LMD January 2012

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

MARKET

Digest W

by LEE PITTS

From Leeuary to Pittstober

– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL JANUARY 15, 2012 • www. aaalivestock . com

Volume 54 • No. 1

Is Beef In A Bubble?

by Lee Pitts

Are They Crazy?

irst it was tech stocks that crashed bigger than an old computer running Windows 7. Then the real estate bubble burst which brought us The Great Recession. Next the stock market bubble was pricked which left Investors with ravaged 401K’s and at a loss where to put their money. They only knew they wanted something safe and solid. And tangible. And so they invested in commodities and a host of ag products hit all time highs. Beef was also a beneficiary in the flight to commodities.

But gold, silver and most other ag products, except dairy and beef, have lost some of their luster lately. So the question for cattlemen: is beef in a bubble too?

Our future fortunes are closely tied to that of our ag cousins, the farmers. In the years from 2000-2009 farmers raised 28 percent more corn so you’d think prices would have stumbled. But, instead, corn prices skyrocketed due to ethanol. As long as we’re going to try to raise our energy instead of drill for it, more and more corn will be taken from the mouths of livestock and poured into the tanks of automobiles.

Ethanol has definitely caused a bubble in farm land as one 74acre farm in Iowa set a new record selling for $20,000 per acre. And a farmer bought it, not some hedge fund trader.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said that Iowa farmland rose a “stunning” 34 percent in 12 months through October of 2011. The USDA says that during 2005-2010, the price of farmland climbed as much as 70 per-

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And The Exodus Continues To answer that question we must first examine why cattlemen in 2011 enjoyed the highest profit per cow ($150 per head) in history. The easy answer is that ranchers are enjoying heady times because there are a lot fewer of them. In the last three decades the U.S. has lost 42 percent of its cattle producers. And the exodus continues. The worst drought in the history of Texas (that we know of) has led to the largest ever oneyear decline in cow numbers in the largest cow-owning state in

“If you expect to follow the trail, you must do your sleepin' in the winter.” the country. According to David Anderson, Texas AgriLife Extension, Texas has seen a 12 percent decline from the 5 million cows the state had at the beginning of 2011. Not only is that the biggest drop in Texas history, Anderson says it’s likely the largest drop in the number of cows any state has ever seen. And we’re not even mentioning the drought related losses in New Mexico, Louisiana,

Arkansas and Oklahoma.

On a national basis we saw a two percent reduction in cows in 2011 and due to the high prices, more replacement heifers went into feedyards, which means we aren’t rebuilding our infrastructure. Beef production will be down another four percent in 2012. It’s good for those who are left standing but we are gradually killing the proverbial goose?

continued on page two

Meet the North Dakota family of anti-government separatists busted by cops using a Predator drone . . . after ‘stealing six cows’ A SPY PLANE COMES HOME: PRIVACY ADVOCATES FEAR THE USE OF PREDATOR DRONES ON U.S. CITIZENS GIVES POLICE AGENCIES TOO MUCH POWER

by DAILY MAIL REPORTER

NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING

Riding Herd

eet the Brossarts, a North Dakota family deemed so dangerous that the local sheriff unleashed an unmanned Predator drone to help bring them in.

The Brossart’s alleged crime? They wouldn’t give back three cows and their calves that wandered onto their 3,000-acre farm this summer.

The same aerial vehicles used by the CIA to track down and assassinate terrorists and militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan are now being deployed by cops to spy on Americans in their own backyards.

The head of the anti-government Brossart family are Susan and husband Rodney, who live with seven of their eight adult children in a compound which includes a house, trailer and two RVs. Daughter Abby allegedly hit an officer during the arrests, which included brother Alex, after the family was spied on by a gov-

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ernment drone.

Sons Thomas and Jacob were also arrested in the bust after a 16-hour stand off, which stemmed from a half dozen stolen cows.

The Brossarts are the first known subjects of the high-flying new surveillance technology that the federal government has made available to some local sheriffs and police chiefs — all without Congressional approval or search warrants.

Local authorities say the Brossarts are known for being armed, anti-government separatists whose sprawling farm is used as a compound. Rodney Brossart, 55, and his wife Susan live in a house and a trailer and two RVs with seven of their eight adult children.

When the cattle wandered onto the Brossarts’ land, Sheriff Kelly Janke, who patrols a county of just 3,000 people, rounded up some sheriff’s deputies and arrested Mr. Brossart for failing to report the stray livecontinued on page three

henever I get the much-appreciated free calendars at the start of every year there are a few months I’d like to tear out right then and there and be done with them. Sadly, I have to go through the process of living through these muchdreaded months.

“January” sounds promising enough but then the month actually begins and many folks start the year with a hangover. If that’s not a sign of what’s to come I don’t know what is! How good can a month be that starts out with a bunch of fu-fu flower parades on TV? I’ve always felt January needs a new name that more accurately reflects it’s personality, something like “Depress-u-ary.” Christmas is over, everyone is grouchy because they’re back at work, and my favorite football teams lose again. Every year I’m convinced that early Alzheimer’s has kicked in because I can never remember to write the correct year on my checks.

February isn’t much better. I’ve hated it ever since I was a kid because of Rejection Day, otherwise known as Valentine’s Day. I spend the entire month in confusion, not knowing how many days are in the month, or when we celebrate the dead President’s birthdays. I think we should change our calendar and make all months exactly four weeks long, and then create an all new month out of the days left over. This month would be work-free, tax free and free of all stupid holidays like National Sponge Cake Day. We’d call this new month Leeuary, Pittstober or Pittstember, in honor of its founder. And because there would be no more 29th, 30th of 31st of the month, there’s an added bonus: people born on those days would have no more birthdays! Adding Pittstober to the calendar would be a veritable Fountain of Youth for many.

March is one of my favorite months because continued on page ten

www.LeePittsbooks.com

Livestock Market Digest

Page 2

January 15, 2012

Is Beef In A Bubble? cent in some Midwest states and farmland in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, rose 17 percent last year, the biggest rate of increase for any year since 1977. Look in any farm publication and you’ll routinely see farm ground selling for $10,000 an acre and up.

The demand for corn and other grains has created a situation where any ground that can be farmed, will be. Pasture land that once housed a cow will now grow crops and some ranchers will be trading in their cowboy boots for lace-ups. Couple that with what meteorologists are calling an “extended La Niña weather pattern” which will again bring drier than normal conditions to the Southwest, and you have a beef industry that is shriveling up faster than a set of steers with a four percent pencil shrink.

The Hamburger Economy

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Just think how much cattle would be fetching if Americans weren’t cutting back on beef! In the last three years beef consumption in this country has fallen by 12 percent. There are many factors for this decline including an aging baby boomer population that is gumming more soup and salad and less steak, a misconception propagated by vegetarians and health gurus on TV that beef is bad for you, and a recession that has hit consumers hard in the pocketbook. Cash-strapped working folks are dining less at restaurants where beef is big. Whatever the reason, amidst the good times we are currently enjoying, the fact that we are eating less beef is an ominous dark cloud.

If you look at a chart of U.S. per capita beef consumption since 1980 you’d see that from 1980 through 1986 we were actually increasing our consumption. Then it fell off in a straight line down until 1993, increased for a few years until 2008 when it went straight down again.

USDA estimates 2011 U.S. per capita beef consumption at 57.4 lbs, down 25 percent from 1980.

And the trend continues. In 2012, USDA predicts, Americans will eat over three less pounds of beef on average than we did last year.

It’s hard to say how much the reduction in consumption is due to the recession but retail prices for beef rose an average of 10 percent in 2011. Consumers were still buying beef, but it made up for a bigger share of her food bill when they went to check out. As a result, consumers bought fewer steaks and more ground round. So much so that Erin Borror, an economist with the U.S. Meat Export Federation, says we are now living in a “Hamburger Economy.” The sale of ground beef in dollar terms rose seven percent in 2011 and the average retail beef price in November of 2011 was a record $5 per pound! The USDA says that as U.S. beef production

continued from page one

declines again in 2012, beef prices will increase another 5.5 percent in 2012, following a nine percent increase in prices in 2011.

Americans haven’t lost their appetite for beef but cattlemen should be concerned that with less production, and subsequent higher retail prices, we may be pricing our product beyond the consumer’s ability to pay.

Welcoming Back Our Beef If we had to depend on our domestic market for price stability there’d be a lot less joy in cowtown these days. The one truly bright spot in the beef economy has been our exports and for the first time in more than 40 years, the U.S. became a net exporter of beef in 2011. We sold more than we brought in.

And that trend is expected to continue in 2012.

That’s quite a turnaround from the years when the fear and hysteria surrounding bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE aka mad cow disease) turned our export market to mush. Right after the BSE fiasco the U.S. brought in three billion more pounds of beef than we exported, and we’re only now getting those markets back. To give you an idea how drastically BSE effected our beef exports consider this: Our exports went from 2.5 billion pounds before BSE to less that half a billion billion pounds in 2004. In other words, we lost 80 percent of our export market! Sure, it could happen again. If not because of BSE but for some other reason, the primary one being a change in the value of the U.S. dollar.

The biggest single contributing factor to record beef prices is that the value of the U.S. dollar is low in comparison to the currency of our competitors. This means that our beef and other foodstuffs are cheaper to buy.

Other countries can buy more of our bounty for less. As a result, beef exports were up 27 percent over a year ago at the end of September 2011, exports to Japan were 36 percent higher and in South Korea they were 47 percent higher than a year ago.

And those two account for 31 percent of our beef exports.

“The key thing is the people we’re selling our beef to are not in economic trouble. Asian countries make up a good portion of our buyers and Asia is still on a very strong economic growth path,” said Rich Nelson, director of research at Allendale Inc. Should the value of the dollar rise, which it will at some point, the harder it will be to maintain our export gains. And the export markets are much more important to rancher’s well being now than they were just a few short years ago. In 2007 exports took just 5 percent of our beef production whereas today they take 10 percent of our domestic production. Should the politics continued on page three

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

January 15, 2012

Is Beef In A Bubble? change and a new economic policy arises, built on a stronger dollar, it could be enough to burst beef’s export bubble.

Although we still sell 90 percent of our product right here at home, there’s no question that rancher’s financial success in the future will depend more and more on how much beef we can sell elsewhere in the world as global meat consumption is expected to rise 73 percent by 2050. According to USDA’s Economic Research Service we should continue to experience strong demand for our beef globally due to stronger economic recovery in Asian countries, comparatively low prices for U.S. beef on the world market, and our higher quality beef that other world competitors like Brazil and Australia can’t match.

Adding to our reasons for optimism, Japan recently announced that they are considering easing the age restrictions implemented in 2003 due to BSE and may start accepting beef from cattle 30 months and younger, instead of the 20 month requirement now in place. Cattle-Fax estimates that if they do so we could sell Japan an additional 160 million pounds of beef in 2012.

One implication of all this is clear: if you aren’t verifying your cattle with an age and source program of some type you are likely leaving dollars on the table and hurting our chances to export our way to prosperity.

Long term, the future for beef is bright. According to a FAO report, World Livestock 2011,

continued from page two

the world in 2050 will be consuming “two-thirds more animal protein than it does today.” In the past 40 years we experienced a worldwide surge in the production of beef and other meat proteins by increasing the number of animals we raised. But the FAO says that “it is hard to envision meeting projected demand by keeping twice as many poultry, 80 percent percent more small ruminants, 50 percent more cattle and 40 percent more pigs, using the same level of natural resources as currently.”

Clearly, there is a lot of room for growth on a worldwide basis.

“The average consumption of livestock protein in Africa is less than a quarter of that in the Americas, Europe and Oceania, and represents just 17 percent of the recommended consumption level for all proteins,” says the FAO. Yes, the world will need more of our beef in the future but whether they are able to pay for it is another matter entirely.

According to the FAO, 13 percent of the world’s population, or nearly 1 billion people, now lives in chronic hunger. This presents both an opportunity, a huge challenge, and great heartache.

A Slow Leak Ranchers have enjoyed a “perfect storm” of events that conspired to give them the payday they are now enjoying. Not only did we export more beef but the amount of beef we brought into this country in 2011 is expected to be 11 percent less than 2010.

According to reports from U.S. Customs, imports from Australia

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were down 25.7 percent and imports from Canada were down 21.7 percent, and keep in mind, these two countries alone routinely are responsible for 60 percent of total U.S. beef imports.

The amount of Mexican beef brought into the country as a result of a sick peso, drought and softer beef demand in Mexico, however, were up 51 percent from a year ago.

Imports of beef from Central American countries were also up 30 percent compared to last year.

Overall, imports of fresh/ frozen beef are down 12.2 percent from a year ago and Brazilian beef imports through October were down 51 percent from a year ago.

Brazil is trying to regain more access to the U.S. fresh/frozen beef markets and are expected to do so sometime in 2012.

The good news is that as a result of all the factors we’ve mentioned, ranchers are expected to reap a profit of $160 per cow this year. That’s up ten bucks over last year. But with calves routinely fetching $800 that hardly seems like enough profit, for this market could easily fall that far in a correction without crashing. The biggest danger is that during these heady times cattlemen will let their costs get away from them and not be able to adjust when the market suffers a pull back.

Which, we’d remind everyone, it always does.

The Lesson of Bubbles Is beef in a bubble?

Of course it is, but all bubbles don’t go “pop”! Sure, there is the possibility some factor or incident we haven’t mentioned, or even thought about, will dramat-

ically burst beef’s bubble; like another health scare like BSE or a shift in the political climate and a subsequent escalating dollar. The price of beef could even get so high that its theoretically possible that the President will freeze it’s price, like Nixon did.

But we are reminded that all bubbles don’t explode. Some just drift away or slowly leak their air until they disappear. This poses perhaps an even greater danger for the long term if ranchers relax and cease to be the efficient and tightfisted managers they’ve had to be to have survived this long. Or that we as an industry become too complacent and fail to combat the forces that would make cattlemen contract producers; serfs on their own land like the poultry and

Page 3 pork producers. That, we’d suggest is happening right now.

Whenever we do suffer a correction in this market we’d remind everyone that when the real estate bubble burst those people who owned their own houses outright, or had a lot of equity and planned to stay in them, didn’t lose one red cent.

Even the tech stocks rebounded, just as surely as stocks will one day to their former highs.

This then is the lesson of bubbles: don’t get too caught up in all the hoopla and start believing that we’ll never see another poor day in this business, never relax your vigilance, or get too comfortable with cushy times. Then perhaps you too won’t leak out of the landscape when beef’s bubble bursts.

Predator Drone stock.

They also took away his daughter, Abby, after she allegedly hit an officer during the arrest.

When cops returned to collect the lost cattle, three of Brossart’s sons — Alex, Jacob and Thomas — confronted Sheriff Janke with rifles and shotguns and would not allow officers on the farm.

That’s when the sheriff summoned a $154 million MQ-9 Predator B drone from nearby Grand Forks Air Force Base, where it was patrolling the U.S.-Canada border for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Using a handheld device

continued from page one

that picked up the video camera footage from the spy plane, Sheriff Janke was able to watch the movements of everyone on the farm.

During a 16-hour standoff, the sheriff and his deputies waited until they could see the remaining Brossarts put down their weapons. Then, dressed in SWAT gear, they stormed the compound and arrested the three Brossart sons. No shots were fired.

Susan Brossart, the matriarch of the clan, was later arrested, as well.

Police also recovered the cattle, valued at $6,000. continued on page four

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Predator Drone

continued from page three

They face several felony charges and have repeatedly not shown up for court after posting $250,000 bail.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents fly eight Predator remote-controlled aircraft to patrol the American borders with Canada and Mexico, searching for smugglers and illegal immigrants.

But increasingly, the federal government and local police agencies are using those drones to spy on criminal suspects in America with sophisticated highresolution cameras, heat sensors and radar. All of it comes without a warrant.

Allowing local sheriffs and police chiefs access to spy planes happened without public discussion or the approval of Congress.

And it has privacy advocates crying foul, saying the unregulated use of the drones is intrusive.

“There is no question that this could become something that people will regret,” former Rep Jane Harman, a Democrat, told the Los Angles Times.

The sheriff says that might not have been possible without the intelligence from the Predators.

“We don’t have to go in guns blazing. We can take our time and methodically plan out what our approach should be,’ Sheriff Janke told the Times.

All of the surveillance occurred without a search warrant because the Supreme Court has long ruled that anything visible from the air, even if it’s on private property, can be subject to police spying.

However, privacy experts say that predator drones, which can silently fly for 20 hours nonstop, dramatically surpasses the spying power that any police helicopter or airplane can achieve.

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Frustrations of Telling a Rancher’s Story CHARLIE MCCARTY, Trouble in a Green Pickup

oday’s treads are leading us into a shame in which we might abandon books, newspapers and magazines as methods of communication.

Their limitless storehouse of knowledge can be accessed at any time of the day or night and with no need for batteries or electric connections.

My affection for the printed word got its roots during a 1940’s childhood, passing long winter evenings under a kerosene lamp, by a wood fire in a log cabin in west New Mexico. I quickly developed a dislike for fiction and a preference for the author who could inform and entertain in the same paragraph. Some sadness accompanied our joy when we got our first T.V. Would this mean I’d no longer find time for my evening reading? But I

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wanted more detail on a schedule I could fit between other tasks and in a form I could carry wherever I went.

As soon as I started running a ranch on national forest land I was subjected to experiences that shouldn’t happen in America — brutal intimidation to coerce us into placing permanent improvements on land we would never own. Forest Rangers and their assistants were using us as pawns to gain the favor of higher ranking bureaucrats as they competed for advancement in jobs and pay scale. Congressmen, governors and presidents helped themselves through periods of sagging popularity by attacking public land ranchers. More votes and a strong political mood was entrenched in the theory that our removal would be good for the environment.

The banning of mechanized equipment kept coming up, dis-

guised as wilderness study areas, roadless tracts or places where travel should be managed. But water distribution was an important key to range management and periods of drought came when nature provided nothing. I put a tank on a truck and hauled water to get my cattle to stay where they had forage. All forms of wildlife immediately left their tracks in the dust around those drinking troughs. This was an aspect that was being overlooked by the environmental community who wanted us off the forest.

Passionate, they ranted and raved and condemned us without clues to what we accomplished with our daily chores.

We had a story to tell; but who would listen? It could only come from someone who had walked in our shoes.

Limited success came from continued on page five

Federal court slaps down lawless EPA

The Best of the Bunch

FROM THE PHOTO of his hand-tooled cover to the very last story, Lee’s newest book, A Handmade Life, is pure Pitts. In the tradition of Dirt Roads and God’s Country, Lee’s latest will entertain and inspire. Destined to be a classic.

January 15, 2012

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In mid-December, however, the EPA’s disregard for due process came back to haunt it when a federal court threw out new restrictions on the manufacture and storage of cement.

In a unanimous ruling, a threejudge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that the EPA’s actions in adopting the regulation were “arbitrary and capricious,” in that it had failed to give adequate notice to manufacturers.

EPA’s proposal would have set emissions standards for the manufacture and storage of Portland Cement, a type of cement produced in domestic kilns. The industry currently employs around 17,000 Americans at more than 100 facilities in 36 states. According to the Portland Cement Association, which brought the legal challenge to the new rule, the proposed restrictions could result in the closure of as many as 18 plants and cost 15,000 jobs.

EPA attempted to excuse its procedural errors, arguing that immediate adoption of the restrictions was necessary to protect public health. Trace amounts of mercury are emitted during the cement production process. And at certain levels of exposure, mercury is a wellknown neuro-toxin. The EPA’s new mercury standard, however, is two to three times more stringent than those provided by the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration, and the emissions from U.S. cement kilns are a minute fraction of the global deposition of mercury affecting the U.S. population.

Ironically, the cement rule would not have reduced emissions so much as moved their location. China is a major exporter of cement to the United States, and under the new rule imports of cement from China

were expected to double, to around half of all new cement used in the United States.

Because of looser environmental standards and practices in China, is it not clear whether the rule would have reduced emissions at all.

The cement rule is only one of more than 10 new EPA regulations scheduled to go into effect over the next three years.

Described as the EPA’s “train wreck,” each of the rules carries a multibillion-dollar price tag, will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and could result in the loss of 8 percent of the U.S.’s current electricity generating capacity.

The cement rule is not the most consequential of the “train wreck” rules. It is, however, the first of these rules to be reviewed on the merits by a federal court.

Several of the other new rules are also currently being challenged in the federal courts.

EPA’s procedural errors in these cases make the defects in the Portland Cement challenge look like hair-splitting by comparison.

Hopefully the court’s decision may serve as an indication of what is to come once EPA’s recent overreach is finally subject to judicial scrutiny.

Following the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act can be tedious. But it is nevertheless fundamentally important. Democracy is incompatible with granting an agency arbitrary power, subject only to its own claims to be pursuing public safety. As the court noted in overturning the cement rule, “reasoned decision-making is not a dispensable part of the administrative machine that can be blithely discarded even in pursuit of a laudable regulatory goal.”

The EPA badly needs to be reminded of this fact.

Josiah Neeley is an analyst with the Anne and Tobin Armstrong Center on Energy & the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

January 15, 2012

publishing letters to editors. I was quoted in a national newspaper. That resulted in hate mail suggesting I should be shot or hanged. Then a Ted Turner television crew offered to let me say what I wanted in a well-publicized documentary. They shot my picture with a convex lens aimed upward from my belt buckle to expound images of my dental imperfections, and presented ranchers as an obstacle to their goals of protecting the environment. The film portrayed the local forest ranger in a favorable light leading him to break a written contract, and helping a neighbor who was also a Forest Service employee to lay a pipeline from a spring on my side of the fence into his private land, eliminating water to take away the use of a key pasture.

Every day brought new challenges and false information from a politician, a bureaucrat or an environmental organization.

It wasn’t just a rancher’s fight.

The multiple use concepts of managing public lands were under attack. They destroyed the logging industry and turned their guns on hunting, camping, wood hauling, and recreation.

I had answers and arguments but no way to convey my thoughts to any audience. My personal experiences would fill a book but with no literary training and limited ability I started what appeared to be an overwhelming task, using what I had, a paper notebook, a ballpoint pen and a patient wife who typed countless revisions. We started a project that consumed our spare time for years. Our foes gained ground. Neighbors sold out and quit the business. It became obvious my work stood little chance to get into print in time to cure any problems.

Too impatient to endure the flood of rejection slips encountered by most beginning authors, I elected to self-publish. With nothing but yellow pages to guide me I connected with a publisher who can only be described as expensive, indifferent, incompetent and slow. A color snapshot to guide, they made three false tries before producing a front cover design in a shade of green that resembled a Forest Service pickup. Then they printed a run of books that left out all the photographs. With time rushing by, new developments happening every day and the things I had written becoming stale I rejected their work and demanded they get it right.

My argument against wolves was more emphatic if the reader could see photos of their carnage and shelters for kids at the school bus stops. Then the publisher’s promise to help with promotion was lame and ineffective.

By now the topics I wanted to cover had expanded into two books. My second, Fightin’ ‘em to Help ‘em came through a different publisher. All went well and I’ve been happy to recommend them to other fledgling authors.

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

My marketing strategy began with preaching to the choir. Free advertising in the form of news articles or book reviews was absolutely necessary. I gave dozens of books to area newspapers, magazines, and trade organizations who claimed to be sympathetic to our cause. But

crackpot? All the feedback from people who read it was positive.

A reluctant buyer who proclaimed “I don’t have time to read,” came back with “So true.

The dang thing kept me up all night!” Others thought I’d written a good outline for a movie. A dentist squelched my concern that it may only interest ranchers. He picked up on an event when I’d hired bulldozers to

As soon as I started running a ranch on national forest land I was subjected to experiences that shouldn’t happen in America. these staffs were all too busy to dig into the depths of a book.

They may have also been aware of the futility of trying to spread information through printed word. I must have offended one who published regular book reviews because they took my name off their mailing list. I received neither the remaining issues of my subscription nor any more requests for renewal of dues and contributions.

It was time to be self-critical.

Was I coming across as a radical

build stock tanks. This involved rangers from two U.S. Forest Service districts. One was telling me I had two days to move dirt while the other demanded I wait a few years while he wrote a ranch management plan. The dentist asked, “Why didn’t you put a bullet in both their heads?”

Success in selling came through personal contact when I set up stands at rodeos and county fairs. The best single day of brisk sales happened when Congressman Steve Pierce came

Page 5

to Silver City for a rally opposing the Forest Service plan to close forest roads. I was given the chance to go before the crowd and present him a copy. In a few moments at the microphone I related how an assistant supervisor had fired me from a job maintaining campgrounds, my first employment after high school. There had been an incident in which a scantily-dressed two-year-old girl was dangerously close to walking into a patch of poison ivy. Her mother didn’t know what it was and forcefully suggested there should be a sign there to warn her. But this Forest Service official tore my sign to bits, threw it into the offending weeds, screamed “Pick it up!” and proclaimed “Poison ivy is a natural hazard of the outdoors!”

They have to deal with it if they come out here! We can’t tolerate an employee who clutters the forest with home-made signs!”

It did my ego no harm when the next day’s newspaper ran a front page photo of me on the stage with the congressman.

The U.S. Forest Service holds a strong track record for destroying anyone who opposes them. I wrote the book expecting immediate retaliation. That may come

but their fire fighters and retired employees have been steady customers who relay a strong resentment for their policies.

Yet, the time came when I had to face reality. Not enough people had read my book to bring any lasting effect. Time was running out on the publishing contract and this work would die on the vine without reaching the people I wanted. My best chance to reach a sympathetic audience might be at the state conventions for Farm Bureau and the Cattle Growers. Some might pass it on to their city cousins.

Several days of watching hundreds of potential customers pass by my table without giving a second glance brought the realization my methods were obsolete. They carried laptops and played with smart-phones, getting their information off the internet. My information can be read on a Kindle device but I’ve never held one in my hands.

Some of these people have carried resentment for books since boring assignments during their school days.

So what began as a project to help save our way of life may be more of an obituary, a record of what caused us to leave.

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Where’s the Beef? It’s on Wheel of Fortune hanks to the dauntless efforts of a small band of beef-loving volunteers in South Dakota, lucky Wheel of Fortune contestants this winter may be heading home with the means to purchase $1,000 each in T-Bones, Sirloins and burgers.

Beginning January 9, $1,000 in Beef Bucks — pre-paid checks and or VISAŽ debit card for purchasing beef at restaurants or grocery stores — will appear as one of the gift tags on the colorful carnival wheel that contestants spin for prizes during the popular nationally syndicated program. Landing a spot for Beef Bucks on the infamous Wheel of Fortune was an effort in tenacity and dedication for the people who direct Beef Bucks, Inc., the non-profit South Dakota-based organization whose primary purpose is to promote beef and educate consumers on beef nutrition and cooking. “We were pretty excited when we received the call in August from the people at Wheel of Fortune,� said Bob Montross, beef producer, farmer and one of the

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eight Beef Bucks, Inc. directors. “They told us that our Beef Bucks had been selected as one of the gift tags contestants can win. We knew then that we had made the big time.�

Bob said the effort to get Beef Bucks accepted as one of the gift tags began almost two years ago as he watched an episode of the longest-running syndicated game show in U.S. television history. “I thought, ‘If we could get Beef Bucks as a prize on Wheel of Fortune, we could be promoting beef to millions across the country’,� recalls Bob. Several persuasive phone calls and e-mails later, Bob was supplying the Wheel of Fortune producers with both the official Beef Bucks logo to be placed on the large wheel and a commitment to provide $1,000 worth of the beef-buying currency for any contestant who lands on the Beef Bucks tag on up to three separate shows.

Getting Beef Bucks on Wheel of Fortune is certainly a coup for this organization that began in 1997 in the small South Dakota town of De Smet. However,

those who know the people involved with Beef Bucks, including Bob and his wife Nancy, are not surprised. “Bob and Nancy Montross are the ‘Ambassadors of Beef’,� said Tom Daschle, former U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader from South Dakota. “No one anywhere has ever done a better job of promoting beef. I am thrilled, but certainly not surprised, that Wheel of Fortune is now part of their efforts. I fully expect that some President, some day, will include Beef Bucks in their ‘State of the Union’ message, too.�

Senator Daschle said he has personally experienced Bob and Nancy’s dedicated efforts to promote the beef industry in many ways, “including attending events on their South Dakota farm, listening to them speak passionately about the industry they love, receiving telephone calls from early morning to late at night, and, of course, using Beef Bucks myself!� While serving as Senator, Daschle also submitted recipes that are included in two

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To date, Beef Bucks, Inc. has sold more than $1 million worth of its beef-only checks and reloadable VISA debit cards which are backed by two financial institutions. The Beef Bucks have been used, said Nancy, in more than 40 states. The organization also has a web site (www.beefbucks.org), a blog, a dedicated phone number (1-888640 MEAT), and a continuing desire to sell the product they love to raise. “We wanted to have a convenient and fun method of

purchasing beef at the retail level and something that could be given easily as gifts,� she explains. “Beef Bucks have done just that.�

And now, the idea that began among fellow beef producers and beef industry people in cowboy country will be broadcast across the country — and beyond. Bob says they’ve been told that the first show to be aired in January has already been taped, but they’ll have to wait until January 9 to see if any lucky player gets to take home the $1,000 in Beef Bucks during that first program.

Obama Administration Grabs for Broader Powers

by BILL HORN, Director of Federal Affairs, U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance

n a controversial new policy, the Obama Administration plans to broaden the reach of the already far reaching federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The new policy will make it easier to list more species of fish and wildlife as “endangered or threatened� and more broadly impose the ESA’s many restrictions.

Greater limitations on fishing and hunting, wildlife management, and public land access are a likely result.

The proposed policy, released recently by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), see www.gpo.gov/ fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-09/pdf/ 2011-31782.pdf, which newly interprets an old statutory term in the ESA: “a significant portion of its range,� or SPR for short.

Under the new interpretation, if a species is endangered or threatened in its SPR, it will be listed (and subject to the full range of ESA restrictions) in ALL areas where it is found even if not endangered or threatened in those other areas. The policy admits “we recognize this interpretation may lead to application of the protections of the Act in areas in which a species is not currently endangered or threatened with extinction, and in some circumstances may lead to the expenditure of resources without concomitant conservation benefits.�

Furthermore, those federal agencies admit that “application of the draft policy would result in the Services listing and protecting throughout their ranges species that previously we would not have listed, or would have listed in only portions of their ranges.�

Previously the SPR term had been regarded as a restriction on determining the existence of endangered or threatened species and the geographic scope of related ESA restrictions. In fact, when the original ESA was signed into law in 1973, that was precisely the meaning ascribed to SPR: “the term ‘significant portion of its range’ is used . . . to provide the Secretary with the authority to protect a [fish or wildlife] population [not the whole species] unique to some portion of the country.� The proposed Obama policy turns this

I

intent on its head and recasts SPR as the basis for expanding species listings and the on-theground effect of such listings.

What does this mean to anglers and hunters?

U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is worried that it gives the antiangling, anti-hunting animal rights lobby more ammunition to attack our community. For example, activists have been pushing hard to put sage grouse on the list of endangered or threatened species. If they can show that the grouse are “threatened� in one area (and it’s a “significant portion of its range�), then all of the grouse could be listed – and made off limits to hunting everywhere. Anglers could face similar restrictions – get a species listed because it is in trouble in one area, then it’s off-limits everywhere because “this interpretation may lead to application of the protections [and restrictions] of the Act in areas in which a species is not currently endangered or threatened.�

Besides these threats — plainly stated in the proposed policy — new rounds of litigation impacting a wide variety of fish and wildlife species are almost guaranteed. The policy opines that “Congressional intent regarding the SPR phrase is unclear� and admits that court rulings interpreting the phrase are also inconsistent. The USFWS and NMFS are plowing ahead to twist and broaden the meaning of this phrase which will spawn litigation, create more costs to taxpayers, and open more opportunities for activists, including activist judges, to call the shots on fish and wildlife management.

Broader federal power, more regulations, hostility to state management of fish and wildlife, and a determination to spend more federal money (even where public benefits aren’t clear) have been hallmarks of the Obama Administration. Reinterpreting the ESA as part of its continuing federal power grab is just par for the course.

USSA has carefully read 20 pages of Federal Register fine print and will be re-reading it again to see if there are any other buried regulatory “gotchas.�

Public comments can be filed by February 7, 2012, and you can be sure we will be registering our strong opposition.

January 15, 2012

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Page 7

Are we entering a ‘golden age’ for agriculture?

ELTON ROBINSON, southwestfarmpress.com

tsunami of new demand, particularly from China and India, should keep commodity prices and producer profitability strong over the next decade, according to Michael Dwyer, director of global policy analysis for the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, speaking at the USA Rice Outlook Conference, in Austin, Texas.

While Dwyer stopped short of saying that agriculture had entered a sort of “golden age” of profitability, he noted agriculture continues as one of the bright spots in the struggling global economy these days.

Dwyer says that one factor that could impact his fairly bullish outlook is a 25 percent chance that a financial catastrophe in Europe could trigger another global recession in the next couple of years.

“If that happens, the value of the euro will fall, the dollar will rise and commodity prices will fall. What we’re worried about for China is a hard landing. China’s economy is starting to slow down. One third of all new construction in Shanghai is empty.

This is the first sign of a real estate bubble.”

Other factors to keep an eye on the coming years, according to Dwyer.

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■ Demand driven by global economic growth and the rise of the middle class in developing countries: “The demand theme will affect every commodity, not just rice, and not just American rice. Studies show that when there is a dollar increase in income, consumers in China, India, Latin America and Southeast Asia will spend 20 cents to 40 cents of that increase on food. This has a tremendous impact on global food demand.

Prices have to rise as a rationing device.”

■ The value of the dollar: “When the dollar goes up, commodity prices go down. When the dollar goes down, commodity prices go up. Over the next 10 years, we expect the dollar to fall by another 14 percent. If that’s true, it’s going to continue to put upward pressure on commodity prices.”

■ Global biofuels production: Dwyer noted that if more land goes into feedstock for biofuels, “it means it’s coming out of land for other crops. All commodities are getting a price spike from what is happening in biofuel production. In other words, there is a substitution factor. But what if there is a breakthrough on a technology where suddenly the cost of producing biofuel drops to 50 cent to 75 cents. It would definitely impair demand for corn feedstock.”

■ Trade and trade liberalization: “Many countries are signing free trade agreements.

These agreements have effective-

ly lowered the levels of protection, so that production happens in the countries that have a comparative advantage. As a low cost producer in many crops, we will be the big winner in trade liberalization. World trade is up over 150 percent since 2000. Imports have gone up in almost every country, as have exports.”

■ Policy errors by government: Never underestimate the ability of government to make mistakes, Dwyer says. “Look what happened to rice prices back in 2008-09. There wasn’t really a rice shortage. That price spike should not have happened.

But it did because a number of rice countries started banning

rice exports to keep the price of rice low to their domestic constituency. All it did was shift those price pressures into the global market.”

The result was a crisis of confidence, according to Dwyer. “We have spent the last 30 or 40 years trying to convince the rest of the world that you can rely on a world trading system for the most basic human needs. When we had a crisis in 2008-09, countries basically adopted the law of the jungle, every man for himself.

It sent a powerful negative signal to importers around the world that maybe we can’t trust the global trading system. I’d love to tell you that it’s never going to

happen again, but we saw it last year with Russian wheat.”

■ Energy prices: “At the end of the day, if you really want to know where food prices are going to go, look at oil prices, because they’re going in the same direction. Those two sectors are linked at the hip.”

Dwyer noted that the Chinese middle class will also put pressure on energy prices. “As its middle class grows, they’ll purchase more cars, which will require more energy. The same factors that are affecting agriculture are affecting energy prices.”

■ Biotechnology development: “With demand building around the world, we have to do

one of two things, put a lot more land into production or increase yields. One way to get yields up is through biotechnology.

The problem is that acceptance of biotechnology is not universal.”

■ Land expansion: To satisfy demand for food and fiber, increased production will come from both yield advances and more land coming into production, Dwyer says. The latter won’t happen unless producers believe that high prices are in for the long run. “In our view that is exactly what is going to happen.

Much of the new growth will come from South America and the former Soviet Union.”

Livestock Market Digest

Page 8

Humane Society targeted by local-shelter campaign he Humane Society of the United States says it’s under attack by a new group that’s trying to starve it of funding by urging donors to send money to local animal shelters instead.

The society has long been a thorn in the side of some in agriculture with its undercover investigations and campaigns against animal cruelty. It claims the new group is the brainchild of conservative public relations executive Rick Berman, who spearheaded an earlier campaign against it, and that it’s supported by big agricultural interests.

Berman won’t say who’s funding the Humane Society for Shelter Pets.

The new group announced itself with full-page ads in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and New York Times. They show a sad-eyed dog and ask, “Please help shelter pets

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shelters. He said about 650 shelters have expressed support for his group.

“People think that when they give to national organizations like the Humane Society of the United States that the money is being returned to localities, but the reality is only about a penny of every dollar raised by the Humane Society of the United States is returned (to local shelters),” Douglas said.

Pacelle said that’s misleading because shelters aren’t his group’s main mission — it’s an animal welfare advocacy group.

But he also said the society has given $43 million in grants to other animal welfare groups over the past four years alone, helps rescue thousands of animals every year and provides training and services to local shelters and rescue groups. HSUS donors understand its role, he said.

It’s easy to confuse animal pro-

by donating locally, not to HSUS,” and direct people to HumaneForPets.com, where they can find links to local shelters and more information.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the HSUS, said he’s certain that agribusiness concerns are behind the campaign because he’s heard that Berman made the rounds of major trade groups seeking support for it.

The HSUS has long campaigned for more humane conditions for farm animals, opposing the use of cramped cages for pregnant sows and egg-laying hens and the slaughter of horses for food. It lobbies Congress and state legislatures and frequently launches ballot initiatives to achieve its goals.

Jeff Douglas, co-director of the Humane Society for Shelter Pets, said his organization was formed simply to educate people who want to donate money to

Senators: Cancel proposal to restrict youth farm work Traditional crop and livestock agriculture interests have said the number affected on Midwestern farms is far smaller, and they have protested the rules changes.

U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS)., and Ben Nelson (D-NE) said in the letter that proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act “fail to take into account the history and practices of American agriculture.”

The statement from the group said that “until recently, farms jointly owned and operated by multiple family members had discretion over the responsibilities they gave their children on the farm.

But the proposed rule change would do away with that freedom and extend the parental exemption to farms owned solely by a parent.”

Midwest farm groups say it is common for siblings to jointly own and operate farms and for extended family and neighbors to participate in agricultural production, and argue that the proposed rule would make it impossible for youths to work on the farms of relatives or neighbors.

wenty-eight U.S. senators have added their voices in protest to proposed regulations limiting youth farm work.

The senators have joined 70 U.S. House members asking U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to withdraw proposed new rules that would forbid youths under age 16 from operating tractors on operations other than their own family farms.

“The traditions and the work ethic associated with growing up on a family farm are worth preserving,” said the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Bob Stallman.

The rules have been proposed in part because of a finding by the National Safety Council that agriculture is the most dangerous occupation in the U.S. and that young people are particularly at risk. The department also could set conditions for outdoor work in summer heat, which could cover detasseling done in cornfields in July. The rules also would put more restrictions on work with livestock and chemicals.

Migrant farm interests have said as many as 400,000 migrant children are at risk in farm labor.

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January 15, 2012 tection groups and shelters because their names often contain the terms “humane society” or “society for the prevention of cruelty.” Usually, they’re independent.

Although Douglas said his group only wants to help shelters, the dispute highlights the deep rift between HSUS and those who contend its long-term goal is to reduce meat consumption.

Pacelle denies his group is anti-meat, saying it includes everyone from livestock producers to vegetarians. He said HSUS has a history of working

with industry, pointing to its efforts leading to last week’s announcement by Smithfield Foods Inc., the world’s largest pork producer, that it will stop confining pregnant sows in small metal crates by 2017.

Berman owns the Washington-based public relations firm Berman and Co., which runs the Center for Consumer Freedom. That group operates HumaneWatch, which has kept up a steady stream of attacks on HSUS since it launched early in 2010.

Court: No limit for livestock exempt well water

by SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press

he Washington state Supreme Court ruled in late December that state law does not limit the amount of groundwater that can be tapped for livestock from a permit-exempt well, upholding efforts by one of the Northwest’s largest cattle feedlots to water 30,000 head of cattle in rural eastern Washington.

The decision likely leaves it to lawmakers to determine if any changes need to be made to the state’s law governing permitexempt wells, whose uses include livestock watering and small lawns and gardens.

Easterday Ranches Inc. operates a 30,000-head feedlot near Pasco and built a second, 30,000-head feedlot north of Pasco near the rural Franklin County town of Eltopia.

Neighbors of the latter feedlot, collectively known as Five Corners Family Farmers, and environmental groups immediately filed suit to stop the feedlot from drawing groundwater for the animals. They contend that pumping water for that many cattle will deplete the aquifer in the arid region.

The feedlot is surrounded by dryland farms of wheat that are not irrigated. Most homesteads, some operating for generations, rely on deep underground wells as their only water supply.

Easterday Ranches Inc. contended that the state law that allows certain wells to be exempt from permit does not limit the amount of water to be pumped for livestock.

Last year, a Franklin County Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit, and the neighbors appealed. The Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling in a split 6-3 decision Thursday.

Cody Easterday said in a telephone interview that the ruling proves the company has done all the right things from the start.

“It’s unfortunate that we had to be dragged through this mess, but we had our facts straight from the beginning and this just affirms that we knew what we were doing,” he said.

A proliferation of dairies, chicken farms and feedlots are pumping groundwater with no concern for sustainability of the resource, said Scott Collin, treasurer of Five Cor-

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ners Family Farmers.

“In our area, we get 7-9 inches of precipitation if we’re lucky,” Collin said in a statement.

“Groundwater levels are dropping dramatically because of lack of recharge. Water for my family and other family farmers is at risk, even though we are the senior users.”

Under laws dating back to 1945, the state allows some wells to be drilled without a permit, as long as water usage is held to 5,000 gallons per day. They include livestock watering, small industrial uses, domestic use or noncommercial watering of a small lawn or garden.

But in 2005, Attorney General Rob McKenna issued an opinion that barred the state from limiting the amount of water that ranchers draw daily for their livestock.

Critics immediately argued it opens the state’s water resources to unlimited use by large dairies and feedlots.

Justices Charles Wiggins and Debra Stephens and Chief Justice Barbara Madsen dissented from the majority opinion Thursday, concluding that the 1945 Legislature never intended the law would allow Easterday to use between 450,000 and 600,000 gallons of water per day “with no inquiry whatsoever into whether existing rights may be impaired or the public welfare may be harmed.”

Rather, the Legislature enacted an “ambitious statute that is now being read to produce a result contrary to legislative intent,” Wiggins wrote.

Rachael Paschal Osborn, staff attorney for the Center for Environmental Law & Policy, said she was disappointed with the ruling.

“We’re going to be asking the Legislature to put some kind of limitation on the amount of water that can be used without a permit, because this is completely unworkable in terms of resource management,” she said.

The state Department of Ecology estimates the average feedlot cow consumes as much as 20 gallons of water per day. At 30,000 cows, that’s enough water to nearly fill an Olympic-size swimming pool each day.

Easterday said he would continue to track all water usage at the feedlot — not just livestock watering — and turn that into the state to help monitor the overall water supply.

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

January 15, 2012

Managed grazing in Tulare County helps Valley lizard

by MARK GROSSI, The Fresno Bee

hey’re an ecological odd couple: cows and bluntnosed leopard lizards. And their relationship just keeps getting better.

The pairing is playing out at Pixley National Wildlife Refuge in southern Tulare County, where heavy rainfall last winter made grasses grow thicker this year.

Normally that would make life miserable for the endangered lizard.

The swift little creature gets hung up in thick grasses and becomes an easy target for predators.

But ranchers buy grazing leases from federal officials and bring cows to the refuge. In short order, the hungry cows munch that grass problem away.

“These grasses are not native to the San Joaquin Valley,” said biology professor David Germano of the California State University, Bakersfield. “The little critters aren’t adapted to the grasses, so grazing is very important in years after big rainfall.”

Blunt-nosed leopard lizards are getting help in their natural habitat in the Pixley Wildlife Refuge by cows grazing off thick grasses, making it easier for the lizards to dodge predators. But some biologists and environmentalists say that cattle grazing damages streams and causes erosion.

It’s a successful but unlikely marriage of farming and nature.

Along with cities, road building and row crops, uncontrolled cattle grazing was among the reasons the lizard almost went extinct in the Valley.

But managed grazing — fencing cows in areas and moving them

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after they eat a lot of the grass — has become a tool of choice for helping endangered animals and even plants in the southern and western parts of the Valley.

The animals and plants evolved in a desert setting over thousands of years, and they need room to live.

Thick grasslands have developed over many decades since European settlers came to the Valley, bringing crops and vegetation with them, scientists say.

Scientists and land managers in the Valley have realized grazing cows would be a useful line of defense against grassland overgrowth.

“We may still have some of these plants and animals only

because the land is being grazed by cattle,” said Bryan Cypher, a Bakersfield-based ecologist who works for the Endangered Species Recovery Program at California State University, Stanislaus. “It’s the best option we have for dealing with nonnative grasses.”

But it’s not a popular approach with all biologists and environmentalists, who say that cattle grazing damages streams and causes erosion that harms endangered species. Such uncontrolled grazing has proven to be destructive in California meadows and wetlands.

There is a stigma attached to cattle grazing, especially in the pristine meadows of the Sierra Nevada.

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the Tipton kangaroo rat and the San Joaquin kit fox.

Grazing is much better than other options for thinning the grass, which would include burning, pesticides or mowing.

Burning would create too much smoke in the Valley’s polluted air.

Paying for pesticides or mowing makes little financial sense compared to grazing leases, which create a small income stream for the federal government.

The modest monthly fees are usually several dollars per animal.

Grazing also helps revive vegetation that had been declining as grassland conditions spread over the past century.

Said Stanley, “We’re finding that grazing helps the native bunch grasses, like iodine bush and coyote bush.”

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The Valley these days is hardly pristine, Cypher says. In the region’s arid southern and western areas, wetlands are limited.

Grazing does not create a lot of problems here if cows are properly managed, scientists say.

Grazing clearly works at the Pixley refuge, according to surveys done by the Endangered Species Recovery Program. The latest survey in August concluded the lizard population is “robust.”

Federal officials at Pixley refuge said they lease about 5,000 refuge acres to cattle ranchers between November and April each year.

Nick Stanley, deputy project leader, said the grazing creates conditions that help not only the blunt-nosed leopard lizard but also two other protected species,

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Livestock Market Digest

Page 10

Humane Castrator for Newborn Livestock Introduced he U.S. company known for inventing the premiere high-tension banding castration tool on the market is now introducing a lighter, sleeker version designed to bring the same humane, user-friendly technique to newborn calves, sheep and goats.

No-Bull Enterprises is unveiling the next generation of innovation in bloodless castration with the Callicrate ‘WEE’ Bander™, an instrument crafted from surgical quality, corrosion resistant stainless steel. It is designed to insure proper ligation with every application — the key to effective humane castration and a signature feature of the Callicrate Bander® which has been manufactured and distributed worldwide since 1991 with more than 50,000 units sold.

Achieving adequate tightness is the single most essential component in reducing stress during banding, according to animal

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welfare experts like Colorado State University animal science professor Temple Grandin.

“Previously, the only banding option available for the smaller animals was the green elastrator ring,” says inventor Mike Callicrate, owner of No Bull Enterprises, based in St. Francis, Kansas.

“We used the same simple technology, but combined it with a means of attaining proper tension, resulting in a complete ligation. In replacing the elastrator rings, which lack sufficient tension and are considered the most stressful method of castrating young animals, the ‘WEE’ Bander™ also provides an alternative to castration with a knife, which is probably the second most stressful method you can use.”

Studies of high tension banding have demonstrated that the complete negation of blood flow triggers a natural analgesic effect that blocks pain while minimizing swelling and related compli-

cations.

“While in New Zealand testing our high tension banding technology, I castrated a set of lambs with veterinarian John Southworth,” Callicrate says. “All of the lambs receiving the elastrator rings showed extreme discomfort,” Callicrate continues.

“They were rolling around bleating and kicking. The lambs with the high-tension Callicrate bands, both newborn and larger in size, were comfortable and back suckling their mothers right away. We checked on the lambs frequently. The lambs with elastrator rings were still showing signs of pain 24 hours later. The high-tension banded lambs were lying around comfortably and nursing, similar to what we would expect to see based on our results with cattle.”

Those findings are consistent with research at the University of California-Davis, which showed high tension banding generated

New Mexico Ag Expo celebrates 20 years in 2012 ack in 1993 a group of Portales farmers, businessmen and educators came together to create the first agricultural exposition in the state of New Mexico. Twenty years later the event is going strong and still the only event of its kind in the state.

The 2012 New Mexico Ag Expo, sponsored by Plateau Wireless and Dairy Farmers of America runs Feb. 21-22 at the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds in Portales.

The New Mexico Ag Expo was conceived by Barry Barkley, an employee of C&S Oil, Inc, in Portales, N.M. Barkley had participated in similar shows in Tulare, Calif. He approached Gary Wiley, a member of Roosevelt County Board of Economic Development and Dallan Sanders, who was serving as executive director at the time, about having an annual agriculture trade show in Portales.

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A steering committee was formed in 1992. Some of the members included: Sanders, Barkley, Wiley, Floyd McAlister, Chase Gentry, Randy McCasland, Bud Strong, Nancy Gentry and Winston Cox. The first show was held March 4-5, 1993, at the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds.

There were 75 exhibitors at the first two-day show. The Roosevelt County Chamber and the New Mexico State University Extension Service along with a strong working committee that meets year-round have been the backbone of the event.

The Expo experienced steady growth to start and as the dairy industry was built up in eastern New Mexico the event boomed.

In its 20th year the Expo will have the new Roosevelt County Events Center in which to house exhibitors. In addition, the Tumbleweed Classic Winter Stock Dog Trial will be held in con-

junction with the Expo.

“Technologies in agriculture have changed drastically over the last 20 years,” said 2012 Ag Expo Chairman Patrick Kircher who is also the Roosevelt County Extension Agent. “Our goal with the Ag Expo has always been to help our farmers and ranchers keep up with those changes both from a business standpoint and an education standpoint. I think we’ve done that pretty well.”

There is no admission to the grounds or any of the events during the two-day run of the Expo. The show will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 22. For applications or more information about vendor booths or attendance call 800/635-8036, email the Expo at chamber@portales.com or visit the all-new website at http://www. nmagexpo.com.

January 15, 2012 a more localized immune response with no discernable depression in appetite or rate of gain when used on young bulls.

“The stress of using an elastrator ring, which lacks sufficient tension to block pain, doesn’t meet the public’s heightened standards for humane animal treatment,” Callicrate says. By insuring proper application of the band, the Callicrate ‘WEE’ Bander™ measures up to the increasingly rigorous worldwide emphasis on animal care and well-being.

Not only is the Callicrate method for high-tension banding the most stress-free castration method for the animal, it’s also easiest for the person performing the operation.

With the Callicrate Bander®, band application is mechanically assisted to insure consistent results every time. The ‘WEE’ Bander™ is even lighter weight, just as fast, effective and bloodless, but requires no manual cutting or crimping of the rubber loop.

The process works like this: the operator loads a rubber loop

on a triangular nosepiece at the front of the applicator and places it around the testicles of the newborn calf, lamb or goat.

Once both testicles are within the loop, the operator simply releases a small thumb tab to secure the band firmly in place.

The process of tightening the band around the testicles to reach proper compression is very quick and simple and requires no cutting of the banding material.

“The bands are specially formulated to withstand and maintain the high tension needed for consistent results,” Callicrate says. “The correct formulation and curing of the rubber gives it the elasticity, strength and memory for fail-proof application.”

Like the Callicrate Bander®, the Callicrate ‘WEE’ Bander™ is made in the USA using the highest quality materials. It is essentially maintenance free. Five loops are included with each ‘WEE’ Bander. Additional loops can be purchased in bags of 25 or 100.

For more information, visit www.callicratebanders.com or call 1/800-858-5974.

Land O’Lakes continues sponsorship of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids and O’Lakes has generously continued its financial contribution to the non-profit organization Farm Safety 4 Just Kids. The farmer-owned cooperative is best known for its dairy-based food products.

“Land O’Lakes donation allows us to make a difference in the lives of rural children,” said Dave Schweitz, executive director of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids. “And it really exemplifies their commitment to the importance of teaching farm safety to our youth.”

Farm Safety 4 Just Kids was created in 1987 by Marilyn Adams after the death of her 11year-old son. The organization

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Riding Herd Spring and daylight savings time start, no estimated taxes are due and March Madness basketball is on TV. Oh, and I almost forgot, (like I usually do) it also marks the anniversary of when I married my wonderful wife. But the good times don’t last because March is followed by April when we are reminded that we’re really just working for the IRS. The only holidays of note are Easter, when we don’t get any presents, and Earth Day, when environmentalists wring their hands, whine, and act holier than thou.

After April the rest of the year is filled with months that only get better and better, building towards the crescendo known as December. In May we finally get to start keeping some of the money we make instead of sending it all to the crooks in Washington, D.C, the cold weather is finally behind us, the lambs and yearlings are sold, fishing season opens and there are no expensive holidays like Valentines Day, Christmas, wedding anniversary or birthdays that I have to remember. How much better can it get?

Plenty, for summer is about to start.

I suppose it’s a carryover from my childhood when school let out for the summer in June, but just the mere mention of the month brings a smile to my face. In July we celebrate the sec-

works to raise awareness about the health and safety hazards that are an inherent part of the rural environment in which children live, work, and play. Nine outreach coordinators and members from more than 120 chapters in the United States and Canada conduct safety and health programs within their communities. Thanks to the support of agri-business sponsors like Land O’Lakes, Farm Safety 4 Just Kids is able to provide their volunteers with up to date and pertinent safety education and demonstration resources.

For more information visit www.fs4jk.org.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

ond best holiday by getting to legally light incendiary devices. What more could you ask for in a holiday? And then in August there is our county fair when everyone overindulges in carnival food, over-the-hill country music singers, pig races and PRCA rodeo.

September is the month when kids go back to school so we are now safe to walk down the sidewalk without being run over by some juvenile delinquent on a skateboard. Autumn and bull sales begin and the stores decorate for Christmas. Then in October we get to eat bags of chocolate candy that were left over from Halloween. And in November we celebrate our nation’s heritage by pigging out on good food and watching the Dallas Cowboys play.

Finally December, my favorite month, rolls around when we celebrate two important birthdays, that of Jesus and followed 24 hours later by my own. Even though I always get combo Christmas/birthday presents you can’t wash the smile off my face all month because people are in a festive mood and the NFR is on television for ten whole days. The only thing that could possibly make December any better is if, instead of being followed by the 31 day depression known as January, it was instead succeeded by Leeuary of Pittstember.

January 15, 2012

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Ranch manager completing 40 years at NMSU’s Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center n today’s world, it is unusual for a person to spend 40 years in a single career, much less in a single position. New Mexico State University reports that only three employees have worked continuously for the Las Cruces campus for 40 years or more.

This month, a fourth individual, Calvin Bailey, will join their ranks.

When the ranch manager position came open at NMSU’s College Ranch in late 1971, Bailey, who had recently graduated from the university, knew the job was right for him. So did Bobby Rankin, an animal science faculty member and the recently appointed supervisor of the facility.

“The position was offered and I took it,” Bailey said recently.

“My wife and I moved out here in 1971, the day after Christmas.”

“Calvin was raised on a ranch and got a degree in animal science,” said Rankin, who retired in 2000 after a 39-year career that included 14 as department head of Animal and Range Sciences. “You know a lot of things that need to be done on a place, having grown up ranching, that you don’t have to learn or ask somebody else about, so it worked out wonderfully in Calvin’s case.”

Rankin was quick to give credit to a second member of the Bailey team. “There was an extra bonus to hiring Calvin Bailey in that job, because his new wife, Debbie, came with him,” he said.

Part of that had to do with the delicious meals she would fix for the ranch crew.

“It was easy to recruit college students and graduate students to come out and help with the branding and the calving and some with fencing simply because of Debbie. So I give her a lot of credit for Calvin’s success in managing the ranch wonderfully for this length of time.

We couldn’t have done better on that selection.”

The facility, now called the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center, has been owned and operated by NMSU since 1927. The university assumed ownership of the 60,000-acre property through an act of Congress mandating that it be maintained it in a way that benefits the people of New Mexico. The property is located north of Las Cruces. According to Bailey, it includes about half of the Doña Ana Mountains, and stretches east-west from the Jornada Experimental Range to the Rio Grande.

When the Baileys moved into the ranch house 40 years ago, Gerald Thomas was NMSU’s president; nine other presidents have served since then. There have been five deans of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences,

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and five heads of the Department of Animal and Range Sciences, the unit under whose auspices the ranch operates.

Calvin and Debbie raised two children on the ranch, Scott and Rebecca. Now in their 30s, both have advanced degrees and are engaged in successful careers.

Debbie, who was a stay-at-home mom while the children were young, works as a nutritionist for the New Mexico Department of Health.

Amid the changes, some things have remained constant.

As with any farm or ranch, the work never ends. “My duties as foreman out here include the typical management of the ranch from day to day, anywhere from building fence to working on corrals and tending to livestock — cattle mainly,” Bailey said.

As the facility’s name suggests, research is a big part of what happens at the CDRRC. Significant work has been done over the years on developing cattle that are more suited to the harsh Southwest environment, as well as on understanding the Chihuahuan Desert rangeland, how to maintain it and how it is impacted by livestock. Bailey said around 130 cows are on the ranch now. Most are Brangus, a heat-tolerant breed that is fiveeighths Angus and three-eighths Brahman.

“Calvin has been a part of almost every animal or range science paper that’s been written at the College Ranch,” said Milt Thomas, professor of animal and range sciences who specializes in cattle breeding and genetics.

Thomas has worked with Bailey since arriving at NMSU in 1997.

He stressed how much he benefitted, from his earliest time at the ranch, from Bailey’s knowledge of the area, ranching and this ranch in particular. His comprehensive knowledge of the cattle at the ranch, their lineage as well as their individual behaviors, have been invaluable. Thomas said Bailey’s observations have supplied a major portion of the data in various scientific investigations.

Thomas also applauded how Bailey has guided the many students and others who have worked at the ranch over the years. “Calvin has trained a great number of people at the college ranch,” he said.

Bailey received a President’s Star Performance Award from NMSU President Jay Gogue in 2002. Thomas said everyone who wrote support letters for that award emphasized how much they had learned from him.

“He just has that uncanny ability to teach,” Thomas said.

“Not only did he train the students, I think most of the faculty around here would agree that he mentored a lot of us, too.”

Bailey has lots of stories of his time at the ranch. Key characters include a cantankerous horse

one of his hired hands kept getting thrown off of that was later reassigned to a brood mare role, and an ornery Charolais bull that flipped Rankin over a corral fence during a weaning operation.

The faculty members who have worked with Bailey have stories, too.

Current CDRRC director Derek Bailey (no relation) calls Calvin “an absolute guru” on cattle and on the terrain at the ranch. He marvels at Calvin’s

Page 11

clairvoyance in terms of knowing where to find specific cattle in some of the huge pasture areas.

Derek also appreciates how “calm and cool and resourceful” Calvin is in emergency situations. He told about an incident where his horse spooked in a trailer and all of the horses ended up in a tangle on the floor.

This was a very dangerous situation for the horses, and certainly for anyone trying to get the horses back up, but Calvin jumped right in and started separating them. Between the two Baileys, the situation was resolved without injury to horses or people.

Calvin Bailey says he has been working extra hard recent-

ly. Last week’s snowstorm saw single-digit temperatures and extra vigilance was necessary to ensure the livestock stayed safe and healthy. In particular, Bailey needed to make sure there was accessible water in all of the stock tanks. He repeatedly needed to knock holes through the ice so the cattle and horses could drink. Checking all of the tanks in the various pastures entails more than 50 miles of driving.

Bailey wasn’t complaining, however — the scenery on the ranch was more beautiful than ever, with snow covering everything from the desert vegetation in the foreground to the mountains in the distance.

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Livestock Market Digest

Page 12

‘Ninja Cow’ Had an Excuse for Udderly Unbovine Behavior But the People of Plattsmouth, Nebraska Have Milked the Story for All It’s Worth

by JOE BARRETT, The Wall Street Journal

evin Moon heard a strange noise heading his way one October night.

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It took a team of cowboys to capture the elusive Ninja Cow of Plattsmouth, Neb. She fell off a cattle truck three months ago, and now she’s a local celebrity.

WSJ’s Joe Barrett reports.

“It sounded like hoofs on the pavement, and by the time I could focus on it, all I could see was the rear end of whatever it was,” says Mr. Moon, a 51-yearold computer programmer. He thought it was probably a horse,

but soon there was physical evidence to the contrary: cow pies, making a virtual pasture of his tiny yard.

For months, this city of 6,500, where the Platte River spills into the Missouri just south of Omaha, was abuzz with sightings of the mysterious black beast. She turned up in backyards, wandered occasionally down Main Street and seemed particularly fond of a tennis court — all the while eluding increasingly crafty schemes to capture her.

Officials believe she had escaped from a cattle truck in front of City Hall on Sept. 15.

They tried to lure the cow with feed, but she wouldn’t come.

They tried to trap her in a fence by the water tower, but she was scared off. Some residents — hoping to turn her into hamburger — tried nabbing her with biscuits and a rope, but she

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didn’t fall for that, either.

A frustrated police officer, after a series of late-night calls, named her the Ninja Cow, and an urban legend was born. Facebook groups sprang up to follow her. School kids put up posters to save her. The Omaha WorldHerald, the state’s biggest newspaper, milked the story, chronicling her adventures in half a dozen articles. An editorial cartoon showed a child asking Santa for a Ninja Cow action figure.

Officials are talking about holding a Ninja Cow Day next year in the recently spruced up downtown.

Terry Grell, who led the team of cowboys that captured the socalled Ninja Cow in Plattsmouth, Neb., shows off his roping skills.

Still, for months, no one could catch her, despite worries that she’d be hit by a car — to the detriment of both her and it.

Conflicts between homeowners and wild animals are common. But farm animals run amok can cause their own problems.

Feral pigs, for instance, have become a real hazard. Cows that wander off are usually docile enough to be captured easily.

But just this month, officials in Milford, Conn., after several failed attempts, tranquilized a cow named Wanda that had been living since July in a 15-acre city nature preserve, says Rick George, director of the city’s animal-control department.

In Plattsmouth, complaints about the cow came in to the police department almost nightly, but officials figured there was little they could do but chase her

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away.

Then Mr. Moon’s girlfriend, Cindy Claassen, a 51-year-old massage therapist, took her concerns to a city council meeting last month. Mr. Moon had recently hit a deer that did $1,800 in damage to his car.

“That was a small deer, and this thing is like 1,500 pounds,” she says.

Police Chief Steve Rathman didn’t want to shoot at the cow because somebody might get hurt. “This isn’t something they teach at the police academy,” he said over lunch at the Country Bar and Grill, where the waitresses had been joking about offering a Ninja Burger Special.

There was no shortage of people willing to help. Terry Grell, a 55-year-old contractor, was one of those who called in.

“If you’re interested in getting this cow caught, you can give me a call,” said Mr. Grell, who says he learned roping years ago from an old cowboy he met while working at a feed lot. “But that answering machine was probably full of people that thought they could catch it.”

Animal Control Officer Sue Baker ended up turning to cattle ranchers John and Jessica Vallery.

One night late last month, Ms. Baker spotted the cow near the tennis court she had been frequenting. Mr. Vallery rushed over and began walking the cow toward the gate. Just then, a passing driver jumped out of his car to help. “He came running toward the cow, screaming and waving his arms,” Ms. Baker says.

The cow vanished into the woods yet again. Volunteer firefighters used an infrared camera but couldn’t find her.

The next day, the Vallerys brought Tasha, a show cow from their farm, to the tennis court in hopes of luring Ninja Cow inside. Ms. Baker played cow sounds on her laptop, getting Tasha to low. Eventually, Ninja Cow responded, but she steered clear of the trap.

That weekend, there were no sightings of Ninja Cow. “That was very unusual for her,” Ms. Baker says. She worried that

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January 15, 2012 someone had shot or captured the animal for money. At a slaughterhouse, she could have fetched more than $1,000.

But then on Monday morning, a deputy radioed Ms. Baker to say he’d found the cow — and her new calf.

That night, Ms. Baker and the Vallerys caught the calf and lured Ninja Cow into a temporary pen they had set up in a clearing behind a trailer court.

When the Vellerys shut the gate, “she freaked out,” Ms. Baker says. The cow knocked over two sections of the pen, nearly toppling Ms. Vallery and dragging parts of it 12 feet away.

The next day, Chief Rathman issued orders to shoot the cow if she seemed likely to harm anyone. “I didn’t take the action lightly,” he says.

Within an hour, Ms. Baker had one last hope.

With the help of a veterinarian, she got in touch with Mr. Grell and two of his buddies.

“They are the John Waynes of our time,” she says. “Real oldschool cowboys.”

Mr. Grell and his friends set off the next morning, two on horseback and one on foot. “It isn’t like rodeo team roping, where the faster you go the better it is,” Mr. Grell says. “The slower and easier you go, the faster it is.”

The team followed Ninja Cow for miles over rough terrain, across snow and ice. Each time they came to a clearing where they might rope her, she would scamper back into trees.

“I wouldn’t say she was wild, but she was really smart,” says Neil Johnson, 52, who joined Mr. Grell on his trusty horse Booger.

Ultimately, Mr. Grell chased the cow down a hill. Mr. Johnson was waiting at the bottom to rope her.

Now, Ninja Cow, a fairly young Black Angus, is starting to calm down in Mr. Grell’s small pasture. Unfortunately, Ninja Cow’s calf was sold before he caught the mother.

“The first few days she was throwing herself at the fence,” Mr. Grell says. “Now, she eats right out of my hand.”

Animal welfare group targets United Nations

by MICHAEL FIELDING, www.meatingplace.com

he World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has launched a global campaign to raise public awareness of what it has identified as better animal welfare, environmental sustainability and the economy.

The group is urging people to sign a letter to place the topic of animal welfare on the agenda at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development next June.

Rio+20, occurring 20 years after the precedent-setting

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1992 “Earth Summit,” will focus on mobilizing participation by businesses and catalyzing a global transition to a “green economy.” WSPA is lobbying the UN and national governments for the inclusion of animal welfare in the conference negotiations.

At each preparatory session of the UNCSD in the run-up to Rio+20, WSPA plans to deliver evidence that “high-welfare farming is a viable, environmentally friendly alternative to intensive production methods,” according to a statement released by the group.

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

January 15, 2012

Page 13

Forest Owners Applaud Supreme Gov. takes on Humane Society Court on Forest Roads Order da,” Heineman told reporters in THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Court moves closer toward review of Ninth Circuit Reversal of 35-Year Clean Water Precedent avid P. Tenny, President and CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) released the following statement, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order asking the Solicitor General for the views of the federal government on two petitions challenging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that forest roads are “point sources” requiring an industrial discharge permit under the Clean Water Act (CWA): “We applaud the Supreme Court for scrutinizing the Ninth Circuit’s decision to disregard EPA’s 35 years of success regulating forest management as a nonpoint source under Clean Water Act. The Court is hearing not only the voice of forest owners and managers across the country but also Attorneys General from 26 states who joined a brief supporting EPA’s historic approach. The policy and legal importance of this case is clear.

“For nearly four decades, the EPA has cooperated with the states under established Clean Water Act authority to build a network of Best Management Practices providing flexible and effective water quality protection during forestry operations. This has been a Clean Water Act success story. The Ninth Circuit’s decision threatens to upend this

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progress by replacing an efficient and flexible system that promotes clean water with a costly and inflexible permit requirement that invites additional litigation. In the end the Ninth Circuit’s decision hurts forest owners and forests alike.

“While this is a significant first step, there is no guarantee that the Supreme Court will hear the case and reverse the Ninth Circuit Court’s overstep. It does, however, provide the Administration and the Solicitor General an opportunity to submit to the Supreme Court a clear and unambiguous defense of EPA’s longstanding and legally appropriate approach to regulating forest roads as nonpoint sources.”

NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental benefits of privatelyowned forests at the national level.

NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. To see the full economic impact of America’s working forests, visit www.nafoalliance.org/economicimpact-report.

SOURCE National Alliance of Forest Owners

t DigesClassifieds

ebraska Governor Dave Heineman criticized a well-known animal advocacy group recently, saying he would fight any efforts by its lobbyists to push legislation that could hinder Nebraska’s agricultural industry.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) opened an office in Omaha last year. A group spokesman has said the new office and state issues director in Nebraska were intended to help small farmers gain access to markets traditionally dominated by larger operations.

But Heineman, a Republican, said he did not trust the group’s intentions.

“I don’t think there’s any question the Humane Society of the United States is interested in a very left-leaning political agen-

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a conference call.

He added: “If they want to come to Nebraska, we’re going to fight them every step of the way.”

Some rural lawmakers and agriculture groups have voiced concern that the Humane Society of the United States may try to push for stricter livestock regulations or a statewide animalwelfare ballot initiative. The group has introduced 44 ballot issues nationwide since 1990, including a successful effort in Missouri last year to place limits on puppy mills.

HSUS met with the Nebraska Farmers Union over the weekend to discuss their agricultural interests.

Joe Maxwell, the Humane Society’s rural development and outreach director, said group leaders would be happy to meet with Heineman to discuss their agen-

Ready, Set, Trap rapping continues to be a hot topic in some regions, and a target for anti-trapping organizations everywhere. The robust fur markets in some regions of the country today are proof that trapping is here to stay for a long, long time. Trapping is definitely an important hobby, outdoors pursuit, and vital tool for wildlife managers.

If you need more reason to get outdoors, or want to improve the odds of survival for some popular and huntable animal species like rabbits, waterfowl, or wild turkeys, then take up trapping.

Traps can also help take and control problem species, like beavers, that inflict millions of dol-

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da. Maxwell said the group has 11 million members nationwide, including 51,000 in Nebraska.

“We’re uncertain what his base for distrust is,” said Maxwell, a pig farmer and former Democratic lieutenant governor in Missouri. “We’re working for the good of independent farmers.”

Heineman made the comments in response to a question about a $100,000 state grant that Attorney General Jon Bruning awarded to a new farming coalition, We Support Agriculture. The coalition was created to highlight the positive aspects of farming.

Some Democratic lawmakers have said they have no problems with the group, but questioned whether it was appropriate to award state money from an environmental fund. The money comes from settlements with state regulators over environmental violations.

U.S. SPORTSMEN’S ALLIANCE lars of damage to property or crops each year.

These damages range from ruined timber, to flooded crops, to holes dug in dikes and dams.

Then there’s the growing problem of missing pets — with coyotes being the culprits.

For example, one damage control specialist in Illinois recently reported that he had requests to trap and check the stomach contents of coyotes that were thought to have eaten pet dogs and prized cats in one region. In one case a coyote apparently ate a cat that was wearing a custom diamond encrusted collar.

There’s also the “smelly” issue of skunks. continued on page fourteen

To place your Digest Classified ad here, contact MICHAEL WRIGHT at michael@aaalivestock.com or by phone at 505/243-9515, ext. 30

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Equipment POWDER RIVER LIVESTOCK EQUIPMENT. Best prices with delivery available. CONLIN SUPPLY CO. INC., Oakdale, CA. 209/847-8977.

NEW HOLLAND pull type bale wagons: 1033, 104 bales, $5,100; 1034, 104 bales, unloads both ways, $4,400; 1044, 120 bales, $3,700; 1063, 160 bales, $10,800; 1010, 56 bales, $1,200. Also have self propelled wagons. Delivery available. 785/ 336-6103, www.roederimp.com.

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RED ANGUS

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200+ Angus Bulls Sell February 11, 2012 at the Ranch NE of Estelline, TX Ranch-Raised ANGUS Bulls for Ranchers Since 1955

M.L. Bradley 806/888-1062 Fax: 806/888-1010 • Cell: 940/585-6471

R.L. Robbs 520/384-3654 4995 Arzberger Rd. Willcox, Arizona 85643

A SOURCE FOR PROVEN SUPERIOR RED ANGUS GENETICS 14298 N. Atkins Rd., Lodi, CA 95240

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Livestock Market Digest

Page 14

Arizona’s Game & Fish Commission affirms wolf conservation support, objects to new wolf releases until planning occurs t their December 2011 meeting, the Arizona Game & Fish Commission (Commission) voted 3-1 to continue both its financial and infrastructure support of Mexican wolf conservation in the state, but voted not to support the release of any new wolves until the federal government completes certain critical planning measures. Previously, all initial releases of captive Mexican wolves in the U.S. have occurred in Arizona with the concurrence and support of the Game and Fish Department.

Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southwest region, appeared before the Commission to discuss Mexican wolf conservation and answer the Commission’s questions.

After more than an hour of hearing public comments, Commission Chairman Robbie Woodhouse invited retired Game & Fish Endangered Species Coordinator Terry Johnson to provide input based on Johnson’s 28-year career and extensive involvement in Arizona’s wolf program from the beginning.

“After hearing from a wide range of interested

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constituents, I invited Mr. Johnson to provide his opinion after being a part of the Mexican wolf reintroduction program in Arizona since its inception,” says Chairman Woodhouse. “At the conclusion of the agenda item, two things were certain: passion for wolves on all sides runs very deep, and the Game & Fish Commission will continue to strongly support Mexican wolf conservation in the state, including by providing financial resources.”

The Mexican wolf reintroduction program has been operating on a recovery plan from 1982. Two efforts to revise the recovery plan have been attempted in the past, and currently a new team is being convened to prepare a new recovery plan.

Planning measures requested by the Commission include completion of a Mexican wolf recovery plan, environmental impact statement and the 10(j) nonessential population rule for endangered species.

The last initial release of wolves took place in 2008. Since the wolf reintroduction effort began in 1998, 19 initial releases have taken place with Game & Fish’s support (not including translocation of wolves).

Arizona youth passionately tell the “Beef” story

January 15, 2012 THE LIVESTOCK MARKET DIGEST

Real Estate GUIDE TO PLACE YOUR REAL ESTATE LISTINGS HERE, call MICHAEL WRIGHT at 505/243-9515, ext. 30, or email michael@aaalivestock.com Missouri Land Sales

W-R RANCH 29,767 ACRES 20 MILES NORTHEAST OF ROSWELL, N.M.

FFA STUDENTS FROM ACROSS THE STATE COMPETE IN BEEF PROMOTION PREPARED SPEECH CONTEST igh School Senior Megan Skiles from Bowie, Arizona won top honors at the inaugural Beef Promotion Prepared Speech Contest sponsored in part by the Beef Checkoff and American National CattleWomen, Inc. The competition was hosted at the Arizona MidWinter FFA Career Development Event, December 2, 2012 at the Arizona State University Polytechnic campus in Mesa.

High School students from across the state composed and delivered five to seven minute speeches centered on current beef industry issues. Topics ranged from marketing beef in a technical world to implementing science-based research to build a strong and profitable beef cattle herd to feed a growing world.

Contestants were scored on the content and composition of their speech manuscripts, voice, stage presence and power of expression. They were also judged on

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Ready, Set, Trap continued from page thirteen

Anyone who has ever had a dog sprayed by a skunk wants trapping of the black and white creatures to begin immediately! It is also a fact that trapping helps prevent rabies and other threats to public health and safety brought on by a sharp rise in furbearer populations.

These include diseases spread by — or contracted by — foxes and raccoons. There are far more of these nuisance critters out in the fields and forests than the average citizen realizes. All you need to do to get a fractional estimate of the local population is look

their ability to accurately answer questions related to their content and the overall effect of their beef messages.

Skiles, the daughter of Michael and Kristin Skiles receives a $1,000 cash prize and a trip to the annual cattle industry convention to be held in Nashville the first week in February. At this event the San Simon high school student will deliver her speech to convention attendees. When asked why she entered the Beef Promotion speaking contest Skiles said: “I entered this contest because I’ve competed in numerous public speaking contests before and really enjoy it. I also loved being able to speak and promote a subject I have a passion for.”

Second place honors and a $500 cash prize went to Tori Summey, from Cave Creek, Ariz. Summey attends Paradise Valley high school and is the daughter of Dutch and Sandy

on and along the highways for road kill animals. You’ll probably see lots of raccoons, some foxes and a few coyotes, and in some places beavers, and the occasional bobcat. Raccoons have become very common in some areas and have caused homeowner problems by raiding bird feeders, trash cans, and pet food dishes.

The good news is that trapping supplies today are generally inexpensive and so are many resident trapping licenses. Fur prices, however, remain generally low partly because of the weak economy. With high gas prices on top of those, there may be critters and opportunities for you and for your traps.

Summey. Third place honors and a $250 cash prize went to Alicia Smith, from Safford, Arizona.

Smith attends Safford high school and is the daughter of Royce and Jackie Smith. Fourth place honors and a $125 cash prize went to Brooke Griggeory, from Gilbert, Arizona. Griggeory attends Campo Verde high school and is the daughter of Charlotte and Bill Hegel, and Wayne Griggeory.

See all my listings at:

paulmcgilliard.murney.com ■ Horse Training / Boarding Facility: New, state-of-the-art, 220x60 horse facility with 20 stalls, back to back, offset with bull pen at end of PAUL McGILLIARD the barn. Two large pipe outside paddocks. 3-4 BR, 3 BA, 2,000+ sq. ft.

Cell: 417/839-5096 home. All on 18+ acres. Just 5 miles north of I-44 Bois D’Arc exit. MLS #1017424. Call Paul for your private showing.

1-800/743-0336 ■ 838± Acre Ranch: Never been offered for sale before. Exceptional, MURNEY ASSOC., REALTORS highly improved, all continuous ranch, 1/2 mile off Hwy. 13 at Bollvar.

SPRINGFIELD, MO 65804 Lovely ranch home and mobile home and guest entertainment house. Big shop, hay barn and possible 8-stall horse barn. 250/cow/calf graze the 700 acre m/l lush pastures serviced by 3.5 miles of water lines and 23 frost-free waterers. 3+ acres m/l spring-fed stocked lake. This ranch has it all.

MLS#1109960 ■ 483 Ac., Hunter Mania: Nature at her best. Don’t miss out on this one. Live water (two creeks). 70+ acres open in bottom hayfields and upland grazing. Lots of timber (marketable and young) for the best hunting and fishing (Table Rock, Taney Como and Bull Shoals Lake) Really cute 3-bd., 1-ba stone home. Secluded yes, but easy access to Forsyth-Branson, Ozark and Springfield. Property joins Nat’l. Forest. MLS#908571

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5,315 Deeded Acres 23,525 State Lease Acres 927 BLM Acres 500 Animal Units Year Long

CHARLES BENNETT

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Good water; windmill and submergible tanks Good fences; 4-strand barbwire

Call for Price

United Country / Vista Nueva, Inc. 575/356-5616 • www.vista-nueva.com

Southwest New Mexico Farms and Ranches MAHONEY PARK: Just 10 miles southeast of Deming, N.M. The property consists of approx. 800 acres Deeded, 560 acres State Lease, and 900 acres BLM. This historic property is located high up in the Florida Mountains and features a park like setting, covered in deep grasses with plentiful oak and juniper covered canyons. The cattle allotment would be approx. 30 head (AUYL). Wildlife includes deer, ibex, javalina, quail and dove. This rare jewel would make a great little ranch with views and a home site second to none. Price reduced to $550,000.

SAN JUAN RANCH: Located 15 miles south of Deming, N.M. east of Highway 11 (Columbus Highway) on CR-11. Approximately 24,064 acres consisting of approximately 2684 acres Deeded, 3240 State Lease, 13,460 BLM, and 4,680 uncontrolled. The cattle allotment would be approx. 183 head (AUYL). There are 6 solar powered stock wells with metal storage tanks and approximately 6-1/2 miles pipeline. The ranch has a very diverse landscape consisting of high mountain peaks, deep juniper & oak covered canyons, mountain foothills and desert grasslands. There is plentiful wildlife including deer, ibex, javalina, quail and dove. A truly great buy! Price reduced to $550,000.

26.47-ACRE FARM for sale off Shalem Colony Road. Borders the Rio Grande river. 13.55 acres EBID surface water rights / 26 acres primary & supplemental ground water rights. Priced at $380,000 177 ACRE FARM BETWEEN LAS CRUCES N.M AND EL PASO TEXAS: Hwy. 28 frontage with 132 acres irrigated, 45 acres sandhills, full EBID (surface water) plus a supplemental irrigation well, cement ditches and large equipment warehouse. Priced at $1,629,000.

UNDER CONTRACT

50.8-ACRE FARM: Located on Afton Road south of La Mesa, N.M. Paved road frontage, full EBID (surface water) plus a supplemental irrigation well with cement ditches. Priced at $12,000/acre.

63.59 ACRE FARM: - Borders the Rio Grande river. 49.44 acres of EBID irrigation and 63.5 acres of ground water (18" well) and cement ditches. From La Mesa, N.M. go south on Hwy 28, then east on Dawson Road to the end. Priced at $12,000/acre - $763,080.

UNDER CONTRACT

“If you are interested in farm land in Doña Ana County or ranches in Southwest New Mexico, give me a call.”

DAN DELANEY R E A L E S TAT E , L L C

318 W. Amador Ave., Las Cruces, N.M. 88005 (O) 575/647-5041 • (C) 575/644-0776 nmlandman@zianet.com

www.zianet.com/nmlandman

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

January 15, 2012

AABP Calls for Applications for the 3rd Annual AgriLabs Grants to a Beef and a Dairy Veterinarian n collaboration with the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), AgriLabs is offering an award to two veterinarians — one beef and one dairy — to encourage and fund recent graduates in their post-graduate continuing education efforts. Named as a tribute to Bruce Wren, D.V.M., each award will provide $5,000 for professional-development training so these practitioners may better serve their producerclients. Completed applications are due July 15, 2012, and the presentations will be made at the annual AABP Awards Banquet.

“The gap between the number of veterinarians available to serve dairy and beef producers, and the actual need is increasing at an alarming rate,” says Steve Schram, AgriLabs President and CEO. “The grants will encourage these veterinarians to remain in large animal medicine by providing a significant resource for selfdirected professional development.”

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Developing the Innovative Award “We found that after graduation, there really weren’t many industry-sponsored awards or professional-development opportunities for veterinarians until

they had spent many years in practice,” says Dr. M. Gatz Riddell, AABP executive vice president and member of that planning committee. “Yet, the years after graduation are a key time when veterinarians not only gain experience, but also are likely to decide whether to continue in herd-side practice or move into other career paths. The AgriLabs $5,000 awards will be vital in helping veterinarians gain more experience in individual animal and herd production medicine, helping them bring value to their producer-clients for years to come.”

Create Your Award The grant process allows applicants to determine how best they want to use the $5,000 grant from AgriLabs and judging will be based on three primary criteria: 1) The applicants’ professional-development plan, which describes the skills/knowledge they would like to improve to become a more valuable resource for their producer-clients.

2) How the $5,000 will be utilized to fulfill the professionaldevelopment plan.

3) Letters of reference from three individuals (including at least one producer and one vet-

erinarian) who have first-hand knowledge of the applicant’s practice experience and educational interest.

“What is especially exciting about the AgriLabs Dr. Wren awards are the variety of the plans, programs and educational goals that applicants have submitted as a means of improving their skills and becoming more effective in bovine medicine," says Riddell. “The professional development plans funded by the $5,000 grants from AgriLabs have included participation in technical and business-oriented short courses, advanced educational training, and mentoring opportunities with an exemplary veterinarian. While each applicant's background, experience and future direction will differ, the AgriLabs awards will benefit participating veterinarians, their producers and the industry at large.”

To Apply A full description of AgriLabs Dr. Bruce Wren Continuing Education Awards and a link to the application forms are available at www.AgriLabs.com/ scholarships. The application may be completed online and all materials postmarked on or before July 15, 2012.

www.baxterblack.com

Taking the Other Side

Baxter BLACK

ike many of you, I receive all kinds of news stories, jokes, blogs, etc. Last week three items came my way that stimulated a predictable knee-jerk response. ‘Why?’ I asked myself, ‘can’t I be more generous and examine the opposite side of view.’ So I will.

The first item was, “In France, eating animals becomes legal obligation.” The government is decreeing to school, colleges, nursing homes, children’s hospitals and prisons that they must serve meat as their main source of protein. Taking the side of Verona the Vegan I would say, “Meat is bad for you. Even a sip of chicken broth can upset the system of the strongest vegan’s digestive tract! To walk by a Pizza Hut can give some of us a rash. A true vegan couldn’t even catch a whiff of tuna salad! We’d all be forced to wear Asian Flu masks!

“At a table where everyone is ordering brisket and ribs our vegan minority representative would look around and quietly say, ‘Oh . . . I guess I’ll have the cole slaw.’ It is imperative that we not lose the ‘martyred’ image. Think of the sacrifice it takes to live on a diet of protein from soybeans, carbs from brownies, and vitamin B from organic chemicals.

“We suffer on your behalf and proselytize like recovering smokers! France must be stopped!”

Item #2 said, “Humane Society of the U.S. still stiffing nation’s Pet Shelters! The Humanewatch.org shows how little the HSUS gives to Pet Shelters across the country!” In response, as their spokesman I might say, “Of course we don’t donate much to Pet Shelters! Where would you get such an outrageous idea! Probably those pictures of yearning and abused puppies you see in our commercials. Obvi-

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Calendar of

EVENTS

24 – Hubbell Ranch Annual Bull Sale, Belen, NM 25 – 21st Annual Roswell Brangus Sale, Roswell, NM

March 2012

January 2012 5-22 – National Western Stock Show, Denver, CO 13-Feb. 4 – Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, Ft. Worth, TX 17-18 – Southwest Beef Symposium, Roswell NM 20 – Manford F1 Sale, Willcox, AZ 25-28 – American Sheep Industry Assn. Annual Meeting, Scottsdale, AZ 28 – Jauer Dependable Genetics 35th Annual Bred Heifer & Bull Sale, Hinton, IA

3 – N.M. Angus & Hereford Association Sale, Roswell, NM 6 – Wedel Red Angus Bull & Heifer Sale, Leoti, KS 10 – Porter Angus Ranch Annual Bull & Heifer Sale, Mule Creek, NM 16 – Tucumcari Bull Test, Tucumcari, NM 17 – Hale Angus Farms Bull & Female Sale, Canyon, TX 17 – Four States Ag Expo All Breeds Bull & Heifer Sale, Cortez, CO 19 – Black Angus “Ready for Work” Bull Sale, Belen, NM 27 – Manzano Angus Ranches Bull Sale, Estancia, NM

April 2012 February 2012 1-4 – NCBA Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN 11 – Bradley 3 Ranch Bull Sale, Memphis, TX 11 – Best in the West Brangus Bull & Commercial Heifer Replacement Sale, Marana, AZ 24 – Pot of Gold Bull Sale, Olathe, CO

10 – Three Mile Hill Ranch Yearling Angus Bull Sale, Animas, NM 21 – 30th Annual NMS Cattle & Horse Sale, Las Cruces, NM 14 – Texas Shorthorn Association State Sale, Eastland, TX To post your events in the calendar, please email date and location to caren@aaalivestock.com. Deadline is the 15th of the month previous, mailing date is the 8th of the month.

35th Annual

Angus Bred Female and Bull Sale January 28, 2012 • 12:30pm At the Ranch, Hinton, IA

S E N S E

ously it’s to attract attention, but our lawyers say it would be hard to prove deceptive advertising. The object, of course, is money. Speaking of which, there is not enough in our budget to support pet shelters. By gosh, it takes more than a third of your donations to run these ads featuring yearning and abused puppies that we make to encourage you to send in more money!

“You just don’t know! A quarter of all you send is squirreled away, invested, you know. Youcan’t expect us to spend that money on yearning abused pets . . . that’s our pension. Lawyers are expensive!

It takes a lot of cash to sue people. Plus CEO’s and officers need to make a little. So I hope you can see, we simply don’t have the money to throw around.”

Item #3, a notice from Department of Interior about designating additional miles of river and reclassification of “Endangered” to the Loach Minnow.

Response from a member of LLLC (Loach Lovers LC); “I am shocked that anyone could object to increasing protection for a fish, that I admit I have never seen and virtually nobody has ever heard of. But think of the benefits; restriction of recreational use of rivers, prevention of access to the public, limiting grazing, timber and mining, anything that might encourage people to live there.

“As you know, LLLC derives hundreds of thousands of dollars by litigating nuisance law suits with the government who, in turn supports us by settling out of court. What a deal! Love the Loach?

You bet your spotted owl. How stupid do you think we are?!”

THE END. Presented on behalf of the Misunderstood.

Your source for moderately-framed, maternally-efficient, grass-type Angus genetics

Featuring: ✔ 60 Bred Cows ✔ 25 Bred Heifers ✔ 5 Herd Bulls ✔ 20 Bred Commercial Cows ✔ 20 Bred Commercial Heifers ✔ 60 Two-Year-Old Bulls 31059 Juniper Ave., Hinton, IA 51024 www.jauerangus.com • ROGER: Ph 712/947-4357 • KURT: Ph 712/947-4338 • DOUG: doug@jauerangus.com • INTERNET: www.LiveAuctions.tv

Livestock Market Digest

Page 16

BPI cuts production as fast food giants drop its ground beef product: report

by RITA JANE GABBETT, www.meatingplace.com

eef Products Inc. has lost about 25 percent of its business and has had to cut production to four days a week from five as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Burger King have all stopped buying its lean ground beef product treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens, according to the Argus Leader.

The newspaper quoted CEO Eldon Roth as saying hours have been reduced, but no workers have been laid off and that sales have started to stabilize for BPI,

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which has never had an illness traced to its products.

BPI officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

The company has been praised for its safety record and its innovative pathogen intervention. However, media coverage and a widely viewed video by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver — which innaccurately portrays the process as pouring household ammonia on ground beef — have hurt public perception of the process.

Reaction “It is unfortunate that an irresponsible segment like Jamie

Oliver’s continues to have ramifications in the public arena and hopefully our Meat Myth Crushers video will help set the record straight,” American Meat Institute spokeswoman Janet Riley told Meatingplace in reaction to the ramifications for BPI outlined in the Argus Leader story.

In October, AMI produced a video as part of its Meat Myth Crusher series specfically to counter the Jamie Oliver video.

The video titled “Myth: Ordinary Household Ammonia is Used to Make Some Hamburger” explains the ammonia gas pathogen intervention that BPI uses.

Jim Marsden, regent’s distin-

January 15, 2012 guished professor at Kansas State University, and a food safety blogger for Meatingplace, also reacted to the article with support for BPI’s process.

“BPI took the lead in developing a process that controls dangerous pathogens in beef. Their commitment to food safety and the fact that their products have been widely used by ground beef processors have contributed to the progress the industry has made in controlling E. coli O157:H7,” he told Meatingplace. “The problem is that any technology used to kill bacteria can be portrayed as ‘bad’ by activist groups. I think many of these groups have an anti-meat agenda and oppose everything the industry does to make its products safer.”

l a u n n l A l u 1 B 2 s u g n a r B ll st

e w s Ro emale Sale .m. a 0 1 &F t a 2 1 0 2 ,

5 2 y r a u r b e F , y a d r Satu Brangus and Angus Plus Bulls • Most with EPDs • Registered and Commercial • Fertility- , TB-, and Brucellosis-tested • These bulls have been bred and raised under Southwest range conditions.

• Most bulls rock-footed • Trich-tested to go anywhere

Females . . .

AT ROSWELL LIVESTOCK AUCTION ROSWELL, N.M. • 575/622-5580 Cattle may be viewed Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 at Roswell Livestock Auction This sale offers you some of the highest quality Brangus in the Southwest! The “good doing” kind.

BUY DIRECT FROM BRANGUS BREEDERS! NO HIGH-PRICED COMMISSION MEN TO RUN THE PRICE UP!

• Registered Open Heifers • Registered Bred Heifers and Bred Cows • Bred Cows and Pairs: 3- to 7-yrs.-old • Bred Heifers: Coming 2-yr.-olds • Open Yearling Heifers

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: Gayland Townsend . . . 580/443-5777, MOB. 580/380-1606 Troy Floyd . . . . . . . . . . . . 575/734-7005 Bill Morrison . . . . . . . . . . 575/482-3254, MOB. 575/760-7263 Joe Lack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575/267-1016 Larry Parker . . . . . . . . . . . 520/845-2315, MOB. 520/845-2411 TO RECEIVE A CATALOG CONTACT: Bill Morrison: 575/482-3254 • C: 575/760-7263 To Consign Top Females Contact: Gayland Townsend: 580/443-5777 • C: 580/380-1606

Groups urge Congress to reject HSUS-UEP deal

by ROD SMITH, Feedstuffs

ight groups representing livestock and poultry producers have urged Congress to reject the agreement on hen housing reached by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the United Egg Producers (UEP).

In a letter to House Agriculture Committee chair Frank Lucas (R OK) and ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson (D MN), the groups said the agreement would impose “costly and unnecessary animal rights mandates” on the U.S. egg industry.

The groups said the agreement’s prescriptive nature would ensure that “Congress will be in the egg business for years to come” by requiring all egg producers to adopt specific hen housing standards.

The agreement calls for egg producers to transition from conventional cage housing — in which 95 percent of all eggs are produced today — to “enriched” colony cages by 2029, with the transition enforced by federal legislation in the form of an amendment to the U.S. Egg Products Inspection Act. The amendment is to be jointly sought by HSUS and UEP. In the letter, the eight groups said implementation would cost the egg industry nearly $10 billion, and the added costs would mean fewer jobs.

They also said the agreement would increase prices and limit choice for consumers.

They said legislatively mandated standards would be “an unconscionable federal overreach,” especially at a time when Congress needs to “unshackle” the economy from government regulations. Moreover, they said, “our gravest concern” is that the legislation would be a precedent that “could leach into all corners of animal farming.”

They noted that the European Union’s experience with an industry-wide transition from conventional cages to colonies has caused decreased production and higher production costs and has “cost consumers and farmers alike.”

The letter was signed by the Egg Farmers of America, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union, American Sheep Industry Assn., National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn., National Milk Producers’ Federation, National Pork Producers’ Council and National Turkey Federation.

Egg Farmers of America was established by about a dozen egg producers to oppose the agreement. The group originally represented about 50 million to 60 million hens — about 20 percent of the national flock — but a number of its members are not active, and only two were involved in the letter, according to Feedstuffs sources.

E