listings at: paulmcgilliard.murney.com Paul McGilliard, Broker Associate Residential / Farms/Ranches / Commercial 417-839-5096 or 800-743-0336 694.9 ACRE RANCH IN ROOSEVELT CO NM 1931 S Rrd B has total new 5 wire, steel post, pipe corners etc, pipe corrals, POND, nice ranch house with 2 good water wells, some CRP time remains FARM LAND IN ROOSEVELT CO NM 2550 S. Rrd 6 159.8 ac some CRP remains, eligible to re-inroll if new program See details on www.buenavista-nm.com See these Properties with details at www.buenavista-nm.com or call agent for info 521 West Second St • Portales, NM 88130 521 West Second St • Portales, NM 88130 575 226 0671 or 575 226 0672 fax Buena Vista Realty Qualifying Broker: A H (Jack) Merr ck 575 760 7521 www buenavista nm com O’NEILL LAND, llc P.O. Box 145, Cimarron, NM 87714 • 575/376-2341 • Fax: 575/376-2347 land@swranches.com • www.swranches.com CAPULIN -SIERRA GRAND VIEW, Union County. NM. 520 +/- deeded acres with HQ 1.5 miles off highway, 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home with landscaped yard and volcanic rock walls, nice outbuildings, 3 registered wells including 1 registered as an irrigation well and an excellent solar well. Close proximity to Des Moines, NM. $898,000 EAGLE NEST ESCAPE, Colfax County NM. 78.42 +/- deeded acres overlooking Eagle Nest Lake, private pond, 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home, large shop garage able to store 2 big RV’s. Improvements almost half mile off highway. $825,000 MAXWELL 45, Excellent irrigated pasture with utilities in back of property, including installed septic system, with private views of mountains. 40 irrigable acres and a domestic water meter installed. Great to put down home and bring horses. $249,000 BAR LAZY 7 RANCH, Colfax County, Moreno Valley 594.38 +/- deeded acres, accessed off blacktop between Eagle Nest and Angel Fire. Historic headquarters. Currently used as summer grazing, pond and trees accessed off county road on rear of property as well. Presented “ASIS” New Survey, $4,000,000 $3,800,000

out of Amarillo & Canyon at Umbarger, TX., state-of-the-art bldg., w/complete facilities. www.scottlandcompany.com Ben G. Scott – Broker Krystal M. Nelson – NM QB 5:00800-933-9698a.m./10:00p.m. RANCH & FARM REAL ESTATE We need listings on all types of ag properties large or small! Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker Bar M Real Estate, LLC P.O. Box 428, Roswell, NM 88202 Office: 575-622-5867 Cell: 575-420-1237 Website: www.ranchesnm.com SOLD EIGHT MILE DRAW LAND 740 ± Acres of unimproved native grassland located four miles west of Roswell in the Six Mile Hill area with frontage along U.S. Highway 70/380. This parcel is fenced on three sides and adjoins 120 acres of additional land that may be purchased. Great investment. $600 per acre. COWBOY DRAW RANCH Excellent small cattle ranch located in southeastern New Mexico approximately 50 miles northwest of Roswell on the Chaves/ Lincoln county line. 7,455 total acres with 2,600 deeded with the balance federal BLM lease acres. Permitted for 151 animal units yearlong with an additional 30 animal units on a temporary nonrenewable basis. Watered with two wells and several miles of water pipeline. Two larger open draws run through the ranch that provide overflow areas to enhance grazing. The terrain is open and rolling with good turf. The ranch has had good summer rains with no cattle since last spring. The ranch is in excellent condition. Call for a brochure and come take a look. Price: $1,350,000 COLETTA RAY Pioneer Realty 1304 Pile Street, Clovis, NM 88101 575-799-9600 Direct 575.935.9680 Office 575.935.9680 www.clovisrealestatesales.comcoletta@plateautel.netFax Selling residential, farm,ranch, commercial and relocating properties. OurPatronize Advertisers

■ HART IRRIGATED FARM – Castro Co., TX 656 acres, ½ mile pivot, 11 wells. The owner is willing to lease and continue operating this farm.

– 3,880 ac. -/+, older home, cattle pens, hunting/ cattle ranch. Please call for details!

■ PRICE REDUCED! CEDARVALE, NM – 7,113 acre ranch (5,152 ac. +/- Deeded – 1,961 ac. +/State Lease) well fenced & watered w/good pens, new barn.

Tx. STUNNING VIEWS OVER

LOOKING PALO Turn key cow/ calf operation w development potential. Property includes: 3/3/3 ranch style home, 4 wells, large shop plus shed, enclosed livestock working facility w/hydraulic chute, livestock pens & shed, miles of 5 & 6 barbed wire fence & over 7000’ of pipe fence. YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THIS! Canyon School District.

SOLDSOLD

The BLM didn’t immediate ly respond to a request for com ment.

SOLD

Brad 520-241-3333520-429-2806DeSpainPaulRamirez Riding for the brand … is our time-honored tradition StockmensRealty.com I UCstockmensrealty.com *Each United Country Franchise office is independently owned and operated.

But part of the APR’s mission includes a plan to release wild bison onto its purchased and leased properties in an effort to “re-wild” the land, a proposal the complaint alleged violates the Taylor Grazing Act, a 1934 law that opens public lands up for private livestock graz ing. The legislation was passed to ensure adequate food and livestock production across the country.

The challenge was filed in the Department of the Interior’s Departmental Cases Hearings Division, which serves as the agen cy’s administrative trial court.

SOLD SOLD

ATTITUDES,’ MONTANA ATTORNEY GENERAL KNUDSEN

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by AGDAILY Reporters, Ag Daily

“Whether APR classifies its bison as conservation animals, non-pro duction animals, or as wildlife, the fact remains that they are not live stock for purposes of the laws that provide for grazing activities,” the state’s challenge stated.

“BLM’s final decision ignores what makes Montana’s rural com munities unique, prioritizing elit ist land management attitudes over economic realities for the gener ational ranchers who rely on this land,” the challenge stated.

RANCHES/FARMS

260 Head Cattle Ranch with 4,612 Deeded Acres, Virden, NM – Solid working cattle ranch with excellent water distribution, good mix of grass and browse ranging in elevation from 4,000’ to 5,800’. 14,980+/- ac BLM, 2,860 ac State Leases and 640 ac of adverse grazing. Takes in scenic Vanderbilt Peak, Mount Royal, and stops just short of Steeple Rock. $2.8M

*REDUCED* 200-300 Head Cattle Ranch, Marana, AZ –Abundant year-round no cost wa ter makes this ranch a true oasis in the desert, situated along the Santa Cruz River just 20 minutes north of Tucson. 112.8+/Deeded ac; 150+/- ac of per manent pasture, 3,700+/- ac of desert sub-lease, 14 +/- ac of farm fields, and well improved headquarters with excellent ac cess off a paved road situated on State land with 342+/- ac of lease. Second manufactured home on deeded. Two sets of good steel pipe corrals un der covered work areas with squeeze chute, and tub. $1.9M

M

*NEW* 98+/- Deeded Acre Farm, Bonita, AZ – Great little farm in a picture-perfect setting! Two small pivots with 35 acres of water rights. Nicely improved with a newer 3 BR, 2 BA Shultz doublewide mfg home; 3-sided hay/machine shed, 1,560+/s.f. shop with concrete floor and insulated ceiling, hay shed, Connex box, nice set of guardrail and steel corrals with crowding tub, squeeze and scale. 250 gpm irrigation well with 20 HP motor and 13,500+/- gallons of storage. Raise horses, finish out calves, small cow/calf oper ation or homestead. Runs about 40 head of cattle. $750,000

additional pasture; purchase for investment or build your own ranchette.

*NEW* 12.7+/- Irrigated Acres, Marana, AZ – Irrigated farmland in the heart of Marana, perfectly suited for development. Current ly, planted in Alfalfa and at one time was planted to corn. Fields are fenced, flood irrigated from concrete ditches and gates from the Cortaro Irrigation District. Great location near Marana Stockyards for those interested in performance horse activities that involve livestock. $825,000

ranchers have argued that the bison grazing proposal would ultimately remove land, which could otherwise be used for cattle grazing, out of production and decrease the amount of land available for ranchers.

Meanwhile,Amarillo has a new 3,000 head facility slated to break ground next year, Nebraska has been moving forward with a 1,500 head per day processing plant, and Missouri is welcoming a 2,400 head per day plant.The legislation is supported by a number of outside national and local agriculture groups, including the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, Livestock Marketing Association, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and U.S. Cattlemen’s Association.

120 +/- Acres of Farm Ground, Willcox, AZ – Located NW of Willcox in a good ground water area. 2 wells. Center piv ot. $468,000 Call Harry Owens

*SOLD* 90+/- Acre HP Bar Ranch, Benson, AZ – Perfect gentlemen’s ranch or private get-away. Backs up to USFS for endless riding possibilities. Fully fenced for cattle. 2 BR, 1 BA home; garage; steel barn w/two horse stalls, tack room & large hay storage; corrals; workshop. Expansive views. $595,000

*SOLD* 1,578 Acres of Land, McNeal, AZ – Currently used as grazing land for an adjacent ranch. Fenced with 2 wells. Seller will split. $500 per acre for all or $650 to $700 per acre for smaller parcels. located near the McNeal Farm we have listed above, and could be used as an

pastures. Historically has run 40 head of cattle yearlong. $1.3M

enators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) intro duced the Expanding Meat Processing Act of 2022 aimed at allowing livestock auctions to work with small and regional packing plants in early August.

“It should be a no-brainer to cut bureaucratic red-tape, eliminate outdated regulations that are hin dering the livestock industry, and increase processing capacity,” said Senator Ernst. “Allowing livestock auction owners to invest in local and regional meat packers will expedite the safe processing of meat, increase competition within the industry, and, ultimately, lower meat costs for consumers.”Thebill revises the Code of Federal Regulation acting as a com panion bill to the House’s A-Plus Act, the Amplifying Processing of Livestock in the United States Act. Currently, outdated regulations hin der producers’ ability to increase capacity at livestock processing facilities. The proposed legislation amends the Packers and Stockyards Act, remedying regulations that pro hibit livestock market owners from owning and operating meat packing plants.“Allowing livestock auction own ers to invest in local and regional meat packers will expedite the safe processing of meat, increase com petition within the industry, and, ultimately, lower meat costs for con sumers,” Ernst said.

Senators’ New Bill AuctionsProcessingMeatExpandsto

The July 28 decision issued by the BLM green lit bison grazing on an additional 63,500 acres of federal property.Montana state officials and local

*SOLD* 40+/- Acre Last Stand B&B Guest Ranch, Sonoita, AZ – An exceptional property in the grasslands of Sonoita, presently operating as a suc cessful wedding & equestrian event venue. The Territorial, twostory 4 BR, 4.5 BA main home has 4,110 s.f., & custom fea tures throughout. $1,675,000

will ultimately add to the insta bility of the world’s food supply,” KnudsenMontanacontinued.hasa roughly $4.72 billion agriculture industry and its ranchers operate an inventory of 2.2 million cattle.

by Thomas Catenacci, Fox News

2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 7 Advertise to Cattleman in MarketLivestocktheDigest

ontana filed a legal chal lenge against the Biden administration August 26, challenging a decision that take large swaths of land out of agricul turalTheproduction.filing, spearheaded by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, challenges a decision the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued in late July approving a request from the American Prairie Reserve (APR), a conservation non profit organization, to allow bison grazing across tens of thousands of acres in central Montana. The deci sion effectively took large swaths of federal land once used for livestock grazing out of production.

S

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The senators hope that the bi-partisan bill will be included in the Farm Bill, creating an avenue for increased competition in the pack ing industry’s marketplace while ultimately lowering meat prices for consumers. Currently, four process ing plants control over 85 percent of beef in the United States: Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef.Currently, beef packing expan sion is surging around the country. A fifth generation rancher in South Dakota plans to open an 8,000 head per day beef processing facility.

“The BLM’s decision ignores the real concerns of rural communities and ranchers who rely on the land in favor of elitist attitudes of those seeking to transform Northeast Montana into a wildlife viewing shed for tourists,” Knudsen told Fox News Digital. “Agriculture is not an easy way of life, but Montana ranch families – including my own – are proud of their history and heritage that is still a part of our state today.”

“As American Prairie Reserve occupies more and more land here, it pushes out ranching communities, threatens our livestock industry, and

*SOLD* 2,373+/- Acre Farm, Animas, NM – Custom 2560 +/- s.f. home built in 2008. 20-Acre pivot, 40’ x 60’ shop, 40’ x 50’ hay barn, fruit trees, chicken coop, garden area. Pivot produced 9.5 tons/ac of alfal fa in 2020. 300 gpm well. 5 pastures with water piped to 2 storage tanks and drinkers in all

HORSE PROPERTIES/LAND

*SOLD* 20+/- Acre Eques trian Property, Sonoita, AZ –Established horse training and boarding facility on +/-20-acres adjoining BLM land, panoram ic mountain v iews. Two mfg homes, 36’ x 160’ horse barn, barn/shop, equipment shed, hay shed, 10 shades/loafing sheds with corrals, +/-70’ x 90’ dressage and 160’ x 170’ fenced arena. There are also RV spaces with septic, a fire pit and a well. $650,000

THE BIDEN ADMIN ABANDONED RANCHERS ‘IN FAVOR OF ELITIST

“As the American Prairie Reserve occupies more and more land, it pushes these ranching communities out, threatening the livestock indus try and defying the very purpose of the federal laws BLM purports to uphold,” it continued.

Over the past 20 years, the APR has leased 334,000 acres of public land owned primarily by the fed eral government in addition to the 118,000 acres of private land it has purchased. The group’s mission is to eventually stitch together about 3.2 million acres of land and create the largest “fully functioning ecosystem” in the continental U.S. as part of a conservation project.

Montana Files Legal Challenge Against Biden Admin Over Plans to Take Land Out of Production

ndia says it plans to be net zero by 2070 and has introduced legislation that includes seeking 45 percent of electricity from non-fossil fuels and a form of carbon trading. For its part, China has scrapped all coopera tion to reach “net neutral” following Pelosi’s Taiwan visit. This formalises a position under which only the EU, UK, Japan, Korea and North America, collectively representing just a third of global CO2 emissions, have real action plans.

Before O’Neal began working on the W.T. Waggoner Estate in 1957, he worked at the historic J.A. Ranch in the Texas Panhandle for seven years. Although his cowboy years have included three large ranches with thousands of cattle, cowboying began for him on small spreads breaking broncs when he was only 13 years old.

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

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“Wes has left a lasting impres sion on all of us and left his mark at the Waggoner Estate and every where else he has been,” said A.B. (Buck) Wharton III, former owner of the W.T. Waggoner Estate. The Waggoner ranch grew to more than 520,000 acres spread over six Texas counties and was the nation’s larg est ranch under one fence before being sold in 2016.

In the US, Congress passed the deceptively titled Inflation Reduction Act. It allocates $740 billion for subsidies to wind/solar and electric vehicles plus a vast increase in tax collectors; in a triumph of hope over experience this is claimed to bring lower costs. It involved less funding than the $3.5 trillion originally proposed (and which 17 Noble Prize winners said would not be Includedinflationary!)issome $3.2 billion in tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration, a technology that, after 15 years, has no commercially suc cessful projects. Back in 2018, Al Gore blasted CCS, calling it an “extremely improbable solution.” Robert Bryce estimates that, aside from the extraction costs, to eliminate one half of US CO2 emissions by CCS would require underground locations equal to the contents of 41 oil supertankers each day, 365 days a year.

“I tell everybody that I left

school in the tenth grade because it was gettin’ in the way of my education,” Wes said, “but truly there wasn’t no money, Dad wasn’t workin’ and we had younger sib lings at home. The RO Ranch was the first big bunch of horses we broke.”Wes and Boots broke 20 broncs for the RO for $20 per head, pocketing $200 each (about $2,400 today). Then Wes went to work for two smaller ranches before joining Boots at the JA Ranch, which was established in 1875 as the first ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Wes eventual ly became Wagon Boss for the JA before working for the W.T. Waggoner Estate until it sold. Today he lives in Holliday, Texas, and day works for the Four Sixes Ranch near Guthrie, Texas.

A review and commentary on topical matters concerning the science, economics, and governance associated with climate change developments.

rupted years and served 12 years as Wagon Boss during his 17 years with the cattle operation. He spent 41 years with the Waggoner horse operation and 25 of those years as horse fore man directing the breeding of broodmares and stallions.“His insight into breeding horses laid WaggonerforgroundworkthetheW.T.Estate

being selected as having the best ranch horses in the country when it received the coveted American Quarter Horse Association Best Remuda Award in 1994,” Wharton said. “He traveled to Nashville to receive the award on behalf of the Waggoner Ranch.”

“The Working Cowboy Award is designed to recognize an out standing individual who makes his living primarily horseback caring for livestock on a daily basis,” said Jim Bret Campbell, director of the National Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. “Wes has spent nearly eight decades working for the W.T. Waggoner Estate, the JA Ranch and the Four Sixes Ranch.”

Page 8 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition

“If you’re gonna cowboy,” Wes said, “you accept the fact that you ain’t gonna ever be rich and you’re gonna get injured from time to time, but the trade-off is worth it to me. You’re not punchin’ no eight- to-five-time clock, and you get to see some beautiful sunrises sittin’ on your horse. As Buster Welch says, ‘That’s the best seat in the house.’”

All over Europe, energy intensive aluminium and zinc smelters are closing and factory output in general is declining. Poland has shut its gas dependent fertilizer production.

CIRCUIT BREAK

Wes O’Neal, recipient of the 2022 Working Cowboy Award, has spent nearly eight decades riding horseback for three of the largest and best-known ranches in the nation. The Working Cowboy Award is given annually by the Ranching Heritage Association, a nationwide non-profit organization supporting the programs of the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock. (Photo by Peter Robbins)

German gas costs have risen from one per cent to 8.4 percent of GDP. Italian bars and restaurant are displaying their energy bills to explain cost increases saying, “With increases in energy costs of 300 percent, we are working with a gun to our heads.”

Nicola Sturgeon celebrates Scotland’s “definitive end of coal power in a transition that the rest of the world needs to accelerate for the sake of the planet and future generations”. Not unrelated, the UK price cap (the annual price for the average household) was £1000 in winter 2020/21 will rise to £4,650 in January 2023 and is forecast to be £6,552 next April.

Texas Cowboy Wes O’Neal Named Working Cowboy Award Recipient

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Climate News – September 2022

by Alan Moran

es O’Neal, a Texas cow boy who has worked on three of the largest and best-known ranches in the nation, will be the fourth recipient of the Ranching Heritage Association Working Cowboy Award during the 44th Annual National Golden Spur Award dinner October 15 at the Overton Hotel in Lubbock.

The Ranching Heritage Association (RHA), a nationwide non-profit membership organiza tion supporting the programs of the center, sponsors the award on an annual basis to honor a working cowboy skilled in all aspects of ranch work and respected by the ranch crew and ranching commu nity.“Our Board of Directors believes it’s important to recognize those folks who brave all kinds of weather and conditions to ensure that work on a ranch gets done,” Campbell said, noting that award nominations for 88-year-old O’Neal described him as “the real deal” working cowboy who has served for decades as a role model for younger cowboys.

EU energy prices were up 41 percent in June 2022.

O’Neal worked at the W.T. Waggoner Estate for 58 uninter

Day-ahead wholesale electricity prices have surged to a record, nearly 10 times their 2012 to 2020 average.

These prices make the fuel costs of EV’s more expensive than those of petrol/diesel models. They have prompted likely UK PM, Liz Truss to announce a change of mind – she will now accelerate the release of new gas and oil exploration leases and will overturn the ban on fracking.

In Australia, the market manager, recognising that energy policies are forcing closure of reliable coal supplies and threaten blackouts, is calling for accelerated building of renewables and more transmission. In other words, the failed UK solution! The cost of batteries to firm up renewables in the absence of coal would be $500-$700 billion a year, or over one-quarter of GDP each year. Then there is the cost of the additional transmission and the wind/solar units themselves!

Having created an energy crisis, climate activists are moving to the next stage of controls. German greens are calling for requiring air conditioned temperatures not to be set below 27°C and a 19°C maximum heating tem perature, provisions that are already in place in Spain.

Japan is re-opening its nuclear plants, bringing back 17 out of a total 33 operable units, and planning new ones. Germany’s (Greens Party) Economy Minister Robert Habeck still wants to close the last three nuclear plants, which supply 6 percent of national output but coal plants continue to reopen. What date will Germany commit to building new nuclear or coal?

For Sterling Burnett, “As implausible as the inflation reduction stag ing of the Democrats’ pork-filled bill of special-interest fodder is, the claims being made about its effect on greenhouse gas emissions are pure fanta sy.” According to Anthony Watts, based on Lomborg’s estimates, we get between 0.028 and 0.0009°F reduc tion in temperature by 2100 for about 400 billion dollars in the US Climate Act. To achieve the 1.5°C reduction in temperature would cost half the global annualRogereconomy.Pielke shows the Biden administration’s pro posed massive decarboni sationJulietincrease.Samuel writes, oil exploration is halved as governments and corporate governance busybodies

“I was born in Clarendon (Texas) on November 30, 1933, right smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression,” O’Neal said. “There was no jobs and no money.” His father worked on the Mel B. Davis Ranch in the Panhandle but quit ranching for a higher paying job. Later when his father was sick and their house burned to the ground without the family saving anything, Wes and his brother Boots put up hay one summer pulling the machines with horse teams and then began break ing broncs for area ranchers.

But, noting that Australia’s greenhouse emissions have reduced by 21.6 per cent since 2005, about half of the government’s 2030 target, Climate Change Minister, Chris Bowen, said the nation needs more ambitious cli mate change policies.

Meanwhile, reprising Nero-Fiddles-While Rome-Burns, the EU is calling on members to intensify the emission control measures that have caused the energy price crisis.

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Source: Judicial Watch

tation.In one of the incidents agents identified 10 adults posting as UAC while in custody. CBP has a limited time to transfer UAC to HHS cus tody once the illegal border cross ers are vetted and there begins the journey to stay in the U.S. Bigger criminal enterprises are behind the imposter plots, according to federal authorities.“Transnational Criminal Organizations exploit migrants con

to even more criminal behavior by those already breaking the law entering the U.S. illegally. In El Paso alone, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirms that more than 655 adult migrants pos ing as minors have been busted in fiscal year 2022. Recently the agency announced that the El Paso Sector has recently seen an unusual amount of activity involving adults posing as minors to dodge depor

“The three were encountered, along with nine unaccompanied children from Guatemala and one adult,” CBP writes in a statement. “These individuals pose as minors in order to avoid expulsion.” In a sepa rate incident this month three males from Guatemala, ages 18, 25 and 26, intentionally posed as minors to remain in the U.S. Federal agents detected discrepancies between their stories and documentation present

As in the other cases, agents, though overwhelmed with an onslaught of illegal immigration, detected discrepancies during inter views. CBP warns that individuals who attempt to pose as unaccom panied children may face charges under American laws that prohibit false statements to federal agents and conspiracy to defraud the U.S.

around 2014-16, decided that the trashing “big oil” (and so on) was costless, popular and green. The upshot is that, “the market is broken and it is governments and do-good ers who broke it. They broke it wan tonly, recklessly, touting their saintly intentions,”Infighting

The special treatment has led

The last thing the country’s disas trous immigration system needs is more UAC. American taxpayers already spend a fortune to accom modate them through HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR),

s if the crisis along the southern border were not bad enough, adult illegal immigrants are posing as minors to enter—and stay in—the U.S. since typically those under 18 are welcomed with open arms. The government refers to them as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and hundreds of thousands have entered the country in the last few years. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is charged with caring for illegal aliens under the age of 18 and the agency spends millions of dollars annually to house, medically treat, entertain, and school UAC who come mainly from Central America. Undoubtedly, illegal immigrant minors are almost always allowed to remain in the U.S. and quickly disbursed to a government-funded shelter upon arrival at the border.

back against “Environment Social Governance” (ESG) diktats, West Virginia has boycotted U.S. Bancorp, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo from doing govern ment business because of their role in pushing ESG anti-coal agendas.

which funds and oversees dozens of state-licensed care facilities to house the young migrants when they arrive in the U.S.

2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 9

Texas already has bans and Florida plans a similar move. Sustainable funds took in $8.9 billion during the first seven months of the year, a sharp drop from the $45.1 billion they attracted during the same peri od in Richard2021.

Lindzen, William Happer and the CO2 Coalition sub mitted comments to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on cli mate-related financial risk, saying real science demonstrates there is no climate emergency and there are no climate-related financial or other risks caused by fossil fuels and CO2

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vincing them to pose as minors in order to be processed as such” said El Paso Sector Border Patrol Chief Gloria I. Chavez. “Identity fraud is a common tactic used by TCOs to take advantage of migrants who do not know the legal consequences of their actions as they attempt to deceive authorities.”

The frontline Homeland Security agency says three adults posing as minors were also discovered recent ly using counterfeit documenta tion at the El Paso Sector Central Processing Center in Texas. The ille gal immigrants, a 21-year-old female, 22-year-old female and 22-year-old male, are from Guatemala and were part of a group of 13 apprehended by federal agents in the area.

Border Patrol Busts Hundreds of Adult Migrants Posing as Minors to Dodge Deportation

To assist in ESG credibility, ANZ bank and the Australian gov ernment’s Clean Energy Financing Commission have teamed up to offer $200 million of discounted financ ing to business customers to invest in activities designed to cut their carbon emissions.

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DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Francis Menton destroys the fraudulent claims, like those below put out by the UN International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), that renewables are cheaper than fossilIRENA’Sfuels. renewables costs equate the output to the capacity, which is available only a quarter of the time. Renewables also require lots more transmission. Their true costs are 5-10-fold those stated.

ed in their failed attempt to pass as minors.Inyet another incident made public this month, CBP officers at El Paso’s Ysleta Station, which is responsible for 16.7 miles of inter national boundary along the Rio Grande River, discovered a group of what appeared to be eight minors later determined to be from Guatemala crossing the border ille gally. Two of the illegal immigrants pretending to be underage turned out to be imposters, according to the feds. One was a 22-year-old male and the other a 19-year-old female.

With respect to transmission, Thunder Said Energy estimates the global power grid will require four times the costs of present systems even to accommodate a 25 percent share of renewables.

In fiscal year 2021 ORR housed an unprecedented 122,731 UAC, according to government figures, and this year’s budget is a whopping $8.76 billion. HHS projects that in 2022 it will accommodate approx imately 149,000 and between 500 and 600 daily for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends in September.Lastyear the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrant minors in U.S. custody, approximately 72 percent, were over 14 years of age and 66 percent were male. Nearly half (47 percent) of the underage migrants came from Guatemala, 32 percent from Honduras, 13 percent from El Salvador and 8 percent from other countries. ▫

While USDA immediately went to work implementing the provisions, multiple lawsuits were filed – alleging that the provision was unconstitu tional because it violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment – and 3 courts have issued injunctions prohibiting USDA from issuing any payments, loan assistance, or debt relief pursuant to Section 1005.[2]

While Congressional leaders may have plans for including debt relief in another legislative vehicle, unless and until they do – or unless and until the courts rule on the pending cases or lift the existing injunctions – potentially eligible farmers and ranchers will have to keep waiting.

To date, USDA has implement ed provisions within Section 1006 of the American Rescue Plan Act, including standing up an indepen dent Equity Commission. USDA also has provided $75 million for partnership agreements with 20 organizations that will deliver tech nical assistance and support for underserved producers, including veterans, limited resources produc ers, beginning farmers and ranchers, and/or producers living in high pov erty areas on topics ranging from business development to heirs’ prop erty. USDA also received applica tions for at least another $25 million in partnership agreements for tech nical assistance and will announce awardees by fall.

Funding for Projects Benefiting Underserved Producers and Minority Serving Institutions that Create Career Development Opportunities for Next Generation Leaders

No Debt Relief for Certain Farmers & Ranchers

[3] www.farmers.gov/loans/american-rescue-plan

The end of the roundup clos es the latest tumultuous chapter of a decades-old battle between wild horse advocates and federal land managers. This one included attempted interventions by the gov ernor and a Colorado congressman, as well as accusations that young fillies and colts were stampeded in the heat, and that wranglers acci dentally ran horses into a dilapidat ed barbed wire fence hidden in thick sagebrush.Amustang advocacy group’s pho tography captured a horse, hooves up, tumbling over the fence. A BLM spokesman told The Colorado Sun that while those hazards are typi cally found and flagged before the helicopter flies, this 40-foot section of fence was missed in the brush. A veterinarian treated the horse’s cuts, but the animal was not seriously injured.Six horses were euthanized during the roundup, all because of chronic conditions and not from the helicopter chase, according to federal officials.

With the presumably expanded list of eligible borrowers, CBO estimated that the provision would cost $6.647 billion over the next 10 years.[6] Due, in part, to the price tag of the overall bill, the BBB has languished in the Senate for the last several months.

[6]

The event was the largest wild horse gather in Colorado history and there were “no critical incidents,” said Eric Coulter, a BLM public affairs specialist.

The last time the BLM captured horses via helicopter roundup in Piceance was in 2011, and the herd has grown by hundreds since then. Typically, population increases about 20 percent each year when there is no fertility management.

by Dr. Bart Fischer and Tiffany Dowell Lashmet for Southern Ag Today

[1]

[7]

RescueinMillionUpAnnouncesUSDAto$550AmericanPlan

HistoryRoundupWildLargestColorado’sHorsein

That will bring the number of wild horses removed from Colorado since last summer to about 2,000.

Wild horse advocacy groups have repeatedly called for an end to the gather, citing extreme heat and its

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Wranglers and a helicopter pilot herded and trapped 864 stallions, mares and foals during the past few weeks, with a plan to permanently remove about 750 horses from the rangeland near the Utah border.

“These funding opportunities are historic and part of USDA’s unwavering commitment to advanc ing equity for all, including peo ple who have been underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequali ty. When we address longstanding inequities, our entire country bene

In our review of the draft legislation, it does not appear that debt relief for farmers and ranchers of color was included.

by Jennifer Brown, The Colorado Sun

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n March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 into law. Section 1005 of the act required the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary to make payments to socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers “in an amount up to 120 percent of the outstanding indebtedness” of eligible producers for both direct and guaranteed loans administered by various USDA agencies.[1]

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related disciplines, with an empha sis on federal government sector employment. Eligible applicants are 1890 land-grant institutions, 1994 land-grant institutions, Alaska Native-serving institutions, Native Hawaiian-serving institutions, cer tified Hispanic-serving institutions and Insular Area institutions of higher education located in the U.S. territories. The deadline for appli cations is October 25, 2022. See the request for applications for full details.InFebruary, USDA released its Equity Action Plan (PDF, 500 KB), a framework for reckoning with USDA’s history of challenges with underserved communities, including Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian American and other farmers of color. USDA is committed to ensuring equity across all of its activities, which includes improving access to programs and services for all stakeholders and communities, especially underserved producers. Today’s announcement is the lat est in a series of announcements building momentum around USDA’s historic commitment to root out generations of systemic racism; center equity in decision-making and policymaking; have a diverse, modern and inclusive workforce; lower barriers to access; and ensure USDA programming is inclusive of all employees and all customers.

Source: USDA

he U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced up to $550 mil lion in funding to support projects that enable underserved producers to access land, capital, and markets, and train the next, diverse gener ation of agricultural professionals. These investments are made through funding provided in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Section 1006, as amended by Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act. These provisions fund and direct USDA to take action to help ensure under served producers have the resourc es, tools, programs, and technical support they need to succeed.

fits,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Land access, heirs’ prop erty, affordable credit and access to reliable markets – along with consis tent access to help from well-trained experts – are essential to strength ening our communities. USDA is equally committed to partnering with minority-serving institutions to establish exciting and fulfilling path ways for Next Generation leaders to have careers in agriculture, nutri tion, food, development, and in the federal government.”

In early August Senators Schumer and Manchin announced a joint agree ment to add various provisions from the BBB – via the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 – to the FY2022 Budget Reconciliation Bill.[7]

In the meantime, the Build Back Better Act (BBB) of 2021 – which passed the House on November 19, 2021 – sought to remedy the concerns raised about Section 1005 in the American Rescue Plan. Specifically, Section 12101 of the BBB amends Section 1005 of ARP, in part, by changing the focus of the debt relief to “economically distressed borrowers” with eligibil ity tied to eight (8) broad criteria ranging from debt delinquency metrics to whether the farm or ranch was headquartered in a county with a poverty rate of 20 percent or greater.[5]

www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ2/PLAW-117publ2.pdf

Of the 864 horses captured, fed eral officials and a local horse vol unteer group called the Piceance Mustangs selected 41 stallions to return to the wild. They were select ed based on bloodlines, color and markings, and body shape.

[5] www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-167/issue-201/house-section/article/H6375-4 www.cbo.gov/system/files/2021-11/hr5376_title_I_Agriculture.xlsx www.democrats.senate.gov/inflation-reduction-act-of-2022

Wranglers also kept 53 mares corralled in a temporary holding pen on the Piceance-East Douglas range. They will receive a fertility-control vaccine injection, and a follow-up shot in about 30 days, before they are released back to the rugged hills and valleys west of Meeker.

Learn more at www.usda.gov/ equity ▫

According to USDA, the injunctions “do not prohibit FSA from com pleting administrative actions leading up to payments, including providing payment notifications to potentially eligible borrowers.”[3] At the time of passage, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the provision would cost $3.98 billion over the next 10 years.[4]

Up to $300 million for “Increasing Land, Capital and Market Access” Projects Aimed at Helping Underserved Producers.

Federal officials plan to keep the herd, which had grown to about 1,400, to about 250 or fewer hors es with continued fertility-control treatments. They hope to avoid future helicopter roundups, Coulter said.“This gather is a big step to the future,” he said. “Our goal is to get to the point where it’s manageable.”

he third large-scale helicopter roundup of Colorado mus tangs within a year ended recently in dusty sagebrush country on the far western edge of the state, part of a massive effort by federal land managers to thin the wild horse population across the West.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity is seeking partner organizations for projects that increase access to land, capital, and markets. Projects should be innovative and help move underserved producers from surviv ing to thriving. Projects must focus on strengthening land access with at least one of the following relat ed areas of concern: capital access concerns that affect the ability to access land; market access concerns that affect the ability to access land; or a combination of one or more of land, capital, and market access concerns. The deadline for appli cations is October 28, 2022. The notice of funding opportunity will be available at grants.gov in the coming days.

[4] www.cbo.gov/system/files/2021-03/Estimated_Budgetary_Effects_of_hr1319_detailed_tables.xlsx

Today, USDA is taking additional steps to implement Section 1006 of the ARPA, as amended by Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act. Specifically, the Department is announcing:

$250 million for the “From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals” program to Create Career Development Opportunities for Next Gen Scholars at MinorityServing Institutions. USDA is com mitted to not only hiring, develop ing, and advancing a workforce that truly reflects America’s rich and diverse characteristics, but also to creating a workplace environment that is inclusive so that everyone can rise to their highest potential and flourish in supporting our mis sion. The need for growing the next generation of professionals is time ly and important. This competitive funding opportunity is aimed at attracting, inspiring, and retaining diverse and talented students at eli gible minority-serving institutions for careers in food, agriculture, and

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[2] See Holman v. Vilsack, 21-1085-STA-jay, Order Granting Motion for Preliminary Injunction (July 8, 2021); Miller v. Vilsack, 4:21-cv-00595-O, Order (July 1, 2021); Wynn v. Vilsack, 3:21-cv-00514-MMH-JRK, Order (June 23, 2021).

Page 10 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition

❚ Target specific types of products to test with under a sandbox program.

❚ Allow greater flexibility to attract companies from out-of-state instead of requiring applicants to establish a physical presence in the state.

tries experienced a decline despite the support provided by many of these countries’ currencies depreci ating against the US dollar over the same time period. Among the major producing and exporting countries, growth is expected to see a slight rise through Q3 and into Q4 2022, as higher production in the US and Brazil dominate the market.

Sandbox Programs Promote Innovation & Consumer Welfare

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During last summer’s heat and drought, the group hauled water from July 4 through November, DeGonia said. The winter was harsh, too, she said, noting that some of the horses “looked the worst I’ve ever seen” in the spring.

This spring, 145 horses cap tured from the West Douglas range died from equine flu in holding pens at a state prison complex in Cañon City. The horses had not been vaccinated against the flu despite arriving at the holding pens seven months earlier.

proximity to the spring foaling sea son. For years, they have tried to persuade the federal agency to stop helicopter roundups and instead control the horse population by making bigger investments in fertili ty vaccine operations. The American Wild Horse Campaign even ran tele vision ads in the Denver market opposing the roundup.

ccording to the latest beef report by Rabobank, the global beef market remains strong. Most beef retail prices (in domestic currencies) continued their upward trend in Q2 or remained steady, with most sitting between five percent and eleven percent higher than Q2 2021.

The question is: Will prices be trimmed?Evidence of declining consumer confidence in the face of slowing economies and rising inflation is building. In general, beef markets are resilient to changes in econom ic conditions. “However, we see movement within supply channels and price points that tend to favor cheaper options, such as ground beef and quick-service restaurants, over more expensive cuts and con sumption channels,” explains Angus Gidley-Baird, Senior Analyst –Animal Protein at Rabobank.

The horses from East Douglas were sent to a holding facility in Utah but many are expected to return to Colorado when they are put up for adoption this fall. ▫

© 2021 Purina Animal Nutrition LLC. All rights reserved. I

The Piceance roundup comes after two large roundups last sum mer and fall — in the Sand Wash Basin and in West Douglas, both in western Colorado.

than Purina. Unlike commodity blends fed to multiple animals, Purina’s goat feed is research-tested and unique to my species, formulated to optimize production and help producers achieve their operational goals. Learn more at your local retailer or go to purinamills.com/ImAGoat AM NOT COW.

While horse groups accused the BLM of stampeding horses in extreme heat, federal officials said they stayed within their temperature policy, which allows operations up to 95 degrees. The hottest tempera ture recorded by the BLM during the roundup was 92, Coulter said, and federal officials on site took the temperature every hour with a Kestrel weather device.

DeGonia noted that there were far fewer yearlings rounded up during the helicopter gather than she was expecting, making her won der how many didn’t survive the winter.Her favorite animal of all, a palomino stud named Buttermilk Biscuit, is among the horses that have wandered off the designated rangeland. He escaped the roundup, and she hopes he will return to the range, especially if the reduction in horses greens up the land.

Beef isChangeHold,ContinueMarketstobutComing

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2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 11

Regulatory “sandbox” programs allow companies to test new prod ucts and services under a modified and lightened regulatory framework for a limited period of time, as CEI research fellow Ryan Nabil details in a new report. These programs help regulators become more famil iar with technological innovation and give companies a safe space to experiment.Federal agencies and state regulators can run separate sandbox programs. As of now, states are taking the lead. At least 11 states have established regulatory sandboxes recently.

❚ Adopt a liberal entry criterion including removing any caps on the total number of firms that are allowed to participate in a given sandbox program.

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“I’m sad our horses had to go but I know that it’s the best thing for them and for the range,” she said. “Our goal is healthy horses on a healthyDeGoniarange.”and many of the other 55 members of the group, which was founded in 2018, have for years been hauling water tanks on trucks and installing solar-powered water

by Kent Lassman, President & CEO, Competitive Enterprise Institute

CEI remains committed to identifying and promoting policy solu tions that benefit modernization and improve consumer welfare. ▫

The group also repairs and removes old fences, using the barbed wire to make wreaths that the Piceance Mustangs sell at fund raising events. Some in the group are trained to shoot darts with the fertility vaccine, which requires good aim and getting within about 50 yards of a wild mare.

The governor’s office called some of the incidents, including photos of a pregnant mare running across the prairie and two horses running into the hidden fence, “troubling” and an example of why Polis is “motivated to work toward better longer-term systems that avoid these types of roundups in the future.”

“We knew it had to be done,” she said. “We knew it was coming and we knew it was for the best.”

ompanies should regularly test new, innovative products and ser vices that benefit consumers and investors. Innovation is critical to maintaining a globally-competitive economy. Yet governments seem intent on imposing cumbersome regulations that deter businesses from launching new products and services.

To read the full report, visit: https:// CvzngxqnMJvbVjqFMfcgzGqQJldQWCDXmail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/ ▫

“We expect consumption vol umes of trimmings to remain strong and potentially to increase in 2H 2022, as consumers are expected to trade down to lower-value beef cuts and cheaper proteins,” concludes Gidley-Baird.Cattlemarkets remain tight, sup portingMeanwhile,prices cattle markets remain favorable, supported by either seasonal conditions or by strong demand. Cattle prices in some coun

Some states are doing it better than others. As Nabil highlights, there are several steps states can take in order to design the most effective sandbox programs. These include:

wells to draw water from natural springs to help the thirsty hors es. The latest accomplishment was converting a well to solar on the brutally named Dead Horse Ridge.

Trimmings demand to lift as con sumers trade down

Kathy DeGonia, who is president of the Piceance Mustangs, helped federal officials choose which stal lions to release back to the wild. One of the goals of the group, which is a “friends of the BLM” group and often not on the same side as nation al mustang advocacy organizations, was to keep as much color in the herd as possible — stallions that are gray, sorrel, bay and black.

❚ Allow eligible firms of different sizes and from various sectors to apply to participate in a sandbox program.

Lawmakers and regulators must stay out of the way of entrepreneur ship, not squelch it. CEI has long fought for a more flexible, innova tion-friendly approach to the nation’s regulatory structure, and state-lev el regulatory sandbox programs are a novel and exciting application of our work that is changing America for the better. New technologies pose distinct opportunities and challenges in different industries, so a codified and one-size-fits-all regulatory approach is unlikely to harness the benefits of technological innovation across sectors.

Mustangs in the Piceance-East Doulgas rangeland in western Colorado. (Provided by WilsonAxpe Photography via the American Wild Horse Campaign)

Governor Jared Polis and his hus band, Marlon Reis, who is an animal rights advocate, also called for an end to the roundup, as did U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, from Lafayette. At the governor’s request, a state veterinar ian was allowed to attend the gather and check in on horses’ well-being throughout the operation.

PSG_GoatAdResize_NotACow_6x6_DRAFT_070921.indd 1 7/9/2021 8:36:33 AM

Wild horses at the East Cañon Correctional Complex on October 13, 2021, in Cañon City. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

What if instead government found ways to encourage innovation?

❚ Don’t use a rigid definition of innovation for selecting sandbox participants.

Tight global beef supplies and strong consumer demand pushed global beef prices to record highs over the past year. However, the spillover effects from the easing of Covid restrictions – rampant infla tion and slowing economic growth – are starting to impact consumers’ spending habits.

A helicopter rounds up horses in the Piceance-East Douglas herd management area in western Colorado. (Provided by WilsonAxpe Photography via the American Wild Horse Campaign)

Today, roughly 11.8 million cows are fattened on pastureland that covers more than half of the South American country, which is about the size of Missouri.

At the time, China wasn’t the dominant buyer it is today. Uruguay’s heavily indebted ranchers were also struggling with an overvalued cur rency and limited access to bank capital. Carrasco and his partners saw an opportunity to modernize the industry and make money by channeling novice investors into ranching.Uruguay has a tradition dating back at least a century in which small-scale cattle buyers entrust the care of their animals to friends or acquaintances in the ranching business, splitting the proceeds 50-50, often with only a gentlemen’s agreement. “That led to the end of many friendships,” Carrasco says, “because the cattle that died were always the withthe$1,250.450todayontosignedInvestorscattleranchingsomeonethe$15,000tal.investorserallypercentcentersranch,tors.breedingGanaderahestrongerrancher,Carrasco,investors’.”athird-generationadoptedthispracticewithinvestorsafeguards,andmadeitscalable.Conexiónbuyscalves,steers,andcowsinthenameofinvesItthenrentstheanimalstoawhichpaystheinvestor-ownafixedannualincomeof7perforcalvesandasmuchas11forbreedingcows.Attheendofthecontract,genbetween6and24months,getbacktheirinitialcapiMinimuminvestmentsrunfromto$50,000,dependingonnumberandtypeofcattle.Sowhoknowsnothingaboutcanbecomearegisteredownerforaslittleas$15,000.receiveagovernment-assymbol,whichishot-brandedtheiranimals.A250-kilogramsteerpurchasedforabout$700couldgrowtokilogramsinayearandsellforOfthat,$756wouldgotoownerand$454totherancher,ConexiónGanaderagettinga

People who know nothing about ranching can become registered owners for as little as $15,000 — and get their own brands.

The retail money flowing into cattle is a bet that bovines will con tinue to be a valuable asset, even as cow-produced methane comes under growing scrutiny by activists, consumers, and governments.

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Booming Beef Industry Has Urban Cowboys Lining Up to Buy Cattle in Uruguay

In a country with more than three cows for every person, cattle are deeply entwined with Uruguay’s history and identity. The rugged Iberian cows the Spanish introduced in the early 17th century gave way to Angus, Hereford, and other English breeds in the late 19th century. And the advent of refrigerated cargo ships contributed to a world-class meatpacking industry.

But an even bigger threat looms. The world’s livestock industry pro duces about 14.5 percent of annu al global greenhouse gas emissions related to human activity, with about two-thirds of that coming from cows, according to the most recent data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Carrasco, 65, is an agronomist and something of a local celeb rity, thanks to his frequent stints on a radio program where he and other guests debate current events. He founded Conexión Ganadera with his wife, Ana Iewdiukow, and another couple in 1999. Months earlier, thousands of angry farm ers and ranchers had marched on Montevideo under the slogan “Profitability or death.”

Uruguay consistently ranks among the top 10 global beef exporters, with its meatpacking plants shipping a record 423,390 metric tons (466,708 tons), worth more than $2.4 billion, in 2021. Although most of their beef ends up in European, US, and especial ly Chinese kitchens—two-thirds by volume goes to China—Uruguayans are also among the world’s largest beef eaters, with per capita con sumption of 46 kilograms (101 pounds) last year. By comparison, Americans ate a little less than 60 pounds per person in 2021.

Each year, a single cow will belch about 220 pounds of meth ane, according to researchers at the University of California at Davis. Flatulence accounts for a small por tion of a cow’s emissions, whereas

Carrasco’s company, Conexión Ganadera, manages about 120,000 cows on behalf of some 1,400 individual investors, most of them Uruguayan urbanites. Now he faces an enviable problem: He has a $30 million waiting list to buy cows, but no land for them to graze on. So his company is pitching pastures to prospective investors. “Our prob lem isn’t investors,” says co-found er Carrasco in an interview at his Montevideo office, adorned with cowhide rugs. “It’s finding places to put the cattle.”

O

POLLED HEREFORDS 719/456 1149 34125 Rd. 20, McClave, robbherefords@gmail.comCO Registered & Commercial Tom Robb Sons& T R S

by Ken Parks, Bloomberg

Cattle grazing at La Pituca ranch in the northern province of Tacuarembó.

Source: Conexión Ganadera

ver 23 years, Pablo Carrasco’s Uruguayan cattle manage ment company built a $100 million herd. Along the way, he’s turned a generation of city slickers into profitable ranchers.

fee of $40 per head, Carrasco says. And if one or more cows die? The cattle leases allow Conexión Ganadera to take some of the pro ceeds that would have gone to the rancher from the sale of other ani mals on the same ranch. This redis tribution mechanism gives ranchers a financial incentive to take good care of their owners’ assets. That, plus the rapid appreciation in a cow’s value, means no investor has lost money since the company was founded, though Carrasco says a major die-off at a ranch could lead to losses.Think of it as owning stock in stock: An investor purchases an asset, cows, whose price is set in the local cattle market. The care of those animals is entrusted to Conexión Ganadera, which is akin to corporate management. Except the investment performs more like a certificate of deposit, paying a fixed rate of return to investors, who get their capital back after a defined period. Carrasco eschews the term “interest rate” to avoid regulatory scrutiny.Turns out, the cattle investments that Conexión Ganadera and its competitors pitched became so pop ular—and the marketing tactics of some companies so aggressive—that the Central Bank of Uruguay about three years ago began investigating whether they were offering unautho rized financial services. In February it even warned the public that com panies advertising cattle and farm investments weren’t subject to its oversight.Thecentral bank wrapped up its probe of Conexión Ganadera in July without taking any action, according to a document viewed by Bloomberg. Without commenting on Conexión Ganadera in particular, the central bank says it found no wrongdoing in two cases, ordered two companies to cease advertising their products, and continues to investigate five other companies.

It appears to be quite a stretch to assert a direct link between tempera tures and the most recent flooding incident. A stretch the enviros and Biden are willing to take in order to get their programs approved and funded.

In 1927, a Kentucky newspaper reported a massive flood that killed 16 people “Homes are destroyed, livestock and poultry drowned, and

whole farms practically ruined,” the story said. “The fury of the flood far exceeded anything that has ever hit this area in its history.”

purchased by an outfit named American Prairie to establish a Bison Preserve in Montana. Their goal is to acquire 3.2 million acres. If completed, the preserve will be “be roughly the size of Connecticut and 25 percent larger than Yellowstone.”

The Foundation is aware of a report and display boards prepared by Wesley Dutton (the “Dutton Materials”) that, beginning in 2020, were disseminated within the industry. The Foundation also is aware that the Dutton Materials are alleged to contain negative statements about a number of people and entities, including Clay and Karen Parsons and their business Marana Stockyard. The Foundation understands that its former Board President, Suzanne Menges, and others have been accused of assisting Dutton in the preparation and dissemination of the Dutton Materials. The Foundation states unequivocally that any such actions were without its knowledge or consent, and it disclaims any of the statements about the Parsons and Marana Stockyard in the Dutton Materials. Such activities are unrelated to any proper function or the mission of the Foundation.

The leader of a local proper ty rights group, United Property Owners of Montana, says the wealthy donors to the project are only interested in having a tax-de ductible donation and don’t care about production agriculture.

The Foundation is aware of a report and display boards prepared by Wesley Dutton (the “Dutton Materials”) that, beginning in 2020, were disseminated within the industry. The Foundation also is aware that the Dutton Materials are alleged to contain negative statements about a number of people and entities, including Clay and Karen Parsons and their business Marana Stockyard. The Foundation understands that its former Board President, Suzanne Menges, and others have been accused of assisting Dutton in the preparation and dissemination of the Dutton Materials. The Foundation states unequivocally that any such actions were without its knowledge or consent, and it disclaims any of the statements about the Parsons and Marana Stockyard in the Dutton Materials. Such activities are unrelated to any proper function or the mission of the Foundation.

BISON PRESERVE

Well, that’s in Montana so it doesn’t affect me you say You may believe you are not a target. If so, listen to Pete Geddes with American Prairie. When asked why they chose this area for the project, he said because there was a declining pop ulation and “perhaps there’s greater potential for less conflict over con servation in this part of the world.”

Also note this admits there is a conflict between people and conser

ARIZONA CATTLE INDUSTRY Research and Education Foundation PO Box 2619 Mesa AZ 85214-2619

Access to grazing land is key if Conexión Ganadera is to increase the number of cows under manage ment. The company has already pur chased about 2,000 hectares, paying more than $5 million for land on behalf of clients since it started offering land as an investment in June.The land is leased to a ranching company, owned by Carrasco and Iewdiukow. Investors get an annual return of 3 percent with potential upside from the sale of carbon cred its and price appreciation. At the end of the 10-year contract, the land will be Carrascosold. says land prices are at a temporary plateau before notch ing their next upward movement. The average price per hectare rose 6 percent, to almost $3,500, in 2021, according to data compiled by the agriculture ministry. That’s still below the record $3,934 set in 2014.He’s also bullish on the outlook for meat demand, with the UN fore casting protein consumption rising 70 percent through 2050. Carrasco even welcomes the emergence of new food technologies such as cell-cultured meat that will compete with slaughtered beef.

the rest—about 95 percent—comes out as burps.

Biden, Bison & Big Brother

And so it goes throughout Kentucky history.

vation. Yet when the feds acquire lands, they claim to do so to allow public access to the area, when in fact they do just the opposite. They exclude people. all in the name of conservation.Recallthat American Prairie is the same outfit that filed for a per mit to graze bison on BLM land. Montana’s Attorney General says this would be illegal “This is federal land that is specifically — by the Taylor Grazing Act, by federal law — set aside for livestock grazing. Bison are not livestock, even under federalApparently,law.” that was of no inter est to the BLM who have just issued a permit to American Prairie to graze sheep on over 60,000 acres of federal land.

Let me close by saying thank you for the well wishes received while I’ve gone through a series of health issues. And a special thanks to Chris Allison and Joe Delk for their timely help.Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch. ▫

The Arizona Cattle Industry Research and Education Foundation (“Foundation”), founded in 1982, is a charitable, educational and scientific support organization for the benefit of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association (“ACGA”). The Foundation supports Arizona’s cattle industry by carrying out exclusively scientific, charitable and educational activities for the benefit of and in connection with the ACGA. The ACGA and the Foundation are related, but separate entities. Both entities work independently toward the common goal of protecting, promoting, and sustaining Arizona cattle ranching for present and future generations.

Clay and Karen Parsons & Marana Stockyard

“Give us a hand, because we aren’t going to be able to keep up with demand in the future,” he says. ▫

It occurred to me that if this was indeed something unique or unprec edented in Kentucky, then perhaps it could be blamed on the environ ment. However, if you look up the history of flooding in Kentucky you will find something quite different.

As a global warming agent, methane is about 80 times more potent in its first two decades in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, leading a UN panel to warn that global methane emissions must be reduced by a third by 2030 to slow the planet’s warming. That goal has given environmentalists powerful fodder in their campaign to per suade people to shun beef in favor of more plant-based diets.

Governor Keen Johnson said, “The worst catastrophe in the history of Kentucky has fallen upon our peo ple in the valleys of the rivers and streams of Kentucky and the Ohio River.”Ina 1939 flooding incident, A USGS report said in one creek the water rose 20 feet in 10 minutes. Residents said it was “a 15-foot wall of water crashing down the valley.”

In the Foundation’s opinion, the negative statements in the Dutton Materials about the Parsons and Marana Stockyard are false. To the best of the Foundation's knowledge, after diligent consideration, the Parsons and Marana Stockyard have never engaged in cattle theft, have no connections to criminal organizations, and do not participate in political corruption. In fact, the Foundation understands that investigations by the Arizona D epartment of Agriculture, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Cochise County Sheriff have determined that Wesley Dutton and the Dutton Materials are unreliable and contain unsubstantiated claims.

The beef industry needs to lower its greenhouse gas emissions, espe cially methane, as soon as possible, says Katie Anderson, a director at the Environmental Defense Fund. “We need to be able to feed the world without warming the planet,” says Anderson, who urges investors to demand that the companies they invest with set science-based targets to reduce emissions and establish milestones to get there.

In January-February of 1937 there was flooding on the Ohio River with Louisville being 70 percent covered by water, forcing 175,000 persons from their homes.

Uruguayan authorities are start ing to take the global warming threat to the country’s top export industry seriously. The government has set up a task force to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of meat by restoring degraded pasturelands that soak up carbon and boosting cattle birthrates to produce more meat from the same herd.

The Foundation makes known here its full support of and belief in the integrity of the Parsons and Marana Stockyard. The Board of Trustees of the Foundation acknowledges and thanks Clay and Karen Parsons and their business, Marana Stockyard, for their service, support and contributions to the Foundation. For nearly 25 years, the Parsons and Marana Stockyard have generously and tirelessly contributed their time and resources to the Foundation by participating in fund-raising activities that have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the Foundation’s mission. The Arizona cattle industry h as been well served by the integrity with which the Parsons conduct the business of Marana Stockyard.

In the Foundation’s opinion, the negative statements in the Dutton Materials about the Parsons and Marana Stockyard are false. To the best of the Foundation's knowledge, after diligent consideration, the Parsons and Marana Stockyard have never engaged in cattle theft, have no connections to criminal organizations, and do not participate in political corruption. In fact, the Foundation understands that investigations by the Arizona D epartment of Agriculture, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Cochise County Sheriff have determined that Wesley Dutton and the Dutton Materials are unreliable and contain unsubstantiated claims.

P

Carrasco bristles at what he con siders the unfair vilification of cat tle for their contribution to global warming. He’s convinced scientific studies eventually will prove that grass-fed livestock systems such as Uruguay’s actually sequester more greenhouse gases than they emit. “Conexión Ganadera’s program to fight climate change is to have ever more cows,” he says.

If you live in a rural area with a declining population, then you may at some time become a target. And this is the official policy of our gov ernment, The predator is subsidized in pursuing its prey.

resident Biden and his crew recently toured flood-ravaged Kentucky and used the occa sion to push their climate change agenda. The President’s spokesman said, “The floods in Kentucky and extreme weather all around the country are yet another reminder of the intensifying and accelerating impact of climate change…”

A non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation organized to carry out the scientific, charitable and educational purposes of the Arizona Cattle Industry.

The Arizona Cattle Industry Research and Education Foundation (“Foundation”), founded in 1982, is a charitable, educational and scientific support organization for the benefit of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association (“ACGA”). The Foundation supports Arizona’s cattle industry by carrying out exclusively scientific, charitable and educational activities for the benefit of and in connection with the ACGA. The ACGA and the Foundation are related, but separate entities. Both entities work independently toward the common goal of protecting, promoting, and sustaining Arizona cattle ranching for present and future generations.

ARIZONA CATTLE INDUSTRY Research and Education Foundation PO Box 2619 Mesa AZ 85214-2619

A non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation organized to carry out the scientific, charitable and educational purposes of the Arizona Cattle Industry.

Over 250,000 acres have been

2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 13

Statement of the Arizona Cattle Industry Research and Education Foundation:

The Foundation makes known here its full support of and belief in the integrity of the Parsons and Marana Stockyard. The Board of Trustees of the Foundation acknowledges and thanks Clay and Karen Parsons and their business, Marana Stockyard, for their service, support and contributions to the Foundation. For nearly 25 years, the Parsons and Marana Stockyard have generously and tirelessly contributed their time and resources to the Foundation by participating in fund-raising activities that have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the Foundation’s mission. The Arizona cattle industry h as been well served by the integrity with which the Parsons conduct the business of Marana Stockyard.

BIDEN’S FLOOD

Statement of the Arizona Cattle Industry Research and Education Foundation: Clay and Karen Parsons & Marana Stockyard

“My tractor’s broken down. My shredder fell apart. I can’t fix it. A used tractor that’s about 15 years old is going to cost $120,000. I can’t afford it. Then the drought came. I had two places run out of water. I had to sell 40 head of momma cows.”Blackburn said she can expect to receive $800 or $900 per head of cattle if she decides to sell her ranch and move However,on. if she chooses not to sell, she would need thousands to purchase feed, vaccines, and fertil izer to plant wheat—her only cash crop. It costs about $700 to produce one acre of wheat at today’s prices— more than double last season.

Foster said the key to survival in the cattle business is to diversify. While agriculture is an option, it’s becoming less so as the wheat fields on his property wither from thirst. His small oil operation yields about a barrel a day to provide supplemen tal income.“Thisis your livelihood. You walk around the cattle every day. You see them, raise them from babies, now you’ve got to sell them because of the drought. They’re like family—they are your family.”

“I’m 50 years old. Mental stress can eat you alive. There’s a high sui cide rate [among ranchers]—espe cially in the dairy business where I came from,” Foster said.

Many ranchers have been forced to sell their cattle on the open mar ket or risk losing everything in the continuing drought.

Cattleman Kyle Foster points to the low water level in one of many watering holes on his 5,000-acre ranch in Cross Plains, Texas, on Aug. 10, 2022. Small ranch owners across the state face losing their livelihoods during the worst drought in over a decade. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Blackburn looked out at her drought-stricken property through her picture window, and the tears

Emory Livestock Auction, a cat tle sale barn located 60 miles east of Dallas, reported on its website on July 9 that 527 sellers had sold 3,495 cattle—up substantially com pared to previous months in 2021.

“I have watched my great-grand parents, grandparents, and my par ents die young. Their bodies run down and weak, their minds over whelmed with stress, and their bank accounts empty. They gave every thing they had for our way of life.”

Blackburn admits she is emo tionally exhausted.

heila Payne Blackburn always believed that cowgirls were a special breed that never quit when things got tough.

are gone. Her money is gone. And soon, her cherished way of life may be gone, barring some miracle.

“It’s extremely tough right now. We’ve been through lots of droughts before, but this one is unprecedent ed. You always get little showers off and on. But we haven’t had any showers to speak of at all. That’s the difference with this one.”

According to the U.S. Drought

The grasshoppers infesting his hay fields compound his problems as they swarm up in front of him, walking through the dry, brittle grass.“They just fly up like crazy and eat up the dry grass, whatever is left [to feed] the cows,” he said. “When it gets dry, grasshoppers thrive on any food source left.”

S

A

Now she knows even the sturdi est of them have their limits.

never give up, get back in the sad dle, cowgirls don’t cry, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, hang tough, and every other cowboy expression you can think of,” Blackburn said in a letter she posted on Facebook.

She doesn’t want to sell her chil dren’s legacy to a real estate devel oper or solar farm company. But today, at 53, her pride and spirit are broken. Her strength and passion

He said that the financial stress in his line of work can be as devas tating as any drought, so it’s best to roll with it.

His parents and their parents taught him early on that prosperity comes to those who keep their faith and work hard. And for many years, it did, rain or dry spell.

“I was raised never to back down,

“I know three that took their lives. You go into debt so much that the stress will eat you alive.”

Blackburn believes her father did everything he could to make the farm work after “putting up every thing he had.” But there were forces beyond his control—inflation driv ing up the cost of everything: fuel, engine oil, fertilizer, hay, and feed to manage a 2,000-acre farm with 100 head of cattle.

Kyle Foster of Cross Plains examines a young foal on Aug. 9, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

by Allan Stein, Epoch Times

Other small ranch owners in Cross Plains, a rural agricultural town of 982 residents near Abilene in Callahan County, aren’t faring much better during the state’s worst drought in more than a decade.

“Before, you got a couple of inches of rain a month. You just haven’t had anything—zero rain,” Foster told The Epoch Times.

worked for all these years.

But this time, it’s different. This time, standing in the middle of a dying hay field in 90-plus degree heat, Foster knows the killer drought of 2022 could destroy everything he

reliable business partner is difficult to come by. Contact Radale Tiner to locate Angus genetics, select marketing options tailored to your needs, and to access American Angus Association® programs and services. Put the business breed to work for you. Radale TexasNewRegionalTiner,ManagerMexico © 2020-2021 American Angus Association 3201 Frederick Ave. | St. Joseph, MO 64506 816-383-5100 | www.ANGUS.org Contact Regional Manager Radale Tiner: Cell:rtiner@angus.org979-492-2663 Angus. America’s Breed. A reliable business partner is difficult to come by. Contact Radale Tiner to locate Angus genetics, select marketing options tailored to your needs, and to access American Angus Association® programs and services. Put the business breed to work for you. Radale TexasNewRegionalTiner,ManagerMexico © 2020-2021 American Angus Association 3201 Frederick Ave. | St. Joseph, MO 64506 816-383-5100 | www.ANGUS.org Contact Regional Manager Radale Tiner: Cell:rtiner@angus.org979-492-2663

“People have come back and said to sell the farm and walk away,” Blackburn told The Epoch Times.

The crippling drought came after her father passed.

Page 14 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition Angus. America’s Breed.

On August 6, 2022, nearly 400 sellers sold 2,201 heads of cattle.

“We’ll continue to cull down [cattle] until we run out of hay. With the beef, we can sell out and buy back [cattle]. You want to survive and not have to buy back.”

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“The diesel prices are outra geous,” Blackburn said. “Anywhere you try to repair your equipment, it’s going to take you forever to get [parts]—or it’s triple the price now.

The Extraordinary Challenges Texas Ranchers are Facing

A

When her father died of COVID19 in early 2021, Blackburn found herself alone to continue the farm and ranch that had been in her family for 150 years. The business she inherited was $250,000 in debt with aging machinery needing costly repairs.The cowgirl in her told her to press on for her family’s sake.

Kyle Foster has been raising cat tle on a 5,000-acre family ranch in Cross Plains since he was a boy. His grandfather’s burial plot is just across the hill on rolling amber grassland as far as the eye can see.

Cattle rancher

“What they don’t realize is it’s a whole different heart for us. The land is a piece of you. It’s a piece of your heritage. It’s what God told us to do—to take care of the land and the “Ifanimals.Iwalk away and sell every thing, every day I pass this [land], I’ll see it split up and sold to other people in the city who have good jobs and can afford it.”

Foster said if the drought doesn’t finish off his hay fields, the grass hoppers will if he doesn’t keep spraying with insecticide.

began to flow. After all, cowgirls are only“Whathuman.did [my parents] work for—wind turbines? I couldn’t do it. I don’t think I could do it. Sorry.”

Her son offered to work on the ranch to help ease her burden; Blackburn can’t afford to pay him. She feels relief that her father isn’t around to see her struggle, and now has set her hopes on a small side business selling packaged beef in Cross“Today,Plains.Iam tired of the heat, the wind, the drought. Today I know it is only me, and no one will probably take over [the ranch]. Today I won der what I’m fighting for. Today I am weak. Today I think I am through,” Blackburn said in her letter.

All that’s left to feed his cattle are the still edible patches of grass and rolled hay bails stored up just in case.“Dad always taught us that in the cattle business, you keep a two-year supply,” Foster said.

Foster said what matters to him most is what comes after this life.

Foster views his business through the lens of his Christian faith and the traditional values instilled in him growing up. He doubts he’ll ever sell his property, no matter what happens.Raising cattle is in his family’s blood and soul.

We’re spending it.”

“That’s what they’re doing— [small ranchers] are selling out. I saw the writing on the wall late last year. I knew something was coming because we were due a drought.

While the Dust Bowl of the 1930s stands out as the most signif icant drought event of the past cen tury, regional droughts have plagued several parts of the United States sinceThe2000.NIDIS said that by 2012, the regional droughts had combined into a “national-scale event” not seen in Two-thirdsdecades.of the lower 48 states were in drought by September 2012. “Many began to speculate that it was as severe as the drought episodes of the 1930s and 1950s.”

ones

To lose one’s livelihood will hurt only for a short time. “But eternity is an eternity.”

Sheila Payne Blackburn sits on her front porch overlooking her 2,000acre ranch in Cross Plains, Texas, on Aug. 9, 2022. After losing her father to COVID-19, Blackburn is now facing financial hardship due to extreme drought gripping much of the state. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

REASON TO HOPE

We’re not

“You’re buying hay, you’re buy ing feed, and if it doesn’t rain and you run out of water, you can’t run enough water to the cows to hold onto“There’sthem.” not a lot of [profit] in a cow and calf operation. With fuel going up and with feed going up, there’s not much margin in it.”

“The biggest blessing I’ve got out here since I’ve worked on a farm is my Dad taught me a work ethic that his Dad taught him,” Foster said.

Monitor, 92 percent of the state of Texas remains in a drought. Thirty percent of the state is in extreme drought, and 10 percent is in excep tional drought, including Callahan County.The

Next to driving a truck hauling rock, “ranching was my second job,” Carouth told The Epoch Times.

“We haven’t had rain in a monthand-a-half. Our ponds are going dry. There’s no grass. You’ve got hay gougers asking $120 or $140 a roll when it’s [usually] $40 a roll.”

“If the small farmer goes away, everything becomes industrialized and“Corporationscommercialized.and big farms take over. Food prices become more concerning because the small farm er is gone.”

“People are getting out now who won’t get back in it. Some of these people that own cattle are going to lease“Theout.”only people making any money are the slaughterhouses. the making money.

“Whether we survive on the farm or not, I’m not worried about it. There are more important things than the farm, cattle, and legacy.”

“Same with everything else; it’s all downhill.”With200 cows and calves in his operation, Franke said he’s con cerned about the money and time invested in the business.

“Right now, it’s the lack of rain fall. The rain just quit and stayed that way,” Taff, 67, said. “When it’s super-hot out here, I don’t even work the cattle.

At Jean’s Feedbarn restaurant in Cross Plains, cattle ranchers Brent Key, Ricky Carouth, and Michael Franke were having breakfast together and talking politics.

In Canton, Texas, population 4,229, about 218 miles east of Cross Plains, Police Chief Brad Allison runs a small cattle ranch with a dozen heifer cows.

At the same time, the slaugh terhouses are making considerable profits in the current buyer’s market, he said.“It’ll rebound—it always does— some people will be cut out,” Allison told The Epoch Times.

I’m running right now.”

95 heads of cattle facing a difficult decision: whether to sell or hold on.

Cattleman Kyle Foster rides a Kawasaki all-terrain vehicle to get around his 5,000-acre Texas property and leans against a rolled hay bale on Aug. 9, 2022. Foster said he normally keeps a two-year supply of hay in case of unforeseen circumstances, including drought. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

“Everything I’ve planted has

“If you can hold onto your cows, I think the market will strengthen. It comes back to supply and demand. But it will take a lot of money to hold onto what we have.

Allison believes that if the small cattle rancher goes under, there won’t be enough full-time ranchers to meet the demand for beef.

Still, Franke feels optimistic that the market will eventually rebound.

2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 15

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) notes that only 14 percent of the United States experienced severe to extreme drought between 1895 and 2010.

Allison expressed his frustration with the price of hay in a recent Facebook post. He lamented that 10,000 head of cattle had been sold in three counties in three weeks as small cattle ranches were “drown ing.”“The cattlemen don’t have a chance. We are getting priced out of existence. Pray for your ranchers to be able to hang in there.”

Foster has seen some of his water tanks (watering holes) go completely dry in the current drought. Though fortunate to have a well-water back up system, other local ranchers “don’t have that luxury. It makes it tough for “They’llthem.”lastthrough a drought, but not this one. The problem is you can survive a drought most of the time. Then you throw in the high fuel prices and the issue of trying to get parts. The labor force in farming isn’t there anymore. It’s not an easy job,” Foster said.

George Taff of Cross Plains is another small ranch owner with

Editor’s Note: At last at least some of the media are reporting on the real world.

As small ranchers leave the business in larger numbers, other industries are moving in to fill the vacuum, he said.

He sold 60 cows last year after he saw the “writing on the wall.”

“This year, it’s $165 to $170 a roll. I’ve seen some go for around $200, so it’s tripled. It’s not avail able here. A lot of your grass hays are coming from Louisiana and Mississippi. The transportation cost is a killer. I’m working on last year’s hay right Withoutnow.”rain, his oat crops and rye-grass have died. Money, time and effort gone to waste.

“I sold 60 momma cows. I [nor mally] run about 60 heads in three pastures. I thought you know what? The price is fair right now. Then I bought a dozen heifers. That’s all

“What’s buying up our land right now are solar companies, making solar farms. Acres and acres and acres of them,” Allison said.

▫

“I don’t have anything right now. I sold them all. No rain. No grass. No water,” said Carouth, who liqui dated 171 heads of cattle because of drought and inflation.

“I’m the fourth generation on the same land. We wanted to retire here and run cattle. My kids want to do it. But I’m not sure it’s going to be a viable opportunity” because of inflation and a bad economy, Franke told The Epoch Times.

“Feed is dramatically up. The cost of hay has risen dramatically. Last year I could get it delivered at $60 to $65 a roll,” Taff told The Epoch Times.

pretty much died,” he said. “If I don’t find some hay pretty fast, I’m going to be forced to sell [cattle] because I can’t feed them.”

‘OUR PONDS ARE GOING DRY’

Allison said the challenges for the small rancher in Canton are the same as in other drought-ravaged parts of Texas.

Association, the local co-op, was helped by Guzman, a wholesale power provider, in financing its $136.5 million exit from the TriState Generation and Transmission Association. Tri-State required the co-op to buy 95 percent of its elec tricity from the association.

The NREL research has also shown that pairing agriculture and solar panels can yield a dual payoff.

Sheep grazing turns out to be a more cost effective and safer way of managing landscaping and weed control than bringing motorized machinery that could damage panels by kicking up rocks or colliding with installations, Macknick said.

In a new book, Climate Change as Class War, Huber sets out how the fossil fuel system is inextricably tied to an economic system that continually leads to greater concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Yes, it’s true that Jenner, or Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk and others, are contributing to climate meltdown with their superyachts and private jets and the like – but what, Huber asks, about the people who sold them the fuel in the first place?

The Delta County Planning Commission has already approved the revised project and the county commissioners are set to vote on it Aug.“Guzman16. has made an effort to show this will work,” said Natasha Leger, executive director of Paoniabased environmental group Citizens for a Healthy Community. “No other project in the county has been given the same amount of scrutiny and required the same levels of condi tions.”The Delta-Montrose Electric

And yet that is not even half the story, since the impact of the world’s wealthiest people is not only their consumption, but in the realm of produc tion, from where the super-rich obtain their wealth, says Matthew Huber, professor of geography at Syracuse university in New York.

Koontz, in an email, declined to comment since the project is before the commission. Lane did not reply to an email request for comment.

To address the concerns of Koontz, a former coal industry geol ogist, and Lane, a former oil field services company employee, about lost farmland, Guzman has contract ed with Sperry Livestock Corp. in Delta to manage the farm operations and“Wegrazing.expect more than 1,000 sheep to graze on the irrigated fields,” Messenger said.

Joe Sperry would be providing the sheep and the management of the animals and property at Garnet

by Damien Gayle, The Guardian “E

It was posted days after Jenner, it subsequently emerged, took her private jet on a flight that lasted just 17 minutes. That might not sound like much, but it was estimated to have belched a ton of carbon into the atmosphere –about a quarter of the annual carbon footprint of the average person globally.

The site will now include “a robust irrigation system” of sprin klers, gated pipes and drip tubes, recommended by Montrose-based Morales Engineering and Consulting, and some 1,000 sheep from a local grower will graze on the fields.

Jenner’s conspicuous carbon consumption became a catalyst for a wave of reporting on the use of private jets by the rich. And not just the super-rich. In the Guardian we reported on Disney’s marketing of a $110,000 roundthe-world package holiday with a carbon price tag of 6.2 tons for each of its 75 paying guests. That’s about 20 times more than the 0.3 ton average of someone in a low-income country, according to the World Bank.

Mesa. “I haven’t done anything like this before, but it’s been done in lots of places,” Sperry said.

T

Colorado County Thought Solar Panels Were a Baaaaad Idea. But What if There Were 1,000 Sheep Grazing Under Them?

At the Arizona test site, growing tomatoes in the shade of the solar panels reduced water consumption 30 percent and doubled the crop yield. At the same time, all the vegetation under the arrays created a “microclimate” that was 9 degrees Celsius cooler, helping to boost solar production by 2 percent.

But it is becoming increasingly clear that such efforts, while by no means unnecessary, are less than a drop in the ocean. Nothing drove this home more this summer than another Instagram post: Kylie Jenner’s picture of her and partner Travis Scott standing in front of two private jets, captioned: “you wanna take mine or yours?”

Consumption like this has made the richest 1 percent of the world’s population responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the poorest 50 percent – 3.1 billion people – in the last 25 years, according to Oxfam. And as inequality continues to grow, so will their disproportionate impact. By 2030, Oxfam predicts, the carbon footprints of the world’s rich est 1 percent will be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement.

Guzman received a 12-year con tract to provide DMEA with power and the Garnet Mesa project would be the first major development in their partnership and enable the co-op to reach 20 percent local generation.“Webelieve the Garnet Mesa solar project is a meaningful project for our members that will produce local and affordable renewable ener gy and millions of dollars of tax base revenue,” Kent Blackwell, DMEA’s chief technology officer, said in an email.DMEA estimates that the instal lation will pay $13 million in proper ty taxes over the next 15 years.

Sperry said he will likely be rotat ing the sheep around set areas. “The main thing is to get this designed properly,” he said.

“If governments can’t do attack the most egregious instances of luxury emissions, then ordinary people will have to,” he adds. “I think the next step for that kind of activism to go after private jets and super yachts and other monstrous machines for luxury emissions. It’s not that we’re done with SUVs. That campaign just needs to multiply and spread further and intensify. But there are more targets than SUVs.”

The Garnet Mesa project accounts for a little more than one-thousandth of the 26,846 acres of Delta County’s farmland in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s last assessment in 2017.

For decades, climate change has been understood by the public as a crisis in which we are all implicated. Environmental campaigns exhorted us all to turn off our lights, buy more fuel efficient cars, recycle as much as possible – our consumption had to be adapted to minimize our impact on the planet.

Flying is without a doubt the most egregious example of carbon profliga cy by the rich, according to Andreas Malm, professor of human ecology at Lund University, Sweden, and author of influential polemic How To Blow Up A Pipeline.

The two commissioners opposing the plan, Wendell Koontz and Mike Lane, said they were concerned about the loss of agricultural land in theGuzmancounty.Energy has revised its Garnet Mesa project to “specifically address the agricultural and irriga tion concerns raised by the com munity and commissioners,” Amy Messenger, a company spokeswom an, said in an email.

“The desire for keeping land in agri culture can be an argument against solarShowingprojects.”that the projects can provide electricity and agriculture opportunities “gives them the social license to operate,” Macknick said.

said. ”It works both ways. Ag needs to step up and realize things are changing. If this isn’t ag land it goes to houses and that’s worse,” he said. “This will keep ag on the land, water on the land.” ▫

In March, the commission, on a 2-1 vote, rejected an 80-megawatt solar project covering 475 acres just outside of Delta, proposed by the Denver-based Guzman Energy Group. The project would have pro vided electricity to the local rural electric cooperative.

“Sheep are naturally suited to the job of solar grazing,” according to the association’s website. “They enjoy the shade of the solar panels on hot days, napping and grazing where humans would struggle to reach.”Agrivoltaics — combining solar fields not only with sheep, but also with crops — is a growing trend in the U.S. as large-scale solar proj ects arrive in rural areas, according to Jordan Macknick, a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.Forthepast six years, Macknick has been overseeing a project exper imenting with various agricultural activities on 25 solar sites around the “Wecountry.areseeing pushback in some rural communities,” Macknick said.

As for Garnet Mesa’s location, Sperry said, “the area is not ideal farming land; it is good for grazing and that’s about it.”

▫

by Mark Jaffe, Colorado Sun

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ating just one billionaire would do more to prevent climate change than going vegan or never driving a car for the rest of your life.” So proclaimed a post on Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram recently.

To Solve the Climate Crisis,We Must Rein in the Wasteful Wealthy

XR has not previously been known for its class analysis (nor even now: “This is obviously a joke,” the group’s caption averred). And yet it hit home: the post has been liked 40,000 times, about as much as XR’s previous 11 postsThecombined.imagewas a meme of Lisa Simpson before an auditorium, crafted by an account called the Ragged Trousered Philanderer. But it encapsulates a serious developing shift in the narrative of climate activism: we can’t solve the climate crisis without solving the problem of inequality.

“If you as an individual consumer want to burn as much carbon as pos sible, emit as much CO2 as possible, what you do is go on a flying binge,” Malm says. “That’s the most CO2 intensive act of consumption you can engage in. It exceeds everything else, driving and meat eating and whatever –particularly since these are emissions that don’t fulfill any legitimate purpose and don’t serve any human need.”

Solar Grazing Association.

If there are lessons here for activists – and for anyone who is interested in tackling the climate crisis – Huber and Malm say change must start with the wealthiest and most powerful. But, says Malm, we cannot expect govern ments to do the work for us.

“All the governments I know of are beholden to these people, their task masters, if you like; the classes that they have to coddle the most,” Malm says. “That makes it extremely hard to envision any government moving against precisely these people, because that’s the people that are closest to.”

The proposal isn’t just a way of getting a solar project built, Sperry

Sheep grazing among solar pan els is nothing new. There were more than three dozen solar grazing oper ations in the U.S. in 2020, mainly in the east, according to the American

And so, it seems, that if we are serious about a future on a livable planet, eating billionaires might not be such a joke after all.

he question before the Delta County, Colorado Commission was whether 1,000 sheep can forge a path for dozens of solar panels — after the commissioners rejected a solar project citing con cerns about losing farmland.

Sheep are also set to graze at Lightsource bp’s 300-MW Bighorn Solar Project in Pueblo, Macknick said. The project is on 1,800 acres on the Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel property. The project will provide electricity to the steel mill.

The injunction applies to the 13 states that sued the Biden admin istration over the moratorium in March 2021, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

al judge issued a permanent injunction against the Biden administration’s pause of new oil and gas leasing in federal lands.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes provisions that direct spending, tax credits, and loans to bolster technologies such as solar panels and equipment to cut pollu tion at coal- and gas-powered power plants.But the legislation also contains a provision that reinstates the previ ously halted Lease Sale 257, which was sold at auction for $192 million in March 2019, the biggest offshore

n August 13, 2022 a feder

by Allen Zhong, The Epoch Times

First introduced in 2013, the Women in Agribusiness Demeter Award of Excellence, so named for Demeter, the goddess of the harvest from ancient Greek mythology, rec ognizes those who have achieved excellence in their field and/or who have demonstrated an outstanding contribution to the agribusiness industry. Thus far, more than two dozen exceptional individuals in the ag and food sector have received the award, along with five notable companies.

O

DIANE ALLEMANG OF FMC CORPORATION

hree exceptional women have been named recipi ents of the 2022 Women in Agribusiness (WIA) Demeter Award of Excellence – Diane Allemang of FMC Corporation, Kendall Jones of ProAg and Karen LeVert of Pappas Capital and AgTechInventures. The trio will be recognized next month at the 11th annual Women in Agribusiness Summit, which will be held in Dallas, September 26 to 28, at the Hyatt Regency Dallas.

Tom Ozimek contributed to the report. ▫

Judge Permanently Blocks Biden Oil and Gas Leasing Pause in 13 States

BIGGEST OFFSHORE OIL, GAS LEASE SALE REVIVED

by 210 jobs, reduced personal income by $13 million, and cost $4 million in oil and gas taxes in Montana in 2021, he said citing a December 2020 study conducted by the University of Wyoming.

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Thirteen states led by Louisiana sued the Biden administration, saying the lease ban violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), which governs offshore oil and gas leases, and the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA), which governs onshore land leases on federal lands.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (C) and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen announce a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s administration, in Edinburgh, Texas, on Jan. 28, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

An ongoing lease moratorium would have lowered employment

continued

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen applauded the per manent“Presidentinjunction.Biden’s executive order to choke off energy devel opment didn’t just increase pric es and hurt American families—it was flatly illegal. This decision is a victory for the rule of law and the workers and the rural communities who depend on the energy industry,” he said in a statement.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Interior Department and the White House for comments.

Days before the permanent injunction, a lease known as Lease Sale 257, which is also under dis pute in the multiple-state lawsuit, was revived by Biden through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14008 on Jan. 27, 2021, banning all new oil and nat ural gas leases on federal lands and offshore waters. The order didn’t cancel existing leases on federal lands and offshore waters. Leases on private lands were also not affected.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) indicated its intention to rescind the lease sale in February 2021, citing Executive Order 14008. The lease sale was later revived by the government. However, it was then challenged by environmental activist groups and halted by Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court of the District of ContrerasColumbia.ruledin January that the decision to proceed with the lease sale was “arbitrary and capri cious.”The ruling de facto blocked Lease Sale 257 because the Biden administration didn’t appeal.

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statutes require Government Defendants’ agen cies to sell oil and gas leases. The OCSLA has a Five-Year Plan in effect that requires eligible leases to be sold. Government Defendants’ agencies have no authority to make significant revisions in the OCSLA Five-Year Plan without going through the procedure mandated by Congress. The MLA requires the DOI to hold lease sales, where eligible lands are available at least quarterly,” he wrote in the ruling. “By stopping the process, the agen cies are in effect amending two Congressional statutes. Neither the OCSLA nor the MLA gives the Government Defendants’ agencies the authority to implement a Stop of lease sales.”

oil and gas lease in U.S. history, spanning nearly 81 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico.

Diane Allemang is executive vice president and chief marketing offi cer for FMC Corporation, which is an agricultural sciences company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Allemang is recognized for being –throughout her nearly four decades in the industry – a “passionate advo cate for safe and effective crop pro tection technologies and a relentless champion of women at every level in the FMCindustry.”President and CEO Mark Douglas, who nominated Allemang, noted that whether she is advo cating for science-based regulatory decision-making, or bringing the latest crop protection innovations to market, “her career has always been rooted in making sure farmers have access to exceptional technol ogy that is more effective and sus tainable than previous generation products.” on page 19

2022 Women in Agribusiness Excellence Awards Announced

Terry Doughty, the U.S. district judge for the Western District of Louisiana, ruled that the White House overreached in the ban.

Doughty issued a temporary injunction back in June 2022 in this case. The injunction was over thrown by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Doughty’sAppeals.permanent injunction came a day after the circuit court’s ruling.In the permanent injunction, Doughty ruled that the executive branch has no authority to change both“Bothlaws.

When they first started helping at that feedlot, death losses were high. “We worked with those calves to settle and calm them, to reduce their stress, and taught the crew how to handle them. The attitude of the people is important. If any of the crew were in a bad mood, we wouldn’t let them go into any of the calf pens. They were assigned to fix ing fence or some other task. If they had a flat tire on their way to work or had been in a fight with their wife or girlfriend, we told them to stay out of the calf pens,” Eunice said.

“They’ve watched how I do it, and have seen the difference com pared to places that don’t have it. There are a lot of places in our area, however, that do have Bud Boxes,” John says. “When we were going to Bud’s schools 25 years ago, quite a few people from Nanton went to those courses. Many of those princi ples have been implemented here.”

Theway.traditional method of driving livestock is to chase the animals from where they were, to where the people want them to go, but using fear and force to move animals is very stressful to them.

“Bud said that you can walk behind livestock and not cause prob

“For the eleven years ending in 2000, we headquartered at Vee Tee Feeders Ltd. near Lloydminster, Alberta–one of the most northern feedlots on the continent. Since most of the incoming cattle were freshly weaned calves and weather conditions far from ideal, Bud felt the information he gathered there had real significance to help reduce stress and illness,” Eunice said.

sheep, goats, elk, fallow deer, rein deer, bison, and hogs. We gathered reindeer above the Arctic Circle in Alaska and wild cattle in Mexico and the Aleutian Islands and had remarkable increases in production in dairy herds,” she said. In 1989, after urging from many of the people he’d helped, Bud began teaching his methods to more people.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Reduction in disease was another benefit. “When we arrived, they had 40 cows going through the mastitis pen, where cows were kept when they couldn’t use their milk. When we left six weeks later, only seven cows had developed mastitis.”

“We worked at first on cattle and sheep ranches in northern California. When we went on our first job at a big ranch in the moun tains, Bud was horrified at the way they handled the stock. He told me there was no way that he was going to work stock that way!” Eunice said. He started figuring better ways to do

rather than from behind. “You take an angle that makes the cow realize that if she doesn’t move up you will bumping into her, and she will hurry to get past you. But you don’t want to give a shove from behind as she goes past, or her attention will immediately turn back on you instead of going forward,” Eunice explains.“The only thing that makes stockmanship difficult is that our instincts are wrong for the proper way to handle cattle.” We have to keep reminding ourselves to be patient and not try to force cattle to do something, but it doesn’t mean no pressure.“Budput more pressure on cat tle than just about anybody, but he applied pressure in the right place. That makes all the difference. He expected cattle to move right out; he didn’t baby them. But if you are in the wrong place, this is very counter productive and the cattle don’t trust you,” she said.

▫

Importance of LegacyStockmanship:Low-StressBudWilliams’

Beef cattle producers usually don’t have any idea how much pro duction they are losing, but with a dairy you know within 24 hours if something is working or not, because milk production is closely measured.Beefranchers have been slower to adopt low-stress methods because of traditional ways they’ve been han dling cattle. It’s often a situation where friends and neighbors help gather and work cattle, and it can easily become a rodeo. “At branding time, especially, when people are roping calves, it often becomes a big party. Bud used to compare this to a grocery store owner inviting all his friends and neighbors and turn ing them loose to do the jobs; they might forget to stock the shelves while they are partying!”

INCREASES IN PRODUCTION

Soon other outfits were asking him to help solve problems and teach their crews better ways to han dle cattle. “Years ago we consulted with a dairy that milked 1000 cows had a hydraulic gate to move cows from the holding pen—which held about 120 head and had a wash pen—into the milking parlor. The hydraulic gate kept shoving them closer to the entrance into the par lor. If a cow slipped and the hydrau lic gate was still moving, it injured the cow. An employee had been killed by this hydraulic gate because the fellow handling the controls by the milk parlor couldn’t see the back end. The dairy wanted Bud to show them how to get the cows to go

It’s mainly a matter of changing the way people look at things. “There is so much to be gained. Even if you think you’ve been working cows forever, there’s more to learn. I’ve worked with cattle my whole life, and especially at feedlots, working with thousands of head every year, but you can never be done learning. Some folks my age think they know it all because they’ve chased cows all their life, but it’s not quite that way!” The cows keep teaching us, too, if we have an open mind.

PART WHATONE:IT’S ALL ABOUT?

by Heather Smith Thomas

“Thesaid.ranchers who have adopted this way of handling stock don’t need a big crew anymore. They say that the only downside is that they have to sneak around and get their cattle worked without the neighbors knowing, or the neighbors will be miffed because they weren’t invit ed!” she said.

“Theit. main things that enabled him to perfect his method of han dling livestock were his great pow ers of observation and pure stub bornness,” she said. He was able to rotationally graze pastures without fences, taking any type of livestock (including weaned calves) onto unfenced ranges, and teaching them to stay as a herd.

Bud was born in 1932 on a farm in southern Oregon, where his fam ily had work horses, dairy and beef cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry and raised grain and hay. Eunice met him at a country square dance and they were married in 1952.

As pressure is applied to move the animals, some of it must be released when they move, either by you stepping back, or by the fact that they moved ahead. Constant pressure with no let-up, or excessive pressure, is what panics animals.

Page 18 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition

The customary way is to try to make the animal do what you want, but Bud’s way is to let the animal do what you want. Rather than blam ing the animal for going the wrong way, we need to ask ourselves what we did to cause the animal to react that

Bud also improved the facili ties. Many people in the livestock industry have heard of or used a Bud Box–a term coined in the early 1970s by Rich Hunt (of Eureka, California) to describe the small pen Bud designed for bringing cattle to the working chute or for any kind of sorting/loading.

“After our daughters left home, Bud and I started traveling more, taking jobs that were difficult and interesting. We had excellent results working beef and dairy cattle,

lems as long as you aren’t pressuring them. There is always a correct position, and this spot moves as the animal moves. The angle you move–in relation to the animal–determines if you will maintain proper position. The speed you move is important, but not as important as the angle,” Eunice

Trust and confidence are a huge aspect. “If you truly believe that the cattle are doing exactly what you are telling them to do (and you are projecting that feeling to them and in the right place) it will work. If you are in the wrong spot, you are telling them the wrong thing--like wanting someone to turn right but you are telling them to go left, and then getting mad at them for going to the left. If they are not doing what you want them to do, you need to change your message!” It’s your fault, not the cow.

ow and then someone comes along with innovative ideas or astute observations that change how people do things. Bud Williams was that kind of person, and his unique methods of handling cattle are becoming well-known and adopted by many dairy and beef pro ducers. Bud’s way of doing things is easier on the animals and on the people handling them, and also saves/makes money for the produc er. Reducing stress on cattle helps decrease illness, minimizes shrink (when selling them) and improves performance.Budisgone now (he died in 2012) but his family and other folks continue to put on schools and clinics to teach people his methods. His wife, Eunice, lives in Missouri and is still part of this continuing legacy with the family company: Bud Williams Stockmanship. In 2005, Bud’s daughter Tina and son-inlaw Richard McConnell—with their Hand ‘n Hand Livestock Solutions-began teaching clinics and stock manship schools around the country.

into the parlor in a timely manner without having to use that power gate,” Eunice said.“We went there to help them, and were in and out of that dairy for 6 weeks. We held some schools in the area, and while we were off giving schools, one of our stu dents stayed at the dairy and helped teach the crew how to handle cattle.

BASIC STOCKMANSHIP

Bud explained that proper posi tion on your part (and nothing more) is enough pressure to allow you to move livestock to any place they are physically able to go. If you are in the proper position, the animals will want to move in the desired direction, but excessive pres sure will cause them to panic.

Bud’s method of working live stock simply consists of learning to “read” what the animal is telling you, and changing your position so she wants to go where you want her to go. It is important that the ani mals do not consider you a threat. If you want cattle to move away from you, the worst place you can be is right behind them. That’s their blind spot; they want to turn around and keep an eye on you.

It’s important to put the pressure on cattle from the side at an angle

During that 6 weeks, milk production went up 14 percent.” This is what gets people’s attention. Low-stress handling is not only better for the cows, but also for production and profit.

John Smith (Plateau Cattle Company, Nanton, Alberta) is a 3rd generation rancher who feels that using Bud’s methods on his ranch has greatly improved every aspect of their cattle handling. “At our place we have a Bud Box where we load trucks. This has changed our truck ers’ methods, even though they only work with our cattle once a year,” John“Theysays.don’t use a prod anymore. They have prods, because they are truckers, but they don’t use them on our cattle. They see how smooth it goes, and I’ve noticed that even when I am out in the back getting in another group of cattle–and the truckers have to load the Bud Box themselves–they know how to do it and they understand it.

Bud Williams explaining stockmanship techniques

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▫

Thomas P. Zacharias, president of National Crop Insurance Services, where Jones is chair of the board of directors, added, “Kendall is one of the most highly respected individ uals in the crop insurance industry. Her professional demeanor and pur suit of inclusivity are unparalleled.”

LeVert is a recipient of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s Outstanding Service. She also has been named to the WRAL TechWire Hall of Fame. Additionally, LeVert is a member of the North Carolina (NC) Ag Tech Council, NC Biotechnology Center Board, Economic Development Partnership Board of NC, and NC State University Agriculture and Life Sciences Foundation Board. ▫

CROSSBREEDING EASY GELBVIEH & BALANCER

And another person said: “Er…. how many say otherwise in their various papers? 1200 isn’t very many.”“More CO2 is beneficial for nature.. right you are. Not,” wrote another.

Her nominator, Richard Stinson

droughts and suchlike natural disas ters, or making them more frequent.

Recently, climate activist icon Greta Thunberg faced some back lash from fellow climate activists who said they were sick of her, even going as far as saying a “de-Gre taisation” was beginning to take place.

Leader of the UK Reform Party, Richard Tice, took to Twitter fol lowing the article’s reemergence to write: “1,200 Scientists & Professionals sign World Climate Declaration & say: “There is No Climate Emergency”. Eco zealots will squeal and go nuts. Rest of us know climate change has existed naturally over millions of years & always will continue.”

undreds of scientists and pro fessionals from across the world, led by the Norwegian physics Nobel Prize laureate Professor Ivar Giaever, declared that “there is no climate emergency.”

Another wrote: “I’m inclined to agree with However,them..”some people question the WCD’s article and the group itself.“I guess you didn’t do your background research on this orga nization? You really shouldn’t take everything you read at face value!” one person said.

ANOTHER AGENCY IS SUPERSIZED IN BIDEN’S PENDING BILL by Jack McEvoy, Daily Caller News Foundation

Karen LeVert is a venture partner of Pappas Capital based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and co-founder of AgTechInventures, LLC. After a successful IT, financial and executive career in corporate America, LeVert became an entre preneur and has now come full cir cle with her mission to advance dis

® MAKE

Kendall Jones, who is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has served as the president and CEO of ProAg since July 2017 and previous ly served as EVP and COO for eight years. Jones’ leadership has been instrumental in multiple acquisitions and in growing the company’s inno vative risk management services. She is recognized for her laser focus on customer service, which has made ProAg a strong, prominent player in the crop insurance mar ket, and also helped ProAg grow to three-quarters of a billion-dollar annual premium company.

Under the heading, “there is no climate emergency” the article con tinued to touch upon its opening points.“Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassion ately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures,” the group said.

Not Just the IRS

KAREN LEVERT OF PAPPAS CAPITAL AGTECHINVENTURESAND

The IRS will use its $80 billion in new funding to hire 87,000 new agents as well as ramp up audit ing and other enforcement mecha nisms. Democrats claim that these measures will raise $124 billion in revenues from increased taxpayer compliance, according to their sum mary of the bill.

H

They also suggested that warm ing is far slower than predicted and that “we are far from understanding climate“Climatechange.”models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as global policy tools,” the WCD

The White House and EPA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. ▫

– ProAg’s national communications and media manager – said, “Kendall is passionate about growing not only the company she leads but also the crop insurance industry and the people around her. She is a selfless, inspirational leader…. Kendall’s drive to challenge the status quo allows ProAg to bring innovation to an industry that is ripe to change.”

gency.”Itadded: “Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy pro posed for 2050.

KENDALL JONES OF PROAG

he Democrats’ massive cli mate spending package, which President Joe Biden signed into law in mid-August, will give over $40 billion to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), just as the bill allocates almost $80 billion to expand the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).The bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, includes $369 bil lion in total climate spending, and will give the EPA more than $40 billion in the current fiscal year to combat climate change, enforce environmental standards and secure “environmental justice,” according to a Congressional Research Service report. The EPA’s enacted budget for 2022’s fiscal year was about $9.5 billion, according to the agency figures, meaning the bill will more than quadruple the EPA’s current

CROSSBREEDING THAT COUNTS

“We should free ourselves from the naïve belief in immature climate models.“Infuture, climate research must give significantly more emphasis to empirical science.”

2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 19 Gelbvieh and Balancer genetics deliver maternal superiority in planned bottomhaveversatility,cowssystems.crossbreedingHighlyproductivewithadaptability,andstayabilitycanapositiveimpactonyourline. GELBVIEH.ORG

The group said that the “planet has existed with natural cold and warm phases” and that there is “no surprise that we now are experienc ing a period of warming.”

The bill will give the EPA $27 billion in accordance with the Clean Air Act to start a ‘Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’ that will finance competitive grants to fund national and regional “green banks,” which will use the money to fund initia tives and projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions, according to the bill’s text. Renewable energy initia tives funded by the “green banks” are intended to help underprivileged and low-income communities; the agency will also only have 180 days to allocate these funds to “green banks.”Democrats are allocating a fur ther $8 billion in total to reduce air pollution at ports and fund gener al pollution reduction grants. The bill also allots $3 billion for EPA

by Matthew Roscoe, euroweeklynews.com

In conclusion, the World Climate Declaration (WCD), which will function as “Global Climate Intelligence Group” in the future, said that “there is no climate emer

“However, there is ample evi dence that CO2-mitigation measures are as damaging as they are costly.”

“environmental and climate justice block grants” that will help facil itate political “engagement in dis advantaged communities” through advisory groups, rulemakings and workshops.Theagency will also receive $1.55 billion to pay for its meth ane emissions reduction program to offer financial incentives to oil and gas producers who reduce their methane emissions, according to the bill. Additionally, the EPA will get $906 million in total to finance pro grams that address air pollution in schools, report corporate emissions and help declare “environmental products” as well as various other initiatives.EPA Administrator Michael Regan touted the bill’s passage through the Senate in a statement. The Democrats’ huge spending bill will help accelerate EPA regulatory efforts and other operations in order to further the Biden administration’s aggressive climate agenda.

Scientists & Professionals From Across the World Declare: “There is No Climate Emergency”

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ruptive technologies in agriculture.

Speaking about global warming, the group said that there is “no sta tistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods,

Additionally, Jones serves on the board of directors for the Producers Ag Insurance Company.

LeVert launched two accelera tors to commercialize early-stage technologies from university research labs through the co-found ing of Southeast TechInventures (optoelectronics applications) and later Ag TechInventures. She then joined venture firm Pappas Capital to invest in companies with the potential to transform the agtech industry.Said her nominator, Michelle VonCannon of North Carolina Biotechnology Center, “Karen has placed key emphasis on supporting women in their entrepreneurial pur suits…. she recognizes the hurdles women can face and has made it a mission to spotlight these amazing women and their technologies to further revolutionize agriculture.”

WOMEN cont. from page 17

“Theyadded.blow up the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2. In addition, they ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.”Theythen said that “CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth” and that “photosynthesis is a blessing.”Itadded “More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth: addi tional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide.”

annual spending.

It added: “In particular, scien tists should emphasise that their modelling output is not the result of magic: computer models are human-made. What comes out is fully dependent on what theoreti cians and programmers have put in: hypotheses, assumptions, relation ships, parameterisations, stability constraints,“Unfortunately,etc. in mainstream climate science, most of this input is undeclared.”“Tobelieve the outcome of a climate model is to believe what the model makers have put in,” it continued.“Thisis precisely the problem of today’s climate discussion to which climate models are central. Climate science has degenerated into a dis cussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science.

The WCD article, which was published on May 27, said that “cli mate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific.”

“If better approaches emerge, and they certainly will, we have ample time to reflect and re-adapt. The aim of global policy should be ‘prosperity for all’ by providing reliable and affordable energy at all times.”“Ina prosperous society men and women are well educated, birthrates are low and people care about their environment,” it concluded.

Allemang was the first female to chair CropLife America’s Board of Directors in the association’s 80-year history, and the first female to chair CropLife International’s Crop Protection Strategy Council. She is involved in FMC’s Women’s Initiative Network and is executive sponsor for SPECTRUM, FMC’s employee resource group focused on increasing visibility of LGBTQ+ issues. She also serves on the exec utive sponsor team for FMC’s Social Justice and Race Equity Task Force.

On August 18, an article by the World Climate Declaration (WCD) proclaiming that “there is no climate emergency” – which appears to have been scrubbed from the internet – was retrieved by the Wayback Machine and began gaining traction on social media.

I think there are many factors including the decline in the integ rity of many churches, no strong leaders in clergy, no more consisten cy in churches, a Communist style Catholic Pope, churches that bow down to popular opinion instead of being steadfast in their tenets.

Remember God, Family, Country? This is still an allegedly Christian nation with 76 percent claiming to be Christian. Just a few short years ago that figure was at 86 percent and we seem to be declining fast into a secular nation.

State water quality officials did not offer comments on the details of the permitting challenge, but said, “The permit we issued complies with all federal requirements established in the Clean Water Act and add additional groundwater protections established in state specific rules,” according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment spokeswoman Gabi Johnston.

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existing rules, and the effort is just an extension of ongoing advocacy attacks on big animal operations, Riley“It’ssaid.death by a thousand cuts,” he said.Nor is he a fan of environmental groups based elsewhere employing “the hometown university” to han dle their “Coloradocase. has the best system out there,” Riley said. The exist ing permit already includes detailed rules on how much animal waste can be spread, and how often, for example, Riley said. “Our permit is veryThestrict.”nonprofit advocacy groups said they won a victory in a similar case in Idaho last year. The federal EPA runs Idaho’s general permit program, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Idaho’s sys tem didn’t guarantee enough water testing. States that do their own per mitting are now watching to see how the EPA writes more detailed water quality rules for Idaho, said Tyler Lobdell, a staff attorney in Idaho for Food and Water Watch.

That is the first thing that came to my mind when I was walking on the back streets of a city in Malaysia where they still dump human excre ment out the second story window into an open trough below.

olorado may not have the reputation of some states for hosting massive “factory farms,” the way Iowa and North Carolina are associated with hogs, or Wisconsin is seen as a dairy assembly line.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Food & Water Watch want Colorado regulators to write individual permits for each big farm, accounting for local conditions and

Large Colorado farms also dismiss the “factory farm” label, saying they should be referred to as “con centrated” operations, according to Colorado Livestock Association CEO Zach Riley.

This degradation continues with another of our great institutions, professional sports. What a laugh ingstock they have become since they became activists instead of ath letes.Let’s talk about men competing in women’s sports at the collegiate level. How sick is that? This country used to stand for fairness. There is nothing fair about any of this.

The View

have noticed that those in power no longer want you to think for yourself. They just want you to buy into their narrative because they are arrogant enough to think that they know better than you do about running your life.

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At the time my mind immediately went to my alleged “evil cattle” graz ing peacefully in our pasture back home. I knew right then and there that if I went home and slaugh tered all my cattle, then people in Malaysia would magically have improved sanitation. The sad part is that there are a number of people in this world that are brain dead enough to actually believe what I just told you.

FROM THE BACK SIDE

Do Regulation?NeedOperationsFeedingConcentratedColoradoTighter

“That’s the pollution the facility has contributed in that area,” he said.

It was an America that promot ed good ideas, but we didn’t force those ideas on you. It was your choice which ideas you wanted to use and which ones you did not.

Each operation must get the per mit, so it is in effect an individual requirement Riley said. Colorado already includes water monitoring and testing in the general permit, he added. The operators have also offered to settle the dispute with permit language even more pro tective of water sources, but the environmental advocates nixed that idea, Riley Individuallysaid. crafted permits would raise expenses and overlap

Where America?Is

For instance, stop and think of the amount of propaganda it took to convince people that cattle are a threat to our world. Yes, cow gas is just terrible according to scientists paid by leftists.

Last, but not least the Federal Bureau of Investigations used to protect the public from America’s worst criminals. Now it seems that the criminals are using the FBI and the Justice Department to control the outcome of the next election, by raiding the home of their future opponent.Inour 246-year existence this has never happened, but since it has, this may be the end of our great Republic. If they can do this to a for mer President of The United States, then they can do it to you. Beware, as this is becoming a very dangerous and unagricultural America that we are living in. ▫

“Colorado can’t continue to pick and choose which industries get a pass for their unlawful pollution,” said Center for Biological Diversity senior attorney Hannah Connor.

“You have these fields that are receiving the manure, and what we’re demanding and what’s legally required is groundwater monitoring, specifically at the production area, where the animals are confined,” Lobdell said. That could include, Lobdell added, a required series of groundwater monitoring wells above the waste areas as a control test, and more wells below areas where contaminants are spread.

What seems to be missing are the non-partisan politicians that voted in favor of the com mon good. This used to be an America where most of our elect ed officials were for the people, not against them.

Though it’s not decided yet whether the protest will move for ward in state administrative court or a state district court, the legal chal lenge is formally on, with a hearing scheduled for Halloween.

Environmental groups team with DU law school demanding a new permitting system they say will better protect clean water by Michael Booth, Colorado Sun

Colorado has already recognized that big farms pose big threats and back in the 1990s, separated out large hog operations for individual permitting, Connor said. Colorado’s other large farm operations, includ ing feedlots where cattle are fattened before market and large dairy opera tions, deserve more Clean Water Act scrutiny, she said.

The Colorado Livestock Association rejects calls for a per mit overhaul as an intervenor on behalf of large farm operators, say ing Colorado’s general permit is much tougher than all other states called out by environmental groups.

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But “concentrated animal feeding operations,” an industry-preferred term, do dot the Rocky Mountain landscape, from beef feedlots to big hog operations to sprawling poultry sheds. And a confrontation looms on whether they need more regula tion to ensure water quality in rural Colorado.Twoenvironmental nonprofits successful in demanding tougher water quality regulation for big agri culture want Colorado courts to force state regulators into a new permitting system for large concen trations of animals. Colorado allows nearly a hundred mass operations to proceed under a general Clean Water Act permit that opponents say leaves loopholes, and fails to factor in how each farm operates or require enough water testing.

requiring monitoring wells to make sure groundwater isn’t tainted by runoff of manure or chemicals. The nonprofits have teamed up for the legal action with the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law.

“They aggregate such significant amounts of animal waste and other pathogens and pollutants, and then have to dispose of those in ways that are really potentially harmful to environmental quality, water quality, and public and ecosystem health,” Connor said in an interview.

We did not make very many laws as we didn’t need them. I’ll never say that we did not have our troubles, but more people were in agreement on how to fix them.

Let’s re-examine the lack of prayer in schools, the lack of disci pline in schools, and the lack of the “Pledge Of Allegiance” in schools. Couple that with the teacher’s union and the advancement of “woke” education.Common sense will tell you that

there is nothing more damaging to a young child than having to learn about the oddities of sex before they are ready for it. They should be learning how to read and write in school. I can see no reason for anyone in America to send any child to a public school.

Join or renew your membership today.

ALUMNI

a presence at such events as the National Western in Denver; the Cow Palace in San Francisco; the Royal in Kansas City; the North American in Louisville; and the Pacific International in Portland. In 2006, he was singled out for honors during the National Western’s 100th anniversary celebration.

“All of us grew up working right beside Dad and we think we learned from the best. Yardley Cattle Company is a family operation where family values are core to our business success. Dad has believed as much in raising solid children as he does in producing solid cattle.”

Bradley has been honored many times throughout her life. She was named a Graduate of Distinction by the OSU Department of Animal Science in 1988 and was present ed the Master Breeder Award by the department in 2010. Bradley was presented with the DASNR Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015.In addition to honors from her alma mater, Bradley was also the second woman inducted into the Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Gallery in 2014. She has been named a Top 40 Cattleman by Beef Magazine and was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. She has also received the Seedstock Commitment Award.Bradley currently resides in Memphis, Texas. She and her hus band, Bill, have one daughter, Mary Lou.Bradley is a member of the OSU Alumni Association. ▫

R-CALF USA works on various issues that affect the continued profitability and viability of independent U.S. cattle producers, such as mandatory country of origin labeling (MCOOL), checkoff reform, animal identification, livestock price reporting, animal health concerns, captive supplies, and packer ownership of livestock, as well as various trade agreements.

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2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 21

r-calfusa@r-calfusa.comwww.r-calfusa.com(406)252-2516

Founded in 1968, the American Simmental Association is head quartered in Bozeman, MT. ASA is committed to leveraging technolo gy, education and collaboration to accelerate genetic profitability for the beef industry. In keeping with its commitment, ASA, along with its partners, formed International Genetic Solutions — the world’s largest genetic evaluation of beef cattle.

OSU HONORS DISTINGUISHED AWARD RECIPIENTS

he Oklahoma State University Alumni Association is honor ing Minnie Lou Bradley and five others as Distinguished Alumni AwardThisrecipients.year’shonorees will be rec ognized at a public reception at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center on Friday, September 9. They will also be honored on field during the Arizona State vs. OSU football game on September 10 at Boone Pickens

In a joint statement, Gib’s chil dren were effusive in their praise.

MinnieStadium.LouBradley graduated from OSU (then Oklahoma A&M) in 1953 with a bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry. When she enrolled in 1949, she was the first female to enroll in animal husbandry in the university’s history.

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Angus bulls were introduced in a crossbreeding scenario.

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Member benefits include: the quarterly True Grit magazine, the bimonthly Cattlemen’s Newsletter, text and email alerts, a voice: all cattle-owning members have the opportunity to vote on proposed R-CALF USA policies (one-member/onevote), representation from the largest national organization exclusively representing independent U.S. cattle producers in Washington, D.C., and toll-free recorded updates 1-877-99-RCALF (72253).

“Gib” Yardley traces his ranching operation back to 1856, when his great-grandfather and 13 other men settled in the Beaver River Valley of south-central Utah and focused on making a living with cattle of mixed breeding. Over the years, various breeds have been used. In 1920 and again in the late 1930s and ’40s, Herefords were brought to the area from Kansas and Colorado. A few years later,

ib Yardley, Beaver, Utah, is a recipient of the 2022 World Simmental-Fleckvieh Federation Golden Book Award, which is the American Simmental Association’s (ASA) highest honor.

To learn more, scan the code below or visit www.r-calfusa.com. PO Box 30715 Billings, MT 59107

Then in the late 1960s, when Simmentals and other European breeds were first brought to North America, Yardley took a trip across the Canadian border to check them out and liked what he saw. In fact, he liked them so much that he promptly introduced Simmental and Maine Anjou bulls, providing bene ficialOlderheterosis.cows are required to win ter on open range without hay, must calve on their own, and bring in a profitable calf. Cows that cannot hold their own under those condi tions are rigidly culled. This past spring, Yardley held his 49th Annual Sale. As usual, cattle sold to repeat buyers from several states through out the West and beyond.

Gib Yardley

Minnie HonoredBradleyLoutobe

During her time on campus, she was the first female to compete on the Oklahoma A&M Livestock Judging Team and became one of the most successful livestock judges at theAftercollege.graduation, Bradley worked for the Texas Angus Association as an assistant to the executive sec retary and a fieldman. She would also work for Angus Valley Farms in Tulsa in 1954. The following year, Bradley married her husband, Bill, and the couple purchased a ranch in Childress County, Texas. They start ed Bradley 3 Ranch with 20 cows and 3,300 acres.

In 1986, the Bradleys started B3R Country Meats, Inc. The beef processing facility allowed them to produce high-quality beef while pro viding ranchers with a values-based system. It was one of the first facili ties to produce beef for the Certified Angus Beef brand Natural. The same year, the Bradley 3 Ranch created a system for collecting ultra sound and carcass data to develop more predictable genetic packages.

He is a strong believer in pro motion through attendance at major livestock events, maintaining

R-CALF USA works on your behalf, keeps you informed, and gives you the tools to influence beneficial outcomes. Your vote and voice direct what issues R-CALF USA fights for on each proposed policy resolution.

He has built a reputation as a keeper of his faith, his family, his cattle, and his land. Though a confirmed bachelor for many years, shortly after being trampled by a rank cow while ear-tagging her calf, Gib asked Denise Evans to marry him, even while he was being patched up in the emergency room. Gib and Denise are parents to seven girls and one boy. Not surprisingly, his kids can brand a calf and know how to read a pedigree.

Gib Yardley, Beaver, Utah, Receives World SimmentalFleckvieh Federation Golden Book Award

Selected by the ASA Board of Trustees, recipients of this award are lifelong promoters of the Simmental breed. Yarldey was recognized during ASA’s Fall Focus event, on Saturday, August 27, in Roanoke, Virginia.Gilbert

Absent a strict border policy from Washington, Arizona’s Governor Doug Ducey recently signed an order directing the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to plug the gaps in the Yuma border wall with shipping containers.

The project, expected to cost $6 million, has sparked criticism that the measure falls short of an actual border wall that works.

“When the southern border is secure, Cochise County and the entire state are safer,” Dannels said in a statement. “Lax border policies from the federal government and U.S. Congress are putting Arizonans in danger.”Allthat sounds well and good, the Scelsos say, but doesn’t yet address illegal immigration on their land.The couple says their rancher neighbors are just as upset over the worsening situation with migrant trespassers.Onetime Joe Scelso said he

Scelso said he called the Border Patrol, the Highway Patrol, and the county sheriff’s department—but “nobody showed up.”

“Whatever they don’t need or want, they throw on the ground. Now, they all wear camouflage. They never used to.”

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The trash the illegals leave behind includes used feminine hygiene products, diapers, toilet paper, and human feces—“you name it,” Scelso told The Epoch Times

attle ranchers Joe and Patty Scelso didn’t always feel the need to carry sidearms walking on their property near Palominas,Twenty-eightArizona.years ago, the Rockin JP Ranch was their dream of a country homestead come true— 103 acres of lush grassland, tower ing cypress, and low-slung mesquite framed with distant green mountain peaks.Itwas a quiet place—perfect for raising a small herd of cattle and stagingToday,rodeos.their dream has gone south as illegal migrants continue

“It’s just gotten worse and worse and worse. Better under Trump? Oh, yes,” he said.

They also feel there’s not much else they can do under the govern

“They’re not going to chase me out of here. This is my place,” Scelso said.

“Arizona has had enough. We can’t wait any longer,” said Ducey in a recent statement.

One thing is sure—he won’t let anyone drive him off his property.

At least for now, the monsoon rains have stemmed the constant flow of illegals onto their land.

The woman came back a year later, he “Sincesaid.the open border poli cy started, it’s gotten worse,” said Scelso, a retired San Diego police officer. “We had one night where three vehicles [arrived] together. They were honking their horns. Thirty minutes later, three more vehicles came in.”

by Allan Stein

“People will come out of the bush es, pick them up, and drive them out of here.

He added that President Joe Biden’s “lack of urgency on border security is a dereliction of duty.”

encountered a woman and her boy friend on his property and identified them as humanitarians helping the illegals.“Iknow why you’re here. Don’t come back again. You’ll be sorry the next time,” he told them.

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“I finally put up that gate to keep them [out], but they keep coming through the gate.”

Illegal Immigration Keeps Arizona Cattle Ranchers Armed, Awake at Night on the Border

“They come through here and turn on our water faucets. They fill their water bottles and leave [the faucets] running; they come across the river from the property behind us. They have the combination of our“Lookfences.out there. Do you see how thick that brush is? This [area] used to be like that. I cleared all that out. When the brush was like that, they’d come right up a short distance from the house,” Scelso said.

“I don’t care who answers the phone. I want somebody here to help us,” Scelso said.

Allan Stein is an Epoch Times reporter who covers the state of Arizona.

Down by the river lies the unfinished border wall fence. While the wall doesn’t stop every illegal, Scelso said, “it slows it downTheconsiderably.”Scelsossaythey don’t fear for their lives since they’re armed constantly and have big dogs for safety.Even so, they’re watchful—and prepared for anything.

The Scelsos say their neighbors feel the same way—”pretty well per turbed.”“The only thing that’s going to solve this problem is if they seal the border again and start screening who comes in,” Joe Scelso said.

Patty Scelso remembered when she nearly stepped on an illegal alien asleep in a gulley in thick bushes.

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marching north through the unfin ished border wall fence with Mexico just two miles from their property in Palominas, Arizona.

ment’s current open border policy and with law enforcement in short supply.The solution to illegal immigra tion, Joe Scelso says, is to “seal the border.”“Finish that wall,” his wife added.

It also seeks to resolve critical public safety staff shortages and equip law enforcement with surveil lance technology to target border crime and illegal immigration.

“They were coming in here— one, two, three at a time,” he said.

“For the last two years, Arizona has made every attempt to work with Washington to address the cri sis on our border. Time and time again, we’ve stepped in to clean theirOnmess.”June 30, Ducey signed the “most meaningful border security legislation in Arizona history,” ear marking $564 million to secure the border with a physical barrier and otherTheimprovements.legislationincludes $15 mil lion for a Department of Public Safety southern border coordinated response center and $30 million to combat drug trafficking, human smuggling, illegal immigration, and other border-related crimes.

“Otherwise, it would have been gone,” Joe Scelso said.

“There were a lot of bushes you couldn’t see,” she said. “My horse almost stepped on them.”

A step ladder straddles an electrified fence near the border wall fence in Hereford, Ariz., to usher illegal immigrants across private property on Aug. 24. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

In Cochise County, population 125,500, on the southeastern corner of Arizona, Sheriff Mark Dannels lauded Ducey’s order as a step for ward to securing the border.

The illegals use their land with abandon as a way station waiting for cars—even taxis—to come and pick them up.

They come at “all hours,” Joe Scelso said, sitting on his front porch, watching ominous thunder clouds gather on the horizon.

Patty Scelso said law enforce ment officers “really try” to be helpful, “but they tell me they’re stretched thin. They’ll tell me on the phone.”One time an illegal tried to steal the Scelso’s all-terrain vehicle but pushed the kill switch by accident, rendering the ATV inoperable.

The Livestock Indemnity Program provides benefits to live stock owners and some contract growers for livestock deaths exceed ing normal mortality from eligible adverse weather events, certain pre dation losses and reduced sales pric es due to injury from an eligible loss.

The updated LIP payment rates are effective immediately and will be applied retroactively starting January 1, 2022, for all eligible causes of loss including excessive heat, tornado, winter storms, and other qualifying natural disasters. Producers who have already received LIP payments for 2022 will receive an additional payment, if applicable, commensu rate with these updated rates. For details on eligibility and payment rates, you can review our LIP fact sheet.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTSPROGRAM

FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux at home on his family’s ranching operation on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. (Photo Credit: Kate Bradley Byers, Western Horseman Magazine)

To better capture ranchers’ investments in their animals, we recently announced increased LIP payment rates for beef, beefalo, bison, and dairy animals less than 250 pounds. These now-updated payment rates are reflective of the substantial increased cost of these non-adult livestock in 2022:

Indemnity payments are made at a rate of 75 percent of the mar ket value of the livestock on the day before the date of death. I don’t mind saying that, under our previous payment rates, cutting a LIP check to a rancher for $150 for a calf in today’s market came nowhere near covering the yearlong investment in carrying the cow through pregnancy and carrying the calf from birth to sale.

BRANGUS ANGUS RED ANGUS RanchLocation 1818 ArabelaRoad Arabela , NM LowBirthWeight ModerateFrame RaisedinRoughCountry ReadytoWor Tate Pruett , Manager 575 365 6356 Ray Karen Westall , Owner 575 361 2071

FSA Adjusting to Fit the Situation Facing Livestock Producers

These LIP policy changes com plement enhancements we recently made to our Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) – changes that also were derived from the direct input and feed back of producers and the livestock groups.Inaddition to paying above normal costs for hauling water to drought-stricken livestock, we also added compensation for hauling feed to livestock and livestock to forage or other grazing acres. And, in 2021, we added fish raised for food as an ELAP-eligible commod ity because producers and industry leaders expressed the need. By continually evaluating how we

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by Zach Ducheneaux, Administrator, Farm Service Agency

It has been said actions speak louder than words, but when it comes to FSA programs that direct ly affect producers’ livelihoods and way of life and ultimately impact food security for all Americans, I believe the two are not mutually exclusive. Rest assured that when producers and producer groups speak, FSA and I, to the extent possible, will do whatever is within our power to turn those words into actions.

In recent meetings with Senator John Hoeven, FSA North Dakota State Executive Director Marcy Svenningsen, and livestock produc ers in North Dakota impacted by catastrophic 2021 winter storms, it became apparent that our Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) payment rates were not reflective of the true market value for non-adult beef, beefalo, bison, and dairy animals. It was time for us to pivot.

Zach Ducheneaux is the Administrator of USDA’s Farm Service Agency. He can be reached at zach.ducheneaux@ usda.gov ▫

s a former rancher myself, I know the tremendous invest ments—in time, sweat, and thought—that producers make even before their calves hit the ground. My experiences lead me to firm ly believe that, here at the Farm Service Agency (FSA), we must find flexibilities where possible to help our farmers and ranchers best meet the challenges of the day.

can deliver our programs in a man ner that is meaningful to the farmers and ranchers we serve, we demon strate our ongoing commitment to stakeholder engagement and our dedication to improving programs for livestock producers first sig naled by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing earlier this year.

Low-Stress Stockmanship

This was the missing piece, and makes so much sense, but no one had really done it, prior to Bud. Most people who handled cattle did it with a “cowboy” mentality, pit ting themselves against the animal, rather than realizing that the cow is an individual (like a horse) with a personality and can be influenced by how you handle her.

In his clinics he focuses on fun damentals of low-stress livestock handling and the importance of proper mindset and attitude—and working with our animals and pre paring them for future production events. Most people would never try to take an untrained horse to work cattle, or a young, inexperienced

Bud explaining stockmanship with a herd of reindeer

“Butcattle.not many people actually consider working with their live stock to prepare them for what we need them to do. This is what was so revolutionary about what Bud had to say,” she says.

Page 24 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition

“Whit has been traveling all over the world teaching these methods fulltime for the past several years. Paul and I are still running our own businesses so we travel less, but I intend to do more,” she says.

“It’s a big paradigm shift when you switch from making animals do things rather than letting them do something (working with them instead of against them). This whole revolution came first in the horse industry with Tom Dorrance and RayThoseHunt.”horsemen broke trail for this movement. “There’s a lot of similarity between that way of think

in how a lot of folks handle cattle now. I have a friend who knew Bud and rode with him at Vee Tee Feeders at Lloydminster. He is a veterinarian and attended talks by Temple Grandin. He was able to meet her and told her he had met Bud. She took him aside and they talked for 2 hours. He later said that if the cattle industry could even capture 10 percent of what Bud did, it would totally change the industry,” Paul says. There’s no shortage of things to learn, and figuring out all the things you can do with your ani mals once you understand them–and work with them instead of against

When Whit Hibbard teach es clinics, he talks about his own background and the struggles he went through. “I resisted low-stress methods for 20 years before I finally surrendered to trying them and now I consider those 20 years wasted. When I did embrace this, I went at it wholeheartedly but it took about five years of diligent work to rewrite my livestock-handling software and replace conventional methods with low-stress. Every time I worked live stock I had to consciously make that decision that I was going to work on this, and had to constantly suppress old habits,” he says.

“They’d been in enough wrecks, over time, to try to figure out a way to do it better!” Whit says. But it took someone like Bud Williams, who was a contrary thinker–to come up with the ideal ways to work cattle.“He was a contrarian to the core, and embodied five important per sonal characteristics. When study ing livestock handling and asking the basic question of how to work the animals better, first of all Bud was a true genius. Second, he had phe nomenal observation skills. Third, he was a workaholic and all he did was work livestock–seven days a week for many years–with total

by Heather Smith Thomas

stock dog. They give those animals some training first before they have to do the job. It should be the same with“Therecattle. are 12 basic principles that are inherent in Bud’s methods, and 10 techniques, so at a clinic we go over those, with a lot of supportive videos. These are very short, averaging about 15 seconds in length. During the morning clinic, people see at least 100 videos, so they can see what we are talking about,” he says.

PART TWO – PASSING ON THE KNOWLEDGE

“Then in the afternoon we focus on practical applications–typical production events, such as how to properly drive cattle, and how to drive cows and calves. We spend a lot of time talking about corral work and everything involved–such as emptying pens, alleyways, and sorting–how to use whatever crowd pen you have, whether it’s a wedge, tub or Bud Box. We talk about how to work a lead-up, how to work a squeeze chute properly, scale load ing, and loading a trailer or semi. We address specialty topics if there is time (generally in a two-day clinic),” HibbardTheseexplains.topics include fence-line weaning, riding for health, range management, and sometimes other topics, depending on the group. These might include pasture doc toring, low-stress bison handling, predation mitigation, feedlot animal health, receiving and destressing, working with wild and feral animals, loading an animal into a trailer out in big range pastures with no corral, etc.These techniques are safer for the animals and the people han dling them and also saves/makes money for the rancher. “It blows people’s minds on the amount of shrink we cause when we handle animals improperly. For example, at our stocker operation we save about $38,000 in shrink every time we load out 500 yearlings.” That’s the difference between how much the cattle shrunk before these tech niques were used, compared to afterward.PaulKernaleguen is a dairy man who is part of a small com pany (Kattle Squared Services) in Saskatchewan that before the COVID pandemic hosted education al clinics, and stockmanship was always one of the topics. “We’d bring people in to do the clinics, like the Williams family, or one of their students like Dawn Hnatow and Whit Hibbard,” Paul says.

Most people who grow up with cattle have to do this, in order to change. Ever since there have been cows and cowboys, there have been a few who figured out better ways to handle cattle. Some developed more wisdom and patience–and observed the nature of cattle and how to han dle them more efficiently and safely.

ing and the way Bud taught. With cattle you are dealing with multiple animals rather than training a horse, but the concept is the same,” Dawn says. Many people still don’t under stand, however, that cattle are just as trainable as horses and a person needs to use some of those same methods to get the proper response from

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ud Williams revolutionized livestock handling during the 60 years that he and his wife Eunice worked for various ranches and feedlots. During those years he had many students who learned his methods. While he and Eunice were working at Vee Tee Feeders in Alberta, other feedlots and ranch ers sent some of their employees there to learn. Later, Bud was talked into putting on presentations to give more people a chance to learn his techniques.WhitHibbard–a fourth genera tion cattle and sheep rancher whose family owns Sieben Cattle in north central Montana says the term low stress livestock handling is synon ymous with Bud Williams. “Bud developed the methods, and Allan Nation (who edited and published The Stockman Grass Farmer until his death a few years ago) coined the term. In 1990 I talked to Allan about this, and also asked Eunice Williams about it, wondering where the term came from. Allan admitted coming up with it, to describe the unique livestock handling that Bud was doing,” said Hibbard.

Bud never liked that term, how ever. Most people don’t fully under stand what low stress should be, and their perception is usually wrong. “Many people immediately jump to the conclusion that it means not putting any pressure on cattle. They

To understand how this works, it helps if you can see someone doing it correctly. One of the mis conceptions people have is that they think it takes too much time, but the opposite is true if it’s done properly. It saves a lot of time. The whole purpose is efficiency and getting the job done as quickly as possible without much stress on the animals. “If you do it properly you are not making the mistakes that conventional handlers do; they get the cattle upset, uncooperative and resistant, wanting to go back, losing their trust. Then a person has to try to fix those mistakes, which takes more time,” he said.

them.Dawn Hnatow grew up in Alberta on a mixed cattle and grain operation. “I was working at Vee Tee Feeders in Lloydminster, and this is when I first met Bud. I spent 10 years working with him there, learn ing his way of handling livestock and appreciated how much better it was for the livestock and for the people,” sheWhensays. Bud and Eunice moved back to the U.S., Dawn continued working for Vee Tee Feeders. “Then I ended up moving to Texas and became the livestock manager on the ranch they were living on. I spent 10 years at that ranch and then moved to Sulfur Springs to manage an operation for a lady from West Texas. I am currently leasing that ranch and another ranch–and do consulting and teaching as well,” she“Iexplains.feelI need to share what I was blessed to be able to learn. Not many people have the kind of access to Bud that we did, at Vee Tee and after. Now that he’s gone, Whit and Paul and I are very committed to preserving his legacy and his knowledge to the best of our ability and recollection. It’s a very import ant message for ranchers, hobby farmers, and anyone who handles livestock,” Dawn says.

equate low stress with no stress, but that doesn’t work. Bud astounded a lot of people by how much pressure he put on animals, if the situation called for it. He put on whatever pressure was necessary, and it might be a lot, but it was proper pressure. It was at the right angle, the right amount, the right timing, the right release. He clearly conveyed to the animals what he wanted, and then it was over–and that’s what made it low stress,” Hibbard said.

“The work that Bud and Eunice have done has made a big difference

Ranchers are essentially fight ing for existence because there are people who think there should be no animal agriculture. “They keep trying to find any reason to get after us–whether it’s blaming cattle for climate change or for animal welfare issues.” Low-stress stockmanship is a win-win because it is better for the animals and the people caring for them; it makes ranching easier and also more profitable.

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“I don’t want folks to think it’s fairy dust or that it takes the place of good management or good animal husbandry. But it certainly adds a whole new dimension to what you’re able to achieve with the genetics you have and the environment you’re in.”

CATTLE DEVELOPMENT

“I think there are several dif ferent ways that I would break it down to look at it,” he says when challenged on his statement that the tubs don’t cost money, they make money. “You’ve got to look at your input costs for feed and supplements and your grazing season, and you’ve got to look at added conception rate on your cows—the cows that are breeding back in the first heat cycle and tightening that calving window closer to 45 days.”

2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 25

Ledbetter says they’ve seen the benefits that the orange tubs bring

heat cycle, we can add close to 60 pounds to that calf.” The more calves born in the first month of calving season adds dollars at sale time.Ledbetter feels he got around 50 pounds more weaning weight on his calves that were conceived before the cows were on Riomax®, but were on the tubs from the day they were born. He expects that number to be higher for his first calf crop weaned from cows that had been on Riomax® year around.

“Our deal is red-hided cattle,” he says. “We have purebred Hereford and purebred Red Angus on our reg istered side.” They’ll develop around 200 bulls a year as well as around 400 heifers that they market as com mercial replacements.

“We have found that what works for us is maternal first. It’s all about the mother cow. We feed cattle, we finish cattle. So yes, feedlot per formance and carcass quality are important. But without that factory at home, without that mother cow that’s extremely efficient and does her job the very best, none of us are going to stay in business. So number

But then again, hearing Ledbetter brag on his kids isn’t surprising. As passionate as he is about his cattle and the land, and make no mistake about that, he’s even more passion ate about his family. “If you’ve got your family around you and the free doms we enjoy in this country and the blessings…it really all gets down to God, faith, and family.”

Added weaning weight is another area that goes along with a tight calving season, which adds value two different ways. “One is the calf is performing so much better out

One of the fundamental truths about cattle production is that the best genetics in the world can’t be revealed without an adequate source of nutrition. “And that’s certainly an area where Riomax® has definitely helped us,” he says.

SPENDING MONEY TO MAKE MONEY

Ledbetter is pretty proud of his cattle, too. “We’re a multi-faceted operation,” he says. “We farm and ranch.” The family runs around 800 cows, has a small feedlot on the ranch, and farms corn, wheat, and soybeans, much of which is feed for the cattle. Ledbetter also custom feeds some of his calves in a feedlot in Iowa.Thecattle side of the operation is both commercial and purebred.

GIVING THE CATTLE INDUSTRY A BETTER IMAGE –This is a quiet revolution that needs to happen. The cattle industry is under pressure from animal rights groups, environmentalists, and peo ple who want to do away with cattle on public lands or animal agricul ture altogether. “Anything we can do to mitigate the negative image those folks are trying to portray of us, is a good thing,” says Dawn.

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“My dad was pretty good, but there wasn’t much thought given to corral design or ‘feeling’ or ‘reading’ the cattle. It was more a matter of getting behind them and chasing them where you are going. There was no thought given to working with the cow’s mind,” John says. Cows were considered dumb ani mals that had to be forced to do what you wanted, rather than real izing that cattle have a thought pro cess you can work with.

What’s more, he’s developing a couple lines of composite red-hided cattle. For cattle in more southern climates, he’s developing a red, heat tolerant composite of Red Angus with a touch of Senepol or Brahman or both. “And then a Fleckvieh-Red Angus composite, a component we use for maternal heterosis as well as some added yield and performance in the feedyard,” he says.

NUTRITION + GENETICS = WOW

focus and commitment. Fourth, he had a photographic memory and could recall every cattle-handling incident, with details. Fifth, he ques tioned everything. Whatever every body else was doing, he’d do the opposite.” And if anyone said that something couldn’t be done, he’d find a way to do it.

we’re growing and developing for breeding stock, or in the feedyard. No matter what stage of life the ani mal is at, we’re seeing the benefits of Riomax®.”However,he was very skeptical at first. “When I heard what the product costs, that’ll make anybody skeptical who’s trying to make a living.” But he got over the sticker shock and gave it a try.

“I have to admit, once we tried the product and quit looking at the cost per tub and started looking at it as a cost per day per animal, that opened up a whole new avenue. The added performance, the added health benefits that we saw and are seeing, have just been tremendous,” he says.“When you break it down, the tub is not costing us money, we feel it’s making us money. So that’s been a real eye opener.”

one, it’s all about the mother cow.”

With the family’s emphasis on maternal genetics, some might won der if feedyard performance and carcass traits get shorted. A look at Ledbetter’s fed cattle closeouts tells the Thetale. closeouts show fed cattle grading around 90 percent Choice and Prime and mainly Yield Grade 2. “And on the gain, depending on the conditions, they’ll be high 3’s,” he says. “Might hit 4 every now and again. But that’s extremely depen dent on weather conditions and time of year.”Beyond that, the family has developed their own brand of locker beef from cattle they finish at home. They’ll sell everything from sides of beef to individual packages off the “Wefarm.feel most of the folks who tried it are now staying with it,” he says. “They see the difference and they really like having a local ly grown product that they know where the cattle come from and they know where most of the feed is grown that’s going through the cattle (as well as knowing the family that raised the cattle). So it’s a nice little addition to the business.”

Johnexplains.Smith (Plateau Cattle Company, Nanton, Alberta) is a third generation rancher who has been interested in low-stress stock manship for a long time. “When I was a kid in the early 1990s I worked awhile in a feedlot, check ing pens and working cattle and that’s when I first heard about Bud Williams. The owner of the feedlot I worked for sent the crew to Vee Tee Feeders at Lloydminster for a 3-day course that Bud taught. That was my first exposure to his method of han dling cattle and it was incredible,”

John“Thissays.changed a lot of what we did at the feedlot where I worked, and how we worked cattle and viewed working cattle. It was a great experience for me.”

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Ledbetter is passionate about developing cattle for the real world.

“Big bodied, high volume females that are stout and wedge-shaped and low input, low maintenance kind of females that have a thickness and a little punch to them.” He develops his cattle on a forage-based system that allows them to express their genetic potential in the same envi ronment they’ll need to produce in when his customers take the bulls and heifers home.

The cattle had been on the prod uct for not quite a year as this was written, so he didn’t have many hard numbers. But his eye tells him every thing he needs to know.

Just because you have an incredi ble animal that will do well in the feedyard, if we don’t have a mother cow that will work for us out on the ranch, then we haven’t accom plishedThat’sanything.”howChad Ledbetter looks at the beef business. Ledbetter and his wife, Stephanie, are the third generation to ranch in northeastern Oklahoma near Okmulgee, south of Tulsa, on an outfit his grandfather started in 1950. His grandma Joan still helps by delivering meals to the fields and pastures. His parents, Chris and Gayla, are still active in the business and their son Cayden, 19, and daughter Callie, 16, are the fourth generation on the land. “They’re as good as it gets,” he brags about his children’s abilities as ranch hands. “They’ve been a blessing to my wife and I.”

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“Sadly, we do have some things to answer for in the cattle industry. If we can step up and try to correct those problems ourselves, we will have a better image. I don’t relish the idea of celebrities directing pol icy on how livestock should be han dled! Those are the people with the voice and the money and the power (and a lot of influence) but they are not the people who know how to fix it,” she

e want to balance maternal traits and have a mother cow at home that’ll keep us in business.

It’s good for the cattle industry to be able to show that ranchers do a good job of handling cattle humanely. “There are many people who don’t understand how or why things happen on ranches. If we can get show the public a good image, it will be better for the industry–with the facilities and methods Temple Grandin has developed, and the techniques Bud Williams developed. We can show people that there is a reason why we do these things, because we don’t want to hurt our livestock. We are always under the microscope,” John says.

“And thirdly, I would mention the added health benefits. The cattle have just been so much healthier; much less sickness, less cattle need ing treatment for foot rot, pinkeye, pneumonia. The cattle really are staying healthier and we’re cutting antibiotic costs and getting added performance.”Infact,Ledbetter is so impressed with his results that he’s now a Riomax® dealer. “If folks are on the fence about whether or not to try the product, you can sure take it from me,” he says. “I was extremely skep tical because I was concerned about input costs. But at this point in time, outside of some of the things we’ve done on our genetics, I think it’s probably one of the better things that we have found since we’ve been raising livestock,” he claims.

continue their business.”

❚ Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year;

Undoubtedly, Sri Lanka’s dalli ance with ESG has been a clarion call to the world. Following its pres ident’s resignation, the South Asian nation is basically on the verge of collapse.How did a country with a 98.1 out of 100 “E” score end up like this? Naturally, the nation rushed to become the first 100 percent organic farming nation in the world.

The Affordable Connectivity Program is limited to one monthly service discount and one device discount per house

❚ Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program (Section 8 Vouchers)

Sustainability (GSS) Bonds. GSS bonds fund projects with supposed environmental and social outcomes.

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It gets worse for the Netherlands. Last March, Holland adopted a new continent-wide Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) to “improve transparency in the mar ket for sustainable investment prod ucts, to prevent greenwashing and to increase transparency around sus tainability claims made by financial market

hold.Who Is Eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program?Ahousehold is eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program if the household income is at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, or if a member of the household meets at least one of the criteria below:

ruinous effects on political stabili ty, economic growth, and inflation rates. And these won’t be the last countries with high scores to expe rienceCanada,turmoil.our neighbor to the north and holder of a 79.5 “E” score, has similarly proposed gut ting fertilizer use by 30 percent. Naturally, this isn’t sitting well with Canadian farmers. And it shouldn’t. Developing and developed nations need not rely on ESG met rics to measure success. Hinging

❚ Meets the eligibility crite

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Whileparticipants.”theEuropean nation hasn’t collapsed yet, the fertilizer reduc tion use plan may invite problems later since Dutch inflation rate now stands at 8.6 percent—one of the highest in Western Europe.

economic performance on these sub jective scores will incur harm and have no measurable positive impact on the environment.

by Gabriella Hoffman, Opinion townhall.com

❚ or Lifeline;

If you need to talk to someone about your eligibility or application status, call the ACP Support Center at (877) 384-2575.

The complaint, filed by three consumers and nonprofit Farm Forward, focuses on Whole Foods’ beef products, noting the slogan can be found at retail stores, online and on product packaging.

❚ Affordable Housing Programs for American Indians, Alaska Natives or Native Hawaiians

❚ Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations

In April 2021, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa proposed the country ban chemical fertilizer use in farming—a position he ran on during his 2019 presidential run. A group of 30 sci entists warned him not to proceed, citing concerns from potential prod uct yield drops.

❚ WIC

Whole Foods Sued Over ‘No Antibiotics, Ever’ Claim in Beef

In May 2022, the World Bank called GSS bonds a “new frontier for Africa that will help the conti nent build a deeper, resilient, and sustainable financing, according to policymakers, regulators, and peer sovereign issuers from across West Africa.”Butinstead of the promised “new frontier,” Ghana experienced high consumer inflation and higher cost of living which prompted protests in the capital, Accra. Earlier this year, Moody’s warned global sustain able bond issuance would be “flat” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—which is down 28 percent from Q1 2021. The Ghanaian gov ernment didn’t do itself any favors after imposing a tax on electronic payments at the same time. Now the nation, on the brink of eco nomic collapse, is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a Thebailout.Netherlands, the European Union’s largest meat exporter, has also fallen prey to ESG policies.

Independent testing has shown the antibiotic-free beef claim is false, the plaintiffs assert in the complaint. Farm Forward, which states its mission is to end factory farming, said it found that beef sold by Whole Foods con tained antibiotic and other pharmaceutical residue.

“The presence of this residue demonstrates the cattle were treated with antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals while being raised,” the complaint said.

ProgramConnectivityAffordableFCC’s

The benefit provides a dis count of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eli gible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from partici pating providers if they contrib ute more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price.

ESG’s most troubling aspect— its reporting regime—is facing immense scrutiny because rankings allow companies and governments to project a “good” social respon sibility image. But do they hold water? Given their subjective nature and unaccountability stemming from self-reporting, ESG rankings are Scoresflawed. correspond to each of the three prongs—ESG—but the “E” prong measuring an individual country’s carbon and methane emis sions doesn’t paint an accurate pic ture. The World Economics Index scores environmental impact from 0 (high environmental impact) to 100 (low environmental impact) scale.

❚ Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance

Scoring a 90.7 rating, the Dutch government last year approved a 13-year $21 billion plan to cut ammonia and nitrogen emissions 50 percent by 2030. The proposal also mandated the number of livestock be reduced by 30 percent to achieve this goal. That would be a disaster for the country’s 54,000 agribusi nesses.Dutch farmers rightfully per ceived this as an attack on their industry and livelihoods by orga nizing countrywide protests. Unsurprisingly, the Dutch govern ment dismissed their concerns and confessed their goal is to destroy industry jobs, noting, “The honest message ... is that not all farmers can

Page 26 Livestock Market Digest 2022 Fall Marketing Edition FIBERGLASS TANKS Maintenance, Rust & Worry FeedFreshWildlifeLivestockFree...&Tanks&PotableWaterTanks&FertilizerTanks AGRICULTURAL PETROLEUM ENVIRONMENTAL CUSTOM 800.487.4834 WWW.UFITANKS.COM Tanks approved for NRCS Cost Share Program

ith the recent passage of the costly, yet decep tively named, Inflation Reduction Act in the Senate, the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement will be further emboldened. The IRA prioritizes funding for environmen tal justice, clean energy investments, and achieving net zero emissions, among its climate provisions. The bill’s passage, however, exposes the public to its shortcomings and harm ful economic footprint.

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he Affordable Connectivity Program is an FCC benefit program that helps ensure that households can afford the broadband they need for work, school, healthcare and more.

ria for a participating provid er’s existing low-income internet program;

AGRICULTURE WORLD WIDE IN THE CROSSHAIRS

❚ Medicaid

❚ Veterans Pension or Survivor Benefits

❚ Tribal TANF

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Whole Foods’ claim to adhere to a standard of “No antibiotics, EVER! across its meat products has been posted on the retailer’s website for a decade and includes not only fresh and frozen meat but all meat used in its prepared foods and store brand products.

❚ Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA)/202/811

High ESG Scores Foreshadow Economic Decline

❚ SNAP

After the fertilizer ban was adopted, the price of rice reportedly surged 30 percent. By August, the country plunged into an economic crisis. When January rolled around, the country pulled the plug and announced one million rice farm ers would be compensated a sum total of $200 million following the botched implementation of the pro gram.Sri Lanka was praised as a model ESG candidate for committing to carbon neutrality by 2050 and halving its nitrogen use. Today, it’s experiencing 54.6 percent runaway inflation.Theaforementioned Ghana, the Netherlands, and Sri Lanka case studies prove ESG policies have

by Susan Kelly, meatingplace.com

❚ Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

ACP: WHAT IT IS & HOW IT WORKS

The suit contends that consumers overpaid for beef products due to the misleading promotion, including paying a 28 percent markup over tradi tional retailers for beef tenderloin steak filet mignon. The plaintiffs seek monetary damages and an injunction to stop Whole Foods from using the “misleading” claim to sell beef.

class action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in California accuses Whole Foods of deceiving consumers with a promotional message that all animals in its supply chain are raised without antibiotics.

❚ Participates in one of these assistance programs and lives on Qualifying Tribal lands:

❚ Free and Reduced-Price School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program, including at U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Community Eligibility Provision schools.

❚ Tribal Head Start (income based)

Unfortunately for ESG boosters, high “E” scores haven’t shielded three nations in the news—Ghana, the Netherlands, and Sri Lanka— from experiencing economic tur moil.The African nation of Ghana should first be examined. It current ly scores a 97.7 out of 100 on the ESG Index. The Ghanaian govern ment was the first in the continent to raise $5 billion from international capital through Green, Social and

❚ Public Housing

❚ Participates in one of these assistance programs:

Gabriella Hoffman is a senior fellow at Independent Women’s Forum and the host of the District of Conservation podcast. ▫

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Meatpacking industry executives and analysts have said building and staffing more large-scale processing plants will be difficult given the shortage of labor and rising building costs. Executives of meat companies have said that a heavy reliance on a network of small processors would increase meat prices and further complicate supply chains.

Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com

The partnership between Walmart and the North Platte, Nebraska, beef venture comes as some food retailers move to take greater control of the commodi ty-processing portion of their supply chains. Costco Wholesale Corp., for example, built its own poultry-pro

They specifically argued that Biden’s move was not compatible with the part of the law that says parcels put aside for protections “shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”

“One of the things that we saw in the course of the last two years is, quite frankly, capacity is tight,” said Tyler Lehr, a Walmart senior vice president. He said many U.S. grocers struggled to secure meat in 2020 after Covid-19 cases among plant workers cut into produc tion and raised fears of shortages. Walmart will buy most of the beef produced by Sustainable Beef’s facility,Sustainable Beef was founded by a group of cattle ranchers who have said their processing plant will boost competition—and livestock prices—in one of the country’s top

Utah Sues Biden Over Restored MonumentNationalBoundaries

The plant is expected to employ about 800 people and could slaugh ter 1,500 head of cattle a day, according to its founders. Walmart said that with the help of its invest ment, Sustainable Beef plans to break ground next month and begin operations by late 2024.

These monuments were initially designated under the Clinton and Obama administrations.

The White House and Interior Department declined to comment, and a Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

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But, groups allied with the administration argue that Utah is wrong, and that the landscapes need to be preserved.

The size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears mon uments, both located in Utah, were cut by nearly half and about 85 percent, respectively, during the Trump administration.

he state of Utah is suing the Biden administration over its deci sion to restore the size of two national monuments that were shrunk by then-President Trump.

“By filing a lawsuit against the federal government over these monuments, the State of Utah is wasting taxpayer money trying to undermine something that is evident to anyone who spends time in these remarkable landscapes—that Bears Ears and Grand Staircase deserve protection,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, said in a written statement.

by Rachel Frazin, The Hill

“Both legal and historical precedent support the creation of these landscape-scale monuments,” Rokala added. ▫

beef-producing regions by giving local producers another place to sell theirRanchers,cattle. upset by years of low cattle prices despite the rise of wholesale beef prices over the course of the pandemic, have pushed along with the Biden administration to increase antitrust scrutiny on the beef industry. Four meatpackers pro cess around 85 percent of U.S. cat tle, according to the White House, which has promised funding for smaller, regional meat-processing plants, such as Sustainable Beef.

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2022 Fall Marketing Edition Livestock Market Digest Page 27

almart Inc. is pushing deeper into the beef busi ness, taking a stake in a planned Nebraska processing plant to help stock its meat sections and increase processing capacity in the beefOnindustry.August 31, the retail er acquired a minority stake in Sustainable Beef LLC as part of Walmart’s push to develop a net work of meat-processing plants providing Angus beef products for its stores. The deal also provides Walmart and its customers better visibility into the food supply, the companyFinancialsaid. terms of Walmart’s investment weren’t disclosed. Walmart said it would have a seat on Sustainable Beef’s board.

And they said that Biden’s move would “stifle local economic activity, impact local culture and tradition, lock up potentially critical minerals, destroy jobs, and impose exasperating and costly burdens on local and state governments.”

Walmart, Ranchers Team Up on BeefProcessing Plant to Ensure Supply

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cessing plant in recent years to help provide the chain’s signature $4.99 rotisserieWalmartchickens.in2018 opened its own milk-processing plant in Indiana, supplying more than 600 stores, and in 2020 the company opened a beef-processing plant in Georgia operated by FPL Food, supplying stores in the southeastern U.S.

Walmart’s investment in the beef venture gives the project the ben efit of a reliable customer for its beef, said Sustainable Beef Chief Executive David Briggs. “It’s a huge plus,” he said.

“The vast size of the new monuments draws unmanageable vis itation levels without providing the tools necessary to adequately conserve and protect them,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) said in a Twitter thread supporting the suit.

by Patrick Thomas, Wall Street

In deciding to restore the monuments’ original sizes, Biden invoked tribal rights, calling Bears Ears “a place of healing … a place of reverence, a sacred homeland to hundreds of generations of native peoples.”But,the state of Utah and two of its counties argued in court that the monuments are too big, and a violation of the Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the right to protect historic landmarks and other areas of significance.

Prices for food and consumer products have been rising across grocery aisles. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, meatpacking companies said they couldn’t pro cess as many head of cattle as usual because their plants were shortstaffed. That limited meat supplies and pushed prices higher while con sumer demand grew, they said.