LMD Sept 13

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

Riding Herd

MARKET

Digest I

by LEE PITTS

Desperate.com

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

Volume 55 • No. 9

Coming Clean

by Lee Pitts hen I first heard that Tyson was no longer going to buy any cattle that had been fed the beta agonist known as Zilmax®, my first reaction was, WOW! For the first time in my life a huge multinational meat packer was doing the socially responsible thing, and showing great courage and leadership in doing so. But then I regained my senses and thought, does this sound like any major meatpacker I’ve ever heard of?

Of course it doesn’t. That’s when it hit me . . . it’s far more likely that Tyson is at a cost disadvantage to JBS and Cargill when it comes to beta agonists that make cattle put on efficient pounds at the end of the feeding period. Tyson is disadvantaged because they chose to pattern their business after the chicken model they pioneered, acquiring the cattle they processed mostly through contracts and captive supply, whereas Excel and JBS have huge feeding operations in which they can use products like Zilmax and Optaflexx® to produce beef cheaper than Tyson can buy it.

I really don’t care what Tyson’s motivation was to come out against Zilmax, as long as it had the desired effect. Which it most certainly did. One week after

NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING

W

Words that soak into your ears are whispered, not yelled.

Tyson made their announcement, Merck, the maker of Zilmax®, pulled the highly profitable product off the market until they can further study the effects of the additive.

Geez, I would have hoped Merck would have done a thorough job of testing the product to begin with, before they sent their army of P.R. people and paid college professors out to say what a great product it was.

Make no mistake, in showing their distaste for beta agonists, Tyson did do the right thing.

(There’s a sentence I thought I’d never write when it comes to meat packers.) Tyson said it was an animal welfare issue, not a food safety one. In other words, they didn’t do it because they feared people might get sick from ingesting the product, they did it because they did not like what they felt it was doing to the cattle.

Even though Tyson did not come out and blatantly say Zilmax® was crippling cattle and making them act crazy, they did say in a very public way what a lot of us have felt for a long time, that beta agonists like Zilmax® and Optaflexx®, are a class of products that America’s cattle industry would be better off without.

Sitting Dogs If this story sounds a wee bit familiar perhaps it is because in February of this year the Livestock Market Digest ran a front page story titled “Ghost Cattle” in which we raised exactly the same issues that Tyson has. As a writer I remember being concerned at the time that I was giving ammunition to our critics by raising this issue in the first place. After all, this topic was hardly visited by large circulation, colorful and slick-paged cow magazines whose continued on page two

An Environmentalist Deception

BY ROBERT J. SMITH FOR THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR

If the government buys the forest, should the citizens make a sound? ecently the R Street Institute, which claims to advocate free market policies, issued a statement celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in 1982. This is, at best, misguided. The federal government’s ever-growing control over and continuous acquisition of land across America is the antithesis of the institution of private property and undermines conscientious private stewardship of land, waters, and other natural resources.

Every day, we see the results of a century of mismanagement of government-owned forests.

Failure to harvest timber allows the forests to become overgrown and filled with overstressed, diseased, beetle-ridden, dying, and dead trees—leading to millions of acres scorched by catastrophic wildfires every summer, year after year.

Far more instructive is what Weyerhaeuser did on its forest land adjacent to what is now the National Monument. The volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, instantly destroyed 150,000 acres of forest— trees were flattened by the shock wave or killed

R

by the intense heat. Of the forest affected, Weyerhaeuser owned about 68,000 acres, the U.S. Forest Service 64,000, Washington State 12,000, and other private forest owners 6,000.

Weyerhaeuser immediately acted to salvage the wood from the dead trees and to replant the damaged areas. Over a period of two years, it restored the desert-like post-eruption wasteland into a healthy, vigorous, thriving and sustainable forest. Before the wood could be damaged by insects, disease, and rot, Weyerhaeuser salvaged 850 million board-feet of lumber— enough for 85,000 three-bedroom homes.

The company also helped establish the Charles W. Bingham Forest Learning Center within the volcanic blast zone, with an emphasis on school trips for students and teachers to learn about sustainable forestry practices and the achievements of private stewardship. R Street proudly points to the 230,000 annual visitors to the taxpayer-funded National Monument each year, but it doesn’t mention the estimated 200,000 who visit the Forest Learning Center operated by Weyerhaeuser.

Perhaps the most instructive activity is to look down on the scenic vista at the demarcation line between Weyerhaeuser’s land and that of the National Volcanic Monument: on the

laugh when I hear people say how revolutionary all this computer malarkey is, like e mail, e Harmony and e everything. As far as Internet matchmaking goes, let me tell you, people were just as desperate for affection back in my day. Or at least I was.

Picking a mate without meeting he or she is nothing new, what do you think the lonely old miners, ranchers, mountain men and sheepherders in the early west did when they married whatever got off the stagecoach, or the train? It’s just one more example of how, if you wait long enough, everything that is old will come around again.

I’m just waiting for it to be my turn.

Many of the women who wanted to come west were “picture brides” because the men, who outnumbered the women sometimes by as much as 60 to one, picked their lifelong mate as if they were ordering from a Sears Roebuck catalog. They were also called “mail-order brides,” only in many cases they were “mail-order lies” as the product that arrived by boat after sailing around the horn was often not as advertised. But what were the lonesome men supposed to do, send the women back?

This wasn’t catch and release fishing we’re talking about here.

It was also common for foreigners who came to this country to marry women who were picked out for them back in the old country. And there were probably just as many lies told in the Gold Rush days as there are now on the Internet. There had to be, why else would a nice woman leave the cozy confines of the East to live in a dugout with a dirty old man, cook, clean, propagate and fight off Indians and wild animals in her spare time?

This subject arose because a friend of ours is “back on the market” after being married for 25 long years. Slick said that his wife was “monogamously challenged” but I can’t say as I blame her because Slick is as exciting as gray wallpaper.

He’s also very lonely and continued on page nine

continued on page four

www.LeePittsbooks.com

Livestock Market Digest

Page 2

September 15, 2013

Coming Clean financial well being is largely determined by pharmaceutical advertising. At the Digest we long ago made those people mad so we had nothing to fear from them. But I did feel that our use of beta agonists made our industry vulnerable to a hatchet job by 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dr. Oz, the ladies on The View, or Geraldo.

But it wasn’t the Digest that blew the lid off this boiling pot of controversy, no, it came from a far more unlikely source: one of the Big Three.

After the Tyson announcement, a flood of Zilmax® articles and exposes hit the newsstands and airwaves including one in the Wall Street Journal titled “What’s Ailing America’s Cattle?” Written

by Jesse Newman and Kelsey Gee, the authors wrote that scientists suspected that livestock feed additives were behind a growing number of cattle arriving for slaughter at U.S. that were displaying unusual signs of distress.

“Some walked stiffly, while others had trouble moving or simply laying down, their tongues hanging from their mouths. A few even sat down in strange positions, looking more like dogs than cows,” said the story.

Off The Sauce?

For advertising, subscription and editorial inquiries write or call: Livestock Market Digest P.O. Box 7458 Albuquerque, N.M. 87194

Livestock Market Digest (ISSN 0024-5208) (USPS NO. 712320) is published monthly except semi-monthly in September, and December in Albuquerque, N.M. 87104 by Livestock Market Digest, Inc. Periodicals Postage Paid at Albuquerque, N.M. POSTMASTER – Send change of address to: Livestock Market Digest, P.O. Box 7458, Albuquerque, N.M. 87194

EDITORIAL and ADVERTISING STAFF: CAREN COWAN . . . . . . . Publisher LEE PITTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . Executive Editor CHUCK STOCKS . . . . . . . .Publisher Emeritus RANDY SUMMERS . . . . .Sales Rep FALL MARKETING EDITION AD SALES: Ron Archer . . . . . . . . . . . 505/865-6011 archerron@aol.com

Subscribe Today

FIELD EDITOR: DELVIN HELDERMON 580/622-5754, 1094 Kolier Rd. Sulphur, OK 73086

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY

Telephone: 505/243-9515 Fax: 505/998-6236 www.aaalivestock.com

STATE

ZIP

My check is enclosed for: o One Year: $19.95 o Two Years $29.95 Clip & mail to: Livestock Market Digest, P.O. Box 7458, Albuquerque, N.M. 87194

ADMINISTRATIVE and PRODUCTION STAFF: MARGEURITE VENSEL . Office Mgr. CAROL PENDLETON . . Special Assistance CHRISTINE CARTER . . . . Graphic Artist

Although they pulled Zilmax®, one senses that Merck is not quite ready to give up on a product that sold for $8,428.50 for a 22 pound sack last January and brought in $159 million dollars in sales in the U.S. and Canada in one year. Instead of throwing in the towel Merck issued a press release that made it sound like they are purely an altruistic multinational corporation that is more concerned about the health and welfare of cattle than they are their own bottom line. Their press release read in part: “At Merck Animal Health, the health and well-being of animals is our first and foremost priority. We also take very seriously our commitment to providing safe, effective products that are developed based on comprehensive research, rigorous testing and sound science. We believe in the science that supports Zilmax® and are confident in its safety and performance. Reinforcing this science and data-based approach, Merck Animal Health has announced it has strengthened its commitment to its Five-Step Approach to Ensuring Responsible Beef.”

When I read about their fivestep program it made me think of ten- and twelve-step programs addicts have used to try and kick their drug and alcohol problems.

After Merck’s five-step program is completed will the beef business be off the secret sauce, or will our industry be even more addicted to chemicals?

Equal Time Lest anyone say we did our own hatchet job on Merck, we now present Merck’s response to Tyson’s ban of Zilmax: “In support of our customers and to ensure effective implementation

continued from page one

of our five-step plan, Merck Animal Health has made the decision to temporarily suspend sales of Zilmax® in the United States and Canada. This will allow sufficient time for the establishment of valid study protocols, identification of feeders and packers to participate in the audit, and creation of a third-party team to oversee this process and validate its results.

“We remain confident in the safety of the product, based on our own extensive research and that of regulators and academic institutions, and are committed to the well-being of the animals that receive it,” says KJ Varma, senior vice president of research and development at Merck’s animalhealth unit. “We sincerely regret that this situation creates business challenges for our customers but it is critical to ensure that this process is conducted appropriately and with rigorous scientific measures. After the five-step plan is completed, the results will be shared publicly.

“In addition, we are also accelerating the development of our Merck Animal Health Advisory Board, which will bring together industry experts, producers, academics and company leadership to promote an open dialogue on animal well-being and help shape and strengthen the company's animal health and well-being program in the future.

“Over 25 million cattle have been fed Zilmax® since it was approved in the U.S., and I’m pretty sure we didn’t miss anything in those safety and efficacy studies, which were reviewed by regulatory agencies,” said KJ Varma.

When Bad Becomes Normal There were rumors that Merck would try to convince Temple Grandin, famous Colorado State professor and the best friend an animal ever had, to sit on their Advisory Board. But if they do talk Temple into it, and if they do listen to her, we may have heard the last of Zilmax®.

Temple has always been one professor who speaks her mind without being influenced by big bucks from drug companies. She is clearly the most respected expert on the subject of animal welfare in our industry. Temple has already weighed in on the subject of beta agonists. In our first story about Zilmax® we wrote, “During the dog days of summer in 2006 Temple went to three slaughterhouses where the temps were in the 90 degree range and noticed that at each plant she found lame cattle, as many as a third of the cattle at one slaughterhouse. “Cattle suffer these problems,” she said, “When you push the biology.” Temple also said, “I've seen cattle walking down a truck ramp tippy-toed.

Normally, they just run down the truck ramp and jump out. We do not want to see bad become normal.”

Another person Merck won’t want on the Zilmax® Board was continued on page three

September 15, 2013

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Coming Clean one of our sources in our February article. Gerald Timmerman made no bones about the fact that he did not like how beta agonists make cattle wild and lame.

Besides being a major cattle feeder, Gerald is a meat packer and customer complaints about meat quality went up as the use of Zilmax® did, and Gerald blamed Zilmax®. Gerald was also quoted in the Wall Street Journal article.

“As grain prices accelerated, the margins got extremely squeezed in our business. That was the catalyst that drove demand for Zilmax® up. These days, you can drive through a feed yard and spot every one of the cattle that’s on it. They look like musclebound athletes. I felt it was not the right thing to do.”

We’d sure like to see Guy Loneragan, professor of food safety at Texas Tech sitting on Merck’s Advisory Board for Zilmax®. He could tell the other board members about his research in which he found that there was a 70 percent to 90 percent greater incidence of death in animals fed with beta agonists.

We’d be willing to bet the farm that well-known advocate Mike Callicrate won’t be on the Advisory Board either. Callicrate was quoted in the Wall Street Journal’s article too. “Now, you only have so many days after an animal has been fed a beta agonist before it’s got to go to slaughter or it becomes so lame it can’t move,” said Callicrate. “Zilmax®, even more than Optiflexx®, drastically reduces meat quality, makes cattle crazy, increases chances of respiratory distress, and damages joint health-thereby increasing the incidence of lameness. Is this the kind of animal production we want? Is this the kind of beef we want to eat? Per capita demand is already decreasing at a fast pace as consumers react negatively to bad meat eating experiences.”

Uh, MIke, hate to tell you this buddy but I wouldn’t be waiting by your mailbox if I were you, waiting for an invitation from Merck to sit on their Advisory Board.

Winners And Losers Going off the juice, so to speak, did take some courage for Tyson, assuming they did not know that Merck would voluntarily withdraw the product a short time later. In our initial investigation of beta agonists we found that some employees within Cargill’s beef division, Excel, also had such misgivings about Zilmax® initially and did not want to use beta agonists. But those voices were silenced when it became obvious that without the feed additives Excel could not compete on price when they vied for the business of the big supermarket chains. Not using the beta agonists meant that they’d be giving up a penny a pound, and in the cutthroat meat business that’s easily enough to lose a big account like Safeway. So Excel became a reluctant user.

As for JBS, the largest meatpacker in the world, they have

Page 3 continued from page two

said in the past that they too have noticed “ambulatory problems” in cattle arriving at its slaughter facilities, but unlike Tyson, they haven’t been able to determine a direct cause. They said they might take “a different approach if a link to beta agonists becomes clear.”

Please note that even if it’s proven that beta agonists cause lameness and some animals to act crazy, the Brazilian meatpacker did not say they wouldn’t use them.

JBS benefits another way by the sidelining of Zilmax®. It is estimated that beta agonists were used in 70 percent of feedlot cattle in this country. Elanco, maker of the other beta agonist used in beef cattle production, Optaflexx®, calculates that “it would require 10 million more head of cattle on a yearly basis to produce the same amount of meat without beta agonists and other commonly used growthenhancing technologies, including steroid implants.”

And where do you suppose those 10 million more cattle might come from? Surely not from the United States where our herd has been decimated by drouth. We are quite confident though that JBS, the huge Brazilian meat packer with plants around the world, stands ready to step into the void by outsourcing cattle from countries where we have no idea what went into their production.

The other big benefactor of Merck’s withdrawal of Zilmax® is Elanco, the animal health division of Eli Lilly who makes Optaflexx®. We had hopes that they too would withdraw their product until more is known when they applauded China’s announcement of that country’s ban on beta agonists. But Elanco was happy about China’s ban only because Elanco’s branded beta agonist products, Paylean® and Optaflexx®, are not approved, available or sold within China, and thus any product like Zilmax® or Optafelexx® that is used or sold within China is just another Chinese knockoff, like a fake Rolex® watch, Coach® purse or Versace® gown. Elanco was just protecting their turf, not commenting on the safety of such products. Now it appears that Elanco will be the biggest winner amidst all this fuss as many American cattle feeders will merely switch from the more powerful Zilmax®, to Optaflexx®.

You can expect the debate on beta agonists to cool off now, not only because of the withdrawal of Zilmax® but because cattle feeders say that the negative effects of beta agonists are more obvious in hot weather. As the weather and the cattle cool off we hope the spotlight being shined on beta agonists does not dim because there needs to be a frank, honest discussion about the effects of these products on cattle, people and the environment, to determine once and for all if they have any place in the production of beef in this country.

If you're any part of a

Cargill suspends Zilmax-fed cattle pending Merck research

BY RITA JANE GABBETT / MEATINGPLACE.COM

argill has decided to stop accepting cattle fed the growth promotant Zilmax pending the results of research by Merck Animal Health, which makes the beta-agonist.

“The last of the cattle currently being fed Zilmax that are in Cargill’s supply chain will be harvested by the end of September. Cargill will be suspending purchase of Zilmax-fed cattle in North America, pending research being conducted by Merck,” a statement posted on Cargill’s website stated.

The statement was posted three days after Merck announced it would stop selling Zilmax while it assesses whether there is a link between its product and a growing body of evidence that cattle are arriving at slaughter plants sore, stiff, lethargic and in some cases unable or unwilling to walk.

The actions by Merck and Cargill follow a letter Tyson Foods sent its suppliers in early August saying it would stop accepting Zilmax-fed cattle on Sept. 6. At that time, a Cargill spokesman said the company would continue to process cattle fed beta agonists, including Zilmax.

“While Cargill has not linked Zilmax to any specific incidents involving animal well-being, the company does believe more research is necessary to answer recently raised questions regarding the use of this product,” the new statement explained.

Cargill referred to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association meeting in early August where multiple packers discussed situations that they believed may have been linked to beta-agonist use.

Dr. Lily Edwards-Callaway, head of animal welfare for JBS USA, presented a video at the meeting of struggling cattle captured in recent months with remote cameras used regularly for auditing animal welfare.

“I think there are some serious problems here,” animal welfare expert Temple Grandin told Meatingplace,

C

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

noting she has personally observed cattle at plants that were sore-footed, lethargic, breathing heavily, moving stiffly and reluctant to move at all. The Cargill statement noted that Grandin was at the NCBA conference in early August and had expressed her concerns.

Of the major U.S. packers, Cargill harvests the lowest percentage of cattle fed Zilmax

Short stories of my cowboy life on the

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

# !(

! & &( " ' " ! $% %& '$

( # $# $%# # !" #

#

We waited According to the Cargill statement, the company was the last major beef packer to allow cattle fed Zilmax into its beef supply chain in June 2012.

“Cargill studied Zilmax for years prior to doing so.

One reason Cargill was initially reluctant to accept cattle fed Zilmax was a series of extensive beef tenderness tests that created concern about potential impact to product quality.”

The statement went on to say from 2006 to 2012, Cargill developed best practices for the company’s cattle procurement and research & development teams to ensure product quality, adding, “Of the major U.S. packers, Cargill harvests the lowest percentage of cattle fed Zilmax.”

Dr. Mike Siemens, Cargill’s head of animal welfare and husbandry, will represent Cargill on an advisory board Merck has created as part of its product review.

“There are no food safety issues associated with Zilmax or this decision. Meat from cattle treated with Zilmax is safe to eat. Instead, this decision is linked to Cargill’s commitment to ensure the welfare of cattle harvested in the industry,” the statement added.

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

Don’t Miss a Single Issue!

Name

Old Address

City, State, Zip

New Address

City, State, Zip

Livestock Market Digest

Page 4

September 15, 2013

Deception.com Weyerhaeuser side, a brightgreen, healthy, thriving forest returned to pre-blast conditions and abounding in wildlife; on the government’s side, dull and dense shrub-covered lands that were set aside to recover naturally. In fact, all across the West, students of natural resources can usually tell easily whether the forest they are driving through or flying over is government land or privately owned, simply by the health of the land and the trees.

After wrongly claiming that the National Monument is a conservation success story, R Street then goes on to praise the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), through which the government has spent billions of dollars to acquire private land. It is among the environmental programs that rural Americans hate the most. Small landowners, family farmers, ranchers, tree farmers, and miners are constantly faced with the threat of government

continued from page one

acquisition of their land.

The federal government has learned a trick to acquire private land from supposed “willing sellers”: prevent landowners from being able to utilize their property. The government just needs to set aside some habitat under the Endangered Species Act, even if the listed species don’t occur on the land, or designate a jurisdictional wetland of the United States, even though it is dry. You get the idea.

Family landowners soon find that they cannot make use of their property without risking staggering fines or prison time.

The collateral value of their land is gone, so they cannot borrow money, and no one will buy their suddenly useless tracts— except, of course, for the federal government and its environmentalist allies. Land trusts typically pay a few cents on the dollar and then quickly resell parcels to the federal government, usually for far more than they paid.

The LWCF thus continues to

Developmental Duplication Genetic Condition Test Available Angus Genetics Inc. and Zoetis release DD test.

A

ngus Genetics Inc. (AGI) and Zoetis Genetics began accepting orders and samples for Developmental Duplication (DD) genetic condition testing.

As with other tests, orders are to be submitted through the AGI ordering process available at the American Angus Association® AAA Login website (www.angusonline.org). Either Association archived or newly collected samples may be used for testing.

The DD test has just been licensed, and the Zoetis laboratory is in the process of transferring the technology for commercial testing.

Patience is requested from customers since initial turn-around times may vary.

For animals that are potential DD carriers based on pedigree information, results of the test help breeders and commercial users of Angus genetics make more informed breeding decisions. Complete information about this condition may be accessed through www.ANGUS.org.

add to the staggering amount of land that the U.S. government already owns, which is approaching half of the nation’s entire land mass. The four federal land agencies alone control nearly 30 percent of the country.

Further, R Street misrepresents Ronald Reagan’s vision, beliefs, and record. Shortly after taking office in 1981, President Reagan and his secretary of the interior, James Watt, announced an immediate and dramatic shift in federal land policy. They argued that the government already owned enough and should begin to place a major emphasis on caring for it, especially the national parks. In March 1981, Reagan announced a moratorium on additional land acquisition by the federal government.

This dramatic shift was much needed. Almost every category of federal land had fallen into disrepair, with billion-dollar backlogs for the most basic

maintenance (a condition that continues to this day, unfortunately). Reagan slashed the Land and Water Conservation Fund in the budgets he sent to Congress and even zeroed out land acquisition (although it was restored by Congress).

While it is true that President Reagan signed a number of bills creating new wilderness areas that enjoyed bipartisan support in the congressional delegations from the states where they were located, he also vetoed several wilderness bills that did not enjoy such support. Further, he strongly resisted congressional efforts to limit natural resource production and recreation on National Forests and Bureau of Land Management properties.

Reagan’s vision went even further than this, as William Perry Pendley documents in his new book, Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today. In the late 1970s before he was elected president, Rea-

gan clearly described the federal government’s “land hoarding and land grabbing” and many of the disastrous management policies that were degrading the federal lands.

Free-market environmentalism and private conservation have characterized much of American history and survived despite the government’s growing ability to take private lands by force and to pay for its ownership and mismanagement with taxpayer money. The Weyerhaeuser lands near Mount St. Helens are a good example of the former, the adjacent National Monument an example of the latter.

Conservatives can do better than to promote a rehash of the failed policies of government ownership and massive mismanagement of lands, waters, and natural resources.

Robert J. Smith is a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Researchers explore nutritional strategies to time puberty in replacement heifers

BY BLAIR FANNIN, AGRILIFE TODAY

attle producers typically wean replacement heifers at 7 months old and raise them with limited nutritional input before their first breeding.

This managerial strategy is often associated with delayed puberty, particularly in tropicallyadapted Bos indicus-influenced cattle, according to researchers.

In Texas, Bos indicus influence generally comes from Brahman genetics, but can involve the Nelore breed as well.

To maximize successful pregnancies in replacement heifers early in their first breeding season, studies conducted at Texas A&M University and at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Station-Beeville are evaluating nutritional strategies to promote puberty consistently by 12 to 14 months old in Bos taurus x Bos indicus crossbred heifers.

Drs. Marcel Amstalden and Gary Williams, reproductive physiologists at Texas A&M University and Texas A&M AgriLife Research, along with doctoral students Rodolfo Cardoso and Bruna Alves, are evaluating mechanisms that lead to the early onset of puberty in heifers.

The goal of the work is to use newfound fundamental knowledge of heifer development to optimize pregnancy in replacement heifers by 15 months old and increase the proportion of heifers calving early in their first calving season.

“Nutrition plays an important role in the developmental controls of puberty in heifers,” Williams said. “Breed type is a factor as well, and there are dietary strategies that can help us time the onset of puberty.”

Recent research has shown that age at puberty in Bos taurus beef heifers is reduced to approximately 9 months old by early weaning

C

calves at 3 to 4 months old, and feeding highconcentrate diets that promote increased rates of bodyweight gain for as little as 70 days, according to the researchers.

“A similar response is observed in heifers with Bos indicus-influence,” Williams said.

“Our studies have indicated that early weaning, combined with elevated intake of high-concentrate diets, is associated with enhanced propionate production in the rumen and increased concentrations of the fat-derived hormone, leptin in circulation.”

“The brain is a major target for leptin’s control of feed intake and energy expenditure,” Amstalden said. “Because the impact of nutrition on age at puberty is largely mediated at the hypothalamus, a region of the brain involved in the regulation of various body functions including reproduction, studies have focused on this brain region to explain the process of reproductive maturation.”

Their studies have found that a number of genes in the hypothalamus are regulated by nutrition and bodyweight gain during calfhood.

Structural and functional changes in neurons (nerve cells) are also evident.

These scientists are now testing management changes that would improve pregnancy rates early and optimize lifetime productive in replacement heifers.

However, the scientists warn that strategies to accelerate puberty have to be considered with caution to avoid precocious puberty and unwanted pregnancies, compromising heifer development and reproductive efficiency later in life.

Funding for the research has been provided by the Texas Beef Enhancement Program through AgriLife Research and by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

September 15, 2013

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Page 5

Counties want to take the roads less traveled – and keep them

BY PHIL TAYLOR / E&E

bullet-riddled sign in Utah’s pinyon-juniper desert warns of a winding highway ahead.

It’s a harbinger of the tortuous political and legal fight among Utah’s counties, environmental groups and the Bureau of Land Management that could dramatically change management of the area’s stark deserts, red rock canyons and backcountry lands.

Key witnesses say they remember Island Park Road being used by jeeps and trucks at least as far back as the 1950s for livestock operations, farming, fishing and other recreation.

Utah’s claim to more than 12,000 roads across federal lands could radically change the way its scenic deserts and canyon lands are managed. Meanwhile, a Republican congressman is trying to end decades of conflicts over wilderness, motorized recreation and energy exploration in eastern Utah. The result could be the biggest public lands bill in Utah’s history.

That, according to an 1866 mining law, means management of the road rightfully belongs to Utah, not BLM or the National Park Service, over whose land the road crosses.

The 17-mile road, which winds past ranchlands and American Indian petroglyphs to a historical ranch along the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument, is one of more than 12,000 roads that Utah and its counties last year claimed as their own in federal district court.

Spanning about 36,000 miles, the road claims represent one of Utah’s boldest bids yet to assert control over federal lands and, according to conservationists, the most serious threat to Utah’s remaining wildlands.

Utah claims the roads at stake have been used for decades by hunters, cattle ranchers, mineral speculators and motorized vehicle enthusiasts, and have either been shut down or restricted, or are in danger of closure by the federal government.

“There will be economic benefits derived from these roads if they’re kept open,” said Anthony Rampton, Utah’s assistant attorney general and lead litigation counsel for the roads lawsuits.

“That benefit will come from ranching enterprises, oil and gas development, wind development, solar development, tourist income, hunting and fishing income.”

But unlike similar campaigns

by Utah to “take back” federal lands through eminent domain or by hamstringing federal law enforcement agents, the law appears to be on Utah’s side in its road battle.

In March 2013, Utah’s Kane County claimed a major victory when a federal district judge awarded it rights of way over 12 of 15 roads it had claimed, four of which run through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National

A

Monument (Greenwire, March 25). Some of those 89 miles also run through the Paria-Hackberry wilderness study area, which BLM recognized for its roadless characteristics and which environmentalists have eyed for future wilderness designation.

“Given the facts that we have and the law, we’re going to be able to prove the vast majority of these roads,” Rampton said of the state’s Revised Statute 2477 claims, which are located in 22 of its 29 counties. “It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone.”

The ruling was a shot across the bow for conservationists who fear the road claims, if successful, would fragment Utah’s best remaining backcountry, including scenic national parks and monuments. Solitude would be lost, invasive weeds would spread and archaeological sites would be exposed to looters, they say.

Conservationists have assembled a legal team of more than 25 attorneys from national and local law firms to work alongside federal attorneys against the state’s claims.

Steve Bloch, conservation director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said a majority of Utah’s road claims are primitive dirt tracks, not the “highways” that the 1866 law aimed to protect.

“The overwhelming majority of these routes simply noodle out into the desert,” Bloch said.

The claims run through every national park except Bryce Canyon and Arches and through at least two designated wilderness areas and would fragment habitat for vehicle-skittish elk and sage grouse, according to SUWA. The road claims also travel more than 500 miles of wilderness study areas, 2,000 miles of national monuments and 3,600 miles of proposed wilderness, SUWA said. Few of them lead to grocery stores or schools or promote commerce, Bloch said.

“They’re really out to thwart congressional wilderness designation,” he said. “That’s why the stakes are so high in Utah.”

Barring a settlement, the legal battle promises to be a costly one — one rural county in southeast Utah has already spent $1 million litigating a single road in Canyonlands National Park — and could easily last decades.

“If we can’t resolve them ourselves amidst negotiation, we have no choice but to go to court,” Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) said in an interview. “I’m not willing to continue to kick the can down the road and put off getting that answer.”

If Utah prevails, experts say other Western states could follow suit, kicking off an even larger battle.

‘Short, sweet and enigmatic’ Utah’s road claims — filed in several massive complaints in spring 2012 — fall under an obscure 1866 mining law

designed to promote settlement in the Western frontier.

“And be it further enacted,” R.S. 2477 read, “that the right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted.”

The law was “short, sweet and enigmatic,” according to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2005 ruling.

tos or witness testimony — that the roads were used as far back as the 1960s.

But witnesses who can testify to using the roads are getting old and dying, creating a sense of urgency for Utah counties.

“We’ve probably lost between half and three-quarters of our witnesses to death,” Rampton said. “We’re losing more every day.”

Island Park Road

Dinosaur National Monument

The Island Park Road, which descends 17 miles through sagebrush and pinyon and juniper trees before ending on the banks of the Green River, is one of more than 12,000 roads Utah has claimed under R.S. 2477.

Photos by Phil Taylor.

The law was an opportunity for miners and homesteaders to build trails or roads over any public lands not yet reserved or claimed for private use. Most of the roads in the West were established under its authority.

As Utah’s Supreme Court noted more than 80 years ago, “It was a standing offer of a free right of way over the public domain,” which required no formal acceptance or approval by the federal authorities.

That all changed in 1976 when Congress repealed R.S. 2477 as part of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, a watershed law that directed BLM to retain and preserve its lands rather than dispose them for private development.

But Congress grandfathered any valid R.S. 2477 right that existed at the time.

As a result, counties seeking legal recognition of their R.S. 2477 claims must prove — through historical records, pho-

While there’s little dispute that Island Park Road is a valid R.S. 2477 claim, it's unclear where Utah’s jurisdiction over the road ends. Here’s a segment at the historic Ruple Ranch in Dinosaur National Monument.

The state is currently deposing hundreds of “at-risk” witnesses in courthouses, schools, county commission chambers, BLM offices and people’s homes.

“I killed my first buck here.

We corralled cattle here,” Rampton said. “That’s the kind of detail we’re able to get from these witnesses.”

Last month alone, attorneys from the Justice Department, Utah and its counties, and SUWA visited Tooele, Garfield, Beaver, Grand and San Juan counties to take testimony from 10 witnesses.

Pete Steele, a 76-year-old witness from San Juan, testified for three days on roughly 100 roads.

Steele, a former cattle rancher, tour guide, BLM employee and San Juan employee, said he used R.S. 2477 roads south of Canyonlands for livestock operations, hunting, predator control, hiking, and other recreation and traveling, according to his affidavit.

“When you spend time with the people who live and work on these roads and have lived there all their lives, you realize they are important, and they’re important for intangible reasons,” Rampton said. “For instance, there are a lot of hunters who use these roads.

They have places they’ve gone all their lives. They’ve gone with their fathers and grandfathers and families. Traditions have built up around the use of these roads.”

‘The whole thing is a travesty’ But critics of Utah’s claims say the vast majority of the roads are so-called Class D routes that have never been maintained and aren’t critical to the state’s transportation needs.

Many were created by offroaders, oil and gas prospectors or wanderers who left the trodden path decades ago. In the arid desert, where plants and shrubs take hundreds of years to regrow, an improvised two-track can take centuries to fully restore itself.

“People argue about the meaning of the word ‘highway,’ but it’s hard to imagine it means a random oil and gas seismic line from the ‘60s that hasn’t been driven except once every five years,” said Kevin Walker, a SUWA volunteer who lives in Moab and works for Microsoft.

“To me that seems like abusing the law.”

On a searing hot July day, Walker hunted for R.S. 2477 claims along Browns Hole Road, a dirt route that heads east from U.S. 191 toward the La Sal Mountains.

“See that faint line over continued on page six

Livestock Market Digest

Page 6

September 15, 2013

Counties there?” he asked, pointing to a strip of younger, lighter sagebrush that vanished into a hillside.

It was an oil and gas seismic line, one of thousands that were carved in the 1950s and ‘60s by prospectors who used dynamite to locate mineral deposits. San Juan County is claiming it under R.S. 2477.

“They were never planning on coming back,” Walker said of the prospectors, who are said to have been paid by the mile. “Someone else comes along and sees the tire tracks and tries the road, even though there's nothing there.”

Kevin Walker Kevin Walker, who opposes Utah’s roads bid, walks the Moab Rim Trail, a steep rock precipice claimed by Grand County as an R.S. 2477 road. The Colorado River flows behind him.

Wearing a blue bucket hat, running shorts and sandals, Walker said he takes pride in finding the faintest R.S. 2477 claims. He mapped many of these routes decades ago while taking an inventory of roadless lands for the Utah Wilderness Coalition, of which SUWA is a member.

He said many of the counties’ R.S. 2477 routes were even fainter when he first walked them 15 years ago. Since the lawsuits were filed, counties have systematically driven all the routes, he said.

“When the counties claim they need these roads, it’s disingenuous and demonstrably false,” he said. “What they really want is to

continued from page five

control the land.”

Once an R.S. 2477 claim is granted, BLM has almost no way to close them down, even if it needs to preserve them for wildlife or quiet recreation. It effectively precludes future wilderness.

“These are federal lands, and the federal government should be able to manage them in a rational way and not encumbered by this loophole in a very ancient law,” Walker said. “To me, the whole thing is a travesty.”

A handful of other R.S. 2477 road claims spur haphazardly from the Browns Hole Road.

One of them narrows into a rocky trough before petering out into the juniper and pinyon flats.

In the late 1990s, Grand County decided to increase the miles of Class B roads in its system to prevent a reduction in state subsidies for road maintenance, Walker said. It unilaterally bladed minor roads and unmaintained jeep trails, he said, but “BLM didn’t have the guts to stand up to them.”

Several miles south of here, the R.S. 2477 battle is playing out at Hatch Point, a sagebrush plateau coveted by oil and gas and potash developers as well as SUWA and the Sierra Club, which have proposed including the land in a 1.4-million-acre Greater Canyonlands National Monument.

A 22-mile paved road takes visitors to the Needles Overlook, which offers miles of stunning views over labyrinth red rock canyons underneath Canyonlands park.

Hatch Point has plenty of dirt roads, though the area’s dense brush, rock buttes and spires make them hard to see. San Juan has staked dozens of R.S. 2477 claims here.

One of them leads to a driedup stock pond and a field of invasive cheatgrass and Russian thistle. It fades a couple of hundred yards into the desert before disappearing.

“It just goes out here and dies,” said Liz Thomas, an attorney for SUWA. “It doesn’t circle back. It wasn’t intended to go anywhere.”

Court-awarded road claims would make the area an easier target for mineral development and potentially a weaker candidate for a national monument.

‘A wasting kind of witness’ Roads support San Juan’s mineral economy — oil, gas and mining account for 60 percent of its tax base — but they also preserve recreation, said John Fellmeth, who helps run the county’s roads preservation project.

San Juan claimed roughly 1,800 roads in its R.S. 2477 lawsuit, even though some have never been driven by county officials.

“It looks like there might be a nice overlook,” Fellmeth said, pointing to a narrow rust-colored dirt path at Hatch Point.

He was joined by Nick Sandberg, the county’s public lands coordinator who previously worked more than 30 years at BLM’s Monticello field office, which oversees Hatch Point.

Neither was sure where the road went or what it was used for.

The Best of the Bunch

It likely provided access for livestock growers, Sandberg said, pointing to a salt block on the side of the road that may have nourished cows or sheep.

The road ended at the plateau’s edge, where a dirt clearing offered sweeping views of Heart Canyon nearly a thousand feet below and the “six shooter” pinnacle — a sandstone spire named by early cowboys for its resemblance to pistols. The jagged rocks of Canyonlands could be seen in the distance.

The road certainly led somewhere, though whether it is a “highway” is a matter of dispute that will be decided by a federal judge.

Fellmeth said there are about 80 “at-risk” witnesses in San Juan. Some testify on as many as 60 roads in a day, he said.

“Most of them are fairly old, and even those who are still with us, their mental faculties are deteriorating quite dramatically,” he said. “It’s a wasting kind of witness.”

Critics have questioned whether witnesses in their 70s or 80s could accurately identify the roads they used when Lyndon Johnson was president.

Before they testify, witnesses are driven on the roads by the state's attorneys to “refresh their recollection,” said Bloch, the attorney from SUWA. Courts will have to wrestle with issues of credibility, as they do with all trials.

From the Needles Overlook at Hatch Point, Fellmeth pointed to an airstrip about a thousand feet below that may have been used to transport oil and gas equipment to the Lockhart Basin.

Visual clues like that can help orient R.S. 2477 witnesses, Fellmeth said.

However, they can also be deceiving. Less than a mile away is a similar airstrip with similar red rock surroundings.

‘We have a high card’

& !) % *&&# &, ( *& * , (. # )* )*&(. /) % - )* &&" % $ ! !) '+( !**) % * *( !*!&% & !(* & ) % & /) &+%*(. /) # * )* -!## %* ( * !% % !%)'!( )*!% *& # ))!

(--0% !,4 &-2/ -& %%60 "--*0 !,$ .!4 !,$ 1(!1 -,+4 ),#+2$%0 /)-/)14 -01!'% 5 1 !++ !$$0 2. 1- ! .-1%,1)!+ 0!3),' -& -3%/

County officials in Utah see R.S. 2477 as a potent defense against the president’s use of the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments.

The 1906 law is controversial in Utah, where President Clinton designated the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996 over the objections of local officials. Monuments bar future mineral claims.

R.S. 2477 adds another twist to Utah’s political mine field.

Eastern Utah Grand County Councilman Lynn Jackson says R.S. 2477 gives counties a bargaining chip in negotiations over public lands in eastern Utah.

“It just gives the counties an extra card to play that they haven’t had in the past,” said Lynn Jackson, a councilman for Grand County, whose economy depends heavily on mountain bikers, off-highway vehicle riders and national park visitors.

“We know we have a high card,” Jackson said. “For now, we’re just going to tuck it up our sleeve, and if we need it, we’ll play it.”

Utah counties were politically emboldened by Kane County’s R.S. 2477 victory, Jackson said.

Grand and five other counties are currently negotiating with conservationists and other stakeholders on a major public lands bill.

“SUWA is concerned,” Jackson said. “If we take all these 12,000 segments, they’re saying ‘Holy crap, we’re likely to lose all that . . . maybe we should negotiate.’”

Jackson, who formerly worked for BLM for 32 years, opposes the proposed Canyonlands National Monument, which he argued would hamper oil and gas and potash development in Grand, stifling economic diversification.

On a recent drive through the butte-marked desert lands northwest of Moab, Jackson pointed to a sandy, riparian wash passable only by motorcycles that descends to an overlook above the Green River.

The path, an R.S. 2477 claim, was kept open in BLM’s travel management plan, even though conservationists wanted it closed, Jackson said. The county believes it should have the final say over who uses the road.

“That’s a huge draw to the motorized recreation economy," he said. “They’re the ones who spend the most money around here.”

A spreading fight?

Litigating all of Utah’s R.S. 2477 roads to the 10th Circuit could take well over a decade and cost billions of dollars.

“Obviously it’s kind of insane to try to litigate 12,000 roads,” said one top Interior official who asked not to be named. The first Kane County case, which involved 15 roads, took nine days of trial and field trips, the official said.

The hope is that as cases are decided at the appellate court level, parties will have a better foundation for settlement talks.

Since March, a handful of cases in Garfield, Kane, Emery and San Juan counties have been active. Meanwhile, the state is continuing to depose its old and infirm witnesses in case the rest of the roughly 20 cases become active.

While conservationists have criticized the state’s lawsuits as a waste of taxpayer money, the R.S. 2477 campaign is widely supported in the Utah Legislature, where lawmakers earlier this year passed a special appropriation to compensate counties for legal services from outside firms including Holland & Hart. The firm is estimated to have provided at least $1.8 million in services to Kane County alone, The Salt Lake Tribune reported in March, citing former BLM Director and continued on page seven

September 15, 2013

Counties Utah public lands official Kathleen Clarke.

Under the plan, the state would pay for half of the first $700,000 in legal bills a county incurs and would pay the majority of bills beyond that.

Conservationists are skeptical whether the federal government will adequately represent their interests.

According to SUWA’s Bloch, conservation groups have twice as many attorneys working on R.S. 2477 cases than the Justice Department. Pro bono work is being provided by law firms Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Cooley LLP and Jenner & Block LLP, he said. There are also two local Salt Lake City firms, former Earthjustice attorney Robert Wiygul, and SUWA and Wilderness Society attorneys working on the cases.

The federal government’s appeal of the Kane County case to the 10th Circuit was heartening, Bloch said.

Utah counties have lost some notable R.S. 2477 cases too.

For example, a federal district judge in 2011 rejected San Juan County's claim that several miles of Salt Creek Canyon in Canyonlands National Park was an R.S. 2477 route. “A jeep trail on a creek bed, with its shifting sand and intermittent floods is a by-way, but not a highway,” wrote U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins (Land Letter, June 2, 2011).

San Juan and Utah appealed the case to the 10th Circuit, which could issue a decision any day.

Utah’s R.S. 2477 claims are being closely watched by environmental attorneys as well as other Western states looking to loosen Washington, D.C.’s reins over public lands.

The Vermont Law School included Utah’s road claims in its “Top 10 Environmental Watch List 2013,” warning that if federal courts affirm even a fraction of the state’s claims, it could set off a cascade of threats to national parks, wilderness study areas, monuments and other protected lands across the West.

“Other western states are likely watching Utah’s land grab, waiting to see what the federal courts will do with these 26 claims,” wrote Hillary Hoffmann, a professor at the law school, and student Sara Imperiale.

Alaska has already earmarked money to study potential R.S. 2477 claims, and Nevada, the birthplace of the Sagebrush Rebellion, would jump on the R.S. 2477 “bandwagon” if Utah prevails in its lawsuits, Hoffmann and Imperiale said.

Attempts to settle The ongoing litigation has created a great deal of uncertainty on all sides, including BLM, said Robert Keiter, a professor of public lands for the University of Utah who serves on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association, which has criticized the state’s road claims.

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper” continued from page six

“That impacts the BLM’s ability to make long-term land and resource management decisions wherever these claims are being pressed,” he said.

The road claims also complicate a broader effort by Utah GOP Rep. Rob Bishop to pass a comprehensive public lands bill for six eastern Utah counties — Uintah, Emery, Carbon, Grand, Wayne and San Juan — that would consolidate lands for oil and gas, potash and mining development while designating others for off-highway vehicles, mountain bikes and wilderness.

Bishop said conservation groups he is working with — which include SUWA, the Wilderness Society, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy — have “legitimate concerns” that future road claims could tarnish wilderness designations, which, by definition, aim to keep the lands “untrammeled by man.”

Scott Groene, executive director of SUWA, said Washington County in 2009 agreed to have wilderness designations under legislation passed by former Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) but has since filed R.S. 2477 claims in those areas.

“Utah’s 20-plus lawsuits against the United States over R.S. 2477 may be the biggest hurdle to overcome in trying to reach agreement here,” Groene said.

“Fortunately, Congressman Bishop has said he believes the R.S. 2477 issue should be resolved as part of this legislation. We are in agreement with him on this point.”

Last month, the various sides reached a rare accord to amicably resolve a handful of the disputed road claims in remote mountains west of Salt Lake City.

BLM, Utah, Juab County and environmental groups announced a settlement designed to balance the protection of primitive lands in the Deep Creek Mountains wilderness study area with access for motorized vehicle users (Greenwire, Aug. 20).

It marked the first negotiated settlement in Utah’s larger bid over the R.S. 2477 claims.

Congress has tried unsuccessfully a handful of times to address the conflict.

Bills by then-Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) nearly a decade ago sought to narrow the definition of R.S. 2477 rights of ways. Bills by Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) in 2006 and 2007 would have given states and counties more influence in the process. But lawmakers have done little since then.

Some observers are hopeful Bishop can resolve some claims in eastern Utah.

“There’s an opportunity for some, if not all, of those roads to be addressed as a result of this legislative process,” said Cody Stewart, an energy adviser for Herbert and former Bishop aide.

“It may be one of the negotiated pieces that helps bring this across the finish line.”

Page 7

FWS Extends Comment Period for Gray Wolf Proposals — Announces Public Hearings to Solicit Additional Stakeholder Input he U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has extended the public comment period until October 28 on two proposed rules to remove the gray wolf (Canis lupus) from the List of Threatened and Endangered Species, while maintaining protection and expanding recovery efforts for the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) in the Southwest, where it remains endangered. The Service also announced a series of public hearings to ensure all stakeholders have an opportunity to comment.

The first public hearing will be held in Washington, DC, on September 30, followed closely by hearings in Sacramento, CA, on October 2,

T

and Albuquerque, NM, on October 4. Each public hearing will include a short informational presentation. The Albuquerque hearing will be a combined hearing on the gray wolf delisting proposal and the proposal to revise the existing nonessential experimental population designation of the Mexican wolf. The hearings are part of the Service’s continuing efforts to provide an open and comprehensive public process for the two wolf rules and will afford members of the public a forum by which to register their views.

To learn more about the proposed rules, the details of the public hearings, and for links to submit comments to the public record, visit www.fws.gov/graywolfrecovery062013.html.

Labor Groups against ObamaCare resident Obama is getting blasted these days from an unexpected quarter: Major labor groups instrumental in helping the president win a second term are charging that ObamaCare is undercutting existing union-sponsored health insurance programs and even encouraging employers to cut workers’ hours, says the Fiscal Times.

Previously, leaders of three of the largest labor unions sent a scathing letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), warning that if the problems with the insurance program are not addressed, the new health care law will “shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”

P

The letter was written by James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and Donald Taylor, president of UNITE-HERE, a union that represents hotel, airport and food service workers.

It stressed the unions' displeasure with a law they all had previously supported and helped to pass.

The Affordable Care Act will eventually penalize firms employing 50 or more people that don’t offer health insurance – or that offer coverage below minimum standards.

This is the so-called “employer mandate.”

The White House this summer put that provision on hold until 2015 to give medium and large employers the opportunity to better prepare and plan for

the changes and reporting requirements.

But once that provision finally takes hold, union leaders say that companies will cut the hours of workers below 30 hours per week to get under the 50worker threshold for providing health care coverage.

The health care law is likely to be a prime topic of conversation when Obama addresses the AFL-CIO’s Quadrennial Convention next month in Los Angeles. Obama’s relations with labor have been rocky at times, for sure. Yet while he’ll talk about his plans to create jobs, provide better pay and strengthen workplace protections, the president’s speech on Sept. 9 may not include every reassuring word that labor leaders are right now longing to hear.

Source: Eric Pianin, “Why Organized Labor Is Organizing Against ObamaCare,” Fiscal Times, August 30, 2013.

Livestock Market Digest

Page 8

Arizona rancher only paid $600 after feds seize prime land

BY ALLYSON BLAIR, WWW.KPHO.COM

or Tony Sedgwick life doesn't get much better than it is now.

F

It’s magnificent country. It’s beautiful. It’s green. It’s full of wildlife,” Sedgwick said.

Ranching runs in his blood.

His family has raised cattle in Santa Cruz County for more than a century.

His parents bought Carmencita Ranch three decades ago. From atop the 700-acre spread can be seen the city of Nogales and the Patagonia Mountains.

There’s also a bird’s-eye view of the border fence with Mexico about a mile below, something that drew the interest of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 1993.

Back then Sedgwick agreed to lease a 10-foot-by-10-foot space on Hines’ Ridge to the agency for $350 a year to park a mobile surveillance tower on his property.

That later increased to $500.

Then in 2003 the payments stopped, but the truck never left.

In 2009 the agency was back with another offer for triple the money. Not long after that deal fell through – the Department of Homeland Security decided it wanted to buy the quarter-acre piece of prime real estate.

“The fact that they want to take this land for $600 is outrageous. So I said we’d be glad to lease. The response to that was a service of a lawsuit in federal

court where they took the property,” Sedgwick said.

DHS also offered to pay $5,700 for rights to the 2.5-acre road leading to the land.

Sedgwick looked into suing DHS and found out it would cost a minimum of $40,000.

“As an American, I’m not accustomed to having my hands tied and having no chance to defend myself. I understand the need of a country to protect itself but I think that the need has to be balanced by the rights of individuals with the freedom and liberty we are guaranteed,” Sedgwick said.

Recently Sedgwick received a registered letter informing him that the government will likely want more of his land. There was no mention of a specific offer.

“They don’t have to take the whole property. They can take a little piece here and a little piece on the next hill and a little piece on the hill after that. I would be left with the stuff in between,” said Sedgwick.

Land that Sedgwick had hoped to one day sell might not be worth near what it was.

“It’s an enormous tower.

There will be a chain link fence around it. There will be a razor wire top. There will be lights that will be on all night long. I’m not an expert. But I certainly wouldn’t want to buy my dream home in the shadow of a military installation.”

CBS 5 News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. So far the agency has made no comment.

Texas court finds agency can’t deny pecan farmers’ water rights without compensation

BY JENNIFER THOMPSON PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

ast October, we related the story of Glenn and JoLynn Bragg, pecan farmers in Medina County, Texas, who suffered from a state agency’s taking of their water rights. PLF filed an amicus brief in the case, supporting the Braggs’ argument that the agency, the Edwards Aquifer Authority, could not regulate away the Braggs’ common law water rights, without compensation.

The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals agreed in an opinion issued recently. It held that the Authority had indeed unconstitutionally taken the Braggs’ water rights. This is significant not only for the Braggs, but for all Texas water rights holders.

Government does not get a free pass around the Constitution in the water rights context simply by asserting that it has a duty to preserve the water. If government destroys common law water rights, it must compensate property owners.

L

PLF’s amicus brief focused specifically on one aspect of “the Penn Central test” for determining when government is liable for taking property by excessive regulation. As a whole, the Penn Central test requires a court to balance these factors: (1) the economic impact of the regulation on the property owner; (2) the regulations’ interference with the property owners’ “reasonable, investment-backed expectations” and (3) the nature of the regulation. PLF’s brief focused on the second “expectations” factor, because it is often decisive.

There is no one-size-fits-all standard for gauging whether a property owner has “reasonable, investment-backed expectation” of property use, but courts have often found such expectations reasonable when they merely track the land’s historic use. In this case, the Braggs had reasonable expectations because they had been growing pecan trees for 30 years, and because they continued on page sixteen

September 15, 2013

THE LIVESTOCK MARKET DIGEST

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

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

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

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

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

HEADQUARTERS WEST LTD. ST. JOHN’S OFFICE: TRAEGEN KNIGHT P.O. Box 1980, St. John’s, AZ 85936 || www.headquarterswest.com 928/524-3740 • Fax 928/563-7004 • Cell 602/228-3494 info@headquarterswest.com

/% "0 $' 4 ++/':"% 4 $; 49' %"$ 0 &'/4 ' 4 % "& 04/ 4 , $ 8 $ & 4/ 4- "& 4. ' &0 4 4 "&4 /0 4"'& ' 4 / 4/ 4 & 6& 04 4/ 4. / "0 5= / 0 9"4 0 / 0 ' 4. ' &0 //" 4"'& & "4 '%+ &;.

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

74" 7$ 8" 90 ' 0 7 "$$ '7&4 "& $' 4 "& 4 /4 ' 4 "4 '7&4 "&0. / / &7% /'70 '% 0"4 0 '& 4 +/'+ /4; 9"4 : $$ &4 00 "& $7 "& '8 / * %"$ ' + 8 /'&4 $'& " 9 ; ( =. > "4"'& $ 00 "0 +/'8" ; '7&4; % "&!

7 4' ( === ===. ( 6== === 4 "& /' 0 '& '4 4 &'/4 & 0'74 '7& /" 0. '/4 ' 4. ' &0 "& >+ '7&4; "& $7 0 ( 12= / 0 9"4 4 4 $ 0 0 '/ (6( &"% $ 7&"40 ; /$'& .

9$; "%+/'8 9"4 0 8 / $ %"$ 0 ' & 9 +"+ $"& &7% /'70 04'/ 4 &#03 /"&# /0 07++$" ; '7/ 9 $$0. '4 $ / & "0 '8 / (( === / 0 9"4 "8 + 047/ /'4 4"'& $ / <"& 0;04 % & '& 0% $$ '$ "& 4/ +. >$$ / & & 0 8 & / 9'/# "& $7 "& '8 / 49' %"$ 0 ' & 9 & "& . /" 1== ===

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

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

See all my listings at: paulmcgilliard.murney.com

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

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

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

Scott Land co.

1301 Front Street Dimmitt, TX 79027 Ben G. Scott – Broker Krystal M. Nelson NM Qualifing Broker Ranch & Farm 800-933-9698 day/eve.

Real Estate www.scottlandcompany.com www.texascrp.com

■ WE HAVE BUYERS for the following properties: ■ $300K-$500K hunting property within a 2½ hr. radius of Dimmitt, Texas.

■ $1million ranch in a 1-1 ½ hr. radius of OK City.

■ $3 million ranch in Central/Southern OK/North TX area.

Owners please call – brokers welcome!

■ HORSE MOTEL – TUCUMCARI, NM – known coast-to-coast and in all parts in between - 4 ac. +/- on the edge of town. Nice metal frame horse stables w/pipe-rail pens. Nice brick home, 3 bdrm., 2 bath. Excellent opp.!

■ POTTAWATOMIE CO., OK. – 1,200 ac. +/-, 600 ac. +/- of corn for 2013, cheap pumping from two pumping stations on the little river, pivot sprinklers, balance in choice grassland, barn w/apartment, steel pens, on pvmt., 800 mature pecan trees, very scenic.

■ ADA OK. AREA – 3,120 ac. +/- of choice grassland w/houses, barns & steel pens, lays in 3 tracts, priced separately!

Look at our website for information on Choice OK ranches & call for details on large NM ranches.

#3+4 '9#4 '9%'..'05 2#4 563' 2#7'& 31#& (3105#)' *6)' .#-' /#04+10 *1/' +0 5*' 4*#&18 1( #..#4 '%.6&'& .#-'4 53''4 '9%'..'05 )3#44 605+0) (+4*+0) &3'#/ *1/' 4+5'4 #% #0 #&& /13' #%3'4 10.: /+.'4 165 1( #..#4 %#55.' 3#0%* 1( .#3-47+..' " '& +7'3 1 0+%' $3+%- *1/' $#304 2+2' ('0%'4 )11& &''3 *1)4 &6%-4 *605+0) !135*#/ '9#4 #% 605+0) #0& %#55.' 31054 8: ; 605 1605: 9 4633160&'& $: .#3)' *1/'4 '9%'..'05 4%*11.4 2# 645 $'#65+(6. .+7+0) 3+0+5: 1605: " 0'95 51 #7: 31%-'55 #5+10#. 13'45 '#65+(6. *1/' 5*#5 .11-4 17'3 # 0+%' #%3' .#-' 5310) 8'.. &''2 )3#44 #304 %#55.' 2'04 .. (13

8:

'#)17+..' "

;

; #9 ,1'23+'453' 0'5 ; ,1'23+'453' '#35*.+0- %1/

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

September 15, 2013

Page 9

Mesalands hires new Rodeo Coaches esalands Community College is pleased to announce that Tim Abbott, Midland, Texas is the new Interim Intercollegiate Rodeo Coach. Abbott’s extensive background in competing collegiately and professionally in rodeo, and his understanding of the importance of academics made him the ideal candidate for this position.

“We are very excited for our current and future rodeo student athletes to have Coach Abbott joining our program,” said Dr. Thomas W. Newsom, President of Mesalands.

“He brings the experience and a great passion for the sport that will continue to build on our program’s success.”

Abbott has been member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) since 2008.

According to the PRCA website, he is currently 20th in the world standings in the steer roping event.

He also competes in team roping professionally.

“We are very proud that Tim Abbott has accepted the position of Mesalands Community College’s Interim Rodeo Coach. Clearly his reputation precedes him,” said Dr. Aaron Kennedy, Vice President of Student Affairs at

M

Mesalands. “I’m sure Tim will continue to improve upon the Mesalands tradition of rodeo excellence.”

Abbott attended the University of Texas Permian Basin in Odessa, TX from 2005-2006. He also attended Odessa College in Odessa, TX from 2001-20013. In college he competed in calf roping, steer wrestling, and in team roping.

In 2001 he was named the Texas High School Rodeo Association All-Around Cowboy. Abbott was the Odessa College Rodeo Club President from 2002-2003.

He was a College National Finals Rodeo (CFNR) qualifier in 2002 and in 2003. In 2008, he was the named the PRCA Steer Roping Rookie of the Year and the PRCA Texas Circuit All-Around Rookie of the Year. In 2008, he won the Cheyenne Frontier Days Championship title in steer roping and was a National Finals Steer Roping qualifier. Abbott was also the recipient of the Dixon McGowan Memorial Steer Roping Award.

“I’m very excited about this position. It was an opportunity that came up, that I really couldn’t pass up,” Abbot said “The reputation and the tradition that Mesalands has been building over the last six or eight years, is pretty incredible

and I’m very honored to be next in line to carry out that tradition.”

He is married to Kayton and has two daughters Rylee and Steely.

“My wife is excited about moving. Everyone that we’ve met in Tucumcari has just welcomed us tremendously. It feels like a very close community,” Abbott said.

Abbott will be assisted by Staci Stanbrough from Capitan, New Mexico. Stanbrough was recently hired as the new Assistant Rodeo Coach/Animal Science Faculty.

Stanbrough was a member of the New Mexico State University (NMSU) Rodeo Team in Las Cruces from 2006 to 2011. She competed in breakaway roping, goat tying, and in barrel racing.

Stanbrough was a four-time qualifier for the CNFR and was an Academic All-American recipient for four years.

She was highly involved with the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. In 2010, she was the National Student President and was the Grand Canyon Region Student Director from 2009-2011.

She graduated from NMSU with a Masters of Agriculture with a Concentration in Domestic Animal Biology. She also received her Bachelors of Animal Science from

2013-2014 Mesalands Coaches (l to r) Staci Stanbrough, assistant coach, Tim Abbott, coach NMSU. Recently Stanbrough worked at the Harry Vold Rodeo Company in Pueblo, CO. Harry Vold is a 11-time PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year. Stanbrough assisted Vold in conducting professional rodeos.

“The people at Mesalands have been really helpful and nice. I like that it’s a smaller campus. I’m excited to help with the Rodeo Team as Tim Abbott’s assistant. I think that we will be a good fit together,” Stanbrough. “Hopefully, we can keep winning in the Grand Canyon Region and in the nation.

Riding Herd

g•u•i•d•e angus

" !

RED ANGUS

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

RED ANGUS

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

209/727-3335

Bradley 3 Ranch Ltd.

BRANGUS

SANTA GERTRUDIS

Dan Wendt

www.bradley3ranch.com

Ranch-Raised ANGUS Bulls for Ranchers Since 1955

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

BRANGUS

!#

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

Sell More Bulls!

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

he’s going broke paying $3.95 per minute to talk on the phone to some gal in Thailand who speaks terrible English.

Slick is one of those men who just can’t seem to live without a woman in his life. He is also like those miners and ranchers of yesteryear in that he takes a bath once a week, has no social skills, lives in poverty and is desperate for a mate because he is tired of doing his own dishes. The problem is the odds have evened up and there is one woman for every man in the West now.

Except for Slick, that is.

Slick got so tired of cleaning his own bathroom and was so desperate for love that he went on a matchmaking web site to prospect for a wife. After paying up, Slick was asked to complete an in-depth confidential personal survey. But just like the liars of old, he “aggressively stretched the truth,” you might say.

Instead of saying he’s 5”8”, he said he was 6’2” and instead of saying he was bald, fat and ugly, he said he loved to cook, was a 185-pound bundle of muscle and

Place your Real Estate ad in the 2014 FME (Including the DIGEST 25)

“The College has established a strong Rodeo Program over the years. With the addition of Tim and Staci, our program will continue to be one that both the College and the community can be proud of,” Newsom said. “I would also like to thank the screening committee for their time and effort in helping us selecting such fine candidates to represent Mesalands.”

The Mesalands Community College Rodeo Team will kick-off the season at Dine College in Tsaile, Arizona, September 20 and 21, 2013.

continued from page one

had all of his own hair. He also said that he was sensitive, caring, liked jewelry, made in excess of $150,000 a year and had several homes, despite the fact that he’s a day-working cowboy who lives in a 1965 model trailer house.

And it’s not even a double wide!

When I asked him why he lied Slick said, “What woman in her right mind would go out with me if I told the truth?”

I had to admit, he had a very valid point.

So the Internet dating service matched him up with a “voluptuous 25 year old who loved to cook and clean” who turned out to be a 65 year old whose face would stop a freight train. “She’d keep the crows out of your crops,” said Slick dejectedly.

“So you’re not going to see her again?” I asked.

“Oh no, we’re thinking of moving in together in the trailer house,” said Slick optimistically.

“Sure, we were both a little disappointed at first but fortunately neither one of us is in a position to get too fanatical about a few minor details.”

Livestock Market Digest

Page 10

September 15, 2013

The Sport of Rodeo — College Style WWW.COLLEGERODEO.COM

et’s have a look at how the sport of college rodeo and the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) got their start. Sort of a History 101 lesson, without a final.

Let’s look back to the days of horned rim glasses, Pearl Harbor, and college rodeos earliest beginnings . . .

With World War II coming to an end, and college rodeo popularity on the rise, the need for a sanctioning body was upon us. At a meeting on November 6, 1948, in Alpine, Texas, twelve schools came together to discuss the creation of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. Decided at that meeting was the need for a constitution, which was then established at a second meeting held in February 1949.

Hank Finger, then Sul Ross State Universities Rodeo Club President and chairman of the constitutional committee,

L

KADDATZ Auctioneering and Farm Equipment Sales New and used tractors, equipment, and parts. Salvage yard, combines, tractors, hay equipment and all types of equipment parts.

ORDER PARTS ONLINE.

www.kaddatzequipment.com • 254/582-3000

worked with that committee on developing eligibility guidelines, scholastic standards, and rodeo structure. The committee created a format for intercollegiate rodeo that would remain consistent throughout the country and provide national recognition for their constituents.

At the first NIRA National Convention on April 14 and 15, 1949, in Denver, Colorado, final approval of the constitution was granted, fees were accepted, and rules and regulations were finalized. Three regions were formed; Southern, Northwest, and Rocky Mountain. Pro-tem president Charles Rankin was elected NIRA president. There were thirteen member schools at this time, representing Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and Texas.

August 1949 marked the official, legal birth of NIRA when they filed for non-profit status. The first College National Finals Rodeo was held the same year in San Francisco, California. The first NIRA All Around Champion crowned that year was Harley May of Sul Ross State University.

The next decade, the era of bobby socks and poodle skirts, was one of difficulty for the NIRA. The 1950s brought problems with structure and finance for college rodeo. The 1956 National Convention addressed these problems by creating a Secretary/Manager position within the NIRA. Alvin G. Davis, Bownfield, Texas, was hired to fill that position. After noted success, Davis then resigned in 1958.

Hoss Inman, a stock contractor from Lamar, Colorado, became the second man to hold the job.

In 1960, Sonny and Joann Sikes of Sam Houston State University took over, accepting the roles of secretary and office manager respectively.

Entering into the 60s, the

Sikes family led college rodeo into consistent membership growth and the television boom. The 1962 College National Finals Rodeo appeared on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. NBC aired the 1965 finals, and ABC, again aired the event in 1967.

Rodeo at this time was experiencing a huge growth in several arenas, professional and college, the television airtime was a welcomed partner in the growth.

Member schools totaled 97 in 1966.

Vietnam, beer, and computers, were the topics of the 70s in college rodeo. National sponsors began joining the college rodeo forces. Vietnam didn’t slow the growth of NIRA. Member schools totaled 116 in 1970 with 41of those two-year institutions. The first national sponsor was the U.S. Tobacco Co. Scholarship Awards Program which was created in 1975, offering $70,000 in scholarships to regional and national champions. In 1979, Miller Brewing Company offered scholarships to the ten winning teams in NIRA’s regions, as well as the CNFR winning teams.

Hewlett Packard and Montana State University’s electrical engineering department developed the first computer scoring system for the College National Finals Rodeo in 1971.

This landmark thrust toward the future computer era has offered ease in distribution of information to contestants, media, and secretaries alike.

Initially, there were two units at the announcer stand—one for input and one for output, with a huge mainframe located at Montana State University.

The changes from then and now are obvious. Now the entire college rodeo standing process is conducted on computers, both regionally and at the CNFR. In 1970 the NIRA Public

Relations Director, Del Higham, predicted further NIRA growth in the Southeast, which at that time included McNeese State University and Northwestern State University. This was a prediction that proved true as an eighth region joined that year, the Ozark region, including Arkansas, Northern Mississippi, and Southern Missouri. With dedicated forces behind the NIRA, growth was still apparent. Higher enrollments at colleges and universities was also an asset in the 70s.

During the silver anniversary year of the NIRA, Tim Corfield, Northwest Faculty Director, joined the Board of Directors. Corfield, a coach at Walla Walla Community College, accepted the Executive Secretary position in 1979, when Sonny and Joanne Sikes retired from their long held posts. The office then moved from Texas to Washington state.

By the 80s college rodeo was at an all time high, with member schools totaling 155. Wrangler Jeans & Shirts signed on as a national sponsor in 1982. The inception of the Wrangler Officials Program was created.

NIRA officials now received payment from an official's judging fund.

Feathered hair and bell bottoms behind us, the 90s was a time of change for the NIRA. The college finals moved in 1997 from a 24-year home in Bozeman, Montana, to Rapid City, South Dakota. New national sponsors have allied, and continue to do so. The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Foundation was created, offering relief for injured athletes, scholarships, historical preservation, and the wellness program “RAWHIDE.” Over the years, NIRA’s history has read like a Who’s Who in the sport of rodeo. Roy Cooper, Chris LeDoux, Ty Murray, Tuff Hedeman, Dan Mortensen, and many more, are all champions in college rodeo, as well as professional rodeo. They have added to the success of college rodeo, and created some of its’ rich west-

ern history.

College rodeo history itself has repeated along the way.

Several generations of rodeo families have come up through the ranks. Three generations of New Mexico’s Bidegain family college rodeoed. Phillip B. in the 1940’s, Phil H. and Laurie (Burns) in the 1970’s, all for the University of Arizona (U of A). Their sons Donnie and Scott completed for New Mexico State University (NMSU) and West Texas A & M, respectively. Between them, they have six (6) more little Bidegains who are honing their skills for their college careers — after they finish pre-school, pre-K and the first grade.

Arizonans Robbie and Pam (Simon) rode for the U of A in the 1970’s followed by their three children Shain, Tad and Mandy who spanned the Cochise College, Central Arizona College and NMSU Rodeo Teams in the 1990’s. Bill Snure, now from Amarillo, Texas, and his brother, Rick (now deceased) competed for Arizona, then Rick’s sons Bill and Clay roped for NMSU. New Mexico and Arizona fall within the Grand Canyon Region of the NIRA. New Mexico colleges and universities that have rodeo teams include NMSU, Mesalands Community College, New Mexico Highlands University, Dine College, and Navajo Technical College. Arizona schools are the U of A, Cochise College, Central Arizona College, and Northland Pioneer College. The Region is highly competitive nationally with the NMSU men’s team ranking 8th and two women’s teams ranking in the top 25. Mesalands is number 5 and New Mexico Highlands is number 12.

“Preserving Western heritage through collegiate rodeo”, has been a theme repeated over the course of the years. Today these efforts are being made through over 100 college rodeos a year, over 3,500 student members annually and 137 member schools and universities. College rodeo has yet to its peak.

September 15, 2013

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Page 11

Arizona National Livestock Show Missouri CattleHires New Executive Director Women Offer $1,750 in Scholarships

fter completing a national search, the Arizona National Livestock Show has named Michael Bradley, Granite Bay, CA, as the new Executive Director. The Arizona National Livestock Show is the largest Livestock Show in the Southwest annually attracting exhibitors from more than 19 states. It is a western tradition that began in 1948 for the Grand Canyon State that also produces a prestigious and highly successful Horse Show held at West World equine complex in Scottsdale, AZ. “The success and future of the Arizona National Livestock Show are in the very capable hands of an experienced leader who is highly regarded within the nation’s fairs and expositions industry. We are excited to have Mr. Bradley as our new Director and welcome him to our Arizona National family,” said Jim Loughead, President, ANLS. Bradley hails from California and has developed an international reputation for creating the nation’s most innovative livestock and agricultural showcases.

His exposition talents are diversified having created and directed expansive outdoor entertainment venues, premier wine and food events and rodeos in addition to museum-quality exhibit programs.

“I have known Michael for many years and admire his enthusiasm and dedication for

A

agriculture. He demonstrates vision, creativity and passion in all he sets out to do and we will truly miss him in California. He is a great selection for this leadership position and Arizona agriculture is gaining a valuable friend,” stated Karen Ross, Secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Long known as an innovator, the Livestock Market Digest declared that he was one of 25 individuals, businesses or organizations who are making a difference for the American Livestock Industry. His work is well known within the Western Fairs Association, International Association of Fairs and Expositions and the North American Livestock Show and Rodeo Managers Association. Bradley has strong ties to all of agriculture and affiliate industries having dedicated 28 years of management experience with the California State Fair and during the past five years with the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Bradley has a commitment to building partnerships, resource development and connecting consumers to the farming and ranching communities. “The announcement of Mike Bradley as the next Executive Director of the Arizona Livestock Show is exciting news. Mike’s expertise as a team builder, as well as his exceptional leadership and people skills make him the perfect cohesive force to fast track the

Arizona National to the next level. Mike Bradley will deliver the innovation necessary to engage all the stakeholders of the Arizona National — exhibitors, members, sponsors, partners, the citizens of Arizona and the national agriculture community” said Jim Tucker, President, International Association of Fairs and Expositions.

He is dedicated to agricultural youth serving as the immediate past Chairman of the California FFA Foundation, served as a long time board member for the California 4-H Foundation, has directed the California State Fair Scholarship program and has been a volunteer 4-H leader for the past 14 years.

Bradley stated, “I am honored to have been selected for the position of Executive Director and look forward to serving all stakeholders of the Arizona National Livestock Show. My passion for agriculture and its value to our society, economy and future will drive the groundbreaking programs that this historic Southwest event can provide for decades to come.”

The Bradley family includes Michael’s wife Kimberly (married 28 years) and their sons Gabriel (25), Luke (21) and Levi (12).

The Arizona National Livestock Show, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting youth and promoting livestock and agriculture to the public while preserving our western heritage. For more information call the Arizona National office at 602/258-8568.

ne lucky young woman will receive a $1,000 scholarship as the winner of the Missouri Beef Queen contest.

The first runner-up will receive a $500 scholarship, and the second runner-up, a $250 scholarship. The contest is sponsored by the Missouri CattleWomen (MCW) in cooperation with the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association (MCA), Missouri's Cattlemen Foundation (MCF) and the Missouri Beef Industry Council.The scholarships are provided by the MCW, MCA and MCF. The contest is open to single females, between the ages of 16-21 (by Dec. 31, 2013). Contestants must be a Missouri resident, have a farm background, an interest in beef and the beef industry, already have or would be willing to obtain a Masters in Beef Advocacy (MBA), be a collegiate or junior member of MCA or her parent(s) must be a MCA or MCW member, and must be sponsored by her county cattlemen's affiliate.

The contest will be hosted on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014,

O

during the 2014 Missouri Cattlemen’s Association’s Annual Convention and Trade Show, at the Tan-TarA Resort, Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. The contestants will be judged on an application, resume, oral presentation and a personal interview. Judges will be scoring the contestants on knowledge of beef, presentation, appearance, personality and their entry application.

Coronation will be on Friday evening, Jan. 3, which will allow contestants time to participate in convention activities.

Queen contestants are encouraged to obtain their MBA prior to the competition. The 2014 Missouri Beef Queen will be required to complete her MBA prior to March 15, 2014. To obtain an application, or for more information about the Missouri Beef Queen program, contact Katie Allen, Missouri Beef Queen Chairperson, at 30862 Peden Chapel Rd., Marceline, MO 64658 or via email at katieallen04@yahoo.com.

The application postmark deadline is Nov. 1, 2013.

Livestock Market Digest

Page 12

September 15, 2013

Beware of Animal Activists

BY DENNIS MAGEE, FOR THE GLOBE GAZETTE

Butter Cow incident a reminder of animal rights extremists’ presence rreverent pundits found a fun topic to roast last month when someone poured red paint on the famous butter cow, a tradition at the Iowa State Fair since 1911.

A group, Iowans for Animal Liberation, claimed responsibility — and quickly became an object of ridicule.

“Fake activists throw fake blood on fake cow,” one writer scoffed on Twitter.

Another posed a not-too-serious question.

“Animal rights group paints ‘Freedom for all!’ on the Iowa butter cow. Can butter cows even survive in the wild?”

Other messages were more aggressive.

“Just poured bacon grease on our lettuce and herb garden. Take

I

that, animal liberation group.”

The incident at the fair is a mild example of the mind-set and tactics employed by extreme animal rights groups — like Animal Liberation Front — and ecoterrorism organizations, such as Earth Liberation Front.

“The paint represents the blood of 11 billion animals murdered each year in slaughterhouses, egg farms and dairies,” Iowans for Animal Liberation said in a prepared statement delivered anonymously after the butter cow incident.

For law enforcement agencies, agribusiness companies and livestock producers, the “bloody” butter cow is a reminder of the need for vigilance. Advocates of extreme animal rights positions are committed to what they describe as “direct action” and “monkey wrenching.”

But the law defines those acts as intimidation, harassment, trespassing, vandalism, arson and terrorism.

“People look at something like that as a funny event, but we look

P.O. Box 7458 Albuquerque, NM 87194 505/243-9515 • Fax 505/998-6236 caren@aaalivestock.com www.aaalivestock.com

Have that “hard to buy for” friend or relative?

Why not gift them with a subscription to the Livestock Market Digest? They will get a reminder of you every month AND stay up with the news and views of the livestock and ranching business!

~Gift Certificate ~ To:_________________________________ From:_______________________________ You have received a ____ year subscription to the Livestock Market Digest.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 1-year $19.95, 2-year $29.95

at it more like a terroristic act,” said Chickasaw County Sheriff Todd Miller.

Mike Kitsmiller is a supervisory agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in Cedar Rapids. He is also a member of the agency’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

“It’s very sporadic. The actions they take are very few and far between — knock on wood — and I’m not challenging them to come out,” Kitsmiller said.

Even so, the FBI routinely looks into possible crimes by animal rights groups.

“They come up every couple of months. We get something that may appear to be linked with that kind of activity,” he said.

Fires at hog confinement operations or in barns and mayhem at rural construction sites trigger suspicion, for instance.

“We’re going to take it seriously until we know it’s not a true threat,” Kitsmiller said.

Scrutiny is warranted based on ALF’s and ELF’s histories.

Bite Back, a magazine and website based in West Palm Beach, Fla., purportedly offers a venue for ALF’s followers to share details about their adventures.

The website describes 33 incidents in July and August, some violent. Of those, 13 were in the United States.

Animal rights extremists have targeted entities closer to home.

In 2000, someone released 14,000 animals from Earl Drewelow’s mink farm near New Hampton, and a year later waterfowl, pigeons and mink were let go from farms in Hamilton and Mills counties.

In 2002, activists released 1,200 mink on a farm near Waverly.

Perhaps the most notorious incident happened in November 2004. Masked individuals entered a psychology research area in a building at the University of Iowa.

The group took about 400 pigeons, rats and mice, smashed computers and poured acid on documents. Officials estimated damage at about $500,000.

Four days after the attack, ALF adherents emailed messages to media outlets from computers in the university’s main library and law library, according to federal court documents. The messages included names of Iowa faculty members and their spouses, home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses as well as names of graduate students and lab assistants.

Though he no longer raises mink, Earl Drewelow still knows people in the business. He takes such threats seriously. He and his father lost thousands of dollars during the 2000 incident in Chickasaw County.

“They’re no good S.O.Bs. Instead of giving them one or two years, they should lock them up for 15,” Drewelow said.

When he visits farms, Drewelow goes prepared.

“I just keep a loaded shotgun in the truck when I go down there,” he said.

But he declined to talk about what precautions active fur farmers employ.

“Let’s just say we’re kind of planning for it. You’ve got to keep your guard up on that stuff,” he added.

The ALF operates through essentially independent cells, according to the FBI’s Kitsmiller.

As the ALF websites boast, anyone who takes up a crowbar or bolt cutters can claim affiliation.

“One of the trademarks of this group is that it doesn’t have centralized leadership,” Kitsmiller said.

The FBI is able to collect intelligence on “pockets of individuals” in Iowa and “trip wires” are in place to raise alerts, according to Kitsmiller.

“We’ve got people in the community that report to us about actions. We know that those groups are here,” he said.

Officials can also discern likely targets. Recently, for instance, Kitsmiller said agents spoke with local law enforcement officials and met with representatives of Responsible Transportation, a processing plant in Sigourney that had announced intentions to slaughter horses.

Suspected animal rights activists started a fire at a similar meat processing facility in Roswell, N.M., in July.

Iowa’s history with animal rights activists goes back many years Because of an incident in November 2004 at the University of Iowa, state law enforcement officials became acquainted with a figure familiar within the extreme animal rights community.

By that time Peter Young already had attained legendary status among like-minded extremists.

Mark Kitsmiller, a supervisory agent with the FBI’s office in Cedar Rapids, describes Young as the “self-appointed spokesman” for the Animal Liberation Front.

“I know him because he was very vocal after the University of Iowa attacks, kind of praising the effort,” Kitsmiller said.

Young, however, did not respond to multiple email messages to a variety of venues from the Courier seeking comment.

During the incident, a group broke into a building, took laboratory animals, trashed computers and destroyed documents. The damage estimate was about $500,000.

According to federal court documents, investigators invested a good deal of effort tracing Young’s possible connection to the crimes and were able to place him near the scene.

Young participated in something called the Dangerous Media Tour in September 2004 in Iowa.

The event was described online as “a celebration . . . of do-it-yourself crime” with advice on picking locks, making free phone calls, stealing and manipulating bar codes, according to court documents.

One stop was at a bar about a block from the Spence Laboratories at the University of Iowa.

Busted While he was never linked to the Iowa City vandalism, authorities later accused Young and an associate, Justin Samuel, of crimes involving mink operations in South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Young and Samuel, however, went underground, living as fugitives for years. Both were eventually apprehended.

Authorities returned Young to Wisconsin to face charges. In September of that year he accepted a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to two counts of animal enterprise terrorism.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Crocker ordered Young to serve two years in federal prison and to pay more than $254,000 in restitution. Crocker also ordered him to complete 360 hours of community service benefiting “humans and no other species.”

At his sentencing, Young addressed mink farmers in the gallery, describing raids on their property as “an absolute pleasure.”

Young got out of prison in 2007 and he remains active in the cause. He is associated with the North American Animal Liberation Front and maintains Animal Liberation Frontline, a website that shares information about “animal liberation above the law.”

“He toes the line on advocating people going out and committing crimes,” Kitsmiller said. “But he puts information out there that would make it easy for someone to do that if they were someone who was off that mind-set.”

As an example, Young in 2009 assembled “The Blueprint: The Fur Farm Intelligence Report,” which includes names, addresses, phone numbers and details about fur farms and related suppliers.

The list includes many operations in Iowa.

Search warrants Young in 2010 twice fell under suspicion. In March, Special Agent Thomas Reinwart with FBI’s office in Cedar Rapids got a search warrant for Young’s home in Salt Lake City. That action was connected to the investigation into the incident at the University of Iowa.

Five months later FBI and ATF agents returned, this time trying to confirm a link between Young and Walter Bond, also known as “Lone Wolf.”

Bond got his start as an arsonist in Mason City and Cerro Gordo County under the name Walcontinued on page thirteen

September 15, 2013

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Animal Activists ter Edmund Zuehlke. He was convicted of third-degree criminal mischief and trespassing in 1996.

According to court documents, he set fire to a house in 1997, killing a pet inside. For that, Bond was convicted of second-degree arson and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served about three before his parole in May 2001.

He struck again in April 2010 at the Sheepskin Factory in Glendale, Colo. The arson destroyed the building and caused $500,000 in damage.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado, Bond accepted a plea deal, admitting he used fire to damage a property in interstate commerce and used force or violence against an animal enterprise. He was sentenced in February 2011 to five years in federal prison. The court also ordered Bond to pay more than $1.17 million in restitution.

At his sentencing hearing, Bond said he was honored to be a prisoner of war in the fight against “inter-species slavery.”

But in handing down the sentence, Judge Christine Arguello expressed doubts about Bond’s motivation.

“It does appear to me from your record that whenever you get upset, the way you act out is to light something on fire,” Arguello said.

Bond’s legal troubles continued in Utah stemming from fires in June 2010 at the Tandy Leather Factory Store in Salt Lake City and in July 2010 at Tiburon Fine Dining in Sandy, Utah.

He accepted another plea deal in July 2011 in Utah. He was sentenced to seven years, three months but was allowed to serve the time concurrently with the sentence in Colorado. He is a prisoner at the U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Ill. As a condition of Bond’s eventual release, the court ordered he have no “association with the Animal Liberation Front or any member either in person, by mail, by phone, by email by third person or by any other method.”

Young denied that Bond ever lived in the house in Salt Lake City.

After prison Federal court documents state that Young lives in Issaquah, Wash., and he apparently makes part of his living as a public speaker through Evil Twin Booking in Philadelphia.

On the Voice of the Voiceless website, Young is described as “a frequent lecturer at universities and events, writer on liberation movements and unapologetic supporter of those who work outside the law to achieve human, earth and animal liberation.”

According to court documents, as of July 2010, Young still owed about $253,500 in restitution stemming from his convictions in 1998. Garnishment of his income was ordered.

The FBI’s Kitsmiller emphasized Young’s role as a spokesman

Page 13 continued from page twelve

and advocate for animal rights represents nothing illegal.

Officials urge farmers to be vigilant against activists Those familiar with the tactics of hard-core animal rights activists suggest farmers with livestock plan for potential trouble, accepting that isolation in rural Iowa does not provide total protection.

In fact, remote locations work in favor of extremists bent on criminal mischief or worse.

So-called “direct actions” — opening cages at fur farms, gluing locks at butcher shops and setting fires — reached Iowa in the 1970s and ’80s, according to Mark Kitsmiller, an FBI agent assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Cedar Rapids. And since then, sporadic incidents have been reported.

A more recent incident happened in October 2011 at the Circle K Fur Farm in Woodbury County. Although no animals got loose, law enforcement officials arrested Kellie Van Orden and her husband, Victor, after they tripped alarms.

Both accepted plea deals last year.

Kellie Van Orden pleaded guilty to releasing an animal from an animal facility, a felony, and to third-degree attempted burglary, an aggravated misdemeanor. She will be on probation for five years, according to court records.

For the same charges, Victor Van Orden was sentenced to five years in prison.

The Fur Commission USA, which represents mink farmers, commented on Kellie Van Orden’s situation.

“Once again, the extremists of the animal rights movement have incited another young person to pay the price for their misguided campaigns against our country’s farming community,” the organization said at the time.

Peter Young, an unofficial spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, also shared thoughts on the couple’s crime.

“This is the second time there was an action at the Circle K Fur Farm,” Young wrote in 2012.

“The first occurred in 1997 when 5,000 mink and 10 foxes were released.”

Young, a convicted felon, did not mention in his post that the FBI considered him a suspect in that crime along with an associate, Justin Samuel. They were later charged and convicted in Wisconsin for similar acts during that same time frame.

Mink farmers maintain a high level of awareness, share information and, as Circle K owners apparently did, install security measures. Hog, cattle and poultry producers are starting to catch up, according to Brian Waddingham.

He is executive director of the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers. The organization is comprised of seven separate groups but includes Iowa’s beef, pork, turkey and dairy associa-

tions. On its website, www.supportfarmers.com, the organization advises producers to avoid complacency and to think ahead.

“Every year, the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers receives numerous reports of livestock theft and/or vandalism. It is important for every farmer to stop and take time to think about the security measures they have — or don’t have — in place,” according to the organization.

“The coalition and law enforcement officials encourage farmers to be proactive and take steps to better protect their farm and livestock, even if they are not aware of any criminal activity in their neighborhood.”

Waddingham suggests other tips for producers: • Install motion-activated lights around buildings.

• Install video cameras that also react to movement. Place two if possible, one to capture license plates, another higher to record

faces and vehicles.

• Develop good relationships with neighbors, sharing information about vacations and suspicious vehicles.

• Vary routines.

“Don’t show up at your hog or turkey operation every day at 8 o’clock,” Waddingham said. “Stop in at different times of the day.”

Kitsmiller also advises rural residents to contact law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, when they see something out of the ordinary.

“I’d rather have people call and have it turn out to be nothing,” he said.

Waddingham sounds a similar note but adds a word of caution.

“If you see lights in the middle of the night, call the sheriff. Don’t try to get in the middle of anything,” he said.

Waddingham and Kitsmiller both report little change in the frequency of such “direct actions” in Iowa.

“I haven’t seen any trends.

From what I see and hear, I don’t think it’s getting any worse,” Waddingham said. “That’s why I was kind of shocked by the Butter Cow (incident at this year’s State Fair). Maybe that’s some indication they are ramping up again.”

Kitsmiller puts some faith in Iowans’ attitudes, who — if online comments are any indication — overwhelmingly rejected the attack on the Butter Cow. “Some of the people here that would subscribe to their ideas maybe think there are other ways to share their views rather than physical damage,” Kitsmiller said.

He also wonders about the movement’s objectives.

“I’ve always questioned when they release these animals, you get a number run over by cars or eaten by predators,” he said. “So I’m not sure what the difference is. But that’s just me.”

Dennis Magee is regional editor of the WaterlooCedar Falls Courier, a Lee Enterprises newspaper.

Livestock Market Digest

Page 14

September 15, 2013

Foot Care is Crucial for Ranch Horses

BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

anch horses are athletes.

They are probably the best example of versatility in the horse world. A good ranch horse is a jack-of-alltrades. He may be asked to travel long distances many days in a row in rough country gathering range cattle (and be surefooted in all kinds of terrain). He may need split-second reflexes and speed to sort cattle in a corral.

He might have to jump into a trailer at a moment’s notice, or pack salt or fencing materials to places a vehicle can’t go.

He might be asked to carry the kids or grandkids and be trustworthy while doing it, or take his rider to victory at a weekend roping or some other competition.

His job description is virtually endless, depending on what his role is on any particular ranch.

The horse is often vital to a rancher’s or cowboy’s livelihood, but in order to do the job, the horse needs good foot care. “No foot, no horse” is very true, as the old saying goes. Some ranch horses receive very little hoof care and some are only shod when their feet wear down too much and they start to get tender. But hoof care is important, to make sure the horse will be able to do the job you ask of him when needed.

Galen Neshem is a farrier/rancher in west central Arizona who depends on goodfooted horses, taking care of cattle in big pastures and harsh country. “We have rocky terrain—everything from granite to volcanic rock mesas and old lava. Many of our canyons have slick river rocks. We also have limestone, so we have many kinds of rocks. All our horses have to be shod,” he says.

“It’s important to us to have horses with good feet, because if you lose a shoe out there you want to be able to ride the horse home without crippling him. We raise registered Quarter Horses, but most of our own ranch horses go back to a good mustang mare; most of our horses are a quarter to half mustang blood.

The studs we've used also have very good feet; this is something we select carefully. Most of our ranch horses have tough feet.

You can lose a shoe and if you don’t get a chance to shoe the horse today you can still keep on going. Strong feet make a very big difference.” On occasion he’s ridden a horse barefoot in an emergency, to gather cattle— like when some steers got out on the highway and into a neighbor’s place.

When shoeing ranch horses, Neshem’s methods depend on the individual horse. “Most of

R The Battle of the Abandoned Horse

REAL COWBOYS & INDIANS VS HOLLYWOOD & URBAN AMERICA he furor of lawsuit threats, animal rights terrorists, gesticulating celebrity actors and ex-politicians traveling the countryside like Barnum and Bailey is finally bringing out those who really have something at stake in the Wild Horse/Domestic Horse slaughter issue. It is easy for a movie star or politician or animal rights advocate to fall under the trance that horses live forever and eventually go to horse heaven, because that is about as deep as they think. Their weak solutions to the abandoned horse problem that they have helped create are like ducks peeing on a forest fire.

I don’t wish to ridicule them. I appreciate their compassion, their concern of animals being mistreated, and their wish that horses wouldn’t die. But they live in a dream world. Buster, a life-long cowboy and horse trainer takes it personally when he sees pictures of starving, skeletal abandoned horses. He says, “There are a lot more humane ways for a horse to die than starvation.” The Wild Horse Wreck we have created by not allowing the BLM to cull the herds of wild horses and burros is as big a fiasco as the Forest Service’s misguided policy of banning

T

timber and grazing in national and state forests. Oh, how we have to learn the hard way.

The American Indians have always held the horse in high esteem ever since Coronado crossed the border in 1535 and introduced them to us. The horse is revered, valued and used by them as chattel. But the Indians also take the responsibility of caring for the herd and the land.

They are now trying to talk to people who live behind a desk about “nature’s balance.” The Navajo Nation in New Mexico, the biggest tribe in the United States, has now joined the National Congress of Indians and other tribes, in support of horse slaughter in the U.S., “We . . . can no longer support the estimated 75,000 feral horses that are drinking wells dry and causing ecological damage to the drought-stricken range,” they say. They aren’t kiddin’ and they know what they’re talking about.

Studies of cost to feed and maintain one horse for a year in a rescue, feedlot, summer pasture, or refuge can be as low as $2,400 to $3,650. Using the lowest estimate, $200/mo. = $2,400/yr x 75,000 horses = $1,800,000.00.

Three of the entities actively involved in preventing the horse

slaughter plant in New Mexico are ex-governor Bill Richardson, movie star Robert Redford, and the Human Society of the U.S. I have listened to their speeches and read their quotes. I do not doubt they are sincere. I don’t question their emotional motives.

However, I have yet to hear a viable solution for, not just New Mexico’s impending crisis, but for our whole country’s equine catastrophe that was the result of cessation of horse slaughter plants.

I would suggest that they put their money where their mouth is.

Governor Richardson has had some legal problems due to shady politics, but I would guess he could come up with $250,000.

Mr. Redford has an estimated net worth of $170 million, and the recent budgets of the HSUS spending runs about $250 million a year. They ante up together and make the first donation, $420 million. That will take are of the Navajos for 2 years.

Well, we all know they don’t intend to spend their own money, they don’t care that much. But the train is comin’ down the track and they are standin’ right between the rails and they better turn around and see it before it’s too late.

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

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

I am/our organization is committed to protecting the open spaces, private property, private businesses & ensuring the responsible use of public lands. Please list me/my organization as a member of the Western Legacy Alliance.

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

Name: _____________________________________________________________________________________ Organization: _______________________________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________ City: __________________________ State: _____ Zip: __________ Phone: __________________ Fax: __________________ Email: ______________________

Individual Membership: $25 Association Membership: $500 Corporate Membership: $1,000 Help You Can

936 West 350 North • Blackfoot, ID 83221 westernlegacyalliance@gmail.com • 208-681-6004 www.westernlegacyalliance.org

JOIN TODAY!

the time I only use six nails. If a horse gets a hoof caught I want the shoe to come off, rather than cripple the horse. Most of my horses have hard feet, and can make it home without a shoe. Some horses, however, I use all the nails, to make sure that shoe doesn’t come off.

Sometimes on an old horse I don’t use the rear nails—if the horse has straight hoof walls and needs all his expansion potential,” he explains.

If shoes wear out too fast when horses are ridden constantly in the rocks, he sometimes uses a hard surfacing rod and welds a little bead from one front nail to the other front nail, around the toe of the shoe, and a little on each heel. “I do that sometimes to keep a shoe from wearing out too fast or to give a little more grip,” he says.

“We probably leave a little more heel on our shoes than people who ride in softer country or an arena, just to protect our horses’ heels from the rocks.

On occasion, when I felt a horse needed it, I've turned the heel of the back shoes up, to protect the heel bulb. The horses we raise haven’t needed this, so I haven’t done that in a long time.”

If he knows they will be doing a lot of running across lava rock—catching wild cattle—he may put pads on the front feet. It's easy to bruise a horse in that terrain, and Neshem has had a few horses crippled over the years due to abscessed stone bruises.

He’s found that most horses raised in rocky country, running over boulders as they grow up, have strong feet. But genetics is also a factor. Some horses have weaker hoof walls. “With the registered Quarter Horses we raise, if you lose a shoe you are afoot. Even though we turn those horses out, if we turn them out barefooted we have to go pick them up again within a month because they are too tenderfooted to get around. The only reason we still have them is they are really good horses otherwise. They just don’t have the feet we’d like. I have a 20-yearold gelding that I rope on and I don’t use him on the ranch except for corral work or in small pastures. If you lose a shoe on him, you’re walking. If I turn him out with the other horses, he’s tender in about three weeks.” Individual horses have different qualities in feet.

“When riding a horse that doesn’t have strong feet (and if you lose a shoe, you’re in trouble), we always put a few nails in our shirt pockets. You can put

A good ranch horse is a jack-of-all-trades.

continued on page fifteen

September 15, 2013

“America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

Foot Care nails in a shoe with just a fencing tool, if the horse starts to lose a shoe. Some cowboys around here do that all the time; they’ve always got a little sack with a few nails in it. If you’re carrying heavy fence pliers you can always use those as a hammer. If you get in a pinch you can jerk a shoe off, flatten it out, and nail it back on. Most of the horses in my string, however, have good enough feet that I could make it home if they lose a shoe, and maybe even ride another day if I have to,” says Neshem.

“The bigger, heavy horses as a rule have more trouble. We like a horse that weighs 950 to 1100 pounds and not much over that.

Most of ours take a number one shoe; they have adequate feet for their body weight.”

He has one heavy boned, bigfooted horse that came from a wild horse band in California.

Even though he’s a large horse, he’s not a heavy horse, and has huge, strong feet. “Just for scouring the country looking for cattle, I’ve ridden that horse most of a winter without shoes.

He has a foot that’s unbelievable. In the granite country, there were a couple winters when I was only riding once or twice a week and not putting in hard days, and I rode that rascal and never nailed a shoe on him.

He also makes a good pack horse because if you’re not packing all the time you can grab him when you need him and not have to bother with putting shoes on. When we’re using him through the cattle workings we shoe him, of course, but he makes a good spare horse without shoes. He can run through the rocks if you need to.”

When a horse needs hoof pads, Neshem used to use a heavy piece of leather. “It would wear out by the time you have to reshoe. I still use leather on occasion if I have a horse that’s a little tender after shoeing. By the time the leather wears out, his hoof has grown a little and toughened up,” says Neshem.

“You can buy plastic pads already made up.” He’s also used neoprene (the sheets you get from a shoe repair shop), and says it lasts the best. You can use it over and over; it will last through several shoeings.

“You can get neoprene that’s quite thin, or heavier. I’ve taken those pads and cut them out for the frog, when I just need some protection for the sole. That really works well,” he says. This keeps the frog outside the pad and it’s less prone to develop thrush. The pad doesn’t have to bend up over the frog on a flatfooted horse (which creates a space at the heel where dirt or small rocks could work in under the pad); it’s flat against the sole.

Bob and Kelly Sue Bachen shoe horses in the northeast corner of New Mexico and have a farrier supply store (Wagon Mound Ranch Supply). This area is rolling grasslands with rocky canyons running

Page 15 continued from page fourteen

through—high plains next to the Kiowa National Grasslands.

There are some large historic ranches here, and many small family operations. Bob says a lot of farriers tend to belittle “cowboy” shoeing, but he feels most cowboys have a good understanding of their horses’ feet, since most of them are good horsemen. They use their horses a lot, and know how the horse is built and how it moves.

“A lot of people who come out of shoeing school have never been around horses that much.

The cowboy, by contrast, has been working with horses a long time and knows what a horse needs. Most cowboys have a better idea about what a horse’s foot should look like than a lot

of people out there practicing the profession of farriery,” says Bob. It’s important that the shoes stay on. “When I first moved to this part of the country, it was only about three years after I started shoeing horses. A client would tell me my shoeing job was the prettiest he’d ever seen, but a week later he’d call me to say the shoes had come off! I soon learned, and had to adapt my methods of shoeing. This was part of my education. You learn to shoe for what the horse needs. These horses need to be fit tight and short, with not a lot of heel sticking out.”

When a horse is scrambling around in the rocks he may step on one foot with another, or get

one caught in the rocks if there’s any shoe sticking out. “If he’s running hell bent for leather down a narrow canyon or through the volcanic rock on top of a mesa, you sure don’t want him to lose a shoe,” says Bob. Kelly Sue adds, “We always smooth the shoes so they never catch the side of the shoe with another foot. These horses dodge back and forth when chasing cows, and if they are turned out in pastures with a bunch of other horses you never know who's stepping on who's shoes—so you always box the heels. You don’t leave any sticking out.

Bob says, “A therapeutic shoe or an egg-bar or long heeled shoe may stay on if a horse is

kept in a stall or ridden lightly, but in a pasture or ridden like a ranch horse must be, that’s a different story. These horses are out there kicking and snorting and jumping around.”

“Some people will tell you it’s not good to shoe a foot with no room for expansion and too short, but is it better to have the perfect shoeing job and lose the shoe in the rocks and end up with a crippled horse because he had 15 miles to get back to camp, or to have a shoe that stays on and protects the foot?

You have to shoe a horse for what he’ll be used for, and in this country you need to shoe ranch horses short and tight. continued on page sixteen

Livestock Market Digest

Page 16

September 15, 2013

“McWages” and the Middle Class hil Hickey, chairman of the National Restaurant Association, says his first job was at age 14 washing dishes at a Big Boy restaurant in his hometown of Detroit.

He says it was a job that gave him a strong work ethic and taught valuable skills that helped him move from the kitchen to eventually owning nine of his own restaurants.

This experience is not uncommon. n The first job held by nearly one in three Americans is in the restaurant industry. n In addition to teaching personal responsibility, teamwork, discipline and

P

accountability, these positions provide workers with opportunities for successful careers. n Many of them advance from their entry-level, minimum-wage positions. n Nine out of 10 salaried restaurant employees start off in hourly positions.

Protesters at fast-food restaurants around the country in recent weeks have alleged that fast-food workers can’t survive on $7.25 an hour, the national minimum wage, and that restaurants must pay all of their employees a “living wage” of $15 an hour.

The majority of workers who earn a

minimum wage in the United States work outside of the restaurant industry. n Only 5 percent of the 10 million restaurant employees earn the minimum wage. n Seventy-one percent of minimumwage employees in the restaurant industry are under the age of 25.

The U.S. restaurant industry is vital to the country’s economic growth and has helped fuel the recovery now underway. n Employment nationwide grew by 1.7 percent in 2012 n The restaurant industry employment grew 3.4 percent – making 2012

the 13th consecutive year that the restaurant industry has outperformed overall U.S. employment growth.

Efforts to devalue the industry and mandate changes, like raising the minimum wage, hurt workers by preventing businesses of all sizes from creating more jobs. As the U.S. economy continues to recover, let’s focus on preparing workers for high-growth positions and helping businesses expand – not on implementing policies that would eliminate jobs and shutter local businesses.

Source: Phil Hickey, ‘“McWages’ Can Be the Path to the Middle Class,” Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2013.

Foot Care You need to make sure the shoes stay on so they don’t pull off in a bad situation,” says Bob. On the whole, ranch horses tend to have very healthy feet.

They are not kept in stalls or small pens and rarely have thrush. They are moving around in big pastures or used regularly, and their feet stay cleaner and healthier, especially if you use a good shoe that is self cleaning, says Kelly Sue.

continued from page fifteen

Horses being used regularly need shoes, but rarely need pads. “If a horse is born and raised here, he generally doesn’t have much problem with bruising. But when you buy a horse from outside and expect him to adapt, he may or may not. Pads are not always the best idea, because that doesn’t help him adapt and toughen his feet. A horse that can’t do the job usually doesn’t stick around as a

ranch horse; if his feet won’t hold up the cowboy usually gets a different horse. These guys don’t have time to mess with one that takes extra work,” says Bob. He likes to use rim shoes; they last longer (more miles) than any other shoe he’s tried. “I also like a rim shoe because when that rim fills up with dirt it gives a lot more traction. Dirt on rock gives you much more traction than steel on rock. Some people don’t like a rim shoe on the hind feet, saying it gives them too much torque, making the horse hesitant to perform at his best. But this depends on what the horse is being used for.

If you are doing arena work this may be true, and you want just a flat plate on the back—especially for a roping horse--and a rim shoe on the front. But ranch horses out in big pastures or on rocks need as much traction as you can give them. If you’re going down a steep side of a canyon, the horse needs to be able to get underneath himself and have some traction,” he says.

“We don’t very often use toe and heel shoes, though up in Montana it’s a popular shoe (the standard keg shoes with a little buildup on toe and heel). It gives some traction and some

extra wear. The rim shoe can last a long time, too, even if you have to lay a little borium in the rim. Rim shoes are nice because the concavity of the inside web helps it self clean better than a regular keg shoe. It also has that nice roller motion all round. A horse doesn’t necessarily break over the center of the toe and this makes his breakover easier,” he says.

Jim Neshem ranches and shoes horses near Minot, ND where lots of ranch horses are shod in early spring because of icy conditions when they are being used during calving season. “I shoe a lot of them that time of year with calks or use borium, for better traction. Later in the summer we generally use flat shoes—some type of plate—in the rougher areas.

Many horses in the northern part of the state are just trimmed and not shod, where it’s mainly grassy terrain,” says Jim. Terrain in North Dakota ranges from grassy to rocks.

“Down in the Badlands it’s rougher—a little sandy, a little rockier, and some clay buttes.

Here where I live there are more farms and it’s grassy. In the southern or southwestern part it’s sandier, which can wear the feet or shoes faster, but they

Texas Court had specifically purchased their orchards in reliance on their ground water rights. The Braggs knew that they would need to use more and more water from the Aquifer as their pecan trees matured, which was not a problem as their title included common law water rights to use as much water as necessary for irrigating their crop. But when the Texas Legislature created the Authority, it passed regulations that severely curtailed how much water the Braggs could use. It wasn’t enough to irrigate all of their trees, so they had to thin their orchards and let many of their trees die.

The Authority tried to argue that the Braggs had no reason-

don’t have the snow and ice like we have. The horses down there I just shoe with plates.”

Sometimes he uses rim shoes.

“A few ranchers like rims on the fronts and plates on the back.

The rims probably give a little more traction on the front, but not very many guys want rim shoes on the back feet. They think that when the horse is turning and doing fast work, the rims make those feet stick a little too much. They don’t want to stop the foot that much. If they are working in steeper country or slippery sidehills, then they want a little more traction, with calks or borium. Everyone has a different idea about what they want—what they are used to or feel works best for their horses— so I shoe them the way they want their horses shod. I even use some toe and heel keg shoes. Some guys want calks on the front and those keg shoes on the hind feet.”

Some of the horses are kept barefoot much of the year except for the ones brought in for use during calving. Most of the horses run on big pastures, on the same type of terrain where they are used for cattle work, and their feet stay healthy and sound—much more healthy than horses kept in stalls or pens.

continued from page eight

able expectation of irrigating as needed, free of Authority regulation, because the Authority did not exist at the time the Braggs’ purchased their orchards. Our brief noted that if that were the case — i.e. government could defeat property owners’ expectations simply by enacting regulation — anyone who purchased land prior to the permitting scheme being enacted would never have a reasonable expectation of receiving a use permit, and government could always insulate itself from its constitutional obligation to pay property owners’ for the taking of their rights.

Fortunately, the court

implicitly rejected that argument in holding that the Braggs’ had a reasonable expectation to use as much water as necessary to water their orchards. This supported the court’s conclusion that the Authority had taken their water rights. The Authority must now pay the Braggs the difference between the value of their land as an orchard with unlimited access to Edwards Aquifer water, and their land with the Authority’s water restrictions in place. This is an excellent result for the Braggs, who have been fighting this court battle since 2006, and for the continuing protection of common water rights in Texas.