.Lamb Prices Trying To Hold Tight
Lamb prices held fairly stable around the country this week except feeder lambs in Texas, which lost a little ground. Quality there may have been a factor in that drouth conditions are hurting lambs and some of them may be forced to sell sooner than desired.

Fed Cattle Prices Gain $3-4 In Rebound From The Cellar
Cattle feeders showed a spark of spunk this week after last week’s near-total rout and a gratuitous pummeling by the packers. Bids opened at $55 Monday and bought next to nothing; by Wednesday afternoon offers were up to $57 and many feeders said they might be willing to part with some cattle at $58. At presstime, negotiations were running hot and heavy over the latter figure.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

One-Man Charlie Goodnight Show About Heroes, Right And Wrong
Charlie Goodnight's Last Night is about heroes. "I think we got us a pretty good show," says actor Barry Corbin. "It's lived up to my expectations."

Common Grave Of Two Hard-Luck Cowboys Still Receiving Care
Most people take a certain amount of pride in the history of their region, and northwestern Oklahoma offers much about which to be proud because of its abundant, colorful history.

USDA Head Visits Panhandle, Hears Producer Complaints
Dean Kinsolving says ranchers like himself haven't asked for much from the federal government in the past. Now, he says, that's exactly what they're getting.

USDA Eyes War Toys For Agriculture Use
Some of the most sophisticated systems in the nation's defense arsenal may soon be used to help farmers battle pests.

House Version Of Grazing Reform Bill Passes Panel
A proposed overhaul of federal grazing policy, including higher fees, has advanced in the House despite warnings it probably would face a presidential veto.

French CJD Death Casts Doubt On Links To Mad Cow Disease
The death of a French man from a new strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease may cast doubt on the link between the fatal brain disease and a cattle ailment, French researchers say.

Bill Seeks End To Federal Subsidies On Ethanol Fuel
Federal subsidies for the corn-based fuel industry are again under attack by lawmakers as wasteful corporate welfare.

New Farm Bill Makes Federal Drouth Aid Look Less Likely
Extra government disaster aid for farmers struck by drouth in the Plains is less likely under the new farm bill, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said late last week.

Long-Predicted Cattle Price Collapse Finally Came In ‘95
The cattle market confounded savvy analysts for several years, remaining strong and vibrant despite repeated warnings of an imminent collapse. Predict the inevitable long enough, however, and you will be proven correct, as the analysts finally were in 1995.

Rustler Tom Ross Died Young, But Still Years Past His Time
Of all the stories of outlaws and cattle rustlers that have been resurrected from the frontier days of West Texas, few are more fascinating than that of Tom Ross and "Milt" Good, stockmen and cattle rustlers, and their lawmen antagonists, H.L. "Hod" Roberson and W. David Allison.

Private Gray Ranch "Grassbank" Project Draws Kudos From
Environmentalists are praising a private ranching foundation for preserving — and improving — a southwestern New Mexico ranch known as one of the world's "last great places."

Sheep, Goat Producers Advised To Develop "A United Vision"
"To move the sheep and goat industries forward, producers must have a united vision." That was the message presented by Dr. Jan van Westhuysen in a weeklong series of meetings across Central and West Texas sponsored by Producers Marketing Cooperative Inc. Van Westhuysen is operating manager of South Africa’s Cape Mohair and Wool.

Activists, Landowners See Two Different Beasts In Hunt Bill
So-called "canned hunts" are a lazy man's way to collect a trophy for his den or living-room wall, say proponents of a measure that would ban many of the hunts.

Sheep Check-Off To Start May 3, Assessments Will Begin July 1
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that the Sheep and Wool Promotion, Research, Education and Information Order will become effective May 3. The order was approved February 6 in a national referendum. Collection of assessments will begin July 1.

White House Announces Beef Boost Proposals
Must be an election year. The White House announced Tuesday that the federal government would take steps to help prop up plummeting cattle prices, including expedited purchases of beef for the school lunch program.

Higher Grain, Lower Fat Cattle Push Feeder Cattle Prices Down
Soaring grain prices and sharp price declines for fed cattle continued to take their toll on feeder cattle prices across the country last week.

Fed Cattle At Lowest Price Level Since Summer Of 1985
Slaughter steers and heifers closed $3-4 lower in Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading last week. Kansas sales were $3-4 lower, Midwest terminals $2-3 lower, Midwest direct sales $3-4.50 lower and western parts of the country $3-5 lower.

Domestic And Foreign Wools Sold On Soft Side Last Week
Trading on domestic wool was moderate last week at steady to weak prices under generally light demand.

Angelo Feeder Lamb, Cattle Prices Lower
Feeder lambs sold $1-2 lower this week, slaughter lambs too limited for a price test, slaughter ewes firm to $2 higher. Receipts totaled 10,257 head.

Junction Feeder Lambs, Stock Angoras Steady
A limited supply of feeder lambs sold steady, slaughter lambs untested, slaughter ewes and bucks $1-2 higher; stock Angora goats steady, slaughter nannies and muttons $1-3 lower, fat kids and yearlings steady; Spanish kids and nannies generally steady, muttons and billies $3-6 lower. Receipts totaled 4700 head.

Kansas Direct Feeder Cattle Prices Lower
Feeder steers sold $1-3 lower last week in Kansas direct trade, heifers $1-2 lower. Sales were confirmed on 8107 head. The drouth continues and no relief is in sight.

Brownwood, San Saba, Mason Feeders Lower
Feeder steer yearlings sold $1-2 lower last week in Mason, Brownwood and San Saba, yearling heifers steady to $1 lower, lightweight steers and heifers strong, slaughter cows steady to strong, bulls steady to $1 lower. Receipts at the three sales totaled 1990 head.

U.S. Sheep-Lamb Inventory Down 6%
The United States sheep and lamb inventory as of April 1 was down six percent to 9.33 million head. Breeding numbers were down five percent to 5.97 million while market offerings were down seven percent to 3.36 million head.

U.S. Meat Production 3% Above A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection last week was estimated at 857 million pounds, up two percent from the previous week and three percent more than the same week a year ago. Cumulative meat production for the year to date was three percent more than during the same period last year.

Most Cuero Cattle Prices Hold Steady
Most cattle prices were steady on receipts of 2834 head including around 1000 tested stock cows.

Goldthwaite Feeder Lamb Prices Steady
Feeder lambs sold fully steady, slaughter lambs $2-3 lower, slaughter ewes and bucks $2-3 higher; stock Angora goats untested, slaughter nannies and muttons steady to $2 higher, kids and yearlings steady; Spanish kids steady, nannies, muttons and billies steady to $2 higher. Receipt totaled 6200 head.

Lampasas Steers Sell Steady, Heifers Off
Feeder steers sold steady, heifers $1-2 lower, slaughter cows steady, bulls $2-3 lower, cow-calf pairs fully steady. Receipts totaled 700 head.

Fredericksburg Feeder Cattle Prices Lower
Feeder steers and heifers sold $2-4 lower, slaughter cows and bulls $1-2 higher. Receipts totaled 1449 head.

Hindsight

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull.
"Well," said John, "I see the administration has once more come to the rescue of the downtrodden cow trader." "How do you figure that?" I asked. "This price ceiling business looks like anything but a helping hand to me."

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
"Here we are friends, on the Serengeti Plain in the wilds of Serengeti." As the crowd leans in closer to the television we see the swaying boab trees ... an endless sea of grass waving off into the horizon. We hear the quiet buzz of tsetse flies humming strains of "Baby Elephant Walk." Just as we are becoming mesmerized into the peaceful surroundings on the screen, a lone gazelle suddenly bursts on the scene!

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
Although he has since gone to glory, my old pal "Zip" Franklin of Lovington, New Mexico, was the cornerstone of the Franklin Flying Circus. His two sons, Jim and Steve, did most of the flying, but Zip was a three-ring event all by himself. Zip was a philosopher, and could give an opinion on most anything as long as he could talk in the lofty gift of gab given to aviators.

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
I was walking off from a marking pen, and heard laughter sounding just like the old days around the bunkhouse after the greybeards had gone to bed. The thought hit: For over six decades, I'd been messing around working sheep and cattle on horseback, unaware of a world of jet airplanes and jaguar automobiles.

On Matters Of Equine
By Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall
While you don’t have to have had a long and close relationship with opossums to have a keen sense of the saying, "playing possum," it helps. Those not so experienced with this North American marsupial have probably had their exposure to this concept tainted by the expression, "sulled up like a possum" — words that have a negative ring to the uninitiated.

It's The Pitts
By Lee Pitts
Poor Oprah Winfrey. She had no idea that cattle routinely ate road kill and grazed on dead cow parts thrown from a feed truck. She also had no idea when she publicly swore off hamburgers on her nationally syndicated television show that it would cause a collapse in cattle prices now known as "The Oprah Crash."

Wildlife By Design
By Dale Rollins, Ph.D
Some technologies really do revolutionize the way we do business. I once had a rancher in western Oklahoma hail the greatest innovations for ranching as baking soda, locking pliers and "handyman" jacks. The baking soda had saved his cows from shinnery poisoning and the pliers and jacks helped him out of many a daily dilemma. Others might argue that baling wire should be added to this ranching "ring of honor." It will be interesting to see if the relative newcomers in the form of computers, cellular phones and other "high tech" gadgetry will survive the test of time.