LMD May 2018

Riding Herd

“The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.”

by LEE PITTS

– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

May 15, 2018 • www.aaalivestock.com

Volume 60 • No. 5

When Amazon Sells Bulls

Hung With Their Own Rope H Learn this well, the E last ride is never the

BY LEE PITTS

NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING

ver since they won their big 2005 victory at the Supreme Court those in charge of the beef checkoff have become downright cocky. No one more so than the NCBA who, according to a 2014 report, receive over 82% of their income from the government-mandated beef checkoff.

Following that Supreme Court ruling the smug, packer-backing NCBA acted like they were bullet proof. This cockiness grated on some folks like R CALF, the Organization for Competitive Markets and this reporter, who believed the NCBA robbed the big checkoff bank and the USDA drove the getaway car. But what could anyone do about it?

We could just let them self-destruct, and there are signs this is slowly happening.

As often happens when someone gets cocky, they also get sloppy. That had to be the case when the Oklahoma State Beef Council let their checkoff compliance manager embezzle $2.6 MILLION DOLLARS worth of checkoff cash right under their noses. The checkoff folks knew if this got out it would be bad for business and they did a good job of keeping it quiet, but still a good percentage of Oklahoma ranchers found out because they voted down the opportunity to double the state checkoff.

Here are two more instances of bad beef checkoff behavior

last ride. And the end is not the end.

in Ohio and Montana that the checkoff folks don’t want you to know anything about.

Getting Political Check-off boards are explicitly prohibited from using funds to influence any legislation, governmental action or election. That would be like letting the IRS use your tax dollars to attack someone whose political leanings didn’t agree with their own. The IRS would never do that, would they? Well, former IRS employee Lois Lerner seems to have gotten away with it in 2013, but not so The Ohio Beef Council in 2018.

Thanks to the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) we know that the Ohio Beef Council (OBC) illegally used government property to promote a fundraiser for the Mike DeWine gubernatorial campaign. And on April 6, 2018, the OBC used its email domain to circulate an invitation to a campaign fundraiser on behalf of the trade and lobbying group, the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association. According to its own website the OBC also actively engaged in soliciting campaign contributions for the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association’s Political Action Committee. According

to OCM, “The state agency and the lobbying group share the same address and headquarters and the staff members of both organizations are exactly the same and carry the same job titles.”

The Ohio Farmers Union and OCM released a paper demonstrating how Ohio cattle producers’ tax dollars are being used illegally to prop up the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association.

According to OCM, “The Ohio Beef Council is funneling taxpayer dollars through payroll expenses and rental costs to fund the trade and lobbying group, Ohio Cattlemen’s Association.”

In addition to those charges OCM also said that Ohio Beef Council employees go to work every day for the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association, a state trade and lobbying organization. And even though the Supreme Court ruled that the checkoff was a government program, “state and federal checkoff funds are not appropriated by the legislature

continued on page two

Some Animal Viruses May Survive in Imported Feed Ingredient

A journey over land and sea may not keep animal diseases away.

R

esearchers from South Dakota State University, Pipestone Veterinary Services in Minnesota and Kansas State University found that seven of the 11 animal viruses tested can potentially survive the transglobal journey from Asia or Europe to the United States in at least two commonly imported feed ingredients. The scientists examined virus survivability in 11 imported feed ingredients and products by replicating the environmental conditions in shipping containers.

“The findings of this study show that feed biosecurity should be a major priority for pork producers and ultimately, the livestock industry,” said assistant professor Diego Diel, DVM who led the SDSU team. Scott Dee, DVM, director of research at Pipestone Veterinary Services, said, “For the first time, we have data to support that certain feed ingredients are risk factors for moving viruses between farms and around the world. ”Diel and his team at the South Dakota Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory assessed the ability of 10 viruses to survive the 37-day journey from Beijing, China, to Des Moines, Iowa. One postdoctoral researcher, three research associates and a microbiologist worked on the project.

Kansas State University, which has a Level

3 biosecurity laboratory, evaluated the ability of African swine fever virus to survive the 30day trip from Warsaw, Poland, to Des Moines.

In previous work, Dee and ADRDL researchers discovered that porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) can survive the simulated trip from Beijing to Des Moines in five feed ingredients—vitamin D, lysine, choline and organic and conventional soybean meal.

That National Pork Board-funded research led to this larger study, which is supported by the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC). The study results are published in the March 20 issue of PLOS ONE at http:// journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/ journal.pone.0194509.

Paul Sundberg, DVM, SHIC executive director, said, “This is foundational research.

Dr. Diel and Dr. Dee identified a new avenue through which we may be transporting pathogens around the country and the world.” The researchers are now looking for cost-effective ways to mitigate this risk through continuing support from SHIC.

Identifying high-risk ingredients Dee worked with a colleague at the Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Sciences to expand the list of ingredients beyond those in the PEDV study. The researchcontinued on page four

igh tech has destroyed businesses, turned Main Street into a ghost town, and driven your Fed Ex and UPS delivery person to sheer exhaustion.

Forget the mall, Americans are shopping on their cell phones. One of the few industries high tech has not tipped over yet is the bull business, but it’s only a matter of time. Here’s how, and who, you’ll be buying your bulls from in the future.

Amazon - You’ll buy your bulls on your cell phone and Amazon will deliver them free if you are a member of Amazon Prime Bulls.

(But not Amazon Choice.)

To join Amazon Prime Bulls you must pay $10,000 up front before buying a single bull. Your bulls will be delivered by your Postal Service mail carrier and I hope your bulls arrive in better shape than my mail does.

Apple - When you buy a bull from Apple it will be the very best you can buy and it won’t come with any viruses or infections. Apple bulls will have all the bells and whistles, will get their work done fast, be simple to use and will have no disposition problems. The only downside is they’ll cost a fortune with the Apple 8 Bull selling for $9,999. You could buy IBM for what a golden Apple 10 Bull will cost.

Samsung - Your Samsung bull, imported from China, will do all the same things that the Apple Bull will do for half the price.

The only downside is the bull may self-destruct at any minute.

Microsoft - Microsoft bulls will be crossbred and complex, difficult to control and you may have to re-boot them with your Tony Lama’s to get them to work. You’ll have to keep sending your Microsoft bull back until they send you one that will work. This will usually happen after the sixth try but in the meantime your cows will either die of old age or get bred by your neighbor’s Samsung bull. You’ll need to buy lots of wormer and antibiotics because your Microsoft bulls will have bacterial infections, numer-

continued on page four

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nor audited by the state auditor, leaving little if any government oversight of the mandatory checkoff fees.”

Joe Logan, President of the Ohio Farmers Union said, “These tax dollars were intended

by Congress to be used for beef promotion and research, but instead, they have often used dollars from farmers and ranchers to advocate for policies that hurt domestic producers.”

Better Beware It’s safe to say that many state cattlemen’s associations share the same cozy arrangement with their state beef checkoff. If they do, they’d better beware because while the NCBA may appear to be bullet-proof, the state beef checkoffs from whom the the NCBA eventually receives most of its money, are not wearing the same bullet proof armor. Now there’s something the anti-NCBA types can do besides waiting for these groups to self destruct; they can attempt to cut off the flow of money going to the NCBA by going after after state checkoffs. And they are doing so with gusto. For example...

A few years ago the Montana Beef Council used beef checkoff bucks to help pay for ads in a joint promotion with Wendy’s. In these commercials Wendy’s touted that their hamburgers were made with “North American beef”, meaning the beef could have come from Mexico or Canada besides the U.S. This irked Montana ranchers who didn’t like their checkoff dollars being spent to promote the message that there was no difference between the exceptional beef they produce according to U.S. food safety laws, and beef produced in foreign countries. They also didn’t like it that the Montana Beef Council had on its Board representatives of the largest multinational beef packers who aren’t forced to pay the checkoff tax.

So on May 2, 2016, R CALF filed suit against the Montana Beef Council in federal district court. It was R CALF’s contention that it’s a violation of the First Amendment to compel producers to pay a tax to a pri-

continued from page one

vate entity to fund its private speech without the rancher’s permission.

The USDA countered with the same old argument, that the Montana Beef Council was a government program engaged in government speech with no First Amendment conflict.

So far, R CALF’s argument has resonated with judges. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently upheld a lower court ruling that “USDA’s Beef Checkoff program is being administered in a way that interferes with ranchers’ First Amendment rights, and that the government should be enjoined from collecting funds for the program without rancher consent.”

R CALF CEO Bill Bullard said, “This ruling ensures that for the first time in over three decades Independent Montana cattle producers have a choice as to whether to continue funding a private message that essentially says that beef is beef regardless of where the cattle come from.”

R CALF’s attorney David Muraskin said that other state beef checkoffs better beware because, “The Ninth Circuit’s decision means that yet another set of federal judges has ruled that the government cannot compel independent ranchers to fund the speech of multinational corporations. This ruling may only apply to Montana, but the momentum towards reform of the entire Beef Checkoff system is clear.”

Misdirection Ah, but here lies a Catch 22.

We’re pretty sure part of the reason R CALF and OCM are going after the state checkoffs is it’s the only way left to try and take the money away from the NCBA. The arrogant NCBA left them no choice other than to try and cut off their funding at the grass roots level.

As a result of R CALF’s lawsuit, the Agricultural Marketing Service, which is supposed to be overseeing all of the 22 commodity checkoff programs, then came up with something called continued on page four

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May 15, 2018

Livestock Market Digest

Page 3

HUNG “redirection”. Under redirection, producers can channel their dollars away from state councils and boards and send the cash straight to national boards.

So now, as a result of R CALF’s case, a Montana rancher has a choice on whether to contribute to the Montana Beef Council or to have his or her money sent to the Cattleman’s Beef Board (CBB). But here’s the catch: the CBB could then turn around and send all of the dough to R CALF’s number one enemy and largest checkoff contractor... the NCBA. By the Montana Beef Council’s Board meeting in January this had already cost them $150,000 of a typical $860,000 in an entire fiscal year’s return that starts in October.

The USDA can appeal the decision but if not, the case returns to federal district court and toward a final determination based on its merits. R CALF will use the Ninth Circuit decision to bolster its claims for the necessity of a permanent injunction.

They’re In A Mess It’s been obvious for some time that some state beef councils are playing fast and loose with the law. In 2012 the Government Accounting Office (GAO) selected a sample of eight commodity programs of the 22 that exist. (In 2016 those 22 commodity programs collected $885 million.) At the conclusion of its report the GAO was highly critical of the oversight of the checkoffs. The 2012 OIG report found that NONE of the independent audit reports included the five statements of assurance that are required by law.

The USDA, through its Agricul-

continued from page one

tural Marketing Service, has primary oversight responsibility for ensuring that check-off boards comply with legislative and regulatory requirements and even the USDA generally agreed with GAO and their findings. By so doing they admitted they’d been doing a bad job of oversight and promised to do better.

It has only gotten worse.

While the USDA may not be watching the beef checkoff, OCM and R CALF certainly are. State and national beef checkoff boards try to keep their expense statements close to the vest so journalists and organizations like R CALF and OCM have had to resort to Freedom of Information Requests (FOIA’s) to try and get at the real numbers. Such in-depth accounting figures should be public knowledge if the checkoffs are indeed government programs and this should have made it easier to get such information.

But it’s only gotten harder.

According to OCM, they requested from Ohio Department of Agriculture and the USDA the annual audit and reporting documents that Ohio Beef Council is required to file by law. As I write this story neither had responded to their request.

On March 9, 2018, Ohio Farmers Union sent a request to the Ohio State Auditor requesting that he conduct a state audit of Ohio Beef Council funds, yet again the Auditor hasn’t replied.

Ohio Farmers Union made the same request of the Auditor in June 2016, but that request also was denied.

According to OCMAs executive director Joe Maxwell, “FOIA is a major issue in the

heart of the R CALF litigation.

We’ve been involved in a FOIA wrangle with USDA for five years over financial data related to the NCBA. MBC or any state council can’t have it both ways. If MBC is engaged in private speech, then a producer has a right to direct funds away. If MBC is engaged in government speech, then MBC has to release all records to FOIA.” Maxwell believes once a government banner hangs in the window, the entire shop is subject to FOIA. “We claim, counter to MBC, that these are therefore government agencies and have to abide by rules of state and federal government. USDA is in a box and has woken up to that fact that one side of the box is FOIA and the other is redirection. They’re in a mess.”

By claiming to be government entities, state and national beef councils have put themselves at great risk. If environmental and animal rights groups wanted to throw the beef industry into a boil they could legally slap FOIA requests on beef programs in virtually every state.

R CALF’s Bill Bullard thinks that the USDA is worried about the effect of R CALF’s litigation spreading.“I believe USDA is highly concerned. If we prevail, we’ll ask USDA to apply the decision nationwide. If USDA does not, we likely will file additional litigation. It would be the first time in 30 years producers get an open choice. They can do whatever they choose, but at least they’d have a choice.”

A Tangled Web It doesn’t even have to be an organization or a group to take down a state beef council. In Utah one man is potentially ac-

complishing the same thing by claiming the Utah Beef Council and the checkoff violate his First Amendment rights.

The rancher is arguing in court that the collection of checkoff fees is unconstitutional because it supports political speech and lacks transparency.

Evergreen Ranch is the entity and according to the Deseret News it only owns three head of cattle. But the mandatory 50 cents per head that the Evergreen Ranch would have to pay to the Utah Beef Council when the cattle are sold gives that entity the right to sue the Utah Beef Council. Similarly, a nonprofit private entity such as a political advocacy group, green group or animal rightist organization could own one head of stock and do the same thing.

According to the Deseret News, Utah Beef Council officials have been advised by their lawyers that Evergreen Ranch would likely win the lawsuit, based on federal court guidance.

“A legislative analysis also shows the current beef promotion statute is unconstitutional and that both State Auditor John Dougall and State Treasurer David Damschen agree. A spokesperson with the Utah Attorney General’s Office said the constitutional nature of the lawsuit would open the state up to more litigation, which could cost as much as $1 million.”

Multiply the number of ranchers in Utah times a million bucks and that’s the potential loss because, technically, they could all file a similar lawsuit.

No wonder as I wrote this story I was constantly reminded of the words of Sir Walter Scott: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to de-

ceive!”

The questions and lawsuits about FOIA, redirection and misdirection, etc. will continue to be a nightmare for the checkoff boards but that’s the can of worms the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and NCBA opened by arguing at the Supreme Court that they are a government program.

That argument may have saved the checkoff at the time but now that same argument is being used as a double edge sword in an attempt to cut the NCBA down to size. Using an old cowboy colloquialism, you could say they are now being hung with their own rope.

Page 4

Livestock Market Digest

May 15, 2018

Penicillin: Will the Magic Bullet become magical again?

DR. RICHARD RAYMOND,FORMER UNDERSECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE FOR FOOD SAFETY / MEATINGPLACE.COM

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author.)

F

or a long time, we knew penicillin prevented growth of certain bacteria on petri dishes, but at first we did not know how to mass produce it. World War II solved that problem.

Our leaders knew from the very beginning of our entry into WWII that we would have to invade Europe, where and when were yet to be decided, but they knew it would be deadly for Allied invaders.

Many deaths would come from wound infections unless penicillin or some other miracle drug could be mass produced, and a few companies, with huge financial help from the government, figured out how to do it.

And then the bugs figured out how to develop resistance. The once thought to be magical bullet became much less effective. Oh sure, there were carbon rings and other things moved around to try and save penicillin’s magic and variations like amoxicillin, augmentin, oxacillin and methicillin came about, but so did resis-

tance.

So the announcement from the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists that they just might have a new compound that can be used with penicillin to make it more powerful is exciting news.

Years ago pharmaceutical companies added clavulanic acid to amoxicillin to create augmentin, a much stronger version of its predecessor.

Now ARS is saying you can add tunicamycin to penicillin and make it 32-64 times more potent, just like adding clavulanic acid to amoxicillin.

Soil dwelling members of the Streptomyces bacterial group secrete tunicamycin to keep rival bacteria from reaching

choice resources of food.

Researchers have known for years that tunicamycin caused bacterial cell walls to be destroyed, causing them to die. But they also knew the compound was harmful to humans. Now ARS says they have retooled the compound and that it poses little or no threat to humans based on laboratory trials but still kills germs.

Only time will tell, of course, but at a recent conference a speaker said that farmers must work to use antibiotics wisely, because there would probably be no new classes of antibiotics developed in their lifetimes. I agreed with him. The last new class of antibiotics was FDA approved way back in 1978.

I always respected and admired the scientists at USDA ARS when I was with USDA, but I really thought the next breakthrough in antibiotics would be from Merck, Lilly or one of the other Big Pharma names.

I guess instead of a third World War being the impetus, the fact that animals raised for food are falling ill from bacteria resistant to penicillin and other medically important antibiotics caused a sense of urgency at USDA. Way to go ARS.

VIRUSES ers added soy cake and dried distillers grain solids (DDGS), moist and dry dog food, and moist cat food. The use of feline calici virus and canine distemper as surrogate viruses further supported inclusion of these ingredients, he explained.

Because the U.S. also imports sausage casings, a product of pork origin, from Asia, the researchers added this product to the most recent study.

“We’re in a global economy; people and products are moving around the world,” Sundberg said. More than 47,000 tons of imported feed ingredients arrived in San Francisco from China in 2016, according to the International Trade Commission Harmonized Tariff Schedule.

Six viruses survived in con-

continued from page one

ventional soybean meal, while only two did so in organic soybean meal. Though the researchers don’t know what accounts for this difference, Diel said preliminary analysis showed the organic soybean meal had a higher fat content and lower protein content.

Conventional soybean meal is treated with hexane, while the organic soybean meal was not, Dee explained. Because of the processing method used, the organic meal tested had a high fat content and lower protein level. “Those ingredients with higher protein levels seemed to be more conducive to virus survival,” he said.

Four viruses survived in soy oil cake, which is imported from China in the largest quantities of any of the ingredients

evaluated. Only two viruses survived in DDGS, which ranks second among imported ingredients.

Four viruses survived in sausage casings. The amount of this processed product returning to the United States has quadrupled from 2012 to 2016.

Pinpointing key viruses Due to the inability to work with certain target pathogens, surrogate viruses were used to study closely related and structurally similar viruses. For footand-mouth disease, Senecavirus A was studied. For classical swine fever, bovine virus diarrhea was reviewed. For pseudorabies virus, bovine herpes virus-1 was the surrogate. For nipah virus, canine distemper virus was substituted. For swine vesicular disease, research focused on porcine sapelovirus.

And for vesicular exanthema virus, feline calicivirus was the surrogate.

“Certain ingredients seem to provide an ideal matrix for virus survival, and our study identified some of the high risk combinations of viruses and ingredients,” Diel explained.

The SDSU team found viable Senecavirus A, the surrogate for foot-and-mouth disease, survived in all the ingredients except organic soybean meal.

In addition, porcine sapelovirus, a surrogate for swine vesicular disease, survived in all ingredients except DDGS and choline.

African swine fever survived in eight ingredients. It was the only virus that survived the simulated trip without a feed matrix. Furthermore, when Iowa

State researchers analyzed virus half-life, they found that meal African swine fever was most stable of the three viruses in conventional soybean.

The researchers also found that PRRSV can be added to PEDV as a pathogen circulating among swine in the United States that can survive the simulated trip from China and it did so in conventional soybean meal and DDGS. “That was really surprising because PRSSV is quite unstable,” Dee said.

“Though the original goal was to assess potential for transboundary movement, there are also implications for pathogen transport at the regional or national level,” Diel said.

“This research gives us a model to uncover potential pathways for pathogen transport,” Sundberg said. “Publishing the research in a peer-reviewed journal is extremely important. We want scientists to scrutinize it, repeat it and give constructive criticism. This underscores the importance and the credibility of the results and increases confidence in the outcomes.”

Dee said agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have shown interest.

“We all need to consider the implications of this research and then to understand if this potential transport could lead to transmission to animals and what we need to do next,” Sundberg said. “We must work together with government agencies and the feed industry to protect U.S. meat protein agriculture.”

RIDING HERD continued from page one

ous viruses and be buggier than the beds at a ten dollar-a-night fleabag motel.

With every Microsoft bull you buy you’ll be making Bill Gates even richer.

Facebook - The good news is that Facebook is giving bulls away but in order to get a free bull you’ll have to fill out an exhaustive questionnaire and answer all sorts of personal questions about the breeding habits of you, and your cows. Facebook will then sell this information to a firm that sells Viagra online, the Chinese, Zoetis, the Democratic Party, Harbor Freight, American Angus Association, Sears, the CIA, FBI, Putin, and the IRS. All these “Facebook friends” will then know all about the feeding, breeding and pooping patterns of you and your bulls. The pinnacle of humiliation will occur when your mother calls after reading about it in all the cow papers.

Instagram - This Facebook-owned firm will sell bulls online using a catalog app that will display brief nude pictures of them.

Once the bulls arrive at your ranch bid them a fast “adios” because you’ll never see them again.

Twitter - Twitter bulls that text will tell you where they are and what they’re doing every second of every day and night. In no time your Twitter bulls will be tweeting like Trump and will be much too busy to breed any cows.

Uber - Acquiring your herd sires through Uber may be the easiest way to acquire bulls. You’ll call a toll free number, order a bull and in minutes an unpapered, unpedigreed, untested bull will arrive in a broken-down 1953 International Harvester truck that will be driven by a man from Nigeria who doesn’t speak English.

Months later when you preg check your cows only 40% of them will be safein-calf because your Uber bulls were so widely traveled prior to being dumped on your doorstep that they had every venereal disease known to man.

Google - Using the Google search engine you’ll type in your preferred breed, how many cows you own, and your preferred EPD range in 20 different traits. Then, as if by magic, a Google Guy or Google Gal wearing a plastic sleeve and Google Goggles will magically appear faster than you can say “artificial insemination.”

Is it any wonder Google is taking over the world? wwwLeePittsbooks.com

May 15, 2018

Livestock Market Digest

Texas Tech Earns Top 25 Ranking for Its Efforts in Precision Agriculture

T

he ranking by Precision Ag Professional lauds the Department of Plant and Soil Science for its precision agriculture program to improve agricultural production while preserving resources.

Through its research within Texas Tech University and with industry partners, the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources remains on the cutting edge of technology and practices that revolutionize the farming and ranching communities.

That effort earned high praise recently as the Department of Plant and Soil Science earned a prestigious ranking as one of the 25 best colleges in the world for precision agriculture.

The ranking, by the website for Precision Ag Professional magazine, a worldwide leader in precision agriculture information and analysis, is based on feedback from industry experts and internet research, as well as a self-assessment and peer review by the heads of other programs. Those assessments listed schools considered to have the best reputation in education, research and extension and outreach for precision agriculture.

Among the top 25, Texas Tech is the only non-land grant university in the U.S. to earn a ranking. A land-grant university is one designated by a state to receive benefits from the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890, which funds universities by granting federally controlled land to the states with a focus on teaching agriculture, science, military science and engineering.

“Precision agriculture is about doing everything right, applying the right resource or management with the right amount at the right place, at the right time and in the right manner,” said Wenxuan Guo, assistant professor of crop ecophysiology and precision agri-

culture in the Department of Plant and Soil Science. “Precision agriculture helps improve farming profitability, increase sustainability and protect the environment.”

Precision agriculture is a method of farm management based on observing, measuring and responding to variability of crops and soil in order to develop a system for management of the whole farm designed to optimize returns and preserve resources.

Precision Ag commended Texas Tech’s precision agriculture program under Guo’s leadership. They praised Texas Tech’s efforts to develop and expand innovative research and education programs focused on important local and national agricultural needs and to support the state’s and nation’s economic development through education and research.

“The potential of precision agriculture to improve agricultural productivity is tremendous,” said Eric Hequet, Horn Professor and Chairman of the Department of Plant and Soil Science. “More efforts in research, education and service are needed to promote and implement this technology.”

Guo has done extensive work using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, to conduct research in plant and soil science.

His research focuses on precision agriculture, environmental sciences and remote sensing in agriculture, using UAVs in precision plant phenotyping. His hope is to establish interdisciplinary research and teaching programs using technology to improve production with limited resources, especially the most vital and scarce resource on the South Plains – water.

“Unmanned aerial systems with various sensors onboard can substantially improve agricultural productivity through close monitoring of crop growth with high-resolution images,” Guo said.

B.C. Wolf Cull Needed to Save Elk & Moose, says Biologist Entire herds have already disappeared from some areas SOURCE: DAYBREAK SOUTH · CBC NEWS

T

he dwindling elk and moose population in B.C.’s East Kootenay can only be saved by culling predators like wolves, cougars and bears, say a growing number of hunters and biologists.

Elk herds that used to have 1,000 members now have 200, and only produce 15 to 20 calves a year, says wildlife ecologist Bob Jamieson.

Those calves are not surviving to adulthood, due to pressure from predators, he says, and entire herds have already disappeared in some areas.

“We’ve always said [predators] kill the old and the weak.

But the fact is they kill the old and the weak, and very large number of the young,” said Jamieson.

Governments and biologists already manage most

aspects of the ecosystem, including logging rates and competition for grazing between livestock and wild herds, he said.

Jamieson says researchers are also working to better educate the public on the drastic effect predators like wolves can have on ungulates like elk and moose — and he believes it’s time to start managing large predators directly.

“For some reason, historically, we’ve said well we just don’t manage large predators,” he said. “The more recent science is saying we’re going to have to manage the whole system.”

B.C. biologists say elk and moose populations are struggling in the East Kootenay due to pressure from predators like wolves, cougars, and bears.

(Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources/Associated Press)

Outcry over culls Hunters say the elk population in the East Kootenay has been declining for decades.

“You don’t see any animals in the backcountry the way you used to. The elk are not even going into their calving grounds the way they used to,” said Ken Miller, who has hunted in the Kootenays most of his adult life.

Both Miller and Jamieson are part of a group of hunters and wildlife biologists that are lobbying the provincial government to conduct an official count of ungulates in the East Kootenay.

Jamieson says outcry over ​ culls aimed at saving populations like B.C.’s mountain caribou are misguided.

“We’re just trying to educate people as to the scale of the problem and try to figure out some way to address it and alter the situation.”

Page 5

GAO: No Anticompetitive Behavior Behind Cattle Price Drop

BY SUSAN KELLY / MEATINGPLACE.COM

R

egular supply and demand factors such as a drought that affected the price of cattle feed -- rather than competition levels among packers -- likely caused substantial fluctuations in fed cattle prices between 2013 and 2016, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in an analysis published in early April.

U.S. senators in 2016 asked the GAO to investigate the cause of a sudden 15 percent price drop in fed cattle prices in the latter half of 2015, at the urging of R-CALF USA. “We found that while less competition among packers did not appear to result in lower national cattle prices from 2013 through 2015 on a national level, it did account for variations in prices in different parts of the country,” GAO said in its report.

For the analysis, GAO re-

viewed economic data and USDA and Commodity Futures Trading Commission documentation, analyzed transaction data on beef packer purchases from 2013 through 2015, and interviewed recognized experts, cattle industry stakeholders such as feedlot operators and packers, and agency officials.

GAO recommended USDA review the extent to which the price reporting group can share daily transaction data with the Packers and Stockyards Program and determine whether such sharing is allowable. If it is advisable, USDA should submit to Congress a proposal to allow the data sharing, GAO concluded.

“By routinely conducting in-depth analysis of the transaction data it collects, USDA could enhance its monitoring of the fed cattle market. Such analysis could include but not be limited to examining competition levels in different areas of the country,” GAO said.

Page 6

Livestock Market Digest

Arizona Becomes The First State to Eliminate Chevron Deference

BY ASHLEY REMILLARD / CONGRESS, LEGISLATION

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n April 11, 2018, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed into law H.B. 2238, which amended the state’s administrative procedure laws to provide that courts are not required to defer to an agency’s legal interpretation in lawsuits over administrative decisions. The amendment effectively eliminated “Chevron deference,” which requires courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute.

The legal doctrine—named for the 1984 Supreme Court decision in Chevron U.S.A. Inc.

v. Natural Resource Defense Counsel, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-844 (1984)—has been criticized by various judges, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch (then sitting on the Tenth Circuit). The U.S. Senate has also unsuccessfully attempted to repeal the doctrine.

The Arizona law is the first state law of its kind. Arizona lawmakers are hopeful that the law may serve as a model for other states or Congress. If a similar bill is able to successfully pass through Congress and become law, it will have far reaching consequences for cases challenging agency decisions made pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.

Pharmaceutical Use in Cattle - Online Course to be Presented by West Texas A&M University

T

he course will equip persons involved in the management, administration, distribution or sale of pharmaceuticals used in cattle to maximize therapeutic outcomes, prevent drug-related problems and protect the wholesomeness of the food supply chain.

Graduate and undergraduate students throughout the

country can easily access this web-based course to gain up-todate information and training in veterinary labeled drugs, animal disease states, regulatory issues and public health topics.

Upon completing this course, students will have knowledge and skills that can positively impact educational, veterinary and economic out-

comes by applying their drug knowledge resources to veterinary situations.

This 3-credit hour online course is ideal for students majoring in; animal science, dairy science, feedyard/ranch management, ag education, ag communication, meat science, veterinary technology, and pre-veterinary medicine. Students are welcome to take the course on an individual basis and transfer the elective credit back to their home school.

Registration for the summer 2018 course begins immediately and closes the first week of class. The course begins June 4th, 2018. The course is offered every spring, summer and fall semesters.

For information on course objectives, dates, syllabus, tuition or registration instructions visit http://www.wtamu.edu/ academics/eod-veterinary-pharmacy.aspx For questions on this oneof-a-kind course contact the instructor, Elaine Blythe, PharmD.

May 15, 2018

USDA Proposes to Update Branding Requirements to Cattle Entering US from Mexico

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he United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is proposing to update its branding requirements for cattle entering the United States from Mexico. The changes would simplify the branding requirements, making the brands easier to apply and read, reducing errors. They would ensure Mexican cattle are easily identifiable and traceable for the remainder of their lives in the event of a disease detection.

The Mexican government requested changes to address issues with the current branding requirements, including confusion between the Mx and MX brands used for spayed heifers and breeding cattle respectively; the small size of the brands, which can cause blotching and require rebranding; and the rejection of animals at ports entry based on questions about whether they were branded correctly.

The proposed rule addresses these concerns by requiring an M brand for all cattle. The brand would also be larger in size for better readability. Together, these steps will reduce branding errors. To make it easy to distinguish between feeder and breeding cattle, brands for breeding animals would be placed on the shoulder. Feeder cattle would continue to be branded on the back hip.

The proposed rule would still allow an MX ear tattoo option for breeding cattle, instead of a brand, because the tattoos have not posed a readability problem and are a permanent form of identification. Cattle imported from Mexico would still require an approved eartag for traceability purposes.

USDA is already allowing Mexico to use the M brand on spayed heifers and breeding cattle as an alternative to the Mx and MX brands. This has reduced errors and confusion at border ports. The change is proving to be beneficial for both countries.

USDA will accept comments on this proposed rule for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. This proposed rule may be viewed in the Federal Register at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/04/12/2018-07585/branding-requirements-for-bovines-imported-into-the-united-states-from-mexico. Beginning Thursday, April 11, and ending on June 11, 2018, members of the public will be able to submit comments at: http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetails;D=APHIS-2016-0050 or in writing to: Docket No. APHIS-2016-0050 Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS Station 3A-03.8 4700 River Road Unit 118 Riverdale MD 20737-1238

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14 BHD STOGIE Z389 24 ABC DBL MAGIC ASTRO POLL 11 BHD WIKTOR A60 P 23 BHD ISOTOPE Z414 P 35 LT LEDGER 0332 P 14 MD GOLD MARK A1061

@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

$8,250.00 $5,640.63 $5,522.73 $5,510.42 $4,884.62 $4,875.00 $4,812.50 $4,600.00 $4,541.67 $4,500.00 $4,482.14 $4,468.75 $4,454.55 $4,402.17 $4,400.00 $4,267.86

May 15, 2018

Livestock Market Digest

Page 7

Black-Capped Vireo Delisted from Endangered Species List N ot so long ago the blackcapped vireo nearly went extinct. Goats ate their way through this songbird’s habitat and brown-headed cowbirds commandeered their nests. In the late 1980s there were only about 350 birds known to exist, but thanks to robust conservation efforts, the small songbird is being removed from the list of endangered and threatened species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) joined forces with the states of Oklahoma and Texas, the U.S. Army, private landowners and non-governmental organizations to protect and recover the vireo. Through the dedicated conservation efforts undertaken by these partners to address primary threats, conserve needed habitat and advance scientific understanding, the vireo has experienced a dramatic recovery.

There are now more than 14,000 birds estimated across the vireo’s breeding range of Oklahoma, Texas and Mexico.

Last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service celebrated the partnership-driven recovery of the black-capped vireo at Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge with many of those involved in the recovery effort.

“The delisting of the blackcapped vireo clearly illustrates the value of the service’s partnership-driven approach to conservation,” said Amy Lueders,

the service’s southwest regional director. “By working with our partners including Fort Hood, Fort Sill, the states of Texas and Oklahoma, private landowners and others we were able to conserve a North American songbird that once perched on the brink of extinction for future generations to enjoy.”

“Anytime we are able to successfully recover an imperiled species and see it removed from the endangered species list is cause for celebration”, said Carter Smith, executive director of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “What made it all work were the tireless efforts and dedication of multiple public and private partners, particularly the commitment of private landowners who labored diligently to restore and enhance habitats to benefit the

vireos and a host of other native species in the process. The conservation lesson learned here is that marriage of good partnerships and good land stewardship produces results we can all be proud of.”

“The black-capped vireo is a success story that shows the power of conservation partnerships,” said J.D. Strong, director of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “Now our challenge is to redouble efforts to make sure those partnerships continue – along with valuable habitat restoration work and research – so that vireos and Oklahoma’s other fish and wildlife populations remain healthy.

“I’m proud of our Natural Resources team for their application of sound science to demonstrate military training

is compatible with the black capped vireo recovery. I also appreciate the efforts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to fully understand our training and readiness requirements, striking a balance between Fort Hood’s mission and endangered species management,” said Colonel Henry Perry, Commander, U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hood. “This delisting results from decades of collaboration between the Fish and Wildlife Service and stakeholders like Fort Hood.”

The black-capped vireo was listed in 1987 primarily due to the impacts of habitat loss and nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds. Cowbirds dupe the vireos into raising cowbird chicks at the cost of the survival of their own young. In addition, during this time-period Texas had a prevalence of goats on the landscape that were browsing on shrubs and reducing the shrub cover that vireos need.

Across Texas and Oklahoma, the service worked with the U.S. Army, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Department of Agriculture, The Nature Conservancy, the Environmental Defense Fund and others on efforts to recover the black-capped vireo.

A concerted program to manage cowbirds and restore habitat, as well as the decrease in goat densities in Texas since the repeal of the National Wool Act, resulted in increased numbers of vire-

os across the breeding range.

Conservation efforts included using prescribed fire, creating conservation easements, and research and management of brown-headed cowbirds.

The black-capped vireo is the smallest member of the vireo family occurring regularly in the United States. It winters exclusively in Mexico along the Pacific Coast. Sporting a namesake black cap and white face mask, black-capped vireos build intricate hanging-cup nests two to four feet above the ground fastened to the branches of shrubs with strands from spider webs.

They return to the same breeding site year after year.

Using a scientifically rigorous Species Status Assessment, the service found that the primary threats to the black-capped vireo have been reduced or adequately managed and populations are expected to be viable in the future.

To ensure black-capped vireo populations remain healthy and stable into the future, the service has developed a post-delisting monitoring plan with the states of Texas and Oklahoma, Fort Hood, Fort Sill and The Nature Conservancy of Texas.

The plan describes the methods we will use to monitor the status of the vireo and its habitat, in cooperation with its partners for a 12- year period and provides a strategy for identifying and responding to any future population declines or habitat loss.

Extreme Animal Rights Groups Tangle in Lawsuit Over PZP Use in Feral Horses

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ontrary to numerous claims by the HSUS, the use of PZP is not humane, nor is it “elegant”. According to the USDA’s Natural Wildlife Research Center, when administered, PZP causes the production of antibodies that keeps an egg from being fertilized. While the drug may keep a pregnancy from occurring, what it does not do is keep a mare from continuing to cycle and therefore subjects her to repeated breeding by stallions. Protect the Harvest

Friends of Animals, Files Complaint – HSUS Jumps in to Defend “Income” Last year, an animal rights extremist group, Friends of Animals, filed a complaint to stop the use of PZP in horses on American rangelands. A recent article in Capital Ag Press, announced that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has received permission to enter into this lawsuit as a defendant. The HSUS requested to enter into the lawsuit because they hold the patent on PZP and make money

off of taxpayers when it is administered to horses on American range lands. According to the article, “ The lawsuit claims the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated federal pesticide law by registering PZP for wild horses without fully examining adverse effects on the animals or their environment.”

Concerns About the Use of PZP PZP is a drug, patented by the HSUS, that has been used as a marginally effective population control method. The article outlines the concerns Friends of Animals have made about the drug, “ … PZP raises the odds that females will give birth during the wrong season by disrupting their reproductive cycle, which endangers foals due to inadequate food sources.

Repeated use of the contraceptive may also lead to permanent infertility in mares…” Friends of Animals also alleges, “ …that studies submitted to the federal government by HSUS weren’t sufficiently thorough.”

HSUS False Claims About PZP Contrary to numerous claims by the HSUS, the use of PZP is not humane, nor is it “elegant”.

According to the USDA’s Natural Wildlife Research Center, when administered, PZP causes the production of antibodies that keeps an egg from being fertilized. While the drug may keep a pregnancy from occurring, what it does not do is keep a mare from continuing to cycle and therefore subjects her to repeated breeding by stallions.

The HSUS has made other false claims about the drug including that it is inexpensive and easy to administer. The drug must be administered every one to two years and has not proven to be 100% effective. The cost of the drug is expensive and so is the process, which includes rounding up the horses in order to administer the injections. There is a problem with record keeping and treatment as well since round ups are not effective in gathering all of the horses on the ranges each time.

The HSUS also made false claims that the use of PZP has eliminated entirely the roundup of horses on Maryland’s Assateague Island. This is not the case. Each year during Chin-

coteague’s historic “Pony Swim”, there are still 60 to 70 foals that are gathered along with the rest of the herd continued on page eight

Page 8

Livestock Market Digest

May 15, 2018

California Legislation Would Mandate Plant-Based Options in Hospitals, Prisons SOURCE: BUSINESSWIRE.COM

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alifornia Senate Bill 1138, introduced in the California State Legislature by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), would require licensed California health care facilities and state prisons to make available plant-based meal options containing no animal products or by-products, including meat, poultry, fish, dairy, or eggs. The bill is sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Social Compassion in Legislation.

“Everyone in the state of California deserves the same access to nutritious food,” says California Senator Skinner. “By

ensuring that our hospitals and our prisons provide a plantbased meal option, SB 1138 will help reduce chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.”

In its position paper on vegetarian diets, co-authored by Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., director of nutrition education for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics stated that “vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases,” including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain

types of cancer, and obesity.

In June 2017, the American Medical Association passed a Healthy Food Options in Hospitals resolution that calls on U.S. hospitals to improve the health of patients, staff, and visitors by providing plantbased meals.

“Plant-based foods are acceptable to most world religions and ethical schools, as well posing fewer problems for people with common food sensitivities like egg and dairy,” says Judie Mancuso, founder and president of Social Compassion in Legislation. “For these reasons, plant-based options should be provided and promoted in all public institutions, including

hospitals and prisons.”

Section 2084 of the California Penal Code states that “the department shall provide each prisoner … with sufficient plain and wholesome food of such variety as may be most conducive to good health.” While “vege-

Changes are Evitable

BY JIM OLSON

L

ife is a series of beginnings and endings. Changes.

Seasons change, years begin and end, we are born and we die. Life is just full of transitions. Changes can be stressful. Change is not always fun—nor welcome.

Sometimes we do not want to act upon the changes coming our way. But remember this, indecision is sometimes known as “sitting on the fence.” Well, the one thing I know about “sitting on the fence” too long—it can give you blisters on your bottom!

Have you ever stayed in a job or situation for too long?

You knew it was not your ideal situation, you just stayed because you thought you could make it work. Or maybe you were just to scared to move on? Let me ask you this, why would you put up with anything you did not like for more than a few weeks—or even days? Many people stay with an undesirable situation for months or even years because they felt they would let somebody else down. But when we allow others to determine our worth or value, or make our important life decisions, we are doing ourselves a disservice. Make a decision for yourself! One that works for you and your life’s circumstances at the time.

Transitions serve a very important purpose in our lives; they are opportunities for

PZP and sold at their annual festival.

Why HSUS is a Defendant – They Stand to Lose a Lot of Money What is most interesting to note is the fact that U.S. Magistrate Patricia Sullivan, Pendleton, Oregon ruled that the HSUS has a “protectable interest” in the lawsuit. She noted that the

us to learn, grow, and gain knowledge. They show us what we are made of. They allow us to edit the story of our lives as we go forward.

Yes, change can be difficult, but nothing in life is immune from it.

We cannot always choose our circumstances or the changes coming our way, but we most certainly can choose how we deal with them. Do you do it this way? Or that?

Do you let someone else make the decision for you?

Or do you take charge of your own destiny? Ultimately, every person on this planet is responsible for taking care of their own life. For their own decisions. Once you make a decision, once you accept the change and how to deal with it, once you take that leap— the best way to go is onward and upward—with a positive attitude.

Be proud of where you have come from. History is important. It is the strength you gained in the past that got you through hard times. Look back at previous changes and decisions as educational experiences. File them away for future reference. Then embrace the changes of the day.

But always look forward to the future and all it holds for you—because that is where you are headed—and it is full of changes! Enjoy them and make the most of them! www.WesternTradingPost.com

continued from page seven

HSUS would be negatively affected by PZP’s cancellation or the need for additional scientific review. There is a reason for this. The HSUS holds the patent on PZP and makes considerable money from US taxpayers each time it is administered. If the use of PZP is halted or delayed, the HSUS will lose their government-funded gravy-train.

tarian meals shall be available at all institutions upon request for inmates with any religious, personal, or ethical dietary need” under existing California regulations, these meals are not strictly plant-based, often containing milk or egg products.

REAL ESTATE GUIDE

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

TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES • New 40 acre Nice older brick home, 3/3/2, 4 barns, excellent grass. Kaufman Co., Texas. 35 miles from Dallas Court House. $350,000.

SOLD

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• 270 acre Mitchell County, Texas ranch. Investors dream; excellent cash flow.

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• 40 acre, 2 homes, nice barn, corral, 30 miles out of Dallas. $415,000.

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Bar M Real Estate

Selling residential, farm, ranch, commercial and relocating properties.

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COLETTA RAY

Pioneer Realty 1304 Pile Street, Clovis, NM 88101

www.ranchesnm.com 575/622-5867 575/420-1237

575-799-9600 Direct 575.935.9680 Office 575.935.9680 Fax coletta@plateautel.net www.clovisrealestatesales.com

Ranch Sales & Appraisals

O’NEILL LAND, llc P.O. Box 145, Cimarron, NM 87714 • 575/376-2341 • Fax: 575/376-2347 land@swranches.com • www.swranches.com

WAGONMOUND RANCH, Mora/Harding Counties, NM. 4,927 +/- deeded acres, 1,336.80 +/- state lease acres, 2,617 +/- Kiowa National Grassland Lease Acres. 8,880.80 +/- Total Acres. Substantial holding with good mix of grazing land and broken country off rim onto Canadian River. Fenced into four main pastures with shipping and headquarter pasture and additional four pastures in the Kiowa lease. Modern well, storage tank and piped water system supplementing existing dirt tanks located on deeded. Located approximately 17 miles east of Wagon Mound on pavement then county road. Nice headquarters and good access to above rim. Wildlife include antelope, mule deer and some elk. $2,710,000

RATON MILLION DOLLAR VIEW, Colfax County, NM. 97.68 +/- deeded acres, 2 parcels, excellent home, big shop, wildlife, a true million dollar view at end of private road. $489,000. House & 1 parcel $375,000 MIAMI 80 ACRES, Colfax County, NM. 80 +/deeded acres, 80 water shares, expansive views, house, shop, roping arena, barns and outbuildings.

Reduced $485,000

COLD BEER VIEW, Colfax County, NM 83.22 +/- deeded acre, 3,174 sq ft, 5 bedroom, 3 ½ bathrm, 2 car garage home situated on top of the hill with amazing 360 degree views.

MIAMI HORSE TRAINING FACILITY, Colfax County, Reduced $398,000 NM. Ideal horse training facility, 4 bedroom 3 bathroom approx. 3,593 sq-ft home, 332.32 +/- deeded acres, MIAMI 20 ACRES, Colfax County, NM. 20 +/208 shares of irrigation, all the facilities you need to deeded acres, 20 water shares, quality 2,715 sq summer your cutting horse operation out of the heat ft adobe home, barn, grounds and trees. Private and far enough south to have somewhat mild winters. setting. This is a must see. Reduced to $375,000 Approximately 6,200 ft elevation. $1,790,000 FRENCH TRACT 80, Colfax County, NM irrigated MAXWELL FARM IMPROVED, Colfax County, NM. 280 farm w/home & good outbuildings, $350,000 +/- deeded acres, 160 Class A irrigation shares, 2 center pivots, nice sale barn, 100 hd feedlot. Depredation Elk Tags COLMOR PLACE, Mora County, NM 354 +/- deeded available. Owner financing available to qualified buyer. acres, I25 frontage, house, pens, expansive views.

Ocate Creek runs through property. $249,000 Significantly reduced to $550,000

UNDER CONTRACT

521 West Second St., Portales, NM 88130

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Rural Listings with Homes & Barns in Eastern New Mexico 2638 S Rrd G, 160 ac very nice ranch setting near Causey, NM 361 S Rrd W, 38 ac w/ 3bdrm, 2 bth home 7 mi west Portales, NM 1866 NM 236, 10 ac w/4 bdrm 2 bth, barns, storage – 2 miles from town 1509 Davis Rd, very nice home, lots garage – barn space – 3 miles out 1242 NM 480, fantastic ranch home on 58 ac overlooking Portales See these and other properties at www.buenavista-nm.com

May 15, 2018

Livestock Market Digest

Page 9

Indiana’s AG Weighs in to Help Agriculture in Supreme Court

BY GARY BAISE

I

ndiana farmers must choose between ignoring Massachusetts’ regulations or complying with them to sell product in that state.

Curtis Hill, Attorney General for Indiana, is requesting the United States Supreme Court block the implementation of the Massachusetts’ Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act (Animal Law).

The Republican Indiana official on March 16, 2018, filed a Reply Brief in the Supreme Court to support an original Bill of Complaint. He argues “The Supreme Court shall have origi-

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775/752-3040 Nevada Farms & raNch PrOPerTY www.bottarirealty.com

nal and exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies between two or more states.”

The Massachusetts Animal Law, like California’s similar law, attempts to dictate the cage size of hens which produce shell eggs. According to the brief, 99 percent of eggs sold in retail stores in Massachusetts come from other states, such as Indiana. The brief declares “The whole question is whether the Commerce Clause protects farmers from having to choose between ignoring another state’s production regulations and selling products in that state.”

Massachusetts appears to

SOCORRO PLAZA REALTY On the Plaza

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Qualifying Broker

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116 Plaza PO Box 1903 Socorro, NM 87801 www.socorroplazarealty.com dbrown@socorroplazarealty.com

confirm, in its brief, it is giving farmers the choice of conforming to Massachusetts law or not selling in the state. Apparently there is nothing which describes how pen size for a chicken or hog affects egg or pork quality or health.

Indiana’s Attorney General argues it is critical to determine if one state such as Massachusetts or California can “… regulate production in other states…” Massachusetts, of course, argues that its Animal Law “does not directly or in practical effect regulate sales in other states.”

This is a silly argument, and the Indiana Attorney Gener-

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al calls the assertion “utterly implausible.” Indiana’s brief describes how Massachusetts Animal Law specifically targets Massachusetts retail establishments, but the direct effect regulates animal housing in Indiana.

It is clear Massachusetts is regulating production in other states. Indiana’s farmers must choose between ignoring Massachusetts’ regulations or complying with them to sell product in that state. Massachusetts apparently argues that it may regulate the food supply in the state so long as it does not discriminate. Indiana replies that Massachusetts is not regulating

andrew@bakercityrealty.com www.bakercityrealty.com

TURKEY TRACK RANCH – First time offering of one of the largest ranches in the southwest, comprised of over 253,000 acres to include 37,000 deeded acres. Some mineral included.

PRICE REDUCED: $17,500,000 BLACK DOG RANCH – Central NM, near Corona in Lincoln County. Comprised of 314 deeded acres with nice new of remodeled improvements. Good elk, mule deer and turkey hunting. Comes with elk tags.

PRICE: $565,000 PRICE: $525,000 DOUBLE L RANCH – Central NM, 10 miles west of Carrizozo, NM. 12,000 total acres; 175 AUYL, BLM Section 3 grazing permit; Water provided by 3 wells and buried pipeline. Improvements include house and pens. Price Reduced: $1,150,000 X T RANCH – Southeastern NM cattle ranch 40 miles northwest of Roswell, NM on the Chaves/Lincoln County line.

Good grass ranch with gently rolling grass covered hills. 8,000 total acres, 200 AUYL grazing capacity. Partitioned into four pastures watered by 2 wells with pipelines. Call for brochure.

PRICE: $1,750,000 SOUTH BROWN LAKE RANCH – Nicely improved cattle ranch located northwest of Roswell, NM. 5,735 total acres to include 960 acres deeded. 164 A.U. yearlong grazing capacity. Modern residence, bunkhouse, shop and feed barn. Three wells and buried pipeline. Excellent grass country.

PRICE: $1,300,000 L-X RANCH – Southeastern NM just ten minutes from Roswell, NM with paved gated and locked access. 3,761 total acres divided into several pastures and traps. Nice improvements to include a site built adobe residence. One well with extensive pipeline system. Well suited for a registered cattle operation. Price: $900,000

continued on page fourteen

Missouri Land Sales

See all my listings at: • NEW LISTING! 161 Acres, Cattle/Horses/Hunting Estate 5000 sq ft paulmcgilliard.murney.com inspired Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. 3 bed, 2 1/2 baths, full w/o Paul McGilliard finished basement, John Deere room, bonus room. This estate is set Cell: 417/839-5096 up for intensive grazing, 3 wells, 3 springs, 4 ponds, automatic waters.

1-800/743-0336 Secluded, but easy access, only 22 miles east of Springfield, off Hwy Murney Assoc., Realtors 60. MLS# 60081327 Springfield, MO 65804 • 1+ ACRE CORNER LOT IN MOUNTAIN GROVE, MISSOURI sits this charming, one owner, custom built, 3200 sq ft home, 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, formal living and dining room, gourmet kitchen, sun room, 2 fireplaces, w/o finished basement, too many amenities to list. $359,900 MLS#60102756.

• NEW LISTING! 80 Acres - 60 Acres Hayable, Live Water, Location, Location! Only 8 miles west of Norwood, 3 miles east of Mansfield, 1/4 mile off Hwy 60. Well maintained 3 bed, 1 1/2 bath, 1432 sq. ft. brick/vinyl home, nestled under the trees. Full basement (partially finished), John Deere Room. This is your farm! MLS#60059808

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the quality of the egg or pork coming to the state but the conditions of production.

Indiana’s Attorney General also argues its own land grant university, Purdue, produces hogs for the national market. It is claimed by Indiana and other plaintiff states that such production requirements will cause the states to suffer direct injury because Massachusetts is erecting trade barriers to farm products unless those farm products follow Massachusetts’ required production regulations.

Indiana and 12 other Attorneys General are suing not only

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■ MALPAIS OF NM – Lincoln/Socorro Counties, 37.65 sections +/- (13,322 ac. +/- Deeded, 8,457 ac. +/- BLM Lease, 2,320 ac. +/- State Lease) good, useable improvements & water, some irrigation w/2 pivot sprinklers, on pvmt., all-weather road.

■ WEST CLOVIS HWY. 60 – 1,536.92 ac. +/- of grassland w/two mi. of hwy. frontage on Hwy. 60, ½ mi. of frontage on Hwy. 224, 3 mi. of frontage on south side of Curry Rd. 12, watered by one well at the pens piped to both pastures.

■ SOUTH CONCHAS RANCH – San Miguel Co., NM – 9,135 ac. +/- (6,670 +/- deeded, 320 +/- BLM, 40 +/- State Lease, 2,106 +/- “FREE USE”) well improved, just off pvmt. on co. road., two neighboring ranches may be added for additional acreage!

■ OTERO CO., NM – 120 scenic ac. +/- on the Rio Penasco is surrounded by Lincoln National Forest lands covered in Pines & opening up to a grass covered meadow along 3,300 feet +/- of the Rio Penasco. This property is an ideal location to build a legacy mountain getaway home.

■ GREAT STARTER RANCH – Quay Co., NM – well improved & watered, 2,400 ac. +/-deeded, 80 ac. +/- State Lease, excellent access from I-40.

■ OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A PIECE OF AN OLD WEST RANCH – Guadalupe Co., NM - There are multiple owners of the Frontier Ranch consisting of their individual, undivided ownership of 6,423.45 ac. +/- w/undivided ownership ranging from 38 ac. +/- &

area, this is good country suitable for a year-round cow/calf or summer yearling grazing, located in close proximity to the Grey Fox Ranch for addtl. acreage.

■ GREY FOX RANCH – Guadalupe Co., NM – 2,919.85 ac. +/- of deeded land, all native grass, located in close proximity to the Frontier Ranch for addtl. grazing.

■ ALFALFA & LIVESTOCK – Tucumcari, NM 255.474 ac. +/-, state-of- the-art huge hay barn & shop (immaculate), steel pens, Arch Hurley Water Rights, two nearly new sprinklers, alfalfa established.

■ TEXLINE SPECIAL – 472.4 ac. irr., on Dalhart/ Clayton hwy. in New Mexico.

■ GRASSLAND W/STRONG WATER POTENTIAL – Union Co., NM - approx. 927.45 ac. +/-, adjoins Texline Special on the west & north, on pvmt., organic poss.

■ QUAIL HAVEN – along w/deer, turkey, antelope & other wildlife – Borden Co., TX., 1,672.8 +/- ac., well located near Gail/Snyder, Texas on pvmt. & all-weather road, well improved.

■ DEER, QUAIL – & OTHER WILDLIFE – Borden Co., TX. – adjoins the Quail Haven ranch on the north for addtl. acres or can be bought separately, well fenced & watered w/a good set of pens, on large, all-weather, caliche road.

■ HALL CO., TX – 445 ac. +/- dryland farm, excellent hunting!

■ SPRING CREEK & LAKE – Hall Co,. TX. – 290 ac. +/-, improved grass, year-round live water, 8 ac. +/- lake, excellent hunting w/Mule & Whitetail deer, quail, turkey, migratory birds, varmints, good fences.

■ OKLA. LAND RUSH 400 – strong water area, part irr., part grassland w/development potential, 1¾ mi. of frontage on large, all-weather caliche road.

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Page 10

Livestock Market Digest

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May 15, 2018

We have now abandoned the well-researched and recognized facts concerning the exploitation of the public domain lands in the 1800’s and early 1900’s.

This exploitation included unregulated use of the public domain lands by large corporate investors and the failed homesteads as people tried to make a living from the arid lands of the West. The era of western settlement was promoted by the federal government. This mass movement of people to the western wildlands, while not purposely meant to exploit the public domain lands, was not well thought out or regulated.

Most of the people who risked everything to move to the western frontier had no idea of the environment they were moving into. From the poorest homesteader to the riches corporate entrepreneur, these people knew little about conservation or what was required to sustain the health of the lands they were using.

The ecological theories which are currently being promoted do not recognize the severe impacts to the plant communities and ecosystems that occurred as the western lands were being explored and settled. The over harvesting of timber, the overgrazing of large tracts of the most productive rangelands and the tilling of thousands of acres of floodplain bottomlands while trying to dry land farm changed many plant communities and ecosystems to the point that are still in a degraded condition.

The evidence of severe soil erosion, the formation of gullies and the degradation of many plant communities to the point they support mostly woody species is still easily recognized today. This change is documented in multiple photo essay publications that show the changes in plant communities over time.

We have now replaced the facts concerning the adverse impacts brought about by the rapid settlement of the West with the theory that prior to the 1910 Big Burn era the western plant communities and ecosystems were mostly intact and healthy. The current “fire adapted ecosystem” theory fails to recognize the changes to the production and accumulation of fuels that have occurred due to the degradation of the ecosystems that make up the western landscapes. The current “fire adapted ecosystem” theory also does not recognize the changes to the timing and intensity of wildfires that are the results of increased woody species dominated ecosystems.

There is no doubt that the accumulation of woody and

herbaceous biomass plays a role in the current intensity of wildfires, but there is little evidence that modern wildfire suppression activities are the primary reason for the ecosystems of today being more prone to catastrophic wildfire. The massive loss of topsoil, change in soil fertility and change in soil water retention abilities which has re-

The problem with this new sweeping “fire adapted ecosystem” theory is it was developed based upon research and information from only the ponderosa pine and mix conifer ecosystems in Arizona and New Mexico and is not well supported by research from the other plant communities and ecosystems located in the West. sulted in the conversion of many ecosystems from herbaceous to woody plant communities are important factors that should be considered.

The problem with this new sweeping “fire adapted ecosystem” theory is it was developed based upon research and information from only the ponderosa pine and mix conifer ecosystems in Arizona and New Mexico and is not well supported by research from the other plant communities and ecosystems located in the West. There is very little science that shows the “fire adapted ecosystem” theory and routine burning of the non-forest ecosystems will achieve the desired outcome of low intensity wildfires being the norm. (It’s hard to grow a cotton field using research and management practices developed for a pecan orchard.)

It is common knowledge that the chaparral ecosystems located in California burn often and burn with great intensity.

It is also recognized that the pinyon/juniper woodlands and oak shrub communities located across most of the West, while not supporting wildfire very often, do burn with great intensity when they finally reach the stage they well burn. Grassland communities do burn quite often and the intensity at which they burn is highly variable. Grassland fuels absorb and give up moisture quickly which makes the intensity of a grassland wildfire highly variable. Grasses decompose and/or oxidize much quicker than woody fuels which reduces the accumulation of

these fine fuels. The accumulation of herbaceous fuels in the grassland communities is easily managed with livestock grazing.

Ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forest research indicates that these plant communities are prone to and can benefit from low intensity wildfires.

Ponderosa pine and mixed conifer ecosystems can also be destroyed when burned in a high intensity wildfire. When burned at a low intensity these plant communities benefit from periodic wildfires which removes the needle duff layer that quickly builds up in these ecosystems. Thick needle duff layers inhibit the establishment of herbaceous vegetation and new young trees in the understory. Over time substantial amounts of the nutrients necessary for plant growth are tied up in the needle duff layer. Thick duff layers also keep water from reaching the soils below and can keep a significant amount of the yearly precipitation from ever being available to plants.

The adverse impacts of thick duff layers are especially noticeable in the arid Southwest and during drought conditions.

The amount of time for duff layers to breakdown and decompose due to microorganism activity is dependent upon the presence of moisture and moderate soil temperatures.

In the arid Southwest duff layers are slow to decompose, which makes the removal of this stored carbon material by fire an important factor. When aggressive forest management is practiced, the duff layers in the ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests are removed or mixed into the soil by activities such as slash disposal following a timber sale and livestock grazing.

Duff layers in the ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests do provide a beneficial layer of ground cover that prevents accelerated erosion. The removal of duff layers on steep slopes often results in substantial erosion that removes the precious top soil needed to support the understory of herbaceous vegetation.

The periodic wildfires that are documented to have occurred in the ponderosa pine forest in the past, most likely removed some young trees and help thin the forest stands, but the level of thinning of the forest stands by low intensity wildfires was most likely off-set by the creation of conditions that enhanced the establishment of new ponderosa pine and other species of trees. Anyone who has work in or around timber management knows that ponderosa pine establishment is greatly enhanced when the soil surface is disturbed by either mechanical impacts or fire.

Prescribed fire and/or mechancontinued on page eleven

May 15, 2018

Livestock Market Digest

Page 11

EVOLUTION

continued from page ten

ical disturbance from dragging a harrow over the forest floor were often used to stimulate ponderosa pine establishment following timber sales in the past.

What Has Caused the Huge Increase in Acres Burned and Dollars Spent in the West?

As the rampant environmental litigation of the 1980’s and 1990’s curtailed the harvesting of timber and other wood products from federal lands, the Forest Service was quick to jump on the “Use Fire as a Tool” bandwagon in a wholesale fashion. Before this new dawning in the use of fire as a tool, prescribed burns were planned, funded and carried out as a tool for vegetation and fuel management by the agency’s resource managers. Prescribe fires were used to treat vegetation in specific circumstances and to clean up slash following timber management activities. When it was realized that receipts from the sale of timber would no longer generated large pools of funding to manage forest stands and to reduce the accumulation of fuels on most National Forest, it was decided to start writing a variety of fire use plans to meet the agencies timber and fuels management mission. This accelerated fire planning suddenly became the responsibility of the wildfire suppression employees who had very little experience dealing with the complicated and expensive Forest Service planning process that was mandated by NEPA. These “Fire Plans” coined a whole new vernacular; “management ignited fire” “prescribed nature fire” “wildfire use fires” “beneficial wildlife” “appropriate suppression action” “confined wildfire” “prescribed fire team” “wildfire management qualified” … The various newly identified types of fire and firefighter qualifications were based upon the expectations that fire was somehow easily managed and the impacts of lighting various plant communities on fire could be metered out at various levels to achieve desire results. Proper planning, knowing the variables that influence burning intensities and bring able to burn under known correct and precise conditions can result in desired outcomes.

What was not recognized or admitted was using fire as a tool seldom occurs under the known correct conditions regardless of how the fire was ignited or what classification it is given.

This new exciting fire use era had hardly gotten started before the radical environment groups slammed the door on the “Use Fire as a Tool” effort. They went to their favorite bread winners, NEPA and ESA, which they used to greatly curtail the planned use of fire.

These groups knew the Forest Service didn’t have the budgets to do the required NEPA analysis and planning for all the accelerated fire use plans that were needed. As would be expected, these frequent lawsuit

filers returned to their previous money maker and filed multiple “fail to follow procedures” lawsuits that were easily won in their hand-picked courts.

While the Forest Service budgets were strained these radical environmental groups collected substantial sums of money as resulting court cost with this effort.

The Forest Service fire organization got caught up in the modern environmental movement when they moved from the fire suppression business to the fire management business. This reality did not fit well with the new firefighter/fire managers, which led to them to look for ways to circumvent the NEPA/ESA requirements. It was not long before these new vegetation managers hit upon the idea that they were still in the public safety business and they could call the shots when dealing with wildfire suppression. The new fire management organization came up with and quickly implemented the “appropriate suppression response”

policy where they could back off and burn large areas under their emergency management authorities and the environmental groups couldn’t stop them. OUT CAME THE DRIP TORCHES. The “appropriate suppression response” management policy has now become the standard operating procedure in wildland fire fighting. The idea of getting to wildfires quickly and keeping them as small as possible, especially during extreme burning conditions, has been lost. Now when called to respond to a new wildfire start the primary mission is not to take immediate suppression action but to determine if the wildfire is burning in a “fire adapted ecosystem” and if it would be beneficial to let the wildfire burn within some existing confinement features.

Often by the time this “fire adapted ecosystem” “beneficial wildfire” determination is made the wildfire has spread to the point it is not easily suppressed by the initial attack firefighters.

Once a wildfire has grown to

the point it can’t be suppressed by the initial attack forces the next move is to back off to preexisting control lines such as roads trails sand washes etc. and start burn-out operations.

Often there is a considerable distance between the original wildfire and the preexisting control lines. This back off and burnout practice substantially adds to the size of the wildfire.

When increasing the area that is actively burning there is also a much higher possibility that the wildfire will burn or spot across the control lines and increase the size and complexity of the wildfire. As the size and complexity of a wildfire increases the cost of the suppression activities grow exponentially.

For many years the basis of wildland firefighting involved suppressing wildfires by cooling things down extinguishing burning fuels and containing a wildfire to the smallest area possible. What was never acceptable when suppressing a wildfire in the past was lighting huge amounts of fuels on fire

and hoping the resulting fire doesn’t get to big to control.

The old firefighting techniques worked well, which resulted in what is now the greatest sin; the huge accumulation of fuels?

During periods of extreme burning conditions there is still a need to be well equipped and capable of implementing what the federal and state firefighting organizations were once famous for doing. The federal and state agencies need to get the politics out of firefighting, end the political correctness games and go back to what they know works. If time tested and proven wildfire fighting techniques were followed instead of being ignored and/or criticized there would not be as many acres burned, home lost, and people killed each year. Fighting wildfires wouldn’t cost nearly as much money each year if there was again an attempt respond quickly and keep the wildfire as small as possible. Quick response to new ignitions, limit the amount of fuels that needs to be dealt with, keeping wildfires as small as possible and reducing the amount of active fire at the scene are all measures that will save lives and reduce cost.

We need to get the radical environmental community and political correct academia out of the federal and state land management business.

We need to return to the well-researched and proven land management practices that were being used prior to the modern environmental movement. We need to let experienced professional land managers, who have an actual science-based educations and years of experience applying proven management techniques, care for our federal, state and private lands.

Page 12

Livestock Market Digest

Baxter BLACK ON THE EDGE OF COMMON SENSE www.baxterblack.com

Officer In Need Of Assistance

C

lair hired out to Bob punchin’ cows.

Clair soon realized it was more like working at a wild game park than a cattle farm. Two square miles of rollin’ western Minnesota pasture. Bob never knew how many cows he had. “It doesn’t matter if you count’em in the Fall,” he’d say,

“It’s what comes back in the Spring that counts!”

It would be fair to say that the cattle were never handled much. They were ‘rangy’, as they call it up there. Bob and Clair cowboyed a bobtailed load of cull cows together for a trip to the auction yard in Sioux Falls.

American Agri-Women to meet June 3-7 in Washington D.C.

The ol’ snub nose truck chugged the sixty or so miles with no problem. Being clever with machinery, Bob had rigged a long rope from the cab to the tailgate. It allowed him to back up to a loading chute and open or close the gate from the front.

Unfortunately, in downtown Sioux Falls, the cows became hyperactive and tangled the rope. They managed to raise the tailgate enough so that three cows parachuted out the back.

The boys could feel, rather than see the load lighten.

They pulled over and were able to catch two of the stunned beasts. But the third had landed on her feet and escaped!

“Don’t worry,” said Bob, “She’ll turn up.”

They left word about the missing cow at the sale barn and returned home.

Next day, back at the farm,

May 15, 2018

the phone rang. “Are you Bob?...This is the Sioux Falls Police Department...We have your cow...we need the name of your insurance agent...Forty-eight thousand in damages...

“Well, we found her last night. She was wild as a peach orchard boar! We surrounded her with four patrol cars. Our plan was to euthanize her but nobody could get a clear shot as she careened around inside our makeshift car corral. She destroyed the sides of four cars.

Broke windows, tail light, side mirrors and a spot lights. Dented, bashed, banged and fouled doors and fenders. Ripped off door handles, chrome and antennae till it looked like a smash on the highway! Then she jumps over the top demolishing the flashing light array, two yard fences and a permanent Nativity scene!

“Four blocks away we surrounded her again and final-

ly dispatched her humanely.

There will be some additional liability to repair the bullet holes in the side panels and at least three new tires. “We called the rendering truck.”

The next day Bob got another call from the Sioux Falls Police. “I already talked to you yesterday,” he explained, “You have my insurance agent.”

“We realize that but this is Internal Affairs.”

It turns out that four of the officers had taken the cow over the state line to be butchered.

Internal Affairs was calling to see if Bob wanted to press charges!

Bob didn’t, but between Internal Affairs, his insurance agent and his conscience, they reached a compromise. It included, I’m told, one complementary parking ticket and a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card from the Sioux Fall’s finest.

Tractor Supply’s Spring Paper Clover Raises More Than $956,000 for 4-H Youth Donations send thousands of 4-H youth to camps, conferences and youth development programs across the nation

L

eaders of American Agri-Women (AAW) from California across the Midwest, the South and Florida and will gather in Washington, D.C., the week of June 3-7, 2018 for the organization’s annual Washington, D.C. Fly-in.

The Twentieth Fifth Annual Symposium hosted by AAW will be held at the United States Department of Agriculture Press Room, 107-A Monday, June 4th from 9:00 am – 11:30 am. This year the Panel will discuss “Ag Trade: Critical for Agriculture. Critical for the United States.”

During the week, the group will meet with officials at the United States Department of Agriculture; Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies and with Members of Congress. The group will meet with representatives of the Republic of Korea at their Embassy in Washington, D.C. AAW will host their annual Congressional Reception on Tuesday, June 5th in the House Agriculture Committee Room.

Key issues the group will be working on include: International Trade, Renewable Fuels Policies; Agricul-

ture Labor as it relates to Immigration Reform, Endangered Species Act; and the 2018 Farm Bill – including research funding and crop Insurance.

“It is our mission – and our duty – to represent and protect farmers and ranchers who produce food, feed, fiber and fuel for the world,” says AAW President Jeanette Lombardo of Ventura, CA. “Our meetings are also an important way we educate legislators and policy-makers.”

About American Agri-Women American Agri-Women (AAW) is a national coalition of more than 50,000 farm, ranch and agribusiness members, part of in 60 state and commodity affiliate organizations.

Since the organization’s inception in 1974, AAW have worked together to educate consumers; advocate for agriculture; and offer networking and professional development opportunities.

For more information, or to join, visit AmericanAgriWomen.org. Find AAW on social media at: facebook. com/AgriWomen and twitter. com/Women4Ag.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn., May 08, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thousands of 4-H youth from across the country will have opportunities to learn valuable leadership skills as a result of Tractor Supply’s Spring Paper Clover Fundraiser. From April 11 to April 22, Tractor Supply raised more than $956,000 through donations made with purchases in store and online during the biannual campaign held in partnership with National 4-H Council.

“Our loyal customers and dedicated team members continue to support 4-H through Paper Clover because they see the value in supporting the future of agriculture within their own communities and across the country,” said Christi Korzekwa, senior vice president of marketing at Tractor Supply Company. “4-H programs, camps and conferences help develop today’s youth into tomorrow’s leaders, and the goal of Paper Clover is to expose more youth to those growth opportunities.”

Tractor Supply customers participated in Paper Clover by purchasing paper clovers—the emblem of 4-H—for a monetary donation of their choice.

Awarded as scholarships to 4-H camps and leadership events, every donation benefits youth within the state it was collected.

“Since the beginning of Paper Clover, we have seen the fundraiser grow each year,” said Jessica Holmes, store marketing manager at Tractor Supply Company. “To have the opportunity to directly play a role in the development of 4-H youth is the reason why we work so

hard to support this mission.”

2018 marks the ninth consecutive year of Tractor Supply’s Paper Clover campaign. The company’s biannual fundraiser has collectively generated more than $13.9 million in essential funding over its history, due in large part to the commitment and in-store participation of local 4-H groups.

“To see just how much Tractor Supply communities support 4-H and their local youth is incredible,” said Jennifer Sirangelo, president and CEO of National 4-H Council. “Thanks to the Paper Clover partnership, more youth are given the opportunity to experience and benefit from 4-H and our programs.”

The Paper Clover campaign will return to Tractor Supply Company this fall, from Oct. 3 to Oct. 14. Identical to the spring, customers can participate in the 2018 Fall Paper Clover campaign by purchasing paper clovers during checkout in stores and online at www.

TractorSupply.com.

For more information on the program, visit www.TractorSupply.com/4H. About Tractor Supply Company Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ:TSCO) is in its 80th year of operation and, since being founded in 1938, has grown to become the largest rural lifestyle retail store chain in the United States. With over 1,700 stores in 49 states and an e-commerce website, Tractor Supply is passionate about serving its unique niche, as a one-stop shop for recreational farmers, ranchers and all those

who enjoy living the rural lifestyle. Tractor Supply offers an extensive mix of products necessary to care for home, land, pets and animals with a focus on product localization, exclusive brands and legendary customer service. The Company leverages its physical store assets with digital capabilities to offer customers the convenience of purchasing products they need anytime, anywhere and any way they choose at the everyday prices they deserve.

Tractor Supply Company also owns and operates Petsense, a small-box pet specialty supply retailer focused on meeting the needs of pet owners, primarily in small and mid-size communities, and offering a variety of pet products and services. For more information on Petsense, visit www.petsense.com.

About 4-H 4‑H, the nation’s largest youth development organization, grows confident young people who are empowered for life today and prepared for career tomorrow. 4‑H programs empower nearly six million young people across the U.S. through experiences that develop critical life skills. 4‑H is the youth development program of our nation’s Cooperative Extension System and USDA, and serves every county and parish in the U.S. through a network of 110 public universities and more than 3000 local Extension offices. Globally, 4‑H collaborates with independent programs to empower one million youth in 50 countries.

Learn more about 4‑H at WWW.4‑H.ORG, or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

May 15, 2018

Livestock Market Digest

Can you believe Ca. is leading the way on states rights over federal lands? Plus endangered species, ranchers and dogs.

U.S. Sues California

I

n a release the Department of Justice announced it had filed a civil action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California against the State of California, Governor of California Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr., and the California State Lands Commission. The feds are seeking a declaration that California Senate Bill 50, enacted in October 2017, is unconstitutional and seeking an injunction against implementation of this state law. Under the law California has the first right to purchase federal lands or to arrange for a specific buyer.

SB 50 interferes with federal land conveyances in the State of California says the Justice Department. The California law gives a state agency the power to block the sale, donation or exchange of federal lands by the federal government to any other person or entity. SB 50 also “seeks to penalize (up to $5,000) any person who knowingly files real estate records pertaining to a federal land transfer unless the California government certifies that the transfer complies with state law.”

“The Constitution empowers the federal government—not state legislatures—to decide when and how federal lands are sold,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “California was admitted to the Union upon the express condition that it would never interfere with the disposal of federal land.”

The feds say the California law violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and the Property Clause, which purportedly gives to Congress the authority to regulate and dispose of the federal lands.

California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, a member of the State Lands Commission and a Democrat running for

governor, says the feds are “attacking our state and our very way of life.” California Democrats reportedly welcomed the latest fight and vowed to defend the law.

This lawsuit is replete with historical, political and legal ironies. It is like the Civil War all over again. We now have Democrats defending states’ rights on federal lands and Republicans defending the supremacy of the almighty feds. The Democrats adopting the position of the Bundy family while the Republicans claim the right to commit reconstruction on these lands.

I say it is time the states receive an Emancipation Proclamation with respect to these lands.

Farm Bill and endangered species The House Ag Committee is marking up a Farm Bill that allows EPA to approve pesticides without consulting with the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee see the language as a “commonsense reform” to an “onerous and conflicting” consultation process that needs to be modernized. More than 60 agriculture groups in January wrote a letter urging Agriculture Committee leaders to include the provision in the bill, saying the current review and permitting requirements are “redundant” and provide no additional environmental benefit, but instead impose additional costs on farms and businesses.

The language grants EPA the “express authority and responsibility to ensure the protection of threatened or endangered species and critical habitat in connection to pesticide registrations.” They report it has taken the EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service over two years

to complete just three registration reviews. With over 1,600 separate ingredient reviews due in the next six years, it is clear some type of reform is necessary.

This is upsetting to the enviros. “It’s a poison-pill rider in the most literal and unfortunate way,” said Jordan Giaconia with the Sierra Club. It takes just one harmful chemical to be injected into the ecosystem to cause widespread damage, he said.

“The ramifications are pretty far reaching.”

You would think they’d be happy, because look what the Republicans are giving them: billions of dollars each year to be spent on the Conservation Reserve Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation innovation grants, the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program, and on and on. The enviros should be happy and the Republicans should be ashamed, but neither seems to be.

Susan Combs The former Texas Commissioner of Agriculture and State Comptroller Susan Combs was recently appointed Acting Assistant Secretary for Fish, wildlife and Parks at the Department of Interior and the enviros are getting what they deserve on this one. For months now Senator Durbin 0f Illinois has had a hold on her nomination to be the Assistant Secretary of Policy, Management and Budget. Why? Because of what Zinke was doing on national monuments. The enviros were successful there, but now they have to deal with her being over the agency that administers the Endangered Species Act, he he.

The media has been filled w[th headlines of Combs being an “enemy” of endangered species. “Putting Combs in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service is like appointing an arsonist as the town fire marshal,” said Stephanie Kurose with the Center for Biological Diversity.

However, these stories are distorting her record. I’ve known and worked with Susan Combs since she was the Commissioner of Ag in Texas, and I don’t believe she disagrees with the intent of the ESA. What she will bring is a reasonable reading of the act along with some common sense approaches on how to implement its various provisions. In reality, that is what the enviros fear.

No arson by the town fire

Missouri Bills to Address ‘Meat’ Definition

BY LISA M. KEEFE / MEATINGPLACE.COM

W

hile some meat organizations have appealed to the federal government directly to define how technology-enabled developments such as lab-grown cultured meat products should be categorized, legislators in the state of Missouri have moved to take matters into their own, more local hands.

Two bills have been introduced in the state House and Senate, each prohibiting “misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or

poultry.” Both versions of the bill have passed their respective committees but have not yet been scheduled for further action.

Missouri’s state-level action comes after the United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) petitioned USDA to establish labeling requirements that better inform consumers about the difference between products that come from food animals and those that were created in a laboratory earlier this year.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the National Farmers Union (NFU) recently also called on USDA for these labeling requirements.

Page 13 marshal here. Just Sheriff Susan Combs putting an end to the enviros game of using the ESA as a land-use control device instead of a species protector.

Udall & Heinrich New Mexico livestock organizations, both north and south, are united in their opposition to the anti-grazing language in the President Obama proclamations creating the two most recent national monuments in New Mexico.

That united opposition is of apparently no importance to the New Mexico Senators. They have introduced the America’s Natural Treasures of Immeasurable Quality Unite, Inspire, and Together Improve the Economies of States (ANTIQUITIES) Act of 2018. Among other things, the legislation “officially declares Congress’ support for the 51 national monuments established by presidents in both parties between January 1996 and April 2017” and states that presidential proclamation creating national monuments “cannot be reduced or dimin-

ished” except by an act of Congress. In other words, it would permanently place in law the two anti-grazing proclamations affecting New Mexico ranching families.

Perros in peril?

Environmental researchers are now calling dogs an “invasive” species, or an “invasive mammalian predator” or a “non-native introduced species that are wreaking havoc on the ecological balance of many sensitive ecosystems.” They cite research claiming “domesticated dogs have imperiled 188 threatened species of animals and caused 11 mass extinctions globally!”

They will be coming after your dog next. Will we here a new battle cry, “Canine free by ‘23”?

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and always check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner. blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

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Page 14

Livestock Market Digest

The View FROM THE BACK SIDE

Monstrous Fatuity

BY BARRY DENTON

W

e just got in a new batch of young steers to train our working cow horses on. It’s always interesting to get a young herd as you are never quite sure about how they will work for you. As time goes on it seems harder and harder to find good cattle to work in our part of the country. Since we live in the high desert sometimes we have feed and sometimes we have to feed. This has been a very dry year so far, so we have to supplement our grazing with some hay which gets expensive very fast.

If we could only be assured that the cattle we are bringing in to work would always be good. Of course, that does not happen, but the highest percentage of good working cattle are crossbreds. You can have all the wonderful breeding programs that you can conjure up, but crossbreds have more heart and intelligence than any pure bred when it comes to our business. If I go to buy cattle and they have USDA 100 percent Angus tags on them I avoid them. I always thought black was a tough color, but not anymore. The more squatty and English looking they get, the more I stay away. That is not to say that they are not good to eat, it just means they are not good to work. I try to look for something with a Brahma cross or some Corriente.

A little high headedness goes a long way with a steer or a girlfriend. They get more interesting real quick, and you never know which personality you are going to get, on which day. That is normally good for the horse that you are training. Working cow horses have to be able to handle any type of bovine at a moment’s notice, and when they can, that makes them good.

Consider this, these United States are just full of crossbreds. Similar to cattle, crossbred people are normally hardier and more productive than purebreds. Our nation is so amazing because of its many crossbred people. When you talk to most folks they have several different nationalities in their lineage. Hey, it makes sense as the United States is a melting pot of ideas and ideals. Normally, when you draw from a larger gene pool the results will be better.

For instance look at the problems Amish communities have had by trying to keep their gene pool small. They have had to make some positive changes to help their situation. We all know that we are stronger working together than breeding within our own kind. Our world is changing constantly and society keeps advancing. It is your choice to change with it in a positive direction or to resist the change and stay in your own world. Some people say to me that I stick to the old ways because I ride horses or shoe horses everyday and I’m not working in the middle of Manhattan, but I beg to differ. Because of the demands of showing these cow horses I have to get better everyday. The horses are so much better than they were twenty years ago and the competition is so much tougher. The horses have to perform better on a regular basis therefore I have to train and shoe better than I ever have before. We have to progress to make a better living and to preserve

our horses.

What concerns me the most in our society now, are citizens that label themselves as “progressive?” I fail to see how these folks are progressive about anything. To me they just want to drag society down to their level. For instance, I just received some inside information that the Democrat party is planning many protests across the country in the near future. With their own media, I’m certain that they will make the protests seem much larger, and vastly more important than they actually are.

Stop and think what a protest accomplishes, if anything. Can you imagine the good these protesters could do their country if, they took that same amount of energy and funneled it into positive projects instead of negative? I realize that you have a right to protest, but look at all the fools standing around holding signs instead of actually doing something about their problem. In my book protesters show their fatuity by not taking intelligent action to accomplish their objectives. Notice that these protests are well organized, the participants are well paid, and the rich on the left are funding the entire event. These are not the down trodden protesting out of desperation.

My guess is that half the protesters could not even explain what they are protesting about. Many of the protesters are taxpayer funded deadbeats such as the New York City Mayor. Please explain to me what good, dressing up as a vagina in public, does for your fellow man? How does that set a good example for your children? The other thing that baffles me is why would anyone listen to high school students discussing how they should be protected from school shooters? They have nothing to contribute to the conversation, because they have no life experience. All they are doing is having an emotional reaction to a tragic situation. Nothing constructive in regard to solving the issue comes from their input. Perhaps having a voice helps them cope with it, but why would anyone think they would have a solution? To me emotions have no place in solving societal problems and practicality needs to prevail.

Today, when I see the word “progressive” it immediately reminds me of the word “negative”, yet it is supposed to mean the exact opposite. Paid protesting has become a very good job for some folks who already live off the backs of taxpayers. You will never see a “working person” protesting because they have no time to waste or stomach for such hapless behavior. When is the last time you saw a working cowboy at a Black Lives Matter protest?

If there are one or two “progressives” that happen to be reading this diatribe I have a suggestion for you. Instead of loading up on the next smelly bus to go and protest consider these options: Visit a nursing home or hospice and help an elderly person, call a government official that can actually assist in your cause, take a ranch tour and learn about animals. Any one of those ideas will make you feel much better about yourself and what you accomplished that day. However, you will be out the $300.

May 15, 2018

Missouri Cattleman Jared Wareham to Lead Top Dollar Angus Program

T

op Dollar Angus Inc., a genetic certification and marketing company focused on the best Angus- and Red Angus-based feeder calves in the beef industry, is pleased to announce the hiring of Jared Wareham to lead the company as its general manager.

Wareham, who most recently served as the general manager of New Day Genetics, also authors a monthly column for Drovers, serves on the Missouri Farm Credit Service Board of Directors and previously taught high school biology and applied sciences in Osceola, Missouri. Additionally, Wareham and his father run a herd of seedstock and commercial cows near his home in Deepwater, MO. “I am extremely excited for this opportunity to work alongside Tom Brink and be a part of the Top Dollar Angus team. I am very passionate about the beef industry and am eager to help build the Top Dollar Angus program. I look forward to cultivating Top Dollar Angus into an invaluable resource that assists cattlemen and women who have invested in genetically certified, value-added breeding stock by marketing their calf crops at premium prices.”

Tom Brink, RAAA CEO and founder of Top Dollar Angus, said, “The program has grown substantially during its first few years of operation and is well positioned to continue that growth in the years ahead. Jared is well equipped to bring fresh leadership to Top Dollar Angus. He knows the cattle business, is a great strategist and a very good marketer, which is just what our young company needs at this point in its development.”

In his spare time, Wareham enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters, managing his cattle herd and staying fit.

Wareham will start with Top Dollar Angus in mid-May on a part-time basis and will assume the full-time role on June 1. He can be reached at jared@topdollarangus.com or (660) 492-2777.

INDIANA’S AG

continued from page nine

on behalf of their farmers, but the states allege they are representing their citizens “…in original actions where the injury alleged affects the general population of a state in a substantial way.”

Higher prices for consumers The general injury to be caused by Massachusetts Animal Law “…will injure the general population in a substantial way by causing higher prices for shell eggs and pork.” Massachusetts says this assertion is merely speculative.

Purdue’s own Dr. Jayson Lusk has specifically demonstrated in the record that Massachusetts Animal Law “...will result in increased production costs for farmers…”

He points out that eventually consumers will be charged higher prices for meat and eggs due to Massachusetts’ production requirements.

The bottom line is that Indiana and the plaintiff states produce pork for an interstate market. So the choice is clear. If the Massachusetts Animal Law goes into effect, farmers will either have to conform to Massachusetts’ production requirements or forego the Massachusetts market. The question becomes do farmers in all states have to farm and produce product as required by Massachusetts? Or California? That is a frightening thought for America’s farmers. Protect The Harvest and its leader, Forrest Lucas, have been urging numerous state Attorneys General to challenge states such as California and Massachusetts when they pass laws intended to harm the health, quality and well-being of food production. Finally some people in agriculture are standing up to defend it.

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May 15, 2018

Livestock Market Digest

Page 15

Anger Over Anaplasmosis

BY GREG HENDERSON / DROVERS

D

espite using the recommended antibiotic-mineral mix with a VFD to prevent anaplasmosis infections, manager Jason Lewis says the Division Ranch, Strong City, Kansas, lost 13 cows last year to the disease.

Jason Lewis discovered the first dead cow in September of last year. It was the beginning of an odyssey that left him, the ranch owner and several other area producers questioning their management, relationships with suppliers, and even government oversight on how medicated feeds are produced and the new Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD).

Over the next few weeks the number of dead cows on the 5,200-acre Division Ranch where Lewis has been manager for 23 years, had grown to 13. As with any sudden loss of cattle, the deaths were at first a mystery. Initially he thought the deaths were due to blue-green algae, but an analysis of pond water was negative.

Lewis then called on Tom Jernigan, DVM, to investigate with a necropsy and blood samples from other cows.

The diagnosis was anaplasmosis, a disease prevalent in the Kansas Flint Hills area. Lewis and Division Ranch owner Guy Pickard were well aware the ranch was in a high-risk anaplasmosis area. But that only deepened the mystery of the cow deaths because they were feeding mineral with an antibiotic designed to prevent anaplasmosis. The mineral was purchased from a local feed company that mixed chlortetracycline (CTC) into the product under a VFD written by Jernigan.

“We knew anaplasmosis was prevalent in this area,” Lewis says. “But we thought our preventative measures were protecting us.”

Over the next few months, Lewis and Pickard searched for answers to the tragedy they say cost the ranch north of $35,000.

What they found is a system they believe is flawed, and now they hope their experience will serve as a warning to other cattlemen to be more vigilant.

Anaplasmosis is a disease caused by the blood parasite Anaplasma marginale. It is transmitted from animal to animal by biting flies, ticks and contaminated needles or surgical instruments. Once infected, an animal’s immune system attacks the invader, but also destroys infected red blood cells.

In an acute infection, the loss of red blood cells inhibits the animal’s ability to provide adequate oxygen to tissues, and death occurs due to suffocation at the cellular level.

Producers have long known about anaplasmosis, and the most popular means of prevention is the use of mineral mixes with CTC. Veterinarians say feeding CTC at a rate of 0.5 mg per pound of body weight will prevent anaplasmosis infections.

When Pickard and Lewis began to suspect a problem they contacted the Kansas Department of Agriculture. A KDA representative visited the ranch, collected samples and sent them to two different labs for testing, KDA and the South Dakota Agriculture Laboratories.

While KDA found no evidence the mineral batch to be faulty, they reported “the amount of CTC available to the

cows was deficient by 56 mg to 151 mg per head per day, or 9.5 percent to 24.3 percent of the required amount to control and prevent death loss caused by anaplasmosis.”

“That appeared to be the answer at first,” Pickard says.

“But the deficiencies of CTC in the mineral were within the allowable limits. So, while we were paying for a CTC-mineral mix that we thought would prevent anaplasmosis, what we were getting was a product that could legally be 30 percent short of the VFD as written.”

A 30 percent allowable variance (meaning the CTC amount could be from 70 percent to 130 percent of the VFD) is one few producers—or even many veterinarians—know about, a crucial piece of information Pickard

and Lewis want to make known to other producers.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine is the federal agency with oversight regarding the use of antibiotics in food animals. As a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Pickard was counseled by NCBA to contact the FDA. He was referred to the FDA’s medicated feed specialist, Dragan Momcilovic, DVM. He confirmed to Pickard the FDA allows a variance of 30 percent for CTC in mineral mixes, a regulation that dates back at least 50 years.

In correspondence with Pickard, Momcilovic wrote regarding the justification for the variance, “the issues boil down to stating that the assay limits

take into account the inherent variability in the feed assay method and give some extra allowance for variability due to mixing/sampling.

“As I would put it,” Momcilovic wrote, “the assay limits are a result of necessity dictated by and laws of physics/chemistry.”

For cowboys like Pickard and Lewis, however, the allowable variance still seems excessive.

After all, both labs that tested the mineral samples from the Division Ranch indicated their tests to be 99 percent accurate or better.

“It’s not that simple,” says Gary Sides, beef cattle nutritionist with Zoetis, the manufacturer of Aureomycin (CTC), the only product approved by continued on page sixteen

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Page 16

ANGER

Livestock Market Digest continued from page fifteen

FDA for feeding as free choice in mineral to beef cattle and one many veterinarians say is the best tool for anaplasmosis prevention.

“There are valid reasons to have a 30 percent variance because you can have such variation when you sample,” Sides says. “How many samples were taken? Were there any weather events such as heat and humidity? There’s just so many variables that if we reduced the variance there would be horrible ramifications for the feed companies.”

Also, it’s important for producers to understand assay variations do not predict the effectiveness of the product, says William McBeth, DVM, director of veterinary medical information and product support for Zoetis.

“It’s a pass/fail system,” McBeth says of testing samples.

“There’s real variability across all free-choice pasture mineral programs. The product is either within the allowable variance or it’s not. The assay limits are not a random number. They were developed by analytical chemists who run hundreds of samples each week.”

There’s also the crucial factor of daily intake. A VFD for CTC does not guarantee that the medication will be consumed by the cows at the recommended rate.

“The producer has to make sure the cows are consuming the product at the recommended rate or it can’t be effective,” Sides says.

As for the feed company that provided the CTC-mineral mix to Division Ranch and others, no one believes they intentionally shorted the product. Indeed, even one of their competitors that spoke with Drovers about this story calls them “a good competitor with a good reputation.” He says like any other business, misrepresenting a feed or mineral product is a quick way to ruin their business.

“I don’t know any company that deliberately puts in 70 percent of what’s required,” Zoetis’ Sides says. “It’s just not done.”

Yet, the whole episode has left Lewis and Pickard feeling bitter. They provide their cattle with excellent care and management, they have a close working relationship with their veterinarian and they played by the rules of the VFD. “We still lost 13 cows,” Pickard says. “What I want to emphasize to other producers is to be vigilant about anaplasmosis.

You may be providing CTC, but it’s not a guarantee against the disease.”

Every state, except Hawaii has reported cases of anaplasmosis in cattle. An experimental vaccine from University Products LLC has been approved for veterinarian use in 26 states and Puerto Rico.

For an interactive map produced by Lori Hays showing the greatest risk areas for anaplasmosis infections, visit: www.drovers.com/article/anger-over-anaplasmosis

May 15, 2018

USDA Ok to Ditch Organic Animal Welfare Rule: GAO

BY TOM JOHNSTON MEATINGPLACE.COM

T

he USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) complied with rulemaking procedures while scrapping a rule that would have established animal welfare standards for organic livestock, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has ruled.

GAO reviewed AMS’s process leading to the rule withdrawal after various groups including the Humane Society of the United States filed lawsuits claiming that AMS, by repeatedly delaying the rule, effectively repealed it — and did

so without proper notice and public comment.

The Organic Livestock & Poultry Practices final rule was first published in the Federal Register on January 19, 2017.

The rule would have increased federal regulation around animal housing, healthcare, transportation and slaughter practices of livestock and poultry for certified organic producers and handlers. Existing organic livestock and poultry regulations remain effective.

USDA withdrew the final rule after the agency said it identified policy and legal issues.

“After careful review and

two rounds of public comment, USDA has determined that the rule exceeds the Department’s statutory authority, and that the changes to the existing organic regulations could have a negative effect on voluntary participation in the National Organic Program, including real costs for producers and consumers,” an agency news release stated.

AMS estimated that eliminating the rule will save $10.2 million to $32.6 million per year, discounted at 7 percent over 15 years. AMS further states when factored over perpetuity and extended to account for future years, the estimated cost savings become,

on an annualized basis, $8.5 million to $34.9 million.

AMS said it estimated costs and benefits based on three potential scenarios of how organic egg producers would respond to the rule if it went into effect.

For all scenarios, AMS states the midpoint of the cost estimates, including the estimated paperwork burden, exceeds the midpoint of the estimated benefits.

AMS published a notice of the proposed rule on Dec. 18, 2017. AMS received approximately 72,000 comments on the proposed rule, and more than 63,000, opposed the withdrawal.