LMD Feb 2015

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

– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL FEBRUARY 15, 2015 • www. aaalivestock . com

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Digest L Volume 57 • No. 2

by Lee Pitts

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Totally Undigestible Garbage

NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING

Every five years the USDA and Health and Human Services Department publishes Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Six months from now they will jointly disseminate the 8th annual version. According to the USDA, “the Dietary Guidelines form the basis of Federal nutrition policy, education, outreach, and food assistance programs used by con-

The best way to appreciate how another person rides is to get on their horse. sumers, industry, nutrition educators, and health professionals.”

These guidelines are promoted in USDA propaganda and are used to formulate Food Stamps (now known as SNAP), Women Infants and Children aid, and the School Lunch Program. “The Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” says the USDA, “provides sound advice for making food and physical activity choices that promote good health.”

The facts would suggest otherwise. How odd that the period in which these Dietary Guidelines were promoted coincided with the fattening of America. So

much for promoting good health.

Please note that no where has anyone stated that these dietary guidelines are supposed to be based on anything other than nutrition. Even though the Dietary Guidelines have painted a big bullseye on red meat in the past, at no time previously have these Guidelines said that we should eat less red meat because the planet was heating up, the polar bear population was decreasing (it is not), or that Hollywood was about to be inundated with sea water (we can only hope).

But all that is about to change. In the 2015 installment of the Dietary Guidelines Americans will be told they should eat less red meat for environmental reasons, such as global warming, sustainability (whatever that is), and other totally undigestible green garbage.

If It’s Green, It’s Rotten In a meeting on December 15, 2014, an advisory panel to the USDA and HHS gave clues as to what their final recommendations will be. As they have done in the past you can bet your boots we’ll hear the usual “a healthy dietary pattern includes fewer red and processed meats than are currently consumed.”

But in addition to that nonsense this time beef will be dissed because red meat is not “sustainable.” Back in my college days when I was trying to formulate livestock rations in nutrition courses I don’t recall having to factor in either sustainability or global warming. continued on page two

Federal officer mistaken for fake cop

BY DAN MARRIES, TUCSON NEWS NOW

A 16-year-old girl driving near Tombstone, Arizona, who thought she was pulled over by a man impersonating a police officer, was in fact, pulled over by a law enforcement officer.

After further investigation, the Tombstone Marshal's Office has concluded it was a legitimate and official stop conducted by a Bureau of Land Management Officer.

The girl’s claims caused enough concern that on January 28 the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department issued an advisory for drivers regarding a “suspicious subject who may be impersonating a Law

by LEE PITTS

What’s In Your Kit?

Eating Green ith all the talk about COOL and food labels swirling about I’m a little hesitant to suggest that perhaps we need one more food label. Starting immediately I strongly suggest that either of the following two labels should appear on all packages of food in big red letters: “WARNING! Letting the government tell you what to eat could be dangerous to your health and may cause death.” Or perhaps this . . .

“Looking to Michelle Obama for nutritional advice is like asking her husband for suggestions on how to balance a budget.”

Perhaps I should also put the following warning label on this story: “WARNING! After reading this article you may become highly agitated. Even angry.

Please do not take your rage out on your spouse, your dog or the author.”

Riding Herd

Enforcement Officer in the Sierra Vista/Tombstone area,” followed by a description of the man.

Following what she considered a suspicious stop, Jennifer Maxwell reported to authorities that a white truck pulled her over with emergency lights flashing on the dashboard.

Maxwell says the man, who she says was not wearing a police uniform, had his weapon drawn and asked if she had been drinking because she appeared to be driving in and out of her lane. Maxwell says she had not been drinking and was using her brakes to the road conditions and varying speed limits.

The Tombstone Marshal

was able to locate a Bureau of Land Management Officer who logged a traffic stop with Maxwell. A second driver, who was behind Maxwell at the time of the stop, was also located and interviewed. That witness confirmed the truck making the stop was a white Dodge with BLM markings on the side and front lights on the bumper.

The Cochise County Sheriff's Office says the BLM officer says he did not have his service weapon drawn but that he did have his hand resting on the holster. Maxwell was notified and met with the Marshal to positively identify the BLM officer as the one who stopped her on Charleston Road.

ivestock publications this time of year often run articles on Spring calving. These articles always start with instructions to make sure your fences are tight, you are well rested, and that you are on good terms with a veterinarian so that when you call the vet at 2:00 a.m. with a calving issue he or she is going to pop right out of bed and drive 60 miles in a blizzard to your place to deliver a calf. Ha ha ha. Like that’s gonna happen.

The experts suggest writing a schedule so that everyone knows what time they will be on call. For example, the schedule I always taped to our refrigerator door said that from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. I was responsible. From 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. it was my wife’s turn to be on call. I considered this a fair division of labor because, as we all know, most heifers calve at night when it is most inconvenient and women are more rested and handle stress better than men. They are also much better at motherhood and all it entails, so it is only smart and fair that they be on call when a 600-pound heifer tries to give birth to a calf the size of a hay bale. A BIG bale.

The authors of these articles suggest you have a calving kit ready. Not surprisingly, the contents of my calving kit are much more practical than the ones suggested by professors who write such columns. The Docs say you should have a box of plastic sleeves handy in case the calf is upside down or breech. But we all know how easy the sleeves break. Instead I suggest that you take a clean finger and gently poke the heifer or cow in the eyeball and as if by magic her calf will automatically right itself. Or not.

Another thing they suggest is to have the proper lubricant on hand. I agree wholeheartedly and although yours may differ, I always preferred a good shot of Crown Royal as my lubricant. You’ll probably need a flashlight by your wife’s bedcontinued on page fourteen

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Livestock Market Digest

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February 15, 2015

Eating Green The advisory panel’s draft recommendations after their December meeting stated that “a dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is “more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet.”

Of course, environmentalists were pushing for such green dietary advice and can hardly contain their glee that beef has been especially targeted. For example, the panel also quoted the National Academy of Sciences who stated that “raising beef for the American dinner table is more harmful to the environment than other meat industries such as pork and chicken.” They also said that of the popular meats, beef was the worst because it “produced more heat-trapping gases per calorie, takes more water for irrigation and uses more land.”

The Dietary Guidelines panel justified these non-dietary reasons for not eating red meat by

continued from page one

government telling people exactly the wrong things to eat for over three decades.

Oops!

In 2010 the Food Pyramid was replaced with much fanfare

by Michelle Obama’s “MyPlate” program, which is the Food Pyramid on steroids. Funny, I don’t ever remember voting for Michelle for anything and I don’t think she’s a government employee, although she’s got a huge staff paid for by taxpayers.

And I thought she studied law in college, not nutrition. Anyway, the new MyPlate guidelines, suggest that at least half of your dietary intake should come from starches and sugars (grains and fruit), less than 1/4 come from protein, and another 1/4 come from vegetables. The USDA and Michelle want you to eat less beef because it contains saturated fats, which they equate with nasty things like Republicans, oil rigs and cows.

The “experts” making the dietary recommendations are supposed to consider all relevant

“there is compatibility and overlap between what’s good for health and good for the environment.”

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saying “there is compatibility and overlap between what’s good for health and good for the environment.”

I suppose to be politically correct we should now say, “Global warming, it’s what’s for dinner!”

As one would expect, the World Health Organization, vegetarian groups, and the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine were all excited about any idea or concept that would remove red meat from our diet. Kari Hamerschlag of Friends of the Earth said, “We need to make sure our diets are in alignment with our natural resources and the need to reduce climate change.”

Another avowed enemy of ranchers everywhere, Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest added, “You don’t want to recommend a diet that is going to poison the planet.”

If they couldn’t convince Americans to become vegetarians for nutritional reasons, perhaps the feds could use environmental concerns as a way make sure all Americans get their recommended daily allowance of green. I don’t know about you but in our refrigerator anything that’s green is assumed to be rotten and thrown away. But the bureaucrats in these United Nanny States of America want you to eat green food until you gag on it.

OOPS! Remember USDA’s food pyramid that advised us all how to eat? Well, it turns out that pyramid was built on shifting sand. No wonder obesity is an epidemic in this country with the

studies and information in suggesting what you should eat, but one wonders if they even know how to read or use a library. The past ten years we have been deluged with dozens of studies that suggest USDA’s nutritional advice could not have been more wrong, and has been a recipe for obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.

For example . . . n A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine studied the relationship between dietary fats and heart disease that included over 600,000 people and came to the conclusion that, “Current evidence does not clearly support cardiovascular guidelines that encourage high consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and low consumption of total saturated fats.”

This is exactly opposite of what USDA dietary guidelines say. For better heart health the USDA recommends polyunsaturated fats like those in found in USDA subsidized crops like corn and soybean oils. The USDA says these are better for you than “unhealthy” animal fat. n In 2010 the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at saturated fat and its so-called association with cardiovascular disease. The study looked at 347,747 patients from past clinical studies during a 23 year period and found that there was no link between saturated fat and heart disease. n In 2013 Dr. Glen Lawrence from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Long Island University did a metaanalysis, meaning he looked at hundreds of studies that looked continued on page fourteen

February 15, 2015

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

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Livestock Market Digest

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We still want beef

BY MIRANDA REIMAN

eople love beef.

When price skyrockets, and incomes are tight, people still love beef. That’s according to a new Oklahoma State University research report, “Retail and Foodservice Marketing Trends for Beef.”

Co-authors Bailey Harsh and Deb VanOverbeke combined data from major consumer databases to find, “even as late as 2013, among consumers who changed their meat purchases 91 percent were spending less.”

Most indications show that’s

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returning to pre-recession levels.

“The majority of consumers today say beef isn’t too expensive.

But most importantly, 72 percent of consumers listed beef as their first or top choice of proteins in 2013,” it states.

“Even during a recession, folks still want to have beautiful moments in their lives,” says John Lundeen, senior executive director of market research for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a contractor to the Beef Checkoff.

Still, as drought and other herd-shrinking circumstances helped elevate prices and add to

the cash register crunch, many predicted a decline in demand.

“If you look at the trends, beef consumption didn’t really fall during that time,” says VanOverbeke.

“They maybe changed how they used it, maybe using more casserole-type dishes using beef, rather than having steak—but people didn’t change beef consumption as a whole.”

Trading middle meats for grinds gave home cooks a chance to stretch their food dollars, Lundeen says.

“Ground beef is very familiar and you can do a lot of things with it,” he says. “I can buy a pound of ground beef and feed my family, so there is a value story there.”

It’s easy to prepare—a trait most beef eaters are looking for today.

Beef consumption is higher among the “Millennial” generation, those born from 1980 to 2000, than those over 35.

“Millennials are a major target for beef marketing because they consume the most beef both at home and in restaurants of any generation and, given their age, will continue to be a major driver of beef demand,” the research says.

A decline in high-school cooking education coupled with more after-school activities taking families out of the kitchen, could lead to a decrease in preparing beef for dinner, Lundeen says.

“It’s not happening at school and it’s happening to a smaller degree in the home, so you just don’t grow up with it,” he says, “but that does not mean that

February 15, 2015 there isn’t a desire to cook.”

Indeed, this generation has grown up with the Food Network and a greater exposure to a vast array of food choices.

“Cooking is a very social thing and is a common force among people,” Lundeen says, noting that the beef industry must equip consumers to work with the product.

In some cases, it’s increasing easy-to-prepare options. The paper says in the past four years the number of consumers preparing “convenience meats” has increased 12 percent .

“We can’t assume that folks know how to buy the cut, how to season it, how to prep it and how to know when it’s done or what temperature to cook it at,” Lundeen says, “but the desire for knowledge is there and people want great food. That’s what beef has to deliver on.”

The higher quality the beef, the more likely it is to live up to expectations, says Phil Bass, Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) brand meat scientist.

“High quality meat results in the high quality end product,” he says, noting marbling increases the three palatability components: tenderness, juiciness and flavor.

“Marbling is less dense than protein, so if you have the marbling in that piece of meat it’s going to be easier to bite through.”

Research also shows the more intramuscular fat, the more intense the “beautiful, buttery-flavor” and the juicer the meat is.

Higher quality beef is also more forgiving. Beef Checkoff studies show nearly 50 percent of people like their steaks cooked “medium well” to “well done.”

“As a result, if you don’t have

that marbling in there then it’s going to turn out to be a very dry steak,” Bass says. “The marbling doesn’t evaporate, but the water does cook off.”

Branding at the meat case helps assure purchasers they’re getting what they want.

“In all categories, consumers have preferred brands. When you talk about ketchup, most people are brand loyal,” VanOverbeke shares as an example. “We’re seeing beef move toward that brand recognition.”

Since 2002, CAB demand increased 108 percent, compared to a 51 percent increase for USDA Choice or higher, and a decline of one percent for unbranded Choice, according to a Kansas State University demand index in 2014.

“Part of the goal is to get consumers to come back to that section of the meat case over and over again because they are happy with the beef they had the last time,” she says VanOverbeke says the main research message is that beef came through the recession in good shape and poised for growth.

“Consumers ultimately believe the price reflects beef’s value and continue to vote with their dollars for beef’s flavor, juiciness, tenderness and versatility,” the authors say.

People love beef.

Now it’s up to the industry to make sure they continue to have reasons to, Lundeen cautions: “We have to produce a great product that, at the end of the day, tastes good. Actually it has to taste more than good. It has to taste great.”

To read more, view the entire white paper at www.cabpartners.com/news/research.php.

February 15, 2015

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

The Truth Behind Sustainability

BY ANDREA HUTCHISON, CANTON, OKLAHOMA

ave you found yourself purchasing “sustainable” with the thought, “Maybe this guilt of trying to stay within my family’s budget by purchasing non-organic – GMO infused – antibiotic pesticide injected products – will subside?

Choices are great. If you can afford organic go for it.

If you want non GMO, that’s your business. Maybe you’re a consumer who trust our U.S. food safety standards, second to none, that’s awesome. Use that extra cash to buy a boat or house. Americans have choices. But not for long.

“Sustainability”, the harmless appearing stamp of approval packaged just for consumers destroys. Producers cannot comply with regulations stemming from a climate change agenda. Behind it lives a plan known as U.N. Agenda 21 Sustainable Development. Freedom is incrementally and strategically evicted and replaced with centralized control.

As a fifth generation rancher I have witnessed destruction firsthand. Every economic sector, banking, health care, energy and education, specifically America’s

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What Is a Rich Person’s “Fair Share?” hat the rich should “pay their fair share” is a constant refrain in American politics, but what exactly does that mean?

Wealthy Americans are already paying disproportionate amounts of taxes.

National Tax Limitation Foundation Chairman Lewis Uhler and Senior Fellow Peter Ferrara detail exactly who is paying federal taxes – and how much: n The top 20 percent of income earners earn just 50 percent of pretax income, yet they pay 70 percent of all federal taxes. n The top 20 percent of earners pay 93 percent of all federal income taxes. n The top 1 percent earn 14.6 percent of pretax income, yet they pay 24 percent of federal taxes.

Contrast these figures with the taxes paid by those on the middle and lower ends of the income scale: n The middle 20 percent of earners earn 14.1 percent of pretax income, yet they pay just 8.9 percent of federal taxes.

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continued on page six

affordable food supply, is being dismantled. From producer to retail end-users, and everything in between; land, water, air and animals, the fabric of our food supply is being dismantled. Nebulous terms such as biodiversity, human capital, and ecosystems are a few of the key identifiers within sustainability.

Private property rights and sustainability cannot co-exist.

Stripping that ownership, the basis for free markets and capitalism, is the intent of those advancing Agenda 21.

Efforts to inject environment into all economies within the U.S. was a plan introduced by the United Nations’ Brundtland Commission in 1983. Hi-jacking and redefining the word sustainability, honing it into a tool, which could ultimately be used for top down, centralized control was the goal.

The Triple Bottom Line or Three Pillars, houses the regulations in the name of being socially and environmentally acceptable according to

extremist’s standards. Regulatory protocol is determined through destructive public, private partnerships with radical extremists, Non-Governmental (NGOs), federal agencies, associations and foundations and large corporations. Grassroots have little room at this table.

Skewed research based on the consensus of a few is producing flawed science and burdensome regulations onto food producers. The implementation of 7 Regional USDA Climate Hubs in 2014 by the Obama administration only promulgated this top down centralized control agenda.

The result of research based on global warming is limiting consumer choice and creating higher food prices.

Expansion of the endangered species act has allowed federal agencies more control over private property, shutting down farming, irrigation and destroying communities across the nation. Species (plants, insects, mammals) listed which now number into

the thousands can take productive land out of use if found on landowner’s properties.

Within the urban setting Agenda 21 is marching on.

Local governments, especially if they sign up as dues-paying members of ICLEI (now called Local Governments for Sustainability), are encouraged to limit what people do on their own property for supposed benefits to the environment.

Capitalism and property ownership improve the world around us, you need only to travel outside the U.S. where those rights have been infringed to witness the evidence. We must focus on protecting our constitutional rights and the sanctity of private property. We must proudly promote capitalism which will bring about the true meaning of sustainability: passing liberty, freedom and choice on to future generations For more information visit American Policy Center, The Greatest Hoax, I Love Ag, Janet Hufnagel Thompson

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Livestock Market Digest

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February 15, 2015

Ag Coalition for Cuba Launched CINDY ZIMMERMAN, AG WIRED

ore than 25 companies and organizations have launched the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba (USACC) in Washington to liberalize trade and re-establish Cuba as a market for U.S. food and agriculture exports.

Among the speakers who

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introduced the new coalition were a list of lawmakers from a variety of states, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, and representatives from a number of the organizations who are part of the new group. “Today we gather to discuss an expanded opportunity for American agriculture – our farmers and our ranchers,” said Vil-

sack. “Allow them to expand business opportunities in a country just 90 miles from our border – Cuba.”

Agricultural organizations representing a variety of commodities including corn and soybeans, poultry, meat and dairy, wheat and rice, have all stepped up to become members of the coalition.

“We know the Cuban market for rice is not theoretical. It is real, it is large, and it is compelling,” said Betsy Ward, President and CEO of USA Rice. “With rice imports valued at more than $300 million, Cuba is the second largest importer of rice in the Americas.

And there was a time when Cuba was our number one export market — we look forward to a return to those days.”

Others who spoke at the National Press Club event announcing the coalition were

Alan Tracy with U.S. Wheat Associates, Dale Moore with American Farm Bureau, and Stephen Sothmann of the U.S. Hide, Skin and Leather Association.

The USACC believes that normalizing trade relations between the U.S. and Cuba will provide the U.S. farm and business community with new market access opportunities, drive enhanced growth in both countries and allow U.S. farmers, ranchers and food companies to efficiently address Cuban citizen’s food security needs. Under current sanctions, U.S. food and agriculture companies can legally export to Cuba, but financing and trade restrictions limit their ability to serve the market competitively.

The USACC ultimately seeks to end the embargo and allow for open trade and investment.

Introducing: the world’s first airport terminal for animals Humans, prepare to be jealous.

BY LAUREN DAVIDSON, TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

ir travel can be such a nightmare, but one airport is determined to improve the experience . . . for animals, that is.

John F. Kennedy Airport is set to open the first privatelyowned animal terminal in the world. It will be called, naturally, The Ark. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has signed a 30-year lease deal with Ark Development, an affiliate of the real estate company Racebrook Capital, to design and build a 178,000-square-foot animal cargo facility at the Queens, New York-based airport.

The $48 million project will create 180 jobs and generate $108 million in revenues over its 30-year span, the organisers said.

“For the animals who [will] pass through The Ark, as well as the people who own them, air travel can be stressful and confusing,” said Cliff Bollmann, an architect at Gensler, one of the firms designing the facility.

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Fair Share n The bottom 20 percent of earners earn 5.3 percent of pretax income, yet they pay just 0.6 percent of federal income taxes.

In fact, looking specifically at federal income taxes, Uhler and Ferrara cite Congressional Budget Office figures showing that the bottom 20 percent of earners actually pay a negative federal income tax of 7.5 percent, and the next 20 percent of earners have a negative tax rate of 1.3 percent – both groups are net takers when it comes to federal income taxes. The middle 20 percent of earners (those earning

“Aligning the needs of quarantine with kennelling and elevating the experience for animals and their owners, our design team sought to create a comfortable, healthy environment for them all.”

The Ark, which is scheduled to open in the early months of 2016, will include a departure lounge with comfortable places to sit, eat and drink (Costa Coffee for critters?), individual climate-controlled bedrooms for horses and cattle, a vet, an aviary and a Paradise 4 Paws for cats and dogs.

JFK is one of the busiest airports in the world, with some 50 million people a year landing and taking off from its runways.

John J. Cuticelli, Jr, the chairman of Racebrook Capital, said the concept tackles “unmet needs” of travelling companion, sporting and agricultural animals. The terminal “will set new international airport standards for comprehensive veterinary, kennelling and quarantine services.”

If only someone would think of a way to make the flying experience that pleasant for humans. continued from page five

14 percent of pretax income) pay a 2.4 percent income tax rate.

While the president insists the rich aren't paying their fair share, the numbers are pretty stark, say Uhler and Ferrara: the top 1 percent in 2012 paid 28 percent more in federal income taxes than did the bottom 90 percent of earners who, despite earning 52 percent of income, paid less than 30 percent of federal income taxes.

Source: Lewis Uhler and Peter Ferrara, “The rich pay more than their fair share,” Washington Times, January 20, 2015.

BLM and Forest Service 2015 Grazing Fee is $1.69 he Federal grazing fee for 2015 will be $1.69 per animal unit month (AUM) for public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and $1.69 per head month (HM) for lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The 2014 fee was $1.35.

An AUM or HM – treated as equivalent measures for fee purposes – is the use of public lands by one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. The newly calculated grazing fee, determined by a congressional formula and effective on March 1, applies to nearly 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the BLM and more than 8,000 permits administered by the Forest Service.

The formula used for calculating the grazing fee, which was established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act, has continued under a presidential Executive Order issued in 1986.

Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per AUM, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year’s level.

The annually determined grazing fee is computed by using a 1966 base value of $1.23 per AUM/HM for livestock grazing on public lands in Western states. The figure is then calculated according to three factors – current private grazing land lease rates, beef cattle prices, and the cost of livestock production. In effect, the fee rises, falls, or stays the same based on market conditions, with livestock operators paying more when conditions are better and less when conditions have declined.

The 2015 grazing fee of $1.69 per AUM/HM grazing fee applies to 16 Western states on public lands administered by the BLM and the Forest Service. The states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Permit holders and lessees may contact their local BLM or U.S. Forest Service office for additional information.

The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages more land – over 245 million surface acres – than any other Federal agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 Western states, including Alaska.

The Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, manages approximately 193 million acres of Federal lands in 44 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

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February 15, 2015

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

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Decline in Canadian, Mexican cow herds stabilizes with COOL implementation

BY LEO MCDONNELL FARMANDRANCHGUIDE.COM

he United States country of origin labeling (COOL) for beef was implemented in 2009. While opponents to such consumer transparency issues have claimed that COOL was supported by those U.S. cattle producers wishing to restrict trade, I can tell you that was never the intent and the facts simply don’t support this propagandist tactic.

From 2005 to 2009 the Canadian cow herd declined by 18 percent, from around 5.4 million cows to 4.3 million cows.

Interestingly, from 2010 through 2014, after COOL implementation, there has only been a minimal contraction of one to two percent annually. While I’m not saying COOL had anything to do with these herd stabilizations, what an interesting coincidence.

What has been really impressive is to look at the volume of live cattle and beef imports from Canada as a percentage of the Canadian cow herd. While one would have thought that as the Canadian cow herd was shrinking, the percent of product for export after domestic use in Canada would have dropped.

However, it appears the U.S. is taking a larger and larger share of Canadian production (cattle and beef) as a percentage of

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How Cold Was It? t was cold this winter. How cold was it?

It was so cold every calf north of Cabool, Missouri that was at least 1/8 Bramer sold himself and bought a ticket to Brownsville!

– so cold every coyote in Idaho carried jumper cables to start the jack rabbits!

– so cold every vegetable farmer in California remembered where he came from!

– so cold every wild horse in Nevada was callin’ the BLM for room service!

– so cold North Dakota froze in Minnesota and when it thawed and broke off it picked up three new counties

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their cow herd, with 2013 and 2014 representing the highest at somewhere around 55 to 57 percent and that’s figuring a 100 percent calf crop.

When you look at Mexico, it is basically the same. The Mexican cow herd began a steep decline in 1994 when Mexico had about 13 million beef cows.

The cow herd shrank to 10 million in 2002 and 6.7 million in 2007. Interestingly, about the time COOL was implemented in 2008 and 2009, those numbers started leveling off and in 2011 and 2012 reached 7 million head. Numbers then fell again to 6.7 in 2013 and 6.8 in 2014 following a severe drought.

Interestingly, even though Mexican cow numbers had dropped, 3 of the 5 top cattle import years since 2005 came after COOL was implemented.

And yes they had a drought, but one of those years was 2014 and amazingly all this has happened at a time when the Mexican government initiated programs to add more USDA approved packing plants and rapidly worked to expand cattle feeding in Mexico to capture more value for the economy.

Under these programs beef exports have increased to the U.S. now making Mexico the 4th largest exporter of beef to the U.S. In fact, we saw live animal equivalents of Mexican beef

and another Congressman!

– so cold in Hyannis, NE the hired man broke ice in his stock tank and didn’t hit water ‘til Lake McConaughy!

– so cold in Ohio that the ewes all bought down-lined Pendletons – so cold in Nancy, KY that the New Year’s Day Parade was held in the county snow plow!

– so cold in Montana that ranchers were renting mobile methane emitters to shivering environmentalists!

– so cold in Harlan, Iowa, Santy’s sleigh got stuck on top of the water tower. He was rescued and airlifted to the Elks Club in Audobon for treatment.

– so cold in Macon County, Tennessee the local Global

imports rise from 60,000 in 2008 to about 400,000 in 2014.

When you add it all up, 5 of the top 6 years of cattle and beef equivalent have come since COOL was implemented.

If Canada and Mexico were truly being discriminated against, as determined by the WTO panel ruling, we should be taking less of their production, not more; however, a common theme through their market reports is that a strong U.S. market has been driving these exports to the U.S. 2014 will be the second highest year for cattle imports from Mexico and Canada into the U.S. and with the smallest cow herds on record. That’s pretty amazing and certainly does not support claims of discrimination.

On another note, with increased liberalization of U.S. health protocols on BSE and FMD to South American countries and the EU, and increased FTAs on the horizon, one can only expect increased imports into the U.S. This only makes it more important that U.S. producers have the tools necessary to move from commodity markets to more value based markets with the consumer’s, and COOL will be critical in allowing both U.S. cattle producers and U.S. consumers to differentiate their beef, as we have already done in many foreign

Warming Task Force postponed their meeting ‘til spring!

– so cold in Maple Creek, Sask. they put their rye in the refrigerator to warm it up!

– so cold in Oklahoma it laid a sheet of black ice on Interstate 40 so slick that traders as far east as El Reno could tie five steers together, lay ‘em down and slide’m plum to Elk City auction barn with just one push!

– so cold at Monfort’s feedlot in Kersey, CO the horse’s feet looked like coasters on a footstool, the steers humped up like mountains complete with a timberline and every pen checker tore holes in his moon boots tryin’ to get his spurs on!

– so cold between Lander and Casper, WY that the wind froze everything within 168 sq. mi. Fortunately no one was hurt.

It was so cold! Craig called from Consort, Alberta. I asked him what the temperature was. He said, “Minus 38.”

I asked him if that was Fahrenheit or Centigrade?

He said, “It doesn’t make any difference!”

markets.

As one looks out on the horizon, one of the highest values consumers will be placing on the food they purchase in the future

is “how and where it is produced.”

(Leo McDonnell ranches in Columbus, Montana and Rhame, North Dakota. He also sits on various industry association boards.)

Livestock Market Digest

Page 8

anyone who lives in the West, be they private landowners or users of federal lands. Wyoming Republican Cynthia Lummis will chair the Interior Subcommittee.

Suspended AUMs

By Frank DuBois This month’s column covers changes in Congress, changes in a BLM handbook, Ted Turner’s ferrets and the First Lady’s continuing attacks on meat producers.

Congressional Oversight he elections have brought what could be some exciting changes to Congressional oversight of the land management agencies.

Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has been appointed Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and immediately announced the formation of an Interior Subcommittee to oversee Interior, EPA,

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and the Energy and Agriculture departments. Chaffetz said he’s deeply concerned about access to federal lands and the “ever expanding” size of the federal estate. Chaffetz said the Interior panel will take a microscope to three laws: The 1906 Antiquities Act (gives President authority to designate monuments), NEPA and the Endangered Species Act. All three are important to

The BLM is proposing changes to their Grazing Handbook that would grant authority to field managers to remove suspended AUMs that are unlikely to be active in the foreseeable future when they reissue grazing permits. This could have a big impact on the value of grazing permits and also effect loans based on those permits. A BLM spokesman says the proposed changes are currently being reviewed by State Offices, that there is no requirement for public comment and they hope to finalize the changes by this summer.

Monument Grazing Utah Senators Hatch and Lee will be introducing legislation titled Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Grazing Protection Act. The bill is apparently in response to recent proposals to reduce grazing in the monument. In a statement Senator Hatch said, “When President Clinton designated the Grand Staircase-Escalante a monument, I called it ‘the mother of all land grabs.’ But BLM’s ongoing campaign to reduce grazing here makes its look more like a hijacking. We cannot stand idly by while work that previous generations have done is being undermined.” And Senator Lee said, “Grazing is a critical component of Utah’s rural economy and this amendment, if adopted, would preserve the grazing rights that Utah families have used for generations.”

The Senators have introduced an amendment to the Keystone pipeline legislation that has language on grazing in the monument. It says that any livestock grazing that was established pri-

February 15, 2015 or to the designation shall be allowed to continue, subject to such reasonable regulation as the Secretary may deem necessary.

That is followed by this language: on the condition that the Secretary shall allow the grazing levels to continue at current levels to the maximum extent practicable.

That’s pretty strong language and shows you what Senators who really care about the livestock industry can attempt on our behalf. They will be introducing a stand alone bill on this topic and we will monitor its progress.

Ted Turner and ferrets The Vermejo Park Ranch, owned by Ted Turner, is seeking a permit from New Mexico to import black-footed ferrets.

USFWS’s ferret recovery coordinator, Pete Gober, says they are working with private landowners like Turner to implement a 10year plan for boosting ferret numbers across the region.

There are currently 21 reintroduction sites in the region.

Under new rules, the State Game Commission will decide on the permit.

Bureaucratic cruelty The New York Times has published a long piece titled “U.S. Research Lab Lets Livestock Suffer in Quest for Profit” and subtitled “Animal Welfare at Risk in Experiments for Meat Industry”. Can you see where this is headed? The article exposes piglets crushed by sows, deformed calves and “ewes are giving birth, unaided, in open fields where newborns are killed by predators, harsh weather and starvation.” Imagine that. Giving birth unaided and in an open field, and we can be assured the harsh weather is caused by global warming. All this aimed at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska.

So what is their ultimate goal?

It would appear to be the Animal Welfare Act of 1966, which according to the authors left a “gaping exemption: farm animals used in research to benefit agriculture.” But never fear, because according to Reuters our courageous leaders at USDA have sent a memo to all ARS employees stating an independent panel would be convened to review ARS's animal handling protocols, policies and research practices.

Better get ready for federallyfunded PETA Patrols at your favorite ARS facility or land grant university.

Michelle O causes global warming How can I say that? Just follow me.

National Geographic reports “a

third of all of the food that’s produced on our planet never reaches a table”, with it either being spoiled in transit or thrown out by the consumer. That equates to roughly 1.3 billion tons of food, worth nearly $1 trillion at retail prices, and causes a “staggering” amount of environmental damage. Citing a U.N. report, they say that uses enough water to equal the entire flow of Europe’s largest river – the Volga. They claim the energy expended in the production, transporting, and packaging of wasted food generates 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and that if food waste was a country, it would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Now let’s turn to school lunches and recall my November report about a survey conducted by the National School Boards Association. The survey was concerning the Healthy HungerFree Kids Act championed by the First Lady. It found the kids weren’t buying what USDA was giving away. Since the law passed in 2010, the survey found that 84 percent of the schools contacted were seeing an increase in “plate waste” as the kids were dumping that healthy stuff in the trash. In other words, more wasted food.

So for the first time ever I’m in agreement with National Geographic and the United Nations: Michelle Obama causes global warming!

No fries for small fry USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service is proposing strict new guidelines that would prohibit the frying of meat at children’s daycare centers across the country. In their attempt to promote “health and wellness of children”, the USDA writes in the Federal Register: “While facilities would not be permitted under this proposed rule to prepare foods on site by frying them, store-bought, catered, or pre-fried foods can still contribute large amounts of calories and saturated fat to a meal. Therefore, facilities are encouraged to limit all fried and pre-fried foods to no more than once per week.”

Instead of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, this administration is enforcing Don’t Fry, Don’t Serve.

They are the American Sniper, shooting at both ends of your operation – limiting grazing on one end and prohibiting consumption on the other.

Till 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.

For advertising, subscription and editorial inquiries write or call: Livestock Market Digest P.O. Box 7458, Albuquerque, N.M. 87194 Telephone: 505/243-9515

February 15, 2015

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Register Those Bulls!

BY KRIS RINGWALL, BEEF SPECIALIST, NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERVICE

hen buying registered bulls, always, always insist on transferring the registration number to your operation. Do not make the statement: “Well, the bull only will be used on commercial cows, so I do not need the bull registered.” That is wrong, just wrong.

The biggest toe-stubbing problem in the beef industry is the lack of understanding of the value of individual animal identification. Now I know the chorus of objections will grow and hit a crescendo note, but that is OK. The point today is simple.

Even if individual animal identification numbers are not available for all the cattle in the inventory, the registration numbers available throughout the purebred business are critical and the heart of the breed association.

Did you know that for some breeds, you simply can start registering cattle? By doing so, a producer starts to build a genetic database. Am I being overly enthusiastic? No. The registration numbers are a pathway to the genetic offering through the various breed associations.

Recently, I have been busy assisting producers at bull-buying workshops. These workshops seem to be appreciated as producers develop baseline or benchmark values for production traits of previous bulls utilized in the herd. Too often, the stumbling block is the lack of a registration number, which blocks access to the database that contains the bull’s information.

Genetic knowledge is critical to the future of the beef business. Without trying to upset anyone, bull circles encompass a lot of discussion, which is good.

However, generally, if the breeder has done his or her homework, every bull has been registered and the genes that are available are known.

Even more exciting, as the DNA is analyzed for individual bulls and cows, the genomic enhanced expected progeny differences (EPDs) are more accurate and increase the level of knowledge going into the calculations that produce the EPD value. Ever heard the saying: “Look it up; you will remember it longer?”

At the Dickinson Research Extension Center, we occasionally are asked what bulls we are using and why. The answer is pretty simple. For our Red Angus bulls, the registration numbers are 1617805 and 1617778. For the Angus bulls, the registration numbers are 17628526 and 17698292. For the Simmental bulls, the registration numbers are 2669482, 2790504 and 2790544. We have one Shorthorn bull. His registration number is x4190244. Given

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those numbers, anyone can go to the various breed associations and look up the data on the bulls.

Some might feel this infringes on the owner’s space, but in the big picture, knowing the registration numbers and the ability to access the performance data on bulls are very good tools in the beef producer’s toolbox.

The center’s EPD values for the various breeds reflect bulls that are lighter in birth weight and moderate in growth and milk. The center also places more emphasis on marbling and even more pressure on rib-eye area. These selection criteria mean little or no assistance is needed for the cows calving on pasture. It also means the cattle have a practical frame package and excellent carcass traits.

Again, this discussion is best documented by reviewing the bull production numbers. The take- home point today is repeated and very simple: Always insist on transferring your registered bulls and always keep those past, present and future registration numbers.

Go one step further by joining the breed association of your choice and becoming involved in the utilization of the tools that are offered. Calf marketing programs are available through all the associations as an added benefit.

Still, cattle producers gather and the discussion is rich. However, at the end of the day, did the numbers get transferred? As I travel and visit with producers, those who bring to the table a portfolio of numbers can establish their historical selection criteria easily.

At times, someone will say he or she had no selection criteria.

That really does not make any difference; the bulls that were used are the baseline for starting to understand what genetics are represented in the producer’s cattle. If those calves meet with satisfaction from the producer, then similar bulls can be selected.

If something needs to be changed, tweak the numbers and change.

May you find all your ear tags.

Page 9

Authorities Searching for Suspects in Osage County, Oklahoma Cattle Theft Case exas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) Special Ranger Bart Perrier and the Osage County Sheriff’s Department are seeking information on the theft of 12 head of calves that

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were stolen sometime between Tues., Nov. 11, 2014 and Wed., Nov. 19, 2014. from an Osage County rancher located near Wynona, Oklahoma. continued on page eleven

Livestock Market Digest

Page 10

February 15, 2015

Land Grubbers!

BY BARRY DENTON

hey say that in Arizona and New Mexico that roughly 16 percent is privately owned land. The rest of it

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National Forest, National Parks, and State Trust Land just to name a few.

It certainly doesn’t leave much for the taxpayers who actually pay the bills in their home state. This is nothing short of disgusting.

Why should our governments own any land other than what is necessary for the military and national parks? With our national debt in the trillions why would the government not be selling off some of these lands to help pay it down?

Why not sell some of it reasonably to young people that are starting out and want to start a ranch or farm. How about selling some to hard working people that need a boost to get ahead?

Military families might be good ones to help also. They notoriously are the lowest paid government workers and have the most dangerous jobs. Hard working people don’t want a hand out, but a hand up that they could pay back just might make some sense.

In America the government forces us to give charity to freeloaders.

Why not help the working guy for a change? Just think how successful America could become.

A few more facts that you might be interested in are: Arizona has the largest percentage of land set aside for Native American Reservations. The Navajo are

the largest Native American group with seventy eight thousand in New Mexico alone. I have not yet figured out how the Navajo became Native Americans.

From the research that I did the Navajo did not arrive from Mexico until 1768. Keep in mind that Jamestown was founded in 1609.

I guess that would make the folks that arrived in Jamestown Native Americans as well. I mean no disrespect to the Navajo, but the government fools that came up with this half baked assessment.

Does that mean the government profiled the Navajo because they were a tribal people?

The abject stupidity in our government is astounding! Did you know that it is still against the law to keep a donkey in your bathtub in Arizona? The other day the Federal Bureau of Investigations had some guy and his family barricaded in a house in northern Arizona. Finally he told the FBI guys that he would surrender to the local sheriff only. They finally called the local sheriff and the guy surrendered peacefully. He then had to appear before a federal judge.

After he appeared he was released on his own recognizance.

The rest of the story is that the FBI had brought in SWAT teams from Los Angeles and Las Vegas

along with several FBI officers and all they needed was the local sheriff. This was a great example of wasting your tax dollars. The Cliven Bundy event in Nevada was just as pathetic. The Bundy’s were never violent people. The government killed several of their cattle, so they must have thought the cattle were dangerous.

How come the People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals did not intervene on behalf of the slain cattle against the government agents? Who are they going to attack next? Will federal agents be arriving at your ranch soon?

There are 11.2 million acres of National Forest Land in Arizona.

In New Mexico the Gila National Forest is the largest at 3.3 million acres. For the last 20 years the United States Forest Service has been working hard at getting cattle off of the National Forest land.

They also seem to want to end mining, logging, and hunting operations as well.

What is the federal government going to do with all this land if they do not let the citizens use it? Why are the taxpayers not able to use land that they are paying for? I have also noticed that many Forest Service employees have forgotten that they work for the taxpayer. It seems like these government agencies have a vendetta against hard working every day American citizens.

The first thing the Feds could do is give most of the land back to the states and let them decide what to do with their own land.

Our President seems bent on doing what he wants with his executive orders so why can’t the rest of the citizens do what they want? I think most of us would welcome our own land back. My best bet is that it would create an economic boom like we have never seen before! I do believe that we need a government, but probably a government about onetenth of the size we have now.

February 15, 2015

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Unintended Consequences Of Climate Policies Unethical Mitigation Policies Have Brought Pain & Chaos In Their Wake new paper by Andrew Montford and published today by the Global Warming Policy Foundation examines the unintended consequences of climate change policy around the world.

We are constantly told about the risks of what climate change might bring in the distant future. In response, governments have adopted a series of policy measures that have been largely ineffective but have brought with them a bewildering array of unintended consequences.

From the destruction of the landscape wrought by windfarms, to the graft and corruption that has been introduced by the carbon markets, to the disastrous promotion of biofuels, carbon mitigation policies have brought chaos in their wake.

The new paper surveys some of the key policy measures, reviewing the unintended consequences for both the UK and the rest of the world. Mr Montford is a prominent writer on climate change and energy policy and has appeared many times in the media.

“The most shameful aspect of the developed world’s rush to implement climate change mitigation policies is that they have often been justified by reference to ethics. Yet the results have been the very opposite of ethical.” said Mr Montford.

“Andrew Montford has reviewed the sad truth about various schemes to ‘save the planet’ from the demonized but life-giving gas CO2: from birdkilling windmills, native peoples expelled from their ancestral lands, to fraud in the trading of carbon credits. Every thinking citizen of the planet should read this,” said William Happer, Professor of Physics at Princeton University.

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Summary At the heart of much policy to deal with climate change lies an ethical approach to the question of intergenerational equity, namely that current generations should avoid passing costs onto future ones, who can play no part in the decisions. In fact it has been said that this is the only ethical way to deal with global warming, although this is not true – professional econo-

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mists have identified several alternatives.

Working within this ethical framework, governments have taken expensive policy steps to prevent the costs of climate change falling on future generations, for example by fixing energy markets in favour of renewables or by instituting schemes to cap and trade carbon emissions. There has been an unfortunate and bewildering array of unintended consequences that refute the ‘ethical’ label for the framework: • clearing of rainforests • human rights abuses • hunger and starvation

• destruction of valued landscapes • slaughter of wildlife • waste • transfers of wealth from poor to rich • fuel poverty and death • pollution • destruction of jobs • higher-than-necessary carbon emissions.

In view of the damage done by this ‘ethical’ approach this report calls for a public debate on alternative approaches to intergenerational equity and for an end to the measures that are currently being used to address it.

Authorities Searching According to Perrier the 12 head of missing calves were pastured with the cows, and the calves were not weaned at the time of the theft. The victim was out of town at the time of the theft, and when they returned home on Nov. 19, 2014 they discovered that the calves in question were missing. The victim searched the pasture and did not find any signs or carcasses that would support that the calves had died.

Perrier said the missing calves were described as cross bred, black, red, mixed colored or spotted in color. The calves vary in size from 250 lbs. to 600 lbs. All of the

Page 11

continued from page nine

calves in question have a “Box L” brand on their left hip and a notch under their left ear.

Anyone with further information regarding this case should contact TSCRA’s Operation Cow Thiefhotline at 888-830-2333 or call Special Ranger Bart Perrier at 918-275-4257. A $2,500 cash reward has been collected and offered by the victim and TSCRA’s Operation Cow Thief. This reward may be paid to individuals who can provide useful information leading to the arrest and indictment of suspect(s). Individuals reporting information may choose to remain anonymous.

Livestock Market Digest

Page 12

February 15, 2015

Missouri Land Sales

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Page 14

February 15, 2015

Eating Green at dietary fats and oils. One study involved over one million people and the effects of the red meat they consumed. And what was the good Doctor’s final analysis? He could find no connection whatsoever between saturated fat consumption and heart disease. He slammed USDA’s dietary guidelines and said their bias against saturated fats was absolutely wrong. In looking at all the research he found that the saturated fats the USDA says you shouldn’t eat actually promote heart health. n In a book by Harvard Nutritionist, Tom Hargrove, Eat, Drink and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating, Hargrove quotes Dr. Walter Willett, who is highly critical of the Food Pyramid that is posted on elementary school bulletin boards, and published in university textbooks. “The thing to keep in mind,” said Willett,

continued from page two

“about the USDA Pyramid is that it comes from the USDA, the agency responsible for promoting American agriculture, not from agencies established to monitor and protect our health.

And there’s the root of the problem – what’s good for some agricultural interests isn’t necessarily good for the people who eat their products. At best, the USDA Pyramid offers indecisive, scientifically unfounded advice on an absolutely vital topic – what to eat. At worst, the misinformation it offers contributes to overweight, poor health, and unnecessary early deaths,” said Dr. Willett. n British cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra wrote an article in the British Medical Journal stating that carbohydrates, not saturated fats, were the real problem associated with obesity and other diseases. He told Brits to enjoy their red meat and but-

ter because it was not responsible for their heart disease . . . carbohydrates are. n In 2013, Dr John Briffa wrote Cholesterol and Statins, Food and Medical Politics, Healthy Eating, Unhealthy Eating! He too came to the conclusion that there was no evidence that saturated fat causes heart disease. n If I told you the left-leaning World Health Organization and the Food and Ag Organization of the United Nations also took a look saturated fat you’d probably expect these groups to ostracize red meat, particularly beef.

Not so! Eight years ago they helped sponsor an entire edition of Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism which was dedicated to the link between saturated fat and heart disease. This study was actually a meta-analysis of 21 previous studies which included 350,000 people and came to the

following two conclusions: There was no association between saturated fat and risk of heart disease, nor a link between saturated fat and risk of stroke. “The intake of saturated fatty acids was not significantly associated with heart attacks,” they said.

Wise Up . . . Eat Beef I could go on like this citing study after study that gave red meat a reprieve by finding no evidence that saturated fat causes heart or cardiovascular disease. And oh, by the way, low fat diets that exclude red meat have also been strongly linked to depression. And yet our government, and the popular press, ignores the latest, best science and instead continues to tell you to cut back on red meat and fill the void with starches and sugars found in carbohydrates and oils.

Could there possibly be a link between all that bad advice and a recent USA Today report that said 61 percent of U.S. citizens are overweight and 26 percent are downright obese, weighing at least 30 pounds more than they should. No wonder they’re depressed!

It’s one thing for adults to mistreat their bodies and go on every fad diet that comes along but there is mounting evidence that low fat, high carb diets are also harmful to the developing brains of children. It turns out that not getting enough fat, or getting the wrong kind of fat like the vegetable oils promoted by the USDA, has been shown to actually lower the IQ of people later in life. No wonder it seems like every day there are more and more dumb Americans, especially working for the government.

Could that be because they've been following the dietary guidelines laid down by the USDA for years?

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Livestock Market Digest

side so that she won’t turn on the overhead light and wake you up unnecessarily. Better yet, buy an old camper shell, teepee or cheap RV for the wife to stay in during the night so that she won’t wake you up every two hours and ruin your beauty sleep. Do you know what a shock it gives the system when the wife comes back to bed with frozen feet and “accidentally” jabs them into your warm, cozy body?

Lest you think I’m a heartless creep, I always showed my sensitive side by leaving an alarm clock, an energy bar and a pile of the Sudoku puzzles my wife likes to work so that she had something to do while she was waiting for a stubborn calf to enter the birth canal.

Women, you are going to need appropriate clothing including heavy jacket, vest, sweater, long underwear and hoody sweatshirt, although the price of the hoody might be cost prohibitive. But ladies, please do try to look as attractive as possible for you surely don’t want the

Europeans have long known that red meats and saturated fats are not the bad guys we’ve been led to believe they are by our government during the 35 years the USDA has been in the nutrition consulting business. While “experts” were pimping diet books on Oprah that said don’t eat animal protein, Europeans stuck to their Mediterranean diet that included red meat and butter. At the same time our bureaucrats are pushing carbohydrates instead of red meat, European bureaucrats are doing exactly the opposite, promoting high protein, low carb diets.

Guess who has far lower incidence of heart disease and cardiac events? The meat eaters, of course.

Sweden, like the U.S., is also in the business of telling their citizens what to eat but in their case they are urging Swedes to eat high-fat, nutrient dense lowcarb foods like beef, exactly opposite of what the USDA suggests. Fat is not the problem, they say, sugars and starches are.

Yet our own government is still promoting these unhealthy diets.

With more and more people discovering for themselves that a diet of grains, sugars, and vegetables with very little protein and fat is a recipe for disaster, it’s no wonder then that the USDA is now saying they will consider environmental factors such as sustainability to justify decades of telling you not to eat red meat. Because, clearly, they can no longer justify their Dietary Guidelines based on the latest nutritional science.

Oh, and by the way, when I earlier mentioned the words “nutrient dense” I should clarify that I was not referring to the bumbling bureaucrats currently cooking up the next edition of USDA Dietary Guidelines. continued from page one

first thing a calf sees in this world to be a scary figure in an old, muddy and moldy Carhartt jacket and a pair of sweatpants, do you? That could emotionally scar a calf for life.

Now for you men . . . you are going to need a gun in your calving kit. Not to put an animal down mind you, but to go hunting if things are a little slow on your shift.

Rounding out the contents of your calving kit you’ll need two logging chains and a tractor, a large supply of clean rags which can be found in the dirty clothes hamper, and some antibiotics.

These aren’t for the cattle but for the wife in case she feels a little off. You DO NOT want her getting sick to the point where you have to switch shifts.

So good luck and remember Lee’s rules on calving: the smallest heifers will have the biggest calves, the meanest most ornery cows will always require the most assistance, and the one time you sleep through your shift will be when all the problems occur.

February 15, 2015

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

U.S. beef cow inventory increased 2 percent from 2014

BY BLAIR FANNIN, TEXAS A & M AGRILIFE

.S. beef cow inventory increased 2 percent from a year ago, signaling expansion among herds across the nation, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service cattle report.

“I thought the report showed more beef cows added than I expected,” said Dr. David Anderson, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service livestock specialist, College Station. “But record prices in the last half of 2014 will do that.”

Anderson said prior to the report, industry experts had the mindset the current rebuilding phase will be longer and slower.

“It might have to be rethought,” he said.

Seven percent more beef cows were reported in Texas on Jan. 1 compared to the same time last year. When the final numbers come in, Anderson said it could potentially be the largest year-over-year percentage increase in Texas beef cows since 1972-1973 when the cowherd grew 14 percent.

The number of Texas beef cows remains the fewest since 1959 and 1962 for the entire U.S., not counting 2014, Anderson said.

Texas has almost 4.2 million beef cows compared to 3.91 million in 2014 and 4.2 million in January 2013. Heifers retained for breeding cows have gradually begun increasing as Texas ranchers look to restock herds following devastating drought in 2011. That year, drought caused a record $7.62 billion in agricultural drought losses, the costliest drought of all time for Texas. Livestock losses were $3.23 billion resulting from feed expense and market losses.

“In absolute numbers, the 270,000 head cowherd increase this year is the largest since 1993-1994. Heifers held for beef cow replacements were also up, nationwide, 4 percent and 7.6 percent in Texas.”

According to the report, there were 89.8 million head of cattle and calves on U.S. farms.

For stocker cattle producers, Anderson said the number of calves on small grain pastures in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas was reported up 300,000 head from 1.6 million in 2014 to 1.9 million in 2015. More stockers on pasture may indicate a larger number coming to market in the March-May period than last year, Anderson noted.

The 2014 U.S. calf crop was estimated at 33.9 million head, up 1 percent from 2013, according to the report. Calves born during the first half of 2014 were estimated at 24.6

U

million, up slightly from 2013.

Other findings from the January USDA report were: n The number of milk cows in the U.S. increased to 9.3 million. n U.S. calf crop was estimated at 33.9 million head, up 1 percent from 2013. n Of the 89.8 million cattle and calves, 39 million were all cows and heifers that have calved. n All cattle on feed increased to 13.1 million, up 1 percent from 2014.

Anderson said the cattle inventory increase is a good reminder that “record high prices and high profits are the market incentives to increase production, and that markets work.”

Anderson said market prices should remain historically high in 2015 as tight supplies of cattle continue along with good consumer demand for beef.

That’s despite record retail prices for beef.

Page 15

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Livestock Market Digest

February 15, 2015