LMD Nov 22

Riding Herd Saying things that need to be said.

November 15, 2022 • www.aaalivestock.com

Big Food LEE PITTS

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conomists have had to coin an all-new word to describe what is going on in grocery stores lately. The word is “greedflation” which is pretty much self-explanatory.

In case you haven’t set foot in a grocery store lately here’s a brief recap.

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Retail food prices were up 11.4 percent in August from a year earlier.

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Eggs were 39.8 percent more expensive this August than they were a year ago.

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The price of chicken was 16.6 percent higher as consumers are switching from red meat to white.

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Dairy and processed-food prices also spiked. Margarine was up 38.3 percent in August on a year-over-year basis, and butter’s price was 24.6 percent higher.

Flour and prepared flour mixes were 23.3 percent more expensive than a year earlier. Crackers were 17.7 percent more expensive, and frozen bakery products were up 18.1 percent.

Frankfurter prices were up 18.3 percent in August vs.

August 2021, while lunchmeat prices were up 18.2 percent.

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Lettuce was 15.2 percent more expensive.

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According to David Portalatin, a food analyst at NPD Group, “More Americans tried to save money by eating at home because your average

NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING

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restaurant meal is three and a half times that of having the same meal at home. But the cost of food for home preparation was still up 13.5 percent.”

Have you seen the price for

erate and dominate the industry. “The same corporations that trumpet massive new profits and giveaways to their wealthy investors suggest they somehow had no choice but to inflate prices so high.”

Volume 64 • No. 11 “pricing power,” for the company’s record quarterly revenues of $8.2 billion, up 9 percent from the previous year.

Tyson said in their third quarter earnings report that despite supply chain issues, “We maintained double-digit sales and earnings growth year to date as well as progressing toward our goal of delivering more than $1 billion in recurring productivity savings by the end of fiscal 2024.”

From Slaughterhouses to Supermarkets

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. cattle go up accordingly? So, just one question? Where did all that extra money go? If the farmer and rancher are only receiving 15 cents of every food dollar who is getting the rest of the money?

Bolder Than Bandits Suffice it to say, it’s a good time to be a packer or own a grocery store. According to Maeve Sheehey and Zach Cohen writing for Bloomberg, much of the food increases are being caused because we allowed multinational corporations to conglom-

And they are being so brazen about it. The conglomerates feel so bullet-proof they are throwing it in our face.

“There’s no better time than the current hyperinflationary environment to have a strategic pricing tool, and we’re leveraging it to our advantage,” said Sysco CEO Kevin Hourican. Located in Houston, Texas, Sysco is the world’s largest broadline food distributor with more than 600,000 clients. Sysco reported higher earnings and sales for its fourth quarter.

Starbucks CEO praised its

According to an investigation by the British newspaper, The Guardian, we’re drowning in greedflation because we’ve allowed the big to get so BIG they have almost unlimited pricing power. A joint investigation by the Guardian and Food and Water Watch found that “consumer choice is largely an illusion – despite supermarket shelves and fridges brimming with different brands. In fact, a few powerful transnational companies dominate every link of the food supply chain: from seeds and fertilizers to slaughterhouses and supermarkets to cereals and beers.”

“The size, power and profits these mega companies have,” said the Guardian, “has expanded thanks to political lobbying and weak regulation which enabled a wave of unchecked mergers and acquisitions. This continued on page 2

USDA Provides $759 Million to Bring High-Speed Internet Access to Communities Across Rural America

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S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the Department is providing $759 million to bring high-speed internet access (PDF, 204 KB) to people living and working across 24 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and Palau. Today’s investments include funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides a historic $65 billion to expand reliable, affordable, high-speed internet to all communities across the U.S. “People living in rural towns across the nation need high-speed internet to run their businesses, go to school and connect with their loved ones,” Vilsack said. “USDA partners with small towns, local utilities and cooperatives, and private companies to increase access to high-speed internet so people in rural America have the opportunity to build brighter futures.

Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is committed to making sure that people, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet. That’s how you grow the economy – not just in rural communities, but across the nation.”

The $759 million in loans and grants comes from the third funding round of the ReConnect Program. As part of today’s announcement, for example:

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North Carolina’s AccessOn Networks Inc. is receiving a $17.5 million grant to connect thousands of people, 100 businesses, 76 farms and 22 educational facilities to high-speed internet in Halifax and Warren counties in North Carolina.

The company will make high-speed internet service affordable by participating in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Lifeline and Affordable Connectivity Programs. This project will serve socially vulnerable communities in Halifax and Warren counties and people in the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal Statistical Area.

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Tekstar Communications is receiving a $12.6 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network to connect thousands of people, 171 farms, 103 businesses and an educational facility to high-speed internet in Douglas, Otter Tail, St. Louis, Stearns and Todd counties in Minnesota. Tekstar will make highspeed internet affordable by providing its “Gig for Life” service, where households that sign up for internet will not have their internet prices raised as long as they stay at the same address and continue continued on page 3

by LEE PITTS

Boxed Beef

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ears ago I got a call from a college student who was doing his Senior Project in order to graduate. He told me he had a groundbreaking idea and wanted my opinion of it. I asked him what his BIG IDEA was and he replied, “containerized shipping.” As the son of a long haul trucker I had to break the news to him that his idea was already being implemented as everything from cheap Chinese toys to apples and oranges are now shipped in modules that can easily be craned on to a truck’s trailer or a railroad car.

“I realize that,” he said.

“My idea is to use those same containers to haul livestock.”

Whoa! Now that was a new idea! I suppose the caller wanted to duplicate Fred Smith’s outlandish scheme he outlined in a Yale economics class paper that earned him a C grade. The caller wanted to do for livestock what Fred Smith had done for important paperwork and packages when he later created Fed Ex based on that college paper.

“Shipping livestock in containers is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” I told the young man. “That’s something a lonely sheepherder might think up but certainly not an intelligent cattleman.”

Believe me, if it would have been a great idea I’d have stolen it and with all the money I made I would’ve bought a big, beautiful ranch where it rains on a semi-regular basis and I would have stocked it with the prettiest cows you ever laid your eyes on. I’d have bought a fairly recent model pickup with a heater and air conditioner that work, a dog that didn’t chase cows and a horse that did; maybe even a brand new vacuum cleaner for my wife.

I proceeded to outline all the reasons why containerized shipping for livestock would never happen.

“Ranchers would have to buy these containers and have a big crane at the ranch to load them. Then they’d ship them to an auction market which would also have to have several big cranes like those that dot the landscape in Long Beach and Seattle.

That would be a sizable investment and would probably be a deal breaker right

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Livestock Market Digest

BIG FOOD

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matters because the size and influence of these mega-companies enables them to largely dictate what America’s two million farmers grow and how much they are paid, as well as what consumers eat and how much our groceries cost.”

The Guardian investigation included 61 popular grocery items and found that the top companies control an average of 64 percent of sales. They found that four firms or fewer controlled at least 50 percent of the market for 79 percent of the groceries. For almost a third of shopping items, the top firms controlled at least 75 percent of the market share.

“For instance, PepsiCo controls 88 percent of the dip market, as it owns five of the most popular brands including Tostitos, Lay’s and Fritos. Ninety-three percent of the sodas we drink are owned by just three companies. The same goes for 73 percent of the breakfast cereals we eat – despite the shelves stacked with different boxes.”

“It’s a system designed to funnel money into the hands of corporate shareholders and executives while exploiting farmers and workers and deceiving consumers about choice, abundance and efficiency,” said Amanda Starbuck, policy analyst at Food & Water Watch.

market prices and have oligopolistic control of the market.

Economists typically consider a four-firm concentration ratio of 40 percent or higher reflective of a sector that operates as an oligopoly. Many of the sectors we monitor are already above that 40 percent threshold; others are on the verge of passing it.” They also found:

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Now only two businesses control 40 percent of the global seed market.

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Deere, CNH and AGCO control 90 percent of the high-horsepower tractor sales in America.

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Ten agricultural commodity traders account for at least 40 percent of the global market.

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With just three companies controlling the “vast majority” of poultry genetics, the study affirms that it is the most concentrated sector in the industrial food chain.

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“Food Barons” A study by the ETC Group titled “Food Barons 2022” came to the same conclusion “Only a handful of companies dominate the growing agri-food industry and many agri-food sectors are now so “top heavy” they are controlled by just four to six dominant firms. This leaves room for companies to “wield enormous influence over markets, agricultural research and policy-development, which undermines food sovereignty.”

The ETC report came to the conclusion that “these dominant companies have the opportunity to maintain a grip on

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“Before the turn of this century, China was home to more pig diversity than any other country (with 72 breeds). By 2005, more than two-thirds of China’s pigs (74 percent) were raised in industrial systems that rely on just one hybrid breed. As a consequence, African swine fever wiped out – from 2018 to 2020 – 60 percent of China’s pig herds. The widespread adoption of industrial livestock genetics is the primary driver of the loss of farm animal genetic diversity worldwide.”

In a globalized market it’s not just companies that dominate markets but also countries. “Morocco controls 72 percent of the global phosphate reserves –and just four countries produce 80 percent of the world’s traded potash – Canada, Russia, Belarus, and China.” With Russian and Belarus being aggres-

sors in the Ukraine war, fertilizer prices have more than doubled this year, according to a UN report.

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In 1977, the largest four beef-packing firms controlled just 25 percent of the fed beef market, compared to 85 percent today.

Top firms in the packing industry are generating record gross profits and their highest gross margins in years. Gross profits really are gross and some of the leading beef, poultry, and pork processors are at their highest gross profits in history.

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JBS provided $2.3 billion in dividends and share buybacks in 2020. It has proposed record high dividend payments for 2022, increasing payouts to shareholders by nearly 75 percent over 2020.

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Tyson recently raised dividends by 6 percent for fiscal year 2021, spending $477 million on dividends in the nine months ending July 2021. It also repurchased $200 million of shares between September 2020 and July 2021.

Gobble, Gobble If you thought the packers and processors were greedy you ought to see how the big retailers have been gobbling up their competition.

By far Walmart is the largest food retailer in America generating over 393 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of sales in 2021.

The retail giant made more than double the amounts generated

by The Kroger Co., which currently stands in fourth place.

Walmart is followed by Amazon (which includes both online sales and Whole Foods Market who they bought in 2017.)

COSTCO is the third largest food retailer followed by aforementioned Kroger Company. In the number 5 position is Albertsons.

Founded in 1883 in Cin-

November 15, 2022 cinnati, Ohio, The Kroger Co. is in the process of buying out number 5 Albertsons which in the past few years has gobbled up chains like Safeway, Vons, Ralphs, Foods for Less and on and on. In some areas of the country, (including mine) even though we’ll think we’re buying from an independent, in reality they’ll all be owned by the same giant: Kroger.

Mergers and acquisitions are occurring at such a fast rate in the grocery business that one study came to the conclusion there will be only 5 dominant actors left when all the dust settles. In a Reuters interview, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said if the merger between them and Albertsons is allowed “the combined entity will have over 5,000 stores and $47 billion in sales, and could better compete head-to-head with “larger, non-union” grocers”, a reference to Walmart and Target. Kroger and Albertsons said they’re willing to divest up to 650 supermarkets to secure regulatory clearance. But if the past has taught us anything it’s that shortly thereafter the huge conglomerate will squash the independents who they were forced to sell stores to.

Many employees are fighting the merger and in return Krogers and Albertsons are putting in more self-checkout machines because machines and computers don’t go out on strike!

The BIG Question So what’s a rancher to do in an attempt to claw back some of the 85 percent of the food dollar he or she is now NOT getting?

My entire life I’ve rebelled against the old adage “If you can’t beat ‘em, join em.”

Now, much to my chagrin, that’s starting to look like the smart play.

Angus breeders are a smart breed for sure and one of the smartest is 44 Farms. When S.W. McClaren and his wife Josie started ranching in 1909 near Cameron, Texas, they could not possibly have envi-

sioned that five generations later their outfit’s Angus beef would one day be hooked up with the nation’s largest grocery retailer, Walmart, to bring 44 Farm’s beef to market.

When Walmart decided to start their own Black Angus supply chain they enlisted the help of 44 Farms’ CEO Bob McLaren. The result is Prime Pursuits a “best-in-class company.” 44 Farms developed a feeder-calf program for Walmart that utilizes calves produced from 44 Farms bulls and other cattle that meet their criteria of no hormones added, predominantly “Angus Strong” genetics, able to meet USDA’s definition of Angus, weaned for a minimum of 45 days, having no more than 90 days between the youngest to oldest in a group, and subject to a sort by a 44 Farms representative to ensure uniformity.

So that is one option you have, tying hard and fast to one of the many programs like the one started by another smart and gutsy Angus breeder, Riverbend Angus of Idaho. To vertically integrate their operation they are taking a more traditional route. For the past decade they’ve told their bull buyers if you buy and use their bulls they’ll bid on your cattle and try to buy them. Now they will soon be opening up their own packing plant in Idaho Falls that will process 300 head a day of Riverbend program cattle.

Or you could look no further than southwest Kansas and the Gardiner family. Arguably one of the top two or three Angus breeders in the country, their GAR prefix can be found in the pedigree of a high percentage of the best black cattle in America. Early on Gardiner Ranch became an investor in National Beef, one of the Big Four packers. In June 2018, the Brazilian giant Marfrig became the second largest beef packer in the world by acquiring 51 percent of National giving them combined sales of $13 billion. Then in 2019, Marfrig acquired additional shares

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November 15, 2022

Livestock Market Digest

bringing their share of National to 81.7 percent. Original owners of National Beef, including the Gardiner family, retained 15 percent which allowed them to profit from the packers oversized profits and also provided a way to market the calves that are sired by Gardiner bulls.

Mark Gardiner was given a seat on Marfrig USA’s Board of Directors.

So, one option you have to survive and prosper is to get as close as you can to the handful of powerful companies that control their markets. But be forewarned, this hasn’t worked out too well for contract pig and poultry producers.

Or, you could develop some way to sell your ranch-raised beef directly to the consumer.

But be advised you’ll be going against the grain if you attempt to sell ranch raised, locally grown, chemical-free, grass-fed beef directly to the consumer at farmer’s markets or a “club” program that delivers a box of steaks, roasts and hamburger once a month to club members, because you’ll be selling exactly opposite of what the Beef Board is peddling. (But you’ll have to continue to pay a buck a head to promote your competition’s

INTERNET

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service. Tekstar also will participate in the FCC’s Lifeline and Affordable Connectivity Programs.

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In Colorado, the Eastern Slope Rural Telephone Association is receiving an $18.7 million grant to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network connecting thousands of people, 898 farms, 110 businesses and 17 educational facilities to high-speed internet in Adams, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Crowley, Elbert, Kiowa, Kit Carson, Lincoln and Washington counties.

The company will make high-speed internet affordable by participating in the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program.

USDA is making 49 awards in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, Puerto Rico, Guam and Palau. This list includes awards to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, and the utility authorities for the Navajo Nation and the Tohono O’odham Nation. Many of the awards will help rural people and businesses on Tribal lands.

In 2022, the Department has announced $1.6 billion from the third round of ReConnect funding.

Background: ReConnect Program To be eligible for ReConnect Program funding, an applicant must serve an area that does not have access to service at speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) (download) and 20 Mbps (upload). The applicant must also commit to building facilities capable of providing high-speed internet service with speeds of 100 Mbps (download and upload) to every location in its proposed service area.

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cattle.) Please know before you follow this path that it can get awfully lonely out there on the ledge.

Other options for you to consider are to start wrangling dudes by taking them on make-believe roundups, to rent your ranch for windmills or solar arrays, or to sell out.

So what will it be? If, like me, you don’t subscribe to the old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” the right answer for you may be to continue to sell your calves and feeders at auction markets and video sales, provided of course the programs don’t put them out of business thereby destroying the only form of true price discovery we have left in the cattle business.

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BOXED BEEF

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there. They’d have to unload Have you actually tried the cattle to sell them and picking up a container with then load them again to ship cattle in it? What about the them and it has been my ex- acid rain that falls out if you perience that getting cattle to get my drift? Not to menenter a dark confined space tion what happens when the is hard enough the first time load shifts and hogs or feeder but to have to do it multiple cattle start falling from the times would drive a man to sky. I’m sorry but I think you drink. Besides, what’s the should probably pick another benefit?” topic.”

“I’ve interviewed several You can imagine my surtruckers for my paper and prise years later when I put they all said that one of their together a load of Polled Herbiggest problems is finding eford heifers to be shipped to back-hauls. With my system Japan. When I arrived at the that problem is eliminated.” airport in Oakland I found “Not really,” I replied. “It’s out they were to fly there not like you can pour a bunch in shipping containers that of oranges into a container looked remarkably like those previously used to haul hogs. you see on trucks now days. A At least not without giving couple years after that I did the oranges a rather rank af- a story about lambs being tertaste.” shipped here by the boatload “You don’t get it, do you?” from Australia that fattened said the student. “The truck- on the trip over and they were er would unload hog modules handled exactly like containin California and load oth- erized cargo. I was shocked er containers holding citrus, and disgusted to discover that computers, veggies or cheap your average wether from stuff from China. Bingo, Australia has been on more the problem of backhauls is cruises than I have. solved.”

The young college student

who called me with his BIG IDEA never phoned again but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the Australian gazillionaire sheepherder who owns the ships bringing all those lambs here in containers.

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Livestock Market Digest

Collector 's o Market Report r n e r

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ost collectors keep a close eye on the market so they have a good idea of values—and 2022 has been a wild ride with regards to the market thus far! There have been many record breaking sales and at the same time, high inflation has made other item less desirable and harder to sell—so some values have actually gone down. It seems the better quality stuff is doing better than ever, while low-end items are having a harder time finding a good buyer base. A few highlights from the year thus far are listed below.

January kicked it off with two record sales! On the 22nd in Mesa, AZ at the Old West Show and Auction, Edward Bohlin’s personal parade spurs were sold. Described in part as: “These spurs are extremely detailed with their leather work, stainless steel, silver and gold. The spurs earned recognition from the moment of their creation, gaining exhibition at the 1967 World’s Fair.” These amazing spurs sold for a whopping $236,000!* Also in January, at Western Trading Post’s Auction, a Lander Blue Turquoise squash blossom set sold for the princely sum of $112,000!* The set was advertised as consisting of four pieces, including a bracelet, ring, earrings and the squash blossom necklace. The items were made using what has now become, the rarest and most highly sought after turquoise in the world—Lander Blue. Both of these sales turned out to be unofficial auction world records in their respective categories!

At an auction on February 26th and 27th, a jersey worn by Mickey Mantle when he played his final game as a New York Yankee on Sept. 28, 1968, sold for a whopping $2,190,000!* That’s the highest price ever paid at auction for a Mickey Mantle jersey, shattering the previous record of $1,320,000!* Also in February, at a horse sale in Wickenburg, AZ, a horse sold at auction for whopping $500,000! The market

for good horses seems to just keep going up as does the market for high-end sports memorabilia.

In April, at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, A Book of Rhymes which was created by a young Charlotte Brontë and her siblings in 1829 (when she was only 13 years old), sold for $1.25 million. Charlotte Brontë (1816 –1855) is best known for writing Jane Eyre and this book sale topped all other books sold throughout the year.

An auction hosted by Miller & Miller on May 14th featured an array of folk art and decorative art from the late 19th century. The auction included a lineup of Canadian art by Maud Lewis and others. An oil painting by Lewis reached well above the high estimate of CAD 25,000 (USD 19,165) and sold for CAD 75,000 (USD 57,500). The painting depicted a snowy scene with a man driving two oxen while hauling logs and the sale proved there is still a market for good folk art.

June was also a good month. At a Western Trading Post auction, a relic Springfield carbine with documentation and ties to the battle of the Little Bighorn sold for $47,600!* And we all know, the saddle market has been particularly tough for several years now, especially on used and antique saddles. However, there were two vintage Ted Flowers parade saddles sold at that same auction which brought $6,720* and $7,840* and a fancy, Wade Tree saddle, made by the late Don Butler brought in $10,640!* Although a long ways from record setting prices, it was nice to see used saddles bringing decent money.

On Aug. 27th, Heritage Auctions sold the most valuable baseball card in history for $12.6 million!* It was a 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card in exceptional condition. This topped the $7.25 million Honus Wagner card sold earlier in the year (which previously held the record). And several works by Fritz Scholder (1937-2005) achieved great results at Bonhams’ Modern Native American Art sale in Los Angeles on Aug. 31st. The standout work was Dartmouth Portrait #8, 1973, a painting from the series produced during Scholder’s tenure as artist-in-residence at the university, which sold for $378,375!* Also in August, an aluminum license plate from 1904, believed to

Climate Censors and Their Phony Fact Checks, Paid Shills

BY H. STERLING BURNETT

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limate alarmists’ response when the facts don’t fit the narrative they’ve been pushing for two decades is to suppress the facts by killing the messengers. Today you kill bearers of inconvenient truths not with an ax to the back of the neck but by de-platforming them.

The climate censors start by throttling or labelling posts with which they disagree, limiting others’ ability to share un-redacted posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. If that fails to dissuade

November 15, 2022

the climate realists from posting evidence-based claims pointing to an un-alarming climate future, the social media giants remove their ability to monetize their online activities.

If these first two attempts at censorship fail to force the realists to toe the party line or at least self-edit their climate posts, Big Tech applies the death penalty. The corporate censors ban them: first temporarily, then, if they repeat the offense of telling the truth, for life from one or all the major online social media platforms.

The largest social media companies are owned by a very few companies or individuals.

Facebook/Meta, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Twitter,

YouTube, and TicTok are owned or controlled by less than half a dozen individuals—with the last-named suspected of being controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. These online platforms have become the de facto public square for discussion. They act as oligopolists or monopolists, and when competitors arise they quickly gobble them up.

In any other business endeavor, government regulators, primarily the Federal Trade Commission, would never have allowed many of the mergers that have taken place in the social media space. The companies would be broken up. After all, those few companies control a greater share of the social media market than Standard Oil controlled of the oil market before the government broke the company up.

It’s bad enough when big tech, with the help or encouragement of the federal government, censors political or social views its thought police consider offensive or socially unacceptable. It’s even worse for society when these multinational giants impose sanctions on people for speaking or pointing out truths, matters of fact, that undermine or inconveniently bring into question claims made by purported or self-appointed experts on matters that are far from “settled science.” Knowledge is advanced only when there is free debate over contested factual claims.

The suppression of facts the government and progressive activists didn’t want discussed or debated was all too evident during and after the Wuhan virus pandemic. Discussion of the virus’ origins was suppressed online as being offensive or racist, even though where or how a virus originates is a factual matter having nothing to do with race and the question was, and

be the first-ever plate issued by the City of Chicago, sold for $34,000 at Donley Auctions. And at an auction hosted by New Frontier Show and Auction on Aug. 27th in Cheyenne WY, the top selling item was a “Rare 1912 New Mexico 47-Star American Flag” which hammered at a staggering price of $20,500!

At Christie’s auction of the Herman Melville Collection of William S. Reese, on Sept.14th, illustrations for Moby-Dick by American artist Rockwell Kent (1882–1971) sold for $201,600!* It seems that Americana, Art and Collectibles achieved record prices throughout the year at numerous auctions!

Trade shows that were either canceled or reported low attendance the last couple years (largely due to the pandemic) have reported fairly good activity from across the country as people are once again “out and about” and looking for things to do. Whether that translates into higher sales or not is debatable as a big part of the activity reported seems to be dealer to dealer sales. However, online sellers seem to still be doing well after enjoying a record last couple of years, and brick and mortar was reporting a comeback during the first part of the year.

Heading into the last part of the year, it is a mixed bag of news with some large companies reporting massive layoffs, some retailers reporting lower 3rd quarter earnings and inflation is running hot (which affects everybody in different ways). Traditionally this type of news means that good stuff will remain strong and lower-end items will continue to take a hit. Simple logic tells us that higher prices for utilities, fuel and food affect the lower wage earners more than others and when they have less discretionary income to spend on extras, the lower middle-end and lower-end collectibles lose their buying audience. On the other hand, the upper middle-end and high-end items usually hold their value or even go up as people with money scramble looking for a place to park cash that is diminishing in value daily. For collectors this can mean good news however as buying opportunities will likely arise during turbulent times which seem to be on the horizon. (*price listed includes buyers premium)

as far as I can ascertain still is, open to debate or discovery.

Worse still was the suppression and censorship of discussion of the efficacy of a variety of possible medical interventions to combat the virus, the effectiveness of the vaccines developed to prevent it, and the possible dangers of adverse reactions to the rapidly approved, little-studied vaccines. The judgments and decisions of thousands of medical professionals were censored or suppressed online even though many of the treatments they suggested seemed effective in ameliorating or at least suppressing the worst effects of the disease.

Time and experience have shown the concerns many doctors and researchers raised about whether the vaccines would prevent people from contracting the virus, as official government health authorities claimed they would, were accurate. Time and experience have also shown concerns about possible adverse reactions to the vaccines were also legitimate. The social media giants shamelessly suppressed these facts, with government encouragement, acting as arbiters of truth about the pandemic and responses to it.

During the pandemic, health professionals learned what scientists and analysts discussing climate change have long known: truth is no defense against censorship by Big Tech.

The case of Gregory Wrightstone, executive director of the CO2 Coalition, is instructive on this point. As detailed in posts on the CO2 Coalition blog and various news articles, Wrightstone and scientists associated with the coalition have been permanently banned from LinkedIn; had their posts throttled, censored, or banned by Facebook; and were prevented from even opening an account

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with Instagram. Wrightstone’s thought crime was to point out that increasing carbon dioxide has the beneficial effect of boosting plant growth, including an increase in crop growth that has reduced hunger and malnutrition globally. Wrightstone and other scholars at the CO2 Coalition also had the temerity to point out many of the claims that climate change was making extreme weather events more intense or more common were refuted by official government data and the findings of the U.N’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

These are indisputable facts. Yet because censors at social media giants “can’t handle the truth,” Wrightstone and the CO2 Coalition have been prevented from speaking in the modern public square about climate change.

There is evidence the corporate media are getting paid well to suppress climate facts.

Earlier this year the Associated Press, supposedly an independent news organization, proudly announced it was receiving millions of dollars in funding from a group of climate-woke foundations to cover climate change more regularly and extensively.

“This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story,” admitted AP senior vice president and executive editor Julie Pace in the press release announcing the grant program. I’ll bet!

“The media’s coverage of climate change has sunk to a new journalistic low,” said Climate Depot’s Mark Morano in commenting on AP’s announcement. “The mainstream media, led by the Associated Press, is now publicly admitting they are just phoning in their coverage on ‘climate change.’”

Recently, the same talking points on hurricanes popped up in multiple stories in the space of a couple of days across nu-

November 15, 2022 merous supposedly independent media outlets. These “news” stories directly or in a more veiled fashion critiqued the tweets of Steve Milloy, founder and editor of JunkScience.com. Milloy’s exposés of flawed, mistaken, and outright fraudulent scientific claims have plagued promoters of environmental apocalypse scare stories since 1996.

It seems the AP, Agence France-Press (AFP), and other mainstream media outlets have finally had enough and are targeting Milloy in a coordinated fashion. In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian and the numerous stories wrongly linking it to climate change, Milloy tweeted on September 29, “No trend in landfalling Florida hurricanes since 1903. Not in frequency.

Not in intensity. Not in anything. Climate is a hoax.”

Granted, “climate is a hoax” may have been over the top and the meaning unclear to some.

Nonetheless, the AP, AFP, and others recognized Milloy’s tweet was a succinct and effective broadside against the claim Hurricane Ian was caused or made worse by climate change, and of the broader claim climate change is causing more frequent or severe hurricanes.

The available data and peer-reviewed research cited in dozens of Climate Realism and Climate Change Weekly posts prove Milloy’s claims are accurate. The facts are on his side.

Even as the planet has modestly warmed, hurricanes have neither increased in number nor become more powerful.

Some data even suggests hurricane numbers may be trending downwards. These are easily confirmed facts.

Facts about hurricanes didn’t seem important to the AP and AFP when they carried out their so-called fact checks of Milloy’s tweets. Instead of providing the hurricane data or even what the most recent report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had to say about hurricanes, the dubious journalists quoted select experts, cited anecdotes, and rapidly ginned up “attribution” research to assert Milloy’s claims were false or misleading.

The evidence clearly shows those attacking Milloy’s tweets are the ones misleading the public. The data proves it. What

Livestock Market Digest reason, then, could corporate media outlets have for ignoring facts about hurricanes in order to smear the claims of a single analyst if not to signal Big Brother social media climate censors to ban him from their platforms?

The treatment of legitimate scientific debate and the suppression of facts about climate change by scientific journals, the big corporate media, and social media moguls represents a nadir of public discourse perhaps not seen since the days of Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union and, before that, the Catholic Church’s prosecution of Galileo. All we can do is hope social media giants will not ban Milloy or others like him.

It would be better if those media giants were to reconsider their guidelines for moderating speech across their platforms and perhaps end their

Page 5

fact-checking functions entirely.

One has to opt in voluntarily to receive any individual’s or group’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or LinkedIn posts. They are not sent unbidden. If you link to, friend, or follow a person whose subsequent posts offend you, you can easily unfollow, unfriend, or drop them from your list of contacts. Alternatively, or in addition, you can respond to the post across social media platforms with your own point of view or factual claims and explain why the initial statement is misleading, wrongheaded, or false—and perhaps receive merited criticism by interested parties.

In his justly praised book On Liberty, John Stuart Mill wrote, If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no

more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it.

If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth, if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions.

Social media moguls claim to want to make it easy for people

to exchange thoughts and ideas.

They publicize their platforms as a way to make that possible.

They should take Mill’s words to heart when considering suppression of communications, especially when the posts are critical of assertions by persons claiming to have the exclusive authority to speak for “the science” or when the narrative critiqued is being pushed by government.

Do the world a service, allow people to speak and exchange ideas freely and be refuted, not silenced, if they are wrong.

Wrightstone, Milloy, and other climate realists who have been de-platformed or threatened with expulsion are right, and the so-called consensus view is wrong. I’m not saying that: the data do.

SOURCES: JunkScience.com; Texas Tribune; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton; AgencyFrancePress; Associated Press; CO2Coalition; Real Clear Energy; CO2Coalition; CO2Coalition; Climate Change Weekly

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Livestock Market Digest

Biden Admin Picks Up Pace on Endangered Species Act Rewrite

BY MICHAEL DOYLE / GREENWIRE

T

he Biden administration could be done with its rewrite of Trump-era Endangered Species Act rules by May 2024, an official noted in an update for a federal judge overseeing a crucial legal challenge.

Samuel Rauch III, NOAA Fisheries’ deputy assistant administrator for regulatory affairs, stated that he had previously estimated the final ESA rule changes could be published two years after the judge rules on the lawsuit, first filed in 2019. Now, he says definitively that the final rule changes could be done by May 2024.

“Since my [earlier estimate] was filed, the Services have been further examining and clarifying an anticipated timeline for a rulemaking to propose revisions to the 2019 rules,” Rauch wrote in the administration’s most re-

The View FROM THE BACK SIDE

Cattle Ranching on Martha’s Vineyard

BY JIM OLSON

T

his article has been tough to write as it’s been difficult to nail down facts. In other words, private citizens, and government sources agree on nothing.

According to the latest statistics private citizens would prove to be right about 85 percent of the time because they are living it, so I will go with them. I will try and explain to you what happened when DeSantis Airlines landed on Martha’s Vineyard

November 15, 2022

cent legal filing.

NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) are jointly working on the revised ESA rules, which cover complex issues including the designation of critical habitat and different protection levels for threatened as opposed to endangered species.

At the same time, Rauch cautioned in his declaration filed October 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that the “anticipated timeline may need to be lengthened” depending on the judge’s future rulings.

The immediate legal question is not whether the Trump ESA rules will change. The Biden administration has already committed to making changes. Rather, the question is what happens to the Trump rules in the meantime.

In July, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar sided with the en-

vironmentalists and vacated Trump’s ESA rule changes, meaning they would no longer be in effect while the Biden administration undertakes its revisions (E&E News PM, July 5).

“Here, the Services themselves concede that they have substantial concerns with the 2019 ESA Rules, both with respect to certain substantive provisions as well as certain procedures that were utilized in promulgating these regulatory revisions,” Tigar wrote.

An Obama administration appointee, Tigar noted that the agencies’ chief argument was that vacating the rules would cause confusion among the public, other agencies and stakeholders.

“But, as the Services themselves explain many times, leaving the regulations in place will cause equal or greater confusion, given the flaws in the drafting and promulgation of those regulations,” Tigar wrote.

Thirteen conservative-led states, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Petroleum Institute and other intervenors then asked the 9th

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the Trump rules in effect until a final ruling on an appeal.

In a court filing after the judge’s ruling, the conservative states and allied farm and energy organizations declared that vacating the Trump rules at this point, without a ruling on the underlying merits, “is like asking a surgeon to weigh the pros and cons of amputating a gangrenous leg without first determining that the leg is infected with gangrene.”

In September, a three-judge appeals court panel ruled that Tigar had “clearly erred in vacating the 2019 rules without ruling on their legal validity.”

One of the Trump administration’s rules covered how FWS and NOAA Fisheries designate listed species’ critical habitat.

Another eliminated FWS’s former policy of automatically extending to threatened species the protections against “take” that the law automatically provides for endangered species (Greenwire, September 4, 2020).

A third rule changed how FWS and NOAA Fisheries work

with federal agencies to prevent proposed agency actions that could harm listed species or their critical habitat.

The Biden administration agreed last December to redo the three rules in response to a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Parks Conservation Association, WildEarth Guardians and the Humane Society of the United States.

Earthjustice, which is representing the environmental groups, asked Tigar to amend his July ruling to consider some or all of the merits of the lawsuit.

with 50 illegal aliens from Venezuela and Peru.

My guess is that Florida Governor DeSantis was trying hard to help those ranchers up there as he thought they were short on help, and this would help the illegals get good paying jobs at the same time.

The information that I got, is that there are now 2,280 head of cattle on 38 farms on the island known as Martha’s Vineyard. It is located 7 miles off the coast of Massachusetts.

That’s about 60 head per farm which probably requires a retired cowboy to maintain each ranch of 60 head. He would probably get bored with that, but their cowboys are also required to help give tours on these ranches.

I am certain the job requires a cowboy with patience to answer questions from ignorant tourists. Tell me if I’m wrong, but I have never seen one of those.

The good thing about this gig is that the average income there is $77,370 per year.

That’s a pretty good wage for a retired cowboy. The average price of a home there is $2,800,000. Martha’s Vineyard is the third largest island on the east coast at 97 square miles and a very expensive place to live.

I am also aware there are lots of other farm animals on the island as well, such as sheep, alpacas, chickens, and so on. You know a retired cowboy would never take care of those other animals so don’t those illegal immigrants sound perfect for that?

Besides, cowboys are used to working with illegals as they have for years, and most speak pretty good Spanish slang. This is a great deal for those folks that entered the United States illegally.

I’m sure they would get the

$77,370 per year plus the 2,350 square foot house. It looks to me like the genius of Governor DeSantis was putting them in a place where they could prosper.

After all that, I just got word that the citizens of Martha’s Vineyard threw them out.

Dukes County Massachusetts should be ashamed of themselves. They shipped the illegals off the island to the Joint Base Camp at Cape Cod. Stop and think about it.

There are 17,000 year-round residents. There are 17,800 homes, 63 percent of homes are owned by seasonal residents, meaning they are only there for the summer.

Get this, during the summer the island population explodes to 200,000. Are you telling me that they could not accommodate 50 illegal immigrants?

Obviously, the residents of Martha’s Vineyard are not very friendly to you unless you can

spend some bucks with them.

Now don’t quote me on this, but I heard that President Obama has an extra empty house on Martha’s Vineyard.

Heck that could have held at least 10 of them right there.

I remember him saying during his presidential campaign that he wanted to be President to all the people. I would have expected more from the former President.

It sounded like Governor DeSantis had a brilliant idea to help everyone involved including residents, ranchers, cowboys, and illegals. Imagine that!

This just in, according to the New York Times the 50 illegals are trying to sue Governor DeSantis and the state of Florida.

It sounds to me like they ought to be suing Martha’s Vineyard.

Editor’s Note: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stewardship of U.S. national marine resources. It conserves and manages fisheries to promote sustainability and prevent lost economic potential associated with overfishing, declining species, and degraded habitats.

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▫

November 15, 2022

Livestock Market Digest

REAL ESTATE GUIDE

SOCOR PLAZA RE www.scottlandcompany.com

rms

erTY

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mitt, TX 79027 Scott - Broker lifying Broker am/10:00pm company.com

R SMALL!

uadalupe Co., eded & 519 anch on both g flow daily) mner; wildlife, buyer looking New Mexico

RANCH & FARM REAL ESTATE ■ PRICE REDUCED! CEDARVALE, NM – 7,113-acre ranch (5,152 ac. +/- Deeded, Livestock Market Digest 1,961 ac. +/- State Lease) well fenced & watered w/good pens, new barn.

■ COLFAX COUNTY NM GETAWAY – 1,482.90 ac.+/- grassland (1,193.59 ac. +/- Deeded, 289.31 ac. State Lease), great location near all types of mountain recreation.

■ PRICE REDUCED! UNION CO., NM – 2,091.72 ac. (1,771.72 Deeded, 320 ac.

-/+ State Lease), well watered w/three wells, two sets of steel pens.

■ ANGUS, NM – 250 +/- acres with over a 1/2 mile of NM 48 frontage. Elevations from 6,800 to 7,200 feet. Two springs along a creek. Ideal for future development or build your own getaway home.

■ PALO DURO CREEK TREASURE – 941 acres +/- in Randall Co. NW of Canyon, Tx. STUNNING VIEWS OVER LOOKING PALO DURO CREEK. Turn-key cow/calf operation w development potential. Property includes: 521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130 3/3/3 ranch style home, 4 wells, large shop 575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax plus shed, enclosed livestock working facility w/hydraulic chute, pens & shed, Buenalivestock Vista Realty miles of 5 & 6Qualifying barbed wire fence & over Broker: 7000' of A.H. pipe(Jack) fence.Merrick YOU WILL NOT WANT 575-760-7521 TO MISS THIS! Canyon School District. www.buenavista-nm.com ■ DEAF SMITH CO., TX – 651 ac. +/-, 7 miles N of Dawn, Tx., 1 mile E of FM 809.

349 acres native grass with well-maintained fencing and 302 acres of cultivated dry land.

■ PRICE REDUCED! DALLAM CO, TX – • 83 acre woodofhome with barns,w/ 1,216.63 ac. +/CRP/ranchland irrigation, re-development potential, meadows and woods.

Frontswells State& pipelines already in place.

Rd. $545,000 ■ PRICE REDUCED! LET’S LOOK at these two choices 80-acre tracts of dryland located in close one to theCo,other • 160 acreproximity Ranger Eastland in Willbarger County near Vernon, Texas. $560,000 ■ PRICE REDUCTION! TURN-KEY RESTAURANT: READY FOR BUSINESS! – One of the acre best steak houses in the nation • 270 Mitchell County, Texas just out of Amarillo & Canyon at Umbarger, Investors bldg., dream; w/complete excellent TX., ranch. state-of-the-art facilities. cash flow. Rock formation being

TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES

Page 7

Bottari Realty SOCORRO Paul Bottari, Broker PLAZA REALTY 775/752-3040

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

On the Plaza

Donald Brown Nevada Farms Qualifying Broker & cell 505-507-2915 505-838-0095 fax raNch PrOPerTY 116 Plaza

COLETTA RAY COLETTA RAY Pioneer Realty

Pioneer Realty 1304 Pile Street, Clovis, NM 88101 1304 Pile Street, Clovis, NM 88101 575-799-9600 Direct

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

www.bottarirealty.com

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

AG LOANS AGLAND LAND LOANS AsLow LowAsAs 3% As 4.5% OPWKCAP 2.9% OPWKCAP 2.9%

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

521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130

575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax Joe Stubblefield & Associates 13830 Western St., Amarillo, TX 806/622-3482 • cell 806/674-2062 joes3@suddenlink.net Michael Perez Associates Nara Visa, NM • 575/403-7970

Buena Vista Realty

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

521 West Second St., Portales, NM 88130

575-226-0671 towww.buenavista-nm.com Cattlemen

Advertise and Ranchers!

Rural Properties around Portales, NM 1242 NM 480 - Nice home on 59.7 acres, grass 427 S Rrd P 1/2Call - Large home,atlots of barns or 24+ Buena nice Vista Realty 575-226-0671 the ac listing agent 1694 S Rrd 4, Lori Great home, barns, cattle pens, location Bohm 575-760-9847, or Melody Sandberg 575-825-1291.

2344 S Rrd K east of Dora, NM, great - Near wind farms Many good pictures on MLS or www.buenavista-nm.com All properties excellent homes & can have horses, etc.

Call

As Low As 198 AC Fanninco, TX OPWKCAP Good Country Rd. Frontage, INTEREST RATES A Rural Water, Electricity, 35 mi NE of Dallas, SO of Bonnam $20,000 Per Acre

SCOTT MCNALLY

521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130

www.ranchesnm.com 575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax 575/622-5867 575/420-1237

Buena Vista Realty

Qualifying Broker: Ranch Sales575-760-7521 & Appraisals A.H. (Jack) Merrick www.buenavista-nm.com

AG LAND LOANS As Low As 3.5% OPWKCAP 3.5%

INTEREST RATES AS LOW AS 3.5% Payments Scheduled on 25 Years

A SOURCE FOR PROVEN SUPERIOR Joe Stubblefield & Associates REDWestern ANGUS 13830 St., Amarillo, TX 806/622-3482 • cell 806/674-2062 GENETICS

joes3@suddenlink.net Michael Perez Associates 14298 N. Nara Atkins Rd., Lodi, CA 95240 Visa, NM • 575-403-7970

270 AC Miticelle Co., TX 1 mi off I-20, 6 Elect, Trurans Rock Formation Irrigation Well and Sprinkler. All Bring Case, Modest Home & Barns Price $2.2 million 270 AC Pine Timber & Hunting, Anderson Co., TX Co. Rd. Frontage, Small Lakes $7,250 Per Acre

Joe Priest Real Estate

1-800/671-4548

joepriestre.net • joepriestRE@gmail.com

209/727-3335

MAJOR PRICE REDUCTION – CALL PAUL FOR DETAILS

10 Acres of commercial property, incredible highway visibility and access from either east or west directions on Hwy 60, 3 miles East of Garden Inn Truck Plaza and 4 miles west of Willow Springs.

Natural gas may be available on site. LOCATION PLUS! This property is well suited for many types of businesses (Restaurant, Retail, Motel, Business of any kind!) A MUST SEE PROPERTY. MLS#11402703

See all my listings at: paulmcgilliard.murney.com Paul McGilliard, Broker Associate Residential / Farms/Ranches / Commercial 417-839-5096 or 800-743-0336

521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130

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

505-243-9515

for more information

crushed and sold; wind turbans, some minerals. Irrigation water developed, crop & cattle, modest improvements. Just off I-20. Price reduced to $1.25 million.

Buena Vista Realty

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

521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130

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

• 840 Immaculate, Hunt Co, TX. 740 ± Acres of unimproved native grassland Ranch. Pastures, 40 tanks, and lakes. Beautiful located four home, milesbarns, west of Roswell in the Six Mile Hill area with frontage along U.S. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RANCH PROPERTY and other improvements. Some 31 years ranch business see www.ranch-lands.com videos &of brochures Highway 70/380.

This parcel is fenced onin thethree sides- and adjoins 120foracres additional minerals, game galore. All for $1.35 DUANEinvestment. & DIXIE McGARVA RANCH: approx.per 985 acres Likely, CA. with about 600+ acre gravity flood land that may be purchased. Great $600 acre. million. irrigated pastures PLUS private 542 AU BLM permit. About 425 acres so of the irrigated are level to flood

EIGHT MILE DRAW LAND

COWBOY DRAW RANCH

excellent pastures with balance good flood irrigated pastures. NO PUMPING COST! Dryland is perfect for expansion to pivot irrigated alfalfa if desired. Plus BLM permit for 540 AU is fenced into 4 fields on about 18,000 acres only 7 miles away. REDUCED ASKING PRICE - $3,125,000

SOLD DRE# 00963490

O’NEILL LAND, llc

s southeast of Corona, NM in Lincoln Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker M Lease Acres and 2,240 NM State P.O. Box 145, Cimarron, NM 87714 • 575/376-2341 • Fax: 575/376-2347 Bar M Real Estate, LLC • www.swranches.com land@swranches.com UYL. Water provided by five wells and corrals. The ranch had a good summer P.O. Box CHICO428, CREEK RANCH, Colfax County, NM.NM NEW LISTING. CIMARRON ON THE RIVER, Colfax County, NM. 7.338 +/Roswell, 88202 6,404.26 +/- Total Acres, Located approximately 10 miles east of deeded acres with 4.040 acre-feet per annum out of the for a brochure or view on my website.

Springer New Mexico. 3,692.60 +/deeded acres575-420-1237 with balance Maxwell-Clutton Ditch. Custom country-chic 2,094 +/- sq ft Office: 575-622-5867 Cell:

y limits of Roswell, NM. Six total acres ved with a 2, 200 square foot residence, room and loafing shed. Price: $400,000

Bar M Real Estate

TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES AG LAND

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

Excellent small cattle ranch located in Joe Priest New Real Mexico Estate approximately southeastern 50 miles northwest of Roswell on the BEAVER CREEK RANCH: about 82,000 acres - with 2,700 deeded acres plus contiguous USFSChaves/ & BLM +/- w/water permits for 450 pair; 580+- acres irrigated alfalfa, pasture, and meadow from Beaver Creek water rights and & a beautiful irrigation well.

3 homes, 2 hay barns, 4 feedlots each w/ 250 ton 2 large reservoirs, can run up toBLM Lincoln county line. 7,455 totalone acres with 2,600 deeded with thebarns,balance federal 1-800/671-4548 3 bathrooms, 500-600 cows YEAR ROUND. REDUCED ASKING PRICE - $5,400,000. etal shop. joepriestre.net lease acres.• joepriestre@earthlink.com Permitted for 151 animal units yearlong with an additional 30 animal units BEAR CREEK RANCH: Approx. 1,278 acres winter range ground and recreational property. Located on Bear Creek and accessed from South Cow Creek Valley Road. Should be great hunting for deer, wild turkey, wild on a temporary nonrenewable basis. twoin Bearwells andaccess several water pigs, quail &Watered owner states goodwith trout fishing Creek. Deeded easement miles thru neighborof ranches.

No improvements & very private inside the ranch. pipeline. Two larger open drawsNowrun through the ranch that provide overflow areas to only $700 per acre - $894,600 enhance grazing. The terrain is open andWRIGHT, rolling with good LAND turf. The ranch hasINC. had good BILL SHASTA SERVICES, summer rains with no cattle since last530-941-8100 spring. The• ranch is •inwww.ranch-lands.com excellent condition. Call for a brochure andoperated come take a look. Price: $1,350,000 ch that has been owned and

R ACT

116 Plaz PO Box 19 Socorro, NM www.socorroplaza dbrown@socorropla

We need listings on all types of ag properties large or small!

980 ac. +/past, land lays e of Hwy. 54. on Co., NM – and w/statey remodeled in very good n pvmt. . +/- heavily listing r livestockagent w/ 75-825-1291. ences etc., on ta-nm.com e front gate. ic ac. +/- on d by Lincoln in Pines & ed meadow Penasco. This uild a legacy

4 ac. irr., on exico, adjoins l.

POTENTIAL xline Special,

Qualifying B

505-507-29 505-838-00

in state lease. Excellent grass and water. Two plus miles of the

home. Owns both sides of river in places. Horse/cow/chicken/

Additional wells and dirt tanks. Nice historic head quarters privately located with shade trees and excellent views of the property. Shipping pens in central portion of property. $2,837,318

it’s finest, in town, but in a world of your own. Very special on river. Appointment only. $650,000.

Chico Creek meandering through the center of the property. vegetable garden/greenhouse/orchard set up. Country living at Website: www.ranchesnm.com

WAGON MOUND RANCH, Mora/Harding Counties, NM. 8,880.80 +/- Total Acres, a substantial holding with good mix of

RATON MILLION DOLLAR VIEW, Colfax County, NM. 97.68 +/- deeded acres in 2 parcels with excellent home, big shop, wildlife, a true million dollar view at the end of a private

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

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

CAPULIN -SIERRA GRAND VIEW, Union County. NM. 520 +/- deeded acres with HQ 1.5 miles off highway, 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home with landscaped yard and volcanic rock walls, nice outbuildings, 3 registered wells including 1 registered as an irrigation well and an excellent solar well. Close proximity to Des Moines, NM. $898,000 DES MOINES, 336.58 +/- Deeded Acres Union County NM – 3 bedroom 2 bath home, 32ft X 30ft metal building on slab.

62 ft X 12 ft metal barn, one big pasture off highway. Mixture of open grass range and trees. Less than two miles to town. $575,000 MAXWELL 45, Excellent irrigated pasture with utilities in back of property, including installed septic system, with private views of mountains. 40 irrigable acres and a domestic water meter installed. Great to put down home and bring horses. $249,000 BAR LAZY 7 RANCH, Colfax County, Moreno Valley 594.38 +/- deeded acres, accessed off blacktop between Eagle Nest and Angel Fire. Historic headquarters.

Currently used as summer grazing, pond and trees accessed off county road on rear TO of property as well. Presented SACRAMENTO “ASIS” New SALE Survey, $4,000,000 $3,800,000 HWY 4 STOCKTON UTE PARK RIVER PLACE 6.83 J17+/MAR IP VALLEY ACRES, 450 +/- feet of the Cimarron River OSA RD HWY 99 and more than that of Ute Creek are the HWY 120 south and east boundaries of this unique ESCALON SALE MANTECA one of a kind water property. 2HEADQUARTERS bedroom Facility loc 1 bathroom cabin, year round access off MODESTO 25525 Eas Hwy 64. $589,000 $570,000 Tree Road CIMARRON BUSINESS, FrontageTO FRESNO Escalon, C opportunity, house, big shop and office buildings, easy view off Hwy 64. Formerly known as “The Porch.” $295,000 MIAMI 40 ACRES, Colfax County NM, private 2 bedroom getaway with elevated fantastic view, nice porch, little casita, irrigation and pole barn. Extremely private setting. Right below mesa. $450,000 COLFAX TAVERN & DINER, Colfax County, NM. Aka “COLD BEER”, turn key legendry regional icon and destination, with anchor staff/team willing to stay on. Prime business on front range. $1,500,000 FARMINGTON

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Livestock Market Digest

Score Rookie at his first qualifying event in Billings, Mont.

“Any time you have some kind of success in this contest, because it is loaded from top to botynn Langvardt, tom, it makes you feel reChapman, Kanally, really good,” Langvardt sas was named said. “Today was certainly no I grew up in the Champion at exception.” the 2023 World Livestock A live cattle sale took livestock marketing Auctioneer Championship place, with the market’s reg(WLAC) qualifying event buyers and sellers in business,” Langvardt said. ular in Ripley, West Virginai the seats. Auctioneer conJackson County Regional were judged on the “My family has owned our testants Livestock Market, LLC clarity and quality of their hosted the first of three presentation, ability market for 55 years, and chant, WLAC qualifying events to catch bids/conduct the on October 29, 2022. A tosale and how likely the judge I’m 49, so I grew up in it. I would be to hire the auctiontal of 27 contestants competed for a top ten placing, eer. Judges for the qualifying started auctioneering at a event were livestock market granting them a spot in the 2023 WLAC semifinals at owners, managers, dealers Arcadia Stockyard in Arcayoung age. My dad put me and/or allied industry memdia, Fla. bers from across the nation.

“I grew up in the liveIndividuals advancing to in when I was nine or ten, stock marketing business,” the semifinals with LangLangvardt said. “My famvardt are Reserve Champion and the rest is history.” ily has owned our market Dakota Davis, Waukomis, for 55 years, and I’m 49, Oklahoma; Philip Gilstrap, so I grew up in it. I started auctioneering at a Pendleton, South Carolina.; Marcus Kent, young age. My dad put me in when I was nine Dunnellon, Florida; Ed Leist, Gaylord, Michor ten, and the rest is history.” igan; Jeremy Miller, Fairland, Oklahoma; Ben Langvardt has competed in WLAC quali- Morgan, Organ Cave, West Virginia.; Runfying events for around 10 years, with eight of ner Up Champion Chris Pinard, Swainsboro, those granting him a spot to compete at the Georgia.; Jack Riggs, Glenns Ferry, Idaho; Jay championship event in June. He was High Romine, Mt. Washington, Kentucky.

Kansas Auctioneer Wins World Livestock Auctioneer Championship Qualifier

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AZ Group Wants Wild Horse Killings to Stop According to the U.S. Forest Service, any horse present on the National Forest that doesn’t fall under the definition of a wild horse under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burros Act of 1971 is not authorized, and is considered feral.

BY ALEX GONZALEZ / PUBLICNEWSSERVICE.ORG

T

hree dozen wild horses have been shot and killed in the ApacheSitgreaves National Forest, and an Arizona group is advocating for protection for wild horses in the area near Alpine.

Another 15 to 20 horses are missing.

Simone Netherlands, president and founder of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, is con-

“

almost easy to go out there and shoot them.”

According to a U.S. Forest Service website, the wild horses are considered “unauthorized livestock” that competes for food with other animals and plants.

Netherlands said she recognizes that grazing animals have an impact on the environment, but said the close to 400 wild horses in Arizona are the minority among thousands of “authorized” cows, elk and deer - which she contends have a much greater impact on the eco-

According to the U.S. Forest Service, any horse present on the National Forest that

doesn’t fall under the definition of a wild horse

under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burros Act of 1971 is not authorized, and is considered feral.”

vinced the total number of horse killings will increase as the group continues to search the vast 500,000-acre forest.

She said she believes the negativity about wild horses has been catalyzed by agencies and organizations that see these animals as a threat to the ecosystem.

“The problem is they have zero protection,” said Netherlands. “They are not protected by federal law and they’re not protected by state law. They’re not protected by anything. It is

system.

While it’s still unclear who’s killing these horses and why, a $35,000 reward is available to anyone who provides information that leads to a conviction.

The wild horses are periodically rounded up by the Forest Service and taken to auction.

Netherlands’ group has successfully led efforts to save other wild horse populations - like the Salt River wild horses, now protected by an Arizona state law..

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November 15, 2022

Livestock Market Digest

New Publication to Help Livestock Producers Manage Risks

BY PAUL SCHATTENBERG, TEXAS A&M AGRILIFE COMMUNICATIONS, MORNINGAGCLIPS.COM

T

he Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University, AFPC, recently released a new publication to help livestock producers address a variety of risks that may affect their operations.

The new publication, “Where’s the Risk?: A Livestock Risk Management Handbook,” was authored by Bart Fischer, Ph.D., co-director of the AFPC in Texas A&M’s Department of Agricultural Economics, Bryan-College Station. Co-authors were Justin Benavidez, Ph.D., assistant professor and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Amarillo, and Amy Hagerman, Ph.D., assistant professor and Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service specialist, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater.

“Agricultural producers face a litany of risks, from natural disasters to market forces that are far beyond their control,” Fischer said. “At the moment, over half the United States is facing some level of drought, and the cost of inputs have wreaked havoc on agricultural producers over the past year. Unfortunately, in particular, livestock producers historically have had few tools at their disposal for managing risk, largely relying on maintaining animal health and managing costs to stay afloat, in addition to limited use of futures and options.”

He noted future options, exchange-traded contracts that provide price protection for cattle producers is one risk management option.

“While use of futures and options by cattle producers continues to be quite low, a number of other risk management tools have been made available to livestock producers,” Fischer said. “In this handbook, we endeavor to provide an overview of those tools.”

He said while most of these tools are broadly applicable to a number of different species, the focus primarily is on cattle.

“And because livestock ownership and forage production often go hand in hand, this handbook covers both topics,” Fischer said.

Chapters in the new 47page publication include: — Programs Offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, FSA. This chapter addresses the variety of FSA programs available to livestock and mixed crop/livestock producers to address production risks from natural disasters. This includes programs that address the impact of adverse events on land, including the Livestock Forage Program, LFP, and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, NAP. The chapter also addresses disaster response programs that result in adverse death loss, such as the Livestock Indemnity Program, LIP, and the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program, which covers losses

not addressed in LFP, NAP or LIP. The chapter provides an overview of these alternatives and is intended to provide educational information for producers as of the program guidelines in 2021.

“It is important to understand these programs can and do change, and producers who are interested in participating should contact their local Farm Service Agency office to learn about current eligibility and terms,” said Hagerman ’09, Texas A&M Department of Agricultural Economics.

— Programs Offered by USDA’s Risk Management Agency, RMA. Federal crop insurance, administered by RMA, provides coverage for agricultural producers, with producers paying for a share of the premium. Row crops have long been covered

by Multi-Peril Crop Insurance policies such as Revenue Protection and Yield Protection, that are familiar to crop producers.

“Under the Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980, spending on livestock policies was limited to $20 million per fiscal year,” Fischer said. “As a result, while RMA offered crop insurance policies for livestock producers, participation was very limited. The $20 million limitation was eliminated in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, and the impact could be seen almost immediately.”

For example, Fischer noted the change resulted in an order-of-magnitude increase in the liability insured by livestock policies at RMA— increasing from just over $500 million in 2018 to just over $6 billion in 2019. By 2021, the liability insured by livestock policies had grown to more than $14 billion.

He noted a new policy

Page 9 currently under development would provide revenue coverage for weaned calves.

“One insurance product that will soon come on the market that we mention in the publication, Weaned Calf Revenue Protection, is being developed

by AgriLogic here in College Station,” he said.

— Risk Management Using the Futures Market. Trading futures has evolved over time to serve as a pillar of risk management in agricultural production as well as one of agriculture’s primary methods of price discovery. Futures contracts originated as a mechanism to reduce the risk of trading grains from harvest to delivery, and now futures contracts exist for a variety of commodities, including grains, livestock, commodities, energy, metals and financial derivatives that represent companies and financial instruments.

“Futures markets provide buyers and sellers of commodities with the opportunity to establish prices for future delivery,” Benavidez said. “It is a means of mitigating risk through a central marketplace that serves as a clearinghouse and establishes the rules of the game for buyers and sellers.”

After reviewing hedging, discussing budgets and breakeven prices, and detailing the structure of futures and options contracts, this section provides brief examples of hedging strategies using futures and options, he said.

The publication also includes a checklist for producers to use in evaluating the various options at their disposal.

“Our hope is that producers will take the opportunity to avail themselves of the litany of tools that are available,” Fischer said..

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Forest Service employee has been arrested by a local sheriff in response to a prescribed burn.

Can this be true? Apparently so.

On October 19 the Forest initiated a burn in the Malheur National Forest, saying, “After carefully monitoring conditions across the Forest, fire officials have determined that conditions are within specific parameters, including temperature, relative humidity, and fuel moisture to begin prescribed fire operations in specifically planned units.”

But they lost control of the burn and it crossed over to private property on a ranch owned by the Holliday sisters. The sisters lived nearby, knew the conditions were dry, were scared and called 911.

The sheriff of Grant County, Todd McKinley then arrested the “burn boss” of the Forest Service project and charged him with “reckless burning.” At that time the sheriff issued a statement saying, “The Grant County Sheriffs Office arrested a 39-year-old Forest Service Employee for Reckless Burning and transported him to the Grant County jail.

The press release stated “the incident is under investigation.”

In a press interview Sheriff McKinley said “everybody knew it was a bad burn, should not be happening” and “it was a bad time to burn.”

It should also be noted that Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter said, “This case will be evaluated once the investigation is complete, and if appropriate, Snodgrass (the “burn boss”) will formally be charged…if it is determined that he acted recklessly. That the USFS was engaging in a prescribed burn may actually raise, rather than lower the standard to which Snodgrass will be

November 15, 2022 held.”

The District Attorney also said, “To be clear, the employer and/or position of Snod-grass will not protect him if it is determined that he acted recklessly.”

The DA added, “Many will attempt to hype this into something that it is not,” Carpenter added. “The question is whether one neighbor, given the prevailing conditions, was reckless when starting fires adjacent to another neighbor.”

Some are concerned by this event. Steve Ellis, with the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, said he had never heard of a Forest Service employee being arrested for doing prescribed fire.

“To go out and start arresting people is not appropriate. And it sends a terrible signal to our wildland fire people out there now.”

However, others disagree.

“It’s an isolated example, and I would not anticipate that it would have a big impact on work that’s going on across the West,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, the director of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council.

On my blog, THE WESTERNER, I reminded everyone that two members of the Hammond family went to prison for starting their own prescribed fire that crossed over to federal property.

This brought two types of response.

Floyd Rathbun wrote: “Some of us have not forgotten the treatment of the Hammond family by the US Department of Interior.

Maybe this FS character will be allowed to upgrade to the Hammond cell” But Anonymous wrote: “Interesting case here but silly to bring the Hammonds into it, the situations are not remotely similar.”

And I responded: “the situations are not remotely similar.”

Its the principle of the thing A rancher starts a burn on private property which ends up on federal property, and goes to prison. Even tried as a terrorist to get the mandatory minimum.

The feds start a burn on federal property which escapes to private property. And then? I don’t believe it is “silly” to compare the two events in the sense that I have described it.

Perhaps this comment ex-

Tyson, Cargill Commit to Hiring 3,500 Refugees

BY PETER THOMAS RICCI / MEATINGPLACE. COM

T

yson Foods and Cargill pledged to hire thousands of refugees at the U.S. Business Summit on Refugees.

The summit was organized by the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a network of 260 major businesses committed to supporting the economic integration of refugees.

Tent anticipates the U.S. will welcome almost 100,000 Afghani refugees by the end of 2022, along with 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. The U.S. also will see up to 125,000 refugees per year from other parts of the world.

“As refugees in the U.S. often face significant challenges finding work – including language barriers, difficulty certifying their credentials, and lack of a professional network – business leadership is critical to help refugees secure jobs,” Tent stated.

pressed it best: “This arrest may be among the best things that happened to the Forest Service in decades. Public accountability.

We’re all for prescribed burns.

What part of the prescription burns 20 acres of private land?

This is about good government – not party this or that whining or nonsense. The arrest and charges should also go the district ranger who approved the burn in those conditions. Holding the burn boss and district ranger personally, financially liable will also help instill responsibility and accountability in their decisions.

Burning folks’ pastures is the antithesis of “working with the local community.

We should have more ways to hold government accountable and responsible. Our elected officials and judges too often fail the task.”

We will keep watching this one for you.

If I was forced to bet on this, I would have to bet the county will back down because a) their case or jurisdiction is flimsy b) the cost of litigating the issue will be high or c) they will succumb to the threat of all federal funding being withdrawn from the county.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

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

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Tyson Foods, according to Tent, has committed to hiring 2,500 refugees over the next three years. It will provide the new employees with on-site classes through its Upward Academy and Upward Pathways Programs, including professional skills training, English as a second language courses, citizenship and legal assistance, General Educational Development certification, digital literacy classes, and financial literacy training. The company is also addressing transportation issues, access to healthcare, and childcare for its employees.

Cargill, meanwhile, has committed to hiring 1,000 refugees over the same period. It will partner with resettlement organizations to help integrate its refugee employees, including offering them language training, transportation assistance to get to and from work, and help with finding affordable housing.

Tyson and Cargill’s commitments come amid labor shortages through the meat industry, a challenge that has inspired numerous approaches. Tyson, for instance, has experimented with a more flexible scheduling system at some plants, while the NPPC has long pushed for expansion of the H-2A visa program.

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November 15, 2022

Livestock Market Digest

Planned $278 Million Veterinary Health Complex to Support ‘Day One-Ready Veterinarians’

V

eterinary medicine is changing and growing, and Colorado State University’s top-ranked College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is changing, too, with the future of the profession in mind.

The college has announced plans for a $278 million upgrade and expansion of its current veterinary medicine and education facilities housed on the South Campus of CSU, in support of comprehensive, forward-thinking updates to the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine curriculum and cutting-edge clinical research activities.

The CSU DVM curriculum renewal, planned for full rollout in Fall 2026, will educate “day one-ready” veterinarians with unparalleled medical training as well as robust skills in problem-solving, conflict resolution, decision-making, and mental, physical and financial wellbeing.

New, renovated facilities will allow the college to implement this progressive new curriculum while enlarging class sizes and continuing to meet societal demands for highly skilled veterinarians in an increasingly broad array of roles.

Livestock and tertiary care facilities will also be modernized, and clinical trials facilities will be expanded to serve CSU’s leadership in clinical and translational studies in advancing animal and human health.

Veterinary health complex The new veterinary health complex, expected to break ground early next year and be completed in phases through 2028, will transform the CSU South Campus as the site of professional training for all DVM students. The 300,000plus square-foot expansion will include a veterinary education center and a primary care clinic. Renovations or expansions

of current spaces will include a livestock teaching hospital, adjacent to the Johnson Family Equine Hospital, and an animal specialty hospital. The existing James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital, originally constructed in 1978, will undergo a remodel and become the animal specialty hospital in support of clinical education and service.

CSU’s Board of Governors approved the program plan for the veterinary health complex at its October meeting in Fort Collins.

“Our college ranks among the world’s top institutions in veterinary and biomedical education and research,” said Dr. Sue VandeWoude, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “Our expansion plan for the South Campus, which will include updated, innovative learning facilities coupled with modern programming for academic veterinary clinicians, will help us continue our tradition of excellence in the academic mission of teaching; the assessment of novel methods for training clinical students; and our research and service to the community. We are grateful for the Board’s support and look forward to sharing more details of our programmatic and capital improvements in the coming days.”

The expanded primary care clinic in the veterinary health complex will be the keystone of the new curriculum, educating more students in small animal clinical practice while meeting increased market demands for regional and national veterinary care. The new clinic will also help the college better respond to veterinary needs for underserved populations through collaborations with nonprofits and with the CSU Spur campus in Denver.

The adjacent animal specialty hospital will allow for greatly

enhanced emergency and critical care, cardiovascular and surgical care, and orthopedic and rehabilitation programs, as well as expansion of the Flint Animal Cancer Center. In addition, the existing livestock clinical and teaching space will be replaced by a new facility adjacent to the recently opened Johnson Family Equine Hospital.

These renovations will also support cutting-edge clinical research to investigate new diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic interventions for intractable diseases of veterinary patients, analogous to clinical trial programs available for humans.

“The veterinary health complex facilities will empower our people to be leaders in advancing animal healthcare through integrated education, clinical practice and research,” said Dr. Kelly Hall, associate professor in Critical Care Services and a member of the project planning team. “This integrated approach elevates and leverages the expertise and experiences of our staff and faculty to continually advance all aspects of veterinary medicine.”

In response to the ongoing demand for veterinarians across both large- and small-animal specialties, the Fort Collins DVM class size is also anticipated to grow by around 30 students, to a total of about 170. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the employment of clinical veterinarians to grow nearly 20 percent over the next decade, and there is a concurrent shortage of veterinarians entering academic, governmental and industrial positions.

Currently, first- and second-year students are educated primarily on the Main Campus, while third- and fourth-years are educated on the South Campus. When completed, the programmatic and space upgrades

Page 11 will allow the college to bring all DVM students to the South Campus, enhancing opportunities for collaboration, learning and support among peers.

Progressive veterinary curriculum The new veterinary curriculum will be among the most progressive in the world when fully implemented in the next several years, said Matthew Johnston, associate professor in avian, exotic and zoological medicine and co-chair of the college’s curriculum renewal committee.

“We are focused on things like building a growth mindset for our students, active learning, and preclinical opportunities,” Johnston said. Many of the changes are driven by American Veterinary Medical Association recommendations for veterinary schools to shift their curriculums to lessen the need for onthe-job training for new graduates, according to Johnston.

Another foundational step was outreach to employers, alumni, producers and professional organizations to help identify core competencies.

Hands-on experiences for veterinary students will increase, particularly in relation to surgical training. A dedicated surgical skills training facility is included in the veterinary

education center plans, giving students more opportunities to learn and perform common procedures, including wound repairs, dental procedures and spays/neuters.

The curriculum will also answer longstanding needs to focus more resources on the mental health and well-being of veterinary students and newly minted veterinarians who are starting businesses, building practices or joining clinics or other organizations. “For eons, these types of things have been extracurricular for the most part,” Johnston said. Now, substantial portions of the curriculum will be devoted to topics like culture, advocacy, leadership and livelihood.

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