Riding Herd
“The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.”
by LEE PITTS
– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
May 15, 2017 • www.aaalivestock.com
Volume 59 • No. 5
A Foot In The Door S
projects that could “jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or threatened species, or result in the destruction or adverse modification of [critical] habitat of such species”(E&E Daily, March 29). The hearing was held by the increasingly important Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, a panel Bishop created after winning the Natural Resources gavel two years ago (E&E Daily, January 14, 2015). Led since January by Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), Oversight has seven full-time GOP staffers — more than any other Natural Resources subcommittee, according to data from LegiStorm, a congressional staff tracking service. Oversight staff director Rob Gordon, a veteran of the Hill’s periodic ESA fights, and counsel Megan Olmstead, a relative newcomer, will provide Republican lawmakers with most of the legislative ammunition they need. They and many other staffers featured in this story were not made available for interviews. Gordon, who spent seven years at the conservative Heritage Foundation before returning to the Natural Resources panel when Bishop took over, also served as the Trump transition team’s advisor on regulatory reform (E&E Daily, January 22, 2015). He has been continued on page four
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NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. that when a government bureaucrat tells you something is either temporary or only slightly invasive, you should grab your wallet, cover your butt and run because you are fixing to get cheated, bamboozled, filmflammed, duped, deceived, hoodwinked and hornswoggled in ways you can’t even begin to imagine.
Vilsack’s Vision In getting their foot in the door, Avon and Fuller Brush salespersons were rank amateurs compared to the bureaucrats deeply embedded today
in every nook and cranny of the U.S. government. With a shoe the size of Oklahoma the salesmen at the USDA have their foot in your door and you will buy government enforced mandatory animal ID whether you want it or not. You may have thought we stopped this nonsense a few years ago but they are back knocking on our door once again. We emphatically said “NO” to their first product, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) that they tried to cram down our throats back in 2010 when the USDA held
eight public meetings to sell you on Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack’s bad idea to identify and register every farm animal in the country. In 2011 the USDA received 1,618 comments about mandatory animal ID, most of them negative. Despite the backlash, the USDA initiated the NAIS anyway, a voluntary program that asked producers to register their premises and identify their animals with a national animal tracking database. The vast majority of stockmen refused to register. One of their more serious concerns concerned the protection of proprietary information. After enough ranchers failed to sign up which made the program worthless, something happened that rarely occurs: The feds seemed to have backed down. NAIS was never fully implemented and was eventually discontinued all together. And continued on page two
Battle Over Landmark Law Already Raging Out of Public Eye BY CORBIN HIAR, E&E NEWS REPORTER
W
ith most of Washington focused on fights over government funding, Obamacare and Russian meddling, a few congressional aides and outside advocates are quietly preparing for what could be an epic battle over the Endangered Species Act. The contentious conservation law was protected by President Obama’s veto from Republican efforts to ease restrictions on farmers, energy companies and developers. But with Republicans now controlling Capitol Hill and the White House for the first time since 2004, the endangered species law — which hasn’t been significantly updated since 1988 — appears vulnerable. On one side of the fight are staffers for House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), who said last year that he wants to repeal and replace the law (E&E Daily, December 9, 2016). But in the 115th Congress, Bishop is instead focused on narrow sections of the ESA that Republicans and industry groups find problematic. His first hearing this year centered on a provision requiring input from the Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service — agencies that jointly administer the ESA — on government-approved or -funded
H
ere is the correct way to load a horse. 1. First, catch your horse. Using apples, carrots and sweet talk, draw it near. When it’s eating out of your hand rub its neck and attempt to put the lead rope around its neck. After this doesn’t work place a bucket full of sweetmix on the ground and when the horse comes within your range, rope it. When that fails just have the wife catch your nag for you. It works every time. 2. Lead your horse to the loading area. When it spies the hated horse trailer it may rear on his hind legs and jerk the lead rope from your hand. If so, repeat step one. 3. Leaning on the lead rope with all your weight play tug of war with your horse to drag it into the trailer. You weigh 185 pounds and it weighs 1,200 pounds. You do the math. Next, ask your wife and one of the kids to get behind the horse, lock hands around his rump and push while you pull on the lead rope. This puts the heads of your wife and kid in close proximity to the rear end of the horse, which has just consumed a bag of green apples and a bucket of sweetmix. This creates an unfriendly noxious environment and your loved ones may be overcome by the deadly fumes. 4. Next, ask your neighbor to grasp your horse’s tail and twist and pull on it to get your horse moving towards the trailer. Go to house to retrieve ice and cold compresses for your neighbor to apply to area where he got kicked. 5. Your neighbor suggests that he put his in-heat mare in the trailer enticing your male horse to load right beside it. Lead your horse around in circles several times to get him dizzy and suddenly aim toward the trailer. As your stud horse overruns you to breed the mare in the trailer she tries the kick the stud and instead nails you in the groin. Borrow the neighbor’s ice pack
BY LEE PITTS
uburban housewives used to be plagued by a species known as the “door-to-door salesman.” These hucksters sold everything from an early version of Google known as encyclopedias, to religion to vacuum cleaners. One of their favorite tricks when the housewife opened the front door was to stick a foot inside the door jam so the woman of the household could not say a quick, “not interested,” and close the door. If the salesmen succeeded in getting a foot in the door the housewife could count on it costing her a chunk of change and her valuable time. The bloated bureaucracy in Washington DC has borrowed the salesman’s favorite trick. Take federal income tax for instance. Income taxes in the U.S. were first levied for a brief period following the Civil War to pay for that bloody battle. They were supposed to be temporary. Hah! Recently a study concluded by the National Tax Payers Union found that taxpayers spent 6.89 billion hours and $263 billion in complying with the Tax Code in just one year. The instructions that accompany the basic 1040 Form were just two pages in 1935 but now the Tax Code is 11,000 pages long plus an additional 16,000 pages in related rules. This is a good example of The Pitts Postulate which states
How To Load A Horse
www.LeePittsbooks.com
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Livestock Market Digest
May 15, 2017
A FOOT
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The Washington Way The USDA seems to have learned an important lesson in Washington DC politics: instead of trying to get everything
you want all in one heist, no one will notice if you just persistently peck away at individual’s rights and freedoms. If you can’t get folks to give up their guns... outlaw their ammunition. It’s the same principle with animal ID. Cattlemen committed the same sin we all do... we didn’t read the small print before celebrating our “victory” back in 2011. When put under a magnifying glass that 2011 statute stated, “The component of traceability for beef cattle under 18 months of age will be addressed in a separate rulemaking process or implementation phase.” The USDA did it “The Washington Way”. They’d change all the rules on animal ID a little bit at a time when no one was watching until they got what
ELM
they were after in the first place. How Washington of them! In the final analysis, ranchers didn’t win anything in the animal ID battle by attending all those “listening sessions” because the USDA wasn’t listening. They were just pretending to listen because they already knew the final outcome. There’s not a doubt in this writer’s mind that within ten years the feds will have a database that contains information on every animal in your herd, where they are located and if you have paid the necessary taxes levied as a carbon offset for your climate changing cows.
If At First You Don’t Succeed The feds have evidently decided that not enough “prog-
FARMINGTON
just like that we thought we were done with mandatory animal ID. Little did we know! After millions in taxpayer’s money was wasted on Vilsack’s Vision, a much-watered-down rule on animal ID became effective on March 11, 2013. This rule had little effect on cattlemen because the teeth had been taken out of it. But now the feds are back and in a stealth-like manner they’re trying to put the bite back into animal ID. This time they’re back knocking on our door with an all “NEW and IMPROVED version.
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ress” has been made in shoving mandatory animal ID down our throats so here comes the second version. The USDA says NAIS.2 is better because... • It accepts the use of brands, tattoos and brand registration as official identification when accepted by the shipping and receiving States or Tribes. • Backtags can be used as an alternative to eartags for cattle moved directly to slaughter. • It accepts movement documentation other than an Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (ICVI) for all ages and classes of cattle when accepted by the shipping and receiving States or Tribes. • All livestock moved interstate to a custom slaughter facility are exempt. But here’s the kicker once again: “Additional traceability requirements for this group will be addressed in separate rulemaking in the future, allowing more time for APHIS to work closely with industry to ensure the requirements are effective and can be implemented.” All USDA is doing is replacing the previous radio emitting eartag with a new metal ear tag which they call NUES. To encourage its use the USDA plans to provide these eartags at no cost to producers, “to the extent funds are available.” In other words, this is the same old NAIS only with a new name: the APHIS Veterinary Services Animal Disease Traceability Rule, which the feds have shortened to ADT. If this was algebra class this entire story could be reduced to one simple formula: NAIS = ADT.
Going In The Back Door The biggest excuse the USDA gives for imposing ADT on the cattle sector is that if a disease outbreak were to occur in the U.S., “Under the current protocol thousands of animals would have to be tested during an outbreak, drastically increasing an investigation’s duration.” For example, says the USDA, “Bovine tuberculosis disease investigations frequently now exceed 150 days. This means USDA and State investigative
teams spend substantially more time and money in conducting tracebacks. As a result of ADT accurate traceability information will be more readily available, enabling USDA to shorten investigation timelines, more quickly control the spread of certain diseases, and reduce the number of quarantined or disposed of animals. All of these improvements will help make animal disease outbreaks less costly for producers and help interstate animal movements continue.” The USDA has already snuck through the back door in getting individual animal ID in the sheep industry by using the current Scrapie Eradication Program as a Trojan horse. “As part of the National Scrapie Eradication Program,” the USDA says, “92% of cull breeding sheep bear an official identification tag at slaughter, primarily using flock identification eartags applied at the farm of origin. This identification made it possible in 2010 for USDA, as part of the scrapie surveillance program, to trace scrapie-positive sheep from slaughter to the flock of origin or birth 96% of the time, typically in a matter of minutes.” Invariably, the USDA refers to what would happen if a disease outbreak occurred instead of trying to prevent one in the first place. They want to impose more regulations on ranchers that wouldn’t be necessary if they would only do a better job of not letting an outbreak occur in the first place. In the case of foot and mouth disease, the feds recently pushed for Brazil being allowed to ship fresh and frozen beef here even though Brazil IS NOT free of the disease. This is in direct violation of their own rules. And recently the U.S. kept accepting Brazilian beef after many beef importing nations around the world took the precaution of placing bans on Brazilian beef after an investigation by Brazil’s federal police reported that Brazilian beef plants knowingly sold rotten meat to schools and to the public, exported spoiled meat to continued on page three
May 15, 2017
A FOOT other countries, and Brazilian beef samples tested positive for dangerous bacteria. Even more outrageous, when the feds wanted to build a new biodefense laboratory where did they put it? On an island, where an escaping pathogen could not spread? Nope. The Department of Homeland Security replaced the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center on Long Island, with a $650 million lab in Manhattan, Kansas, right in the middle of cattle country. This, despite a National Research Council report that said there was nearly 70% chance over the 50-year lifetime of the planned National Bio & Agro-Defense Facility that a highly contagious animal illness, such as foot-andmouth disease, could escape and infect livestock. “Roughly 9.5% of the U.S. cattle inventory lies within a 200-mile radius of the facility,” the NRC report notes. This prompts us to ask, instead of worrying about catching the horse, wouldn’t it be easier to have locked the gate in the first place so it could not escape? One of the big reasons, perhaps the biggest one, the USDA is pushing for mandatory animal ID is because they are afraid that they have so weakened our defenses all in the name of globalization and international trade that a major animal disease outbreak will occur and they want to be able to cover their “you-know-whats” when it does.
Moving The Goalposts The USDA has still not answered rancher’s lingering questions, such as...
Livestock Market Digest continued from page two
• How will the information gathered through the ADT be kept safe so it couldn’t be used, say by the IRS for instance? • What good is a traceability program if it does not allow traceability of a package of meat back to its source? Under ADT, animal disease traceability will end at the slaughterhouse. • What’s to keep the USDA from “moving the goalposts and changing the rules down the road. And don’t say that can’t happen. Take the beef checkoff for example. It was supposed to be a rancher-controlled program and there was no such thing as the NCBA when ranchers voted for the checkoff. Now, the Supreme Court ruled that it was, in fact, a government program all along and a lobbying entity that did not exist when the checkoff passed, is taking the lion’s share of the dough and are using it to promote generic beef, much of it produced in foreign countries. The USDA got ranchers to approve the checkoff effort after three tries. It appears they’ll only have to try two times to force mandatory animal ID down our throats.
Just Like They Planned It In response to the push for ADT, four groups sent a joint letter to President Trump in which they urged him to cancel the seven upcoming meetings scheduled by the USDA to address the agency’s plans to expand its Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) rule. The USDA announced the all-day meetings to no great fanfare less than 30 days before they were scheduled to begin in April. The four groups, which included R
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Pasture Rental Rates by County in the United States
T
his information comes from a county level “Cash Rents Survey” conducted every other year in all states, except Alaska. It only covers cash rents. Land rented for a share of the crop, on a fee per head, per pound of gain, by animal unit month (AUM), rented free of charge, or land that includes buildings such as barns are excluded from the survey. That means you’ll still have to do some of your own figuring on how much to charge or pay. But at least you have some kind of starting point with this. Go to: http://onpasture.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Pasture-Rental-Rates-by-County2a.pdf and search your county - the pastureland column is highlighted in yellow. I included the irrigated and non-irrigated cropland in case some of you are interested in that as well
CALF, ask that the USDA immediately halt any further action toward expansion of the existing ADT program and extend the comment period to allow a minimum 120 days for producers to provide written comment on the effectiveness of the existing ADT program. The groups say the USDA is attempting to expand the ADT so that it more closely resembles the agency’s previously abandoned National Animal Identification System., “USDA received a clear message from United States cattle producers that the NAIS program – which this expanded ADT plan appears to mimic – was not acceptable. We do not see any changes in the cost-benefit to producers and we do not see evidence that producers’ feelings towards an expanded ADT program has changed in any way.” The groups state the agency’s meetings were hastily planned, that cattle producers were not given timely or adequate notice, and because the meetings are scheduled during the time of year when many cattle producers are busy calving, branding,
artificial inseminating and moving to summer pastures, many producers will be unable to attend.
Just as the USDA planned. Some cynic observers say the USDA is pushing mandatory animal ID to bring the U.S. more in line with United Nations covenants and the World Wildlife Fund’s environmental requirements. R CALF’s Bill Bullard says, “The corporate side has been diligently colluding to choke producers out at the packer and retail levels. And now, their partners in government are again hazing us toward the squeeze chute by forcing the traceability requirement the corporations need before they can slam the gate on us.” My mom always said the secret to stopping encyclopedia and vacuum cleaner salesmen was to slam the door in their face before they could get their foot in the door. Instead, we’re talking about the headgate being slammed shut on ranchers. Next they’ll be squeezed until there’s no fight left in them.
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RIDING HERD
continued from page one
and say to your neighbor, “Got any more bright ideas Einstein?” Because you let go of the lead rope it’s now necessary to re-repeat step one. 6. Your wife suggests that you put a rope through the hole in the front of the trailer and winch the horse into the trailer using the winch on the front of your fully restored 1955 International pickup. Realizing too late that you should have used a chain, your horse pulls the front end off your beloved International and breaks your favorite rope in the process. You turn the air
blue with a string of cuss words which prompts the wife to demand, “Don’t speak that way in front of the children.” 7. Because all your ropes are now broken use the garden hose and place it just under the horse’s rump. With your wife and kid pulling on the hose and you on the lead rope pull with all your might. Take a short carpentry and plumbing break to stop the gusher that resulted because the garden hose was still attached to the faucet, which was in turn attached to the tack room.
8. Place a bandana over the horse’s eyes so that it can’t see and must therefore depend on you for guidance. Once again you realize too late that horses are dangerous on both ends and your horse nearly bites your finger off. Splint with popsicle stick and duct tape and be careful not to jam your throbbing finger the rest of the day or your kids will learn some more new words. 9. Put horse in narrow alley and back the trailer into the horse so that it’s forced to enter the trailer because there’s no place else to go. Have wife
block the narrow opening on the side. Make a mental note to replace the mirror on the side of the truck and buy flowers for your wife as she limps back to the house after being run over. 10. Call neighbor and apologize that you can’t make his branding because your wife is ill and you have some emergency plumbing to do. 11. Put advertisement in paper for horse for sale, “As is where is.” 12. Buy an ATV. wwwLeePittsbooks.com
BATTLE working for decades to overhaul the law. “The time is ripe to amend significantly the Endangered Species Act,” he wrote in a 1994 article for Heritage’s now defunct Policy Reviewjournal. Had the law been in existence during biblical times, Gordon wrote, Noah “might have been reviled as an animal-hater, fined, and kept from launching his ark” because he wouldn’t have thought to bring aboard certain reptile and insect species. At the time, Gordon was the executive director of the National Wilderness Institute. The Vanderbilt University graduate left the oil industry-funded environmental group in 2004 to support the failed ESA reform efforts of former Resources Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.). Olmstead is working closely with Gordon on the committee’s reform efforts. After graduating a decade ago from the University of Portland, a Catholic school in Oregon, she bounced between Capitol Hill, the Idaho governor’s office and the University of Notre Dame’s law school before ending up with Natural Resources in September 2015, her profile on the social networking site LinkedIn shows. In law school, she studied the gray wolf’s status under the ESA.
Senate players Across the Capitol, staffers for Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John
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Barrasso (R-Wyo.) are also for- (S. 612) passed into law. He is Great Lakes Commission. The mulating an overhaul strategy. now mainly focusing on wildlife native of East Lansing, Mich., earned her bachelor’s degree at So far, Barrasso has held one and oceans policies. hearing that sought to build Harding previously worked Johns Hopkins University and a bipartisan consensus for ESA for corporate law firms, Presi- master’s from the University of reform and marked up a bill dent George W. Bush’s Energy Michigan School of Natural Rethat he introduced with ranking secretaries and USA Synthetic sources and Environment. member Tom Carper (D-Del.) Fuel Corp., a bankrupt coal liqthat would revive and bolster uefaction company. He earned Outside voices Republicans’ push for an several wildlife protection pro- his bachelor’s degree at Washgrams and launch annual inno- ington and Lee University and ESA overhaul is likely to draw vation prizes for endangered graduated from the University support from the Western Governors’ Association. species management and Under the leadership other conservation chalof Wyoming Gov. Matt lenges (Greenwire, April Mead (R) in 2016, the 5). For the time since 2004, conservative-leaning orMatt Leggett, the the Endangered Species Act ganization began advocommittee’s deputy chief cating for ESA changes. counsel, and Andrew (ESA) --- which has been At the same time, WGA Harding, who took his significantly updated since endorsed a policy position first Hill job as counsel in 1988 --- appears vulnerable. urging Congress to reauSeptember 2016, are two thorize the law and this of Barrasso’s lead ESA reyear convinced the Naformers. Leggett began working for of Virginia School of Law, ac- tional Governors Association to adopt a similar resolution (E&E the chairman in 2012 as policy cording to LinkedIn. counsel for the Senate RepubThe counselors’ efforts are News PM, March 2). While Mead is no longer lican Policy Committee, which overseen by staff director RichBarrasso then led. The Univer- ard Russell, who earned a bach- WGA chairman, policy adviser sity of Virginia and Vanderbilt elor’s degree in biology at Yale David Willms is still leading a University Law School grad- University, and deputy staff di- series of meetings with a broad uate also worked in corporate rector Brian Clifford, who has coalition of participants that law and served on the House worked for Barrasso in a variety aim to produce a specific set Agriculture Committee and in of roles over the past decade. of recommendations that could the offices of Rep. Tim Murphy Any reform legislation Barras- make the ESA work better. “We took some of the ideas (R-Pa.) and former Sen. Jesse so’s team produces will need to Helms (R-N.C.). As an intern, secure the votes of at least eight that came out of that first year Leggett worked with Robert Democrats on the Senate floor and have made them the subSpencer, when he was U.S. at- to beat a filibuster. Their first ject of work sessions during the torney for the Eastern District challenge, however, will be win- second year of this initiative,” of Virginia, and Erskine Bowles, ning over Mary Frances Repko, Willms said in a phone interview from Cheyenne, Wyo., which when he was chief of staff to Carper’s deputy staff director. President Clinton. “If you have dealt with the he, his wife and two young Soon after joining the com- environment, if you have dealt daughters call home. The sessions will wrap up in mittee, Harding helped get last with energy, or if you have dealt year’s water infrastructure bill with the history of the Senate May, and the WGA hopes to and the House on energy legis- have a list of fixes ready to prolation and environmental legis- mote by midsummer. “Whether that is a set of reclation over the last 20 years, you know Mary Frances Repko,” ommendations that is taken to House Minority Whip Steny the Fish and Wildlife Service for Hoyer said in a January floor regulatory changes, whether it speech honoring her for a de- includes recommended statucade of service in his office. The tory changes, policy changes — Maryland Democrat also not- all of that is to be determined,” ed she had worked closely with he said. “But that’s what we’re Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi moving towards, is seeing if (D-California) on “fighting par- there are places where there is consensus.” tisan anti-environment riders.” The recommendations are Repko headed to the Senate Environment and Public being put together by represenWorks Committee the follow- tatives from state and federal ing month, the committee she government as well as groups staffed from 2003 until 2007, representing sportsmen, enviwhen she left to join Hoyer. She ronmentalists and the energy, has also served on the staffs of lumber and agriculture indusSen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) tries. But Willms, who has also and former Sen. Russ Feingold served in the Wyoming attorney general’s office and worked in (D-Wis.). Prior to coming to the Hill, private practice, declined to say Repko worked on water issues exactly who is involved at this for the World Wildlife Fund, point. One unlikely participant: the a conservation group, and the
conservation group Defenders of Wildlife. “I certainly believe fundamentally that the Endangered Species Act could work better,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, the president and CEO of Defenders. “And if there are ways to work better, we want to help that effort.” Rappaport Clark, who was President Clinton’s Fish and Wildlife Service director, and her staff are also involved in the initiative in hopes that they can steer it more toward administrative reforms. That way, she said during an interview in her glass-encased corner office suite, “we can maybe save the battle legislatively, because it’s going to be pretty dramatic.” But if a GOP reform bill emerges, Rappaport Clark — who often works seven days a week and uses a treadmill desk when she’s in the office — is ready to lead the fight against it. “I don’t see a reform effort strengthening the law” in this Congress, she said. “I can only see a reform effort that will undermine and weaken the law’s ability to achieve its purposes.” Rappaport Clark, an avid equestrian who lives in Virginia horse country with her husband and teenage son, is already working to educate Democratic senators about the damage that Defenders fears Republicans could do to vulnerable species and habitats. She is also attempting to rally other more broadly focused conservation groups, which are busy fighting to prevent the rollback of climate protection regulations and other environmental policies. Her pitch is that the ESA is essentially the law of last resort for the environment. “When the Clean Water Act fails, when the land laws fail, the Endangered Species Act will save enough,” she said. “We’re not going to allow extinction.” That should be enough to rally the progressive community of Democratic lawmakers, environmentalists, minority groups, labor unions, religious groups and human rights organizations, Rappaport Clark reasoned. “If — maybe I should say, when — the Endangered Species Act is truly under an assault, I have every expectation that folks will be there with us,” she said, before tapping her desk for good measure. “Knock on wood, please. They’d better be.”
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Livestock Market Digest
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2017 Cattleman’s Weekend
Champion Overall Horse at the 19th Annual Arizona Ranch Remuda Sale during Cattleman’s Weekend in Chino Valley, March 17, was Tap A Cat, a 2011 solid bay paint gelding by Sophisticated Cat. He was consigned by Cody Tillery, Prescott Valley, and sold to Chad Turner, Congress, for $4,900. Tillery (left) received a silver bit designed by Beano Kimball and sponsored by Barbara Jackson (pictured right) of Animal Health Express, Tucson. David Shafer, Rimrock, was named 2017 Cattleman of the Year by the Arizona Hereford Association during Cattleman’s Weekend in Chino Valley. Daric Knight (right) accepted the plaque from AHA Secretary-Treasurer Cindy Tidwell Shelton for Shafer, who was unable to be present.
Champion Junior Horse, and also high selling lot at the Arizona Ranch Remuda Sale during Cattleman’s Weekend, was Cool One Ten, a 2010 son of Cool Drift consigned by Ethan Crockett, Sedona. He sold to Lynn Martin, Superior, for $6,700. Trevor Hall of Farm Credit Services SW is shown presenting Crockett with the silver buckle designed by Beano Kimball.
Crozier McCrae, Kingman, consigned the Champion Senior Horse at the Arizona Ranch Remuda Sale, a 12-year-old sorrel, grade son of Dash For Cash named Spear. He sold to Thomas Wilson, Flagstaff, for $5,000. Dan Wheeler (right) of Tri-State Livestock Credit Corporation presented Cisco Nixon, who showed the horse, with a silver buckle designed by Beano Kimball.
The Champion Pen of Angus Bulls at the 17th Annual Arizona Angus Association Bull Sale during Cattleman’s Weekend in Chino Valley, March 18, was consigned by Tom and Donna Anderson, St. Johns. Pictured, left to right, are Juliet Conant, presenting an award from Purina Animal Nutrition; Tom and Donna Anderson; Cindy Tidwell Shelton, AAA Secretary-Treasurer, and Barbara Jackson of Animal Health Express, presenting a $100 gift certificate.
The Champion All-Breed Bull at the 29th Annual Prescott All Breed Bull Sale on March 18 was consigned by Perkins Ranch, Inc., Chino Valley. Marge Perkins is shown accepting the award with daughters Lyn to her left and Cyndy on her right. Marge’s grandchildren, pictured front row (l to r), are Mark, Baylee, Natalie, Janelle, and Olivia. Also pictured back row are Cindy Tidwell Shelton, far left, presenting the plaque, and Barbara Jackson (far right) presenting the $100 gift certificate from Animal Health Express.
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Livestock Market Digest
May 15, 2017
El Presidente & the Congress Critters, what have they been up to? They’ve been busy
L
et’s first take a look at the Executive Branch, so see what they’ve been up to with Presidential Orders, regulations and policy memos. On February 28 President Trump signed an Executive Order directing a review of the “Waters of the United States” rule. The review should be conducted, says the E.O., “showing due regard for the roles of the Congress and the States under the Constitution.” The key here, of course, is how you define “Navigable Waters”, and the President was pretty specific, saying it should be defined “in a manner consistent with the opinion of Justice Antonin Scalia in Rapanos v. United States.” If you read that case you will find Justice Scalia said the following: Accordingly, wetlands possess the requisite nexus, and thus come within the statutory phrase “navigable waters,” if the wetlands, alone or in combination with similarly situated lands in the region, significantly affect the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of other covered waters understood as navigable in the traditional sense. When, in contrast, their effects on water quality are speculative or insubstantial, they fall outside the zone fairly encompassed by the term “navigable waters.” The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers under Obama have claimed juris-
diction far beyond the Scalia opinion. On March 28 the President signed an E.O. on energy independence and economic growth, which directed all agencies to “immediately review existing regulations that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources and appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind those that unduly burden the development of domestic energy resources beyond the degree necessary to protect the public interest or otherwise comply with the law.” In addition, this E.O. refers specifically to EPA’s “Clean Power Plan” and revokes seven Obama-era orders and administrative actions on Climate Change. Trump has also signed E.O.’s on Regulatory Reform, Government Reorganization, Border Security and Trade that will have an impact on ag producers and rural residents. In addition, he has approved the previously denied or delayed Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines. Secretary Zinke has also been busy at the Department of Interior. On his first day he issued orders to overturns the recent ban of lead ammunition and fish tackle on Fish and Wildlife Service lands, waters, and facilities, and directs bureaus and agencies to immediately identify areas where hunting and fishing can be expanded.
On March 27 Zinke issued an order on land-use planning and NEPA which directs BLM to “identify and implement” revisions to the agency’s land-use planning and environmental review processes. The order says BLM plans often “languish in a quagmire of plans, studies, and regulatory reviews” and provides seven principles for BLM use in their reform efforts. In addition, a document has recently leaked that lays out a work list for the BLM. Among the items listed was one stating, “Streamline the grazing permit process and provide more flexibility to the American rancher.” And from the Forest Service? Nada. Congress, however, has been active in using the Congressional Review Act. That is an act passed in 1996 and signed into law by Bill Clinton. The law empowers Congress to review new federal regulations issued by government agencies and, by passing a joint resolution, to overrule the regulation. Once a rule is repealed, the CRA also prohibits the reissuing of the rule in substantially the same form or the issuing of a new rule that is substantially the same. Congress has a time frame of sixty legislative days (days they are actually in session) to act on a regulation. Up until this year, the CRA had only been used one time. This Congress has passed thirteen joint res-
olutions overturning recent Obama regulations. Those of most interest to us are: One that overturns BLM planning reg’s, one that overturns the department of Interior’s stream protection rule, and one that overturns restrictions on hunting in Alaskan wildlife refuges. The overturning of the BLM planning regulations is a big win for state and local governments, who were being pushed aside by BLM.
National Monument News Word has just arrived that Trump will issue an Executive Order to mandate a review of all national monuments designated since 1996. That should be good news for the forty ranching families touched by the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. It also should bring into play Rep. Steve Pearce’s proposal to limit the boundaries of the monument to the footprint of the Organ Mountains. It will not be good news to New Mexico Senators Udall and Heinrich who pushed hard for the designation and want none of it reverted back to multiple-use. The Senators recently signed a letter to Trump stating, “We urge you to honor your promise to be a great steward of our public lands by upholding the existing protections for the 157 National Monuments that have been designated through the years by nearly every President since the Antiquities
Act was enacted into law in 1906. “
Trampling flowers and solar walls Eco-tourists are flocking to Central California to view the wildflowers, but are trampling over the same wildflowers they came to see. One observer of this writes, “nature lovers are failing to follow some common sense rules related to enjoying the beauty and are trampling over the delicate flowers they have flocked to admire.” The destruction has been reportedly so severe that specialists were brought in to assess the damage. And contractors are bidding on Trump’s proposal to build a wall on our border with Mexico. One has submitted a bid that proposes building a wall large enough for a deck that would offer tourists scenic views of the desert, and another proposes to cover the wall with solar panels. Don’t worry about those Wild & Wacky Wildflower Watchers, nor having sun-worshipers atop the Border Wall. I’m sure the DC Deep Thinkers will sort this all out. Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch. Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation
Kiss Idaho Goodbye: Another Major Land Takeover BY KAREN SCHUMACHER, GREAT NORTHERN LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION COOPERATIVE
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s noted in the past, America’s destruction continues to survive as long as programs are still being implemented that destroy us. For Idaho, not only is there the Columbia River Treatyre-negotiations that
will take control of all water resources, there is also another major land take over. There are a multitude of Idaho non-profits and United Nations (UN) non-governmental organizations (NGO) that are aggressively pursuing connectivity projects. Essentially the goal is to connect large swaths of land in Idaho’s east corner
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with neighbors Montana and Wyoming. They would love to see this land all locked up into one major landscape of wilderness, for wildlife only. The High Divide (HD), Crown of the Continent (COC), Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y), Greater Yellowstone (GY), and the land trust partnership group Heart of the Rockies Initiative (HOR), are just a few of the organizations that are destructively working to create wildlife corridors in the Island Park area. Each of these organizations are connected to UN NGOs such as the Nature Conservancy (NC), Wilderness Society (WS), and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Don’t be fooled by the new UN addition in red, a disclaimer that unless the organization is in consultative status it does not connote
affiliation with the UN. That is flat out not true. And like children playing in a sandbox these groups all play with each other, are interconnected, and overwhelm us with their agenda. Quite a bit of money contributes to this takeover. Just the Greater Yellowstone alone has over 10 million dollars in their coffers. Where do they get all that money? Part of it is your tax dollars. Now your tax dollars go to this in other ways as well. The Federal Highway Administration (FHA) believes in creating wildlife corridors which eventually contribute to connectivity, and have spent your money to study it and figure out how many wildlife are affected by collisions. Forget how it has impacted humans. You are even paying your governor to participate in this through the Western
Governors’ Association (WGA). But don’t forget the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), your state taxes are used for this nonsense as well. Four years ago Idaho Fish & Game honored an ITD Senior Environmental Planner for his success in collectively garnering over $718,000 to study (affectionately known as the Cramer study) where wolverines and bears migrate, and a study to prioritize wildlife collision areas. What is truly remarkable about this is while our Idaho roads and bridges crumble there is plenty of money to spend on figuring out where cars collide with wildlife and put money into building a road for them. Now it makes sense why Idaho registration fees went up and why the current legislature has a huge task continued on page seven
May 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
How Do You Achieve Balance in a Family Ranch Business? Ranching, like a marriage and raising a family, requires balance. What is your best advice for achieving success in production agriculture while investing the time for your kids and spouse?
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wondering when life might get a little bit easier or a little bit slower. Of course, we wouldn’t change anything at this stage in the game; we’re very blessed to be on this ranch raising our kids in this lifestyle. However, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Yesterday, I asked folks to share their best advice for young producers. I received great words of wisdom about planning, budgeting, investing and managing time and resources well. I admit I was surprised that nobody commented on how family fits into the equation. We know that familial living expenses can be the make or break of a production agriculture enterprise. The family is often tasked with reducing expenditures and making sacrifices in times of low market prices to help weather through the tougher times. Whether that means skipping a vacation, ditching a few extracurriculars or driving the old car instead of purchasing a fancier family SUV, these are budgeting decisions a family must make if they want to get ahead in agriculture. In addition to finances, I think it’s also important to remember that there is a balance of time that must be achieved in a family ranching enterprise.
IDAHO in front of them to fund transportation. Those bunnies need a safe passageway. Now there are many working tirelessly on this so surely it must all be coordinated together. Who else but the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GNLCC) to the rescue for connectivity. Established by the Department of Interior (DOI), it is an “international” network to advance collaborative landscape conservation. Remember, this is the federal government doing it, not some obscure group. There are a multitude of participants, including multiple UN affiliates, making decisions about Idaho. In a nutshell, the DOI created an organization that promotes these UN affiliated lunatics taking more land away from Idahoans. Originating in 2009 with order 3289, and advancing it with order 3330, then announcing the truth to “develop opportunities to further es-
Land Use Changes’ Impact on Livestock Operations BY RITA JANE GABBETT /
BY AMANDA RADKE,
rowing up in a ranching family, I learned from a young age the pace that is required of a cow-calf producer. Every day has its own set of challenges, and each season seems to bring more busy work than the one before it. Long days of winter feeding and ice chopping roll into sleepless nights of calving in the spring, which bumps right up to the busy days of breeding cows before summer turnout. Once planting is done, haying must begin. Soon, harvest is upon us. Then calves must be weaned, and the cycle begins again. As young producers, it seems like these tasks take more time to accomplish due to the fact that we’re working with older, smaller equipment. We’ve learned to budget time and money for breakdowns, parts and delays. It’s just part of the bigger picture as we work to expand our operation. Yes, every season on the ranch has its own challenges and brings a different set of tasks to cross of the list. And even though I grew up in this life, sometimes I still get frustrated with the time requirements needed that sometimes take away from our young, growing family. In addition to our day jobs, when you add two kids under two years old to the equation, our lives have become the perfect mix of chaos, messiness, late nights, early mornings and
Page 7
Having two children who need routines — supper, baths and bedtimes at predictable hours — sometimes clashes with the necessity of working long hours outside. As a result, Tyler and I often split duties. He’s outside working while I tend to the kids. While I love being a mom, I sometimes miss the freedom and flexibility of working outside on the ranch without two kids in tow. Everything seems to take a little longer, and even though I know the kids will one day be old enough to help us, for now, my reality is that I’m sometimes left out on what’s happening on the ranch when I’m in the house tending to the kids’ needs. This necessitates the need for communication. Tyler and I have to constantly communicate to make sure we’re on the same page with the kids, the cattle and our financial goals. To achieve a balance between work life and family life, this often means family time is spent in the shop while Tyler works on the tractor or in the barn when there’s a cow in the chute that needs breeding. I’m not saying we’ve mastered this art of balancing work and family, but I know that both our happiness and success in this business depends upon it.
continued from page six
tablish partnerships that benefit Tribes and Federal agencies” in order 3342. The National Park Service (NPS) and US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) were granted the privilege of administering the GNLCC in 2010. The implementation plan includes partnerships with land protection NGOs and land trusts, Canada, IUCN, USFS, and the BLM while using the Endangered Species Act to justify its means. Of course they are using your tax dollars to stick it to you, not only in this way but in grants as well, up to one million dollars. But the truth is, it is just the UN agenda. As a partner to the DOI, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been promoting connectivity for a very long time. As well, the FWS has its own comradery with the UN for migratory species protection. According to Agenda 2030, Goal 15.5, we are assigned the task to
“Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats…”. Roadkill should certainly be a focus to ensure a natural habitat is protected in a way that it does not cause harm to the animal. As this Agenda 2030 document explains in #33, “We are therefore determined to conserve and… protect biodiversity, ecosystems and wildlife.” Look forward to paying for animal roads. The federal and state governments, as usual, are taking our money and using it against us, turning it over to UN groups for them to implement UN objectives. Can President Trump undo all of this? Or will it take the masses to finally stand up and say no more. How can the tiny community of Island Park fight this off? What are our legislators doing to stop this? Idahoans just continue to see our state being eaten up by government with its UN partnerships. Kiss Idaho Goodbye.
SDA’s recently released 2017 crop planting intentions have implications for livestock producers, according to Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel. Early planting intentions for corn were down 4.3 percent from last year at 90.0 million acres. Soybean planting intentions were up 7.3 percent at 89.5 million acres. “From a feed perspective, decreased corn (and grain sorghum) acreage raises the chances for a slightly higher 2017 crop year corn price and, perhaps more importantly, increases the risk of higher feed grain prices should adverse weather conditions develop during the 2017 growing season,” Peel wrote in a recent report in the Cow/Calf Corner newsletter. He noted, however, that higher than expected grain stocks remain from the record 2016 corn crop, which should keep feed grain prices favorable for the remainder of the 2016 crop year.
Less pasture land Another impact for livestock producers has been a decrease in pasture acreage. According to the most recent National Resource Inventory, from 2007 to 2012 pasture acreage in the eastern half of the country, in-
cluding the major cropping areas of the Midwest, decreased by 2.2 million acres. “Cow-calf producers in the Midwest report that pasture and hay are in limited supply and expensive, making it difficult to compete with cow–calf production in other regions,” Peel wrote. He raised the question of whether lower crop prices would result in pasture reestablishment in the Midwest and other major cropping regions. In the current crop intentions, projected total harvested hay acreage is down slightly, year over year, for the United States but hay acreage is projected to be up year over year in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. Peel said he doubted perennial pastures are being reestablished in major crop areas, noting reseeding pastures would require fences, water development for grazing and an expectation of several years of beneficial use for grazing. “Until or unless crop prices remain depressed for an extended period of time, there will likely continue to be less hay and pasture forage resources available in major crop regions compared to earlier periods,” Peel concluded.
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Livestock Market Digest
May 15, 2017
Evaluating Feet & Leg Structure: A Lost & Important Trait BY CASSIDY WOOLSEY, EDITOR, PROGRESSIVE CATTLEMAN
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election used to be entirely phenotypic. Everybody was an expert in structural evaluation and based decisions off what was seen by the naked eye. Then came performance testing and other genetic progresses, and the industry shifted to genomics as a large part of their selection. Producers are now able to determine how efficient an animal will be in the feedlot; how it will serve as a replacement in a breeding program; and if it is susceptible to certain diseases. But with these prolific advancements, is it possible the industry lost a simple, yet important skill along the way? Addressing the topic of lameness and cattle structure at the Cattlemen’s College during the
2017 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Cattle Industry Convention in February, industry professionals proposed just that: The industry has lost the necessary skill to evaluate proper feet and leg structure. “I suspect in some ways [genetic advancements] contributed to the challenge we have now,” said Bob Weaber, an associate professor of breeding and genetics at Kansas State University. “We only have so many things to select for and only so much selection pressure we can apply. Maybe we’ve diluted that a little too much and avoided some of the traits that have a functional connotation to them that we should be thinking about.” The challenge Weaber referred to was lameness, a hot topic in the industry today affecting both profitability and animal welfare. Most seedstock and commercial producers can relate to the scenario where a bull or cow was culled because
of bad feet; that’s money lost, and in some cases, a lot of money. “If you buy a $4,000 or $5,000 yearling bull and he doesn’t breed any cows next year because he’s got bad feet, you’ve got a big problem,” Weaber said. “If they’re not made right, you find out pretty quick.”
becomes larger, it restricts the movement in the animal, resulting in shorter steps. Bedwell said the animal should be able to “fill their track,” meaning they place their hind foot where their front foot had just been. The stride up front is important, but where the track is measured is at the hind leg, he said.
The basics
Evaluating topline
Shane Bedwell, chief operating officer and director of breed improvement at the American Hereford Association, echoed Weaber’s remarks, saying, “A balance of phenotype and genetic emphasis is where the industry needs to be.” With that said, he detailed four fundamentally important selection points to watch for: • Topline – A simple trick Bedwell uses to determine if an animal is correct in its structure or not is to look at its topline. They don’t have to be perfect in their topline, he said, but when animals are too straight in their shoulder, they will roach up in their back, or there will be some noticeable deviations. He said they will likely drop their head if they are too straight in their front-end because it’s physically and naturally more painful to get their neck and head up out of the top of the shoulder. • Angle of the shoulder – The ideal angle for the shoulder in relation to the ground is approximately 45 degrees. This angle allows for the appropriate range of motion. As the angle
• Leg structure – There are a number of terms used to describe the leg structure of an animal. There is pigeon-toed or bowlegged, splayfooted or knock-kneed, cow hocked, sickle hocked, post legged and buck kneed (all shown in the illustration below). Bedwell suggested the easiest way to look for these structural imperfections is to study the animal’s dewclaws from behind. He said if the dewclaws are pointing out, you probably have a bowlegged problem. If they are pointing in, the animal is probably cow hocked.
Evaluating legs Of these, Bedwell said he would choose cow hocked over bowlegged because a bowlegged animal is going to put too much pressure on the outside of the animal’s hoof wall, causing the hoof wall to grind down with the outside toe becoming small and the inside toe growing out. He would also choose sickle hocked over post legged because those continued on page ten
May 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
Page 9
Ideas Don’t Work Unless You Do I
used to work with this feller, I’ll call him “Einstein.” Well ol’ Einstein always had a bigger and better idea. He was always trying to reinvent the wheel. Any time we had a job to do, he’d spend a whole bunch of time figuring out ways to do it easier. I think most of the time he was just trying to figure how to get out of actual work. Sometimes, he would come up with an idea on how to do it easier, but then would spend more time thinking about it and talking about it than it actually took to just do it. There was the occasion however, when
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efficiently. I won’t go into technicalities, but it was a pretty good idea. We told him to get busy and implement the idea—it just might work. Ol’ Einstein got pumped up with pride at the thought of us actually liking one of his ideas. He bragged about how great it was gonna be, how he would save everyone some work and how he’d thought of it all by himself. As a matter of fact, he was still talking about it at the end of the day. He was even bragging about his idea that night in the bunkhouse. By then, there was talk about
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he had a really good idea. One day we were laying water pipeline to a new drinker in a rough pasture—and this was not an above ground pipeline. We were required to bury it two-feet deep to keep from freezing in the winter. It was about a mile project— and shore enough mean work. We went right to work on it, figuring the best way to “git ‘er done,” was to just “get on with it.” As usual, Einstein hung back and studied on it a bit. After considerable time had passed, he had this bright idea on how we could do this process more
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114 Acres - MLS# 60053027 114 acres m/l 25 miles north of Springfield, live water, spacious 3600 sq ft custom built home state of art dog kennel; 2nd older home, many possibilities, needs updating HOBBY FARM Deluxe 30 acres, 3 bed, 3.5 bath 3100+ sq ft custom built, 1 owner home, Webster Co, Rogersville Schools, 13 miles from Springfield R/V drive through barn, horse barn, large hip roof barn, kennel, & small animal barn, year-round spring-fed creek. This farm has it ALL! MLS# 60043538
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him patenting it—seriously! Finally, one ol’ cowhand who had ridden many miles in his time—and usually made a lot of sense, looked at ol’ Einstein and said, “Pardner, yer ideas don’t work less you do!” Truer words had never been laid upon Einstein before. We laughed heartily at the expense of our embarrassed compadre, but that old puncher had said a mouthful! I’ve always remembered that, “Ideas don’t work unless you do!”
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TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES • 100 acres, Kaufman County TX, Long County Rd frontage, city water, excellent grass. $3750 per acre. • 240 acres, Recreation, hunting and fishing. Nice apartment, 25 miles from Dallas Court House. $3250 per acre. • 270 acre, Mitchell County, Texas ranch. Investors dream; excellent cash flow. Rock formation being crushed and sold; wind turbans, some minerals. Irrigation water developed, crop & cattle, modest improvements. Just off I-20. Price reduced to $1.6 Million. • 40 acre, 2 homes, nice barn, corral, 30 miles out of Dallas. $415,000.
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WAGONMOUND RANCH, Mora/Harding Counties, NM. 4,927 +/- deeded acres, 1,336.80 +/- state lease acres, 2,617 +/- Kiowa National Grassland Lease Acres. 8,880.80 +/- Total Acres. Substantial holding with good mix of grazing land and broken country off rim onto Canadian River. Fenced into four main pastures with shipping and headquarter pasture and additional four pastures in the Kiowa lease. Modern well, storage tank and piped water system supplementing existing dirt tanks located on deeded. Located approximately 17 miles east of Wagon Mound on pavement then county road. Nice headquarters and good access to above rim. Wildlife include antelope, mule deer and some elk. $2,710,000
MAXWELL FARM IMPROVED, Colfax County, NM. 280 +/deeded acres, 160 Class A irrigation shares, 2 center pivots, nice sale barn, 100 hd feedlot. Depredation Elk Tags available. Owner financing available to qualified buyer. Significantly reduced to $550,000
MIAMI HORSE TRAINING FACILITY, Colfax County, NM. Ideal horse training facility, 4 bedroom 3 bathroom approx. 3,593 sq-ft home, 332.32 +/- deeded acres, 208 shares of irrigation, all the facilities you need to summer your cutting horse operation out of the heat and far enough south to have somewhat mild winters. Approximately 6,200 ft elevation. $1,790,000
RATON MILLION DOLLAR VIEW, Colfax County, NM. 97.68 +/- deeded acres, 2 parcels, excellent home, big shop, wildlife, a true million dollar view at end of private road. $489,000
MIAMI HORSE HEAVEN, Colfax County, NM. Very private approx. 4,800 sq-ft double walled adobe 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home with many custom features. 77.50 +/- deeded acres with 77.25 water shares, large 7-stall horse barn, large insulated metal shop with own septic, large hay barn/equipment shed. $1,500,000
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MIAMI 80 ACRES, Colfax County, NM. 80 +/- deeded acres, 80 water shares, expansive views, house, shop, roping arena, barns and outbuildings. $485,000 COLD BEER VIEW, Colfax County, NM 83.22 +/- deeded acre, 3,174 sq ft, 5 bedroom, 3 ½ bathrm, 2 car garage home situated on top of the hill with amazing 360 degree views. $485,000
FRENCH TRACT 80, Colfax County, NM irrigated farm with home and good outbuildings, $350,000 MIAMI 20 ACRES, Colfax County, NM. 20 +/- deeded acres, 20 water shares, quality 2,715 sq ft adobe home, barn, grounds and trees. Private setting. This is a must see. $425,000 Reduced to $395,000 COLMOR PLACE, Mora County, NM 354 +/- deeded acres, I25 frontage, house, pens, expansive views. Ocate Creek runs through property. $275,000
1301 Front Street, Dimmitt, TX 79027 Ben G. Scott – Broker Krystal M. Nelson – NM Qualifying Broker #15892 800-933-9698 day/eve. www.scottlandcompany.com • www.texascrp.com
BANKRUPTCY COURT SALE - DVR RANCHQuay/Harding Co., NM – Located on both north & south shores of the Ute Lake reservoir – Logan, NM is a 22,429.44 ac. +/- ranch (10,444.44 deeded – 12,385.5 State Lease) watered not only by wells & pipeline but also the lake itself on both shores. Excellent location on all weather roads & pvmt.
EXCELLENT OWNER FINANCING! ABERCROMBIE RANCH – Huerfano Co., CO – 7,491 ac. +/- of choice grassland watered by wells & the Cucharas River, on pvmt.
MESA DEL GATO RANCH – 6,423.45 AC. +/- in two tracts of 3,735 ac. & 2,688.45 ac., all deeded, approx. 7 mi. apart offered as one ranch, broker will assist w/contracts on either or UTE LAKE SUBDIVISION – beautiful, new both of the tracts, good country for year-round custom built home, 5,046 +/- sq. ft. on 3.230 cow/calf operation or summer yearling grazing. ac. +/-, 4 bdrm., 3 ½ bath & an attached two CANYON VIEW RANCH – 1,542 deeded ac. car garage. +/- just out of Clayton, NM, beautiful, good PRICE REDUCED! NM STATE LEASE – country, well watered, volcanic rock mining Union Co. – buy the improvements & irr. equip. operation offers addtl. income, on pvmt. on the property & lease a NM State Leased G BAR FARM – Tuc., NM, 194 ac. +/-, well section, 640 ac. +/-, w/nice home, landscaped improved w/home, barns, pens, 138.6 ac. Arch yard w/matured trees, nice shop, cattle pens & Hurley conservation district water rights, well pivot sprinklers. suited for combination farm/livestock operation! THIS ONE HAS IT ALL – Union Co., NM AIRPORT DRIVE – Tucumcari, NM – Choice – 4,270.39 acres deeded +/-, 3,357 acres 160 ac. +/-, on pvmt. w/beautiful home, roping State Lease +/-, abundant wild life (mule deer, arena, steel pens & 139.5 ac. +/- of water whitetail deer, antelope, turkey, quail, dove, rights. occasional elk, bobcat, mountain lion & many other varmints), fishing, wildlife habitat & excel- BIRD HUNTERS HAVEN - Quay Co., NM lent grazing for livestock is found in & along 258 ac. +/-, in easy driving distance of Ute & two large, year-round, live-water creeks & Conchas Lakes, all in native grass w/home, solid-turfed open, rolling pastures, fenced for barns, good fences, well watered , on pvmt. rotational grazing, well watered by wells, pipeview our websites for details on these propline & two live creeks, beautiful improvements, Please erties, choice TX, NM & CO ranches (large & small), pavement & all-weather roads, winter protec- choice ranches in the high rainfall areas of OK, irr./drytion for year-round cow/calf operation, great land/CRP & commercial properties. We need your listgains for summer yearling operation. ings on any types of ag properties in TX., NM, OK & CO.
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Livestock Market Digest
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Cooking Competitions at the NJAS Sign up by May 15 for the All-American CAB Cook-Off and Chef’s Challenge hosted by the American Angus Auxiliary.
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To advertise call 505/243-9515
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T
he All-American Certified Angus Beef® CookOff ranks among the most popular contests each year at the National Junior Angus Show (NJAS). The competition challenges juniors to prepare a beef-inspired dish and creatively present their meal to a panel of judges. While there are plenty of laughs and fun during the daylong event, participants learn the importance of communicating about beef nutrition and the Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand. “We are looking forward to another impressive year for the CAB Cook-Off at the National Junior Angus Show,” says Anne Lampe, American Angus Auxiliary Cook-Off co-chair. “Every year there’s something different, and we are impressed by the enthusiasm and talent our juniors bring to the competition.” May 15 is the deadline to enter this year’s event hosted July 11 in conjunction with the 2017 NJAS at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa. National Junior Angus
Association (NJAA) members compete in state groups to develop a recipe and prepare it in one of three meat categories: steaks, roasts and other beef items. Each group may consist of two to six individuals, and the age divisions are 8-13; 14-17; and 18-21. The second portion of the Cook-Off involves a creative skit showcasing CAB. “When developing your skit and recipe, the main goal is to promote Certified Angus Beef to the consumer,” Lampe said. “Be creative and have fun, but remember to incorporate the quality characteristics of our branded beef program.” Participating teams should do their homework and be equipped to answer a variety of questions. The CAB website hosts several different information sources and ideas to prepare for the Cook-Off, including the carcass specifications, various cuts and cooking methods and degrees of doneness. The Cook-Off involves a few rules junior members should consider when making their plans:
EVALUATING animals will have better longevity. • Feet structure – A critical aspect to consider is the depth of the heel, Bedwell said. If there is not enough depth in the heel and strength in the pastern, it starts to grow out. Producers just don’t have the time to be trimming feet, especially in larger operations. The hoof should be dense and able to support the weight of the animal. He also explained that the ideal hoof should have two symmetrical claws that both point forward. A producer should look for a big, even, square foot, he said.
Evaluating feet Weaber also told producers that KSU is currently working on developing a scoring system and is investigating what associations feet and leg structure has with other traits. He expects feet and leg structure can one day be incorporated into a selection index. “Having an EPD for a trait – whether your breed has a problem or not – tells your customers it’s important,” Weaber said. “We expect to improve longevity and welfare of our animals, and certainly the economics as-
• All teams will use the same CAB product in their respective categories, no exceptions. Each category will receive the following beef cuts: split strip steak; peeled coulotte roast; and four, quarter-pound frankfurters for the other category. • No team may receive the CAB product until 8 a.m. on contest day. Please do not choose a recipe that requires overnight marinating or cooking time over five hours. • Grills are strongly encouraged for preparation of beef. Sound like fun? Adults attending the NJAS can also participate in their own type of cooking competition. The Chef’s Challenge is an event open to both senior (18-21) NJAA members and adults, and participants showcase their skills using CAB and secret ingredients provided by the contest. Pre-entry is also required by May 15. For more information on the All-American Certified Angus Beef Cook-Off, visit the Auxiliary’s website. Visit www.angus.org/njaa to learn more about the upcoming NJAS in Des Moines, Iowa.
continued from page eight
sociated with [replacing breeding stock]. I encourage you if you’re a seedstock producer to start collecting this data be-
cause it’s going to be important long-term.” Illustrations by Corey Lewis, provided by Shane Bedwell.
May 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
Baxter BLACK ON THE EDGE OF COMMON SENSE www.baxterblack.com
JUST SAY NO!
- my brother says it works every time! - I know Pinto took her out, but she’s not that kind of girl! - your wife will just love a new drill press! - it’s the cow deal of a lifetime but I need a cosigner! - it’s not cleared for scours and I can’t officially recommend it but... - this will make you rich! - the Japanese eat it this way all the time! - the Indians ate it just like this right after they killed the buffalo! - I know his sire was dwarf but I don’t think it’s hereditary! - buy this guy in the calcutta. You’ve never heard of him but he ropes good, he just doesn’t travel much! - the vet says she’ll settle in spite of how it looks! - he just bumped it in the trailer! - I know they look drawn but think of the weighin’ condition! - I never turned a steer out on this place that didn’t gain 300 lbs! - yer right, it is the runt. But he’s the smartest one of the litter! - a little hot wire and you could run 600 buffalo on this place! - sure I can fix yer car. Kin I borry yer tools? - if she’s not in foal I’ll eat my hat! - this aluminum gate comes with a lifetime guarantee! - why, the hunting lease will make the payments on this ol’ ranch! - no, I’ve never heard a horse bark like that before either, but I don’t think it’s serious! - and with this degree in economics you’ll always be able to get a job! - if you elect me... www.baxterblack.com
2017 DEBRUYCKER CHAROLAIS BULL SALE RESULTS HIGH SELLING BULLS Lot 602 $33,000.00 170 $18,500.00 556 $14,000.00 496 $12,000.00 33 $11,500.00 331 $11,000.00 238 $9,500.00
Cliff Redd C&D Charolais Footprint Farms Border Land Co C&D Charolais Morley Charolais & Hyde Charolais Morley Charolais & Hyde Charolais
Greenwood, SC Valier, MT Esther, AB Rock Glen, SK Valier, MT Sunnyvale, TX Sulphur Springs, TX Sunnyvale, TX Sulphur Springs, TX
VOLUME BUYERS 61 Bulls 44 Bulls 43 Bulls 32 Bulls 32 Bulls 22 Bulls 14 Bulls
Vera Earl Ranch Inc UC Cattle Co Bellamy Cattle Co Wellman Ranch Ensign Ranch Fettic Ranch Draggin Y Cattle Co
BULLS SOLD TO 23 STATES, & CANADA AR, AZ, CO, FL, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MI, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OR, SC, SD, TX, UT, WA, WV, WY, & CANADA 96 Long Yearling Bulls 501 Yearling Bulls Overall
@ $4,889.47 @ $4,386.32 @ 597 Bulls @ $4,467.06
Sire JDJ Maximo A18 P BHD Zeus X3041 LT Ledger 0332 P KCM Led Zenelin Z163 P SM Smokin LeonidisA831P SM Smokin LeonidisA831P BHD Perseus B65 P
Page 11
Are Farmers in the U.S. Neglecting Mother Earth? Consumers Weigh In
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or those who farm, Earth Day is every day, said Terry Fleck, executive director of The Center for Food Integrity (CFI). But most consumers aren’t completely convinced farmers are doing enough to protect Mother Earth, according to the latest CFI trust research. “The land and its gifts are the lifeblood of agriculture no matter the size and scale, the crop grown or the livestock raised,” said Fleck. “But many of those on the outside looking in aren’t so sure.” For the first time in the latest CFI trust research respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement with the following statement: “Do U.S. farmers take good care of the environment?” While 42 percent strongly agree, more than half – 51 percent – are ambivalent and only moderately agree. They’re just not sure farmers are doing enough. Why? First, the “big is bad” bias is likely at play, said Fleck. “As the size and scale of farming grows, consumers don’t trust that large farms have their best interests at heart,” he said. In fact, in the latest research 51 percent strongly believe that large farms are likely to put their interests ahead of consumer interests, compared to 36 percent for small farms. There’s a perception that profit is the overriding motive and that the use of pesticides and GMO seeds, for example, simply make farmers more money at the expense of the earth. “I would also propose that the public has little to no idea what farmers are doing to protect our natural resources, so it’s difficult for them to form a strong opinion one way or another,” he said. So, how do farmers demonstrate to consumers that they’re continually finding ways to do things better to produce food in a way that sustains the environment for generations to come? Engage with them. “Consistent, long-term engagement is critical,” said Fleck. “Having values-based conversations either in-person or online is what will make a meaningful difference. Our research tells us that connecting with consumers on what’s important to them – their values – is three-to-five times more important to earning trust than simply sharing facts and figures.” Also, consumers want to see “practices,” according to CFI’s transparency research. Why? Because practices are values in action. Show them what you’re doing, said Fleck. “Tackle topics like pesticides and GMO seeds, precision fertilizer application, tilling methods that prevent erosion, efficient water use and cover crops. Focus on contincontinued on page sixteen
Page 12
Livestock Market Digest
May 15, 2017
Carnivores Rejoice, Steaks & Burgers Are Cheap for Grilling BY LYDIA MULVANY BLOOMBERG
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o ahead, throw another T-bone on the grill. Thanks to a boom in beef production, steaks and burgers will finally be cheap enough this summer to rival pork and chicken. The surge in output means the U.S. is headed for a meat bonanza. Americans will eat eight percent more red meat and poultry per capita this year compared with three years earlier -- a record jump in government data going back to 1970. Beef, in particular, is expected to see increased consumer demand as prices in grocery stores drop, making the meat more competitive. Retailers and restaurants are loading up on beef supplies, signaling that customers will enjoy summer promotions. Adding to the demand outlook is recent news that the U.S. may be getting closer to restarting trade with China, the world’s second-biggest beef buyer, opening a market that’s been shut since 2003. The brightening picture is drawing the attention of hedge funds, who have the most bullish holding on cattle futures since June 2014. “If you lower prices enough, you can get products sold not just in the near term, but for the next three to five months,” said Altin Kalo, an analyst at Manchester, New Hampshire-based Steiner Consult-
ing Group, an economic and commodity-trading adviser. “For two or three years we were in a situation where beef went up and up, and it became difficult to run full promotions. Suddenly, the market switched and allowed more operators to do that.” Rising beef consumption is sparking a rally for cattle prices, as traders anticipate that meatpackers will need a steady stream of the animals. June futures climbed 2.6 percent to $1.147 a pound last week on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, after reaching $1.15525, the highest since the contract started trading in February 2016. They rose again Tuesday, gaining 0.4 percent at 8:41 a.m. in Chicago.
Net-Long Wagers Money managers are gearing up for more gains. The cattle net-long position, or the difference between bets on a price increase and wagers on a decline, climbed 1.9 percent to 123,372 futures and options in the week ended April 11, according to U.S. Commodity Futures and Trading Commission data released three days later. Demand is picking up as retailers have responded to better wholesale pricing with “aggressive” beef promotions, analysts at Greenwood Village, Colorado-based CoBank said in a March report. Beef is seeing its highest share of total advertisements for the three
main meats, including chicken and pork, in seven years, CoBank said. Ground beef in grocery stores has dropped about 9 percent from a year ago, the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Steaks are down 6.6 percent. While pork and chicken and typically less expensive than beef, the gap between the prices is narrowing. Steak’s premium over pork chops is down 6.5 percent from a year ago. Above-average temperatures, favorable to grilling, and strengthening consumer confidence are also helping demand. As of April 7, the fourweek average of beef salesfor delivery between 22 and 60 days out was 34 percent more
than a year earlier, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data compiled by Steiner Consulting. The trend of higher sales has persisted all this year.
‘Big Prize’ Optimism that China will soon buy U.S. beef is also fueling bulls. President Donald Trump’s administration called it a “big prize” after he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to expand American shipments to the country during a meeting this month. China lifted its 2003 ban in September, but difficulties negotiating conditions attached to the re-opening of trade have held up sales. Even without China, beef exports have chipped away at bigger domestic supplies,
with volumes in the first two months of the year up 13 percent, according to the latest government data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation. An expanding herd and robust slaughter numbers are also deceptive -- supplies are actually tight when looking at market-ready cattle, or those that have been fattening up for months in feedlots and are ready to be bought and processed. The number of animals on feed for more than 120 days was 16 percent lower on March 1 and may be down as much as 12 percent for April 1, according to Kalo of Steiner Consulting. Even with booming demand and near-term supply tightness, the futures curve signals price declines in the longer-term. Contracts through the end of the year are trading at a discount to June futures. Output will catch up with demand, and production of other meats will continue to expand, pressuring prices, said Donald Selkin, the New York-based chief market strategist at Newbridge Securities, which manages around $2 billion. “I don’t think there’s so much bullishness going into the end of the year,” Selkin said. “There’s going to be some herd expansion, and there’s the realization that there’s going to be larger pork and poultry supplies. That’s why the bullishness is only near term.”
New Conservation Award Program Comes to Oklahoma
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he Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, the Oklahoma Farming and Ranching Foundation, and ITC Holdings Corp., in partnership
with the Sand County Foundation, are bringing the Leopold Conservation Award® program to Oklahoma. “Governor Mary Fallin is pleased that our agriculture
community has come together to bring the Leopold Conservation Award to Oklahoma,” said Jim Reese, Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture. “Farmers and ranchers in our state have long been leaders in conservation. From our early beginnings with the Dust Bowl to today, each generation has strived to leave the land better than they found it. Through this award, we will recognize an exceptional family and thank them for their contributions to a better Oklahoma.” The Leopold Conservation Award recognizes agricultural landowners actively committed to a land ethic and investing in private land conservation. It celebrates extraordinary achievement in voluntary conservation by private landowners, inspires other landowners by example, and provides a platform by which agricultural community leaders are acknowledged as conservation ambassadors to those outside of agriculture. “This program provides a valuable opportunity here in
Oklahoma to recognize our great land stewards, leaders in conservation and our communities, for their benefit to our environment and society,” said Chad Ellis, Noble Foundation Center for Land Stewardship manager. “The Noble Foundation has been committed to conserving and improving soils, and fostering sustainable agricultural practices by helping empower farmers and ranchers since 1945. We look forward to continuing these efforts for generations to come.” This program brings together agriculture, government, environmental organizations, industry and academia to advance the cause of private lands conservation. “Oklahoma cattle ranchers have a great storied history of a strong and deep stewardship commitment to our natural resources,” said Michael Kelsey, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association executive vice president. “Partnering with other organizations of similar commitment
through the Leopold Conservation Award is a great way to share this important story. The Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association is honored to be a part of this outstanding award.” The common bond of all organizations and entities involved is a strong commitment to conservation stewardship on private lands, which is the most prominent land ownership model in Oklahoma. More than 90 percent of Oklahoma lands are privately owned. “We are pleased to partner with these great organizations to bring the Leopold Conservation Award Program to Oklahoma,” said Jeramy Rich, Oklahoma Farming and Ranching Foundation president. “This award fits well with our commitment to educating and advocating for our state’s hardworking farm and ranch families and their history of responsible environmental stewardship.” The inaugural award will be continued on page fourteen
May 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
The View FROM THE BACK SIDE
America on the Mend
BY BARRY DENTON
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hings are beginning to change in America in a dramatic way. On Monday March 27, 2017 President Trump signed a bill under the Congressional Repeal Act that eliminated federal rule planning on 245 million acres of public lands in the West. The way I understand it, is that the bill was designed to get rid of the Obama administration regulation that would have taken local control of federal lands and would have those decisions made by Washington bureaucrats instead. I think we all agree that Washington bureaucrats are probably the biggest
problem that this country faces. They certainly have been the enemy of the hard working person the last eight years. It just makes sense to let locals make local decisions that affect them. I will bet there are probably not ten politicians in Washington that know anything about running a ranch or a mine on public land. I have not met many as of yet. Soon after Mr. Trump’s inauguration he banned Environmental Protection Agency employees from updating the press or social media about EPA actions or plans. He also put a stop to any new awarding of grants or contracts. In the last days of the Obama
administration there were 30 new directives put into place which included new air pollution rulings for several states, renewable fuel standards, etc. This is the first step to eliminating these new rules that would choke business and the working person. The new head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, says that we need to exit the Paris Accord because it is a bad deal for America. The Paris Accord is an agreement between the world’s nations to lower carbon emissions. While we would be implementing it here in the United States, China and India, two of the worst offenders, would be exempted from it until 2030. It looks like the newly approved Keystone XL pipeline from Canada will be providing 42,000 new jobs building it and even more jobs when the oil reaches the refineries on the gulf coast. A few years ago in 2014 the State Department issued the opinion that the pipeline would have no additional impact on greenhouse gas emissions as the same amount of oil would be extracted whether or not there was a pipeline. Another thing that ought to
Page 13 help us here in the West is our withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. This was basically an expansion of the North American Free Trade Act, which has been crippling the United States cattle industry by allowing foreign beef to be sold in the United States without regulation or labeling. The TPP trade deal was set to open up trade even more from Japan to Chile. Besides hurting the United States cattle market with imported beef it also would be flooding other American markets as well to say nothing of the job market. Mr. Trump has a protectionist attitude toward the American worker and we can be thankful for that. One thing I have noticed here in our area is the amount of people that have gone back to work since Election Day. I have a good friend who is a developer that just restarted eight projects in three states that had been on hold for the last eight years. Another friend of mine in the manufacturing business just doubled his work force to keep up with new orders. I can see an increase already in the amount of business my family is doing compared to be-
fore Election Day. People are finally starting to feel good about the future and starting to spend some money, instead of living in fear that they may never make any again. When America is put back to work we all prosper. Our business happens to be training horses and raising cattle. The last horse show that we just came back from in the first part of March was the largest they have had by far, in the last 40 years. If we can just keep this trend going and not allow those big government politicians to be elected to jobs back in Washington. We must keep the momentum going to allow the average American to earn a good living and not be restricted by too much government regulation and taxes. America is supposed to be about freedom. That should be our most important word and kept foremost on our minds. If the government leaves people alone and lets them work, we will all be better off. When American workers earn good money, they spend it as well. Capitalism has made this country exceptional and we need to remain along the same path for many more years to come.
Consider the Consequences of Bad Behavior BY DR. JUSTIN RHINEHART, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, UT BEEF CATTLE EXTENSION SPECIALIST
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emperament of cattle has long been recognized to influence production efficiency by having an impact on cattle handling and performance. More recently, scientists have suggested that flighty behavior of individual cattle can also affect the performance of the entire group. So, letting just one flighty calf slip passed the sort could decrease the performance of the entire group. For humans, temperament is defined as the way a person thinks, behaves or reacts. For cattle, a good definition for temperament is the intensity of their “fight or flight” instinct. Some of the performance measures that are impacted by temperament are health, feed efficiency, weight gain, dressing percentage and meat quality. Before discussing trials that have reported the effects of temperament on performance, it is important to understand how it is measured in research settings and how that translates to real-world application. Scientists that study disposition in
cattle often use three methods to grade temperament: 1) pen scores, 2) chute scores and 3) exit velocity. Pen and chute scores use a 1 to 5 ranking where 1 is calm and 5 is flighty. Pen scores are taken by a person entering a pen with a group of cattle and applying a score between 1 and 5 where a score of 1 indicates that the cattle are not excited by humans and a score of 5 signifies that the cattle run into fences or charge humans when approached. Chute scores evaluate cattle on how they react to being secured in a working chute. Exit velocity is a measurement of how quickly cattle cover a set distance when released from a working chute. The faster they leave the chute, the more temperamental they are expected to be. Sierra Lockwood, a graduate student in Animal Science at the University of Tennessee, analyzed the effects of temperament of bull performance at the UT Bull Test facility at the Middle TN AgResearch and Education Center in Spring Hill. One of the results was that high-headed bulls became less excitable during the testing period. But, it is important to note that extremely aggressive bulls
were sent back to the producer’s farm at delivery rather than being accepted into the test. This could mean that culling cattle for extreme temperament and working to acclimate those in the mid-range is a sufficient approach Excitable feeder cattle do not eat enough feed, they gain slower and less efficiently, and require more health treatments. The effects of poor temperament on feeder cattle performance is obvious as you see the bidding stop early when high-headed calves come through the sale ring. Poor temperament lowers fertility in heifers and mature cows. It always seems like the most high-headed cow in the herd check pregnant when we are looking for one more reason to cull it. But, that is more likely perception because the research shows that temperamental cows and heifers, of any breed or breed type, are less likely to breed in a reasonable amount of time. Carcass quality potential is becoming a more important measure for cow/calf and stocker operators regardless of whether or not they retain ownership through the feeding phase. Especially as that infor-
mation flows back “upstream” when packers place more pressure on feedlots to source cattle that will produce a more desirable end product. It is common knowledge that extremely excitable cattle are more apt to produce dark cutting beef that is considerably less valuably. But dark cutters are not the only negative result from temperamental cattle. A calf that is more flighty, and more severely stressed by handling or human presence, will produce less marbling and tougher beef when finished. The negative effect of excitable temperament is not limited to the individual flighty animal. Most observant cattlemen have seen this in the cow herd and calf crop alike. If this influence of excitable temperament per-
sists through the stockering and feeding phases, the negative influence of temperamental cattle on performance will be amplified. In essence, one bad apple can spoil the barrel. All these examples illustrate the fact that flighty cattle hurt the bottom line for cow calf producers, stocker operators, backgrounders, and feeders. Most experienced buyers and managers avoid purchasing notoriously temperamental cattle but this selection criterion should also be applied to groups of cattle with only one or two “high-headed” cows or calves. Paying close attention to temperament should stimulate cow-calf producers to use it as a genetic selection tool that will eventually bring calmer calves to the sale.
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Livestock Market Digest
May 15, 2017
10 Tips for Young Ranchers BY AMANDA RADKE, BEEFMAGAZINE.COM
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hat do you wish you knew in your twenties about the ranching business that you know now? Share your words of wisdom with young producers in today’s blog! “Anything that is good is hard.” That is one piece of advice I received from rancher Scott Gilbertson when I asked my agricultural friends on Facebook for words of wisdom for young beef producers. It’s true that anything worth doing is worth doing well, and when it comes to the cattle business, it takes a lot of time, labor, capital and risk to achieve success in this industry. As a young producer myself, I love to ask for advice from those who have accomplished what I one day hope to. I was thrilled to receive so much feedback from my social media inquiry. I’ve compiled 10 of the best tips from my informal Facebook questionnaire for today’s blog. Feel free to pass it on to a young person who might benefit from
the advice, as well. 1. Take risks — big ones and little ones. Without taking risks on your own, it is hard to find the value in what you are doing. Start with a business plan and a budget. Design your cash flow and adjust it accordingly to your needs as the years progress. Be able to look at your numbers (income/expenses) and decide what needs to happen to have that bottom line be positive. Think outside of the box. Just because it has “always been done this way” does not mean it is the most cost effective way to do things. It doesn’t hurt to try something new. – Justine Kougl, MT 2. Don’t expect things to be like what mom and dad have. Don’t let any job be beneath you! Work smarter not harder. Never be too proud to ask for help or advice. – Laurie Johnson, Lake Shore, SD 3. Assemble a good team (banker, tax accountant, insurance agents, agronomist, livestock nutritionist, etc.) that understands your goals and will work with you to meet them. Take nec-
essary safety precautions. You are your own farm’s most important asset. – Amanda Larsen, Wolsey, SD 4. “Invest in good genetics might seem like a lot up front, but it pays off in the long run. Good cattle sell themselves and will turn into repeat buys. Also, have a good relationship with your banker and tell him your goals and plans for the future. I had an older guy tell me one time that if you take care of the cows, they take care of you. You’ll never be rich, but will always have enough to get by.” – Justin Brown, Dell Rapids, SD 5. “If you take care of the land and the cattle, they’ll take care of you. Also, Rome wasn’t built in a day. And don’t give up when times are tough. Remember, what’s said in the barn stays in the barn.” – Calli Williams, Mitchell, SD 6. “Learn from those ranchers that have been around a cattle/weather cycle or two. Surround yourself with their wisdom.” –Wendy Begochea Becker 7. “My dad always said there is a difference between a cowboy and a cow-
man. He helped raise generations of young ranchers. Be sure to listen when the experienced cowman offers help. The good ones won’t offer if not asked, unless it is really important.” – Nancy Hockett Carlson, Hotchkiss, CO 8. “Make decisions based on as much factual information as possible. It is so easy to access quality information and research; it would be foolish not to. Emotion based decisions are typically not the best business decisions. Learn to recognize the difference.” – Jay Stomprud, Mud Butte, SD 9. “Keep meticulous records.” – Megan McDowell, Boise, ID 10. “Borrow to the hilt to own land. The increase in the price of land has exceeded interest; it would’ve paid many times over to have bought land 20 years ago, particularly pasture land. They’re making less and less all the time.” – Warren Symens, Amherst, SD Do you agree with this list? What would you add? What do you wish you knew in your 20s that you know now? Share your words of wisdom.
Trichomoniasis Outbreak Hits Kansas Beef Cattle Herds State veterinary lab expert recommends annual bull diagnostic testing to prevent spread of Trich
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he Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory recently reported an outbreak of Trichomoniasis (Trich) in beef cattle herds with five new cases reported in three counties – leading the state lab to recommend diagnostic testing to help keep the disease at bay. “From early March to mid April, five herds across three
counties in Kansas have been reported positive for Trichomoniasis, a highly contagious, sexually transmitted disease caused by Tritrichomonas foetus (T. foetus),” said Gregg Hanzlicek, DVM, Ph.D., at Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. “This is compared to one herd diagnosed in 2016, but this is fairly typical. Just when you think you have Trich contained, it’ll flare up.” The Kansas herds were found Trich-positive for several reasons. One had a high open rate (non-pregnant) of cows, indi-
cating they had a reproductive issue. Diagnostic testing on the bulls confirmed they had Trich. The second affected herd was a result of cows purchased with pre-existing infection and later failed to become pregnant after more than 120 days or spontaneously aborted their calves. Testing confirmed they had Trich. “We believe the three Trich cases in one county were caused by a positive bull that co-mingled with several herds through grazing association,” Hanzlicek said. “Producers need to use
News With A View & A Whole Lot More...
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THE most effective advertising medium in ranching today!
f you have livestock, a product or service that stockmen and their families need, they will find out about it quickly if you advertise in the Digest. Digest readers know value when they see it and they respond rapidly to a good offer. Before you plan your advertising budget, think hard about how to stretch your dollars and where they are spent the most efficiently. Are you paying more to reach fewer qualified potential customers than you woud receive in the Digest? The Digest’s circulation is concentrated in the most
important livestock producing states: Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho, California, Oregon, Washington and Texas. The Digest caters to the most active readers in the livestock world - who ARE the buyers and sellers of livestock, the ones who show up and speak up. It is the ONLY place to get Lee Pitt’s perspective on the world and how we are going to thrive into the future. To plan your advertising, contact Caren Cowan at: caren@aaalivestock.com or 505/243-9515, ext. 21
caution when purchasing new bulls or cows. Since Trich-positive animals show no symptoms, routine testing should be conducted on all bulls more than 18 months old.” Bulls are the carriers of T. foetus. Cows become infected when they are naturally bred with an infected bull. The primary symptom in cows is infertility caused by embryonic death, which contributes to repeat breeding and scenarios where cows are in heat when they should be pregnant. Recent wildfires should also cause concern for the spread of Trich, Hanzlicek said. More than 1 million acres have been scorched along with thousands of miles of fencing, increasing the likelihood of co-mingling among grazing herds in Kansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. This underscores the need to test every bull before moving them into a co-mingled environment, Hanzlicek said. Samples are taken by a certified
CONSERVATION presented on Earth Day 2018 in Oklahoma City. Recipients will receive $10,000 and a crystal award, along with recognition through the Sand County Foundation as a 2018 Oklahoma recipient. “We are pleased to support Sand County Foundation in bringing the Leopold Award to Oklahoma,” said Donna Zalewski, ITC Holdings Corp. director of local government, community affairs and philanthropy. “Environmental responsibility is one of our core values, and it is reflected by our employees, at our facilities and in our operations. We are committed to the safe and reliable delivery of power in an environmentally
veterinarian non-invasively before they are sent to a diagnostic laboratory. “Once the sample arrives at the lab, we run a USDA-licensed PCR test on it, which is extremely sensitive and specific,” said Hanzlicek. “There can be significant economic consequences for herds with a positive bull, but we are very confident in Thermo Fisher Scientific’s PCR. It’s the best test available. I recommend every bull go through a breeding soundness examination once a year before they’re put into pasture with cows and heifers. It’s the perfect time to collect the Trich sample so producers don’t need to run the bull through the chute twice. “Diagnostics are the key. The herds that were just diagnosed could have had any number of different reproductive diseases,” he said. “Without a PCR test, we wouldn’t have any way to identify the disease or the carriers in a herd.” continued from page twelve
responsible way to help protect land, water and species.” Applications for the award are now being accepted. The $10,000 award will honor Oklahoma farmers, ranchers and other private landowners who voluntarily demonstrate outstanding stewardship and management of natural resources. Applications for the award must be postmarked by August 31, 2017, and mailed to Amanda Rosholt at the Oklahoma Farming and Ranching Foundation, located at 2501 N Stiles, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105. For application information, please visit www.leopoldconservationaward.org.
May 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
Page 15
Colvin Fund: $40,000 for 7 Young Leaders BY HANNA JOHLMAN
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even college students in beef and related studies have been awarded $40,000 in scholarships from the Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand. That’s up nearly 54 percent from last year’s total. Established in 1999, the Colvin Scholarship Fund supports education of future leaders in agriculture and animal sciences and honors the brand’s founding executive director of 21 years, Louis M. “Mick” Colvin. The program carries on his legacy of making dreams a reality and inspiring others to do their best.
2017 Colvin Scholarship Awards: $7,500 – Sierra Jepsen, Amanda, Ohio – The Ohio State University $6,500 – Terrel Platt, Pilot Rock, Ore. – Colorado State University $5,000 – Chandler Steele, Midland, Mich. – Oklahoma State University $4,000 – Austin Wenck, East Troy, Wis. – University of Wisconsin-Madison $3,000 – Elisabeth Loseke, Columbus, Neb. – University of Nebraska-Lincoln
could further restrict ribeye size to those from 12 to 16 square inches and encourage greater sorting of cuts for boxed beef for unmatched consistency. Animal science senior Chandler Steele, Oklahoma State University, wrote that CAB will remain synonymous with quality, that brand loyalty accumulated over 38 years will endure, no matter how drastically the market changes. She noted genetic change can only add so many pounds before it becomes non-functional to the animals carrying the weight, and that
demand from the food service sector will increase if a beef supply for their needed specifications should diminish. Winner of the $4,000 award, Austin Wenck of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote that CAB is both the mediator and idea coordinator between farms and consumers, a unique position that allows for credibility with producers. At the same time, the brand can lead research efforts such as those at Texas Tech University that found a cellular-level protein receptor linked to marbling.
University of Nebraska animal science and pre-veterinary senior Elisabeth Loseke wrote that she has seen how niche marketing opened producers to creative ways to stay competitive, and the CAB brand leads those categories. Perhaps a return to the 1,000-pound carcass weight limit could initiate a downward trend in frame size, she suggested, noting producers have proven interest in qualifying for the brand and will work to fit breeding programs to the standard. The Colvin Scholarship Fund
began its graduate student awards in 2012, opening doors to anyone in a recognized, fulltime masters or doctorate program related to high-quality beef production. Lauren Eastwood’s research demonstrates her interest in ensuring consumers get quality beef products. The top graduate-award winner and animal science Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University examined “Possible quality defects in beef caused by multiple applications continued on page sixteen
G N I S I T R E V D A T S E B N E R H E T T S E W N I E VALU CK INDUSTRY! O T S E V I L
Graduate Awards: $7,500 – Lauren Eastwood, New Braunfels, Texas – Texas A&M University $6,500 – Andrea English, Lubbock, Texas – Texas Tech University In a future with even heavier beef carcasses, undergraduate essays explored what the CAB brand can do to keep beef competitively priced while delivering the high-quality product so much in demand. Top award winner Sierra Jepsen, senior in agribusiness and applied economics at The Ohio State University, stands out as the only repeat Colvin winner – not just twice but three times, including second place last year. She said quality and marbling will always be the highest “dollarization factor” for beef. “It is a simple correlation that, if a producer can increase marbling in beef more quickly, those cattle can be sent to market at a younger age; thus, a more moderate carcass weight,” Jepsen wrote. She noted several studies suggest selection for marbling and docility, proper feeding and knowing when to harvest cattle can all lead to higher quality grades sooner. Granted, fewer pounds go against market rewards, but Jepsen argued CAB can partially offset that through education across all sectors of the production chain. Terrel Platt, senior in animal science and agribusiness at Colorado State University, won second-high honors with an essay about inconsistency from the heavier weights. The Oregon native wrote that the brand
Call Ron Archer today at 505/865-6011 or email archerron@aol.com
Reser ve you r
Livestock M space now in arket Digest ’s
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ADVERTISING DEADLINE: August 1
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Livestock Market Digest
May 15, 2017
Census of Agriculture Countdown Begins for Farmers and Ranchers
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merica’s farmers and ranchers will soon have the opportunity to strongly represent agriculture in their communities and industry by taking part in the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Conducted every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the census, to be mailed at the end of this year, is a complete count of all U.S. farms, ranches, and those who operate them. “The Census of Agriculture remains the only source of uniform, comprehensive, and impartial agriculture data for every county in the nation,” said NASS Administrator Hubert
Hamer. “As such, census results are relied upon heavily by those who serve farmers and rural communities, including federal, state and local governments, agribusinesses, trade associations, extension educators, researchers, and farmers and ranchers themselves.” The Census of Agriculture highlights land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures, and other topics. The 2012 Census of Agriculture revealed that over three million farmers operated more than two million farms, spanning over 914 million acres. This was a four percent decrease in the number of
U.S. farms from the previous census in 2007. However, agriculture sales, income, and expenses increased between 2007 and 2012. This telling information and thousands of other agriculture statistics are a direct result of responses to the Census of Agriculture. “Today, when data are so important, there is strength in numbers,” said Hamer. “For farmers and ranchers, participation in the 2017 Census of Agriculture is their voice, their future, and their opportunity to shape American agriculture - its policies, services, and assistance programs - for years to come.” Producers who are new to
farming or did not receive a Census of Agriculture in 2012 still have time to sign up to receive the 2017 Census of Agriculture report form by visiting www.agcensus.usda. gov and clicking on the ‘Make Sure You Are Counted’ button through June. NASS defines a farm as any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year (2017). For more information about the 2017 Census of Agriculture and to see how census data are used, visit www.agcensus.usda.gov or call (800) 727-9540.
U.S. FARMERS continued from page eleven
uous improvement and why it matters to you.” The steps you take on your farm to keep Mother Earth happy and healthy may seem routine, but they likely are “aha” moments for others, he said. Options for engaging include: • Taking advantage of local public speaking opportunities. • Pitching stories to the media about seasonal milestones on the farm (planting, harvest, etc.) and incorporating environmental sustainability messages. • Posting pictures with great captions and short videos shot on your phone to social media (the simpler the video, the more authentic). • Taking advantage of the new Facebook Live to give “onthe-spot” reports about what you’re doing on your farm to protect our natural resources. • Engaging in those critical day-to-day conversations to better understand what’s important to your neighbors and community, and having meaningful dialogue. • Sharing good values-based content from others on your social channels. Millions participate in Earth Day by commemorating environmental successes, highlighting challenges and envisioning solutions, said Fleck. “As the original stewards of the land, farmers are encouraged to get involved in the conversation, too, not just on Earth Day, but every day,” he said.
COLVIN FUND continued from page fifteen
of antimicrobial interventions.” She wrote, “Overall, findings from this study support that these food safety inventions, while effective in reducing microbiological counts on product surfaces, do not negatively impact beef quality.” After completing her doctorate this fall, Eastwood plans a career that bridges the U.S. and international meat and livestock markets. Second-high award winner, Andrea English seeks her Ph.D. in animal and food science at Texas Tech University. Her work in meat science and food safety explores “Alternatives to sub-therapeutic antibiotics in beef cattle feeding to improve performance and mitigate emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance.” English said her research “provides an alternative to those antibiotics … that can maintain performance of the cattle while also reducing the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens” that could enter the food supply. As the top scholarship recipients, Jepsen and Eastwood receive all-expense-paid trips to the 2017 CAB Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, September 27 through 29. There, they will interact with leaders in beef production, packaging, retail and food service.