Riding Herd Saying things that need to be said. `january 15, 2026 • www.aaalivestock.com
Volume 68 • No. 1
by LEE PITTS
The Future of Information Dairy Diary BY LEE PITTS
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NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
he newspaper you have in your hands has an interesting history. Decades ago the Livestock Marketing Association started printing the Livestock Market Digest in a most unconventional manner. They printed well over fifty different editions each week for over fifty different auction markets. All that was changed was a square on the front page that identified the auction market sending out the paper and the back page that included the market report, upcoming sales, ads, etc. I grew up reading the Templeton edition and I was always under the impression that the paper was put together in a back room at the Templeton market. But that was the genius of the Digest. The auction markets called in their auction reports the night after that day’s sale and it was printed and mailed the very next day from Norfolk, Nebraska, so that the market’s customers would get the paper before the next week’s sale. This timeliness was imperative for the success of the paper. This worked GREAT for the first 30 or so years of the paper and at one time the Digest had the largest circulation (104,000 readers) of any week-
ly livestock newspaper in the country. Then the Post Office started jacking up their postage faster than green grass goes through a goose. That played havoc with the profitability of the paper. It was bad enough postage rates went through the roof but the Post Office all of a sudden couldn’t deliver the paper in a timely fashion. (This is
the only ones facing this problem, all the other livestock publications were too. (And still are.) Many times the paper would arrive after the date of a bull sale advertised in the paper. Post Office sectional centers became more like warehouses for second class mail and that’s how the Post Office ruined the livestock publishing business model that had existed for well over 50 years. In response, Midwest auction markets turned to early morning radio to get their market report and upcoming sales front and center, but if you missed the farm report you were out of the loop. There simply had to be a better way. Now there is.
When in doubt, let your horse do the thinkin’. even more so today.) The Post Office is so busy delivering Amazon packages they can no longer deliver the mail in a timely manner. And even if the paper might miraculously be delivered on time it often looked like it had been attacked by Edward Scissorhands. Or three weeks newspapers would all arrive on the same day. And we weren’t
Not That A.I. Rising postage rates weren’t the only problem facing newspaper publishers. Printing costs have gone up drastically and newsprint is at times in such
short supply that one weekly newspaper who runs my syndicated column told me they had to physically drive two states away at the spur of the moment to get enough paper for the printer to print that week’s edition. I’ve always wondered, what if we could get rid of the printing costs all together and disassociate ourselves from the U.S. Post Office? Now, thanks to the Internet and cell phones we can. That’s why you’re seeing many weekly papers offer subscription packages like fifty dollars for regular yearly print subscription or thirty dollars for an Internet edition. The idea here is to satisfy many of the baby boomers who still want to hold a newspaper in their hands while also meeting the needs of the younger generations who want to read the periodical on their phone. The idea is that eventually the print edition will be phased out and we’ll be free from the Post Office forever! Hurray!! While some people mourn the death of livestock publishing I see this transitional period continued on page 2
A Civil War Erupts Over Cattle Branding in Nebraska
U.S. Overhauls Citizenship Test to Emphasize Duty, History, and the Privilege of Being assie Lapase- American otes made a
BY PATRICK THOMAS / WALL STREET JOURNAL
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mistake that nearly made her a felon: running afoul of Nebraska’s cattle-branding rules. Lapaseotes was accused of not having a bill of sale for about 460 of her own calves before moving them from her ranch to her family’s feedlot, one of the largest in Nebraska. “I’m like you’re f— kidding me, right?” she said. “I’m gonna be a felon for branding my own cattle. I literally could not sleep.”
SOURCE: BIG LEAGUE POLITICS
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he U.S. government has rolled out a revised naturalization test aimed at ensuring new citizens understand not just the process of becoming American—but the responsibility and privilege that come with it. In an early January announcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed it has updated the exams all applicants must pass to obtain U.S. citizenship. “Our new version of the test will ensure all new citizens understand the privilege of citizenship and what it means to be an American,” the agency said.
Before selling cattle in and out of the state, ranchers need to have them inspected by NeA Clear Shift Toward Civic Knowledge braska’s Brand Committee. It is a deputized and National Security state law enforcement agency of nearly 80 indiWhile USCIS did not initially spell out evviduals tasked with preventing theft by checking ery change, agency guidance shows the updated that brands match their registered owners. It also has Nebraska cattle ranchers locked in 2025 civics test aligns with a Jan. 20 national security action issued by Donald Trump. a civil war over the centuries-old tradition. Applicants must pass two exams: Critics say it is an outdated practice that serves no real purpose other than to prop up ■■ An English language test an agency that takes its job way too seriously. ■■ A civics test covering U.S. history, governSometimes brand employees show up at their ment, and constitutional principles feedlots heavily armed and wearing bulletproof The new 2025 civics test is more rigorous continued on page 5
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n college I never went home for spring or Christmas break and instead I worked at the various livestock units to make extra money and give the students in charge a chance to go home. I worked at the beef unit, bull test, and several times at the sheep and hog units. I never got a chance to work at the horse unit where a screw-up could cost a lot more money. Killing a $30 lamb was one thing but killing a $40,000 stud was quite another. Oddly enough, my two favorite units to work at were the swine unit and the Project Dairy. Dairy students could bring a cow with them to college and live at the Project Dairy and I was surprised there weren’t more students who took advantage of this program but I figured out that most of them went away to college to enjoy four years of freedom from Holsteins before they went home to milk cows for the rest of their boring lives. I had several dairy major friends and I ended up spending a lot of time at the Project Dairy. I also spent the week before my employment there working with a friend who taught me the essentials so hopefully the dairy students wouldn’t come back to school to learn that their cows were dead or had mastitis. I wasn’t totally alone as there was also a big commercial dairy on campus with full time workers who I could call upon if I had a disaster on my hands and a professor in the dairy department checked on me regularly. This was the best part of working on the various units as I got to know the professors really well and as a result was always the teacher’s pet in their classes. I shot pool and worked stock dogs regularly with the professor in charge of the sheep unit who was also a groomsman in my wedding. The professor in charge of the beef unit became one of my best friends and got me my first two jobs in the cattle business and the swine professor also became a lifelong friend. I ended up taking an artificial insemination class from the dairy professor who watched over the Project Dairy and also sheared his kid’s lambs for the county fair. The first thing I learned at the dairy is that dairy cows are not the same species as beef cows. Dairy cows ac-
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