LMD November 2010

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

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Volume 52 • No. 12

Death & Taxes

by Lee Pitts

t has long been accepted as popular wisdom that there are only two sure things in life: death and taxes. One would assume, incorrectly as it turns out, that with one’s death at least the taxes would stop. How foolish of us to think so.

That is why to anyone with significant assets the year 2010 is, indeed, a very lucky year. It’s quite simply the biggest tax loophole in American history. Sadly, to take advantage of the loophole you only have a few more weeks left to die.

What kind of idiocy allows that a land rich/cash poor rancher who dies by midnight on December 31, 2010 will be able to pass his or her estate federal tax free to his or her heirs, but if that rancher dies one second after midnight the heirs could pay a federal estate tax of up to 55 percent?

Estate Tax Roulette

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Tick, Tick, Tick . . .

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In just a few short weeks the much-dreaded estate tax that took a one-year vacation will return with a vengeance to the rate it was in 2001. We ask again, what kind of dumbo politicians allow heirs in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 to all pay (or not pay in the case of 2010) vastly different rates of estate taxes? But it looks

by LEE PITTS

Auctions, Not Elections

– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL NOVEMBER 15, 2010 •

Riding Herd

“If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.” like that is exactly what’s about to happen if the lame duck Congress does not patch the tax code between now and the end of the year. (Have you ever heard a better description of the bunch we have in Congress than “lame ducks”?)

In 2008, the basic exemption was $2 million per spouse and the top estate tax rate was 45 percent. In 2009, the basic exemption rose to $3.5 million per spouse, and the top estate tax rate continued to be 45 percent.

Of course, in 2010 the estate tax went to zero, thus creating a bonanza for “lucky” heirs whose parents or grandparents had the “fortune” of passing away this year. If Congress does nothing and allows the pre-Bush estate tax rules to come back into effect, in 2011 the basic exemption will be $1 million per spouse and the top estate tax rate will be 55 percent.

Who created this mess? A Pakistani call center mortgage lender?

Thanks to the inaction of our “leaders” in Washington, DC, and their preoccupation with health care, bank and car company bailouts, and reelection campaigns, heirs are now playing estate tax roulette, with one bullet left in the gun. And it’s 2010 caliber. Late night comedians are joking about heirs unplugging their parents from life support and depressed or sick rich people who want to pass something along to their kids might actually be considering suicide.

Tick, tick, tick, the clock is running out on a once in a lifetime chance to perhaps keep the ranch intact for one more generation.

It wasn’t supposed to come to this, Congress was supposed to fix this grossly unfair and idiotic situation, but by now we should have learned to never underestimate the stupidity of Congress.

At the stroke of midnight in just a few short weeks both the estate tax and the Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax, which also took a continued on page two

Settlement Reached to Reduce Global Warming Impacts of Walmart Supercenters he Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has settled two lawsuits brought against Walmart over the global warming impacts of proposed Supercenters in Perris and Yucca Valley, California. The settlement requires Walmart to install three rooftop solar facilities of at least 250 kilowatts, incorporate cutting-edge efficiency measures into the design of the proposed stores, and implement a refrigerant audit and improvement program at certain existing Walmart stores in California.

The suits, brought under the California Environmental Quality Act, challenged the adequacy of the environmental review for the projects for failure to properly consider measures to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution resulting from the Supercenters.

“This settlement is yet another example of the California Environmental Quality Act working to improve new development, reduce greenhouse gas pollution, save energy, save money, and promote a vibrant green economy,” said Matt Vespa, a senior attorney with the Center’s Climate Law Institute. “The settlement raises the bar for future projects. If big-

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box stores are to be built in California, measures like the installation of solar-power systems must be adopted to minimize the project’s greenhouse gas pollution.”

The lawsuits are part of series of court challenges brought by the Center to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from new development through the California Environmental Quality Act, which mandates that projects with significant environmental effects adopt all feasible alternatives and mitigation measures to substantially lessen their impact.

The Yucca Valley settlement also includes a $120,000 contribution to the Mojave Desert Land Trust for land-conservation purposes and acknowledges the right of the Coalition for Environmental Integrity of Yucca Valley, also a party to the Yucca Valley settlement, to endorse a ballot initiative prohibiting development of the Supercenter and other discount superstores in the Town of Yucca Valley.

Walmart also agreed to implement a similar set of greenhouse gas reduction measures to continued on page two

ike just about everything else in our society these days, our political machine is broken and our election process is in need of a complete overhaul. In the 2008 elections 5.3 BILLION dollars was spent on the Presidential and Congressional races alone and look at what we got for our money! Talk about buyer’s remorse!

The problem is there are no longer two distinct parties in this country.

There is only one: the money party. The politicians only listen to cash, not their constituents.

With this in mind I propose that we do away with elections entirely and just sell the Presidency and seats in Congress to the highest bidders at auction. We could get rid of all the middlemen so that all the cash would go directly to the politicians without being laundered through lobbyists. Granted, we’d probably end up with the the same corrupt leaders, but it would be more transparent this way. Perhaps they could even wear the jerseys or uniforms of their benefactors to remind all of us who owns them.

If we sold Congressional seats like we sold cattle and had auctions instead of elections your favorite TV shows wouldn’t get canceled because of lame debates and your phone wouldn’t ring off the hook from telemarketers soliciting your vote. Look at all the money we’d save on ethics panels! The sale of the Presidency and every Congressional seat would all be on the same day so that incumbents wouldn’t have to spend half the time we’re paying them for back home campaigning. They could stay in Washington full time doing their jobs.

Okay, so maybe that’s not such a great idea.

Some might suggest continued on page ten

www.LeePittsbooks.com

Livestock Market Digest

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November 15, 2010

Death & Taxes

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one year hiatus, will be with us once again.

As this is being written (prior to the November elections) after December 31 the estate and gift tax rates will go from zero to between 39 percent to 55 percent depending on the size of the estate. Then you have to add on state estate taxes if you live in one of the states that charges one.

Then there are state inheritance taxes, which differ from estate taxes. An inheritance tax is an assessment made on the portion of an estate received by an individual while an estate tax is a tax levied on an entire estate before it is distributed to individuals. The inheritance tax is strictly a state tax. Eleven states still collect an inheritance tax. They are: Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. (In all states, transfers of assets to a spouse are exempt from the tax. In some states, transfers to children and close relatives are also exempt.)

Add it all up and you are left with the cold hard conclusion that potentially these taxes pose a greater threat to the American rancher than all the cow-hating greenies and militant vegetarians put together.

One of the big reasons that we expect Congress to do nothing to fix this mess is that the government needs the relatively small amount of money that the estate tax puts in the government’s vast coffers. It will come as a surprise to no one that the federal government has been spending money lately faster than a $100 million lotto winner. Although it started way before Obama took office, he took binge spending to an all new level. According to the Wall Street Journal, to balance the budget by 2015, Congress needs to find an extra $240 billion per year. Not counting the interest due on our nearly 14 trillion dollar national debt, of course. You don’t find that kind of money between the couch cushions! No, the easiest way is to pickpocket it from the pants of those people least likely to notice or complain.

That would be dead people.

The Government Wants “Its” Money It boggles the mind to think that after a ranch family pays income tax and property tax every year on a ranch that they should then have to give the federal government half the ranch when they die. Think about that for a moment. In this land of the free why shouldn’t people be allowed to pass on the fruits of their labor to their descendants? But socialists point to the disparity of wealth in this country between the rich and poor, the widest since the 1920s, and suggest that what we need is an estate tax that forces land reform, as if we were some third world country. To which we would say, if you’re looking for those responsible for the wide disparity of wealth currently in this country you’d best

continued from page one

be looking in Congress and Wall Street, not in the bank accounts of farm and ranch families.

How many dutiful sons and daughters have worked for their parents for years for less than a livable wage with the idea they’d get their just reward one day when the ranch passed down to them? And make no mistake, we are talking about family ranches here. According to the USDA, 98 percent of American farms and ranches are owned and operated by families. In those family ranches, 84 percent of the value of the estate is in the land. Cash broke and land rich is very much the reality out in cattle country.

Often the estate taxes forces a downsizing of the ranch to where it is no longer an economical unit, which in many cases then forces subdividing. This is phenomenon that in turn brings fragmentation of the landscape, something our government and the environmentalists say they are against. Yet our government forces the issue.

We haven’t even discussed the emotional toll the estate tax takes on ranchers. Just as they are hit with a death in the family and restructuring the business, the government is knocking on the door for “its money.” The estate tax is usually due and payable within nine months after the death of the decedent. A portion of the estate tax may be deferred for a number of years if the operation is a closely held business and meets the provisions of Section 6166 of the IRS code. That rule allows a ten-year installment period for estate taxes, commencing five years after the decedent’s death. For the first five years, the payments are interest-only.

Although section 6166 does provide some relief the taxes are still owed and the burden is not lessened. Which brings up yet another issue; when you have stupid laws on the books which allows no estate taxes due one year and 55 percent the next, how does any ranch family know how to structure their business or engage in estate planning?

Make Them Pay (Editor’s note: If you own a valuable ranch and have high blood continued on page three

Settlement continued from page one

settle a separate challenge to a proposed Supercenter in Riverside, California, brought by Riverside Citizens for Smart Growth.

The major substantive terms of the settlements are available at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ceqa/pdfs/walmartsettlement-letter-yucca-valle y.pdf and http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/c eqa/pdfs/walmart-settlement-letter-perris.pdf.

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November 15, 2010 pressure you may wants to skip the next section of this little essay.)

There are some Americans who say ranch families don’t deserve to inherit the ranch and that the estate tax is needed in this country to prevent a buildup of wealth in the bank accounts of a relatively few wealthy families.

It’s that kind of thinking that led to the estate tax in the first place.

In 1916 the estate tax was put in place to protect America from becoming like many countries in Europe at the time, which were being run by rich aristocracies.

Organizations like Citizens for Tax Justice say that the wealthy in America have a responsibility to pay more in taxes and you’d be surprised by the names of some of the people promoting a hefty estate tax. Like the richest man in America’s father, Bill Gates Sr., who said, “Society does have a just claim on these fortunes, and it goes by the name of the estate tax.”

Citizens For Tax Justice say, “The estate tax is a way of acknowledging that the wealthiest families benefit the most from the government’s protection of private property, public investments like roads that make commerce possible and public schools that provide a productive workforce, the stability provided by our legal system and armed forces, and the countless other ways that government makes America a place where huge fortunes can be made and sustained.

None of this would be possible without taxes, so it’s reasonable that the wealthiest families contribute more to support these public services.”

Months ago a host of the

world’s richest folks announced that they’d join Gates and Warren Buffet in giving most of their money to charity, thus indicating they’d rather give it to charitable causes than to their government in the form of estate taxes. A lot of that money is expected to end up in the hands of green groups, many of them bent on getting rid of the public lands rancher, and cattlemen in general. Add that transfer of wealth to rancher’s enemies, to the pressures put on ranchers by the estate tax and you understand why we say it’s a greater threat to America’s cattle industry than Brazilian beef, mad cow disease, high priced corn or low priced poultry.

Others justify the estate tax by saying that 99.7 percent of U.S. residents will never have to pay it.

But that disregards the fact that ranch estates are five to 20 times more likely to incur estate taxes than other estates. Proponents of the estate tax contend that the revenue lost from federal estate taxes would result in other higher taxes, like income tax, and that higher income taxes are a greater concern to a far greater segment of agriculture than the federal estate tax.

We’ve often heard the figure bandied about that getting rid of estate taxes would cost the federal treasury $500 BILLION and that is money that’s desperately needed to pay for other things, like health insurance for those who don’t have it. But when the politicians talk about $500 billion in lost income they are being disingenuous, to put it politely. In 2001, before the Bush tax cuts, there were 2.3 million deaths dur-

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ing the year and of these 51,841 incurred estate tax liability (approximately 2.2 percent of all deaths), according to well known and respected ag economist Neil Harl. In 2001 Harl says that those 51,841 paid an average of $453,936 per estate. Do the math. We’d sure like to know what kind of calculator they are using to come up with $500 billion! Obama spends the amount the estate tax brings in before breakfast.

One solution that has been put forth is that family farms and ranches that stay in production ag should be excused from paying the estate tax. That would make a very minute dent in the government’s bottom line because only one tenth of a percent of all estates with some farm or ranch land had taxable estates in 2001!

But urban Congressmen continue to portray ranchers as wealthy land barons and that if they get rid of the estate tax permanently they would have to raise taxes on the other 99 percent of their constituents who

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don’t pay it . . . the thought never occurring to them that they could reduce spending to make up the difference.

With the federal budget hemorrhaging red ink, and the IRS saying that only six tenths of one percent of the deaths in 2008 resulted in estate tax liability, it’s easy for a Congressman to weight the .6 percent of the dead people who do pay the estate tax but can no longer vote, against the 99 percent of those who won’t have to pay the tax but vote.

They Certainly Are Lame Ducks Let’s face it, part of the move to let the estate tax revert back to previously high levels is because there is a growing jealousy in this country of anyone who has managed to acquire significant assets.

Especially land. Even though, for the most part, the increased concentration of wealth in this country the past 20 years has bypassed the ranching community.

When many people think of ranchers they think of billionaires

like Ted Turner or John Malone who have made vast fortunes in other businesses and used the money to buy up land. That is one reason politicians are leery of letting farmers and ranchers off the hook for estate taxes; they feel, and with some justification, that farm and ranch land would soon become one huge loophole for billionaires passing down their wealth.

So, at least for now, it looks like the lame ducks in Congress between now and the end of the year will do nothing and let the moratorium on estate taxes expire. To add insult to injury, there is even talk in Congress of retroactively disallowing the 2010 moratorium on estate taxes. Yes, you heard that right. So we beseech thee, don’t do anything foolish between now and the end of the year. You’re going to feel just awful unplugging your folks only to have your government renege on the deal later.

But wouldn’t that be just what we’ve come to expect from the knuckleheads in D.C.?

Farmers & Ranchers Authorize New Alliance ore than 60 representatives from more than 20 national food and agricultural organizations recently agreed to incorporate a U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) to focus on working together to enhance U.S. consumer trust in modern food production that ensures the abundance of affordable, safe food.

“Today represents a start toward a unified voice for U.S. agriculture,” said Rick Tolman, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association and chair of the USFRA Steering Committee. “While the results of today’s organizational meeting represent the culmination of six months of planning, it is

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only the beginning of a process designed to create a coordinated effort by and on behalf of U.S. farmers and ranchers. Several participants have stepped forward to officially join the Alliance. Others need to return to their boards to determine whether they will join.”

USFRA plans to incorporate this week. Organizations have been asked to respond about affiliation no later than November 1. After that date, a board of directors will be established and will elect an executive committee.

Members of the USFRA Board, its executive committee and its affiliated organizations will be announced formally in mid-November.

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TAHC Adopts Revisions to Texas’ Cattle Trichomoniasis Program

Consumers name HSUS most credible farm-animal care information source

by DANI FRIEDLAND, meatingplace.com

onsumers rate the Humane Society of the United States as the most credible source for information about farm animal care.

That finding, along with many others, was announced recently at the Food System Summit, as the Center for Food Integrity’s CEO Charlie Arnot unveiled the results of an annual survey on consumer trust in the food system.

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cent of respondents who think HSUS is the most credible source of information about farm-animal care, 12.32 percent think farm-animal veterinarians are credible sources, followed by 12.02 percent for USDA representatives and 11.47 percent for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Farmers who operate large livestock farms were ranked last, with 5.50 percent.

“The closer you are to a profit motivation, the greater your credibility deficit,” Arnot said.

To determine the rankings, consumers were asked not to rank the sources but instead to specify the most credible and the least credible from a given set.

A statistically significant number of consumers changed their attitudes towards statements such as, “Raising animals indoors is beneficial to the animal,” after reading educational text.

A pool of 2002 respondents took the online surveys in August 2010.

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he Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) adopted revisions to Texas’ cattle Trichomoniasis (Trich) program during the quarterly Commission Meeting on October 5.

Bovine trichomoniasis is a venereal disease found in cattle, but does not affect humans or other livestock. Infected bulls carry the organism and transmit it to female cattle through breeding. Cows may abort early in their pregnancy and become temporarily infertile. Cows, given sexual rest, may clear the disease, but infected bulls are considered lifetime carriers and transmitters of the “Trich” organism. Cattle producers can lose valuable income from the resultant extended breeding seasons and diminished calf crops.

Infected breeding bulls continue to appear and act normal. Only testing by a veterinary practitioner will confirm the presence or absence of the disease.

Revisions to the current regulations are: ■ A negative cattle trichomoniasis test will now be valid for 60 days provided that the bull is kept separate from female cattle during that time. Additionally, the test may be transferred within that time frame with the original signature of the consignor.

■ A virgin certificate is now valid for 60 days provided that the bull is kept separate from female cattle. A virgin certificate may now also be transferred within that timeframe with the origi-

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nal signature of the consignor.

■ Revised entry requirements now exempt out-of-state breeding bulls from an entry trichomoniasis test, if they come from a Certified Semen Service (CSS) artificial insemination facility, where they are isolated from female cattle. The bulls must be accompanied by documents with an original signature by the veterinarian or manager of the facility.

■ Revised regulations now allow untested, non-virgin Texas bulls to be sold and moved to a trichomoniasis certified feedlot prior to slaughter. Under previous regulations, untested, nonvirgin bulls were allowed to be sold only for direct movement to slaughter. This change does not

apply to non-Texas origin bulls.

Producers may also still purchase untested bulls for movement under a TAHC-issued hold order /permit to a location away from female cattle, where the bull is to be tested for Trich.

■ Commission veterinarians will now notify producers by letter when an infected bull is identified on an adjacent premise.

Neighbors will not be required to test however, only informed of the situation.

Herd owners are encouraged to contact their veterinarian to discuss management of “Trich” infected herds. Producers may also call their Regional TAHC offices, or visit the TAHC website at: www.tahc.state.tx.us for more information.

Wealthy Americans spending more on fast food

by DANI FRIEDLAND

he wealthiest Americans spent 24 percent more on fast food during the second quarter ending June 30 than they did during the same period in 2009, according to a new study from American Express.

The rest of U.S. consumers spent 8 percent more on fast food than they did the year before, according to the study.

This group of consumers, dubbed “ultra-affluent,” charges $7,000 or more each month to

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their credit cards and meets other income criteria.

Spending in restaurants by this group increased 13 percent, while average consumers spent 3 percent more in restaurants during this period.

Ultra-affluent consumers spent 12 percent more on fine dining, and 7 percent more in casual dining during the second quarter of 2010 than they did in the second quarter of 2009.

American Express analyzed actual aggregated spending information from its payment network for the study.

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Cattle, beef prices seen breaking records, supply won’t grow until 2014

by RITA JANE GABBETT, meatingplace.com

he cattle industry is ready to set records for high prices this year and next as higher feed costs stall herd expansion and push increased beef supplies out to 2014,

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according to Purdue University Extension Economist Chris Hurt.

In an outlook report, Hurt said the most recent surge in feed prices will likely keep producers from expanding until feed prices moderate, which won’t be until the 2011 U.S. crops are

Longevity he oldest cow on record died in Ireland in 1993 at the age of 49, having been born on St. Patrick’s Day 1944 in Kerry and producing 39 calves over time. So she missed a few years — big deal. She was in a herd that allowed for maximum longevity.

Typically, cows live no more than 22 years, and in most productive beef herds, half that age may take senior honors. Chronologically gifted cows can be a good thing for your bottom line as a beef producer, but not always.

“Darn it, she’s bred again.”

That remark has been made chuteside during annual pregnancy exams far too often. It implies pregnancy trumps all other considerations in your decision on whether to keep a cow. It shouldn’t; but OK, it’s not that simple.

The cow is a survivor and a leader, but not in a good way.

Too smart for your liking, if ever a splinter group decides not to trail into the corral, you notice her smug eyes regarding you from the pond dam. Her calves wean off a little above average, but they don’t grade Choice, and you SURE don’t want her daughters. In baseball, you’d say she lives with a full count and keeps getting the walk.

Sometimes the bank has an interest in your inventory. You knew there would be a trailerload of open cows, based on the odds and size of your herd. You were just hoping she would be on that trailer instead of the gentle four year old that had such a promising start.

“Work her?” asks the vet.

“Yeah, I guess so. One more year.”

Should you simply wait until she’s 22 and the vet calls her open? There has to be a better plan.

For starters, you could beef up your replacement heifer inventory, or buy enough extra replacements to allow you to cull cows based on more than pregnancy status.

The two most common other criteria for culling are disposition and teeth. You already know the urgency to cull wild ones, which should earn an instant strikeout

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if they threaten the safety of anyone in routine processing.

You don’t need such a strict rule on age or teeth, but make sure the old girls still earn their keep. Some of them are still contributing replacements as the foundation of your increasingly uniform herd. As long as they’re still keeping up, you can hope for one more heifer out of the last mating to a herd-improving bull.

Other culling strikes can come from chronically late calving date, weaning in the bottom 10 percent the last two years – bottom 20 percent (or pick a number) in postweaning gain and in many herds, two or more years of grid discounts as finished animals.

Today’s market rewards carcass merit, as well as management that delivers good health.

You’ll be a step ahead if you characterize feedlot gain and carcass value by working with a service-oriented feedlot, or perhaps your state Extension value discovery program.

Not all grid discounts come from genetic or ranch faults, but look for patterns over a few years. Some herds have such excellent carcass merit because of disciplined, long-term sire selection, little can be gained by culling for these traits — but that’s not true for most herds.

One proven strategy in some high-quality herds is rapid genetic turnover while selling bred cows in their prime, thus avoiding sales of cull cows by the pound.

An opposite approach is to select for longevity, saving money by stretching development cost over more years. That works if the cows are worthy, because you can be more selective in keeping ideal heifers, but it’s no claim to fame keeping old cows that produce beef nobody really craves.

Breed associations are beginning to offer genetic selection tools such as EPDs (expected progeny differences) that can help you compare bulls as to how long their daughters might remain in your herd. Plan on producing the kind you really want to keep safe in calf each year. They’ll work for you, the next buyer and the consumer.

assured, 10 months from now.

That means cow numbers will not likely expand until 2012 and beef supplies won’t start to grow until 2014.

Meanwhile, USDA predicts an 18 percent increase in beef exports and five percent decrease in imports this year.

Hurt said that will result in a 500-million-pound decrease in beef available in the United States compared to last year, which will push finished cattle prices up by $2 to $3 per hundredweight.

Smaller supplies of competi-

tive meats will also support beef prices. Hurt predicted the average Nebraska finished steer price for 2010 will reach a new record of $94.80. He further predicted that record will be broken next year with Nebraska finished steers averaging in the low $100s.

Hurt expects prices in the low $100 during the first quarter of 2011, reaching yearly highs around $105 in the second quarter, and then dropping by $2 to $4 per hundredweight in the third quarter, finishing the fourth quarter in the very low

$100s.

As for meat prices, Hurt said consumers are in for many years of much higher retail beef costs.

Retail beef prices so far this year have averaged $4.37 per pound, exceeding the previous record of $4.29 for the same period in 2008.

Early forecasts of retail beef prices in 2011 are $4.60 to $4.65 per pound, an increase of about 6 percent over the 2010 record price and compared to an average retail beef price of $3.84 per pound for the five years from 2002 to 2006.

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Livestock Market Digest

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NALF Recommends Strategic Crossbreeding degree of business savvy,” said Mike Horvath, director of commercial marketing for the North American Limousin Foundation (NALF). “Simply put, there are three basic markets available: mainstream, lean and premiumChoice. The majority of commercial producers shoot for the mainstream commodity market, with a handful of managers gearing their enterprises towards the lean or premium-Choice markets.”

For the latter two options, he explained, producers must be

or cow-calf producers, survival and operational profitability are reliant upon efficiently producing uniform calves for target markets in an economical fashion. Doing so requires a clear management plan, set goals for the cow herd, proper bull selection and a concise marketing strategy. Collectively, those things reduce risk and generate greater returns to the bottom line.

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comfortable accepting greater risk. For example, if a calf destined for a natural program gets sick and requires an antibiotic, its destiny changes.

Despite the target market, true success starts in the cow herd.

“Regardless of breed composition, cows must be sound-structured, big-ribbed, loose-flanked, easy-fleshing and moderate,” Horvath explained.

Conservatively sized females usually will be more profitable and efficient because they often wean more total pounds of calf per cow exposed, and their calves have more market flexibility as they either can be backgrounded or go straight into the feedyard. Additionally, females should be genetically balanced – using expected progeny differences (EPDs) – if they are to be productive in the herd.

Furthermore, producers realize additional value through maintaining a crossbred cow base. Production and economic advantages of commercial crossbred cows, adapted to their environment, will trump those of straightbred cows, with the following advantages: ■ 20 percent more pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed and ■ an additional 1.3 to 2.0 years of cow longevity.

“That equates to a 30 percent increase in lifetime cow productivity,” Horvath stated.

November 15, 2010 In terms of dollars and cents, an average commercial F cow will return about $70 more per year than a straightbred. If the chosen crossbreeding system yields between half and twothirds of maximum hybrid vigor (heterosis), the additional $50 per cow per year yields at least $400 more in lifetime earning over a straightbred.

With a strong cow base, managers have more versatility in bull selection and, ultimately, greater access to a larger array of market opportunities. Producers should apply many of the same criteria used in female selection when seeking out bulls.

“Potential sires should be bigfooted, good-structured, highcapacity, muscular and have above-average testicular development,” Horvath advised. “Genetic composition and associated EPDs should be above breed average and progressive for the direction the enterprise is headed.”

For those targeting the mainstream market, NALF recommends producing halfblood calves by turning out purebred Limousin bulls with Britishbased cows then through the use of F Lim Flex® bulls on the F Lim Flex females produced.

“The advantage of ‘Lim Flex on Lim Flex’ is that it allows producers to realize the benefits of hybrid vigor, alleviates many of the requirements of traditional crossbreeding schemes and allows for easy retention of commercial heifers,” Horvath said.

“Breeding hybrids to hybrids also

affords managers a heightened degree of consistency and predictability in producing uniform calves, resulting in increased merchandising ability.”

NALF encourages those aiming for lean markets to incorporate higher percentage Limousin genetics so the resulting calf crops are at least 75 percent Limousin influence. That is simple to do by pairing purebred Limousin bulls with halfblood or three-quarterblood Lim Flex cows or by breeding straightbred Limousin bulls to Limousin cows.

On the other hand, if producers want their cattle to have at least a Modest degree of marbling for the premium-Choice markets, lower percentage Limousin influence is needed, with calves being 25 percent or less Limousin blood. A simple approach to hitting that market would be to cover British-based cows with high-marbling halfblood Lim Flex bulls.

“Breeding cattle to hit target markets is a blend of art and science,” Horvath stated. “Contrary to what some might lead you to believe, it does not require a Ph.D. or an understanding of quantum physics.”

“Cow-calf producers’ success lies in a firm understanding of the industry, where the operation stands, where it needs to be and steps that must be taken to get there efficiently,” he added.

“As well, a strong dose of resilience and a light sense of humor help through the hard times.”

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he North American Limousin Foundation Board of Directors voted to adjust the voluntary Limousin Check-off to $2 per head registered. The unanimous decision to adjust the check-off marketing program was approved to provide marketing assistance to the breed organization.

“Marketing and breed recognition are an important aspect of the cattle industry,” said Mike Smith, Liberty Ranch, Plainville, Kansas and Chairman of the Commercial Marketing committee. “There is excitement in the breed and amongst producers. Commercial cattlemen believe in Limousin cattle and now is the time to increase our market share.”

Approved in 2006, the check-off has assisted the North American Limousin Foundation in mar-

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keting the breed to the mainstream commercial sector of the industry. Since its inception, the check-off has assisted with funding over $250,000 in national and regional advertising. North American Limousin Foundation members can enroll in the Commercial Marketing Check-off at any time during the year.

“We continue to build demand for Limousin cattle,” said Dr. Bob Hough, Executive Vice President, North American Limousin Foundation.

“Commercial producers have taken advantage of heterosis by demanding our cattle. Lim-Flex® bulls are siring a tremendous set of calves with heifers being kept as replacements. The check-off has allowed us to build demand and prove that Limousin cattle work in the commercial herds.”

Limousin and Lim-Flex® Bulls Prove Carcass Merit imousin and Lim-Flex® bulls prove through ultrasound measurements to be among the best at the recent Cal Poly Bull Test. Representing eight different breeds including Limousin and LimFlex®, a total of 165 bulls were evaluated over a four month period. Bulls were evaluated on their average daily gain (ADG), ultrasound measurements, weights and ratios to develop a test index with only those cattle scoring above 100 entering the sale.

Limousin and Lim-Flex® represented nine of the 86 head that sold through the bull test.

Receiving top honors were test ID 227, Lim-Flex®, and test ID 210, Limousin, recorded the first

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and second highest adjusted ribeye area scores at 15.9 and 15.8 respectively. Test ID 231, LimFlex® recorded the second highest adjusted percent intramuscular fat (%IMF) at 5.5.

“The bulls this year performed exceptionally well on a high roughage ration,” said Michael Hall, Beef Cattle Specialist, Cal Poly State University. “With our dominant English based cow herd, we are witnessing a move towards crossbreeding. LimFlex® cattle proved to be in demand because of their complimentary traits for the English based cow herd.”

The high selling Lim-Flex® bull was test ID 231 consigned

by Cal Poly State University out

of G A R Predestined and sold to Dalidio Farms. The high selling Limousin bull was test ID 206 consigned by Actis Ranch out of ROM’N Justice and sold to Serafin Ranchers.

“As the fall bull selling season gets under way, this test proves that Limousin and Lim-Flex® cattle perform,” said Dr. Bob Hough, Exec. V.P. North American Limousin Foundation.

“These numbers rivaled and topped even those of the English breeds. The Cal Poly bull test has a strong reputation for producing high quality performance bulls. This proves that Limousin and Lim-Flex® bulls are competing and they are an excellent cross for the commercial herd.”

November 15, 2010

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper�

Page 7

Limousin Releases EPDs From Multibreed Evaluation xpected progeny differences (EPDs) from the fall 2010 International Limousin Genetic Evaluation now are available through various features of the North American Limousin Foundation (NALF) web site (www.nalf.org). The EPDs represent more than 2 million pedigree and performance records for Limousin-based cattle in the United States and Canada.

Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI) and Colorado State University (CSU) calculated the Limousin breed’s EPDs. AGI conducted analysis for EPD accuracies for birth, weaning and yearling weights; milking ability; and scrotal circumference. CSU provided the analysis for reproductive traits, docility and carcass traits. “We are seeing an excellent genetic trend for Limousin and Lim-Flex Ž cattle,� said Bob Hough, Ph.D., executive vice president for NALF. “Working

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with CSU, Limousin led the beef industry developing the first docility EPD in 1995. Since then, the average Limousin docility EPD has risen from five to 18.�

Since AGI conducted NALF’s evaluation, using improved hereditary ties to Angus seedstock, genetic predictions for Lim-Flex Ž animals are the most timely and reliable of any for Angus-influenced hybrid seedstock. “Commercial producers are utilizing the power of heterosis,�

Hough added. “Over the past 40 plus years in North America, Limousin cattle have drastically improved to meet the demand.

The accuracy that we have witnessed through AGI for LimFlex Ž has been tremendous, and so has the purebred and fullblood Limousin animals.� “No other multibreed genetic evaluation in the world more thoroughly incorporates performance information from two populations of animals as does AGI’s work for NALF,� he said.

In addition to EPDs for 13 economically relevant traits, NALF’s evaluation included its Mainstream Terminal Index ($MTI), which simplifies mating decisions by ranking animals for expected net economic merit through simultaneous consideration of many traits.

“$MTI is determined by economic values and genetics associated with post-weaning growth, yield grand and quality grade. It gives an estimate of how future progeny are expected to perform, on average, compared to other sires in the Limousin herdbook when mated to black baldy cows in similar environments,� explained Hough. “The EPDs and index predict genetic rankings among animals, and they are the most accurate predictors of genetic merit,� he said. “Our semiannual evaluations provide Limousin breeders and their commercial customers with helpful selection tools for genetic improvement.�

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Groups charge corruption, junk science behind expanded jaguar n a recent letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) the Southern Arizona Cattlemen’s Protective Association (SACPA), the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties, the Pima Natural Resources Conservation District, the Whitewater Draw Natural Resources Conservation District, and People for the West strongly urged the agency to reverse its decision that critical habitat is “prudent” for jaguars in Arizona and New Mexico. The letter shows that under the ESA, and based solely on the best science available, habitat “essential” to the jaguar’s existence does not exist in the United States. Furthermore, studies have proven that well-managed livestock grazing poses no threat to jaguars or their habitat.

“The Department of Interior just announced a new policy favoring sound science over political misconduct,” said SACPA president Cindy Coping. “To honor their own policy the USFWS must reverse their unsound but politically fashionable decision that won’t help the jaguar and does threaten to destroy hundreds of rural jobs in two states.”

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiry revealed that the agency’s decision relied heavily on a 2005 conference presentation that lacked supporting data and fails to meet the ESA definition of minimum scientific standards.

Another public records search

I

revealed that an employee of the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) authorized a $999.99 payment to the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to create a jaguar habitat model for New Mexico. The CBD’s

the comments. “These facts alone warrant suspension of any critical habitat designation for the jaguar in the United States until this serious situation is fully investigated and explained,” he added.

. . . journal-published studies from Brazil prove that both the range and numbers of jaguars expanded where domestic livestock were introduced, due to the more dependable prey base. model was a substitute for, and produced conclusions far different from, the sound scientific conclusions already published by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. The CBD had a then-recent history of publishing maliciously false information about endangered species and livestock grazing. That charge, proven in court, was already a matter of widespread public knowledge when the AGFD employee engaged the CBD to produce a substitute habitat model for New Mexico.

“The payment itself, one cent below the level we understand requires Commission approval, raises serious questions about the AGFD employee’s intentions,” Coping said.

“These [issues involve] authority and abuse of such, improper bias, conflict of interest, and the unprecedented extraterritorial extension of AGFD authority over the State of New Mexico,” wrote Dennis Parker, the wildlife biologist/attorney who authored

At least two of the supposed “verified” jaguars mentioned in the Arizona habitat models were likely not naturally occurring, but rather, animals of foreign origin captured and imported into the United States for the purpose of “guaranteed” hunting. At least nine such imported jaguars were introduced into New Mexico in 1972 and 1973 alone, including at least one female that escaped.

Recent journal-published studies from Brazil prove that both the range and numbers of jaguars expanded where domestic livestock were introduced, due to the more dependable prey base. In fact, Brazilian cattle ranches support the highest densities and numbers of jaguars found anywhere. Moreover, both the historic and the recent record of transient jaguar occurrences in the Southwest indicate that modern, highly controlled livestock grazing poses no threat to the few jaguars that sometimes wander across the Mexican border onto neighboring Arizona and New Mexico ranchlands.

November 15, 2010

The EU Ranks as the World’s Biggest Net Importer of Agricultural / Produce While Neglecting Critical Investment in Agricultural Research International Competition for Agricultural Production Land is Rising Dramatically

by HUMBOLDT FORUM FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

he food situation in poor countries continues to deteriorate. On World Food Day, October 16, the number of starving people worldwide reached a staggering 925 million.

“Even assuming the very best possible scenario, the poorest nations will fail by a wide margin to produce enough food to feed their own populations over the coming decades,” says Harald von Witzke, President of the Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture. “This rapidly growing shortfall can only be met if richer nations are able to produce and export more food. So far, the EU has turned a blind eye to this looming crisis. Despite the urgent need for immediate action, this important issue has received little or no publicity.”

Von Witzke believes that the EU has neglected critical investment in agricultural research for far too long. In the meantime, it has become the world’s biggest net

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importer of agricultural produce. This means that in order to meet its own demand for food, natural fibres, bio-energy and other agricultural products, the EU uses a virtual land area in other countries of about 35 million hectares, equivalent to the size of Germany. The last ten years alone have seen net EU imports from virtual agricultural land increase by 10 million hectares.

“The EU has become a huge virtual land-user outside of its own territory,” says von Witzke. He points out that this expansion of land by the EU overseas is leading to deforestation and contributing to climate change.

“We must collectively demand that the EU fully commits to innovation and high productivity in agriculture. This is vital if we are to eradicate hunger, make a stand against climate change, and maintain natural habitats.”

The Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture is a leading Berlin-based think tank in global agriculture.

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November 15, 2010

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

LEGALLY SPEAKING

NRs: What you say can and will be used against you

by SHAWN STEVENS (The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)

here have been times in each of our lives where we have inadvertently or carelessly fallen victim to our own words. We have all, at one time or another, said something which was, to our own detriment, taken out of context. Like ghosts, sometimes our words come back to haunt us.

When a company is brought into a foodborne illness lawsuit, one of the first things plaintiffs’ attorneys will demand is a company’s Noncompliance Reports (“NRs”). Because of this, companies must treat each NR as though it will one day end up in front of a jury.

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Because we can’t control the verbiage used by FSIS, we must carefully craft our responses, ensuring they are detailed, well thought out and written in a manner which demonstrates that we take our responsibility to produce safe and wholesome products seriously.

Moreover, few lay people understand the frequent and complex interactions which occur on a daily basis between FSIS and the establishments they oversee. As a result, plaintiffs’ attorneys can and often will attempt to exploit the volume of these interactions as a means to attack the efficacy of the company’s food-safety program.

Because regulatory agencies do not give out gold stars for good days, some defendants may find there are few documents with which to counter such attacks. If a company has carefully responded to its NRs, however, opposing counsel will be reluctant to use them.

Responses should not be argumentative or minimize what occurred. They should, however, include a detailed account of what happened. Be straightforward and describe what your company has done and will do to prevent future noncompliance.

These details, when captured effectively, will illustrate to a jury how intense FSIS supervision is.

Page 9

Include the names and titles of employees responsible for future compliance. This will help the jury understand there are people (not a faceless corporation) behind food-safety initiatives.

When a jury understands a company is working diligently to promote safety, verdicts can drop dramatically.

Another mistake is to frequently appeal NRs. Appealing every time, especially on technicalities, can appear callous and calculating to a jury. We all respect an individual who owns up to their mistakes. The same holds true for companies. If a jury believes that your company categorically refuses to take responsibility for its mistakes, they may find it hard to believe you’re innocent at trial.

Ultimately, it is essential to understand that the job of a plaintiffs’ attorney is to exploit anything, real or imagined, to make a jury angry. It doesn’t matter how responsible, how innovative, how careful, or caring your company is. Your company may be painted as a soulless profit machine. They may exaggerate damages and make impassioned pleas on behalf of the plaintiff. They may implore the jury to punish you, and tell them it is their responsibility to do so.

And, they may simply pound upon NR after NR, arguing how “out of control” your company was.

Put simply, when you are issued an NR, whatever you say can be used against you in a civil court of law. Respond accordingly.

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November 15, 2010

Preconditioning Calves Pays Off

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uyers gladly pay premiums for calves that won’t spend weeks in hospital pens. Producers who follow a good preconditioning program don’t have to worry about someone buying their calves. Buyers not only will compete for their calves; they’ll pay premium prices to get them.

That’s the gospel according to Mike Peacock, beef feed sales and marketing manager for Southern States. He says producers average about $2 for every $1 they invest in a well-designed preconditioning program. “Show me another program that lets you do that in 60 days,” he challenges.

Preconditioning pays for both buyers and sellers, Peacock says. Buyers have reduced risks, lower death losses, reduced medical costs and better gains. Sellers get higher prices, resulting from buyer-preferred healthier, bigger calves.

“Producers who bring freshly weaned green calves to an auction have all of the strikes against them,” Peacock says. “These calves will suffer more shrink and higher death loss. Buyers recognize this and heavily discount those calves, if they’re even interested in them.”

Bill McCoy of McCoy Cattle Co. at Lancaster, Penn., says 90 percent of his orders are for calves that have been weaned, are backgrounded and have received a full battery of vaccinations. He provides 12,000 to 15,000 calves annually, mostly for mid-Atlantic farmer-feeders.

Calves should be weaned at least 45 days before they’re moved to market; 60 days would be even better. During that time, they should receive two rounds of vaccinations to protect against the viral and respiratory diseases they will encounter during transport. The last use at least 30 days

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before shipping.

“Calves need to gain at least 2 pounds per day to be profitable to both the producer and the buyer,” Peacock says. “They can’t do that on forage alone, because they can’t consume enough.”

Southern States offers two primary feed packages for producers in a preconditioning program: a 14 percent Jump Start and 13 percent Commercial Cattle Starter.

The co-op’s 14 percent Jump Start is used in a creep-feeding program while calves are still with their mamas. When cows are removed, the calves remain on the same ration at one percent or more of their body weight per day, depending on forage quality. This ration helps calves remain at their comfort level, so they aren’t stressed.

The 13 percent Commercial Cattle Starter is for calves after they’ve been weaned. They should be confined in a pen and fed the ration at the rate of 2 to 2.5 percent of body weight per day for 16 to 21 days until they’ve passed through the postweaning stress disease cycle. Then they should be fed 14 percent Jump Start at 1.5 percent of their body weight per day, along with forage.

Using this program, cattlemen in a West Virginia marketing association pool calves for fall sales of certified quality preconditioned calves. Carl Hevener, a feed sales associate for Southern States and a cattle producer from Franklin, says the combined pools sold about 1,400 head last fall. These preconditioned calves are sold in lots via phone, based on the program’s reputation.

“We usually have at least 20 active bidders,” Hevener says. “Premiums have ranged from 3 to 18 cents more than local market prices.”

New Mexico man pleads guilty to cattle rustling

Riding Herd

ason Lon Kirby, 34, of Datil, N.M. pleaded guilty for selling stolen cattle in Arizona and Texas.

“Cattle rustling is one of Arizona’s oldest crimes,” Attorney General Terry Goddard said.

“And while we don’t hang rustlers anymore, we prosecute them to the fullest extent of modern law.”

Kirby had an agreement with Jay Platt of Plateau Partnership to tend up to 500 cattle on land near Superior.

According to the pasture agreement, the Plateau Partnership paid Kirby $10,000 up front and Kirby was to be paid $10 per animal per month. The contract lasted from January to May of 2009.

Kirby’s guilty plea was for selling 191 steers and heifers to feed yards in Texas between May and June without the permission of Plateau Partnership.

Kirby was reportedly paid over $100,000 for the cattle.

He was arrested in Georgia on a warrant and arraigned in June 2010 in Pinal County.

Under the plea, Kirby faces up to two-and-a-half years in the Arizona Department of Corrections to be followed by seven years probation. He must also pay up to $500,000 in restitution to the Plateau Partnership and/or Fredonia Feed Yard.

Sentencing is set for October 4 in Pinal County Superior Court.

that selling seats in Congress would be dishonest but isn’t that what we do now?

Besides, it’s more of a lease rather than a purchase because alliances could change every four years depending on supply and demand.

Money talks and I can hear the auctioneer now . . .

“Welcome to the sale of the Presidency and Congress.

Watch your step because, as you can see, we’re holding the sale at a sale barn because they’re used to cleaning up lots of manure. Today we’re proud to offer the most crooked and sleaziest candidates ever sold at public auction. Get out your checkbooks because past leaders have sold for more than anywhere in the world and the sale of the last President brought the highest price ever.

“Our first lot is a Senate seat and our first politician is the incumbent who, for the past 36 years, has distinguished herself for her stupidity, arrogance, wealth and ineptness. She is a Democrat who attended Berkley, and obtained her law degree before joining the Peace Corps. Since then she has been a career politician, never having done an honest day’s work in her life. Her many repeat buyers include environmental groups, trade

J

Source: Scripts Media Inc.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

unions and the American Bar Association. We’re selling a full interest and past buyers agree that she has the highest integrity . . . once you buy her, she’ll stay bought.

“Facing off against her is a blue blooded Republican with many career politicians in his pedigree. He started off poor, with only $150 million, graduated from Harvard and goofed off on Wall Street before joining the family law firm. The family quickly saw his lack of potential and suggested he run for public office where he might help the family business instead of harming it. We’re selling a full interest and a guarantee that the winning bidder will receive favorable legislation, kickbacks, government contracts, Presidential pardons and a willing servant who will tirelessly promote your agenda.

“Let’s start the bidding at two million. Do I hear five?

Yes, GM/Ford/Chrysler you are in, who’ll give $10 million?

Thank you Archer/Exxon/ Monsanto. Might I remind the big bankers in attendance today, you aren’t going to acquire your very own lackey by sitting on your hands like you usually do. General Electric are you bidding or do you have an itch? You’d better be careful or you could scratch your nose and end up with a Congressman in your pocket.”

November 15, 2010

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Scholarship winners announced 2010 National Junior Shorthorn Show and Conference t the 2010 National Junior Shorthorn Show and Conference, held in East Lansing, Mich., scholarships were awarded to several commendable individuals. Five scholarships amounting to $8,000 was awarded through the Mike Dugdale Memorial Scholarship, Don Longley Memorial Scholarship, John C. “Jack” Ragsdale Youth Scholarship, Lyle and Kathryn DeWitt Memorial Scholarship, and new this year the Jesse M. and Jennie S. Duckett Memorial Scholarship. Of these scholarship recipients, Callyn Hahn, Watseka, Ind., was awarded the Mike Dugdale Memorial Scholarship.

The Don Longley Memorial Scholarship is a $1,000 scholarship awarded to four high school seniors or college freshmen based upon their Shorthorn interest, grades, need, and participation in other activities. The following four deserving individuals received the award: Cheyenne Starman, Camp Point, Ill., Blake Wieland, Hydro, Okla., Cody Korthaus, Moulton, Iowa and Coltyn Jack Pritchard, Winters, Tex. Kyle Shoufler, Fortville, Ind., was awarded the John C. “Jack” Ragsdale Youth Scholarship. This $1,000 scholarship is awarded to a high school senior or college freshman who is an active AJSA (American Junior Shorthorn Association) member with a sincere interest in learning how to evaluate livestock and an appreciation for the purebred livestock industry. Hannah Winegardner, Lima, Ohio, was awarded the Lyle and Kathryn DeWitt Memorial Scholarship. The new Jesse M. and Jennie S. Duckett Scholarship was awarded to Christopher Mack, Zumbrota, Minn.

The Shorthorn family lost one of its long time members with the passing of D. Michael Dugdale in 2006. Dugdale was involved in the first importation of Irish Shorthorns in the late 70’s and early 80’s. He served both Nebraska and Iowa Shorthorn Associations, holding several offices in each. In the early 80’s, he was elected to the board of directors of the American Shorthorn Association. In his history of being a manager, herd consultant, and order buyer, Dugdale attended hundreds of Shorthorn sales throughout North America and Canada and has purchased untold numbers of Shorthorn cattle. The Shorthorn Foundation funds a memorial scholarship because of his dedication and inspiration to the breed.

Callyn Hahn has exhibited many of these similar qualities throughout her years of involvement in the Shorthorn breed.

From several applicants, she stood out as a great asset to the industry. She is currently attending Kansas State University pursuing a degree in Animal Science with a business option and a minor in Psychology. As an exhibitor of Shorthorn cattle for

A

eleven years, her goals for the breed are directed towards a wellrounded future. Her goals include becoming more competitive in the commercial market through performance and carcass data while capitalizing on exceptional maternal traits.

“With the use of Gene Star testing, we can target exceptional genetics that are suited for the industry and from there work on numbers that will put Shorthorns on a competitive field. I say we, because as we know it is hard for one person to change the industry, but I as an individual have

the voice to share my idea with hopes of support,” Hahn said.

The Don Longley Memorial Scholarship is awarded through the Shorthorn Foundation in honor of Don Longley, past publisher of the Shorthorn World magazine.

He followed his father’s footsteps and continued the empire of the Shorthorn magazine, insisting his staff attend every Shorthorn show, sale and conference possible in order to bring Shorthorn breeders the most accurate and expansive information of the time. He worked effortlessly to promote the breed, and his great-

Page 11

est delight was to publish a journalistically superior book. The Shorthorn World was never the same after the Longley era, with more than 50 years of father and son work towards the magazine and breed.

Starman, 18, is the daughter of Gary and Marilyn Starman of Camp Point, Ill. She is planning to attend Lakeland Community College with a major in Agricultural Business. Starman has been attending Shorthorn Junior Nationals since 2002 and has made many friends while being a part of the breed. She has also been active in her community by volunteering for several the Salvation Army and the Red Cross.

Wieland, 18, is the son of Charlie and Denise Wieland of Hydro, Okla. He first became

involved in the Shorthorn breed at the age of eight, when he received his first Shorthorn heifer as a 4-H project. Since that time, he has developed a herd that has proved successful in the show ring like the Reserve Champion Shorthorn Market Steer at the Arizona National Livestock Show. Wieland plans on attending Oklahoma State University and majoring in Agricultural Communications.

Korthaus, 18, is the son of Marlan and Brenda Korthaus of Moulton, Iowa. He has been involved in both the Iowa and American Junior Shorthorn Association for ten years. Through his involvement with the organization, he has taken part and been continued on page thirteen

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n the summer of 1922, America’s famous conservationist, Aldo Leopold, was assigned duties on what had become the Gila National Forest. He fought fires there and he saw enough of the Gila River drainage and eastern Arizona’s Escondido Mountain area that his vision for wilderness was solidly formulated. In 1924, he coauthored an administrative plan and the Forest Service, without Congressional approval, engineered the first wilderness area in the United States. The Gila Wilderness was created.

In 1964, Congress finally enacted wilderness legislation. In that year, the Wilderness Act was passed and signed. The Gila Wilderness was officially designated, but the federal agency administration regarding wilderness management had been evolving and eliminating private rights endeavors for over 20 years.

The Gila Wilderness was true wilderness in every sense. It fit the vision of Leopold where stewardship of land was part of the underpinning of the concept.

Mr. Leopold wrote extensively about a wilderness being the domain of the horseman, where all other means of entry had been halted by sheer physical barrier, and where a two-week pack trip would never cross the same set of tracks. In the case of the Gila as in the Leopold writings, the presence of the stewards on horseback would become forever part of the lore of the wilderness when their references to places and or recollections of events would become permanent names of physical features.

The majority of that original wilderness designation occurred in Catron County.

Catron County encompasses 6,928 square miles of land area in the southwestern quarter of the state. With a population of 3,443 in 2009, its population is less than one person per square mile.

With all the recent discussion by Senators Bingaman and Udall and the various EarthFirst! influenced groups touting the economic benefits of additional wilderness designation in southern New Mexico, it is time to review how the Gila Wilderness, the so called “Yellowstone of the South”, has affected the economy of Catron County.

If wilderness designations positively affect local economies, Catron County should surely demonstrate such cause and affect results. The county, with its depleted historical industries

I

of logging and ranching, depends heavily on the industrial and job growth of conditions directly affected by Forest Service and wilderness management relationships.

There are a number of places to start, but the one that meets the most obvious chronologically correct start is the population of Catron County. If wilderness promotes economic growth, Catron County should have experienced some growth increase from 1960 to 1970 since

Catron experienced a decrease of population of 21 percent in the decade of the ‘60s. the Gila Wilderness was officially designated in 1964. Catron experienced a decrease of population of 21 percent in the decade of the ‘60s.

Fast forward to this decade and that trend is in play again.

The population is down 3.6 percent from 2000. The most recent employment growth index, a real gauge of economic trend, is down 1.4 percent. For a matter of reference, the final quarter 2009 unemployment was 11.4 percent. Permanent jobs are not being created in Catron County and it can be argued that they have not been since wilderness was created.

Healthy economies normally attract young people and yet statistics indicate that the population of Catron County is much older than the general population of New Mexico. The Catron County dynamic for folks older than 65 is 189 percent of the New Mexico average comparison. Youth, calculated for ages under 18, are 63 percent of their New Mexico counterparts. Consider those statistics. Those results suggest that the folks of age are nearly double the state averages and the numbers of youth are about half the state average! The County is aging and youth must leave to find jobs, and they have for years.

If income is the measure of economic boost from the Gila Wilderness to the County, the statistic shows that Catron County median income is 67 percent of that of New Mexico’s which ranks only 81 percent of the national average.

How about retail sales?

Catron County’s income generates retail sales of $1,304 per res-

ident year versus the state number of $9,880 for all residents in New Mexico.

These statistics could continue, but the truth is Catron County is a poor, rural county that faces catastrophic financial difficulties. It has no real permanent wealth. It has been devastated by federal agency policies that have contributed directly to the collapse of its historical industries, and it is too poor to protect itself further from such ravages.

If there is a perfect model to forecast pure wilderness contributions to economic growth, it is Catron County. It is only there that the impact of wilderness and federal land agency management is manifested against a very limited private industry counterpart. It is also there that elected state and federal leadership, funded by environmental groups, have pressed forward with a comprehensive environmental agenda. The wolf reintroduction is only the most recent of a series of historical affronts to its citizenry.

If wilderness designations positively affect local economies, Catron County should surely demonstrate such cause and affect results.

Could it be that Catron County has been for years the new tribal reservation of our age?

It is there that those from afar dictate what is best for its residents. It is there that organized management of the commons is all encompassing. It is there that the voices and deeds of its citizens are suppressed by state and federal leadership that seem to be in an ever tighter lock step with the absentee environmental movement.

There is, though, something in Catron County that some special leader must recognize. It is there that the model of modern wilderness must be reinvented . . . or the West is in a much bigger dilemma than can be imagined.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. He is an advocate of honest human character, limited government, and self reliance.

He also believes that the real Gila story has yet to be told.

November 15, 2010

Scholarship Winners successful in several contests and shows. This includes the Reserve Champion Bred & Owned Steer and Champion Prospect steer at the 2006 Junior National.

Korthaus plans on attending Iowa State University with a major in Agricultural Studies.

Pritchard, 17, is the son of Johnny Bob and Deb Pritchard of Winters, Texas. He has been exhibiting Shorthorn heifers for ten years with his family.

Pritchard is also very involved in school, earning Valedictorian of his graduating class. In addition, he has held several officer positions through his 4-H, FFA and school activities, including Class President, FFA President and Student Council Secretary.

Pritchard plans on attending Texas Tech University with a major in Architecture and a minor in Business Management.

The recipient of this award should exemplify the qualities of Ragsdale, who is considered by many Shorthorn Breeders to be “Mr. Shorthorn.” Ragsdale, originally from Indiana, has been active in the Shorthorn business his entire life. He was the High Point Individual at the International Livestock Judging Contest in Chicago in 1948, and his high score held the record until 1961.

Ragsdale was on the Purdue University Intercollegiate Livestock Judging Team. He began his servitude at the American Shorthorn Association in 1965, where he began a 12-year term on the Board of Directors, eventually being named president. Ragsdale was also instrumental in the inception of the North American International Livestock Exposition, and he also implemented the first Youth Conference for Shorthorn Youth in 1968, which was the start to the American Junior Shorthorn Association.

Ragsdale’s portrait is hung in the Purdue University Livestock Hall of Fame in Indiana, and he has also been inducted into the Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Club.

Shoufler has displayed his abilities to evaluate livestock effectively and exhibit quality Shorthorn cattle through several levels of competition.

Through 4-H and FFA programs to breed association involvement, he has worked hard to become successful in the beef industry. Shoufler is currently responsible for the day to day care of his family’s herd; from feeding and breeding and getting cattle ready for shows. He is planning to attend Purdue University this fall and pursue a major in Animal Science with a minor in Animal Agribusiness. Shoufler is the 17-year-old son of Dennis and Kathy Shoufler.

The DeWitt Scholarship was adopted by the Shorthorn Foundation in memory of Lyle and Kathryn DeWitt and their contributions to the Shorthorn breed.

The $1,000 scholarship is awarded to a high school senior or college freshman who is an active AJSA (American Junior Shorthorn Association) member, and also based upon grades, need,

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

continued from page eleven

and participation in other activities.

Winegardner has exhibited a passion for the Shorthorn breed through being involved with her family and other fellow juniors.

She began showing Shorthorns five years ago and has worked hard to be competitive ever since.

She is also active in her community and church, tutoring elementary students and assisting with athletic camps. Winegardner is the 18-year-old daughter of Brad and Melanie Winegardner of Lima, Ohio. She plans to attend Purdue University and major in Agricultural Communications.

“I love the organization of the association and how everyone

involved with the breed intermingles and are very close knit,” said Winegardner.

The Duckett Scholarship was adopted this year by the Shorthorn Foundation in memory of Jesse M. & Jeanie S. Duckett and their contributions to the Shorthorn breed. The $1,000 scholarship is awarded to a high school senior or college freshman based upon the applicants’ involvement in agriculture, educational background, ACT scores, and high school and/or college GPA. Mack, 18, is the son of Timothy and Marie Mack of Zumbrota, Minn. He has had a great passion for agriculture from the very beginning. His appreciation for family heritage in agriculture reinforces his work ethic and involvement in Shorthorn associa-

Page 13

tion as well as 4-H and FFA. Mack plans to attend Northeast Community College in Calmar, Iowa this fall to pursue a degree in Animal Science and GIS/GPS Technologies. After completion of his degree, he wishes to travel to Australia to see their Shorthorn industry first-hand.

“When you accomplish great things through hard work and positive attitude, doors seem to open up to endless opportunities in one’s life. That is the reason why I have set career and future goals to allow myself to work hard to achieve them,” said Mack.

Applications for the 2011 scholarships are due May 1, 2011, to the ASA office located in Omaha, Neb. For more information, contact Amanda Reeson or visit www.shorthorn.org.

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November 15, 2010

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he next Congress should enact a moratorium on land nationalization. The feds should stop fleecing exhausted taxpayers for fresh billions to purchase new acreage for Uncle Sam to mismanage.

Washington, D.C., already lords over some 650 million acres, or 26.7 percent of America. These 1,015,625 square miles are roughly equal to all of Alaska, Texas, and California combined. The federal government owns 45.3 percent of California, 48 percent of Arizona, 57.45 percent of Utah, 69 percent of Alaska, and 84.5 percent of Nevada. No continental state from the Rockies west is less than 30 percent federal, as are Montana and Washington.

But that is not enough.

Uncle Sam is like a hyperactive brat who trips over his abandoned train set and stumbles over his spilled Legos while running out to slap a shiny new dirt bike on Daddy’s credit card.

Washington constantly expands the federal estate, even while mishandling its existing properties.

In March 2009, President Obama designated 2 million federal acres as “wilderness,” thus limiting public access and uses thereon. Unsated, Obama last April announced America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, a

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national listening tour to concoct new ways for Washington to interfere in natural-resource matters. A report due November 15 will include ideas for “creating corridors and connectivity” across exterior spaces, most likely through land procurement.

Even scarier is a secret Bureau of Land Management (BLM) discussion paper leaked to Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) and Rep. Rob Bishop (R., Utah).

Labeled “Internal Draft — NOT FOR RELEASE,” this document confirms the federal government’s infinite desire for physical enlargement.

BLM advocates “expanded landholdings” and “acquiring parcels adjacent to its current holdings.” These envirocrats also argue that “Should the legislative process not prove fruitful . . .

BLM would recommend that the Administration consider using the Antiquities Act to designate new National Monuments by Presidential Proclamation.” So, if Congress fails to grip federal acreage even more tightly, Obama should grab it by decree.

BLM lists 14 such potential monuments, from New Mexico’s 58,000–acre Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve to California’s 3 million–acre Modoc Plateau.

All told, these “Treasured Landscapes” represent approximately 12.85 million federal acres that would shift from mixed-use to virtually untouchable status.

Such restrictions on these 20,078 square miles would be like the federal government’s banning nearly all activity in Massachusetts and Vermont, save for hiking.

BLM also cites seven prospective “land-rationalization” efforts, from 80,000 acres on Montana’s Upper Missouri River (estimated cost: $24 million) to 1.62 million acres in Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley ($2,383,260,000). BLM wants $4.1 billion to nationalize at least 1.8 million acres. These 2,812.5 square miles are a bit larger than all of Delaware.

“This is only part of the entire document, and just addresses BLM,” says Melissa Subbotin, spokeswoman for the Congressional Western Caucus. “The Obama Administration has refused to turn over the rest of this memo, even though they publicly have acknowledged that there are sections concerning the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The true designs of this entire document are enormous.” Subbotin adds, “It is exceptionally frustrating for us. Those who drafted this memo are gleaning from a host of sources. There really isn’t much succinct definition to their intentions, motivation, or long-term goals — other than simply to lock up public land and put an end to multiple use.

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his year marked my 30th writing this column.

The column runs in 150 papers around the country and in Canada. For the most part they can be described as trade publications, or as a smaller weekly or daily.

It is impressive to me how many of these publications continue to remain in business when their larger metropolitan counterparts are falling victim to the internet and 24 hour television and radio news stations.

The obvious reason that the smaller weeklies and dailies weather the storm is that they cover the local news that no one else covers. As is the case in trade publications that cover a specific topic such as rodeo, horses, farming, feedlots, ranching, stock dogs, purebred anything, regional agriculture, rural living and western style or fashion.

However, in my 30 years of working with these publications, I would say the factor that most affects their success is the editor/publisher’s “love” of the newspaper business. I could use the word dedication, commitment, tenacity or endurance, especially were I able to print them alongside a rogue’s gallery of portraits showing these inkstained, sleeves-rolled-up, scuffed shoes, stacked desk, tie loose, harried, phone-in-hand, alwaysbehind, captains of their trawler on the high seas of deadline. It really matters to them that their publication is good in content, quality and accuracy.

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They routinely seem to be penny pinchers.

Thrifty, often suspicious of columnists and cartoonists who seem to place a higher value on their own work than the publisher does.

“Come on,” I say, “I just want to raise it a dollar a week. Postage has gone up again, pencils cost more, my children are in rags, my wife is pregnant, my horse is lame, my dog got run over . . .”

“That’s over $50 a year, son!” says the editor.

“That would feed a dozen photographers for three days, two reporters for a week or pay for one ad salesman’s lunch with a customer! Besides, you’ve been sending your columns by email for three years! I was actually going to deduct the cost of postage and handling from your fee . . . sort of spread the wealth, so to speak.”

Most editor/publishers I have known have a toughness for negotiation, be it words or wages. I think that comes because they are fiercely possessive of each and every issue that carries their name.

Who knows, they think, it might be read on the desk of the Oval Office! Or quoted on Bill O’Reiley, or on the bottom of a bird cage on the space shuttle appropriately opened to my column and placed directly under the parakeet!

My thanx to all those hard working, deadlinedriven, dedicated true believers in the printed word, who keep us honest and informed. I’m proud to be in your bird cage.

November 15, 2010

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

U.S. May Need ‘Strategic Hamburger Reserve’ after Obama EPA Implements New Regulations

by CHRIS NEEFUS, cnsnews.com

ccording to a representative of the cattle and beef industry, America may need a “strategic hamburger reserve” if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implements proposed new regulations for cattle producers.

“From where I sit, (the Obama administration) appears to be aimed at destroying the cattle industry in America as we know it,” Tamara Thies, the chief environmental counsel at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said on Capitol Hill recently.

“It is ironic that as we work to become less dependent on foreign oil, Obama policies are likely to make us more dependent on foreign beef. Maybe we’ll need to start a strategic hamburger reserve after the Obama administration is finished with us.”

Thies’ comments came at a hearing conducted by the House Republicans’ Rural America Solutions Group about the EPA’s proposed regulations on the industry, which include the toughest dust regulations in history — one which would significantly impact the rural economy by imposing steep fines on cattle producers who, Thies said, most likely cannot afford them.

“It is unlikely these realities are lost on the EPA, making one wonder if the real goal of the agency is to do away altogether with economic activity throughout the bread basket of this country and turn it into a vast national park,” she added.

The forum was held by Reps.

Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee; Sam Graves (RMo.), ranking member of the House Small Business subcommittee; and Doc Hastings (RWash.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, to consider several of the new proposed EPA regulations.

In a periodic review of its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which allow the EPA to regulate certain forms of particulate matter in the air, the EPA determined that it might raise the standard so that only 65-85 µg/m3 of dust would be permitted in the air (as opposed to 150 µg/m3). Violating the proposed new NAAQS standards can result in civil penalties under the Clean Air Act. The EPA published that draft policy assessment in the July 8, 2010 issue of the Federal Register. “(EPA) is preparing to issue a proposed regulation that is twice as stringent as the current dust standard, and is more stringent than background levels of dust in many parts of the U.S,” Thies told the congressmen.

“Incredibly, we are talking about dust kicked up by tilling fields and harvesting crops, cattle movements, and pickups driving

A

down dirt roads,”she said. “For agriculture, the current standard is already very difficult and costly to meet — doubling it would be virtually impossible.”

revitalizing rural America and rural economic development, a proposal such as this would have a significant negative impact on those very goals,” they wrote.

“. . . the real goal of the agency is to do away altogether with economic activity throughout the bread basket of this country and turn it into a vast national park.”

That new proposal also alarmed 75 members of Congress who represent rural districts, including Reps. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Stephanie HersethSandlin (D-S.D.), John Spratt (D-S.C.), and Bobby Bright (DAla.), who sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Sept. 27 urging the agency to “refrain from going down this path” on dust regulation.

“Considering the administration’s claim that it is focusing on

“We are hopeful that common sense will prevail and the EPA will refrain from causing extreme hardship to farmers, livestock producers, and other resourcebased industries throughout rural America.

“Whether it is livestock kicking up dust, corn being combined, or a pickup driving down a gravel road, dust is a naturally occurring event in rural areas.

Common sense requires the EPA to acknowledge that the wind

Page 15

blows dust around in these areas, and that is a fact of life.”

Jackson did not attend the forum on Capitol Hill despite receiving an invitation. A spokesperson for the EPA indicated they would have a reaction about why they were proposing these rules in a difficult economy, but did not do so by press time.

The dust regulation is one of several new proposals the EPA is considering, including regulating ammonia emissions from cattle operations; nationalizing standards for soil phosphorus levels, which determine where farmers can use manure; regulating greenhouse gas emissions; and greater regulation of farming on the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

“The fact is, the EPA is waging an unprecedented war to end modern production of animal agriculture,” Thies said in her testimony.

“EPA exhibits reckless indifference to scientific fact and, instead, imposes stringent regulations based on nothing more than its biased anti-animal agriculture agenda that will leave many cattle operations with no recourse but to shut down and eliminate jobs,” she added.

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November 15, 2010

Frost-free Nose-pump Solves Water Problems

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

or algae in the summer, and no water left in it to freeze in winter,” he says. Even when his creek old weather can present challenges for goes dry in summer, the perforated pipe for the watering cattle, especially in climates where well picks up plenty of water to service the nose water sources freeze up, or in areas with no pumps, and when the creek is frozen in winter, the access to electricity for utilization of pumps cattle have water whenever they wish. or tank heaters. Jim Anderson, a rancher at “These systems are very strong. I’ve had 2,000Rimbey Alberta (northwest of Calgary), solved this pound bulls using them and they’ve rubbed and problem by creating an innovative water system in played with them and never hurt them. These which cattle pump water for themselves from shal- pumps are fool-proof,” says Panter. He put a 20low wells, ponds or underground storage tanks — by-20-foot concrete pad around his, so cattle are water that never freezes even at 40 below zero. never standing in mud, and the pad helps insulate Anderson’s innovation is a piston pump, like the the ground around the pump. old-fashioned well in which a person works the Lowell Thorson, a rancher in North Dakota, has handle up and down to lift water. “We modified been using two nose-pumps for his cattle for four this so cattle could push a lever with their nose. years. One is located in a pasture he This operates the piston pump by purchased a few years ago from a raising and lowering the piston in neighbor. “The pasture has a water . . . grass and the cylinder, the same as a handle hole and the farmer who had it preused to do,” he explains. viously let his cows drink in it. They vegetation grows “Like the old hand pump, we often got stuck in the water hole around it and acts and have a 3-inch cylinder down inside one of them drowned. I put a as a filter system fence around that and keep cattle the well. We capture enough geothermal heat from the ground, and for the runoff that out. It’s much safer to have them contain that heat all the way up to drink from the nose-pump than go fills the pond, the surface, to keep water in the into the pond,” says Thorson. keeping the pipe from freezing up,” he says.

If you can keep cattle out of a water clean.

The waterer is a small, enclosed pond that supplies your water, it basin on the top end of a vertical never becomes polluted. Also, grass culvert, with a lever at the back. The and vegetation grows around it and culvert has two feet sticking above ground, going acts as a filter system for the runoff that fills the down to whatever depth is required to make use of pond, keeping the water clean. ground water, or water from the bottom of a pond Mike Nichols, a rancher in eastern central Alberor dugout nearby. Water from the pond is piped ta, has used these pumps for several years and loves horizontally underground to the bottom of the cul- them. “I have three now. I mounted two together on vert, where it rises to the same level as the pond the same culvert and these water my stock with all surface — but will not freeze. A buried collection winter. I fenced off a dugout, and poured a cement tank from a spring would work also. A regular well pad around the culvert like Jim Anderson suggested. can be used, as long as the water level comes up to We’ve had really good luck with them. They are not within 50 (and preferably 30 or less) feet from the totally maintenance free, but I’d rather spend five surface. The nose pump can be adapted for an minutes with a rubber hammer now and then to existing well if it meets these criteria. On a drilled break ice loose than worry about having to chop ice well, each nose pump requires about two gallons on my pond,” says Nichols. per minute in order to water a large herd of cows.

He gave Anderson the idea about using a rub“Some ranchers use big pipes, but the typical ber hammer if the lever freezes up. “He’d told me installation is a road culvert at least 24 inches in that if ice builds up you just take a hammer to diameter, set in the ground at least 20 feet. The break it free. I said, why not use one of those two factors that determine how much geothermal shockless hammers — a rubber hammer filled with heat you’ll gain is how deep you go, and how big a lead shot. It has the weight you need, yet it has a diameter pipe you take to that depth. The bigger soft surface and won’t mark the drinking basin. All the pipe, the more opportunity for heat to rise, to I do is knock the sides a little to break ice that keep the water pipe in the center warm enough,” builds up on the sides, and then scoop that ice explains Anderson. out,” he says.

Kip Panter, who works for USDA-ARS Poison“I have to hand it to Jim Anderson for his invenous Plant Research Laboratory in northern Utah, tion and his commitment to keep improving it. My owns cattle and has used a nose-pump on his ranch father and I have one of his first pumps. I use ours for two years. “A creek runs through my ranch and in the summer, too. You can set it so it doesn’t the NRCS was helping ranchers get cattle away drain back down the pipe so far since the pipe from streams, offering a cost-share program. They doesn’t have to be kept from freezing, and have had information about nose-pumps and asked if I’d water in the bowl all the time if you want. Then the be willing to be a test case,” says Panter. He cows only have to pump it once to have water installed it himself, using a 20-foot well, dug with a come into the bowl. But I don’t bother with that backhoe a short distance from the creek — which summer setting. The cows have to push the lever he then fenced off. about four or five times to bring the water up the His cows learned to use the nose pump very pipe,” explains Nichols. quickly. “It doesn’t take cattle very long to figure it “Our cows play with it and pump it very aggresout, but Jim Anderson told me, ‘Don’t stand sively and it was splashing water out and around. around and watch them trying to learn, because it Sometimes our temperature drops down to minus will drive you nuts. Just fill the pan, so they know 25 degrees Fahrenheit. If we got a howling wind at that’s where the water is, and go do something else those temperatures the splashing created ice on for awhile and then come back to see how they are the inside of where the pendulum swings. My doing.’ I just filled it a couple times and walked father and I came up with a deflector to protect it away, and when I came back one cow had figured from the splash, and mentioned it to Jim. We made it out and she was showing the rest of them how to one and sent it to him, and he incorporated this do it,” says Panter. improvement in his newer pumps,” says Nichols.

He likes this system because water is always “I used to water out of dugouts. One winter I’d fresh and clean. “The pan is empty except when continued on page seventeen cattle are actively using it, so you never have moss

C

November 15, 2010

just chopped a new ice hole and we had a bad snowstorm afterward and the snow covered it over. The temperature dropped and I went back to check the hole. I had the ax in my hand and was out on the ice trying to find the hole I’d chopped. I was using the ax to tap in front of me and didn’t check far enough to the side, and I caught the hole with one foot and went into it all the way, to my hip. Luckily I hadn’t chopped a big hole and I didn’t fit completely into it — and was able to pull myself out. By the time I got to my tractor cab I could hardly get myself in it. I turned the heat clear up and finished feeding and headed for home. My leg was frozen and I could hardly make it into the house with my frozen coveralls.

My wife had to use a hair drier because I couldn’t manage the frozen zippers to get the coveralls off! Ever since I’ve had the nose pumps, I have not lost another cow in the dugout, and I haven’t slipped into it either,” he says.

He uses another nose-pump (on another dugout) for his bulls because he keeps them separate from the cows during winter.

“It’s the only thing those bulls haven’t wrecked. I give them 300 acres to play and fight in and they have not been able to wreck the nose pump. It’s built to last,” says Nichols.

He has 130 cows, and the nose pumps adequate water for the herd. “Once in a great while the lever freezes back but all you have to do is tap it and it comes loose. It’s a heck of a lot easier than chopping an ice hole in a pond!” he says.

The cows seem satisfied and he no longer sees any of them licking snow. “I have driven past it at 2 a.m. on a moonlit night and you can see cows drinking.

By contrast, when you chop an ice hole on a pond, by evening it’s not open anymore. The nosepump enables them to drink whenever they want.” They have access to water all night long.

“I like this system because it’s foolproof. It’s right next to a roadway, and other types of systems (solar panels, batteries) would be at risk from vandals. I

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took a pasture management course a couple years ago and learned that some people use a water system with an electric eye, with a pump down below. It pumps until the cow stops drinking. The water in that system all drains back down the culvert.

People who use that system were

saying that if you don’t clean it out every year with a vacuum truck, it becomes quite disgusting down in that culvert. All the bacteria from the cows drinking goes back down the hole when it stops pumping, because it has to drain the bowl to keep from freezing.

By contrast, with the nose-pump, the cow drains the bowl.

There’s no water left to contaminate anything and nothing goes back down the hole.” The cows always have clean, fresh water.

“The water from my dugout is crystal clear. When I was setting up the nose-pump I landscaped it so any runoff drains away from the dugout through a ditch into another field. It never goes back into the dugout, which is 100 feet away. Any spring runoff or anything from the cows drains away the other direction,” he says.

Page 17

Before he put in the nosepump, when cows had access to the dugout, it was always brown and murky. Within a year after fencing it to keep the cows out, and having them drink from the nose-pump, the water cleared up completely.

A great design “Jim Anderson has everything figured out. The instructions and dimensions he gives are perfect.

For instance, he gives directions on how to insulate the culvert by lining the inside of it with Styrofoam. If you cut the Styrofoam at the angle/degree he specifies, it will be exact and fit perfectly into the culvert,” says Nichols.

When Anderson goes to trade shows to demonstrate the nosepump, at his booth he utilizes a full-size mechanical cow that’s always drinking out of the nosepump. “It is always moving, pushing the lever, and it looks life-like. People walk by and see that cow pushing on it, and have to stop and watch!”

Nichols says his pumps have been trouble-free. “They’ve pumped a lot of water. When the weather gets down to minus 30 with a howling wind I may check mine twice a day, but otherwise

there’s no maintenance. When I got my first one, when solar pumps and batteries, etc. were coming into the market, it was virtually the same price as the solar set-up. My father and I talked it over and decided to go with the nose-pump. Our local co-op had a solar panel along a road, and people stole the panels several times. And today those batteries aren’t as good as they used to be. When they first came out you could easily get 10 years’ use of a solar battery. Now you are lucky if it lasts that long.”

You are locked into buying something someone else has to provide, whereas with the nosepump it’s a one-time investment and the cows do all the work.

“Mine are pumping water year-round. These are as simple and durable as the old-fashioned kitchen hand pumps. The moving parts are always submerged in water and always lubricated.

My grandfather looked at these nose pumps and said it was the very same system, and he remarked on the many gallons of water that were pumped with those old pumps, with no problems,” says Nichols. It’s very simple, and simple things have less to go wrong.

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Page 18

November 15, 2010

Alternative Retained Ownership Strategies for Cow Herds

WOOD FAMILY

JOHN D. LAWRENCE, Extension Economist, Iowa State University

Increased marketing flexibility

etaining ownership of calves beyond weaning is a value-added process that provides cow owners opportunities for additional profit. It turns lower value calves and feedstuffs into higher value animals. The accelerating trend toward value-based marketing also provides an opportunity for cow owners to more fully capture their investment in health, nutrition, and genetics. It increases the size of the operation while adding diversification and improves marketing flexibility.

Producers considering retained ownership must consider first year cash flow and income tax implications for their operation.

Producers must also decide whether to feed their calves at home or in a commercial feedyard.

Obviously, prices for feeder cattle, fed cattle, and feedstuffs impact profit potential in beef production. While feed supplies and prices are impacted annually by weather, cattle supplies and prices tend to follow a cyclical pattern. Recognizing this pattern and what stage of it the industry is in can help fine tune the retained ownership decision.

This paper examines factors to consider in the retained ownership decision and evaluates the returns and risks for selected strategies over the 1983 - 2004 calf crops.

Retained ownership increases marketing flexibility as to when, what, and where the cattle are sold. Calves can be sold as feeder cattle of different weights up to approximately 900 pounds or sold as fed cattle. While it is difficult to attract a packer buyer to the farm for a small pen of cattle, the producer can increase market access and competitive bids by feeding the cattle in a commercial feedyard that is visited by several buyers.

Selling some at weaning, some as feeders, and some as fed cattle spreads marketing and price risks over time. It is also easier to manage risk for fed cattle than feeder cattle. Packers offer cash forward contracts on fed cattle, but they are less common on feeder cattle. While feeder cattle futures and options and Livestock Revenue Protection does exist, the live cattle futures and option market is typically easier to use because it has higher liquidity and orders are filled quickly.

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Retained ownership provides opportunities to cow owners that selling the calves in the fall does not. One of the greatest, and commonly overlooked, opportunities is the direct information feedback to the genetic decision maker to improve the animal and product quickly. Cow owners may discuss the performance of their cattle with the cattle feeder and be able to adjust the breeding program. However, the signals are clearer if there is a direct economic link between cost of production, the price received at slaughter, and the person controlling the genetic make up of the cattle. These signals are becoming clearer with increasing use of grid marketing. Thus, in any retained ownership program information is essential.

Retained ownership provides cow owners the opportunity to capture the benefit of their superior genetics, nutritional practices, health program, and overall management system. It is also an opportunity for adding value to or marketing other resources such as labor, facilities, feedstuffs, management skills, capital, and others. While it provides the opportunity, it is up to the individual to be sure the full potential is realized. The points below are important to consider when evaluating retained ownership in an operation.

Feeding at home or in a commercial feedyard Regardless of whether the calves are fed at home or in a commercial feed yard, retained ownership adds an enterprise to the farm or ranch increasing gross revenue and making it more diversified. The cow owner must decide whether to feed the calves at home or in a feedyard.

When examining this question the producer must first determine what resources (skills, labor, facilities, feedstuffs) he or she has and how they can best be utilized.

Feeding the calves at home adds value to farm resources such as the calf and excess feedstuffs. It is also a way to sell resources that may otherwise be difficult to market, i.e., labor, forages, facilities, and equipment. While feeding the cattle at home may not produce as efficient gains as those of a commercial feedyard, net farm income may increase by marketing available resources through a retained ownership program.

Feeding cattle in a commercial feedyard allows the cow owner to hire specialists and state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. Many feedyards have consulting nutritionists, marketing and risk management specialists, and other professionals whose sole objective is profitable cattle feeding. For cow owners using information to improve their herd, some feedyards have scales under their working chute and can record individual weights when the cattle are worked and can work with the packer and data collection services to gather individual carcass information. Feeding cattle in a feedyard may provide continued on page nineteen

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

November 15, 2010 greater access to lower feed costs such as alternative feedstuffs or simply a wider corn basis.

Pooling calves from multiple farms, efficient sized pens of steers and heifers allows them to be fed in a cost effective manner.

Most Midwest cow herds are small and find it difficult to have a uniform pen of heifers and a pen of steers. It is also difficult for smaller feeders to justify the type of equipment and facilities needed to efficiently feed cattle and to develop the expertise that a professional has when dealing with a limited number of cattle.

Extension in most states offer a steer feedout program that helps producers experiment with retained ownership. These programs combine cattle from several farms into a uniform group, but individual gain, carcass data, in some cases a calculated feed efficiency and of course net returns are provided. Commercial feedyards can also combine cattle from different owners in the same pen and can equability divide the feed bill according to the animal's size and average daily gain using the net energy system.

Some custom feedlots offer shared risk programs for the cow owner. Variations include (1) sharing ownership of the calf and the feeding cost, (2) the feedlot provides the feed and yardage and the cow owner supplies the calf and the revenues are split according to the percentage of inputs provided. Many lots now offer financing for feed and may finance a percentage of the value of the calves to the owner at placement to ease cash flow problems.

Cash flow and tax implications Cash flow requirements may be complicated for the first year that a producer retains ownership. In addition to not having the income from selling calves in the fall, the producer must buy feed increasing the cash outflow.

If the producer typically sold calves and sold corn that he is now feeding, the cash flow can be a particular problem. Because the cattle are not sold and feed may be purchased, debts may remain unpaid for a few additional months. While the cattle are collateral for the loan, the producer’s financial risk may increase. Lenders must be aware of the producer’s plans and see the benefit of the retained ownership strategy. Financing packages offered by lenders or feedyards that free up part of the value of the calf and finance the feed can greatly ease cash flow binds.

Feeding calves one year and not the next will complicate income tax management. This is only a problem for a cow owner on cash accounting that switches from a retained ownership program to selling both calves and fed cattle in the same tax year. In a diversified farming operation in which cattle sales are only a part of total income, selling two calf crops in one year may not cause a problem because sale of grain

may be shifted. However, if cattle sales are a major part of total revenue, tax considerations are significant. Pre- or post-paid feed bills may provide some relief for an uneven income stream.

Additional advantages to retained ownership In addition to the market access, resources utilization, and specialization advantages discussed above, retained ownership can capture additional efficiencies if properly planned.

Because the cattle are under single ownership over their lifetime, management practices that favored either the buyer or seller but not both can be utilized. For example, creep feeding is known to reduce stress at weaning and help get calves started on feed sooner, but sellers are typically discounted for having fleshy calves that were not rewarded by the buyer. A cow owner can creep feed and reap the benefit of giving a quicker start to healthier calves in the feedlot.

There is less stress on the calf because it is moved directly from the farm to the feedlot and bypasses additional handling.

The calf has less stress and shrinks less that has to be made up in the feedlot. The cow owner can also benefit from a sound health program including early nutrition without the costly duplication of vaccination if he communicates with the feedyard on processing protocol.

Alternative retained ownership strategies Alternative retained ownership strategies were compared for 22 calf crops, 1983–2004, that would be sold as fed cattle in 1984–2005. Iowa State University Extension Beef Cow Business Records for each year were used as estimates of the cost of producing a weaned calf and as the estimated weaning weight assuming a November 1 weaning date. The ISU Extension Feedlot Enterprise Records and the Feedlot Monitory Program Summary for each year were used as estimates of variation in feedlot feed efficiency and average daily gain. The enterprise records serve as a proxy for the weather related risk that affects feedlot performance and more accurately captures the production risk a producer would have faced during the time period. Selling prices for calves and fed cattle were the weekly average price reported in the USDA Livestock Meat and Wool. It assumed that two-thirds of the calves fed are steers and one-third is heifers. The remaining heifers are kept for breeding animals. A $4.00/cwt price slide is assumed for cattle weighing other than the midpoint of the quoted price range. Other input prices (corn, hay, supplement, and interest) were monthly average prices reported for the placement month (ISU Estimated Livestock Returns). Yardage and health cost were adjusted over the 22 years to reflect inflation.

The cattle were assumed to be trucked 100 miles in and out and

the cost per mile per cwt was held constant over the period.

Selling at weaning ■ Selling calves at weaning serves as the bench mark strategy. Calves are weaned and sold on November 1. This strategy produced a lower average return than did the feedlot strategies.

Background for 60 days ■ The calves were weaned November 1 and backgrounded for approximately 60 days. Average daily gain was targeted at 1.75 pounds but was adjusted each year to reflect the performance conditions experienced in feedlots. This strategy had on average return similar to selling at weaning.

Retain backgrounded cattle to slaughter ■ The backgrounded calves in the earlier strategy were put in the feedlot January 1 and fed until August 20. The cattle were assumed to grade 75 percent Choice, 25 percent Select, and were priced accordingly. Average returns were higher than the previous two strategies, less than another feeding strategy, and had significant downside risk.

Page 19

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Early wean calves into feedlot ■ Calves are weaned September 1, placed directly into the feedlot, and sold April 15 grading 60 percent Choice. This strategy was the most profitable one evaluated due to the improved feedlot performance and because the cattle were sold before seasonal price declines.

Place directly in feedlot at weaning ■ Calves were weaned November 1, placed directly in the feedlot, and were sold grading 70 percent Choice July 1.

Returns averaged better than the backgrounding strategies or sell at weaning and had comparable risk to the combination strategy above.

Profit share arrangements ■ The three feedlot strategies outlined above were used to illustrate a profit sharing agreement between the cow owner and the feedyard. In this example the cow owner and the feedyard divide the revenue from selling the finished animal based on the percent of inputs provided by each party valued at placement time. These examples assume that the cow owner provides the calf, interest, trucking to the lot, and half of the vet bill. The feedyard provides the feed, interest, yardage, trucking to the packer, and half of the vet bill. For example, if the feedyard’s share is 45 percent of the cost to finish the calf it will receive 45 percent of gross revenue at market time.

The most profitable strategy was retain backgrounded cattle to slaughter, produced a considerably lower return to the profit share agreement under the cow owner. In this strategy the cow owner adds more value to the calf than does the feedyard. The feedyard and cow owner returns

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continued on page twenty

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Page 20

FWS Southwest Director: People, Not Species, Toughest Part of Job

by APRIL REESE, OF Greenwire Published: New York Times

t was late 2007, and the Department of Homeland Security’s effort to block passage of drug smugglers and illegal immigrants into the United States from Mexico by building several hundred miles of new reinforced fencing along the border was in full tilt.

I

But when the project reached Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, comprising about 118,000 acres of southern Arizona, Homeland Security hit a snag.

Refuge manager Mitch Ellis informed DHS officials that he could not approve the fence project, planned for about a 1-mile stretch along the refuge’s southern perimeter, because it would bisect habitat for the endangered jaguar

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and other species in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Frustrated with Ellis’s decision, which required approval from the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Region 2 headquarters in Albuquerque, DHS took its case to Southwest Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle.

Tuggle, who was appointed to the Southwest post just before Congress mandated construction of the fence, came up with a compromise: FWS would give Homeland Security the refuge land it needed for the fence, but in return FWS would receive lands of comparable ecological value elsewhere in the area, of the service’s choosing (Land Letter, Nov. 29, 2007).

The decision, which allowed DHS to avoid exercising a controversial waiver authority granted to it by Congress to bypass federal environmental laws to expedite construction of the border fence, was unpopular not only with environmental groups and some members of the public, but also with the refuge staff.

But the 56-year-old Tuggle, who has one of the toughest jobs in the agency, is not one to wilt in the face of a challenge.

That quality, he says, has served him well in his four and a half years as the commander of the a region that has proven to be a hotbed of politically thorny issues, he says.

‘I learn where you’re coming from’ On any given day, Tuggle, whose region stretches from Oklahoma to Arizona, could be contending with efforts to recover Mexican wolves, the development of oil and gas resources in prairie chicken habitat, illegal drug smuggling through refuge lands, or how to ensure the survival of endangered animals and plants along the border fence that is designed to be impenetrable to smugglers and illegal immigrants.

In fact, upon arriving in the Southwest after a stint as acting special assistant to the director in Washington, D.C., Tuggle set his sights on fixing the beleaguered Mexican wolf program, determined to bring the tiny population back from the brink amid a backdrop of vehement local opposition (Land Letter, May 13).

And he has proven himself unafraid to take a strong stand.

Discussing the spate of recent illegal shootings of Mexican wolves, whose population dropped to 42 animals last year, Tuggle makes no bones about his view of the perpetrators.

“People who are shooting wolves are criminals,” he said flatly, sitting at a table near the window of his expansive corner office in downtown Albuquerque. “I will do whatever it takes to handle that illegal activity.”

Amid the books, native pottery and stuffed animals filling

November 15, 2010 his large office bookcase is a pair of buttons: One, from Defenders of Wildlife, depicts a Mexican wolf with the words “Wanted Alive” printed underneath; the other depicts the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association logo. In Tuggle’s view, considering both perspectives is a critical part of doing his job.

“I’m a very good listener because that’s the only way I learn where you’re coming from,” he said. “That’s how you sustain a coalition.”

Yet Tuggle still faces criticism from local officials and residents in the Mexican wolf recovery area, which straddles the New Mexico-Arizona border, that he does not listen well enough.

For instance, his office recently established an “interdiction fund” to pay ranchers for livestock lost to wolves and financially support other measures aimed at reducing wolf-livestock conflicts, such as hiring range riders to deter wolves. But some local officials have complained that the stakeholder group that will decide how the money is spent will be weighted in favor of conservationists (Land Letter, March 25).

But while people on both sides of the issue may disagree with Tuggle, they always know where he stands, said Eva Sargent, southwest program director for Defenders of Wildlife.

“He’s very sort of straight-talking, I think not only with us but with the ranchers and all the stakeholders,” she said. “Even if you don’t agree with what he says, . . . you pretty much understand where he’s coming from.”

At times, FWS, as the agency responsible for upholding one of the most embattled environmental laws — the Endangered Species Act — also clashes with other federal agencies over projects that could harm protected wildlife and plants. The challenge is most evident in the Southwest, where border security has become a major policy

issue, leading to the construction of hundreds of miles of new fence, including across ecologically important public lands.

In Texas and Arizona, where a string of wildlife refuges harbor some of the last vestiges of habitat for the ocelot, jaguar and other threatened and endangered species, Tuggle and his refuge managers have undertaken sensitive negotiations with Homeland Security officials to try to mitigate the damage from the fence.

“I think Dr. Tuggle has done a fair job,” said Ellis, the former manager of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, who now oversees the Southwest Arizona National Wildlife Refuge Complex, including the Kofa, Imperial and Cibola refuges. “I think it’s very difficult trying to reconcile our agency’s mission with the mission of the DHS. It’s hard to have win-win situations.”

That said, Ellis acknowledges that he and his supervisor do not always see eye to eye, as evidenced by their difference of opinion over the border fence project at Buenos Aires NWR. “I would have liked to have seen FWS take a firmer stand and say with that particular pedestrian barrier, giving them a permit was not consistent with our laws,” Ellis said. “The public needs to see we’re at odds here.”

Tuggle, who has a doctorate in zoology, said that while the science on a resource issue is usually clear, it is dealing with the divergent views among various interests that is challenging.

“Natural resource management is not difficult; people management is difficult,” he said.

Ruffled agency feathers That can extend to his own workforce as well. While Tuggle describes his management style as “open and inclusive,” he has drawn criticism for failing to continued on page twenty-one

Retained Ownership were relatively stable and, with the exception of the early wean strategy, the feedyard return were less than the cow owner return.

Summary Cow herds selling at weaning earned positive returns on their 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004 calf crops, but lost money on the six calf crops 19951999 and 2002. The 1995 calf crop losses were the largest in the series. Cowherds that retained ownership into the feedlot suffered losses in only two years in the last 10. The early wean strategy, in average, was most profitable among the strategies examined. In some years, 1983-85 and 1995-97, cow herds lost money under all strategies.

Unprofitable years trigger a liquidation of the breeding

continued from page nineteen

herd to reduce beef supplies.

They are also inevitable and should be planned for.

Retained ownership alternatives examined added value to the cow owner’s resources in most years. It paid market rates for the calf, feed, capital, labor, and facilities and produced a profit. Compared to selling at weaning, retaining ownership until slaughter increased average profits. In individual years the return was over three times higher.

However, retained ownership was more profitable in the other years. These results suggest that no one strategy is most profitable every year.

Successful cow owners will be those who can adjust their program to changes in market conditions to achieve the greatest returns to their resources.

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

November 15, 2010

mountain lions on Kofa National Wildlife Refuge to help conserve bighorn sheep (Land Letter, May 27). “When we need support at the regional level, he will take them on, and he’s a good spokesperson for those issues.”

Diversifying the ranks When he is not negotiating the rough political terrain of endangered species and refuge management, Tuggle, who is African-American, is helping lead the charge to bring greater diversity to FWS and also to raise the profile of wildlife conservation within minority communities.

“I think there’s a pool of people we haven’t tapped that don’t look like the rest of us that we need to bring in,” he said. “We need to continue to help the new generation understand the gift that’s been given to us so that they will inherit that stewardship

sensibility.”

FWS is doing more outreach to college students, encouraging them to apply for internships to explore conservation work, he said. The agency also visits minority communities to try to generate more interest in wildlife conservation and natural resource careers, he added.

Tuggle, who is known to hand out copies of Richard Louv's book “Last Child in the Woods,” about the modern disconnect between children and nature, also strongly supports providing opportunities for city kids to get outside. Recalling that he developed his own love for the natural world during summer visits to his grandmother’s house in Georgia, Tuggle said that exposure to flora and fauna is key in putting more children on the path to conservation and wildlife careers.

In fact, the very future of con-

servation in the United States may depend on it, he said.

“If you look at conservation in the world, the United States is the leader,” he said. “If the U.S. has the best conservation ethic in the world, it’s reflective of the people.

And if the demographics of those people is changing . . . there might be people who don’t think endangered species are important, they might not think habitat is important. We need to get to those people right away, and help them understand that that’s part of what makes this country great.”

The country’s public lands are part of its national heritage, and everyone has a stake in natural resource management, he added.

“It really is a patriotic issue,” he said. “Because this country has been founded on the greatness of the resources of this country.”

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respect the expertise of his employees in the field.

“There’s almost a kind of parental attitude toward the project leaders in the field,” said one senior FWS field manager, who asked not to be named. “A very scolding tone at times.

We’ve got some very experienced project leaders doing good work.

But the impression they’ve gotten is, ‘You guys in the field don’t know what you’re doing.’

There’s no trust.”

Better communication from Region 2 headquarters would go a long way in resolving the problem, the field manager added.

Tuggle admitted that his decisions are not always popular with FWS employees. But, he added, field managers sometimes fail to understand other factors that must be taken into account in species decisions.

“That’s a fair criticism,” he said of the complaint that he sometimes contradicts his field staff. “There are a lot of times that recommendations come in from the field which don’t comport with the reality of the decisions we have to make. I think I try to communicate about the decision, but they don’t always like the decision. But I always respect their expertise.”

Tuggle recalled a project proposed for Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona a few years ago. When an electric utility applied for a permit to run a power line through the refuge, along the route of an existing line, Tuggle approved the project, even though refuge officials opposed it.

“There were a lot of people who were very upset I made that decision,” Tuggle said. “But I stand by it. That was one of the more controversial ones, but I think we negotiated it in a fair way.”

Tuggle acknowledged that he can be tough at times, but said he sees himself as fair. “I’m not really a bullying type,” he said.

“I’d much rather get flies with sugar, not salt.”

While Tuggle has drawn internal flak for decisions that contradict the recommendations of his staff, he also has a reputation for defending his employees when they are in the political hot seat.

Mike Hawkes, who retired as manager of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge last May, said that when his staff drew fire for issuing littering citations to a humanitarian group that placed water jugs in the desert for illegal border crossers, Tuggle encouraged the staff to continue their enforcement efforts and “let the public go ahead and see us doing our jobs.”

“He does seem to back up his field folks,” Hawkes said. “He stuck his neck out and took the heat occasionally. If we decided to do something, he wouldn’t back out of it for political reasons later on. He provided back-up.”

Ellis agreed. “When issues are important and they need to be championed, he’s stepped up, and he’s taken some difficult issues forward,” he said, citing a decision Tuggle made to cull

Page 21

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Page 22

November 15, 2010

T HE L I V E S T O C K M A R K E T D I G E S T INTEREST RATES AS LOW AS 3%. PAYMENTS SCHEDULED ON 25 YEARS

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Livestock ranch on 1,038 acres w/irrigation, dryland pasture and feed lots. 4 homes, 5 barns, a shop, 2 sets of working corrals. $3,700,000.

54 acres of Agricultural investment property. Beautifully scenic setting.

Prime farm ground for vineyard, row crops or livestock and hay.

Class 1 soils with irrigation out of the Roque River for 41.54 acres.

Three existing dwellings. Older dairy structures could be rehabilitated. Includes irrigation equipment. $765,000.

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THE RANCH FINDER presents . . .

Escondida Land & Cattle Co. A great ranch located in the foothills of the Capitan Mountain of Lincoln County, N.M., near Arabela, just eight miles above the Hondo Valley from Tinnie. 45 miles west of Roswell, and 25 miles east of Ruidoso, Escondida Ranch consists of 9931 deeded acres plus 6,551 U.S. Forest Service Lease w/an additional 490 New Mexico State Lease acres, 27 being sections of rolling foothills and open valleys of grama grass pastures at an altitude of 5,000 ft. A four-season cattle ranch w/an established grazing capacity of 500 animal units or 750 yearlings on a six-month grazing rotation system. This grazing program is also tied in with 130 acres of water rights applied to sprinkler irrigated grass pastures, w/irrigation wells capable of pumping up to a 900 gallon-per-minute at less than a 100' depth. Escondida Ranch is improved with a full service modern headquarters complex w/new barns, corrals and shipping pens w/scales. This area of Lincoln County is noted for its big game habitat and the ranch is annually issued eleven elk permits along w/topline mule-deer, black bear, mountain lion and barbary sheep hunting, and lots of turkey. A turn-key offering — everything goes.

Bailey Family Ranch, LLC. A year long cow/calf grazing unit located six miles north of Cuero in Guadalupe County, N.M., just off I-40, and 20 miles east of Santa Rosa — a trade center for this area and east 45 miles to Tucumcari, the Hub City for this quadrant in New Mexico. The Bailey Ranch consists of 7,587 deeded acres along with 1,160 New Mexico State Lease for a total of 8,747 grazing acres. This 14-section cow/calf or yearling ranch is located in some of the better grazing country in eastern New Mexico. Under normal range conditions this area receives 1416 inches of moisture a year and can support up to a 200-day growing season, at an elevation of around 4,300 ft. This ranch has an ideal habitat for deer, antelope and game birds. The design of the ranch is divided into six pastures and one trap 160+ acres of free grazing on vacant land, supported by six windmills and five surface tanks. In a fenced design seven miles long and two wide, north to south, Walker Road is an all weather county road running north along the west boundary. A basic headquarter complex with full services, a good tenant house, two-car garage and livestock working and shipping pens.

The Ranch Finder – Ronald H. Mayer P. O. Box 2391, Roswell, NM 88202 575/623-5658 • www.ranchfinder.com

MARKET

CHANGE OF ADDRESS INSTRUCTIONS If you’re moving or changing your mailing address, please clip and send this form to: Livestock Market Digest P.O. Box 7458 Albuquerque, NM 87194 or FAX to: 505/998-6236

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19855 S. Main St., P.O. Box 1020 Cottonwood, CA 96022 Ofc.: 530/347-9455 • F: 530/347-4640 homeranchr@sbcglobal.net

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——— CALIFORNIA RANCHES ——— Lassen County: 11,725 acres, all deeded. 970 acres irrigated, flood and 4 pivots. Alfalfa, grain, grass. BLM permits, 500 cows, organic hay. Lots of potential for more farm ground. Priced at $5,375,000.

Tehama County, Cottonwood, Calif.: 1,850 acres, winter range. Large barn, 1 bdrm. apt., horse stalls, tie stalls, tack room, shop. Deluxe 400x200 ft. roping arena.

All new fences and steel corrals. Hunting and fishing. Priced at $2,200,000.

Tehama County, Cottonwood, Calif.: 556 acres, winter range, two small houses, corrals, chute, small barn. Good hunting and fishing. Price reduced — $775,000.

Tehama County, Cottonwood, Calif.: 80 acres, winter range and a custom built appx. 3,000 sq. ft. beautiful home. Large barn, tack room, shop roping arena, round-pen — a real crown jewel. Many amenities. A roper’s dream. Priced at $1,400,000.

Name

Old Address

City, State, Zip

New Address

City, State, Zip

WAHOO RANCH: Approximately 40,976 acres: ± 11,600 deeded, 6,984 BLM, 912 state, 40 uncontrolled and 21,440 forest. Beautiful cattle ranch located on the east slope of the Black Range Mountains north of Winston, N.M., on State Road 52. Three hours from either Albuquerque or El Paso.The ranch is bounded on the east by the Alamosa Creek Valley and on the west by the Wahoo Mountains ranging in elevation from 6,000' to 8,796'. There are 3 houses/cabins, 2 sets of working corrals (1 with scales) and numerous shops and outbuildings. It is very well watered with many wells, springs, dirt tanks and pipelines. The topography and vegetation is a combination of grass covered hills (primarily gramma grasses), with many cedar, piñon and live oak covered canyons as well as the forested Wahoo Mountains. There are plentiful elk and deer as well as antelope, turkey, bear, mountain lion and javelina (46 elk tags in 2009). Absolutely one of the nicest combination cattle/hunting ranches to be found in the SW. Price reduced to $5,500,000.

SAN JUAN RANCH: Located 10 miles south of Deming off Hwy. 11 (Columbus Hwy) approximately 26,484 total acres consisting of ± 3,484 deeded, ± 3,800 state lease, ± 14,360 BLM and ±4,840 Uncontrolled. The allotment is for 216 head (AUYL). 9 solar-powered stock wells and metal storage tanks and approx. 6½ miles pipeline. The ranch begins on the north end at the beautiful Mahoney Park high up in the Florida mountains and runs 5½ miles down the mountains to their south end. It continues another 7½ miles south across their foothills and onto the flats. The ranch has a very diverse landscape with plentiful wildlife including quail, dove, rabbits, deer and ibex. Lots of potential & a good buy at $1,000,000.

46 ACRE FARM

LOCATED IN SAN MIGUEL: Full EBID irrigation and supplemental well.

Bounded by Highway 28 on the east, County Road B-041 on the south and County Road B-010 on the west. Priced at $14,000/acre – $644,000 – CONTRACT PENDING.

212 ACRE FARM BETWEEN LAS CRUCES, N.M. AND EL PASO, TEXAS: Hwy. 28 frontage with 132 acres irrigated, 80 acres sandhills, full EBID (surface water) plus a supplemental irrigation well, cement ditches and large equipment warehouse. Priced at $1,868,000.

50.47-ACRE FARM: Located on Afton Road south of La Mesa, NM. Paved road frontage, full EBID (surface water) plus a supplemental irrigation well with cement ditches. Priced at $13,000/acre ($660,400).

±37-ACRE FARM – WEST OF ANTHONY, N.M.: Located 20 minutes from Sunland Park Race Track on Haasville Road (paved) just north of Gadsden High School and west of Highway 28. EBID, irrigation well and cement ditches. Beautiful farm with many possibilities. Call for aerial and location maps.

Sign on property. Priced at $13,900/acre ($514,300).

OTHER FARMS FOR SALE: In Doña Ana County. All located near Las Cruces, N.M. 8, 11, and 27.5 acres. $15,000/acre to $17,000/acre. All have EBID (surface water rights from the Rio Grande River) and several have supplemental irrigation wells. If you are interested in farm land in Doña Ana County, give me a call.

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

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

November 15, 2010

5-acre Horse Set-up: Location-location, only 2+ miles north of Mountain Grove on Girlstown Rd. New fencing, 20x40 new 3-stall horse barn/shop/1-car garage, 1,300 sq. ft. , 3-br., 2ba. manufactured home, wrap around deck ( 2 sides), nestled down your private drive. MLS #1010102 675 Acres Grass Runway, Land your own plane: Major Price Reduction. 3 BR, 2 BA home down 1 mile private land. New 40x42 shop, 40x60 livestock barn, over 450 acres in grass.

(Owner runs over 150 cow/calves, 2 springs, 20 ponds, 2 lakes, consisting of 3.5 & 2 acres. Both stocked with fish. Excellent fencing. A must farm to see. MLS #1010371 483 Acres, Hunter Mania: Nature at her best.

Don’t miss out on this one. Live water (two creeks).

70+ acres open in bottom hayfields and upland grazing. Lots of timber (marketable and young) for the best hunting and fishing (Table Rock, Taney Como and Bull Shoals Lake) Really cute 3-bd., 1ba stone home. Secluded yes, but easy access to Forsyth-Branson, Ozark and Springfield. Property joins Nat’l. Forest. MLS#908571

Southeastern N.M. Ranches For Sale

KEVIN C. REED Ranchers Serving Ranchers Texas and New Mexico

LEE, LEE & PUCKITT ASSOCIATES INC.

RANCH SALES & APPRAISALS Office: 325/655-6989 Cell: 915/491-9053

1002 Koenigheim, San Angelo, TX 76903 • www.llptexasranchland.com • llp@wcc.net

See all my listings at: paulmcgilliard.murney.com

Cell: 417/839-5096 • 1-800/743-0336

MURNEY ASSOC., REALTORS SPRINGFIELD, MO 65804

Idaho-Oregon Call 208/345-3163 for catalog.

Amarillo, TX 806/355-9856 Benny Splawn, 806/674-7523

This Torrance County Ranch has been in the same family for nearly 60 years. The main ranch has 7,280± deeded acres plus 1,280± acres State Lease land.

Comprised of rolling hills, canyons and good, flat land, this ranch has been well-maintained and has exceptional water and watering systems.

Great for cattle raising and hunting elk, deer, antelope and dove. Two other pastures totaling 1,390± deeded acres are close to town with city water and development opportunities. Call for a brochure. www.CliftLandBrokers.com

OFFERED IN COOPERATION WITH UNITED COUNTRY VISTA NUEVA, INC., PORTALES, NM 575/356-5616

LAND CO. RANCHES FARMS COMMERCIAL Established 1944

We advertise with DEBBIE CISNEROS and the Livestock Market Digest because we get service and great results.

TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES • Magnificent 90 Hunting – Cattle/Horse Ranch 50 miles E. of Dallas, 35 miles W. of Tyler, White pipe fence along FM Hwy. 3,700 sq. ft. elaborate home, flowing waterway, lake. Has it all.

• 532-acre CATTLE & HUNTING, NE TX ranch, elaborate home, one-mile highway frontage.

OWNER FINANCE at $2,150/ac.

• 274 acres in the shadow of Dallas. Secluded lakes, trees, excellent grass. Hunting & fishing, dream home sites. $3,850/ac.

• 1,700-acre classic NE TX cattle & hunting ranch. $2,750/ac. Some mineral production.

• Texas Jewel, 7,000 ac. – 1,000 per ac., run cow to 10 ac.

• 256 Acre Texas Jewel – Deep sandy soil, highrolling hills, scattered good quality trees, & excellent improved grasses. Water line on 2 sides rd., frontage on 2 sides, fenced into 5 pastures, 5 spring fed tanks and lakes, deer, hogs & ducks. Near Tyler & Athens. Price $1,920,000.

• 146 horse, hunting cattle ranch N. of Clarksville, TX. Red River Co. nice brick home, 2 barns, pipe fences, good deer, hogs, ducks, hunting priced at $395,000.

• 535 ac. Limestone, Fallas, & Robertson counties, fronts on Hwy. 14 and has rail frontage water line, to ranch, fenced into 5 pastures, 2 sets, cattle pens, loamy soil, good quality trees, hogs, & deer hunting. Priced at $2,300 per ac.

Joe Priest Real Estate 1205 N. Hwy 175, Seagoville, TX 75159

972/287-4548 • 214/676-6973 1-800/671-4548 www.joepriest.com joepriestre@earthlink.com

MOATS RANCH – 20,565 Total acres, 12,025 deeded.

Thirty miles north of Roswell, N.M. along and on both sides of U.S. Highway 285. 400± Animal Units Yearlong.

Three wells and pipelines.

DEGANAHL RANCH – 5,635 Total acres, 960 deeded.

BLM grazing permit for 164 Animal Units Yearlong. 40 miles northwest of Roswell, NM north of State Highway 246. New improvements, three wells and pipelines.

Bar M

Contact: SCOTT MCNALLY, Qualifying Broker, C: 575/420-1237

REAL ESTATE

www.ranchesnm.com

P. O . BO X 4 2 8 • RO S WE L L , N . M. 8 8 2 0 2 •

PAUL McGILLIARD

KNIPE

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“EAGER SELLERS” 225 – 250 AU’S - 850 DEEDED (650 IRRIGATED) – 1-1/2 MILE RIVER - NICE MEADOWS – MODEST IMPROVEMENTS WITH GREAT WORKING FACILITIES – CLOSE TO TOWN AND SCHOOLS - $1,800,000 – WANT OFFER – CAN ADD CUSTOM HOME AND 80 ACRES – GREAT STOCKER OPERATION – LYMAN – RAE, 208/761-9553 LIFESTYLE RANCH 55 MILES TO BOISE – 2,213 DEEDED ACRES PLUS STATE AND BLM – DROP DEAD PRIVATE – 2 MILES MAJOR STREAM – BEHIND LOCKED GATE – COMFORTABLE IMPROVEMENTS – ELK, DEER, TURKEY, CHUKAR, HUNS, QUAIL, WATERFOWL - BEAR, LION AND VARMINT – TROUT AND BASS PONDS $1,400,000 – WANT OFFER – TURKEY CREEK LIFESTYLE – 320 DEEDED ACRES (105 IRRIGATED) - COMFORTABLE IMPROVEMENTS – SPECTACULAR VIEWS – BORDERS FEDERAL LANDS – ELK, DEER, TURKEY – ONLY MINUTES TO SOME OF THE FINEST YEAR LONG FISHING IN THE NORTHWEST – STEELHEAD, STURGEN, TROUT, BASS, CRAPPY AND MORE $690,000 – WANT OFFER – POSY – RAE, 208/761-9553 LIFESTYLE/INCOME – POSSIBLY THE FINEST WILDLIFE VARIETY/QUANITY AVAILABLE – 1,160 DEEDED ACRES (180 IRRIGATED) – 2-1/2 MILES RIVER – 2 BASS PONDS – PLENTIFUL QUAIL, CHUKAR, DOVE, PHEASANT, WATERFOWL, DEER AND AND VARMINTS - EXCELLENT IMPROVEMENTS – COW/CALF AND/OR STOCKER OPERATION FOR INCOME /TAX ADVANTAGE - $1,900,000 – LANDRETH LINSON CREEK RANCH: WASHINGTON/PAYETTE COUNTIES, ID. 1,938 DEEDED ACRES PLUS 892 AUMS, BLM — PRESENTLY WINTERING 400 MOTHER COWS 11/5 – 5/1 — SUPPLEMENTING WITH ABOUT ½ TON ALFALFA; MODEST IMPROVEMENTS; EXCELLENT UPLAND GAME BIRDS, CHUKAR, QUAIL, PHEASANT; BLUE GILL, MULE DEER, ELK, BASS AND TROUT. $1,475,000 – TERMS. — EASY TRUCKING TO — LYMAN RANCH: BAKER COUNTY, OR. 933 DEEDED ACRES WITH 748 IRRIGATED. 1½ MILES POWDER RIVER THROUGH MEADOWS — VERY IMPRESSIVE FOR ANYONE LOOKING FOR AN INSIDE (NO GOVT.) OPERATION. RATES AT 250 HD. YEAR-LONG. 400/450 PAIRS AND/OR 800/900 STOCKER CATTLE FOR GRAZING SEASON. ASKING $1,930,000. CAN SPLIT: CALL AND LET US EXPLAIN. RAE ANDERSON 208/761-9553.

— 400/450 HD BY COMBINING THE ABOVE TWO RANCHES — QUARTER CIRCLE DIAMOND: GILLIAM COUNTY, OR. 6,148 DEEDED ACRES WITH 1,078 DRY FARM, PLUS RUNNING 125 MOTHER COWS YEAR-LONG. POTENTIAL FOR 17 WIND TURBINES. MULE DEER, ELK, CHUKAR, QUAIL. RAE 208/761-9553 OR JACK 541/473-3100. $1,750,000 P BAR: MALHEUR COUNTY, OR. 11,750 DEEDED ACRES WITH 300 IRRIGATED PLUS BLM AND STATE LEASE; RATES AT 1,300-1,400 HD. YEAR-LONG OR A COMBINATION STOCKER COWS. WINTER RANGE, GOOD IMPROVEMENTS. $6,000,000 POSEY VALLEY: HALFWAY, OR. 320 ACRES WITH 105 IRRIGATED — GATEWAY TO HELLS CANYON AND EAGLE CAP WILDERNESS — OVERLOOKING PINE VALLEY. SEVEN DEVILS AND A SOME OF MOTHER NATURE’S BEST. MODEST IMPROVEMENTS, CLOSE TO TOWN AND SCHOOLS. SUBMIT ALL OFFERS – POSSIBLE TERMS. RAE ANDERSON 208/761-9553.

FARM/FEEDLOT: VALE, OR. 500 DEEDED ACRES WITH 280 IRRIGATED. CAFO @ 8501,000 HEAD. GOOD IMPROVEMENTS. GREAT FOR STOCKERS AND/OR DAIRY HEIFERS. $1,580,000

Ben G. Scott, Krystal M. Nelson, Brokers 1301 Front St., Dimmitt, TX 79027 • 1-800/933-9698 day/night www.scottlandcompany.com

RANCH & FARM REAL ESTATE

—— TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO —— This ad is just a small sample of the properties that we currently have for sale.

Please check our website: scottlandcompany.com and give us a call! We need your listings both large and small, all types of ag properties (ESPECIALLY CRP).

HARTLEY/MOORE COUNTY LINE – corn, wheat, cotton, cattle with all the perks, 992 acres, sprinkler irrigated with some improved pasture, large brick home, large set of state-of-the-art steel working pens with concrete feed bunks and covered working area, on pavement.

READY TO RANCH and DEVELOP (wind energy, comm., res.) Potter Co., TX – 4,872.8 acres of beautiful ranch country four miles north of loop 335, Amarillo, TX., pvmt. on four sides. Well watered by pumps powered by solar energy (state-of-the-art). Deer, quail and dove. 50% MINERALS!

THANK YOU, SCOTT LAND CO.!

www.agrilandsrealestate.com Vale, Oregon • 541/473-3100 • jack@fmtcblue.com

The Livestock Market Digest in conjunction with the New Mexico Stockman magazine are two very well known publications throughout the industry.

We advertise in both of these publications expecting to reach not only individuals and companies in the agriculture sector but also in business circles throughout the nation.

Both publications are well respected and we have enjoyed a long-term relationship with both.

Thanks and regards!

Ben G. Scott

NEVADA RANCHES and FARMS

MASON MOUNTAIN RANCH Nothern Elko County ranch with 3700 deeded acres and a small BLM permit. Great summer pasture with free water from springs, creeks and seeps. No power but land line phone.

The ranch received 1 landowner Elk Tag this year.

The irrigation reservior on Mason Creek is stocked with Red Band trout. Several useful buildings including home with gravity flow water and propane lights, water heater and refrigerator.

The ranch should run 300 pair for the season.

Price: $1,575,000.

Bottari Realty Out West Realty Network Affiliate

AGRILANDS Real Estate

575/622-5867

PAUL D. BOTTARI, BROKER www.bottarirealty.com • paul@bottarirealty.com

Ofc.: 775/752-3040 Res: 775/752-3809 • Fax: 775/752-3021

Livestock Market Digest

Page 24

America needs more jobs, not more lawsuits s policymakers consider ways to put Americans back to work, they should keep this simple formula in mind: More lawsuits equal less job growth, says Tom Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The business community has long warned that increased litigation can suck the life out of a state’s economy. For businesses both large and small, one frivolous lawsuit can mean the difference between job creation and stagnation, according to Donohue.

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To document America’s legal climate on a state-by-state basis, the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) commissioned the nonpartisan research firm Harris Interactive to ask senior litigators and general counsels at some of America’s largest employers to offer their impressions of state legal climates. Here are the results: Two-thirds of those surveyed said that the litigation environment in a state is likely to impact corporate decisions such as where to locate a company or do business.

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However, it is not just larger companies that are impacted by a hostile legal climate — small businesses also suffer.

In fact, another study found that small businesses shoulder 69 percent of all business lawsuit costs and pay $98 billion in tort liability costs per year.

It should come as no surprise that many of the states at the bottom of the survey — including Illinois, California and Louisiana — have high unemployment rates, with some in excess of the national average.

What should be even more discouraging for residents of these states is the fact that the problem is only getting worse, says Donohue.

To stem this tide, state officials need to step up and take action. There’s no time to waste — we must create 20 million new jobs by the end of this decade to put unemployed Americans back to work and keep up with a growing population. Once states can halt the expansion of lawsuits, businesses will have the freedom to focus on growing jobs, instead of fighting in court, says Donohue.

Source: Tom Donohue, “America Needs More Jobs, Not More Lawsuits,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, April 2010. For report: http://instituteforlegalreform.com/images/stories/documents/pdf/lawsuitclimate2010/2010LawsuitClimateReport.pdf

• Proven from birth to rail for performance and quality for 30 years

by RITA JANE GABBETT, meatingplace.com

FIGURE 4 CATTLE CO. 14131 Harts Basin Rd. Eckert, CO 81418 970/835-3944 • 970/216-8748 cell email: figurefour@tds.net

embers of Cooperatives Working Together (CWT), the dairy farmer-funded self-help program, voted in late October to focus exclusively on building

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Western Legacy Alliance Research Spurs Congressional Action on Exposing Taxpayer Funded Lawsuit Racket of Radical Environmentalists I am/our organization is committed to protecting the open spaces, private property, private businesses and ensuring the responsible use of public lands.

Please list me/my organization as a member of the Western Legacy Alliance.

I have included my membership dues and my $____________ additional contribution.

Individual Membership $25

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Association Membership $500

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Corporate Membership $1,000

Name: ________________________________________________________________________________________________

Organization: __________________________________________________________________________________________

Address: ____________________________________________ City: __________________________ State: ___________

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Other $____________

RECEIPT OF CONTRIBUTION TO THE WLA: The Western Legacy Alliance thanks you for your contribution!

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Calling all con artists very year, thousands of crooks bilk taxpayers out of billions of dollars, says Tevi Troy, former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and a visiting senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

While statistics on fraud are somewhat hard to come by, the available numbers are truly frightening: ■ 2009 Government Accountability Office study found that 10.5 percent of Medicaid payments in fiscal year 2008 were improper.

■ Thompson Reuters study in October of 2009 found there to be somewhere between $600 billion and $850 billion annually in health care waste, which includes fraud but also inefficiency and medical errors.

Nationwide estimates of fraud alone tend to estimate it between $60 billion and $100 billion.

Part of the reason for all of this waste is the way the government processes payments. It is under pressure to pay bills quickly so that providers and suppliers don’t opt out of the system, and payments are investigated only if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) or the Office of Inspector General

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(OIG) later discovers or is informed about some impropriety. By that point, the cash is hard to recover, says Troy.

During its effort to pass its health care bill, the Obama administration pressed the issue of waste, fraud and abuse. However, when it comes to ObamaCare’s solutions, the program offers very little, says Troy: The new law achieves much of its “waste, fraud and abuse” savings not by cutting actual waste, fraud and abuse, but by scaling back the Medicare Advantage program.

By spending a trillion taxpayer dollars in the current system, and specifically by putting 16 million more people on Medicaid, it actually increases the number of opportunities for fraud.

And it does not take the bipartisan anti-fraud steps that President Obama appeared to embrace leading up to and following the February health care summit.

Ultimately, however, only the repeal of ObamaCare — and a decisive move away from thirdparty payments — will solve the problem that the president has just exacerbated, says Troy.

Source: Tevi Troy, “Calling All Con Artists,” National Review, April 2010, National Center for Policy Analysis

Dairy group will no longer pay members to slaughter cows

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export markets and no longer fund herd retirement programs.

CWT conducted its 10th and final herd retirement this past summer through which it paid farmers to slaughter 34,442 cows.

“The decision to drop the herd retirement program, but to maintain the basic structure of CWT with an exclusive focus on helping sell U.S.-made dairy products in foreign markets, allows CWT to continue making positive contributions to dairy farmers’ bottom lines,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of

that National Milk Producers Federation, which administers CWT. The decision was voted on at the NMPF annual meeting in Nevada. A presentation there by Scott Brown of the University of Missouri showed that for every one dollar spent assisting CWT member cooperatives in making export sales; U.S. dairy farmers received $15.53 in additional revenue. CWT’s export activity in 2010 has returned 18 cents per hundredweight, according to Brown’s analysis.

Superior Farms expands with lamb acquisition

by TOM JOHNSTON, meatingplace.com

avis, Calif.-based lamb packer Superior Farms announced Friday it entered an agreement to buy Iowa Lamb Corp. to improve efficiencies in a struggling industry.

Demand for lamb was down 10 percent in 2009 due to higher livestock costs and retail prices, according to the American Sheep Industry Association.

Meanwhile, the national supply of sheep is nearly half what it was 20 years ago.

“For quite some time, our feeling has been that there are a lot of packing houses that are trying to operate with minimal

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schedules in the U.S. for lamb production,” Superior Farms CEO Ed Jenks said in a news release. “Ultimately [the acquisition] means that the packing side of the business will be more efficient, and it is our sincere hope that we create operational economies that allow us to keep our plant costs down and continue to encourage a consumer demand at affordable prices.”

Spence Rule, owner of Hawarden, Iowa-based Iowa Lamb Corp., said in a news release the deal gives his company an opportunity to return to its roots in the feeding business.

Iowa Lamb’s consumer brand, Summit Creek, and foodservice brand, Grove Meats, will be integrated into Superior Farms.