LMD Nov 2013

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

Riding Herd

MARKET

Digest D

by LEE PITTS

Coming In Hot

– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL NOVEMBER 15, 2013 • www. aaalivestock . com

Volume 55 • No. 11

Ridin’ Bareback I

n the game of craps a player can buy “insurance” so that he or she doesn’t lose all their chips on one bad roll of the dice. I have no idea if it’s a good betting strategy but I suspect that if a rancher and a farmer were both bellied up to the dice table in Vegas that the farmer would likely buy the insurance while the rancher would not, choosing instead to gamble and take his chances.

Amidst all the current talk about insurance and ObamaCare, I got to wondering why farmers have all this federally subsidized insurance available while ranchers do not? Around coffee shops where ranchers and farmers are known to congregate you hear ranchers making fun of farmers all the time who, more often than not, are mostly farming the feds. The argument always starts out, “Why are taxpayers being gouged just so farmers can be guaranteed $350 an acre profit through federal crop insurance, while ranchers have no such subsidy?

If ranchers only knew . . .

Get In Line

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This may come as a surprise to ranchers who like to think of themselves as an independent bunch, but cattlemen can buy insurance against a downward spiral in feeder and fat cattle prices. And no, we are not talking about futures contracts, puts

Man is the only critter who feels the need to label things as flowers or weeds

or options. This has nothing to do with playing the futures market or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This is federally subsidized price insurance, pure and simple.

Ranchers can protect themselves against declining cattle prices by purchasing Livestock Risk Insurance that pays producers if a national or regional cash price index falls below an insured coverage price level. Very basically, a rancher picks a price and

a time and if the cash price index is below that coverage price at the end of the policy, the government sends you a check. In other words, it’s crop insurance for cowboys!

Livestock Risk Insurance is reinsured and subsidized by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. That means if you live in one of the 37 eligible states that offer Livestock Risk Protection you buy a policy from the very same licensed crop insurance

agent that the farmers go to to buy insurance for their crops.

Are you starting to feel a little less independent? Are you worried that when you go to apply you might run into those very same farmers who you criticized in the coffee shop for always having their hand out for government subsidies?

But wait, it gets better, or worse, depending on how independent you’re feeling. Cattlemen can also buy federally subsidized drouth insurance for both forage production and grazing.

Yes you read that right, this past year in a pilot program rancher/farmers could even buy crop protection for alfalfa for the first time.

Making Farmers Of Us All Here are the basics of subsidized Livestock Risk Insurance: • For insurance purposes, feeder cattle are divided into two weight classes — less than 600 continued on page two

Are We Pet “Owners” or “Guardians”?

BY: ALEX LIEBER, WWW.PETPLACE.COM

100-pound pig, orphaned when his owner passed away recently, currently resides in a shelter located in southern Maine. The staff is fervently trying to find a home for this domesticated pig – not an easy task because this animal lived a pampered life. He was, for instance, used to sleeping in a bed with his beloved caretaker.

But if he is adopted out to a family, should his new family be considered his “owners” or his “guardians”? In Maine, for now, the pig is legally considered property, as animals are throughout most of the United States.

However, a growing number of communities – and one state – are changing the status of pet owners to “owner/guardians” or just guardians.

The latest municipality to do so was the city of Sherwood, Arkansas, joining the California cities of Berkeley and West Hollywood, as well as Boulder, Colo., and the state of Rhode Island.

These cities and Rhode Island take the stance that no one has an inherent right to “own” an animal. Rather, people are guardians of their companion animals, who are unable to take care of themselves adequately because their environment has been altered to fit the lifestyle of people.

The argument may seem to be one of seman-

A

tics at first glance, especially in today’s world where pets are increasingly considered fullfledged family members. However, there is a tug-of-war under way between groups that feel animals possess certain inalienable rights (should not be considered property) and those who believe such campaigns are signs of extremists trying to impose their values on people.

Though they may not realize it, pets have come a long way in the last hundred years or so.

They are still considered property in 95 percent of the country, but laws have been enacted to provide protection against abuse and neglect.

Mistreating or neglecting an animal is becoming a serious offense – even a felony in cases with aggravating circumstances.

But should they be accorded a status other than pets? And what does it mean, legally, for a person to be considered a guardian rather than an owner? This article provides an overview of the welfare/rights debate.

It is dangerous to slap all-inclusive labels on any one organization because, like so many movements, there are different shades and sides to the same argument. But the debate over terminology is at its heart the fundamental difference between animal rights and animal welfare activists.

isposition is an undervalued trait in the beef business. It doesn’t matter how much your calves weigh if one of your bulls puts your wife in the hospital and your profit goes to pay medical bills, and you have to make your own dinner and wash your own clothes. (“No, honey, you put the dirty clothes in the dishwasher again.”)

My dearly departed friend, Curly Tinkle, was always fiddling with his formula on how to raise cattle and his very last experiment was buying some dairy-type bulls from one of the few breeds left that he’d never tried before. I’ll admit they were rather interesting to look at . . . from a distance.

Get any closer and they’d try to kill you.

It’s been my experience that when you unload bulls out of the back of a trailer amidst a bunch of cows they act just like a bunch of teenagers. They’ll saunter out of the trailer showing off for the girls. Not these bulls.

When Curly and his son, Junior Tinkle, opened the Gooseneck gate the bulls took four steps and turned right around and charged both Tinkles. Catching them completely off guard, the two of them, despite being intellectually challenged, simultaneously appraised the situation and dove underneath the pickup truck from opposite sides, meeting in the middle. They were, as pilots say when trying to land while going too fast, “coming in hot.”

Unless you’re a muffler repair man, not many folks are familiar with the ecosystem of the underbelly of a pickup. The first thing our chubby duo experienced were the close clearances, especially with the mad bulls periodically thrusting their horned-heads underneath.

There are also a lot of things that are very warm to the touch. And you’d be amazed at the amount of fresh organic material that accumulates underneath a truck, especially whenever a bull would charge, knocking this material into the faces of the two Tinkles. “Close your eyes Junior, here they come continued on page six

continued on page five

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Livestock Market Digest

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November 15, 2013

Ridin’ Bareback pounds and 600 to 900 pounds.

Steers, heifers and Brahman and dairy breeds in both weight classes can be insured. Bull calves of any breed less than 600 pounds can also be insured.

• Feeder cattle producers select insurance periods of 13, 17, 21, 26, 30, 34, 39, 43, 47 or 52 weeks, depending on when the cattle are expected to be marketed.

• The feeder cattle program allows ranchers to insure up to 2,000 head yearly.

• Producers are able to select coverage levels between 70 and 100%. It’s like a deductible on your medical coverage; if you want to be fully covered it will cost you.

• The government uses CME’s Feeder Cattle Price Index as a measuring stick and then compares that to your coverage price to determine whether an indemnity will be paid.

When insuring feeder heifers, l i g h t e r weight cattle, Brahman or dairy breeds, the same index is used as a base, but an adjustment factor is included.

• Even though Livestock Risk Insurance is similar to purchasing put options there is one distinct difference, especially if you are a smaller operator. Whereas a CME feeder cattle futures contract is based on 50,000 pounds, Livestock Risk Insurance is available to smaller operators who may not have 50,000 uniform pounds of livestock for sale.

• Another advantage to LRP insurance over the futures market is that 13 percent of the premium is subsidized by the feds.

Another subsidy covers the administration of the insurance contracts and agent commission.

To say the least, the CME in the past has been unwilling to pick up any of your expenses playing

continued from page one

the futures market, and we expect with a 100 percent degree of certainty that will be the case in the future.

• Livestock Risk Insurance is also available for fed cattle that are expected to finish Select or higher, with a yield grade from one to three, and weigh between 1,000 and 1,400 pounds. Fed cattle producers are asked to select insurance periods and can insure up to 4,000 head of cattle per crop year. Cattle feeders can select a level of coverage between 70 to 90 percent.

Just Here To Help, Ha Ha I asked around and not one of my cattle buddies has ever purchased Livestock Risk Insurance, in fact, not one had even heard about it. But that’s not the case with another type of federally subsidized insurance available to cattlemen. It’s called Pasture Rangeland and Forage Insurance.

A good friend of mine bought the insurance last year and while it was unlucky that we had the worst feed year any of the old timers had ever experienced, it was lucky for my friend the he had purchased the pasture insurance because, in his words, “It saved my bacon.”

At a bull sale near my home this Fall two bright, well groomed young men were sitting by a video screen at a table covered with brochures, attempting to educate ranchers about this new management tool, and hopefully peddle them some pasture insurance. A passle of people, most all of them ranchers in town for the bull sale, were eating barbecue not 20 yards away from the small exhibit, and I didn’t see a single rancher walk the short distance to hear their sales pitch or watch their video.

Maybe they should have.

“When most cow/calf operators think of insurance it’s in the form of a big haystack.”

John Gilmore, Member Since 1980

We don’t dress like bankers, because we’re not bankers.

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November 15, 2013

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Ridin’ Bareback Perhaps it’s just that we are too old, independent and set in our ways. And we aren’t farmers.

Or dairymen. We like to think that we are the last bastion of independence left in agriculture.

But as we have already shown, this is not the case. Maybe we aren’t interested because we have less need for the insurance because a rancher already has more options than a farmer to offset risk. In ranching it’s easier to get out of a jam when faced with a falling market. You can choose to feed your yearlings instead of selling them on a market you don’t like, or you might double season your calves, hedge your cattle, buy puts options, or put wheels under them; hauling them to someplace where there is grass. (Although this never worked for me!)

I dare say, when most cow/calf operators think of insurance it’s in the form of a big haystack. But with price of hay lately, feeding your way out of a jam can be a very expensive option.

It can be argued that all of these things can loosely fall under the heading of “insurance”. Or you can choose to simply do nothing and “ride bareback”, what cattle feeders call it when unhedged cattle are fed.

But as we’ve all seen time and again, that’s a good way to have your hat handed to you.

I know that recently we’ve all become jaded by a bumbling Congress and a President who would be king. We all either laugh, cry, or run in the opposite direction, when we hear the words, “Hello, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

But maybe, just maybe, in this case perhaps they can.

Bettin’ On The Rain The Risk Management Agency that offers pasture and forage insurance is part of the USDA, but don’t let that scare you away right off the bat. Especially when the insurance is heavily subsidized by the federal government. Listen to this . . . Uncle Sam is willing to pick up at least half of your pasture and forage insurance cost and could pay as high as 59 percent of it. I know that goes against the grain and I don’t like the sound of it either.

Should we be like the dairymen and grain farmers and grasp the helping hand the feds are offering, or should we put our own hand back in its pocket and refuse the help? That’s a question every cattleman has to answer for his or her self.

We are constantly reminded we are living through “different” times that call for different measures and with recent reminders of drouth all around us, pasture insurance might be something you should at least look into. It’s too late for this coming year as November 15 was the deadline, but it’s gonna take you a year anyway to wrap your head around it. Although the web site for pasture insurance (www.rma. usda.gov/tools/agent.html) is

Page 3 continued from page two

better than the one for ObamaCare, it still a government web site, and as we all know, they like to make everything harder than it needs to be.

Thankfully Jody Campiche, Assistant Professor & Extension Economist at Oklahoma State, and JJ Jones, Southeast Area Extension Agriculture Economist have labored through all the abbreviations and muti-syllable words of government bureaucrats to get down to the facts.

Here are a few of them: • The Pasture, Rangeland, Forage Insurance Program is a pilot federal insurance program in some areas that provides protection for pastures, perennial forage produced for grazing, or

harvested for hay. The insurance is sold through private crop insurance companies.

• For the majority of the country, the program is based on a rainfall index. It insures producers based on the average rainfall in their geographic area instead of the producers’ individual farm. The Rainfall Index uses National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center data. (Previously forage insurance was based on a vegetative index but this year it was changed to a “rainfall Index.”)

• The areas where the Rainfall Index is available have been divided into 12 by 12 mile grids.

These grids do not follow county

lines or township boundaries.

Instead, it reflects a smoothed result of nearby weather station estimates in order to obtain an estimate for the grid. In the past, most group risk insurance provided coverage at the county level, but this product provides coverage at the grid level, which is likely to provide a more accurate estimate of rainfall for a particular acreage than a county level measure. Or, so say the feds.

(Keep in mind, this is the same breed of cat who said you’d be able to keep your own doctor under ObamaCare.)

• Because the precipitation data is based on NOAA weather recording stations, what occurs at these locations will often differ

from rainfall on a producer’s insured acres. It is possible for a producer to have low crop production on acreage insured and still not receive a payment, or to receive a payment without suffering a loss of production. Over the long term these differences, and any indemnities that occur due to precipitation deficits, should even out. But that’s according to the bureaucrats.

• Insurance premiums and indemnities are based on the level of coverage (70 percent - 90 percent), and level of production (60 percent - 150 percent), selected by the producer. The premium cost will increase or continued on page four

Livestock Market Digest

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Ridin’ Bareback decrease depending on what degree of coverage is selected.

• Producers can insure their land for either grazing or for haying. For land that is insured for haying, forage production must come from perennial forages such as grass or alfalfa.

• Cattlemen can insure both owned and leased acres.

• Producers may be ineligible to participate in the program if they have enrolled the particular acreage in other government programs, especially the CRP program that prohibits them from grazing or haying the land.

• Producers are not required to insure all acres in the PRF program and cannot insure more than the total number of grazing or haying acres in the operation.

• Ranchers must visit their local crop insurance agent to obtain current rates and coverage for the crop year in which they are enrolling.

• Cattlemen don’t need to file a claim or submit any documentation for a loss. Payments will be made after rainfall data is collected for each 2-month index inter-

Give consumers the facts and they will make wise decisions

continued from page three

val and provided to RMA and crop insurance companies, which means that payments may be issued multiple times in a year.

BY MIKE BARNETT,

Can You Keep A Secret?

DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS,

If you believe the sales pitch and use the calculator available on the web site it supposedly shows that the purchase of Pasture Rangeland Forage Insurance for precipitation in the spring/summer of the year would have been a paying proposition for many producers over the last 30 years.

With pasture and forage insurance you are basically betting on the rain, but isn’t that the very definition of ranching? Like I said, I’m not trying to sell you anything but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to at least check into it.

After all, you may need some extra cash when the bill for your federally mandated health insurance comes due.

P.S. I promise not to tell the farmers at the coffee shop about this government sponsored cowboy charity if you don’t.

TEXAS FARM BUREAU

We are not against good science . . . but all science is not good

I

give them what they want rather than what we think is good for them. They pay the bills. We must determine what we want to provide our customers and consumers. What is it going to take for us to determine the direction that will secure our future? We need to talk with each other rather than at each other.

Customers need to be satisfied and confident they are receiving value for their money.

We can do that by offering consistency, quality, tenderness, size and a pleasurable eating experience. We also need to be proactive on animal wellness issues.

When we are provided products to improve our profits, it is our responsibility to make certain these products will improve the quality of our animals and beef for consumers. They will always have the final say. With consumers foremost in mind, we must maintain beef’s integrity and quality without controversy.

When we make a game-changing decision in our business, we must include all stake holders to better serve the entire industry with complete transparency.

Drugs will come and go. We have animals we need to protect and consumers we need to satisfy. Both are our livelihood and our future.

Respectfully, – Gerald Timmerman – Harvey Dietrich One final thought: How can we have concerns about betaagonists in our industry, yet be complacent about their use in the show ring?

exas Farm Bureau recently conducted a public opinion survey of Texans about food. Those surveyed readily told us that they didn’t know much about how food was grown, didn’t know much about GMOs, didn’t know much about pesticides and herbicides or the use of other modern food production practices.

Yet, those people came right back in focus groups and told us that GMOs, pesticides and herbicides are horrible. They can’t tell you any particular reason. It’s just what they see and hear. And they are adamant about it.

It reminds me a bit of a parrot who will mimic whatever he is told and poops on everything else. These consumers search GMO or chemicals on the internet and find pages and pages of pseudo-science by agenda-driven people who have learned to manage Google better than agriculture has.

I had a conversation with a Baylor Public Relations student the other day. She asked me about GMOs. She proceeded to ramble about evil Monsanto and cancer-causing genetic modifications and on and on.

“Is this stuff true?” she asked.

“No,” I told her, “but don’t take my word for it.

“One thing you need to remember when you read these wild accusations is everyone has an agenda. Ask yourself what are they trying to accomplish by scaring the hell out of you? Let me point you toward some unbiased information that might help you make a wise decision.”

That made sense to her.

That’s why it’s important for farmers and ranchers to get in on these food conversations. That same Texas Farm Bureau survey showed farmers and ranchers were by far the most credible spokespersons when it comes to agricultural issues. They ranked higher than farm organization spokespersons and even scientists and researchers. When it came to credibility, they left food activists and celebrities in the dust.

There’s a real disconnect between consumers and the food they eat. Farmers and ranchers have been silent for far too long on these food issues. You have the credibility to help them connect the dots.

Show them your side of agriculture, the side they’re not hearing about. Explain why you make the decisions you make.

When it comes to information about modern agriculture, give consumers a choice. And wise decisions will follow.

T

A Letter . . . t’s too bad the beef industry has been so naive about how powerful Zilmax is and that National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has shown a lack of leadership on its use. NCBA has supported a product that obviously needed more verification as to who uses this supplement, why it is used and the value it brings to the consumer. Yes, the consumer, our customer and our future. It’s time the industry realizes it is in the food business, not the pharmaceutical business.

The industry had good intentions to deter the ever increasing competition from other proteins and to counteract the effect of federal ethanol mandates on corn prices. But it unfortunately embraced a product that should not have been sold to all cattle feeders, as recent studies by Kansas State University and others have noted.

The way Zilmax has been used, such as top dressing and an inability to measure its intake and consumption by some feeding operations, can cause significant side effects. The question of possible residues in by-products and ractopamine in beef (from using Optaflexx) has been an excuse for some of our export customers to cut us off. Yet the industry needs all its customers.

It cannot afford to turn them to other sources of product since the value of the U.S. market is significantly enhanced by the sale of beef and offal products all over the world. The industry must have a long term strategy to cater to global customers and

November 15, 2013

To place your ad, contact Caren at 505/243-9515, ext. 21 or caren@aaalivestock.com

November 15, 2013

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Owners or Guardians The Animal Rights Argument The animal rights argument, at its core, holds that animals are not and should not be considered property. Groups such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and In Defense of Animals oppose any human claims on animals. Animals are not ours to buy or sell, use in experiments or as entertainment (as in circuses or zoos), or to be used as food or clothing. They should not be raised or kept on farms or enclosed in cages, zoos, etc. Eating meat is considered immoral and a crime against an animal's right to live out his or her natural life.

In the home, domesticated animals should not be consid-

continued from page one

ered pets. According to In Defense of Animals, one of the leading animal rights groups in the country, changing the language would encourage people to treat “companion animals as living feeling beings as opposed to mere objects or possessions.”

Andrew Butler, campaign coordinator for PETA, explains that improving the conditions of animals – which PETA works toward – is a laudable effort, but only addresses the symptom of the disease, which is the exploitation of animals for human gain.

“In the legal sense, animals have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he says.

Animal rights groups are wholly opposed to any selling or

buying of animals, and stress that pets should only be adopted through shelters rather than purchased from breeders. Animal rights organizations oppose any form of deliberate breeding, and organizations such as PETA and the IDF are strong proponents of mandatory spay/neuter programs.

Butler explains that the domestication of dogs and cats makes their case a little different.

In an ideal world, they would be free in the wild to live their lives according to the dictates of their natural behavior. But humans have altered their evolution through selective breeding, and domesticated pets have become dependent on people.

These animals still retain basic

My Cowboy Heroes Clay Carr – Second All Around Champion of the World lay Carr is not a household name (like many of his contemporaries) when discussions about old-time rodeo greats are held. However, this quiet and unassuming man was a two-time World All Around Champion Cowboy (1930 and 1933), won World Championships in saddle bronc riding in 1930 and steer roper in 1931 and 1940, competed in six events (saddle bronc riding, single steer roping, steer wrestling, team roping, calf roping and wild cow milking) and was (in his day) called a throw-back from the oldtime cowboys who came before him. Clay was the real deal.

He was born April 18, 1909 in Farmersville, California and grew up working on the Gill Ranch. He competed in his first rodeo at Visalia in 1928 and within two years, was the second man to win the honor of All Around Champion of the World (Earl Thode was first in 1929).

Most of his adult life, he lived on his California ranch near Visalia where he also rodeoed out of.

In spite of being such a versatile and accomplished cowboy, one of the reasons you may not hear much about Clay is that he went about his business without much fanfare. Some men have the spotlight follow them wherever they go (even cultivating and craving it), while others go humbly about their business.

Clay was the latter.

Author Clifford Westermeier wrote of Clay in 1947, “Clay Carr, holder of the Jo Mora Salinas Trophy, is a strange man, difficult to meet and extremely hard to get acquainted with. He is, without a question, one of the great cowboys of the age; a man of many complexes, one of which is inferiority; yet he is one of the smartest, shrewdest, and cleverest individuals is rodeo. He has an air of indifference toward the desires and opinions of oth-

C

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ers, and appears to lead a rather lonely life, perhaps because he has a very suspicious nature? In spite of this, Clay has the respect and admiration of everyone in the business and is regarded as a very tough customer in a business deal, fight, or a poker game.

“One does not try to figure out this man of moods, but rather accepts whatever friendship he offers; one is flattered by any politeness, consideration, interest, or attention he may show. He seldom goes east to contest, but in the West, and particularly at the California shows, he is a master and can “take,” in his own inimitable way, most of the boys competing against him.”

Following his death in 1957, the Visalia Times-Delta wrote, “He was not a man for sentiment and cared little about his own personal aggrandizement.”

Roger Bean of San Francisco once said Clay, “. . .was not of the new breed, but was somewhat of a throwback to the oldtime cowboy.”

Not one to worry much about the opinion of others, Carr at times wore unusual hats for a cowboy from that era. One hat he wore for a while had a very wide brim and low crown (similar to that of a Quaker, or more recently might be thought of as a modern “buckaroo” style hat) and another he often sported was a fedora style — at the opposite end of the spectrum. It is thought he wore these simply because they were available and definitely not to make any sort of a statement. Little things like this only added to the strangeness and separateness of this great cowboy.

Although the Bowman brothers from Arizona have been credited with hauling the first horse trailer seen on the rodeo circuit in the 1920s, Clay was known as

having one of the first “nice” ones. His was constructed of metal (unheard of at the time).

It was a one-horse trailer that stood out from the few being hauled at the time and was reported to have been “neatly painted and stylish.” This was also out of the norm for back then.

Although he was a full-time rancher and tough rodeo competitor in the West, Carr did take a few extended rodeo trips, most notably to Australia, England and back East where he won his All Around and World Championships. He was known as a versatile competitor (competing at both ends of the arena) and was counted to be “in the money” most anywhere he went.

The fledgling Cowboy Turtles Association (organized in 1936), which is the predecessor of today’s Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, received Clay’s support. He signed up and was member number fifty-five. Clay wound up competing in rodeo for over twenty-five years.

Carr served in World War II as a Marine in the South Pacific.

In 1948, he married Eleanora Curtis, from the well-known Curtis rodeo family. Sadly, on his birthday in 1957, Clay Carr, one of the best (and possibly most misunderstood) cowboys from the early days of rodeo passed away from a heart attack.

Because a he shied from the spotlight, may have been a little reserved and different, he never received the wide-spread recognition like many of similar accomplishment have. Sadly, his is not a name often talked about in discussions of rodeo history today. This does not mean, however, that a man of such great talent went completely unnoticed. As an All Around World Champion, Clay Carr was inducted in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979.

rights, Butler says, and should be afforded the status of companion animal rather than property. In 1995, a Summit for the Animals was held in San Francisco in which a resolution was passed to change the designation of pets to “companion animals,” and more significantly, owner to guardian.

The animal rights movement argues that the primary benefit to changing the language is to change the perception of animals, and to strengthen anti-cruelty laws. They say that while animals are considered property, crimes against them are punished only in relation to their monetary value, not as individuals possessing their own rights.

If you're any part of a

or have an interest in the word's true meaning, you should like my book.

The Animal Welfare Argument The other side of the debate is characterized as “animal welfare.” These groups also work toward improving the lives of animals, but do not oppose raising and using animals for food, fiber, labor and medical research to save human lives. They do not oppose the featuring of animals in movies, circuses and in many sporting events.

According to the National Animal Interest Alliance, one of the largest animal welfare organizations in the United States, “animal welfare requires humane treatment of animals on farms and ranches, in circuses and rodeos, and in homes, kennels, catteries, laboratories and wherever else animals are kept.”

Animal welfare advocates contend that animal rights groups are working to end pet ownership altogether, as well as the involvement of animals in all human endeavors, including service animals for the blind, deaf and disabled.

(In his interview, Butler noted that technology can provide a better solution, other than service dogs, for the disabled. Animal rights proponents do not believe that dogs should be used in human-related occupations.)

Mary Beth Duerler is president of an affiliated organization called Responsible Pet Owner’s Alliance. In an interview, Duerler argues that the ultimate wish of animal rights groups “is not clean cages, but empty cages.”

“Animal rights is not about humane treatment," Duerler says. "It’s about no treatment whatsoever. No pets, no zoos, no meat for food. A human and an animal are the same thing.”

Duerler believes that changing language from “pet owner” to “guardian” is the most important step in the animal rights agenda because it will provide legal opportunities to achieve their goals through the courts. In its policy statements, the National Animal Interest Alliance contends that animal rights activists want to pass laws that “deprive citizens of the right to make ethical determinations about their relationships with animals” by transferring all rights and powers to courts and governments.

Short stories of my cowboy life on the

of Arizona, and when I was a professional rodeo hand.

Price $25 (s&h) included Please submit mail orders to: Duane Reece 4840 Longhorn Lane, Winkelman, AZ 85192

HOLIDAY SPECIAL $20 (S&H INCLUDED) OR SEE US AT COWBOY CHRISTMAS! www.cowboysign.com cowboysign@hotmail.com

To place your ad here, call Caren Cowan at 505/243-9515, ext. 21, or email caren@aaalivestock.com On the Front Lines of Overpopulation The debate will continue, passionately in some parts of the country and more as an academic exercise in others. To the pig living in the shelter in southern Maine, the question is indeed academic. He is used to a loving home and living a life most pigs could not imagine.

The question is also something of an abstraction for the shelter’s executive director, Steven Jacobsen, who runs the largest animal shelter in Maine.

He said, frankly and honestly, that while his staff holds differing opinions on the subject, they are all trying to take care of and place the thousands of homeless animals that wind up in the shelter every year. Including, Jacobsen said, that 100-pound pig that once slept in his favorite human’s bed.

Livestock Market Digest

Page 6

Women’s Ranch Rodeo Finals – Bigger & Better Than Expected he 2013 RCRA Finals were a success and a new champion was crowned when the top 14 all women ranch rodeo teams in the nation battled for the title in Clovis, NM! The action started Friday night, September 27, at 7 p.m. with “Punchy in Pink” night. All of the contestants, and many spectators, donned pink to join in the fight against cancer. A portion of the gate went to the Punchy in Pink Foundation which helps cancer victims and their families in the ranching industry. The action included teams of four competing in branding, trailer loading, doctoring, sorting, and tie down/mugging. On top of all that, the mutton bustin’ took place as well with Karlee Elliott, 7, of San Jon, NM, taking home the buckle.

The second go round was Saturday morning, 9 a.m., with the same 14 teams competing in the same events. When the dust settled Saturday morning, the top 9 teams were decided based on overall points, and the 10th team, WKS Cattle Co., was decided in a sudden death tie down/mugging contest.

Those top 10 teams returned

T

Riding Herd

for competition on Saturday night, 7 p.m., for the short go.

The contestants wore purple in honor of our military. RCRA held a 50/50 raffle, with the proceeds going to Horses for Heroes — Cowboy Up, a unique horsemanship, wellness and skillset restructuring program based in Santa Fe, NM available to Veterans and active military, both men and women, who have sustained physical injuries or combat trauma during their time serving our country. At the end of the night, while the scores were being tallied, there was an Open Ranch Bronc Riding. John Kelly Walden came out victorious, winning $1,000 and Roger Brandt won $500 for 2nd place.

When it was all over, Calvary Cross came out victorious on the short go, but Queens of Hart won the overall finals average, winning handmade Marion Turner buckles as the 2013 Finals Champion Team. The big champions were Quarter Circle Milliron winning the year end average and title of 2013 World Champion Team with a total of 381 points! Nikki Henard of Tatum, Keli Hatley of Hobbs, Stefanie Logan of Artesia and

November 15, 2013

team, and she won a handmade bit by Marion Turner.

A full house of vendors were set up all weekend as well and each vendor donated at least one item to our silent and live auction, where all proceeds went to RCRA’s Cowgirl Crisis Fund.

The RCRA Cowgirl Crisis Fund is proud to be able to give monetary support to cowgirls and their families in times of crisis.

Each long go paid out $500 per event ($5000 total). All 10 teams that made it back to the short go won a minimum of $900 per team, if not more based on their placing. All of these prize monies coupled with the prizes that were doled out over the weekend totaled over $32,000! Thanks to all over our great sponsors who made it necessary: Durrett Cattle Co., Ranch Royalty Clothing Co., Joe’s Boot Shop and Country Junction, Whiteface Ford, Adobe Walls Nutrition, TX,

Samantha Shugart of Hereford, TX took home $3,000 cash and NRS prize saddles provided by a RCRA corporate sponsor, Oliver’s Saddle Shop. Queens of Hart were the Year End Runners Up with a total of 370 points, and Shana McIntosh, Kate Reagan both of Texas, Alyssa Bigon of Oklahoma, and Missy Holmes of Encino, NM took home $2,000 and handmade Aaron Koehn breast collars.

Third place in the average went to Broken Nail with a total of 272 points. The Texas cowgirls Jessica Wilson, Andrea Glenn, Christie Bohlender, and Kelly McDonald took home $1,500 in cash and handmade Miles Bell headstalls. Top Hand was Stefanie Logan of the Champion Team, Quarter Circle Milliron, and she won a handmade set of Marion Turner spurs. Top Horse went to Michelle Dyer, an Oklahoma cowgirl on the Rockin’ P

DigestClassifieds Equipment

KADDATZ

Auctioneering and Farm Equipment Sales NH Bale WagoNs: 1069D-160bales, $35,000. s1049-160 bales, $16,200. 100256 bales $2,500. 1033 - 105 bales $4,600.

Call Roeder Implement, seneca, Ks, 785-336-6103. www.roederimp.com

New and used tractors, equipment, and parts. Salvage yard, combines, tractors, hay equipment and all types of equipment parts.

ORDER PARTS ONLINE.

www.kaddatzequipment.com • 254/582-3000

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

Don’t Miss a Single Issue!

Name

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g•u•i•d•e continued from page one

SANTA GERTRUDIS angus

again!”

Had Curly known they were going to be in this predicament he would have removed the big plug of tobacco from his cheek as it’s very hard to spit while flat on your back. Due to the lack of space, when the need arose he would tilt his head 25 degrees and let the brown juice drool out of the corner of his mouth. He’d also have maintained his truck a little better because it was like Chinese water torture every time a drop of oil splattered his forehead. The bulls kept up a steady patrol around the perimeter as the pressure created by the jugs of ice tea the pair had consumed at lunch needed desperately to be released. Both Tinkles needed a bio-break but that’s another thing that’s hard to do while flat on your back. Just try it sometime, if you doubt my words.

The hefty Tinkles had been under the truck for a couple hours and were getting ravenously hungry as neither had ever gone this long without some form of nourishment. It didn’t help that there was a sack full of jerky, cheese and crackers not two feet north of their position on the seat of the truck. It also

Oliver’s Saddle Shop, Grab the Gold Ranch Rodeo, View From the Ranch, Punchy Pix, Pam Lewis Photography, Days Inn and Suites of Clovis, Taco Box and Pizza Hut on Prince Street.

The 2014 season will kick off next May! See y’all then! For more information visit the RCRA website at www.ranchcowgirlsrodeoassociation.com or add the RCRA as a friend on Facebook.

didn’t help that Junior kept saying things like, “I sure could use a double cheeseburger and breakfast burrito right about now.” Papa Tinkle could have killed him . . . if he’d have had the room.

What kept the bulls interested in the truck was the Tinkle’s worthless cow dog, Tinkle Two, sitting on the toolbox behind the cab. Every time the bulls started to leave the dog would bark and they’d return. It also seemed to irritate the bulls when Mrs. Tinkle would call on the radio.

“Where are you two? Napping again? ANSWER ME!” By the time the bulls vacated the area the heat from the exhaust had long since dissipated and the sun was gone from the sky. Only then were the two Tinkles finally able to roll their frozen, manure encrusted bodies from beneath the truck. Curly didn’t waste any time in admitting that his experiment was a total failure and he hauled the bulls that had held them captive to the auction market to sell in the slaughter run. After all, the Tinkles were not the kind of folks to take that sort of treatment laying down.

RED ANGUS

Dan Wendt " !

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

Call: 979/245-5100 • Fax 979/244-4383 5473 FM 457, Bay City, Texas 77414 dwendt@1skyconnect.net

209/727-3335

BRANGUS

Bradley 3 Ranch Ltd. www.bradley3ranch.com

'(#%" ! ($#%") &( $! *

Ranch-Raised ANGUS Bulls for Ranchers Since 1955

*

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

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

BRANGUS

BRANGUS

Sell More Bulls!

Westall Ranches, LLC Registered Brangus Bulls & Heifers Breeding the Best Better© Ray & Karen Westall, Owners / Tate Pruett, Ranch Manager Call us "

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for ALL your Brangus needs!

To list your herd here, call RANDY SUMMERS at505/24 3-9515, ext. 30, or email randy@aaalivestock.com.

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

November 15, 2013

THE LIVESTOCK MARKET DIGEST

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1301 Front Street, Dimmitt, TX 79027 Ben G. Scott – Broker Krystal M. Nelson – NM Qualifing Broker

Ranch & Farm Real Estate

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Fallon-Cortese Land

To place your Real Estate Guide listings, contact RANDY SUMMERS at 505/243-9515 or at randy@ aaalivestock.com

Scott Land co.

NA VISTA BUEREALTY

Real Estate GUIDE

Page 7

800-933-9698 day/evening www.scottlandcompany.com • www.texascrp.com

YOU WILL BE AMAZED at how good this almost 200 section (almost all deeded) Central NM ranch will look to you after the drought! This ranch is well improved w/ nice owner’s home (4,400 sq. ft. +/-), 3 fire places, large master bedroom. Near the owner’s home is a saloon fashioned after the late 1800s/early 1900s era w/2 bedrooms and a bath.

The foreman’s home is comfortable w/either 3 or 4 bedrooms as needed. There are 3 additional homes in good condition on the ranch. There are 4 large sets of pens w/a scale at each set of pens plus misc. branding/gathering pens.

There are several barns, shops and out buildings at the headquarters and other locations on the ranch. Fencing is average to above average w/some woven wire. This ranch is divided into a number of pastures. It is well watered by 55 water wells +/- which range in depth from very shallow to just over 300 ft. w/typical drinking tubs at each well coupled w/numerous pipelines, large storage tanks and drinking tubs. Most wells are equipped w/windmills, some are equipped w/submersible electric motors & pumps powered by electricity or solar power. There are springs, spring-fed draws & 3 areas of the ranch that are sub-irrigated or partially sub-irrigated. There are several miles of hwy. frontage.

AMARILLO, TX. – 655.2 ac. +/-, 4 miles from loop 335, on pvmt., home, barns, large set of state-of-the-art working pens, 3 domestic wells, regulation 16 to 27 yard trap field w/5 walks & w/Western trap throwing machine. Consider trade for ranch in OK. City area.

LA ESQUINA RANCH – GUADALUPE CO., NM – well located on Hwys. 54 & 60, 34 ½ sections +/-, excellent pipeline system w/municipal water, open, rolling reputation yearling country, cow/calves also run in the area, double-wide modular home, 2 large metal barns, pens & a scale.

ALAMOSA CREEK RANCH – QUAY/GUADALUPE CO., NM – on pvmt., reputation area for winter wheat prod. & grazing, 2,551 ac. +/- native grass, 1,895 +/ farmland, fully fenced & watered for grazing.

Bottari Realty

CAPROCK FARM – QUAY CO., NM - excellent cattle/farming opportunity for winter wheat grazing & spring/summer milo production to be harvested or grazed out, 917 ac. +/- incl. 757 ac. +/- cropland, balance native grass for excellent area on which to precon. calves for winter grazing.

Paul Bottari, Broker • 775/752-3040 www.bottarirealty.com

HITSON CREEK RANCH – TUCUMCARI, NM – just out of town, improved w/modest home, new barn for hay storage/livestock & large set of steel pens, watered by rural service to the house & pens, a domestic well w/sub. electric motor & pump & a large lake for livestock, game, recreation & dev. potential around the lake for lots for housing, fishing & hunting currently being leased to Fish & Game Comm., 753 ac.+/- native grass, 471 ac. +/- farmland & 444 ac. +/water rights for irrigation, all weather road. Corners the Woods Ranch.

NEVADA FARMS & RANCH PROPERTY

WOODS RANCH – TUCUMCARI, NM – just out of town, , corners the Hitson Creek Ranch, 480 ac. +/- incl. 292.64 cropland, balance native grass for livestock grazing, 332 ac. +/- water rights out of the Arch Hurley Water District, watered by domestic well w/sub. electric motor & pump, great for a combination grazing/farming operation, all weather road.

Farm near Wells, NV: 90 acres in hay; 2 homes; shop and storage three miles from town. $450,000

PLEASE CHECK OUT website information on 3120 ac. +/- & 3 ranches near Ada, OK, & a 1200 ac. irr. ranch on the Little River in Potowatomie, OK & other properties.

INTEREST RATES A S L OW A S 3% Pay m en t s Sch ed u l ed o n 25 Year s

J o e Stu b b l ef i el d & A s s o c i at es 13830 Wes ter n St ., A m ar i l l o , TX 806/622-3482 • c el l 806/674-2062 joes3@suddenlink.net Mi c h ael Per ez A s s o c i at es Nar a Vi s a, NM • 575/403-7970

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MELROSE • 1121 E. ABO HIGHWAY A Little Bit of Country in a Small Town!

Come see this 3 Bedroom, 2 bath home in Melrose. Complete with garage, carport and 30x40 barn. Arena style pen for boarding horses and/or roping. All on 2.2 acres.

TUCUMCARI • 7351 QUAY ROAD AI Enjoy country living and spectacular views in this beautiful 3100 plus square home containing many custom features overlooking the far west reaches of Ute Lake on 33 acres, or build your own dream home on choice of eight 40 +/- acre lots.

Paul Stout, Qualifying Broker (575) 760-5461 pkstout@gmail.com

Missouri Land Sales ■ 675 Ac. Excellent Cattle Ranch, Grass Runway, Land Your Own Plane: Major Price Reduction. 3-br, 2ba home down 1 mile private lane.

New 40x42 shop, 40x60 livestock barn, over 450 ac. in grass. (Owner runs over 150 cow/calves, 2 springs, 20 ponds, 2 lakes, consisting of 3.5 and 2 ac. Both stocked with fish. Excellent fencing. A must farm to see. MSL #1112191

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BAR M REAL ESTATE New Mexico Properties For Sale...

ER T D N U AC R T CON

C H E R R Y CA N Y ON R A NC H : Secluded ranch located in the foothills of the Capitan Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. 10,000± total acres located in limestone hill country. Grazing capacity estimated at 200 A.U.s year-long. Improved with a two residence, mobile home, barns and corrals. Livestock water provided by three wells and pipelines. Abundant wildlife to include mule deer and Barbary sheep.

Price: $1,800,000 – call for more information.

J A C K SON R A N C H: Southeastern NM cattle ranch for sale. 8,000 total acres located in good grass country. Owner controlled grazing capacity at 200 ± A.U.s yearlong. Improved with one residence, barns and corrals. Livestock water provided by two wells and pipelines to four pastures. Easy to manage and operate. Price: $1,750,000. Call or view the information on my website.

Bar M Real Estate

Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker

www.ranchesnm.com 8:

Roswell, NM 88202 Office: 575-622-5867 Cell: 575-420-1237

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New Mexico Ranches Bison Springs Ranch ~ 20 miles east of Roswell adjacent to Bottomless Lakes State Park. 9,399 acres with 4,630 deeded acres. Private gated controlled access off pavement. Significant improvements; custom residence, apartment, barns, pens, and water infrastructure. Bottomland with big spring, marsh, water fowl, and mule deer hunting. Price reduced from $356 to $270 per deeded acre! Will divide.

Capulin Ranch ~ 21,595 acre southwestern NM high desert mountain ranch.

Diverse wildlife, stunning landscape, room for 350 cattle and loaded with fresh grass. Custom residence and headquarter compound. Good proximity to El Paso and Tucson. $3,200,000.

See all my listings at: paulmcgilliard.murney.com

PAUL McGILLIARD Cell: 417/839-5096 1-800/743-0336 MURNEY ASSOC., REALTORS SPRINGFIELD, MO 65804

Bali Hi ~ Over 400 deeded acres of prime piñon/juniper rolling hill country with 25 acres irrigated grass pasture. Spring feed water supply with oldest, pre1907, water rights in the state. Comfortable residence, neat barn, and pens.

Total seclusion, teeming with wildlife, elk and deer, and off paved access.

Nearby Ruidoso or Alamogordo at Bent. $2,280,000. Seller finance.

■ 113 acres SOLD / 214 acres REMAINING: “Snooze Ya Loose.”

Cattle/horse ranch. Over 150 acres in grass. 3/4 mile State Hwy. frontage. Live water, 60x80 multi-function barn. 2-bedroom, 1-bath rock home. Priced to sell at $1,620 per acre. MLS #1204641 ■ NEW LISTING - RARE FIND - 226 ACRES 1.5 miles of Beaver Creek runs along & thru this "Ozark Treasure." Long bottom hay field, walnut grove, upland grazing, excellent hunting, deep swimming hole, 4 BR, 2BA older farm house. Don't snooze and loose on this one. Call today! MLS #1303944

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Livestock Market Digest

Page 8

Scouts and Ranches join forces to honor dreams of legendary New Mexico Cattlewoman he Chase Ranch Foundation, owner of the historic Chase Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico, and the adjacent Philmont Scout Ranch, the world’s largest private camp that hosts more than 25,000 young adults annually, announce their joint signing of a long-term lease and operating agreement to preserve the Chase Ranch’s 146-year heritage and to fulfill the last wishes of its late owner, legendary cattlewoman Gretchen Sammis.

The agreement, effective November 1, 2013, provides that Philmont will assume full responsibility for operation and management of the Chase Ranch, protection and preservation of its historic structures, and development of educational programs for both its own youth participants and the general public.

The parties envision that the historic ranch house and surrounding area will become a museum through which the rich history of the Chase family and their western cattle ranching way of life will be displayed for generations to come.

Founded in 1867 by Manly and Theresa Chase, who crossed the Raton Pass in a wagon loaded with all of their worldly goods to establish a new home in New Mexico, the Chase Ranch remained continuously owned by their descendants until the death of their great-granddaughter, Gretchen Sammis, in August 2012. Subsequent to Gretchen’s death, ownership of the ranch transferred to the Chase Ranch Foundation, which she had created for the purpose of preserving the 11,000-acre property and her family’s heritage in perpetuity.

“Long before she died, Gretchen mapped the future for Chase Ranch and facilitated this

T

lasting legacy,” according to Thelma Coker, one of the foundation’s directors. “Gretchen was a fourth-generation rancher, a teacher and educator, a conservator, a lover of young people and of the land, a community member who delighted in sharing Chase Ranch with others and helping them appreciate its history, beauty, and generational worth. She wanted Chase Ranch to continue for generations as a historic model cattle ranch, and she wanted her family’s history to be preserved.”

Former U.S. Congressman Ed Pease, president of the Chase Ranch Foundation, says that “Gretchen’s old fashioned common sense and pragmatism led her to create a structure (the Chase Ranch Foundation) which she gave wide latitude to work with others to accomplish her goals. Philmont has decades of experience doing exactly the things she wanted done – preserving historic structures, managing high-quality museum collections, creating educational programs through living history presentations of New Mexico and American Southwest history, running a working cattle ranch with her favorite breed – Herefords – but such programs require high quality staff committed to their mission, and the funds to make the whole thing happen. The answer to both Gretchen’s dreams and the resources necessary to make them happen was a management contract with Philmont.”

Philmont Scout Ranch,

owned and operated by the Boy Scouts of America, provides world-renowned high adventure camping and hiking experiences for youth from across the United States and from several foreign countries. Consisting of more than 137,000 acres adjacent to the Chase Ranch, Philmont also serves as an “educational laboratory” (as described in the lease agreement) with programs offering accurate historical portrayal of early pioneering and ranching life along the Santa Fe Trail.

“Priceless!” replied John H. Green, the Boy Scouts of America’s National Group Director for Outdoor Adventures, when asked about the significance of the agreement. Green, himself a native of the northeastern New Mexico area where both ranches are located, added, “This is just an unbelievable opportunity to preserve, protect, and enhance the dream of one of the great women in New Mexico ranching history. Certainly it adds to the program capacity of Philmont and we are honored and delighted to have this solemn obligation.”

Sammis, an almost mythical figure in New Mexico ranching history, owned and operated the ranch for some 58 years before her death. A member of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and 2007 New Mexico Cattleman of the year, her lifetime of commitment to her land and sound conservation practices led to her appointments to the New Mexico Soil and Water Conservation Commission, the agriculture advisory committee to the state land office, and the New Mexico Resource Advisory Council.

November 15, 2013

honest effort and determination.

She was a cowgirl, beautiful on a horse, at home in the saddle and with her dog. Fiercely independent, she and her long-time companion, Ruby Gobble (49 years), prided themselves on being selfsufficient.”

Those values and traits will be reflected in Philmont’s use of the Chase Ranch property for years to come, according to Philmont Director of Program Mark Anderson. In addition to operating the main ranch house and surrounding area as a public museum, he sees potential use of an old cow camp on the property as another of Philmont’s many “living history” camps. “What a wonderful opportunity this gives us to offer young people coming to Philmont a chance to experience life as it actually was many years ago on a historic working cattle ranch,” he says.

“Working with the Chase Ranch Foundation to help promote the wishes and dreams of Gretchen Sammis is one of the greatest things that has been asked of Philmont Scout Ranch,” said John Clark, Philmont’s general manager. “Gretchen served on the Philmont Ranch Committee for many years and has given guidance and support for our Ranch and Conservation Task Force.

Together we have made the dreams of thousands of participants come true. Now we have an opportunity to make her dreams come true.”

Those dreams have actually

“Gretchen wanted Chase Ranch to educate young people in the ranching experience and lifestyle, inspiring them to love and care for the land and to appreciate its history.”

To place your ad, contact Randy at 505/243-9515 or at randy@aaalivestock.com

“She was a model of community service and integrity, hard work and gracious hospitality, a stalwart protector of her ranch and her friends, a generous benefactor, a woman whose words and blue-eyed gaze were direct and discerning,” says Coker. “She abhorred liars, phonies, and selfish people but never stinted on praise and support for

been in the Chase family for almost a century, as it turns out.

Coincidentally, Philmont museum staffers recently discovered a previously unknown brochure for “The Kit Carson Camp,” operated on the Chase Ranch by Mason and Stanley Chase, sons of ranch founders Manly and Theresa. From information in the brochure, it appears to have been printed around 1925, and invites guests to come to the camp for “a real ranch vacation.”

“The aim of the camp is to provide a happy and interesting summer place for those who want to see the West,” the brochure states. “Here they will be met by guides with gentle saddle horses and taken to one of our mountain camps where they can fish and hunt and explore the mountain trails in all directions through beautifully timbered country, watered by crystal streams, and where they can thoroughly enjoy the outdoor life.” That description almost exactly mirrors the vision of Waite Phillips, who donated his Philmont Ranch to the Boy Scouts of America in 1938 and 1941 with the idea that it would become a “university of the outdoors” for young people.

“Gretchen wanted Chase Ranch to educate young people in the ranching experience and lifestyle, inspiring them to love and care for the land and to appreciate its history,” says Coker. “When she spoke of the ranch, she said, ‘It will always be here.’ This agreement between the Chase Ranch Foundation and Philmont Scout Ranch is an effort to assure that truth.”

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

November 15, 2013

The View

from the back side

BY BARRY DENTON

Union Dues any of you might not realize what happens on the backside of our major horse racing tracks. The backside community is one all its own. It consists of horse trainers, exercise riders, grooms, jockeys, veterinarians, horseshoers, cooks, maintenance men security guards etc. The morning activity is usually a bit chaotic with people and horses going back and forth to the training track etc. The community is small and protective of its own.

The permanent horseshoers there normally belong to a union which is part of the larger Team-

M

sters Union which seems to frequent the news. The backside of the racetrack falls under the charge of the racing steward. The steward’s office issues licenses for everyone that is allowed on the backside. That is who you need to see before you would ever would be allowed to enter there.

Having been an independent horseshoer for over thirty five years I often had the occasion to go to major horse racing tracks across the country to work on clients horses after they had shipped in there for a major stakes race. On one such occasion several years ago I pulled into the steward’s office parking lot with my horseshoeing rig. My helper Fred was with me, so we both went inside to a obtain temporary license to be allowed to work on the backside.

This was not our first trip to this particular track, but we had never had

any problems there either. However, some of those union shoers would get their nose out of joint and not be friendly. You would often find yourself eating alone in the cook shack when all the union guys would be piled on another table, but we were used to that. They knew we were getting paid more and getting the best horses to work on. When we had obtained our temporary passes and returned to the truck imagine our astonishment when we realized that all the glass had been broken out of the horseshoeing rig. It was an odd thing as there were two security guards in the parking lot, yet they had seen nothing. We went back into the steward’s office and the police were called to investigate.

Of course, no one admitted to having seen anything, so the police investigation was worthless. We had to be there for the next five days so we got our glass replaced and went about our business. The racing steward did see to it that security stayed with us while we were there working.

My helper Fred was an interesting character that you could write a book about. Many times as we were driving along he would figure out some mathematic equation on a legal pad.

Then he would call it into some “think tank” when we got to our hotel that night. The other peculiar thing about Fred was that he loved snakes. If you visited Fred at his home he would literally have to get the fourteen foot python off the couch so you could sit down. Another thing that Fred liked to do was make extra money milking rat-

tlesnakes. One day he got the idea to defang a rattlesnake so it couldn’t bite you. Of course he had to feed it with a large syringe as it couldn’t catch its prey. Fred was very enterprising so after work he would take his defanged rattlesnake and put it in a large one gallon glass jar. Then we would take the snake to a local beer joint and sit it up on the bar. All the patrons were fascinated by the snake in the jar on the bar and especially got interested when the snake would strike at them through the glass.

After the patrons were engrossed in the snake, Fred would bet anyone that he could reach his hand inside the jar and pull the rattlesnake out without getting bit. After I had at least one hundred dollars worth of bets in my hand he would reach in and pull out the snake and people would just stand there stunned. We would have to go to a different bar each night, but they were always easy to find. Needless to say he had a great moonlighting job.

It took us five days to complete the work for our clients.

We worked hard and watched harder. In the course of a few days we discovered who busted up the glass in our rig. Fred and I decided we would not retaliate on this trip as they would be ready for us. We decided to wait until we came back in a few months and get even then.

Finally, we finished our work and left the racetrack. As we were driving we came to a convenience store and decided to get a coke for the ride home. We parked on the side of the build-

Page 9

ing and went inside. Just as we paid for our cokes we noticed the two culprits had pulled up in the parking lot on the other side of the building. It just so happened that the two men were sitting in the pickup talking with the windows rolled down. Fred ran to our horseshoeing rig and got his rattlesnake. They were talking away and Fred threw the rattlesnake in the truck cab window and it landed on the seat between the two suspects. The snake was pretty mad and those guys panicked. They could not find the door handles, they were crashing into each other as well as the windshield, and they were both a bloody mess trying to get away from the snake. Finally one of them dove out his open truck door window onto the pavement.

Fred finally grabbed his snake and we left them babbling, shaking, crying, and bleeding in the parking lot. As many of you are familiar with “cowboy humor”, “horseshoeing humor” is just as sick, after all nobody died!

Amazingly, we never had anymore problems with union shoers at that racetrack. I guess they got their union due.

Barry Denton has been a farrier and blacksmith of over 35 years. He is an American Farriers Association Certified Farrier, A Brotherhood of Working Farriers Certified Master Farrier, and member of the BWFA Hall of Fame. Barry has devoted his life to the betterment and good health of horses. He has literally traveled from coast to coast in the U.S., Canada, Dominican Republic, and Mexico shoeing and consulting for top trainers of race and show horses. This includes shoeing champions in over thirty different disciplines. He also specializes in treating lame and laminitic horses. His accomplishments on the back of a horse include many state titles in Reining and Working Cow Horse. Barry is also an accomplished photographer and had a monthly column in America’s Bridle And Bit Magazine for several years.

Livestock Market Digest

Page 10

Knowing Quality

Angus New Mexico ranchers make the long trek toward ever-better cattle

BY TRESSA LAWRENCE / FROM THE ANGUS BEEF BULLETIN

ears of experimenting with different breeds and genetics have boiled down to one thing for Jimmy Richardson: high-quality Angus cattle.

His family lives east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, where they have been ranching since 1986, but he grew up in the business, helping his dad run Herefords north of Fort Stockton, Texas.

Engineering degrees led to another career for a while, but when Richardson and wife Linda moved west, they stocked the place with Beefmaster cows.

“After a while we realized we were getting docked at the sale for too much ear, so we started crossing those up,” he explained.

Charolais, Limousin, Brangus “. . . kind of the same thing as a Beefmaster — we followed all the popular things.”

Other docks on value for poor grading led to a move to Red Angus bulls for awhile, until the rancher noticed black cattle were selling at a premium to reds in his area. Could they adapt to the hot, dry range? In 2000, he

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began to buy bulls from Gardiner Angus Ranch, Ashland, Kansas, which had customers in similar environments.

More than a decade later, his 1,000 high-percentage Angus commercial cows are proof enough. Richardson’s loyalty to the breed comes from that adaptability, consistency and ever-growing demand from auctions to feedyards.

“It just seemed like everybody wanted them, especially if you had the kind that fed and graded well,” he says. “You had less trouble finding a home for the feeder calves and if you wanted to feed them yourself, you didn’t feel like you were taking such a risk.”

Weather, like the recent drought that pushed his range closer to a desert environment, provides risk enough without having unpredictable cattle.

Quality is more important than ever, now that the next generation has joined the business. Son Clay and his wife Lauren recently moved to the ranch with children Dalainey and Solomon.

That brought a new enterprise in the form of a few registered Angus cattle, and a get-serious shift in the artificial insemination (AI) program Richardson had practiced more as a hobby for 20

years.

First, he got serious in AI’ing all replacement heifers for the main herd, using proven sires from the catalog and following with herd sires of similar genetics. The focus has been on growth, calving ease and carcass quality.

“Since Clay has moved back we have really been able to expand our operation as far as technology goes,” Richardson says. “I couldn’t do it without him, the extra help you know.

You get going on something else — and we always have some kind of crisis going on — well we had all these heifers synchronized ready at two o’clock in the afternoon and then you find out you’ve got a herd out on the Hobbs highway. Now with the two of us, we can cover things those and make it work.”

And it’s still fun.

“I really like the reproductive part of it,” he says. “Synchronizing them, checking heat and AI. It’s just really neat and something I like to do. So we’re doing that now with the registered cattle, too, and we’ll see how it goes.

“I don’t see us striking out to become a pure registered operation, but just a few of them. We

November 15, 2013

like the cows,” Richardson says.

“They’re gentle, and they’re pretty, and that’s fun. We like raising those calves.”

The herd’s main product is still feeder cattle.

“I know that our goal is to raise cattle that qualify for the Certified Angus Beef® [CAB®] label because it pays premiums.

We target genetics that will fit that grid, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Richardson says.

“We’ve got room for improvement but we’ve come a long way from where we were. Certified Angus Beef has come a long way, too, and the demand for that product is on the rise. We’re trying to participate.”

The family feeds with Rex McCloy of McLeod Farms near

The drought has kept a lid on herd numbers, so they want to make sure the heifers kept have the genetic potential for gain and grade as indicated by the GMX scores.

“Two things we’re looking for [besides the maternal traits].

One is that it grows efficiently, feeds efficiently so it’s going to eat and grow and, you know, convert well. So we target bulls with those kinds of EPDs (expected progeny differences).

Then another thing is we need one that has good marbling and is going to grade well,” he says.

That makes the GMX tool a good fit.

Richardson admits, “I don’t really understand all of the DNA technology. I know that we watch NCIS on TV and they use DNA to tell who did what, but on these cattle, I’m trusting CAB and the Angus Association.”

They have started using the full-panel 50K DNA test on herd sires, too. “We want to be able to use the sire matching feature of GeneMax,” he says.

Eventually, Richardson wants GMX scores to characterize the entire herd. “Every heifer that isn’t a feeder, that we keep or sell for breeding, is going to have that test,” he says. “As this catches on, you’re going to see more cattle in the feedyard with those results, too. It’s going to bear out, the proof will be in the pudding and people will pay more for the above average GeneMax heifers.”

The DNA testing, like the small registered enterprise, is “an investment in our future,” he says. Besides money, time investments from the next generation of Richardsons will be the key to making those investments pay.

“It takes time to keep up with all the records, and we’ll keep adding information, too,” Richardson says. Ultrasound pregnancy testing and sexing embryos may be next, not just to know on the ranch, but to inform buyers.

“A lot of people say their calves didn’t bring near what they were worth, but do they know? Take the calves, feed them and see how much money you make over that offer, then use the information,” he advises.

That’s what his family has done.

“If you want somebody to bet on your cattle to do well, try it yourself. There’s a lot of ways to add value through genetics, by weaning, backgrounding, getting the health issues worked out.

“Those are some things I learned,” Richardson says. “Not fast, and maybe the hard way, but today, you can do all that pretty fast if you want.”

Weather, like the recent drought that pushed his range closer to a desert environment, provides risk enough without having unpredictable cattle.

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Morse, Texas. Over the last five or six years, McCloy says he’s enjoyed working with both the people and their cattle.

“What is great about Jimmy is, he makes sure all of his cattle are in excellent health,” the feeder says. “Health is critical, especially around here and Jimmy always sends healthy, consistently high-quality cattle to us.”

Those calves come in so regularly that there are some finished Richardson-source cattle on most of the loads that go to National Beef on the U.S. Premium Beef grid. “They usually bring in $100 per head in premiums and raise the quality of the loads that go 85 percent to 90 percent Choice and up to 40 percent CAB,” McCloy says.

“As our quality goes up — and especially if it would rain — we’ll have more opportunities to sell replacements and breeding stock,” Richardson says.

Locally and across the U.S., herd liquidation has led to a shortage of feeder cattle, especially the kind that make money on expensive feed.

“We try to stay flexible, where you know you’ve got the kind that will do well in the feedyard, and then try to sell some replacements to somebody who’s rebuilding their herd, we’ll do that, too,” Richardson says, noting a load of bred heifers sold to a ranch a few hundred miles north in November. “That kind of helps.”

To further reduce risk and build quality, the Richardsons have started using the GeneMax™ genomic test from CAB.

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

November 15, 2013

Certified Angus Beef® sets 7 th straight record

CAB internship, scholarship deadlines noted

Licensed partners cater to consumers, achieve 6.7 percengt increase in fiscal 2013 ertified Angus Beef LLC reported record sales of its signature Certified Angus Beef® brand, marketing more than 60 million pounds of product every month in fiscal 2013. Its network of 16,000 licensed partners worldwide sold 865 million pounds for the year that ended Sept. 30, an increase of 6.7 percent or 54 million pounds.

As the brand’s 35th anniversary marked a seventh consecutive year of growth, company president John Stika credited leadership from those partners and rising consumer demand for premium beef. A brand that consistently satisfies consumers offers a strong value for their dollar, he noted.

“The quality beef movement our partners lead is gaining momentum,” Stika said. “Everyone associated with it takes great pride in being part of a community that is committed to quality, and something much larger than ourselves.”

Research conducted this year showed 92 percent recognition of the three-word phrase, and 94 percent recognition of the Certified Angus Beef® brand logo, more than double the closest other brands. Moreover, most consumers said they expect the best quality beef when they see the brand marks and will pay more for it—at least another $1 per pound at retail and $3 more per menu item in restaurants.

ollege sophomores or juniors who understand the cattle business and have a passion for effective writing could be the next interns with the world’s leading beef brand.

Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) offers paid positions for those who will be juniors or seniors during the internships from next summer into spring 2015.

Students with a strong writing background majoring in agricultural journalism or animal science/communications may apply for the 10- to 12-week summer position or part-time school terms.

Specific dates will be determined to coincide with academic semesters and all internships are available for college credit. The fall position may be offered as renewable through spring but depending on applicants, a separate spring internship may be offered. Interns can work from home or from the CAB Supply Development office at 1107 Hylton Heights, in Manhattan.

Applications are due by Nov. 25, 2013 for the summer 2014 and/or school-year 2014-2015 positions. Apply online at http://corporate.certifiedangusbeef.com/recruiting by submitting a brief cover letter, resume and three writing samples. For more information contact Miranda Reiman, CAB assistant director of industry information, at 308/784-2294 or mreiman@certifiedangusbeef.com.

CAB’s Colvin Scholarship Fund will award six or more scholarships in 2014 totaling at least $20,000. The funds will be split among five undergraduate scholarships — in the amounts of $5,000, $4,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 — and a $5,000 graduate-level scholarship.

College juniors and seniors who have shown commitment to the beef industry, either through coursework or activities, are encouraged to apply by the Dec. 6, 2013, deadline. Applications are evaluated on involvement, scholastic achievement, communication skills and reference letters. The graduate-level scholarship will be awarded to a full-time master’s or doctorate student conducting research related to high-quality beef production. Applications for that award are due Jan. 10, 2014.

For more details, interested students should go online or contact Trudi Hoyle, CAB, at 800/225-2333 or thoyle@certifiedangusbeef.com.

DEADLINES SUMMARY: November 25, 2013 – CAB Industry Information Writing Internship December 6, 2013 – CAB Colvin Undergraduate Scholarship January 10, 2014 – CAB Colvin Graduate Scholarship

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Shattering monthly records That helped fuel growth across all sectors. Sales of premium steak cuts (middle meats) rose 6.6 percent, with end meats gaining 6.9 percent and ground beef up 5.1 percent. Increased sales were also reported for the Prime and Natural brand extensions – 15 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.

Sales were strong all year, especially during summer, when partners heavily promoted steaks for the grilling season. Fiscal 2013 was the first year with at least 60 million pounds sold each month, and 10 months set individual sales records. August, with sales of 83 million pounds, was the all-time highest.

Retail, foodservice, international and processor gains Growth was also balanced among divisions. Retail partners again accounted for the most sales, 46 percent, and their 398 million pounds was an increase of 3.1 percent for the year. Sales for the top 25 retail chains were up 8 percent; with the top 14 that regularly featured the brand in circulars and promotions up 26 percent.

As consumers continue to

seek high-quality convenient meals, sales of value-added products set a new record of 24 million pounds, up 11.6 percent.

Beef for fajitas, marinated steak, fresh corned beef and brisket led sales.

Foodservice partners made up nearly one-third of the brand’s total sales this year, responding to consumer demand for quality beef to set the record of 276 million pounds sold, up 6.2 percent.

Much of the increase came from distributors licensed longer than two years, showing strong growth in established markets. In turn, sales at licensed restaurants were up 11 percent, demonstrating the brand’s relevance to chefs, operators and the consumers reading those menus.

An international sales increase of 17 percent shows the demand for premium beef crosses borders and oceans. The record 110 million pounds was the first year sales outside the United States topped 100 million pounds. Although some large markets like Russia and Saudi Arabia remain limited or closed to U.S. beef, the CAB brand found strong growth in South America’s Columbia, Chile and Peru. Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong and Japan represent the highest volume markets.

Record started with focused supply The acceptance rate, which tracks those Angus-type cattle meeting all 10 of the brand’s specifications, rose to a record 24.2 percent last year. Cattlemen and women aim for those standards because of the higher prices they command, so despite a relatively static number of Angus cattle, their focus on quality genetics and management netted another 200,000 head that qualified for the brand. That was the equivalent of an extra three weeks of production in the year, and 66 million more pounds of product going into CAB brand boxes.

“It’s clear that we have a hallmark opportunity to drive taste to consumers,” said Stika. “Their increasing demand equals increasing trust in the brand.

Our responsibility is to stay focused on providing the flavorful, quality beef consumers want, and to understand the value it has to them.”

The brand’s 16,000 partners worldwide generate an estimated $6 billion in consumer sales annually. Introduced in 1978, the Certified Angus Beef® brand is a cut above USDA Prime, Choice and Select thanks to 10 strict quality standards.

For more information, visit www.CertifiedAngusBeef.com, follow the brand on Facebook or Twitter, and read the blog at www.GoRare.com.

Cattle producers, visit www.CABpartners.com.

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Page 11

Interior proposes protections for riverdwelling cuckoo

BY PHIL TAYLOR / E&E

he Interior Department has proposed listing the Western yellow-billed cuckoo as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, warning that its nesting habitat along Western rivers and streams has disappeared.

The footlong bird with gray plumage and flashy white tail markings dwells in cottonwood and willow groves and feasts on insects, including spiny caterpillars.

Fish and Wildlife Service biologists estimate more than 90 percent of its riparian habitat in the West has been lost or degraded as a result of agriculture, dams and river flow management, bank protection, overgrazing and competition from exotic plants such as tamarisk.

The cuckoo is known to nest in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

“Populations of western yellow-billed cuckoo, and their nesting habitat along rivers and streams, have been declining over the last few decades,” said a statement today by Jennifer Norris, a field supervisor for FWS in Sacramento.

The Western cuckoo is distinct from other cuckoo populations because its habitat is

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Livestock Market Digest

separated by mountains and deserts and it migrates to and from South America at different times of year, the agency said.

It was named a candidate species for listing in 2001, but the Fish and Wildlife Service at the time lacked the resources to protect it. A pair of legal settlements with environmental groups in 2011 required the agency issue a final listing determination by the end of last month.

“The decline of the cuckoo across the West is a symbol of the tragic decline of our rivers,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which is one of two environmental groups involved in the settlement. “With just a little more care, we can restore those rivers – not just for cuckoos and hundreds of other animals and plants, but for people, too.”

CBD said the cuckoo can be found only in portions of the Sacramento and Kern rivers in California; the Colorado, Verde and San Pedro rivers in Arizona; the Gila and Rio Grande rivers in New Mexico; and scattered locations in Colorado, Nevada and Utah.

The bird is sometimes referred to as the “rain crow” because it sings before storms, CBD said.

Livestock Market Digest

Page 12

November 15, 2013

Jury Finds AQHA Clone Ban Violates Antitrust Laws

BY TIFFANY DOWLING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR & EXTENSION SPECIALIST AGRICULTURAL LAW TEXAS A&M AGRILIFE EXTENSION SERVICE

federal jury sitting in Amarillo recently found that an American Quarter Horse Association rule prohibiting registration of cloned horses violates state and federal antitrust laws. The AQHA, founded in 1940, is the world’s largest equine breed registry and membership organization, having more than 5 million registered horses and over 280,000 members.

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The Rule The AQHA allows registration of quarter horses that are conceived by live cover, artificial insemination, and embryo transfer. In 2004, however, the AQHA implemented Rule 227 (the rule has since been re-numbered as Rule REG106.1), which prohibits registration of “horses produced by any cloning process” including “any method by which the genetic material of an unfertilized egg or an embryo is removed and replaced by genetic material taken from another organism, added to/with genetic material from another organism or otherwise modified by any means in order to produce a live foal.” Under the rule, both cloned horses and their offspring are banned from the AQHA registry.

AQHA rules are proposed by the membership and then sent to one of AQHA’s standing committees, which now number 12.

A proposal to allow the registration of clones and their offspring was sent to the Stud Book and Registration Committee (SBRC)

which reviewed the proposal and made a recommendation it be denied. The SBRC recommendation was then open for discussion at the general membership meeting at the AQHA Convention, resulting in the Membership also voting to deny the request. At that point, the proposed rule was placed in the hands of the 300-member Board of Directors for a final decision.

The Board of Directors likewise voted to deny the registration of clones or their offspring. It was with this background that Rule REG 106.1 was enacted.

According to the AQHA, a survey revealed that 86 percent of its members favor banning cloned horses from the organization.

The Arguments In April, 2012, two AQHA members who own cloned horses filed suit in federal court challenging AQHA Rule REG 106.1.

The lawsuit alleges that the AQHA rule violates the federal Sherman Antitrust Act and the Texas Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act of 1983. Both acts prohibit the monopolization of any part of trade or commerce.

Plaintiffs explain that the AQHA enjoys a place of “prominence, dominance and market power” in the quarter horse market and provide numerous examples, including that numerous races are limited to AQHA registered animals, that AQHA registered horses are found in all 50 states and in more than eighty other countries. Plaintiffs claim that Rule REG 106.1 denies cloned horses the ability to complete effectively with registered horses and protects registered horses from having to compete with unregistered horses, which bene-

fits registered horse owners at the expense of owners of cloned quarter horses. Further, they argue that the rule reduces the supply of top quality quarter horses in the market.

Plaintiffs claimed injuries including a 70-80 percent diminished value of their horses because of the AQHA’s refusal to register their cloned horses, and claim that this also harms the public by inflating the value of registered horses. The plaintiffs seek both monetary damages and a permanent injunction against the AQHA to prohibit the enforcement of Rule REG 106.1.

The AQHA argues that the members of a voluntary, private organization should have the right to determine rules for their own organization. Further, the AQHA’s mission includes working to improve the quality of each generation of quarter horse.

The Association believes that cloning does not improve the breed, as it merely makes copies of the same horses. The AQHA also argued that the plaintiffs were free to create their own registry with its own rules that could compete with the AQHA.

The Verdict At the conclusion of a jury trial, a 10-person federal jury panel seated in Amarillo found that rule violates both state and federal antitrust laws. The jury refused, however, to award plaintiffs any of the millions of dollars in monetary damages requested.

Prior to reaching its verdict, the jury reported to the court that it was deadlocked after less than a day of deliberation. At that time, the judge ordered the jury to continue deliberations and the verdict was eventually reached

Working to Protect the Rich Tapestry of the West What They are Saying About Us… • The $206,098,920 Endangered Species Act Settlement Agreements — Is all that paperwork worth it?

• Leveling the Playing Field: Support for the Grazing Improvement Act of 2011 • Support for the Governmental Litigation Savings Act of 2011 — Reform of Excessive Litigation Pay-outs • Foreign & Domestic Train Wreck in the Making — More of the ESA • The Secret World of the Animal Rights Agenda TO SUPPORT THESE CAUSES AND MORE, JOIN US!

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on July 30. The court has issued an injunction that requires the AQHA to begin registering cloned horses and their offsprings.

The AQHA has appealed this decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals after a unanimous vote by the organization’s Executive Committee. Further, the AQHA is seeking a stay of the judge’s ruling that it must immediately begin registering clones. The AQHA argues that until the appeal has been decided, it should not be forced to go through the time and expense to register the cloned horses.

The Potential Impact If the decision is upheld, it could lead to similar lawsuits against other animal organiza-

tions with similar rules, including the American Paint Horse Association, the Jockey Club, and the American Kennel Club, both of which currently exclude cloned animals. Additionally, the ruling could impact other breed organizations that have rules excluding certain animals from membership. For example, although the American Angus Association allows the registration of cellcloned calves, it bars the registration of animals possessing various genetic defects including double muscling, dwarfism, horns and an uncommon blood type. The AQHA ruling could encourage lawsuits by disgruntled members of other organizations who are unsatisfied with rules prohibiting registration of animals.

www.baxterblack.com

Black’s Hambletonian id you ever wonder if being horsey is hereditary?

25 years ago a fellow veterinarian invited me into his office and showed me a picture in a livestock book copyrighted in 1882. It was a drawing of a bay stallion. It was labeled “Black’s Hambletonian. One of the finest and best blooded trotting stallions of the day. Property of S. Baxter Black, Compassville, PA. Cost when a weanling colt, $3500. Sired by Rysdyk’s Hambletonian; dam, Kitt, out of Long Island Black Hawk.”

I was taken aback! Aunt Effie always told me that my great grandfather, James Black (b.

1833) was Pennsylvania Dutch, from Erie County Pennsylvania.

His son, my grandfather, was E. Baxter Black. (b. 1866). According to the U.S. Trotting Registry Black’s Hambletonian was foaled in 1868. It’s beginning to look suspicious.

The ancestry backtrack for James Black (b. 1833) ends with him. S. Baxter Black was born in Pennsylvania in 1825, 8 years before James. S. Black’s father was listed as foreign born. The census in 1850 shows S. Baxter Black to be living in Lancaster County Pennsylvania and was listed as a farmer.

It is my belief that James named his son E. Baxter Black after S. Baxter Black. They were across the state from each other and the ancestry doesn’t connect them as brothers, but they could easily be cousins. E. Baxter had a son named Robert who named

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his son Baxter A. . . . which is me. And we are all horsey.

Grandpa E. Baxter was horsey.

The same could be said of my father Robert, Uncle Bert, cousin Jim (James), daughter Jennifer and me.

Now, $3,500 had to be a lot of money in 1868. But it appears S. Baxter was doing pretty well for himself. Black’s Hamilton is sired by Rysdyk’s Hambletonian (b. 1849) who happens to be the one of the most prominent sires of the breed.

My contention is supported by the dearth of Baxter Blacks who have walked the Earth.

When I Google myself I find only one or two but they have different middle initials. I figger if I checked their ancestry back four or five generations we’d all be named after the same character that S. Baxter was named after. After all, who would make up a name like that?

James moved through Wisconsin and Texas then finally Oklahoma. His son E. Baxter was in the Oklahoma Territory Land Run of ’89 and staked out the home place where my dad was born in 1918. In 1880 S. Baxter moved to Lexington, KY, bein’ in the horse business and all, and in 1888 he had a sale.

Sold the place, the livestock and all the horses except two; Greenfield and Black’s Hambletonian.

I have on my wall an original litho of Black’s Hambletonian that was portrayed in the livestock book 150 years ago. How I got it is another story.

November 15, 2013

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Page 13

Proposed giant EPA land grab is rigged conflicted & corrupted

BY RON ARNOLD, WASHINGTONEXAMINER.COM

hat happens when Washington’s top environmental policymaker packs a government advisory board with federal grant recipients so she can regulate virtually every acre in the United States of America?

For one thing, two powerful members of Congress angrily take notice and demand in a news release to know why “EPA Skirts the Law to Expand Regulatory Authority.”

That’s also the point of a letter sent recently by House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith of Texas and Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah, chairman of its environment subcommittee, to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy.

Smith and Stewart are outraged by a proposed EPA rule – the “Water Body Connectivity Report” – that would remove the limiting word “navigable” from “navigable waters of the United States” and replace it with “connectivity of streams and wetlands to downstream waters” as the test for Clean Water Act regulatory authority.

“Connectivity” is the latest meaningless science buzzword for a meticulous study of the presence and mechanisms of water connections that can’t quantify their significance for downstream ecological integrity.

That’s voodoo science, pure and simple.

If approved, the new rule would give EPA unprecedented power over private property across the nation, gobbling up everything near seasonal streams, isolated wetlands, prairie potholes, and almost anything that occasionally gets wet.

Smith and Stewart accuse EPA of “pushing through a rule with vast economic and regulatory implications before the agency’s Science Advisory Board has had an opportunity to review the underlying science.”

EPA says its rule-making will be based on the final version of the SAB’s scientific assessment.

Catch 22: The SAB is paid to verify whether the EPA report is technically accurate but the panel has not yet been

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provided with the proposed rule, even though the Office of Management and Budget has it.

McCarthy is withholding a potential shield for the lives and property of millions. She’s forcing the SAB to fly blind, which puts the board itself in the national spotlight.

The law requires that the SAB must be free of conflicts of interest, unbiased, and transparent. Don’t expect any of that because the reality is the SAB is rigged, biased, and riddled with conflicts of interest – and the agency’s vetting of board candidates was corrupted by McCarthy.

The SAB does not do science. Odd as it sounds, the board just reviews a review.

The EPA’s Office of Research and Development has already conducted a scientific literature search, picking its preferred studies for review by the SAB. Although the EPA’s “Handbook for Members and Consultants” says, “The SAB staff office vets candidates for conflicts of interest or appearance of a lack of impartiality,” McCarthy clearly handpicked the 27-member panel from a list of more than 125 candidates.

As a result, nearly 90 percent of the “independent” panel comes from the federal government, academia, or Big Green, including the Environmental Defense Fund and Nature Conservancy.

McCarthy allowed no industry-friendly scientists on the panel, despite the presence of nominees from Weyerhaeuser, Atkins North America, Air Liquide, ARCADIS U.S, and Houston Engineering.

McCarthy took no chances with letting hard-headed state or local water officials in, despite nominees from the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Missouri Dept. of Conservation, North Carolina Division of Water Quality, Ventura County Watershed Protection District, Susquehanna River Basin Commission, New York City Dept of Environmental Protection, and the State of Wyoming.

But here’s the worst part of it: Half of McCarthy’s choices received EPA grants in the last 10 years! These include: ■ Allan, J. David: University of Michigan 2004 (grant year) ■ Benda, Lee: Earth Systems Institute 2012

■ Bernhardt, Emily S.: Duke University 2010 ■ Brooks, Robert P.: Pennsylvania State University 2008 ■ Fennessy, Siobhan: Kenyon College 2012 ■ Hawkins, Charles: Utah State University 2012 ■ Johnson, Lucinda: University of Minnesota Duluth 2003-2007 ■ Kalin, Latif: Auburn University 2012-2013 ■ Meyer, Judith L.: University of Georgia 2013 ■ Patten, Duncan: Montana State University 2008 ■ Rains, Mark Cable: University of South Florida 2011 ■ Sullivan, Mazeika: Ohio State University 2002-2005 ■ Wohl, Ellen: Colorado State University 2001-2004 McCarthy has assembled a board that is rigged, biased, conflicted, and corrupted.

But taxpayers don’t have to put up with this kind of bureaucratic stacking of the regulatory deck.

The law empowers every taxpayer to attend every meeting of any federal SAB (EPA isn’t the only federal agency that uses these groups) and to challenge anything they say or do.

Taxpayers can identify studies that should be added or deleted to official literature reviews by SABs. Taxpayers can demand that a credible scientific review be finished by the SAB before EPA proposes a rule to the public.

Taxpayers can demand that the Office of Management and Budget to hold the rule, pending completion of the SAB review.

Most important, taxpayers can make it clear to McCarthy and those who support her that nowhere was she given authority to act as if everything that is “connected” can be regulated by EPA. RON ARNOLD, a Washington Examiner columnist, is executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.

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Page 14

Proposed Cuckoo Protections Cause Confusion, Concern

BY EDGAR WALTERS, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

he western yellow-billed cuckoo, a bird subspecies whose populations have verged on extinction in the western United States, is again up for consideration for special protections under the Endangered Species Act — and the proposal has some farmers and ranchers worried for their livelihoods.

For farmers and ranchers in West Texas, the proposal to list the bird’s western population as a threatened subspecies — submitted Oct. 3 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — has created questions and few answers.

Critics of the proposal, including Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, say the increased protections are unnecessary and could hurt the agriculture industry. But the agency that proposed the special protections has been out of commission and unable to answer questions about the proposal for more than two weeks because of the partial government shutdown.

“We oppose the listing of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, as we believe there is inadequate scientific basis for such a listing and it has the potential to reduce economic activity in the affected region,” Lauren Willis, a spokeswoman for the comptroller’s

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office, said in a statement.

Proponents of protected status for the bird, however, say the proposal shouldn’t come as a surprise, because the animal’s habitat has been disappearing for decades. A listing under the Endangered Species Act would protect the cuckoo’s habitat from encroaching development and livestock, experts said.

“Cattle eat the cottonwood and willow saplings” — that mature into trees that the cuckoo prefers to nest in — “ and prevent regeneration of the riparian ecosystem," said Ken Rosenberg, an applied conservationist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University.

Texas is home to both western and eastern populations of the cuckoo, which researchers say are genetically distinct. Only the western population of the bird is up for review by the Fish and Wildlife Service. So the proposed listing would primarily affect counties in West Texas and the Upper Rio Grande, according to the comptroller’s office.

The cuckoo’s habitat, which exists primarily along riverbeds, is much sparser in the dry climate of West Texas. And in many states west of Texas, there are severe cuckoo shortages, with only a handful of breeding pairs left, experts said. California has extended extra protections

to the bird by listing it as endangered under state law.

Because of its geographical ties to both eastern and western populations, the condition of the western subspecies of the cuckoo in Texas is less clear. Unlike other states, Texas does not have a formal survey of the species.

Some evidence also suggests the bird has achieved reproductive success in West Texas urban areas even as its numbers remain low in rural habitats, said Cliff Shackelford, an ornithologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. In eastern regions of the state, the yellow-billed cuckoo often makes the top 10 list of most abundant species.

“I’m not thinking this is going to be a huge issue for Texas,” Shackelford said of the proposed protections. “It’s a forest bird, and out west, there are very few forests.”

This is not the first time the protected status of the western yellow-billed cuckoo has been an issue. In 2001, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined the subspecies should be listed, but it did not issue a proposal because of higher priorities.

State officials warn of economic consequences should the listing be successful this time.

The comptroller’s office could not provide specific estimates for the potential impact on the West Texas economy, but according to its report on the species, as many as 1,800 ranching and agricultural jobs could be affected.

Ranchers and farmers in counties that could fall under the ESA listing have complained of a lack of information from the Fish and Wildlife Service. Mel Davis, special projects coordinator for the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, said those whose jobs might be affected need more time to evaluate what’s at stake.

“Because of the shutdown, the clock’s ticking on these proposed listings. Fish and Wildlife needs to extend the comment period,” he said. The current proposed rule says the agency will accept comments until Dec. 2.

The Endangered Species Act has been a top target of criticism from Texas Republican candidates for agriculture commissioner. In a campaign ad in which the ESA appears as the villain in a horror flick about government overregulation, candidate Eric Opiela said the federal protections are “trying to destroy the economy and the future of Texas.”

Despite the recent attention, conservationists say the push for a federal listing is not a new development. Not only has the cuckoo’s status under the Endangered Species Act been pending for more than a decade, but a vanishing ecosystem has long threatened the western yellowbilled cuckoo, Rosenberg said.

“The biological situation really hasn’t changed,” he said. “The western riparian habitat and ecosystems have been severely degraded for a century.”

November 15, 2013

House your future: Protect your flock with year-round shelter Proper housing systems, ventilation and bedding can improve flock performance. heep require year-round shelter to achieve optimal performance levels.

With colder temperatures right around the corner, now is the time to evaluate your housing and shelter system to ensure a healthy and productive flock throughout the winter.

Shelter is needed for body temperature regulation – helping to keep sheep warm during cold periods and cool when temperatures heat up.

According to research from Purdue University, the normal body temperature of a sheep hovers around 102.3 degrees F, with an ideal range between 100.9 and 103.8 degrees F. This range is known as “the thermoneutral zone” and is vital to maintain.

If body temperatures rise above or below this range, a sheep’s metabolism begins to increase from trying to cool down or stay warm. In the winter, the feed provided will then go into heat production rather than building muscle and gaining weight.

The team at Calf-Tel, based in Germantown, Wis., has found that providing shelter to sheep can help them maintain this thermoneutral zone through all seasons. To keep sheep comfortable and productive, they encourage shepherds to include Calf-Tel housing systems in their pastures or facilities.

“Access to shelter allows sheep to maintain an acceptable temperature range so their bodily functions can run at an acceptable level,” says Skipper Carlisle, regional sales manager with Calf-Tel. “This is especially critical during hot or cold extremes, significant swings in temperature and moisture related events (rain and snow).”

Without shelter, a flock’s performance can be negatively affected.

“You put an animal’s health at risk if they do not have access to some sort of shelter,” explains Carlisle.

“Problems such as heat stress, dehydration, infections and respiratory illnesses may occur if animals do not have shelter to protect them from the elements.”

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Selecting a shelter There are many types of shelter ranging from barns and sheds to metal, wood and plastic hutches. The type of shelter to fit your flock will vary depending on your location, climate and sheep type.

Carlisle recommends using a plastic shelter because of

their durability, longevity and low maintenance. Additionally, plastic shelters are lightweight and portable, allowing for easy cleaning. Opaque hutches are beneficial because they block out the sun’s rays, keeping animals cool during the hottest times of the year.

“Plastic shelters are a great option for sheep producers,” says Carlisle. “They are a much lower investment than building a new barn yet last longer and are more durable than metal and wood shelters.”

Space and ventilation When preparing your shelter area, make sure adequate space is provided. Ample space can help prevent injuries from happening and reduce stress levels. A general rule of thumb is to provide 10 to 12 square feet per ewe, 12 to 16 square feet for a ewe with her lambs and 6 to 8 square feet per feeder lamb.

In addition to space requirements, proper ventilation is a key factor in shelters.

“A common myth among livestock producers is that if you totally enclose animals during cold weather, they will stay warmer and healthier,” notes Carlisle. “While we do want to provide shelter to animals during extreme weather, proper air flow is key to ensuring respiratory health.”

A proper ventilation system should provide an accurate amount of fresh air without drafts, maintain a desired temperature and relative humidity level and keep ammonia levels below specified guidelines. Following these guidelines will help to avoid stale air and respiratory diseases, creating a healthy environment for you and your sheep.

Preparing for winter Specific to the upcoming winter season, there are a few preparations to take for your flock.

Carlisle explains that throughout winter, a shelter entryway should face away from the direction where harsh weather comes from.

Typically, this means shelters need to face either the east or west to provide protection from northern winds and snow storms.

Additionally, shelters need sufficient bedding. The type of bedding needed will depend on availability and your climate. In areas with cold winters, Carlisle suggests using straw bedding to keep sheep the most comfortable. continued on page fifteen

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

November 15, 2013

Cowgirls vying the title of Miss Rodeo America 2014 or 59 years, the Miss Rodeo America Pageant has hosted hundreds of beautiful and talented cowgirls from across the country. Hopefuls converge annually for a weeklong competition to select one deserving young woman to represent and promote America’s Original Professional Sport — RODEO. This year, the Miss Rodeo America Pageant welcomes 28 fabulous cowgirls, ages 19-25, to Las Vegas to compete for the prestigious title of Miss Rodeo America 2014. Each year a new Miss Rodeo America serves as the official spokesperson for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

The 2014 Miss Rodeo America Pageant is Monday, Dec. 2, through Monday, Dec. 9 to coincide with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the PRCA’s yearend championship event also held in Las Vegas.

Pageant activities will be held at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, official sponsor and host hotel of the 2014 Miss Rodeo America Pageant. The horsemanship competition, Sunday, Dec. 8, will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in the FanFest Arena. A complete pageant schedule of events and pageant ticket information can be found online at www.missrodeoamerica.com One highlight of the pageant is the midweek Fashion Show Luncheon, held on Friday, Dec. 6 in the Conference Center of the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. The contestants model the latest fashions from Wrangler, Justin Boots, Bailey Hats, Reata Ranch Gear and Rod’s Belts.

This year contestants will also model the latest fashion trends from some of the famous western design icons in the industry today!

Contestants are judged in the categories of personality, appearance, horsemanship, knowledge and presentation. Each contestant will demonstrate her skills in public speaking, personal interviewing, horsemanship, knowledge of rodeo and general

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Flock

cont. from page fourteen

Shelters should be cleaned and bedded as needed throughout the year.

“Shelters only really need to be bedded a handful of times throughout the year,” says Carlisle. “This would include full cleaning and sanitation at least once per year and rebedding 2 to 4 times in the winter.”

Having a proper shelter system in place will help to complement your nutrition and management practices, ensuring a healthy and productive flock for years to come.

equine science, current event awareness, photogenic qualities, visual poise and overall professionalism.

Miss Rodeo America 2013, Chenae Shiner of Roosevelt, UT, will crown her successor during a formal coronation ceremony on Monday, Dec. 9, 2013, in the MGM Grand Hollywood Theatre. A media conference with the newly crowned Miss Rodeo America 2014 will follow the ceremony at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.

Contestants vying for the 2014 Miss Rodeo America title include Brittney Truman of Marana, Ariz.; Kirbi Allen of Springdale, Ark.; Dakota Skellenger of Bakersfield, Calif.; Sarah Wiens of Sedalia, Colo.; Jenna Smeenk of Hurlburt Field, Fla.; Erica Greenwood of Nampia, Idaho; Cassandra Spivey of Sherrard, Ill.; Kara Telfer of Underwood, Iowa; Kara Hackney of Hays, Kan.; Shelby Kadrovich of Pitkin, La.; Kierstyn Ebbeling of Blackstone, Mass.; Sarah Nowacki of Moorhead, Minn.; Paige Nicholson of Brandon, Miss.; Lorryn Bolte of Bowling Green, Mo.; Samantha Chytka of Broken Bow, Neb.; Tar Bowlby of Reno, Nev.; Ashlee Mills of Eagle Nest, N.M.; Alexa Buckheit of Mansfield, Pa.; Krystal Carlascio of Jamestown, N.D.; Rachel Bergren of Washington, Okla.; Nicole Schrock of Corvallis, Ore.; Kristina Maddocks of Hecla, S.D.; Stephanie Revels of Corinth, Tex.; MaKenzie Maughan of Hooper, Ut.; Sara

Holston of Pulaski, Va.; Jessica Tennant of Deer Park, Wash.; Brayvyn Brockman of Camp Douglas, Wis.; and Holly Kennedy of Laramie, Wyo. The primary role of Miss Rodeo America is to promote the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and America’s Western heritage. She is a liaison between the rodeo fans and Pro Rodeo producers, sponsors and contestants.

As Miss Rodeo America, the new queen will travel extensively representing rodeo via many public appearances at rodeo performances, special events, schools and civic groups. She will take on the role of model and spokesperson in a variety of promotional events and commercial advertisements for western clothiers, publications, sponsors and other service providers to the western industry.

Miss Rodeo America Pageant contestants are awarded many gifts from generous sponsors.

Each contestant is eligible to win a portion of $53,000 in educational scholarships that the Miss Rodeo America Scholarship Foundation disperses to pageant contestants annually.

National corporate sponsors of the Miss Rodeo America Pageant include: Wrangler Jeans and Shirts, Las Vegas Events, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, American Quarter Horse Association, Justin Boots, Ram Rodeo Series, Tarter Farm & Ranch Equipment, Dallas Market Center, Montana Silversmiths, Bailey Hats, the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, W.F. Young/Absorbine, Red Wilk Construction, Landstrom’s Original Black Hills Gold Creations, Rod’s Western Palace, Inc., Wallace, Neumann & Verville LLP, Reata Ranch Gear, Court’s Saddlery and Bonefrog Creative.

Page 15

Livestock Market Digest

Page 16

CHS Foundation contributes $100,000 to South Dakota blizzard relief he CHS Foundation, the independent giving entity of CHS Inc. (NASDAQ: CHSCP), the nation’s leading farmer-owned cooperative, announced today it will contribute $100,000 to the South Dakota Rancher Relief Fund to assist livestock producers in the aftermath of a devastating blizzard earlier this month.

“Ranchers across western South Dakota suffered signifi-

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cant loss of cattle, sheep and other livestock as a result of this storm, the vast majority of which is not covered by insurance or other programs,” said William Nelson, president, CHS Foundation. “Through this contribution, we hope to alleviate some of the costly storm affects and support these producers in restoring their lives and livelihoods.”

The South Dakota Rancher Relief Fund, which has been endorsed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard, is administered by the Black Hills Area Community Foundation in cooperation with the South Dakota Association of

Cooperatives, South Dakota Stockgrowers’ Association, the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association and the South Dakota Sheep Growers’ Association. Its goal is to directly benefit livestock producers impacted by the blizzard.

In addition to the contribution, CHS is working directly with its affected producer customers in the region to identify short- and long-term needs for feed and other assistance.

CHS Inc. (www.chsinc.com) is a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States. Diversified in energy,

November 15, 2013 grains and foods, CHS is committed to helping its customers, farmer-owners and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS, a Fortune 100 company, supplies energy, crop nutrients, grain marketing services, animal feed, food and food ingredients, along with business solutions including insurance, financial and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex® brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.

Arizona Game & Fish Executive To Lead Colorado Parks & Wildlife

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obert Broscheid, a longtime part of the leadership team at the Arizona Game and Fish Department, has been selected as the new director for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Broscheid is currently the Special Assistant to the Director at Arizona Game and Fish. He was selected to lead CPW by Colorado Department of Natural Resources executive director Mike King after candidates were considered by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, as well as a stakeholder group organized to participate in the interview process.

Broscheid began at Arizona Game and Fish in 1997 and moved through a variety of positions of increasing responsibility over 17 years. He started as a Wildlife Specialist and went on to serve as Habitat Branch Chief and Assistant Director of the Wildlife Management Division.

For the last six years he has served as Deputy Director for the agency and Executive Director of Arizona’s Natural Resource Review Council established by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to develop a comprehensive, statewide strategy for natural resource management and economic development.

“Bob Broscheid brings a rock solid foundation in natural resources management, a strong focus on serving the customer and remarkable energy and enthusiasm for parks and wildlife stewardship to this position,” King said. “We’ll also benefit from his long experience in working collaboratively across state and federal agencies, as well as with landowners and a wide variety of outdoor recreation, conservation and sporting organizations.”

“I appreciate the opportunity to lead an organization of such dedicated staff, and thank Governor Hickenlooper, the Department of Natural Resources and the Parks and Wildlife Commission for this opportunity,” Broscheid said. “I look forward to leading one of the top parks and wildlife organizations in the country in a place with the kind of natural resources that Colorado offers. It’s a dream come true.”

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