Fed Cattle Trade Catches Fire, Feeder Prices Firm To Higher
After selling fewer cattle last week than at any time in almost two decades, Panhandle area feeders saw things go their way this week.

New Year Lamb Prices Strong, Ewes Falter
Only minimal lamb trading occurred this week as operations slowly returned to normal in the wake of the Christmas and New Year holidays. In a few areas where numbers were sufficient to test, feeder lambs and fat lambs were on a slightly higher price level.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

Imperial Valley Man Lives For Lambs But Worries About Future
Sheep have always been Dominique Antchagno’s life, and for the past 38 years that life has revolved around lamb feeding.

TSCRA’s Top Man To Retire After 33 Years Of Service
Don C. King, 65, the top administrator of the 117-year old Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Assn. in Fort Worth for the last 28 years, has announced his intention to retire, effective March 31, 1995 after completing 33 consecutive years of service.

Advertising Pays Big For Beef, BIC Claims
Efforts by the beef industry to increase retail featuring of beef generated 77 million pounds of additional beef sales between June 12 and Aug. 27, says the Beef Board. The added tonnage represented an increase in beef sales of $140 million over the same period of 1993, making financial return on the checkoff investment approximately 60 to 1.

With Washington Realignment, Kansas Is In Ag Driver’s Seat
If Dorothy and Toto were to land on the Potomac, they could be forgiven for thinking they were home, what with all the familiar faces they’d see. At least in agriculture circles, the realignments in Congress and at USDA have placed power squarely in Kansans’ hands.

Holiday Week Feeder Cattle Untested In Limited Trading
Feeder cattle trade across the country during last week’s holiday shortened period was too limited to establish price trends.

Feedlot Card Is Christmas Poem In Terms Any Feeder Can Savvy
"Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the yard
Not a creature was stirring, not even the night guard.(ZZZZ)
The feed trucks were parked in the barn with care,
Ready to deliver the cattle's Christmas fare.

Plan To Link Ground, Surface Water Panned
A proposal to tie groundwater and surface water together and legally acknowledge their relationship in Nebraska has at least one group upset. It is an issue that is bound to arise in other states sooner or later as government seeks to extend its authority over what remains of private property rights.

Ranchers Lose Water Fight With Federals
Several Bennett County ranchers have failed in their attempt to overturn water rights granted near LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The ruling came despite clear evidence that the federal agency has violated specific terms of the water rights grant.

CRP Land May Be Hard To Put Back To Use
Land idled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program may be difficult and costly to return to crop production, a University of Nebraska researcher says.

NCA Responds To Criticism Of Property Rights Legislation
Legislation to protect private property rights as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution would not jeopardize self-assessed commodity promotion programs as asserted by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) counters the National Cattlemen’s Assn.

Bronc Stomper Ed D. Smith Never Lacked For Confidence
Ed D. Smith was an early-day resident of Motley County. He was a cowboy who could

Plunging Market Heads Top 10 1994 News Stories, Says TCFA
To no one’s great surprise, last year’s plunging fed cattle market led the Texas Cattle Feeders Association’s top 10 industry news stories for 1994.

Peso’s Plunge Having Dramatic Impact On Livestock To Mexico
The Mexican peso’s precipitous plunge over the last two weeks has virtually wiped out meat and livestock exports to that country, along with most other north-to-south trade. It is expected to devastate Mexican consumers who have come to rely on imported goods, and some suspicious observers see in it a calculated if drastic Mexican effort to undo trade concessions that country made under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

TDA Outlines Requirements For Pesticide Applicators
Many licenses allowing the use of restricted pesticides are scheduled to expire, and the Texas Department of Agriculture recently mailed letters to pesticide applicators outlining requirements and expiration deadlines.

Strange Costs Creep Into Bill For Mare Care During Breeding
You can’t be too careful who you do business with these days. Maybe I need to be more specific: You can’t be too careful where you send a mare to have her bred.

Roaming Yellowstone Buffalo Still Threaten Area Cattle
Nebraska plans to begin requiring brucellosis testing and quarantine for breeding cattle from parts of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho because of Yellowstone National Park's wandering bison.

Extension Economist Advocates Analysis Of Financial Records
As the year comes to an end with record high production of corn, cotton and many other commodities and the agricultural sector remains in financial doldrums, it becomes important to carefully review financial management concepts which may help this sector to better manage financial resources.

Cattle-Fax Survey Finds That Low-Cost Doesn’t Mean No-Cost
Being a low-cost producer doesn’t necessarily mean you pay less for all the inputs you buy. A Cattle-Fax survey of cow-calf operators shows that the least-cost producers spend as much or more on pasture, bulls and herd health than do the highest-cost producers.

NCA Promotes Industry Merger As Benefit For All Concerned
Cattlemen across the nation are being asked to support a merger of the four largest beef industry groups for the good of all, but it's a tough sell in some instances, says the president of the National Cattlemen's Association.

Ranch Meat Cellar Now Used For Wine
An underground concrete room used to store meat in the 1920s and 1930s on the Terry Bison Ranch south of here soon will house what is believed to be Wyoming's first commercial winery.

Ty Murray Wins Sixth PRCA All-Around Title In A Row
Ty Murray, Stephenville, Texas, captured his sixth world all-around cowboy championship during the $2.8 million National Finals Rodeo last month. Murray is one of only three cowboys to win the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Assn.’s most prestigious prize six times. Rodeo legends Larry Mahan and Tom Ferguson are the other two cowboys to have done so.

Activist Loses Bid, Still Claims Victory
Anti-ranching activist Jon Marvel lost a bid to acquire a state land lease, but claimed victory anyway.

Wool, Mohair Growers Looking At Coop Concept For Future
Around 75 area wool and mohair growers met here at the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center late last month to discuss the feasibility of organizing a grassroots cooperative marketing program for their products. It was the first of several organizational meetings to be conducted in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Texas Fed Cattle End The Year On Steady Note In Light Trade
Slaughter steers and heifers closed steady last week in Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading.

Retail Beef Prices Show Little Change
Average retail beef prices showed little change during the past month, according to the National Cattlemen’s Assn.

Cattle On Feed Down 6% In Seven Monthly States
Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter in the seven states reporting monthly estimates totaled 8.77 million head Dec. 1, down six percent from a year ago and one percent below Dec. 1 of 1992.

Angelo Lambs Higher, Ewes Sharply Lower
Compared with the last sale two weeks ago feeder lambs were in small supply, a few sales $1-2 higher, slaughter lambs scarce but sharply higher, slaughter ewes $3-6 lower, impacted by the peso’s fall and subsequent reduction in Mexican interest. Receipts totaled 4403 head.

1994 Texas Exports Up 15%, Sheep Off
Livestock moving through the six Texas export facilities in 1994 totaled 1,104,028 head, up 15 percent from a year earlier, but 19 percent below the record year of 1991 when exports amounted to 1,317,210 head. Most of the exports were slaughter animals moving into Mexico.

Domestic Wool Slow, Aussie Finewool Off
Demand was good for limited supplies of domestic wool last week, especially for medium grades and lamb wools. However, most wool is held in strong hands and sales were too few to establish a trend.

Kansas Direct Feeder Cattle Trading Slow
Kansas direct feeder cattle trade last week was too limited for an adequate market test on steers. Heifers weighing 625-875 pounds sold steady to weak, also on light offerings. Kansas weather was warm and mild all week. Confirmed sales totaled 1870 head.

U.S. Meat Production 2.3% Above A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection last week was an estimated 726.9 million pounds, 7.4 percent below the previous week and 2.3 percent above the same week a year ago.

Hill Country Brangus Bulls Average $1662
A total of 133 bulls averaged $1662 per head here last month at the Hill Country Brangus Breeders Assn. sale, where receipts totaled $221,100.

Hindsight

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull. 
"I see," said John, proving he is keeping up with what’s going on in the world, "where some fellers claim now that these flyin’ saucers may be the real article, after all.

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
You gotta hand it to the cowboys. They can turn a birthday cake into a four-alarm fire!

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
Right after the New Year is when unwanted gift items are returned, so all you sales clerks be prepared.

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
One week before Christmas, my sister and youngest son finished having a stained glass church window dedicated to my mother and stepdad in Mertzon. Summonses brought most of the family back to town for holiday visits and dedication ceremonies. Grandchildren pitched and played, and I’m sure the commemorated would have been pleased by the whole affair.

Views From His Better
By Linda Posey
Are you "lucky" enough to work on a ranch that has public land during hunting season? Well, we are.

The Computer & The Cowboy
By C.A. Rodenberger, Ph.D. 
I have news and movies running out both ears. Computer technology combined with the latest satellite technology has finally entered my house. For over 10 years I have had only three local TV stations -- when the weather is good. While traveling to accompany my wife to her professional meetings, we saw news and old movies available in the hotels that we wished we could receive.