LMD January 2020

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

– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

January 15, 2020 • www.aaalivestock.com

Volume 62 • No. 1

Owning The West I

BY LEE PITTS

A

s world powers go, the United States is in a class by itself.

And yet, we don’t have as much to work with as other countries. Gosh, we aren’t even the largest country on our own continent.

By the measure of our landmass, the United States is the fourth largest country in the world, behind Russia (#1), Canada (#2) and China (#3). And just think what we could accomplish if the Department of the Interior didn’t own 20 percent of the 3.5 million square miles that make up America. Almost all of it in the West, by the way.

The BLM by itself controls what happens on 248 million acres of public land, 99 percent of which is west of the Mississippi. So is a good chunk of the 192 million acres that the U.S. Forest Service manages. Or, should we say mismanages?

One of the secrets to America’s unqualified success is that 72 percent of our land is held in private hands. Of this land a significant chunk is controlled by a small number of people. But who are these people? From our perspective they can be divided into one of four categories: foresters; oil men and women; old money and for lack of a better term, outside money.

The Foresters

NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING

We got most of the information that follows from The Land Report which bills itself as “The Magazine of the American Landowner.” By far, it does the best job of keeping track of who owns what in America.

For the billionaires who make their money with chain saws and two by fours, owning trees is better than money

Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction. in the bank. I’m never shy to brag that I knew the third largest landowner in America. Red Emmerson used to regularly show up at the Shasta Livestock Auction, or at one our video cattle sales. From my frequent conversations with Red, it was clear he was cut from the same cloth as ranchers and that, boy oh boy, did he love auctions!

While alive, Red owned two million acres of America and ran Sierra Pacific Industries, the second largest lumber producer and the largest private landowner in California. Despite our bureaucrat’s best efforts to put loggers out of business, Red had fourteen sawmills scattered over two far western states.

The fifth largest landowner in America is also a forester. The Reed family owned 1,729,232 acres as of the end of 2018 which had been put to-

gether since 1890. According to the Land Report, the Reed family’s Green Diamond Resources Company owns land in eight states across the Northwest and the South. As any profitable forest company must be these days, the Reeds are into sustainable forestry and conservation, harvesting less than two percent of their timberland a year.

At number six is the Irving family with 1,247,880 acres.

The Irvings are Canadians and they are the only non-American landowners in the top 30. Besides the land they own in the U.S, they own another 1.9 million acres in Canada.

Some of the other foresters in the top fifty landowners include the Westervelt heirs, 518,000 acres, (#19); the Stimson family 552,000 acres (#18); the Martin family 570,000 acres (#16); the Ford family, 580,000 acres

(#13); Wilks brothers, 702,367 acres (#11); and the Pingree heirs, 830,000 acres (#10).

As you can see, “Thar’s gold in them there trees!”

The Oil Men (And Women) The oil folks tend to own smaller chunks of land individually than the foresters and they also seem to be a bit more diversified. Take Philip Anschutz for example. With 434,500 acres owned at the end of 2018 that “only” puts him in 22nd place amongst landowners. But it also helps put him near the top of the Forbes 400 List as one of the richest people in America with a net worth of eleven and a half billion dollars. Although he calls himself an oil man he has diversified into railroads, fiber optic networks, tungsten mines, movie theaters, professional sports teams and recently, an eight billion dollar wind farm, the largest in the country.

Another huge landowner I got to meet one time at a video sale in Cheyenne was Robert Earl Holding whose family is now the 26th largest landowner in the country. You may have stayed at one of his Little America motels or fueled up at one of his huge gas stations.

Earl Holding died in 2003 but continued on page two

Border Patrol Agent Nick Ivie Was Killed By Smugglers, Not Friendly Fire

BY RACHEL ALEXANDER / TOWNHALL.COM

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com or this publication.

I

nvestigative journalist Huey Freeman has written a compelling book challenging the notion that Border Patrol Agent Nick Ivie was killed by friendly fire. In Who Shot Nick Ivie?, Freeman lays out the case that contrary to the government’s claims, smugglers, probably from the Sinaloa cartel, shot Ivie in an ambush of him and two other agents. And he explains why the Obama administration put that spin out there.

While working one night in October 2012, Ivie was dispatched to check out a sensor alarm that had been tripped near the border between Arizona and Mexico. Two other agents followed him a bit later. They were in constant contact through their radios so they knew where each other was. Agent Graciela Borjas saw Ivie’s light and then gunshots as the smugglers attacked Ivie and fatally shot him in the head. They shot Agent David Johnson, but he was able to keep going. Johnson shot back at the smugglers. Borjas said later that she thought she had fired her gun, but it turned out she did not fire any shots at all.

Borjas told investigators afterward that she

saw three or four suspects, and that one had a long firearm. She heard them talking after they fired the shots, and thought they were speaking Spanish. Johnson told the FBI he saw someone wearing a blanket, something typical of a smuggler.

But the FBI claimed that Ivie had shot at Johnson, so Johnson responded back and fatally shot him.

The FBI twisted what Borjas said, reporting that she had only heard the suspects and their long arm, so they designated her an unreliable witness. Freeman says the FBI documents are riddled with inaccuracies. Freeman has obtained all the FBI interview transcripts with her. Tellingly, the FBI has never released the interviews of Borjas and Johnson to the public. Even if it was friendly fire, which it wasn’t, they’re lying about the fact that no one else was involved.

Freeman believes the FBI falsified ballistics tests. The FBI announced that Johnson’s M4 had shot Ivie — before they would have had a chance to do a ballistics test on the gun.

Freeman believes based on his investigation that the murder weapon was probably a revolver.

The evidence shows that a smuggler seized Ivie’s pistol from him and fired shots from continued on page five

by LEE PITTS

could never be a homemaker. It’s waaay too much work and too much of it is of a repetitive nature. Take dusting furniture, washing dishes and vacuuming the carpet for example. You do it once and six months later you have to do it all over again. The problem is I’ve always been a dirty person by nature. I swear, I can get dirty taking a shower. And everything I like to do makes one filthy, from working in the shop to working cattle. I can even get dirty eating a sandwich and like the polar bear I do my washing up after I eat, not before.

I think the worst job a homemaker has is washing clothes. You get them all clean and before the day is over already there’s a bunch more multiplying in the hamper. This would drive me nuts.

When I worked in an oilfield compressor plant I got so dirty that during the week we’d all throw our jeans and tee shirts into a bucket of a foul smelling concoction that I think was a mixture of turpentine and gasoline.

This got the oil stains out but left the clothes a little scratchy and stinky. The only time I took the clothes home and washed them in my mom’s washing machine she hit the roof because evidently I’d left behind a strong petrochemical residue in the machine that left its mark on all the clothes she washed for the next 25 years.

For the first three years my wife and I were married we couldn’t afford a washer and dryer so we had to wash all our clothes in a laundry mat that was dirtier than a bus stop bathroom. The management there had the gall to complain that my manure-stained clothes were fouling their machines. They asked us to take our business, and my smelly clothes, elsewhere.

The day my wife and I bought our first washer and dryer was probably the happiest day in our married life.

The problem was I made my living working ring at cattle sales for 40 years and there’s no dirtier job in America. I’m surprised Mike Rowe never featured the occupation on his Dirty Jobs TV show. It was way more dirtier than cleaning hog pens. Unknown to most ranchers, we ring men performed a vital service. We were the only thing standing in the way between the bull’s mop-like, manure-loaded

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Livestock Market Digest

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January 15, 2020

OWNING THE WEST

continued from page one

w o N e b i r sc

his family has carried on, owning 395,030 acres along with interests in transportation, energy and what the Land Report calls, “an enviable portfolio of real estate in Utah and Idaho, as well as an immense cattle ranch, which covers large tracts ’s of land in SouthernuMontana hwest t o S e ThWyoming.” and Northern Other big landowning oil folk include the Bass family (#31) and the Fasken Family “whose legacy began in 1913 when Canadian David Fasken bought a ranch in Texas – only to discover that it was home to an enormous oil reserve.”

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governor of the state.

Of course, you can’t talk cattle history without mentioning the King Ranch. Although they have dropped to number nine ubl now, when I was a kid the King tock p s e v i l Ranch was the largest ive landownormatWith 911,215 nfworld. i t er in the s o m acres the King Ranch is a combination of old money and oil money! One of my most memKET orable experiences M wasA theR time I got to eat supper at the table in the King Ranch “Big House” with Assault’s Triple Crown trophy staring me in the face.

Even today the King Ranch is the largest in Texas. And that’s saying a mouthful!

k c o t s e v i L Digest

Old Money

3Yes.

Money Please subscribe me to Other big oil families were Outside Now we come to a categoranchers first, including the the Livestock Market Digest for: famed 6666 Ranch in Texas be- ry that could just as easily be It’s a classat $29 ing perhaps the notable.

I called “new money”.

1most Year at $19.95 2 Years also got to meet the Four Sixes of people who had the common owner, Anne Marion, at John sense to sink money made elseWayne’s bull sale in Arizona. where into ranch real estate. In By now we all know the story of this category are such people NAME how Anne’s great-grandfather as the Fisher family (#21) with came into possession of the 440,000 acres who founded the famous ranch in a poker game Gap clothing stores in 1969, ADDRESS with a winning hand of four and America’s largest home sixes. According to The Land builder D R Horton, founded Report, “Marion has kept the by Donald Horton more than PHONE family business going as well 35 years ago. They rank 17th as establishing the Burnett Oil with 503,000 acres.

Henry Earl Singleton was an Company in 1980.” Anne is E-MAIL the 37th largest landowner in American electrical engineer and business executive who America.

Although they are unfairly co-founded Teledyne, one of most associated with a renegade pol- America’s MC VISAsuccessful conitician who never did ranchers glomerates, perhaps best known any favors, the Babbitt family for their Water Pic®. Henry in Arizona is truly ranch royal- started diversifying into ranch CARD NUMBER ty and today they are the 38th land in 1986 with his purchase largest landowner in America. of the San Cristobal Ranch near “More than 130 years ago,” Santa Fe. Henry Singleton died DATE “Dave in 1999 but his offspring have says EXPIRATION The Land Report, and Billy Babbitt arrived in put together one of the great Flagstaff, Arizona and quick- ranching empires in the country SIGNATURE ly acquired numerous ranch- ranking seventh with 1.1 miles. Today, the ranches span an lion acres in New Mexico and impressive 275,000 acres with California. From all reports, the Payment Enclosed or herds of cattle and American Singletons are great neighbors. subscrib Right behind the Singletons Quarter Horses grazing on the online who has a land.” We wonder what Dave at #8 is Brad Kelley @ SEND PAYMENT and Billy would say about aTO: cer- net worth of $2.4 billion. He made his money fromAAALIVESTO tobactain Babbit known as Bruce?

Livestock Digest co and according to The Land The KokernotMarket Heirs with 278,000 P.O.acres Box rank 745835th and Report, he sold his Commontheir famous 06 ranch is a wealth Brands company in Albuquerque, New Mexico 87194 2001 for $1 billion and sunk a household name in Texas.

As is the O’Conner family. After trav- lot of it into ranch land in Texas, eling and writing extensively in Florida and New Mexico.

Now we get into some pretty Texas I can tell you that in the Lone Star State whenever the rarefied air. According to The name Thomas O’Conner, the Forbes 400, Stanley Kroenke is Irish immigrant and “The Tex- the 49th richest person in Ameras Cattle King,” is mentioned, ica with $9.7 billion dollars. He it is with a reverential tone. is married to Ann Walton KroHe was granted 4,428 acres of enke, the 67th richest person in land in Victoria County in 1834 America who owes most of her and the family grew it to over wealth to the WalMart empire.

587,800 acres, putting them (I wonder who picks up the tab when they go out to dinner?)

15th on the list.

One of the few big ranches Mr. Kroenke is a sports mothat is not in the west is the gul who owns the LA Rams, Lykes family ranching empire amongst other sports related in Florida. Their 615,000 acres businesses, and is America’s puts them in 14th place of the fourth-biggest landowner. He biggest landowners in America. made big news in cowy newsThe ranch can trace its roots papers with his estimated $725 back to Dr. Howell Lykes who million dollar purchase of the in the 1870’s quit medicine to historic W T Waggoner Ranch take over his family’s modest in Texas in 2016. That put the 500-acre Texas ranch. Shortly number of acres he owns at thereafter he moved to Flori- 1.38 million acres, if not more da and today his heirs control by press time.

Some of the smartest people 615,000 acres in Florida and Texas. Besides their cattle, the in the country are betting on Lykes Brothers are known for ranch land these days, including their citrus farming and sugar the richest man in America, if not the world, Jeff Bezos. You cane farms.

In 12th place in land owner- might know him better as the ship is the Briscoe family with founder of Amazon. According 640,000 acres. You can’t read to the Forbes 400, Bezos had a much Texas cattle history with- net worth of $114 billion dollars out stumbling over the Briscoe even after his recent divorce. name. Andrew Briscoe’s name He owns large amounts of real appears on the Texas Decla- estate in Texas and ranks 25th ration of Independence and on The Land report top 50.

Dolph Briscoe Jr. was a former Bezos was born in Albuquerque

January 15, 2020

Livestock Market Digest

OWNING THE WEST but when he was a toddler, his father, a petroleum engineer for Exxon, moved his family to Houston.

Ted Turner at least had the good sense to go from founding CNN to becoming the owner of over two million acres, mostly good grazing land. For years he was the largest landowner in the country and is well known for stocking his ranching empire with the largest herd of bison in the world to supply his Ted’s Montana Grill chain of bison meat restaurants. Although Ted himself is a great philanthropist, unlike the Singleton’s, Ted’s bison haven’t made him a very good neighbor.

And who displaced Ted as the largest landowner in the country?

It’s John Malone with 2,200,000 acres, give or take a few hundred sections. Actually Malone passed Ted Turner way back in 2011 by acquiring some of the best ranches in the country. According to Forbes, Malone is worth $7.3 billion, making him the 75th wealthiest person in America. Aside from ranches in Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado (his primary residence), he owns huge tracts of forest land in Maine, the Humewood Castle and Castlemartin Estate in Ireland.

You might recognize Malone’s ranching outfit as Silver Spur Ranches, named after his Silver Spur Ranch in Encampment, Wyoming.

Malone buys only the best and he made big headlines when he purchased the famed 300,000 acre Bell Ranch from the heirs of William Lane. The Bell is the original Pablo Montoya land grant dating back to 1824 and New Mexicans are extremely proud of the Bell, named after a huge chuck of rock on the ranch that looks like, what else, a bell.

Before his untimely death in a tragic airplane crash, Jeffrey Lane who rode herd over

continued from page two

his family’s ranch, was a larger than life figure who was loved by all who knew him. Part of this was because he preserved long-held Bell Ranch traditions like wearing your tall boots outside your pants and going out with the chuckwagon every year to brand the calves during the spring works. Malone had the good sense to preserve such traditions. Malone also owns another New Mexico crown jewel, the TO Ranch.

You don’t buy ranches like the Bell or the TO with profits made from cows. Malone made his money mostly in cable television. According to Forbes, he started with Bell Labs in 1963 and later made countless media deals. According to Forbes, “He sold TCI to AT&T for more than $50 billion in 1999, and last year merged Discovery Inc and Scripps. He still chairs his Liberty Media Group and also owns the Atlanta Braves. Previously he also owned Formula One Racing and Sirius Radio.

Spuds According to the Land Report, if you add up all the land owned by the top fifty landowners in America it comes to a staggering 31 million acres!

Yet I could find only one of the top fifty landowners, (please correct me if I’m wrong) who in one generation built his land dynasty with income primarily from agriculture, and that was J.R Simplot, now deceased.

And even J.R.’s potato fortune was augmented with his timely investment in Micron Computer.

And you wonder why you can’t buy a ranch that will pencil out, pay for itself with cows or make you filthy rich from the back of a horse with a saddle as your desk?

(To see the entire list of the 100 largest landowners in America go to www.landreport. com.)

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Livestock Market Digest

Hammond Grazing Permits A review of lawsuits on livestock grazing

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n December 20 of 2019, federal judge Michael H. Simon revoked the grazing permit for Hammond Ranches Inc., finding that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s order renewing it earlier this year was an “abuse of discretion.’’

Background: The Hammonds had 4 different grazing permits on BLM lands. In June of 2012 Steve and Dwight Hammond were convicted of intentionally setting fires on BLM land. On Oct. 30, 2012 federal judge Michael. H. Hogan sentenced Steve Hammond to 12 months and one day of imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release, and Dwight Hammond to 3 months of imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release. The government appealed, saying the sentences didn’t meet the 5 year minimum sentences mandated under a federal anti-terrorism law. The ninth circuit agreed

with the feds, and on Oct 7, 2015 the district court resentenced the Hammonds. On February 14, 2011 the BLM denied the Hammond’s request to renew their grazing permits and declared their preference was revoked because the federal criminal convictions rendered them no longer in compliance with BLM regulations or the terms and conditions of their permit. The Hammond’s appealed the decision, but in April of 2014 the Office of Hearings and Appeals denied the request for a stay and on November 23, 2016 the Interior Board of Land Appeals affirmed the denial of a stay. On July 10, 2018, President Trump issued an Executive Order of Clemency pardoning Dwight and Steven Hammond for their crimes and commuting their sentences. On December 26, 2018 Interior Secretary Zinke exercised his authority to assume jurisdiction over the case and on January 2, 2020 issued his decision to remand the case back to the BLM with instructions to renew the permits un-

der the same terms and conditions as had previously applied.

Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians then filed a suit alleging the Secretary’s order and the issuing of the permit violated FLPMA and its underlying regulations, and NEPA and the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). A Temporary Restraining Order was issued allowing partial renewal of the permits until the court could make a final determination on the merits of the case.

(Whew! And believe me folks, I left a bunch of stuff out.)

The Decision: The court found 1. Secretary Zinke’s failure to analyze and make a required finding that the Hammond’s had a satisfactory record of performance violates the APA and was “arbitrary and capricious, inconsistent with the governing statutes and regulations, not rationally connected to the facts before the agency, and an unexplained change in agency practice and procedure.”

2. Secretary Zinke expressly stated that he found no fault with the BLM’s 2014 Findings of Fact that the Hammond’s had engaged in significant violative conduct and that “the pardons had no effect on the underlying conduct (both conduct that resulted in the underlying convictions, and conduct that did not result in any convictions)” and “even if Secretary Zinke had explained why relying on the post-permit conduct of the pardons was permissible in this case, he did not provide any reasoned analysis that had a rational basis in the facts in the record for granting the Permit” and thus a violation of the APA. Basically, the court considered “the seriousness of the Secretary’s errors” and granted just about everything the enviros wanted.

January 15, 2020 Why did Zinke wait for over five months after the pardons to assume jurisdiction over the case? That would have given ample time to prepare the appropriate legal and environmental documents. Why the rush to do this his last week in office?

Ranchers in northern and southern New Mexico have suffered as a result of Zinke’s incompetence, and now that incompetence has created additional hardships on the Hammond family. Zinke managed to negate the great victory many felt when President Trump issued the pardons, and turn it into ashes as he walked out the door.

Horseshoe Grazing Permit On June 19, 2019 the BLM issued a final decision renewing the grazing permit for this allotment and authorizing a number of new range improvement projects. This IBLA opinion overturns that decision by granting a stay of the decision.

Background: This allotment is located in Yavapai County, Arizona and is situated within the Agua Fria National Monument. The Allotment consists of just under 30,000 acres of BLM land, 200 acres of private land, and has been separated into eleven pastures. The Arizona Game Fish Dept. acquired the headquarters of the Horseshoe Allotment in 2011 and in 2012 leased the ranch to J.H. Cattle Company and grazing resumed on the allotment. An interdisciplinary team from the BLM prepared an EA, with the proposed action being to continue grazing at the previous levels and identifying eleven specific range improvement projects. The BLM also determined the action would not have a significant impact on the environment and that an EIS was not warranted.

The final decision was issued on

RIDING HERD tail and the buyers sitting in the stands. If the bulls had been on a particularly hot ration it could get real ugly and at the end of a sale my entire backside might be covered in fecal matter. So next time you go to a bull sale just remember the sacrifice the ring men are making on your behalf and treat them with a little more respect.

I will forever be remembered in the livestock auction industry for my trendsetting fashion.

You see, before I started working auctions the ring men wore sports coats, slacks, silk ties, Polo shirts, Luchese alligator boots and Stetson 300X silver belly hats. This made no sense to me. Why ruin an expensive set of duds knowing they were going to get splattered with manure? My outfit consisted of jeans, a greenish-brown shirt, rubberized boots and a yellow rain slicker so that before I rushed off to the airport to catch a plane to my next sale, I could just hose off. I think the passen-

1-866-838-3647

Our turn to serve

June 20, 2019. The Western Watershed Project filed an appeal and stay petition alleging violations of - guess what – FLPMA, NEPA and the APA. IBLA Decision: 1. “While BLM may be able to provide additional evidence or argument in support of its decision to not analyze noxious weeds or the hydrological impacts of new wells on riparian areas in the EA, it has not done so as part of the pending stay petition.” 2.

“Given the significant questions surrounding the adequacy of the EA’s analysis and the harms that will ensue from the immediate construction of such a large number of range projects, the public interest favors a stay of the Final Decision so that BLM’s decision-making process can be fairly and deliberately investigated to ensure compliance with the applicable statutes and regulations.”

Why walk you through all this? I can think of no better way to describe the labyrinth of rules and procedures required to graze livestock on federal lands. Labyrinth is defined as “a complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze”, and I believe accurately describes the current, sorry situation in which ranchers and agency personnel find themselves..

They are both playing with a deck of cards dealt by Congress, and until Congress reshuffles the deck by providing meaningful amendments to the statutes concerned, the game is rigged in favor of those who seek to curtail or eliminate livestock grazing.

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

continued from page one

gers on the plane appreciated this and might not even have known where the foul smell was coming from. Today, if you go to a cattle sale you rarely see the duded-up ring man of yesteryear and I’m proud to say that I was the one who started this dressing-down trend.

If I had a little extra time before catching a plane I might go into some gas station restroom and change my clothes and wad up the dirties to throw in my soft-sided suitcase to take back home to surprise my wife with. I remember one particularly gross gas station bathroom where there was a pertinent quote scratched into the stall door. Instead of saying, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” it said, “Cleanliness is next to... impossible.”

I’m quite sure the quote was left there by a ring man. www.LeePittsbooks.com

January 15, 2020

Livestock Market Digest

IVIE

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it. If Ivie had shot his gun, the spent shells would have appeared near his feet. Instead, they were found a bit south of his body.

The FBI constantly leaked news of its cover-up investigation to the media. They said they would wrap up their investigation in merely a few days. This is unheard of for a cartel-related assassination. They never issued a final report, maintaining that Ivie’s death was due to friendly fire.

The two agents were shot late on a Monday night. The previous Sunday, Univision and Fox News issued a report on all the people who were shot in Mexico from Fast and Furious guns. ABC followed up with a similar report. They compared it to the shooting of Brian Terry. Eerily, Ivie was working out of the Brian Terry Border Patrol station, which was named after Terry after he was shot by Fast and Furious guns.

A Los Angeles Times article came out which revealed that the suspects had a .38 revolver and a long arm. The guns were seized later in Mexico — Mexican law enforcement connected them to Ivie’s shooting. Border Patrol

agents, some on condition of anonymity, told Freeman they believed the investigation was shut down because the guns were from Fast and Furious.

None of them believed what the FBI was saying. But they couldn’t speak out since they were scared of retaliation and being criminally prosecuted.

The smugglers were arrested by Mexican authorities, who interviewed them. Their names ran in a Mexican newspaper. One headline actually said, “The Killers of Ivie Were Arrested.” A woman sent a Facebook post

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

Big Macs and Whoppers

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o doubt most of you in the livestock business have a certain “family affection” for the fast food chains. Particularly those restaurants whose main attraction is the often disguised but still All American hamburger. It also is true that each of us has his own particular favorite.

Organizations like the National Restaurant Association have attempted surveys to compare the merits of each burger. Readers, you will be pleased to know that the Coyote Cowboy Co. (me) has conducted its own survey. This survey was taken with an international consultant on had to advise: A Canadian Chianina breeder.

The burgers compared were the Double Whopper (hereinafter referred to as the WHOP), the Big Mac (the MAC) and Wendy’s Double Burger (the BURG).

Each was ordered on a rainy night with iced tea.

The highlights of the survey are as follows:

Patty Evaluation 1. TRANSPARENCY – The BURG was the only patty you could see through.

2. YIELD PERCENTAGE (Meat/offal ratio) – The BURG again had the highest yield percentage.

3. PATTY PULL TEST (for tensile strength) – The WHOP showed the resistance to tearing.

4. CIRCUMFERENTIAL PERFECTION – The MAC displayed the roundest patty.

5. SEAWORTHINESS – Both the WHOP and the

BURG sank in the iced tea while the MAC floated.

Condiments 1. COLOR COORDINATION – The BURG showed a certain flair with mustard, tomato and lettuce although style points were given to the MAC for the special sauce.

Bun Evaluation 1. SWILL ASSIMILATION TEST – Measured in BAU (bun absorption units)…the BURG scored well against the others in the second round. With ketchup it rated 8 BAU. 2.

SESAME SEED COUNT – The WHOP won hands down with 42 seeds per bun.

3. LIGHT REFRACTION – None reflected light well enough to transmit Morse code messages over long distances.

4. AERODYNAMICS – The WHOP recorded the longest flight distance but was penalized for slicing to the right.

CONCLUSION In our survey found each hamburger to have its own peculiar advantages. The BURG rated high in BAUs and color coordination but would be less suitable than the MAC if dropped in water. Neither would be as good as the WHOP if there was ever an ALL-BEEF Frisbee throw in the Summer Olympics.

I hope the information presented here will in some small way contribute to the mounds of scientific data now available on the fast food hamburger. I’m forwarding the results to Consumer Reports. www.baxterblack.com

to a Mexican news station complaining that her brother and cousin were still incarcerated, which she didn’t understand since the FBI had cleared them of the killing. The FBI never fully acknowledged that the suspects had been arrested. The suspects had Facebook pages where they posted photos of AK-47 rifles and the arrest of criminal suspects.

Freeman thinks Barack Obama, who was running for reelection against Mitt Romney at the time, didn’t want the negative publicity about dangerous drug cartels out in the media, so that’s why he came up with the friendly fire ruse. The FBI under Obama was totally corrupt. Freeman refers to the Obama Bureau of Investigation, separate from the FBI. Freeman asks, “How could anyone be killed by suspects who were in custody, but the agent was also killed by a fellow agent, without the involvement of any suspects?” Freeman hopes his book gets the truth out to the public, and says the two surviving agents should receive honors for their brave actions. Freeman believes the FBI’s successful cover up of the murder em-

boldened the agency to spy on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Since his book came out, Freeman has discovered more evidence that it’s accurate. Two Border Patrol agents pulled him over when he was driving from Arizona to New Mexico a few days ago. He showed them his book.

One agent told him about another agent they knew who was supposedly killed by a tractor trailer, but said he didn’t believe the official explanation. The other agent saw Ivie’s body before the autopsy. He said if he had really been shot with Johnson’s M4, his head would have exploded. Ivie’s death was caused by a clean hit to the center of his forehead — with no exit wound.

It is horrendous that our government would cover up the murders of Americans by Mexican cartels, merely to help politicians get reelected and hide their efforts to destroy our gun industry through Fast and Furious.

The Obama administration has blood on its hands, and we can only hope that President Trump can clean up the FBI.

Page 6

Livestock Market Digest

January 15, 2020

SOCORRO PLAZA REALTY On the Plaza

Donald Brown

Qualifying Broker

505-507-2915 cell 505-838-0095 fax

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

REAL ESTATE GUIDE

Bar M Real Estate

AG LOANS AGLAND LAND LOANS

Bottari Realty

AsLow LowAsAs 3% As 4.5% OPWKCAP 2.9% OPWKCAP 2.9%

Paul Bottari, Broker

775/752-3040

SCOTT MCNALLY

Nevada Farms & raNch PrOPerTY

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

INTEREST RATESAS AS LOW 3% INTEREST RATES LOW ASAS 4.5% Payments Scheduledon on2525 Years Payments Scheduled Years

521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130

575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax

Buena Vista Realty

Qualifying Broker: A.H. (Jack) Merrick 575-760-7521 www.buenavista-nm.com

www.bottarirealty.com

Ranch Sales & Appraisals

Scott Land co.

1301 Front Street, Dimmitt, TX 79027 Ben G. Scott – Broker Krystal M Nelson –CO/NM QB#15892 800-933-9698 day/eve. www.scottlandcompany.com

Ranch & Farm Real Estate

WE NEED LISTINGS ON ALL TYPES OF AG PROPERTIES LARGE OR SMALL!

■ ELK RIDGE RANCH – Capulin, NM area, 100hd. ■ GRASSLAND W/ORGANIC POTENTIAL – Union

+/- herd of Elk seen on property from time-to-time, 5,520 Co., NM - adjoins the Texline Special, 927.45 ac. +/-, on pvmt. ac. +/- w/nice home, barns & pens, watered by wells & live ■ PRICE REDUCED! MALPAIS OF NM – Lincoln/ water, no outside access through the property. Brochure Socorro Counties, 37.65 sections +/- (13,322 ac. +/being prepared!

Deeded, 8,457 ac. +/- BLM Lease, 2,320 ac. +/- State ■ ELK CANYON RANCH – Harding County, NM - Lease) good, useable improvements & water, some irrigation Another “hunter’s paradise” listed by Scott Land Company, w/water rights for 2 pivot sprinklers, on pvmt. & all-weather LLC along w/the Elkridge Ranch, great opportunity for road. livestock/hunting/recreation, 2,240 ac. +/-, well watered ■ EAST EDGE OF FT. SUMNER, NM – immaculate w/good fences. Located just west of the West Hayden 7.32 ac. +/- w/a beautiful home, a 900 hd. grow yard & other Ranch. improvements w/a long line of equipment included, on pvmt.

■ WEST HAYDEN RANCH – Union/Harding Counties, ■ FT. SUMNER, NM – 17 ac. +/- w/water rights NM – 7,951.18 ac. +/- of really good ranch land, well currently planted in alfalfa & a beautiful home built in 2007 watered by mills & subs, on pvmt., home, barns & 2 w/3 bdrms., 3 bathrooms, an oversize garage & a 24X50 sets of pens. metal shop.

■ COLFAX CO., NM – 7402.09 ac. +/- (4,789.69 ■ PRICE REDUCED! WE CAN DIVIDE – this Deeded – 2,612.4 State Lease) w/historic “POINT OF Springfield, Co. 1,440 ac. farm & ranch as follows: an ROCKS” monument on the Santa Fe Trail, attractive irrigated farm, a 5,000 hd. fdyd. w/acreage & improvments improvements, all weather access! & grassland/CRP w/improvements. Please see our website ■ LONESOME DOVE RANCH – Union Co., NM for further information.

– 3,840.76 +/- ac. ofCall choiceBuena NM grassland, Vistaremodeled Realty ■ atLIITLE 575-226-0671 the listing agent RIVER RANCH or – Pottawatomie Co., OK – 950 home, virtually new Lori workingBohm pens, well575-760-9847, watered, on pvmt. ac. or Sandberg 575-825-1291. +/-, Melody beautiful home, excellent facilities, highly productive, mi. SE oforOklahoma City.

■ SEDAN SPECIAL –Many Union Co., NM – 955 ac. +/- w/on40MLS good pictures www.buenavista-nm.com excellent improvements for a stocker or cow/calf operation, ■ HARMON CO., OK – livestock/hunting/recreation – modern ¼ mi. sprinkler, all-weather roads on three sides, 866.4 ac. +/- situated in two tracts, all on pvmt., located in 374 ac. +/- CRP. close proximity to the entrance of the Sandy Sanders Wildlife ■ PECOS RIVER RANCH – Guadalupe Co., NM – Refuge & the Doc Hollis Fishing Pond.

Scenic, 968 +/- ac. deeded & 519 +/- state lease acres, ■ FREESTONE CO., TX – 931.49 ac. +/- w/a beautiful live water ranch on both sides of the Pecos River (strong 13bdrm./13 ½ bath home, nice managers home, large flow daily) between Santa Rosa & Ft. Sumner; wildlife, party/meeting house & numerous barns & out bldgs., paired w/water & cattle for the buyer looking for top tier virtually all open country w/highly productive improved assets in a rugged New Mexico ranch! grasses, on pvmt. A “must see” property for corporate ■ OTERO CO., NM – 120 scenic ac. +/- on the Rio meeting place, excellent opportunity for a bed & breakfast Penasco is surrounded by Lincoln National Forest lands or for large family or the enterprising cattle producer to run covered in Pines & opening up to a grass covered meadow a large number of cattle w/irrigation rights out of existing along 3,300 feet +/- of the Rio Penasco. This property is large lakes. an ideal location to build a legacy mountain getaway home. ■ TEXAS CO., OK – LET’S LOOK at this great 1,638 ■ LOGAN/NARA VISA, NM – 980 ac. +/- w/940.6 ac. farm which is located in three tracts in close proximity ac. CRP, irrigated in the past, land lays good & is located on to each other. Seller will consider dividing the property to Buyer’s specifications. 4 good, useable, late model ¼ mi. the north side of Hwy. 54. & 2 brand new ½ mi. sprinklers are installed, 8 ■ TEXLINE SPECIAL – 472.4 ac. irr., on Dalhart/ sprinklers Clayton hwy. in New Mexico, adjoins the Grassland w/ new wells have been drilled & completed. 160 ac. currently in contract to be added to the 1,638 ac. for a total of Organic Potential.

1,798 acres.

Please view our website for details on these properties, choice TX, NM & CO ranches (large & small), choice ranches in the high rainfall areas of OK, irr./dryland/CRP & commercial properties. We need your listings on any types of ag properties in TX., NM, OK & CO.

521 West Second St., Portales, NM 88130

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

COLETTA RAY

Pioneer Realty 1304 Pile Street, Clovis, NM 88101

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

TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES ONE OF TEXAS’ BEST - 840 ac, Hunt Co., TX. 20 miles to McKinney, 30 miles to Dallas, 8 miles to Greenville. Beautiful modern 4,000 sq ft home sets high on hiill with view to all of the ranch. 20 lakes and dirt tanks, excellent grass, barns, cattle pens, nice barn, apartment, 8 pastures.

All this 3.4 million. Owner ready to retire.

UNDER T C A R T CON

Near Conchas and Ute Lakes - 1616 S Sixth St. 3 bdr, 1 full and a 3/4 bath 1600 sq. ft. home on a large lot in Tucumcari, drive thru carport with large yard, great neighborhood, near all schools and Mesa College.

Ute Lake - Logan, NM - 715 Fox Drive - 1/2 mile from boat ramp, fenced w/chain link. Nice 2 bdrm, 1 bath mobile home with sturdy carport on each side, and very nice deck on east side.

Lots of pictures of both properties on website

See these and other properties at www.buenavista-nm.com

M U R N E Y , ASSOCIATES, REALTORS® 1625 E. Primrose • Springfield, MO 65804 • murney.com • 823-2300

See all my listings at: paulmcgilliard.murney.com Paul McGilliard - Cell: 417/839-5096 • 1-800/743-0336

Missouri Land Sales • A STUNNING HORSE FACILITY. Situated in a desirable area, Rogersville schools, beautiful 4,139 sq.ft home. 4 bdrms and 4 baths, a 7,200 sq. ft. indoor riding arena, 5 horse stalls expandable to 7 (12 x 12), a 72 x 12 walkway, 36 x 12 tack room, feed room, 72 x 24 hay loft, outdoor wash rack, 120 x 12 outside overhangs, individual fenced horse runs from stalls. Entire property is fenced annd cross fenced, 5 pastures and acreage for hay. This home has geo-thermal heating and cooling, as well as a full Generac backup generator, all set up.

Also included is a full sprinkler system on all floors of this home. Three fireplaces (one on each level). So much to offer, and quite unique to find something this well-built. A must-see property. MLS#60148628 • GREENFIELD TRADING POST. Available for sale at the corner of Hwy. 160 (Grand) & H Hwy. Newer tile floors, ADA bathrooms, outside storage tanks, 4 double side gas pumps. Owner reports a brisk business with sales around $1m last year. Store features a bait room for fishing at nearby Stockton Lake. Property has roll up garage door for easy storage of equipment and inventory. Vendor for popular Hunt Pizza with small eat-in area. Multiple coolers, coffee makers and shelving are included in sale. 2080 sf in store, 1120 sf for storage of inventory. This is an unbranded station. MLS# 80140975.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

BEAVER CREEK RANCH: about 82,000 acres - with 2,700 deeded acres plus contiguous USFS & BLM permits for 450 pair; 580+- acres irrigated alfalfa, pasture, and meadow from Beaver Creek water rights and one irrigation well. 3 homes, 2 hay barns, 4 winter feedlots each w/ 250 ton barns, 2 large reservoirs, can run up to 500-600 cows YEAR ROUND. $5,400,000

Joe Priest Real Estate

ROUND HOUSE RANCH: approx. 291 acres just outside Redding, CA. Adjudicated Water Rights from Oak Run Creek – about 45 acres flood irrigated & well set up fields & irrigation system. Springs plus 4 ponds. Like new Headquarters tucked in next to a pond and beautiful view overlooking the irrigated fields. Additional caretaker or rental house near ranch entrance, equipment shed, large shop. All like new. Reduced Asking Price $1,995,000

1-800/671-4548

joepriestre.net • joepriestre@earthlink.com

New Mexico Properties For Sale...

THE100 100 RANCH – Ifare you are looking for a quality cattle ranchsuitable then the Ranch iscattle just what you need.

The 100 include Ranch is THE RANCH – If you looking for a quality cattle ranch for100 a registered operation.

Improvements a scenic, well improved with The stunning views of Sacramento Jicarilla Mountains.

Located approximately $2,500,000 Call for then the 100 Ranch is justcattle what ranch you need.

100 Ranch is the nearby two sets of pens, and shop, and hay barn. Price: mileswell northwest of cattle Carrizozo, Mexico on the Chupadera Mesa.

The ranch is comprised of 15,931 deeded acres, 30,680 a brochure or view on my website: www.ranchesnm.com a30 scenic, improved ranchNew with stunning views of the nearby and Jicarilla Mountains.

Located federalSacramento BLM lease acres and 9,208 NM State leaseapproxacres. The maximum grazing capacity of the ranch is listed at 1,200 A.U.Y.L. BLACKWATER DRAW RANCH Niceextensive well improved ranch imately 30 miles northwest of Carrizozo, onno thestart up costs.

The ranch is fully operational, ready toNew turnMexico out with Watered with six wells and– an pipeline system. located just 15Access minutes downtown NMwith Chupadera ranchonis comprised of 15,931 Ample big Mesa. game The hunting the ranch to includedeeded elk, mule deer,property antelope and oryx. to from the public landRoswell, is limited along and south of U.S. Highway 70/380.

Improvements include acres, 30,680 federal BLM lease acres and 9,208 NM State approximately 7,000 acres of private land gated and locked. The price includes all ranch vehicles and equipment. The 100 Ranch a customwith designed guest house, Quonset Barn, LLC. lease acres. maximum capacity of It theisranch is listed has had justThe two owners grazing since the 1940s. one of a kind. Co-listed Mossyrock Oakhome, Properties NM Ranch & Luxury, barns, and a good set of pipe pens. Partitioned into two larger atPrice: 1,200$11,000,000 A.U.Y.L. The ranch is fully operational, ready turnwebsite: out Call for a brochure or view ontomy www.ranchesnm.com pastures and two smaller pastures. Acreage includes 2,185 with no start up costs. Watered six wells and just an extensive COCHISE RANCH – Ranchwith property located west of Roswell, NM along U.S.Lease Highway 70/380 to Ruidoso, deeded acresand andadjacent 320 NMtoState acres.

The Blackwater pipeline system. Ample big game hunting on the ranch to include NM. Comprised of 6,607 deeded acres and 80 acres of NM State Lease acres.

Water is provided by three solar wells and pipelines.

Draw Ranch is adjacent to the Cochise Ranch, the two may be elk, mule deer, antelope and oryx. Access to the public land is Fenced into several pastures and small traps suitable for a registered cattlevery operation.

Improvements sets of pens, $1,350,000include Call fortwo a brochure or combined easily. Price: limited with approximately 7,000 acres of private land gated and shop, and hay barn. Price: $2,500,000 Call for a brochure or view onon mymywebsite: view website:www.ranchesnm.com www.ranchesnm.com locked. The price includes all ranch vehicles and equipment.

BLACKWATER Nice the well1940s. improved property located just 15 minutes from downtown Roswell, NM The 100 Ranch hasDRAW had just RANCH two owners–since It is ranch KELLEY PECAN ORCHARD – 10.2guest acreshouse, with over 230 Barn, along of U.S. 70/380.

Improvements a custom designed rock home, Quonset one of aand kind.south Co-listed withHighway Mossy Oak Properties NM Ranch &include mature producing pecan trees located just west of Roswell, barns, LLC. and aPrice: good$11,000,000 set of pipe pens.

Partitioned into and two smaller pastures. Acreage includes 2,185 deeded Call for a brochure or two viewlarger on pastures Luxury, NM. Artesian water rights with one well supplies irrigation acres and 320 NM State Lease acres. The Blackwater Draw Ranch is adjacent to the Cochise Ranch, the two may be combined my website: www.ranchesnm.com water through a newly installed sprinkler system to the orchard. very easily. Price: $1,350,000 Call for a brochure or view on my website: www.ranchesnm.com Improvements include a large 5,400 square foot two story coloCOCHISE RANCH – Ranch property located just west of KELLEY PECAN ORCHARD – 10.2 acres with over 230 nial mature pecan west of Living Roswell, style producing residence that hastrees been located featuredjust in Southern Roswell, NM along and adjacent to U.S. Highway 70/380 to NM. Artesian water rights with one well supplies irrigation Magazine. water through a newly installed sprinkler system to the This property is one of a kind.

Call for an appointment Ruidoso, NM. Comprised of 6,607 deeded acres and 80 acres orchard. Improvements include a large 5,400 square foot two storya look colonial residence has$975,000 been featured Price: Call for ain to take or forstyle a color brochure.that of NM State Lease acres. Water is provided by three solar wells Southern Living Magazine. This property is one of a kind. Call brochure for an appointment take a www.ranchesnm.com look or for a color brochure. or view on mytowebsite: and pipelines. Fenced into several pastures and small traps Price: $975,000 Call for a brochure or view on my website: www.ranchesnm.com CONTACT

575-226-0671 www.buenavista-nm.com

230 AC GAME & RETREAT that is a dream. Lakes, woods, meadows, game galore, 35 miles out of Dallas, Kaufman Co.

BAR M REAL ESTATE

Bar M Real Estate

Joe Stubblefield & Associates 13830 Western St., Amarillo, TX 806/622-3482 • cell 806/674-2062 joes3@suddenlink.net Michael Perez Associates Nara Visa, NM • 575/403-7970

Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker

Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker Bar M Real Estate, LLC P.O. Box 428, Roswell, NM 88202 Roswell, NM 88202 Office: 575-622-5867 Cell: 575-420-1237 Office: 575-622-5867 • Cell: 575-420-1237 www.ranchesnm.com

www.ranchesnm.com

33 years in the ranch business – see www.ranch-lands.com for videos & brochures

JACKSON RIVER RANCH: New listing - Sacramento River, Bear Creek, and Ash Creek waterfront ranch!

664 acres with a Custom Home of 6,600 sq. ft with two garages & 2,700 sq. ft veranda adjoining the pool and spa. Equestrian barn with 8 stalls, feed barns, shop, Rodeo Arena, plus 1,800 sq. ft. caretaker or guest home.

Currently about 80 acres flood irrigated along the Sacramento River and Bear Creek – could potentially irrigate up to 270 acres. Rolling oak covered foothills and meadows complete the ranch – well balanced cattle or horse ranch. Mt. Shasta & Mt. Lassen views. Tremendous Fishing on the Sacramento River See brochure for complete information! $6,199,000

BILL WRIGHT, SHASTA LAND SERVICES, INC. 530-941-8100 • DRE# 00963490 • www.ranch-lands.com

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

WAGON MOUND RANCH, Mora/ Harding Counties, NM. 8,880.80 +/Total Acres, a substantial holding with good mix of grazing land and broken country off rim into Canadian River.

Has modern water system located 17 miles east of Wagon Mound off pavement then 3 miles on county road. Two bedroom historic house, once a stage stop. Wildlife include antelope, mule deer and some elk. $2,710,000 $2,440,000 FRENCH TRACT FARM, 491.55 +/deeded acres, Colfax County, NM two pivots, some gated pipe, 371 irrigation shares in AVID, House, barn, close to exit 419 off I25 on HWY 58.

All in one contiguous parcel with access on all sides. $700,000 RATON MILLION DOLLAR VIEW, Colfax County, NM. 97.68 +/- deeded acres in 2 parcels with excellent

home, big shop, wildlife, a true million dollar view at the end of a private road. $489,000. Also listed with the house and one parcel for $375,000 MIAMI 20 ACRES, Colfax County, NM quality 2,715 sqft adobe home, barn, grounds, fruit trees and mature trees.

Extremely private setting. REDUCED $355,000. This is a must see. Also listed with same house with 10 +/- deeded acres for $310,000 MAXWELL 19.50 ACRES, Colfax County, NM quality extensive remodeled two bedroom, one bathroom home with water rights, outbuildings for livestock in NE NM. Great south facing porch for sipping iced tea cooling off at 6,000 ft elevation. Would make great summer getaway and winter ski base. $270,000

CONTRACT P E N D IN G

MORA COUNTY 160 +/- ACRES, 12 miles south east of Wagon Mound, remote, excellent solar well good mix of sub irrigated and range. Small cabin. $154,000

January 15, 2020

Livestock Market Digest

The View FROM THE BACK SIDE

The John Wayne of Washington

BY BARRY DENTON

(The views expressed in this column are not necessarilty those of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association or this publication)

I

hope that everyone reading this article got to attend the National Finals Rodeo this year in Las Vegas, Nevada. If not make plans to go next year.

Since Barnum and Bailey are gone, the NFR is the greatest show on earth! For some reason I thought this year’s NFR was the best I have ever seen.

It was exciting each and every go round. Most of the World Champion races came down to the last go round before they were decided, how exciting!

While my wife and I were at the National Finals we were invited to a private event at the South Pointe Hotel and Casino.

It was a party of about 20 people prior to the opening of the John Wayne Exhibit there. The party included the owner of the South Pointe and a leading proponent of Las Vegas, Michael Gaughan, two of John Wayne’s sons both Patrick and Ethan, as well as his granddaughter Jackie Wayne.

One of the best parts of the party is that Jackie Wayne is part of a 3 girl band called “Runaway June” who just spent the last several months opening for Carrie Underwood. They also have three hits on the charts and were gracious enough to give us a private concert.

However, the highlight of the day was being able to tour the John Wayne Exhibit that his son Ethan had put together.

If you are in Las Vegas or have plans to go there, you will enjoy the information and many arti-

facts there showing you the life of John Wayne and done by the people that knew him best. It is a tremendous display, so go see it!

Let’s stop and think about John Wayne for a minute, and what he stood for. Yes, while I agree that he was an actor, he was bigger than life. The characters he portrayed were people that were committed to doing the right thing no matter what.

They were people that endured hardship, pain, and misery to accomplish their goals.

The incredible thing about John Wayne is that he mirrored that in his personal life. He came from humble beginnings, worked hard, and eventually became very successful. Here in the southwest John Wayne is remembered for his wonderful Hereford cattle from his famous ranch, the 26 Bar of Eager, Arizona. He also farmed cotton with his Arizona partner Louis Johnson in Stanfield Arizona.

Because John Wayne’s movie character and his own character were never perfect, but he struggled for the right thing, people were drawn to him. He wasn’t a saint, but a man that believed in things bigger than himself. I’m not going to sit here and analyze his movies, but the fact is, that John Wayne stood for America, and the American Dream. Even in his private life he took many political stands against what may have been popular, to remain with what he thought was right.

It seems that we have a new “John Wayne” in the White House and he is standing for what is right, and the American people. No matter what they throw at him he does not quit or apologize, he just keeps fighting.

Golden Globes Meals Meatless to Raise Environmental Awareness

BY JOHN BOWDEN / THE HILL

T

he Golden Globes announced on January 2, 2020 that the menu for attendees at this year’s awards show will not include meat.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which hosts the Globes, said that the decision was made to draw attention to the connection between Americans’ diets and climate change.

“If there’s a way we can, not change the world, but save the planet, maybe we can get the Golden Globes to send a signal and draw attention to the issue about climate change,” HFPA President Lorenzo Soria told the AP. “The food we eat, the way we grow the food we eat, the way we dispose of the food is one of the large contributors to the climate crisis.”

One dish on Sunday’s menu reportedly consists of king oyster mushroom scallops on top of wild mushroom risotto with

roasted Brussels sprouts, a dish concocted by Beverly Hilton executive chef Matthew Morgan.

Also prepared by Morgan for the menu is a chilled golden beet soup.

Morgan told the AP that he thought the meatless menu would send a positive message to viewers and attendees.

“It was a little shocking when first mentioned, because of being very close to the actual Globes and having already decided on a menu,” he said. “But once we thought about it and the message that it sent, we were really excited about it. That’s something I stand behind myself.”

“People were basically saying it’s too late, we’re ready with all the orders, the holidays and all that,” Soria added to the AP. “But after we began discussions, meeting for one or two days, [the hotel] accepted the change completely. They started to experiment with how to do plant-based meals that was not just their symbolic steps, but also something that guests will enjoy.”

This week with President Trump being under siege with the impeachment hearings, he has had one of his most accomplished weeks.

Despite the news media telling us how bad President Trump is 24 hours a day, he has been racking up the points.

Here are just a few: He has an agreement on the new US-Mexico-Canada trade deal, a new budget including border wall funding to the tune of $1.3 billion and it blocks any government shutdown; House approval of the new US Space Force; Improved government family leave; a US-China trade agreement; approval of his 50th federal appeals court judge; he signed a pro-Israel executive order pertaining to anti-Semitism; he got his new Food & Drug Administration chief approved; and Wall Street hit another record high.

This guy just keeps on going forward in spite of the fools trying to trip him up. It looks to me like the longer the impeachment goes on, the easier President Trump will win re-election in 2020. One thing about it, as ridiculous as the impeachment hearings and the coup by the congressional democrats gets, he will figure out how to use it to his advantage.

Perseverance and tenacity are what got him elected in the first place. That is what Americans admire most. I can even see some of the House Democrats coming to their senses and withdrawing from supporting

Page 7 impeachment as it certainly will not get them re-elected in 2020.

Once again this just proves that the American people are smarter than the US Congress as it’s easy to see who is helping them the most.

Now, we have six corporations controlling 95 percent of the media in this country. They are all harping about how bad Mr. Trump is, but he just keeps neutering them left and right.

Have you noticed that not many people pay any attention to, or believe anything the national news media is saying? For the last several years they have

become “The Boy That Cried Wolf”.

Like John Wayne our embattled President just keeps right on fighting for the freedom of the American people and what is right. When is the last time that we had a President of this magnitude? I have not seen one in my lifetime. No matter what, he presses on.

We all have enemies in this life, but you cannot become a victim of them. Like John Wayne said, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

We truly have a great leader in America.

Angus. America’s Breed.

Radale Tiner,

Regional Manager

New Mexico Texas

A reliable business partner is difficult to come by. Contact Radale Tiner to locate Angus genetics, select marketing options tailored to your needs, and to access American Angus Association® programs and services. Put the business breed to work for you.

Contact Regional Manager Radale Tiner: Cell: 979-492-2663 rtiner@angus.org

3201 Frederick Ave. | St. Joseph, MO 64506 816-383-5100 | www.ANGUS.org © 2019-2020 American Angus Association

Page 8

Livestock Market Digest

January 15, 2020

Don’t Be Led Astray By Fake Meat Marketing

BY ROBERT E. MCKNIGHT, JR., PRESIDENT, TEXAS & SOUTHWESTERN CATTLE RAISERS ASSOCIATION

R

ecently, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News ran a commentary piece from columnist Chris Tomlinson attacking beef in favor of plant-based proteins. Like most vegan marketing, it does a fantastic job of cherry-picking data and using opinion instead of facts and legitimate science.

Let’s break it down and separate fact from opinion.

Tomlinson begins by pointing to informal taste tests he conducts with friends, comparing burgers made with real beef to plant-based imitations. No one can argue that taste preferences are very personal things, and we cattle producers have been known to have an independent streak ourselves.

The problem comes when he asserts that people should prefer imitation products because they “are worried about their health and the environment.”

These claims have come un-

der increasing fire by the medical and environmental community as more legitimate research begins to contradict the advertising rhetoric touted by the manufacturers of plant-based imitations.

Fact: Soy and pea-based burgers are not healthier than their 100% beef counterparts.

A breakdown of the nutritional properties of both reveals that 93% lean beef has fewer calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium than the plant-based imitators. Beef does have more cholesterol, but it also has more protein.

Many medical professionals have expressed concerns about the plant-based meat substitutes because they do not offer better nutrition but do contain dozens of highly processed, laboratory-invented ingredients.

The healthfulness of those ingredients still leaves questions for many researchers.

One only needs to look at certain pet foods as an example.

Once deemed safe, the FDA has now launched an investigation after increasing numbers of dogs were diagnosed with a rare

American Gelbvieh Association Elects Board of Directors

M

embers of the American Gelbvieh Association (AGA) elected five candidates to the board of directors at the annual membership meeting held December 6, 2019, during the 49th Annual AGA National Convention in Billings, Montana.

Newly elected board members are Mark Covington, Montrose, Colorado, and Tom Vehige, Billings, Missouri. Re-elected to serve a second term were John Carrel, Columbus, Montana; Leland Clark, Barnard, Kansas; and Klint Sickler, Gladstone, North Dakota.

The AGA Board of Directors also elected individuals to serve in leadership positions on the executive committee for 2020. Dan McCarty, Rifle, Colorado, was elected president. Klint Sickler was elected vice president. John Carrel was elected secretary and Derek Martin, Buklin,

Kansas, was elected treasurer.

Other members of the board include: Dustin Aherin, Phillipsburg, Kansas; Todd Bickett, DVM, Chickamauga, Georgia; Jeff Loveless, Spanish Fork, Utah; Lori Maude, Hermosa, South Dakota; Andrea Murray, Kingfisher, Oklahoma; Randy Sienknecht, Gladbrook, Iowa; Jeff Swanson, Oxford, Nebraska; and Lowell Rogers, DVM, Seminary, Mississippi.

Retiring members of the 2019 AGA board of directors were Doug Hughes, Max Meadows, Virginia, and Walter Teeter, Mount Ulla, North Carolina, who served as treasurer for three years.

The AGA would like to thank those members for their years of service on the AGA Board of Directors.

The American Gelbvieh Association is a progressive beef cattle breed association representing 1,000 members and approximately 40,000 cows assessed annually in a performance-oriented total herd reporting system.

heart condition while eating a diet high in pea-based proteins.

The exact cause isn’t yet known, and a big question mark hangs in the mind of many pet owners.

On the environmental side, proponents of the new imitation meat products like to point to global numbers developed by the U.N. and others. I won’t argue the global numbers, but anyone who has traveled internationally should know that America and Americans are different.

We place a much higher priority on sustainability and environmental concerns across the board than a country like China, whether it be manufacturing, transportation, or raising livestock.

The author, in his piece, states that “the livestock industry, much like fossil fuel producers, isn’t on board with shrinking its business.” He is wrong.

Fact: Today, we produce the same amount of beef as we did in 1977, using 36% fewer cattle.

Thanks to significant investments in animal health, welfare, nutrition and genetics, Ameri-

can cattle producers have spent decades reducing our carbon footprint and bettering the sustainability of our industry.

It’s also worth noting that those plant-based proteins have a carbon footprint too. All the peas and soybeans must be planted and grown on significant acreage using fossil fuels and insecticides, transported to manufacturing plants, and turned into something meatlike using chemicals and energy-intensive processes.

Cattle, on the other hand, actually play a role in sequestering carbon. Year-round, grasslands grazed by cattle absorb the greenhouse gases released by cattle, cars and everything else. Research has shown that healthy, well-maintained pastures and soil absorb more greenhouse gases than lands that are not maintained. Hundreds of years ago, American bison fulfilled this role, but today, domestic cattle fill the void.

Since we raise these types of concerns, it may sound like we are against plant-based meat alternatives and non-meat burgers. We’re not.

As Tomlinson points out, they’ve been around for decades, and we don’t care if it’s called a burger either.

We support the free market and consumer choice. If a consumer chooses a soy burger over a beef burger, that’s their option, but it shouldn’t be based on misleading statements, packaging or advertising.

That’s why we support legislation like the Real MEAT Act of 2019.

Tomlinson refers to the bill as “silly legislation,” that will “hobble the sale of meat alternatives,” but it’s hard to see the folly in defining beef as beef and imitation products as not beef.

How is clarity for American consumers silly? How will telling the truth hobble the sale of meat alternatives?

My opinion: Tomlinson’s writing is a prime example of why the legislation is necessary. The facts are important, and Americans shouldn’t be led astray by fancy marketing campaigns or unfounded assertions about plant-based imitation meat being better, healthier or more environmentally friendly.

Cattle Market Factors to Watch in 2020

BY DERRELL PEEL - OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY

T

he New Year brings with it several changes in ongoing market dynamics, some new opportunities, and some new risks and continuing challenges for cattle and beef markets. The watch list of beef and cattle market factors includes the typical suspects including trade; domestic demand; supply dynamics; competing meats; and feed and input markets. However, changes in several factors towards the end of 2019 suggest a somewhat different tone for markets in 2020.

The international market situation is somewhat clearer now after trade disruptions and uncertainty strangled many agricultural markets for much of the past two years. The likely completion of the revised NAFTA agreement (USMCA) in the coming weeks removes a significant source of uncertainty for agricultural markets.

A new bilateral trade agreement with Japan will restore a more competitive position for beef and should stop the

erosion of U.S. market share, which became very apparent in that important beef export market in the second half of 2019.

Though details are currently lacking, the anticipated Phase 1 trade agreement with China is expected to significantly improve the trade situation for numerous agricultural markets and may allow beef to begin building a meaningful market position in the rapidly growing beef market in China.

African Swine Fever will undoubtedly be a major factor affecting protein markets globally in 2020. The disease has caused a current pork deficit in China and other Asian markets and is found in numerous other countries in Europe and Africa. The exact magnitude of impacts are uncertain and there is no indication that the disease will be effectively controlled any time soon. The reduction in global meat production will support all protein markets and is expected to boost U.S. exports of pork, poultry and beef in 2020.

The beef supply situation is expected to be more supportive in the coming year with cyclical

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herd expansion over and beef production peaking. The current status of the cattle cycle will be confirmed in the Cattle inventory report to be released the end of January. In general, cattle numbers are expected to be down slightly year over year.

Beef production is expected to peak fractionally higher in 2020 with heavier carcass weights offsetting a slight decline in cattle slaughter. Carcass weights finished 2019 above year earlier levels and will bear watching in the coming year.

Total U.S. meat production will once again push to new record levels in 2020 with beef, pork and poultry all at or near record levels. Trade improvements will be critical to provide a strong international component of meat demand in addition to domestic demand.

Overall, improvements in net meat trade (more exports and fewer imports) are expected to offset a significant portion of increased meat production and limit the growth in domestic meat consumption.

There are risks that could challenge beef markets in the coming year.

Global trade tensions, though reduced, will continue to add uncertainty to markets. Geopolitical tensions, the U.S. presidential election, energy prices and currency values will all contribute to market volatility and could negatively affect input costs and consumer spending.

The U.S. economy is projected to slow a bit more year over year in 2020 and continues to be vulnerable as sluggish growth, which is riding on low unemployment and strong consumer spending, masks underlying weakness in manufacturing and investment. In summary, 2020 offers better opportunities for cattle and beef markets but producers are advised to keep an eye on a host of macro-economic and global factors, as well as evolving cattle market conditions, and proceed with caution.

January 15, 2020

Livestock Market Digest

Page 9

Industry Shifts to Higher-Quality Beef Market share of consumer spending increases with higher-grading carcasses.

BY WES ISHMAEL / BEEF MAGAZINE

A

couple of decades ago, at a breed association meeting, an executive from one of the nation’s largest beef packers spent close to an hour explaining what kind of fed cattle had the most value to packers, and why.

Toward the end of that presentation, an earnest producer asked, “But what’s the target, specifically? Just give us target and we’ll hit it.”

“The same as at least the last 20 years — Choice, Yield Grade 2,” replied the clearly exasperated packer.

Producers in the crowd could be forgiven for being just as nonplussed. Value-based marketing and carcass value grids were still in diapers, crawling haltingly and unsteadily forward. Most fed cattle traded in the spot cash market for an average price, or a little on either side. There was little, if any, economic incentive to raise cattle capable of achieving the packer’s dog-eared goal, so lots didn’t.

That’s not the same as saying that producers ignored the consumer, but what they heard ended up being wrong.

Unraveling consumer demand For instance, the diet-health (cholesterol) scare helped halve consumer beef demand and crush cattle prices from about the early 1980s through the mid1990s.

“We thought the consumer wanted leaner cattle. We thought the consumer wanted us to take the marbling out of cattle,” remembers Randy Blach, CattleFax CEO. He spoke about the future of beef marketing at the 16th annual Holt Cat Symposium on Excellence in Ranch Management at the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management in Kingsville, Texas.

Producers added leanness to the national herd via Continental genetics, reducing overall carcass quality along the way. Blach notes that about one out of four steaks failed consumers.

As beef demand and prices faltered, more cow-calf producers lost too much money and left the business. In fact, according to Blach, about 400,000 beef producers exited the business between 1976 and 1996. The drought took another 100,000 producers from 2002 to 2012.

Turns out, consumers really meant they disliked the amount of outside fat they saw on beef cuts. Turns out, the diet-health scare was a sham.

Beef gaining in market share A confluence of events and realities began swaying the industry back toward more carcass quality.

By the time beef demand was at its ebb, Certified Angus Beef was 20 years old and coming into its own, having established a premium structure for qualifying carcasses that trickled back down the chain. More fed cattle began selling away from the average spot cash market, and in carcass grids and formulas that rewarded and discounted individual carcass merit.

More retail beef was branded, making consumers a promise.

Industry structure began shifting to accommodate an increasingly

differentiated industry. And so on.

“We’re putting a lot of quality back into the cattle, and consumers are responding,” Blach says.

In 2005, 55.7 percent of fed cattle graded Choice and Prime.

This year, 80.2 percent did. Select-grading carcasses declined from 36.5 percent to 16.8 percent this year.

In other terms, Blach explains that the industry was producing 12 billion pounds of Choice and Prime beef in 2005. This year, it will produce more than 18 billion pounds of that quality.

Compared to 2005, there will be 6 million more head of cattle producing Choice and Prime carcasses, and 6 million head fewer churning out carcasses that grade Select or worse.

Since the beef-demand low in 1998, consumer demand for Choice and higher-grading beef increased 51 percent, while declining 6 percent for Select.

“I believe what this is telling you is that our industry is making a major change away from being a commodity market to being a product-driven market. We’re moving from being a supply-driven market to a demand-driven market,” Blach says.

“We’re not fully branded yet, but we’re making a major structural shift in our industry today, and consumers are responding.

That’s my belief when I look at the data.”

Widening gap among grades Even though the volume of Choice and Prime beef basically doubled, the price spreads between Choice and Select, and between Choice and premium Choice (upper two-thirds of Choice) continue to widen over time.

“This is a very strong signal.

This is a major shift that’s taking place in our industry. We need to understand the ramifications,” Blach says.

What’s more, the price consumers are willing to pay for beef compared to pork and poultry continues to rise.

Beef’s market share of retail spending increased 7 percent from the demand low through last year. It was about 46 percent last year, compared to approximately 24 percent for chicken and 27 percent for pork, according to Blach.

Conversely, beef market share of domestic consumer consumption was 40 percent to 42 percent in 1979-80. It’s 28 percent today. Poultry grew from about 30 percent of consumer consumption in 1980 to near 50 percent last year.

Since the demand low for beef in 1998, Blach says consumer spending for beef increased by $62 billion. During the same time, consumer spending for pork and poultry combined increased by $57 billion.

“It’s about market share of the consumer wallet, in my opinion,” he says. “We’ve got 28 percent market share of consumer consumption, and we’ve outgrown those other industries from a consumer spending standpoint.

“We’ve gotten very intentional about what we’re trying to produce, and we’re getting strong enough consumer signals to duplicate that on a regular basis.

“We’ve got a lot of cattle out there today that are grading 90 percent or greater Choice and Prime. It’s amazing what we can do when we get focused from a selection standpoint with our ge-

be boxes that we check that will be part of the new value proposition in the industry,” Blach says.

“We are going to get paid for more of these things, doing things right, being able to tell the story. I’m not sure when, but I believe this is the next step. A very few are already monetizing those things today.”

Of course, the proverbial wheels could jump track, as with the diet-health scare, if the industry misses or misinterprets what consumers have to say.

Think about the current mountain of misinformation pertaining to beef’s impact on the environment, — how it stacks up to a growing list of alternative proteins and all of the rest.

“What is the thing that could have a similar impact as the diet-health scare?” Blach asks the crowd.

“Could it be this situation of not being able to tell the real story to our new consumers, the millennials and Generation Xers? Could it be the same situation if we don’t get aggressive as an industry and take it on?”

netics today.”

Further differentiation ahead Bottom-line, Blach believes the cattle market is separating and moving away from one of averages.

He explains cattle hitting grid and formula targets commonly can bring a premium of $3 to $7 per cwt, and as much as $6 to $10 with the recent record-wide quality price spreads.

Since about 2013, 71 percent to 80 percent of fed cattle traded in formulas and grids or via forward contracting. Of those, 57 percent to 66 percent traded on formulas. Blach believes grids and formulas will continue to encompass the majority of fed cattle marketings.

He also sees more premium and discount points based on further segregation and differentiation. Think of things like weaning verification, vaccination certification, age and source verification, performance history, and compliance with specific value-added programs.

“I think all of these things will

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Page 10

Livestock Market Digest

January 15, 2020

New Rule Reveals Why Congress & the President Favor Importers & Ignore U.S. Ranchers SOURCE: R-CALF VIA TRI STATE LIVESTOCK NEWS

Billings, Mont. – On December 30, 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a proposed rule to reapportion the Beef Checkoff Program’s Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). The proposed rule reveals that importers control more cattle inventories than any state in the United States except Texas.

To make its calculations regarding who controls domestic cattle inventories, the USDA counts imported live cattle and converts imported beef into a live cattle equivalent. The agency uses a conversion factor of 592 pounds to determine the

live cattle equivalent. For example, 1 billion pounds of imported beef is the rough equivalent of 1.7 million live cattle.

According to the proposed rule, importers now control about 6.9 million cattle in the U.S. market. Only the state of Texas, which controls about 12.6 million cattle exceeds the importers’ control. Neither Kansas nor Nebraska, which are the nation’s second and third top cattle inventory states, can compete with the importers’ dominant control.

According to R-CALF USA, the combination of cattle and beef imports represent the largest agricultural commodities imported from Canada and Mexico. R-CALF USA CEO Bill

Bullard said USDA data show the U.S. imported $4.1 billion in cattle and beef from Canada and Mexico in 2018, which far surpasses the second-place agricultural import that year, malt beverages at $3.7 billion.

Bullard says the importers dominant control over cattle inventories in all but one state affords them extraordinary influence in both Congress and the Administration, enabling them to drown-out the voices of United States cattle farmers and ranchers.

“It’s disheartening that Congress and the Administration are listening to importers while ignoring hard-working U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers. The $4.1 billion of imported, cheap-

er cattle and beef from Canada and Mexico is being sold to consumers across the U.S. without disclosing their foreign origins.

This prevents consumers from choosing to support United States cattle farmers and ranchers through their purchases,” Bullard said.

“U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) supporters and the Administration only disclose the roughly $1.9 billion in cattle and beef exports to Canada and Mexico and convey that this is good for U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers; yet they fail to mention the $4.1 billion in imports that completely overwhelm our exports.” He continued, “This is wrong.”

Bullard said cattle and beef

importers are vehemently opposed to mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) because they do not want consumers to know the origins of their cheaper-sourced products.

He said their overwhelming influence in Washington, D.C. helps explain their success in preventing the inclusion of COOL in the USMCA, which recently passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“United States cattle farmers and ranchers must now focus on the U.S. Senate to attempt to overcome the importers’ undue lobbying influence that prevented the restoration of COOL for beef in the U.S. House’s version of the USMCA,” Bullard concluded.

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ore lawmakers are pushing for plantbased “meat” and cell-cultured protein products to be clearly labeled as “imitation” meat. The new Real MEAT (Marketing Edible Artificials Truthfully) Act of 2019 would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and require that “any imitation meat food product, beef, or beef product shall be deemed to be misbranded unless its label bears, in type of uniform size and prominence, the word ‘imitation’ immediately before or after the name of the food and a statement that clearly indicates the product is not derived from or does not contain meat.”

The bill reinforces the FDA provisions for false or misleading food labels. Under the bill, the FDA will have to notify the USDA if an imitation meat product is found to be misbranded, and the Secretary of Agriculture is granted authority to seek enforcement action if the FDA fails to undertake enforcement within 30 days of notifying USDA. “With this bill, consumers can be sure that the meat products they are buying are indeed real meat,” says Congressman Roger Marshall (R-KS), who co-introduced the bill in the House of Representatives with Congressman Anthony Brindisi (D-NY).

The House bill (H.R.4881) was introduced in October and a companion bill was introduced to the Senate in December by Senator Deb Fischer, (R-NE). In an editorial for the Wall Street Journal, Fischer cited the need to distinguish more clearly between real meat products and imitation foods to clear up confusion about the nutritional value and inspection process behind the different products.

The proposed legislation is supported by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association.

“A growing number of fake meat products are clearly trying to mislead consumers about what they’re trying to get them to buy,” says NCBA President and Tennessee cattlewoman Jennifer Houston in a statement. “Consumers need to be protected from deceptive marketing practices, and cattle producers need to be able to compete on a fair, level playing field. We want to thank Congressmen Brindisi and Marshall for leading the way on this very important issue.”

“The Real MEAT Act satisfies part of USCA’s ask to USDA FSIS in its 2018 petition for rulemaking by defining ‘beef’ as a product that is derived exclusively from the flesh of a bovine animal,” Lia Biondo, Director of Policy and Outreach for the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, told Drovers.

USDA Proposes to Reapportion Cattlemen’s Beef Board

R.L. Robbs

angus

Act to address food mislabeling

SOURCE: USDA AMS MEAT & POULTRY

T

he U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is proposing to adjust membership on the Beef Promotion and Research Board to reflect shifts in cattle inventory levels since the last board reapportionment in 2017, as required by the rules governing the board.

Under the proposal, total board membership would increase by two members, from 99 to 101, and would include the following changes: • Domestic cattle producer representation on the board would increase from 92 to 94 members.

• The states of Nebraska, Texas and Wisconsin would each gain one member.

• The Southeast Unit, made up of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, would be dissolved.

• Alabama and Georgia would become stand-alone states due to each having

enough inventory to qualify for a position on the board.

• South Carolina would be added to the Mid-Atlantic Unit, which would then consist of South Carolina and West Virginia, and would qualify for one member.

• Maryland would move from the Mid-Atlantic Unit to the Northeast Unit, which would then consist of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont, and qualify for one member.

The revised representation would be effective with nominations in 2020 for appointments effective early in 2021.

These adjustments are based on requirements of the Beef Promotion and Research Order, authorized by the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985. The order provides for a review of geographic distribution of U.S. cattle inventories and the volume of imported cattle, beef and beef products at least every three years but not more than every

two years. After the review, board membership must be reapportioned accordingly.

A state or unit must have an inventory of 500,000 head of cattle to be represented on the board and is entitled to an additional member for each additional 1 million head of cattle. In considering reapportionment, the board reviewed cattle inventories and cattle, beef and beef product import data from 2017 through 2019.

The proposed rule for this action was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 30, 2019. Written comments must be received by Feb. 28, 2020.

Submit comments concerning the proposed change online at www.regulations.gov or to Agricultural Marketing Specialist Kahl Sesker at Kahl.

Sesker@usda.gov or (202) 253-8253, or send to Research and Promotion Division, Livestock and Poultry Program, AMS, USDA, Room 2610-S, STOP 0251, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-0251

January 15, 2020

Livestock Market Digest

Page 11

Use the Numbers (correctly) this Bull Sale Season

BY MATT SPANGLER, UNL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR & BEEF GENETICS EXTENSION SPECIALIST

T

his bull sale season, profit-minded cattle producers will utilize expected progeny differences (EPD) and economic selection indices when selecting their next group of bulls. These tools are far more accurate at predicting the average difference in offspring than visual appraisal or actual weights. This is beyond contestation.

That said, it is completely unrealistic to expect all commercial bull buyers to completely understand all available EPD and economic selection indices.

Commercial cattle producers have a cattle enterprise to run leaving little (if any) time to dedicate to understanding the intimate details surrounding genetic prediction. There are resources (e.g., www.ebeef.org) designed to help. Ideally, seedstock suppliers should also aid in the understanding and use of these tools.

To perhaps ‘kickstart’ the process, I’ve detailed a few key points below.

1. Have a breeding objective in mind (or better yet written down). This should include how you plan to sell calves, if you

plan on retaining replacement females, and any labor or other environmental constraints (e.g., limited forage). This helps identify the traits that are economically relevant to you.

2. Choose a breed (or breeds) that fit your current crossbreeding system and match your objectives. Compare breeds based on current research (i.e., US Meat Animal Research Center) and not a historical view as breeds have changed overtime.

3. Identify a seedstock supplier (or suppliers) that you trust and that have bulls for sale that match your breed needs and your breeding objective.

4. Identify bulls, based on EPD or (preferably) economic index values that match your objectives. a. If calving ease EPD exist, do not use birth weight EPD. Calving ease EPD are generated using birth weight information. b. If you retain replacement females, pay attention to calving ease maternal EPD. These are really ‘Total Maternal Calving Ease’ EPD, and reflect how easily a bull’s daughters will calve as two-year olds. c. Reproductive longevity is a key profit driver for self-replacing herds.

If a Stayability EPD or Sustained Cow Fertility EPD exists, use it. d. If you retain replacement females in limited feed environments, consider selecting bulls with more moderate mature weight and milk (maternal weaning weight) EPD. e. Understand that even if you sell calves at weaning, someone is going to own them in the feedyard.

If you want to build a market for your calves, do not completely ignore post-weaning gain and carcass merit. f. Use an index that fits your objectives—this can greatly simplify bull selection decisions. Do not use a completely terminal index if you retain replacement heifers. g. Buy quality, but do not overpay. Sometimes the bull that is not top on your list is actually the better economic decision.

This bull sale season do not make the process more complex than it really needs to be and certainly do not get caught in the trap of believing that you can visually see the genetic potential of a bull—use the tools that science has provided and has continually improved and validated.

T

he land market in 2019 continued the plateau trend of the past several years during which the supply of agricultural land for sale on the market remained lower than average and prices for good quality cropland held mostly steady. Looking ahead to next year, will financial stress from lower commodity prices and poor harvests in some regions cause prices to decline?

Farmland sale activity in the first part of 2019 was slower than it had been for some time with late spring and early summer especially void of farms for sale. Planting delays and prevented plantings contributed to the lackluster activity.

“Despite the slower land market, Farmers National Company and its agents saw a 25 percent increase in acres sold in 2019 from the prior year and the most since 2014. Sellers are seeking the best advice and marketing strategy to sell their land and that is why the amount of land listed for sale at Farmers National is very strong at over $300 million” said Randy Dickhut, senior vice president of real estate operations.

Land values in 2019 once again bucked the prevailing depressed mood in agriculture to hold steady or even increase slightly in some instances except for the most stressed areas or segments such as dairy. With generally more cautious buyers, some markets saw a move to private treaty listings or bid sales instead of the traditional public land auction.

“The lower supply of land for sale had much to do with land prices being mostly steady as did having adequate demand for quality cropland. Lower quality farmland had less demand and in many cases was harder to sell.

Investor interest in cropland increased somewhat in 2019 with several new entities entering the market and also from an increase in purchasing activity by existing institutional investors,” said Dickhut.

Several other factors had a favorable effect on farmland values

in 2019. Interest rates remained historically low and moved even lower during the year when at one time, most thought rates would work higher. The other significant factor supporting land values and buyer demand, especially by farmers, was the amount of government support for production agriculture. One third of agriculture’s 2019 net farm income came from government provided sources including crop insurance, the Market Facilitation Program, and various other conservation and program funding.

In 2019, the ag industry endured floods, planting frustrations, trade uncertainty and struggling commodity prices.

Financial conditions for some producers degenerated, but agriculture overall remains in better shape than expected due to support payments and the fact that land values remain historically strong. The land market weathered many storms in 2019 just like U.S. agriculture as both balanced precipitously on the plateau of the past five years.

So will 2020 be the year that the land market breaks out of its plateau?

“There are a number of factors that indicate that the land market will continue to be steady in 2020,” said Dickhut.

“Interest rates are low and are poised to remain so during the foreseeable future and government support through MFP payments will likely continue if Chinese trade issues are not fully resolved. Overall, agriculture is in adequate financial shape, but there are individual and regional concerns.”

There are also factors that could have a more depressing influence on farmland values in 2020, Farmers National reported. In addition to on-going trade disruptions, there is the concern if there will be an increase in financially caused sales of land by producers. Buyer demand for good cropland has been adequate for the supply and this would have to remain so in order for land values to continue on their plateau.

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Page 12

Livestock Market Digest

January 15, 2020

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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!

Females— 500 to 700 • 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: Years Raising Bulls

Total:

41 years 16 years 36 years 36 years 36 years 46 years 206 years

Years as IBBA Director 12 years 5 years 6 years 6 years 3 years 6 years 38 years

Gayland/& Patty Townsend Steven Townsend Troy Floyd Bill Morrison Joe Lack Larry Parker

580/443-5777, Mob. 580/380-1606 Mob. 580/380-1968 575/734-7005, Mob. 575/626-4062 575/482-3254, Mob. 575/760-7263 575/267-1016 520/508-3505, 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