LMD Jan 2023

The BIG Giveaway

Idon’t know about you but I’m getting sick and tired of all these billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the Google guys telling us that everyone needs to start replacing the real meat in our diets with lab and plant based so-called “meat.” So just out of curiosity, I Googled the words ‘billionaire vegetarians’ and guess what one name popped up?

Not Gates, not Bezos (founder of Amazon) not the Google Guys but Sam Bankman-Fried. Yes, that guy, the one who has stolen billions of crypto dollars through his FTX exchange, donated 40 million of that money to the Democrats in the last election, and became a media darling despite his scraggly appearance, because he told everyone he was going to give all his money away.

Well, he kinda did. In fact, investigators are having a hard time finding all the money he stole. We’re guessing Sam won’t be anywhere near a billionaire by the time the feds get through with him and he may just happen to take home the prize as the biggest fraudster in American history. Sam makes Bernie Madoff, the mastermind of the previous largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history, look like a penny poker player.

But Sam says he’s a vegetarian so all is forgiven. But where are all the other billionaire vegetarians who are trying to dictate our diet? Could it be that they have other reasons in telling us all not to eat beef besides cattle’s alleged emissions?

It turns out they have billions and billions of other reasons.

The Money Behind The “Meat”

Let’s start with Microsoft

co-founder Bill Gates, shall we?

Gates released a book in February 2021 called “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need” in which he sang the praises of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and said one of the most im-

Gates sees a bright future in farming because we’re going to need a lot of plants to produce what are now being called “alt-proteins,” but you know them as fake meat. (“Alt” being shorthand for alternative.) Gates has fallen all the way down to number three on

al financing. One wonders if the company would even exist without Gates’ money.

Gates didn’t get so rich by being a dummy and when he sings the praises of plant-based meat he’s merely protecting his investment.

by LEE PITTS

Unhappy Hour

portant actions we could take to prevent a climate disaster is to stop eating meat and start eating plant-based fake meat instead.

By my count since 1995 Gates has been named the richest man in America for 19 years. When Bill is not talking with his buddy Anthony Fauci about how to cure COVID, Gates has been buying up 242,000 acres of farmland in 19 states in the U.S. alone to become the largest private owner of farmland in the United States.

Forbes latest list of the richest people in America, after Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and he might have done better had he not been investing in several kooky companies that produce fake meat.

One example is Impossible Foods, a company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat. A chunk of the $396 million Patrick Brown collected to start his business came from Gates from 2014 to 2017. In August 2017, Gates kicked in many more millions in addition-

EPA Finalizes New WOTUS Rule

SOURCE: NORTHERN AG NETWORK FROM DTN

EPA’s final waters of the U.S. rule released on Friday keeps a controversial “significant-nexus” test in place when determining jurisdictional waters and codifies for the first time a number of long-standing agriculture exemptions to the Clean Water Act.

The new rule proposed in November 2021, essentially reverts to pre-2015 WOTUS definitions with a number of tweaks.

The final rule includes eight CWA exclusions as part of the text. Most notably, prior-converted croplands are exempt, and EPA adopted USDA’s definition. The EPA said wetlands converted to croplands prior to Dec. 23, 1985, are excluded from regulation.

The remaining seven exclusions written in the new rule include waste treatment systems, ditches, artificially irrigated areas, artificial lakes or ponds, artificial reflecting pools, or swimming pools, water-filled depressions and swales and erosional features.

The most controversial aspect of the final rule is the use of the significant-nexus standard to make determinations.

During the 2015 WOTUS rulemaking, agriculture groups and others made clear their opposition to the standard because, as they

Gates’ financial interest in fake meat doesn’t end with Impossible. In 2017 Gates was knocked off the top of the money mountain by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. At the time Bezos had an estimated net worth of $90.6 billion compared to Gates’s net worth of $89.9. (In the latest listing, Forbes says Bezos is worth 151 billion and Gates 106 billion.) The one thing you can say about either man is they both have a carbon footprint the size of Montana.

Lately Bezos has been heard echoing Gates’ remarks that going green means the world ought to turn to vegetarianism. Besides making a $10 billion dollar investment in non-profits to fight climate change, Bezos bought the health food grocer Whole Foods in 2017. From all his pontificating about the evils of meat one would think Bezos would be a vegetarian. After all, he’s urging you to make the switch. But Bezos still eats the

Study Examines Costco Poultry Impacts on Nebraska Waterways

BY TOM JOHNSTON / MEATINGPLACE.COM

Arecently completed study has set the groundwork for continuous examination of how Costco’s Lincoln Premium Poultry (LPP) complex could be affecting waterways in the Fremont, Nebraska, area, and the company disputes its findings.

Commissioned by the Nebraska Farmers Union Foundation (NFUF) and conducted by geologist Matt Sutton, the three-year study suggests increased nutrients and pathogens in area waters “may be attributed to the Costco project,” Sutton writes in his executive summary.

Costco opened the $400 million, 400,000-square-foot LPP plant in 2019, after a four-year development process that included having to build from scratch a massive grower network of hundreds of broiler farms in a beef-dominant state.

Among the concerns of area residents and organizations that fought the project over that period, including NFUF and study collabora-

If you’re a country music fan, like me, you’ve no doubt heard the song, “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.” Well, my wife doesn’t like tequila but white wine does make our VISA card run hot. You know how wives are always complaining that their husbands never take them anywhere? Well, for the 40 years I was a road agent I took my wife places even she didn’t want to go, like the cocktail parties I drug her kicking and screaming to the night before big cattle auctions.

“Do we really have to go?” she’d plead.

“Yes, it’s part of my job and if I didn’t show up it would hurt the host’s feelings who just spent $3,000 advertising his production sale with me.”

Usually, these events were harmless but I also took her to happy hours the night before big cattlemen’s conventions that were usually sponsored by a big drug company and featured a no-host bar. I usually found these events to be a big bore because alcohol hasn’t touched my lips for over 30 years and my wife has never been a big drinker either, although she’d have a glass of white wine or two. Such events were also harmless unless they also featured a silent auction. WARNING!

DANGER! The combination of alcohol, an angry wife and a silent auction can put you in the poorhouse!

I blame the problem on purebred cattle breeders. If you’ve ever taken the time to notice at cocktail parties the men are usually hovering around a purebred breeder who is talking about what bulls a rancher should breed his cows to. (His of course.) I found such discussions stimulating because I learned a lot about what bulls were hot and which ones were not and because I found the subject of animal breeding very interesting. The problem arises because wives would rather have their fingernails ripped off than listen to men talk about EPD’s, sire summaries and DNA. My wife is a really quiet person and she’s the best listener I’ve ever met but even her eyes start to glaze over and roll to the back of her head after listening to ten minutes of EPD numbers. I realize this and so I try to turn the subject around to something the wives would be interested in, but I have

LEE PITTS

Don’t get mad at somebody who knows more than you do. It ain’t their fault.

Saying things that need to be said.

stuff. Go figure.

“The Second Domestication”

Bezos teamed up with billionaire buddy Gates to help finance yet another company that makes lab-grown meat from a protein-rich microbe found in a Yellowstone geyser. (No, I am not making this up.) The company is called Nature’s Fynd and it’s based entirely on a microbe called Fusarium flavolapis that was found in a volcanic hot springs in or near Yellowstone. The company hopes to have several alt-proteins coming to a grocery store near you very soon after folks like Bezos, Gates and Al Gore chipped in $158 million to help get the company going.

Al Gore, of course, is the man who’s gotten really rich off “global warming” which later was changed to “climate change” after the prophecies made by Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth” failed to materialize. In 2009 Gore said there was, “a 75 percent chance that all the ice in the North Pole could be gone within five to seven years due to global warming.” Based on that forecast and the rest of kooky Al’s wrong predictions we’d suggest that he stay away from poker parlors or betting on race horses.

Anyway, Gates, Bezos and Gore hope their investment in Nature’s Fynd is the next big thing in alt meat and dairy. It is different from the other fake meat products in that it’s the result of a fermentation process. Nature’s Fynd was co-founded in 2012 by Thomas Jonas and Mark Kozubal. Says CEO Jonas, “I don’t know anyone over 40 who is saying, ‘I should eat more meat.’ Much as cows, chickens and pigs were domesticated centuries ago as protein sources, now is the time for this second domestication,” Jonas said in a recent interview.

“The challenge for this and future generations is to learn to do more with less because

with eight billion people, the Earth isn’t getting any bigger, its resources are dwindling and climate change is making it even more difficult to find land to grow crops to feed animals. The math just doesn’t work. So, the whole goal of our new protein system is to increase the efficiency of the complete protein chain. The farming of this microbe is an efficient way of producing protein that is just as good.”

Wanting to really stick it in the eye of the cattle industry, Nature’s Fynd is building a 35,000-square-foot factory on the site of Chicago’s former Union Stockyards.

How Do You Spell Hypocrite?

No list of billionaires promoting a vegetarian lifestyle would be complete without the name Richard Branson who got rich off the Virgin name. Virgin Airlines, Virgin records, Virgin everything. Of course Branson is not a vegetarian either, although he says he does not eat beef.

Despite expressing concern for the environment and a desire for a world where animals are no longer killed for food, he still consumes animal products and also serves meat, dairy, and eggs to millions of his customers every day. Bezos, Branson and Gates (sounds like a law firm doesn’t it?) led a $90 million investment in a vegan meat startup called Motif Ingredients that makes meat and milk in the lab that is not plant based. Like Nature’s Fynd, it feeds the cultures through a fermentation process.

“Proteins are very hard to formulate in food,” Motif’s CEO, Jonathan McIntyre told Fast Company. “But the technology is advancing and companies are producing ethical alternatives to meat, eggs, and dairy, cheaper and faster than ever before.”

It seems the list of vegan companies the billionaires want to buy is endless. Jeff Bezos also backed a fake meat and dairy company called NotCo. This

Chilean-based company, valued at over one and a half billion dollars, uses an artificial intelligence program called Giuseppe to make plant-based milk and meat products. Bezos invested $30 million in the company in 2019 when it launched mayonnaise that is made primarily from chickpeas.

According to the company, NotCo launched five years ago in Latin America and introduced its NotMilk products seven months ago to the U.S., where NotCo has five patents for its technology.

“A.I. (that’s artificial intelligence not to be confused with artificial insemination) gives us a significant competitive advantage due to the speed and accuracy with which we’re able to develop and bring new products to market,” said NotCo Founder and CEO Matias Muchnick. The company has become the fastest-growing food-tech company in South America.

How many more of these companies Bezos, Gates and other tech billionaires have funded we haven’t a clue, but just based on the information presented here it’s safe to say that when you hear them tell you not to eat real beef they are NOT putting their mouth where their money is.

Just for the heck of it we checked on a couple other high-profile billionaires to see if they were vegetarians. Elon Musk also wore the crown of the richest man in the world briefly before he got involved in all the Twitter trouble. Elon is not a vegetarian, nor is he telling the world what to eat. And let us not forget the Facebook billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg.

You can always count on crazy Zuck to do something goofy. A few years ago he announced that as a personal challenge he was only going to eat meat that he had killed himself.

While we’re on the subject of goofy guys, after an exhaustive search we did find another billionaire besides Sam Bankman-Fried who professed to

being a vegetarian and that was the Dallas Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban. But as far as we could tell that was after Cuban offered up $600,000 for a 25 percent stake in a vegan company on Shark Tank. He has since invested in six more.

It’s no coincidence that these rich guys are liberal Democrats (Except Musk who’s an Independent). Polls have repeatedly found that liberals are far more likely than moderates or conservatives to belittle beef. Gallup found that 11 percent of liberals are vegetarian while only 2 percent of conservatives are.

The Giving Pledge

So why are we really worried what a bunch of Bozo-billionaires think about beef? Because we are in the initial phase of the greatest wealth transfer in history. The baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) have started checking out and you’re not going to like who they’re leaving their money to.

It’s estimated that anywhere between $30 trillion to $68 trillion, will be transferred to beneficiaries in the coming years. And much of this wealth is owned by people like Gates, Bezos and others of their ilk who have a strong bias against cattle and private property in general. (Except when it’s owned by them.)

Take the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for example. It’s reported to already be the world’s largest private charity and the divorced couple plan to eventually donate 95 percent of their wealth to it and other charitable causes.

list should make any cowboy shake in his chaps.

What’s for Dinner?

Johann Georg Wyss, also known as Hansjörg Wyss, is a Swiss billionaire and donor to extremely liberal environmental causes in the U.S. He sold the company he founded, a medical device manufacturer, and is said to be worth five billion. According to Forbes, Wyss is, “Among the most philanthropic people in the world.” Between 2004 and 2008, Businessweek estimated that Wyss personally donated nearly $277 million.

His giving ratcheted up exponentially after he sold his company. As of 2015, Wyss and the Wyss Foundation had donated more than $350 million to environmental protection, including conservation of national forests and other public lands in the Western United States.

Wyss has said that he became passionate about the American West and land preservation after visiting the U.S. in 1958 as a student. In 1998, he created the Wyss Foundation whose objective was to establish and sponsor informal partnerships between non-governmental organizations and the United States government, in order to place large swathes of land under permanent protection IN THE AMERICAN WEST (emphasis ours).

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In 2010, Gates and his buddy Warren Buffett created The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to leave at least half of their wealth to charitable causes. As I write this so far 230 extremely rich people from 28 different countries have signed the pledge. Here’s just a small sample of those who have signed on: Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, Paul Allen (now deceased), Steve Case, Jon Huntsman, Barron Hilton, Carl Icahn, T Boone Pickens, David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Mark Zuckerberg, George Lucas, Larry Ellison, Ted Forstmann, Eli Broad, Gordon Moore, Elon Musk, Richard Marriott, Charles and Edger Bronfman (Seagrams), and Hansjörg Wyss. Just the mention of this last guy on the

In 2010, Wyss gave The Nature Conservancy $35 million to purchase 310,000 acres in Montana as part of one of the largest private conservation purchases in the United States. In 2013, he donated $4.25 million to The Trust for Public Land for the purchase of oil and gas leases in Wyoming to prevent development in the Hoback Basin. In 2016, Wyss made another donation to the Trust for Public Land that resulted in the expansion of Saguaro National Park in Arizona. We can’t find where Wyss is listed as a vegetarian anywhere. (For more on Wyss RANGE Magazine has done a fabulous job investigating him.)

So the next time one of these liberal billionaires tells you to not eat animal products for the good of the planet ask them what they had for dinner last night. ▫

JESSICA DECKER Special Assistance KRISTY HINDS Graphic Designer

WVU Gets $4.8M for ‘Climate-Smart,’ Grass-Fed Livestock Systems

BY TOM JOHNSTON / MEATINGPLACE.COM

U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced $4,795,300 in USDA funding for a West Virginia University (WVU) livestock systems management project that will help Appalachian farmers adopt climate-smart practices and market grass-fed beef products.

The project will provide financial, technical and marketing assistance to Appalachian farmers and producers to support their transition to sustainable practices. These will include land management plans, prescribed grazing, bale grazing, native grass and silvopasture establishment, incorporation of legumes and non-leguminous forbs, and use of traditional and novel soil amendments.

“There is a growing trend among consumers to better understand where and how their food is raised,” said Brian Wickline, Agriculture and Natural Resources Monroe County Extension Agent at WVU Extension, in a news release. “One phase of the GRASS project will be to explore the feasibility of a market for grass-based, local Appalachian meat products, while at the same time implementing practices that enhance soil health and carbon storage in our livestock producers’ operations. If successful, this will be another step toward the goal of making West Virginia livestock operations sustainable and profitable for the next generation.”

WVU is partnering with Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, West Virginia State University, the West Virginia Conservation Agency, the Soil and Water Conservation Division of Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation and Hickory Nut Gap for this project.

USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities provides funding for projects across the country to expand economic opportunities for local farmers and agricultural producers, with an emphasis on small and underserved producers. ▫

A Foul Wind Blows Through Idaho

You may have heard about the countless wind energy projects being forced on communities across the United States in the name of Biden’s radical climate agenda.

One such project is called the Lava Ridge wind project. Once completed, it would be located in Idaho’s unique and majestic Magic Valley, the same region that is home to such treasures as Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.

Local citizens are up in arms over this ill-conceived project. They are rightly concerned it will worsen water shortages in the area and wouldn’t even supply power to Idahoans but rather ship the electricity down to Nevada and California.

CFACT’s Gabriella Hoffman decided to investigate this situation and documented her findings in a new video that is part of the Committee’s Conservation Nation YouTube series.

The Lava Ridge project could encompass 400 massive tur-

bines, all taller than the Space Needle and the Washington Monument, covering an area of 73,000 acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM is set to release their Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Lava Ridge project on January 13, 2023.

“If we’re going to allow giant corporations to put wind farms

on Idaho so they can ship power to California, there’s no end to it,” said Brian Olmstead, a member of the Idaho Water Resource Board. “We’ve got public lands everywhere and they’re all beautiful – there’s not one of them anywhere that I know of that’s ugly enough to put a bunch of 600-foot spinning, flashing, strobing windmills out there.” ▫

no idea what that would be. I try to talk about sports and computers thinking this might interest them, but all the men turn the subject back around to pedigrees, rate of gain and loin eye area. This is when things can go terribly wrong for a family’s fortune.

Too late, the men will notice that their wives have wandered off and where do they always go? Stupid question. Where do wives usually go when they’re mad? Of course, they go shopping! This is where the silent auction comes in. Wives have somehow figured out how to turn a harmless cocktail hour into a competitive shopping

event.

Knowing this in advance I try to corral my wife the minute she starts meandering towards the silent auction where all the other wives are congregating and taking turns bidding against each other. The reason I quit going to cocktail parties was because I couldn’t keep tabs on my wife 100 percent of the time. Realizing too late she’s escaped the scintillating discussion we menfolk are having, I’ll rush over towards the silent auction. “Where have you been?” I ask.

“Oh, I’ve been doing a little shopping.”

“Uh, okay. Did you find anything to buy?”

“A few things.”

“I’m tired. Don’t you think we ought to call it a night? You’re

the one who didn’t want to come to this party in the first place,” I remind her.

“You go ahead honey. I’ve got to wait around until ten when the silent auction closes.”

“So far how much would you estimate this free cocktail hour is gonna cost?

“Thus far I bought a 4-wheeled wheelbarrow for only $1,200, one night at Motel Six for only $350 and five 100-pound bags of dog food that we’ll have to take to our room when the auction closes. And I’m in an ongoing battle to see who gets the $100 gift certificate to that new restaurant I’ve been wanting to try. I’m ahead but I’m afraid Gloria is gonna up my $700 bid.” ▫

tor GCResolve, was the impact of nutrient runoff from poultry litter that can deplete oxygen in waterways and contaminate ground water.

Using state permit information, the NFUF study, titled “Poultry Litter and Stream Health,” tested seven different locations in five counties, choosing waterways that crossed through properties where poultry litter was earmarked for application on both sides of the waterway.

Sutton explained that poultry litter-associated pathogens like campylobacter and salmonella were absent for most of the study period, but positives for those pathogens — along with the highest levels of phosphorous — doubled in the most recent testing season.

Together, they “suggest a poultry-based addition,” Sutton wrote, noting that by the time of the most recent testing season, Costco grow barns had been operational for more than two years, which was the time lapse estimated before initial field applications of poultry litter began.

LPP responds

LPP officials dispute the study, noting what they’ve identified as several flaws. Among them is the lack of verification or inquiries of actual poultry lit-

ter applications, as well as the study’s own admissions on the difficulty of making definitive connections between the LPP farm network and stream contamination.

“This summary statement verifies no correlation with sample results to the application sites at all,” said Andy Scholting, president of Nutrient Advisors, a nutrient consultant to LPP, in an emailed statement.

Scholting adds that levels of contaminants from nearly every location were at their highest levels in the fall of 2019, while LPP farms came online throughout 2019 and 2020. The first litter removed and land-applied from any of these sites did not occur until the fall of 2020, and so the land application of litter from these poultry sites had no correlation with the highest levels of stream contaminants reported in the study, he said.

LPP hired Nutrient Advisors in 2017 to help growers develop nutrient management plans and apply for state permits that require routine inspections and record keeping. This, despite the fact that the company’s production practices, including the exclusion of designed manure storage, did not require permitting under Nebraska law.

“It is disheartening that in spite of the many safeguards our farmers have added to their

operations that adhere to the highest levels of environmental stewardship, opposition groups are still pointing to them as culprits in water contamination,” said LPP spokesperson Jessica Kolterman, in an emailed statement. “These efforts are misleading.”

Three years of LPP grower data, the company says, show that the entire operation produces less than one-half of one percent of the nitrogen necessary to grow the corn crop in the LPP trade area. Meanwhile, the entire production network is producing three percent of the phosphorous required to raise the necessary corn and soybeans.

Continued scrutiny

While the veracity of the NFUF study is debated, scrutiny of the LPP poultry complex is sure to continue.

“A foundation is provided herein on which future results can be compared and assessments of change can occur,” Sutton writes in his summary. “However, comparisons will only remain reliable for as long as regular data of a similar nature is maintained.”

The study offered several recommendations for improvements, such as additional testing sites, molecular DNA testing, cover cropping, and buffer strips by waterways. ▫

claimed, the EPA could claim jurisdiction over dry land features.

Significant nexus is establishing a scientific connection between smaller water bodies, such as tributaries, and larger, more traditional navigable waters such as rivers. This then makes the smaller water bodies jurisdictional and subject to the Clean Water Act.

The standard was a key reason why the 2015 WOTUS rule faced numerous legal challenges. It was eventually replaced by the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

In addition, the final new rule lists adjacent wetlands, defining them as “next to, abutting, or near other jurisdictional waters or behind certain natural or constructed features. They are most often within a few hundred feet of jurisdictional waters.

“Adjacent wetlands are jurisdictional if they meet either the relatively permanent standard or the significant-nexus standard, or where the wetland is adjacent to a traditional navigable water, the territorial seas, or an interstate water.”

The EPA was asked by members of Congress and others to delay the WOTUS rulemaking until the Supreme Court issues an opinion in Sackett v. EPA sometime next spring. The case raises questions about what qualifies as a jurisdictional wetland.

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in October, attorneys for Michael and Chantell Sackett said EPA’s use of the significant-nexus test would be far more detrimental to property owners like the Sacketts.

For years, the couple has been prevented from developing a lot in Priest Lake, Idaho, because EPA has declared it to be a wetland adjacent to the navigable water of Priest Lake. More specifically, EPA said because the wetland sits 30 feet from a jurisdictional wetland across the street separated by a road and ditch, it is considered an adjacent wetland.

The Sacketts outlined in a brief to the Supreme Court what they said should be a twostep process for making wetlands determinations.

EPA officials told DTN this week the agencies decided to move forward with the final rule before the court ruled, because of the regulatory uncertainty of not having a WOTUS definition in place.

More On Significant Nexus

During the 2015 rulemaking, a map of the state of Iowa was circulated by members of Con-

gress showing the entire state as jurisdictional because of the significant-nexus test adopted in the new final rule.

The standard was used by EPA and other federal agencies following a 2006 Supreme Court ruling in Rapanos v. U.S. In the Rapanos case, the court found WOTUS to be limited to navigable waters, or waters that directly contribute to navigable waters, as well as relatively permanent waters, standing water, or continuous bodies of water, including wetlands.

Justice Anthony Kennedy was the deciding fifth vote in the case. In his opinion, he argued a nexus exists where a wetland or other water body, either by itself or in combination with other similar sites, significantly affects the physical, biological, and chemical integrity of the downstream navigable waterway.

The new rule also uses the relatively permanent test. “To meet the relatively permanent standard, the waterbodies must be relatively permanent, standing, or continuously flowing waters connected to waters or waters with a continuous surface connection to such relatively permanent waters,” EPA said in a factsheet.

Waters Covered

Jurisdictional waters include traditional navigable waters, including large lakes and rivers and water bodies affected by tides.

Other jurisdictional waters include territorial seas, interstate waters, impoundments, tributaries and other waters such as lakes, ponds, streams or wetlands that meet either the relatively permanent or significant-nexus standards.

Also on Friday, the EPA released a summary of the 10 regional roundtable meetings held last summer, to include “key actions the agencies will take to enhance and improve implementation of waters of the United States,” EPA said in a news release.

“The roundtables focused on the geographic similarities and differences across regions and provided site-specific feedback about the way the scope of ‘waters of the United States’ has been implemented by the agencies.”

In addition, the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said they would be issuing a “joint-coordination memo to ensure the accuracy and consistency of jurisdictional determinations under this final rule.” Second, the agencies are issuing a memo with USDA to “provide clarity” on the agencies’ programs under the Clean Water Act and Food Security Act. ▫

Texas Parks & Wildlife Responds Opposes U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Decision to List the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) executive director David Yoskowitz, Ph.D. applauded 16 years of “tremendous” voluntary collaboration with private landowners and industry to conserve lesser prairie-chicken habitat and reiterates the department’s opposition to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) listing the species.

“This decision jeopardizes decades of voluntary conservation efforts, increases regulatory burden and does not assure recovery of the species,” Yoskowitz said.

FWS published a final rule on November 25th listing the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Once implemented in January, the decision would affect 14 counties in Texas, listing the bird as threatened in some and endangered in others.

“Notwithstanding this very unfortunate decision, TPWD stands committed to working with private landowners and industry to conserve the lesser prairie-chicken and its habitat, just as we have for decades,” Yoskowitz said.

The new FWS designation comprises a Northern Distinct Population Segment (DPS), where the bird will be listed as threatened in seven counties in the northeast Texas Panhandle, and the Southern DPS, where the species will be listed as endangered in seven counties in the southwest Texas Panhandle.

The listing under the ESA goes into effect January 24, 2023, and makes “take” of lesser prairie-chickens or their habitat a federal violation. Take means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. Incidental take refers to takings that result from, but are not the purpose of, conducting an otherwise lawful activity.

Under the final FWS ruling, a 4(d) rule for the Northern DPS provides for incidental take exemptions for routine agricultural activities on cultivated lands, prescribed grazing conducted under an approved plan and prescribed fire. Landowners in the northeast Texas Panhandle interested in receiving an approved prescribed grazing plan under the 4(d) rule should contact a FWS-certified prescribed grazing planner to initiate enrollment into that plan.

A list of FAQs and certified planners will be continuously updated and available at www. fws.gov/lpc, and a list of FAQs is available on the USFWS Lesser Prairie-Chicken Listing FAQs website.

Ongoing Efforts

In 2006, TPWD entered a 20-year Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) with USFWS to work with private landowners to manage and improve lesser prairie-chicken habitat in exchange for assurances that no additional regulatory burden would be placed on participants if the species were listed. The 91 properties currently enrolled in the program, which cover 649,780 acres across 19 Texas Panhandle counties, are exempt from take and habitat management restrictions while they operate under a TPWD-approved

wildlife management plan. Enrollment for the Texas lesser prairie-chicken CCAA program is open until the official effective date of January 24, 2023. Private landowners within the lesser prairie-chicken range are encouraged to contact the TPWD Panhandle Wildlife District prior to the effective date to initiate the enrollment process.

“The CCAA provides landowners the assurances that they can continue to manage their properties to meet their goals while also benefiting the lesser prairie-chicken,” said John Silovsky, TPWD director

of wildlife. “We appreciate the tremendous collaboration with private landowners during the past 16 years and we want to continue those important partnerships for the benefit of the lesser prairie-chicken habitat.”

In 2013, TPWD along with the state wildlife agencies for Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, developed the Lesser Prairie-Chicken RangeWide Plan (RWP). The plan established population goals for four lesser prairie-chicken ecoregions and designated focal areas and connectivity zones to incentivize voluntary conservation for the species and its habitat.

Under the direction of WAFWA, the RWP also produced a CCAA for oil and gas companies to voluntarily mitigate for

new development and operations across the species’ range. This CCAA provides funding to private landowners to improve or maintain lesser prairie-chicken habitat on their lands and provide a net conservation benefit to the species and regulatory certainty for industry.

Since then, USFWS has also approved an Oil & Gas Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and Renewables HCP that provide additional opportunities for industry to mitigate for the incidental take of the species. ▫

vs.

BY WILLIAM PERRY PENDLEY / AMERICAN THINKER

With Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and his disclosures of the degree to which the White House, departments and agencies, along with senators and representatives, interfered with, moderated the content of, or censored and killed social media stories, most Americans now realize the federal government has been lying to them for months and even years.

It lied about Trump, about the Bidens, and about COVID-19, and much, much more. Unfortunately, as Ronald Reagan knew, federal government lying goes back nearly a century.

Of course, Ronald Reagan famously proclaimed: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!” and “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

With such a realistic, some might say cynical, view of government, it is not surprising that Reagan recognized the government lied to the American people. Of particular concern to Reagan were the lies the government spread about oil and gas resources. In a July 1977, radio address, Reagan documented decades of lies about America’s energy future:

In 1914, the U.S. Bureau of Mines projected future production of crude oil at 5.7 billion barrels. Since then, we’ve produced 34 billion barrels. Incidentally about that same time we were told there was no hope of ever finding oil in Texas or Kansas.

In 1920, we were told we’d be out of oil in 15 years. Nineteen years later in 1939, the Department of the Interior told us we’d run out in 13 years. Since then, we have discovered more than the total known oil reserves we had at that time.

In 1948, the proven reserves in all of the free world amounted to 62.3 billion barrels. Within 24 years, there were nine times as many. In 1949, our Department of the Interior said the end of the U.S. oil supply was in sight. We increased production in the next five years by a million barrels a day.

By 1970, known world reserves were six times as large as they were in 1950…. Significantly and contrary to much of what is being said, the amount of proven reserves is increasing faster than the rate of consumption.

It was not just the Department of the Interior, which along with the U.S. Forest Service manages one-third of the nation’s landmass, much of it energy rich, that was cooking the oil and gas books, just plain ignorant, or lying.

Reported Reagan, the Central Intelligence Agency was in on it. “I don’t buy the CIA’s report quoted by [President Carter that] has us running out of oil in about 30 years…. I don’t believe it will be gone in 30 or 33 years.”

Reagan, of course, went further. It was not just that the United States would not run out of oil and gas in three decades. It was that America had sufficient untapped supplies not only to achieve energy independence, but also to remain energy independent far into the future.

Because Reagan recognized that “80 percent of the finding of new oil has been done -- not by the giant oil companies but by independents,” so called wildcatters, who, unlike federal bureaucrats with no skin in the game or stake in the outcome, knew the United States was sitting on a virtual ocean of oil and gas, Reagan concluded, “Why don’t we try the free market again?”

Reagan did just that, dramatically increased oil and gas leasing on federal lands, drastically reduced regulations, and opened the entirety of the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas leasing, which, thanks to Reagan, saw marvelous technological advances.

Wildcatters did their part in seeking out new discoveries as the fracking revolution, a technology that dates to the 1860s, but began its modern-day application in 1947, allowed development of massive fields on private and state lands from North Dakota, across the south, and into New England.

At one time, for example, seven out of every ten new jobs in Pennsylvania were in the oil patch. When President Trump took office, he opened federal lands, which Obama had excluded from the boom, to oil and gas leasing. Thus, in July 2019, America achieved Reagan’s sought-after energy independence for the first time in 62 years!

Unfortunately, as everyone knows, President Biden squandered all of it. He cancelled energy projects, closed all federal lands to new oil and gas leasing, erected regulatory and financial barriers to oil and gas discovery and development, threw thousands of highly paid oil patch employees out of work, and doomed Americans to high energy prices, energy scarcity, and uncertain power supplies as winter begins.

All that presents unprecedented challenges to the new Congress, and especially to the House of Representatives led by Republicans who campaigned against Biden’s failed energy policies.

In the meantime, however, the lessons to be learned from the federal government’s lies exposed, not by Elon Musk, but by Reagan are these: do not lie to the American people; tell them the truth, and trust and expect that, exercising the freedom granted by the Founding Fathers, they will solve any and all problems.

Small Processor Mastermind Course Curriculum Set

BY LISA M. KEEFE / MEATINGPLACE.COM

The Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network (NMPAN), the American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP), and Kitchen Table Consultants have developed a curriculum for their Meat Processor Academy Mastermind Course.

The Mastermind Course is designed to be a continuation of the Meat Processing Academy Course put in place in July 22.

The online “mastermind” program is targeted to business owners, operators and managers of federally or state-inspected meat businesses with 10 to 150 employees who wish to scale up and strengthen their businesses. It is a year-long, immersive experience that will help participants solve the ugliest problems in their meat business, uplevel their financial recordkeeping systems, improve profit potential, and learn from experts in the industry.

Processors can apply for a limited spot at www.meatprocessorsacademy.com. Custom exempt businesses are not eligible for the program. Businesses without visibility into their finances are also not a good fit for this class. Attendees must have completed the Meat Processor Academy course in either the live version from March 2022 or the self-paced version that is available currently.

The year-long series combines virtual classes with one-onone mentoring to reinforce the lessons learned, creating lasting change for business. Classes will be tailored with direct examples happening in real time. The cost for the course is $1,500. Upon successful completion of the program in March 2024, $500 of the investment will be refunded.

A limited scholarship fund is available for BIPOC or socially disadvantaged operators. For more information, contact Rebecca Thistlethwaite at thistler@oregonstate. ▫

American Gelbvieh Association Elects Board of Directors

Members of the American Gelbvieh Association (AGA) elected five candidates to the board of directors at the annual membership meeting held December 9, 2022, during the AGA National Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.

Newly elected board members are David Larson, Clearbrook, Minnesota; Brent Overmiller, Smith Center, Kansas; and Cory Voss, Bruning, Nebraska. Re-elected to serve a second term were Mark Covington, Montrose, Colorado, and Tom Vehige, Billings, Missouri.

The AGA board of directors also elected individuals to serve in leadership positions on the executive committee for 2023. Lori Maude, Hermosa, South Dakota, was elected president. Dan McCarty, Rifle, Colorado, was elected vice president. Derek Martin, Kinsley, Kansas, was elected secretary, and William McIntosh, Georgetown, Kentucky, was elected treasurer.

Other members of the board include: Dustin Aherin, Jefferson, South Dakota; Todd Bicket, DVM, Chickamauga, Georgia; Zack Butler, Milton, Tennessee; Gary Felger, Lohman, Missouri; Gregg Hartman, Pueblo, Colorado; and Jeff Loveless, Spanish Fork, Utah.

Retiring members of the 2022 AGA board of directors were John Carrel, Columbus, Missouri; Leland Clark, Barnard, Kansas; and Klint Sickler, Gladstone, North Dakota. The AGA thanks those members for their years of service on the AGA board of directors. ▫

William Perry Pendley, a Wyoming attorney, served in the administrations of presidents Reagan and Trump and for 30 years provided pro bono legal representation, including before the Supreme Court of the United States. ▫

Back row (left to right): Zack Butler, Milton, Tenn.; David Larson, Clearbrook, Minn.; Brent Overmiller,Smith Center, Kan.; Cory Voss, Bruning, Neb.; Gary Felger, Lohman, Mo,; Jeff Loveless, Spanish Fork, Utah; Dustin Aherin, Jefferson, S.D.; Gregg Hartman, Pueblo, Colo. Front row (left to right): Mark Covington, Montrose, Colo.; Treasurer William McIntosh, Georgetown, Ky.; Vice President Dan McCarty, Rifle, Colo.; President Lori Maude, Hermosa, S.D.; Secretary Derek Martin, Bucklin, Kan.; Tom Vehige, Billings, Mo.; Executive Director Megan Slater, Lincoln, Neb.

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Congress Can Promote Growth by Lowering Regulatory Barriers for Consumers & Businesses

BY KENT LASSMAN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR / THE HILL

Three quarters of Americans surveyed by Gallup say they disapprove of the way Congress handles the job of governing. We also know that about 8 in 10 registered voters (79 percent) say the economy is a priority guiding their voting decisions, according to polling by Pew Research Center.

Clearly, there is a big disconnect between the job lawmakers are doing and what regular citizens want. But what can our elected representatives do to narrow that gap and restore confidence in Congress and the nation?

They can start by applying age-old advice: When in a hole, stop digging. Instead, look for ways to get out of the hole, starting with realistic, achievable policy improvements that can have powerful ramifications as they spread across the economy.

To that end, the Competitive Enterprise Institute offers a new policy blueprint for change, highlighting a few of the most critical issues in need of reform — such as bringing inflation under control and stopping the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from interfering with industry reorganization that benefits consumers.

In 2022, inflation hit its highest levels in 40 years. Rising

prices eat away at every household budget in America and make financial security more difficult for most people while pushing many basic consumer goods out of reach.

The Federal Reserve controls monetary policy, which has a big effect on inflation, but regulators there — and at other financial regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — are advancing new policies wholly unrelated to their mission that heap costs on economic activity without clear benefits.

It would be a monumental accomplishment if Congress would ensure that regulators stay focused on their core mission. We cannot turn the economy around while agencies are throwing sand in the gears of innovation and adaptation at every turn.

Another urgent problem is federal environmental permitting rules. They are an absolute morass, halting new infrastructure projects for decades with serial litigation and endless reviews. That means no new gas pipelines, wind farms, or any other sort of sizable energy infrastructure. Whether your goal is reliable, affordable energy or a national transition to renewable energy sources, neither can

happen without Congress enacting permitting reform. Congress should fix this problem by codifying Trump administration executive orders and regulations that streamlined the federal permitting process for major projects.

The politics of antitrust are another big problem. People may worry about power wielded by big companies, but it turns out the bureaucratic planners at the FTC are terrible at orchestrating economic activity on behalf of businesses and consumers. In the past year, for example, the FTC tried to block a merger between Illumina, a DNA sequencing platform and Grail, a company developing an early detection test for multiple types of cancer, based on hypothetical harms to competitors that don’t exist yet.

The merger could lead to important, life-saving cancer testing breakthroughs and an administrative law judge overruled the FTC efforts to stop the deal.

Expanding antitrust regulation would harm consumers and the U.S. economy. What would actually help? Put one agency in charge of antitrust enforcement: the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Placing antitrust authority squarely with the DOJ would help reduce opportunities for politically-motivated investigations and ensure fairness for defendants, since the DOJ must convince a federal court on the merits of a case, while the FTC acts as both prosecutor and judge through its internal adjudication process.

We’d all be better off in 2023 if the FTC focused on the prevention and prosecution of fraud. Everything else amounts to either unwarranted planning or a political power grab.

There is no shortage of ways Congress can do better. But an effort must be made to make regulators more accountable to Congress so we can expand economic freedom, help people gain prosperity and earn financial security. This Congress can bring a fresh start that we all need.

Farmers Lead Land Purchases, Setting Record Sales Levels in Several States

SOURCE: FARMERS NATIONAL COMPANY

The land market momentum that began in late 2021 accelerated into 2022 and was driven by competition for high quality cropland; it resulted in both record sales and overall increases in land values across the country.

Strong demand across all of the country’s regions brought opportunities to landowners interested in capitalizing on the current land market. Aggressive land buyers continue to drive competition through public/ online auction methods, giving us a true market value in those specific areas.

In most cases, landowners selling property experienced values never-before-seen for their farmland. The final results at these auctions set records in several states and have increased year-to-year values between 20 percent to 34 percent across Corn Belt states, according to the most recent report from the Kansas City Federal Reserve.

Landowners continue to turn to Farmers National Company to market their farmland assets, which has resulted in a new record sales volume of $766 million during 2022. This sales volume exceeds the previous record set in 2021 of $750 million.

The majority of these sales came through competitive auction methods (76%) with increases in both total transactions and acres sold.

“What we are seeing is a true supply/demand scenario. There are simply more buyers willing to bid on the limited amount of

land coming to the market. Current commodity markets and strong cash rents provide buyers with the necessary returns to meet their investment criteria while giving them the opportunity to expand operations or add land to their investment portfolio,” explained Paul Schadegg, Senior Vice President of Real Estate Operations for Farmers National Company. “Our anticipation is that these values will remain strong coming into the new year with continued strength in the ag economy although we may see less and less of the record sales.”

Who are the land buyers? Farmers National Company reports seeing the traditional local farmer-operator as the successful buyer of farmland 75 percent of the time.

“With that being said, land investors are certainly part of the equation as they have been active bidders at most sales to a point that has set the floor on values. While the investor may not always be the buyer of land, they are part of the competition driving the values higher,” Schadegg said. “We also expect this trend to continue as many investors see the long-term value of farmland, the opportunity to diversify investments and the value of land as a hedge against rising inflation.”

What factors will continue to drive the land market or slow its growth?

“Commodity markets will continue to be the main driver in land value. When coupled with the supply/demand scenario, the outlook for continued strong land values remains strong moving into 2023.

However, we are cautious as interest rates continue to rise and inflation becomes a large factor in cropping inputs. These factors have the impact to decrease net farm income, erode operator equity and subsequently pressure farmland value,” Schadegg said. “So we sit at a somewhat precarious point in time where opportunity exists for both land sellers and buyers, but is dependent on the continued strength of the agriculture economy to stabilize or grow.” ▫

Missouri Looks to Limit Foreign Ownership of Farmland

BY KATE GIBSON / MEATINGPLACE.COM

There’s a bi-partisan push to prohibit foreign companies from buying additional farmland in Missouri, according to a recent report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

At least four state lawmakers have introduced legislation calling for a ban on further acquisition of acreage by foreign entities, the newspaper reported this week.

The issue proved contentious in Missouri’s recent U.S.

Senate election, with Eric Schmitt, the Republican victor, criticized during the campaign for voting to allow the sale of Missouri land to Chinese buyers.

Before a Chinese company acquired Smithfield Foods in 2013, the state had banned all foreign ownership of agricultural land. That was changed to let foreign entities own as much as 1% of Missouri farmland.

Smithfield, a subsidiary

of Hong Kong-based WH Group, owned about 42,000 acres of Missouri farmland as of 2015, according to the newspaper. There are about 28 million acres of farmland in the state, the report said.

The Missouri Pork Association is among the groups opposing the proposed prohibitions, which are sponsored by state Republicans and a Democrat. ▫

Kent Lassman is president and CEO of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market public policy organization based in Washington.

The Allure of Prison Made

Many are drawn to collect items made by prisoners. Why is there such an allure with collecting these items? What makes them collectible? What is the story behind those who made them?

Prison-made items have been on collector’s lists for a very long time. For example, starting way back in the 1890s, Frank Conley, the warden at Deer Lodge, Montana created various programs in order to keep inmates busy. He believed it would keep them out of trouble. Deer Lodge Montana’s horsehair braiding program was one of the best known and popular inmate programs of its kind, and people collect bridles made at Deer Lodge (and many other prisons) to this day. Canon City, Colorado was another prison that had a bridle making program, except they were also one of the few prisons who had a metal shop. Consequently, they became know for making bits and spurs (along with horsehair bridles) and their bits and spurs are now some of the most prized possessions in many collector’s possession. Over the years, various prisons became known for producing different items.

But why collect them? One common reason heard is that folks are amazed at someone taking the time to build such an item by hand, using crude tools, and have it come out as good as it does. Since prisoners obviously have plenty of time on their hands, they tend to be very patient and take their time when making these

crafts. Similar perhaps to what attracted us to Native American made crafts in the beginning. An appreciation for the time it takes and the fact that their tools and conditions may not have been the best, yet they were able to turn out a quality product, usually of much better quality than a mass produced piece of similar use.

Other reasons given range from being charitable (supporting someone who may not be in the best of circumstances) to the allure of it being made by an individual who does not conform to normal societal standards, yet has an artistic side about them.

I once heard a guy say while holding a pair of prison made spurs, “Just imagine, the S.O.B. who made these spurs also killed someone.” One thing is for certain though, by buying the crafts, it helps to fund a portion of their rehabilitation.

So what makes them collectible? The same thing that makes anything collectible, I suppose. Desirability, rarity and condition. Somebody wants them, they are in limited supply and remain in good condition after all these years. That is what makes anything collectible when you get right down to it, but prison-made items seem to reach a whole other category of collectors. I know several people who collect nothing but prison-made bits or spurs, etc. Who knows why this is? The reasons are likely as varied as the collec-

tors themselves.

Perhaps it is the intrigue about the men who made them? At some time or another, we have all probably known someone who spent time in prison. A lot of them may have even seemed like pretty good folks. Others who are incarcerated are just down right scary and we’re glad they are there. Maybe it’s the fact that this person who obviously had enough troubles to be locked up, also has an artistic side to them and can create works of art without the aide of using the best tools or having the best situation. Even a great Native Warrior like Geronimo turned to making trinkets once locked up by the Government. People flocked to buy something he had made. I guess the contrast between being a fierce warrior and an artist was intriguing.

Besides the quality and intrigue, could it be the brand? I know guys who will not drive anything but a Ford, for no other reason than that is what their daddy drove and their daddy’s daddy drove, etc. There are folks out there who will just buy certain items because it is a brand they are familiar with. Maybe they were told when they were young that a prison made horsehair bridle is the best money can buy and they won’t buy anything else to this day, as a result of that thought taking hold in their mind. Other reasons might be monetary. Prison-made collectibles cover a wide range of prices that can fit most collector’s budgets.

But as mentioned, the reasons vary greatly as to why we collect prison-made items. Perhaps you have your own reason? We would love to hear from you. Happy collecting! ▫

Brazos Says let'sgo brandin

Broadview Ranch Named American Gelbvieh Association 2022 Commercial Producer of the Year

Broadview Ranch is the recipient of the 2022 AGA Commercial Producer of the Year award. Broadview Ranch was presented with this honor during the awards banquet of the 2022 AGA National Convention on December 9, 2022, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Broadview Ranch is a commercial cow-calf operation located in Centreville, Mississippi, and operated by the Henry Darden family. Darden is the third-generation of Broadview Ranch and has been in the cattle business since his father started in 1942. Today, the ranch is home to a herd of 420 brood cows and utilizes a simplified crossbreeding system focusing on Balancer® genetics.

Darden has a passion for reading and studying new trends to improve operation management as the industry continues to progress. Darden credits an article written by Dr. Keith Gregory from the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska, for encouraging him to look further into simplified crossbreeding.

A professor at Mississippi State University recommended Darden add Gelbvieh genetics to his herd as they thrive in the humid, wet environment of southwest Mississippi. Darden began using Gelbvieh/Hereford crossbred bulls from South Dakota and has used Gelbvieh or Gelbvieh-cross bulls ever since.

“We swapped over to the Balancers that are a very nice cross which helps the farm with easy crossbreeding,” explained Darden.

“We have bought Balancers exclusively for probably five years.”

Balancer cattle are heat tolerant and allow for easy calving on the ranch. Darden retains ownership of his calves through the feedlot and

Let’s take a look at two of those: designate more “national monuments” and “wildlife habitat.”

Monuments, Endangered Species, a Tax on Water

■ In last month’s column I walked you through the mid-term elections and their potential for impacting livestock grazing. I then predicted several items, using climate change as the action forcing event, that the progressive democrats and President Biden would implement, which were the following: ■ increase funding for all their programs. with special emphasis on wildlife habitat and land acquisition ■ designate more wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, national monuments, national parks, wild and scenic rivers and other land use designations ■ place more emphasis on “lands with wilderness characteristics” and roadless areas during the planning process, and

climate change will take a much more prominent place in all planning documents and decisions, including those on livestock grazing

I see I failed to mention water issues, especially those where control over water which would shift that control to the feds.

President Biden has traveled to Colorado to designate the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument.

According to fact sheet distributed by the White House, this designation represents his, “commitment to protect, conserve, and restore our country’s iconic outdoor spaces and historical sites for the benefit of future generations.”

It also announced that the Forest Service and the Department of Interior will bring forward a proposal to withdraw the Thompson Divide in western Colorado from all oil and gas leasing.

This was Biden’s first use of the Antiquities Act to designate a new national monument.

In addition, a group of enviros and tribes are pressing Biden to designate a 450,000 acre parcel in Nevada as the Ave Kwa Ame National Monument. In a recent speech Biden announced this area deserves a national monument.

This, apparently, will not satisfy their hunger for restrictive land use designations. One enviro has written, “It is hoped that the designation of Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument will be only the beginning of his administration’s commitment to protecting 30 percent of the US land and waters by 2030.”

With respect to “wildlife habitat” we see what he has in store for New Mexico.

The Biden administration has issued two final rules to designate the lesser prairie chicken as an endangered species.

This has been done, according to the National Association of Counties, “despite ongoing efforts by federal, state and local partners to develop conservation initiatives, such as

is continually looking for new opportunities to increase his profit in the commercial cattle business. He has recently started feeding his calves in Iowa through an all-natural beef program.

“The Balancers are an easy cross for us because we like the black-hided cattle,” said Darden. “I spend hours looking at the EPDs on the bulls we buy. We focus heavily on carcass, calving ease, and stayability traits, and always buy all of our bulls from the same producer.”

The AGA Commercial Producer of the Year Award honors individuals who use Gelbvieh and Balancer® genetics in progressive commercial cattle operations and are proactive in their promotion of the breed. ▫

Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAA) and Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP), that have conserved millions of acres across the lesser prairie-chicken’s current range. Many of these conservation plans have been spearheaded by voluntary partnerships with farmers and ranchers.”

In other words, all that work to protect 9 million acres was not sufficient for the enviros or Biden.

We also have the jaguar in New Mexico and Arizona, which Biden has proposed for renewal to comply with a court order.

Further, 14 conservation groups have filed a petition”urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide better federal protection for Mexican gray wolves by listing its look-alike species, the coyote, within the wolves’ recovery area.”

Greta Anderson with the Western Watersheds project says, “If people are going to confuse Mexican wolves for coyotes, then it makes sense to stop killing coyotes in the areas where wolves are recovering.”

One final issue is on water. The Domestic Water Protection Act has been introduced by two Democrat congress members from Arizona (HR 9194). This legislation would impose an excise tax on the sale of any “water intensive” crop. How much? “The tax is 300 percent of the price for which the crop is sold and is paid by the manufacturer, producer, or importer of the crop.”

Whew! That’s all I can stand to write about this month.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to 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

The American Gelbvieh Association named Broadview Ranch, Centreville, Mississippi, the 2022 Commercial Producer of the Year. Pictured above (left to right): Henry’s daughters; Julie Kent and Jenny McKay, Henry Darden, and award presenters; John and Laurie Burbank.

Proactive nutrition and management steps can reduce the impacts of cold weather when lambing, kidding in winter months.

Lambing and kidding season may typically be associated with springtime, but more and more producers are shifting to get newborns on the ground earlier. Lambs and kids born in the first few months of the year have more time for growth and will be heavier at weaning – benefits for both the production and show sides of the industry.

Maximizing the benefits of earlier lambing and kidding means minimizing the impacts of cold weather stress on ewes and does, as well as newborn lambs and kids.

“Regardless of whether you’re in Arizona or Michigan, taking a few extra steps to prepare ewes and does to lamb or kid earlier in the year will help you manage the impacts of colder weather on your animals,” says Clay Elliott, Ph.D., small ruminant nutritionist with Purina Animal Nutrition.

Keep these winter tips in mind when preparing for lambing or kidding in colder temperatures:

Start With Mineral

When you think about winter feeding and management, you likely think of heat lamps, barn ventilation, warm bedding, or other tried and true tips that help provide a smooth lambing or kidding experience in cold weather.

But, Elliott says one thing is more important – feeding a quality mineral.

“To me, mineral is absolutely the most important step,” says Elliott. “The last thing you want to deal with in below-freezing temperatures is lambing or kidding issues. Feeding a quality mineral can help get babies on the ground with fewer issues.”

Monitor Body Condition Score

Cold temperatures mean ewes and does need to expend more energy to maintain normal body functions and regulate temperature. Evaluating body condition score (BCS) before lambing and kidding can help ensure ewes and does have the proper amount of energy to keep themselves warm, recover from birth and tend to their newborns.

“I’m a firm believer that ewes and does should be in at least a

BCS of 3, or even a 3.5, before lambing and kidding,” says Elliott. “If they have a little extra energy, they’ll be more durable and more prepared.”

Feed More Forage and Water

One way to help ewes and does maintain body condition when lambing or kidding in colder temperatures is feeding more forage.

“When animals metabolize feed, the process creates heat that can help keep them warm,” says Elliott. “Hay or forage creates more heat than other feeds like corn or fats because animals must spend more time breaking down forages in the digestive system.”

The other side of the coin is water. Providing animals with fresh, clean water and frequently checking to ensure water sources aren’t frozen is essential to help with digestion.

“It’s a combination of forage and water that will help animals stay warmer,” adds Elliott.

Keep Newborns Warm and Dry

Newborn lambs and kids are tougher than you might realize.

They can handle a lot and continue to thrive. One thing they can’t handle is not getting dry quickly enough after birth.

“Hypothermia is a big concern for newborn lambs and kids – no matter the temperature,” says Elliott. “Anytime newborns are wet and there’s a breeze, they will get cold.”

If the ewe or doe isn’t drying off a newborn immediately after birth, you may need to dry it with a towel. Heat lamps can also be a good tool for newborns that do get cold or in extremely cold weather.

“The biggest thing is making sure lambs and kids get dry and start nursing so they can have a strong start,” says Elliott. “If you have those two things covered, they can withstand a lot from that point on.”

With a few proactive nutrition and management steps, you can capitalize on the benefits of earlier lambing and kidding while reducing the impacts of cold weather stress on your animals. Contact your local Purina nutritionist or visit purinamills. com to learn more. ▫

Minnesota Funds Meat Cutter Training for High School Students

BY SUSAN KELLY / MEATINGPLACE.COM

Minnesota is providing about $350,000 in onetime grants to train secondary school students in meat cutting and butchery skills.

The new grant program from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture will help schools looking to establish or enhance the training, the state said in a press release.

The Meat Education and Training (MEAT) Grant Program will award funding from the Minnesota Legislature to secondary career and technical education programs at public or private schools or systems to

pay for costs such as equipment, facility renovation, curriculum development and faculty training.

“The past few years have clearly shown that expanded meat processing capacity is important for the health of Minnesota’s livestock industry and to give consumers more choices,” Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said. “To get there, we need more butchers and meat cutters. This investment will expose students to these in-demand positions.”

Applicants may request a minimum of $5,000 and a maximum of $70,000 per project. Up to 10% of each grant may be used for faculty training. There is no matching funds requirement.

MEAT grants will be awarded through a competitive review process, with priority given to applicants that collaborate with meat cutting and butchery programs at Minnesota state colleges and universities or local industry partners. The state expects five to 10 grants to be awarded, depending on award size. ▫