.Fat Lambs Move Higher, Numbers Off
Slaughter lambs showed strength in several places this week as available numbers were in short supply. Feeder lambs held mostly steady. Slaughter ewes found tough going in most places, San Angelo scoring $2-5 lower.

Fed Cattle Climbed To $62 Before Packers Trimmed Bids
Plains cattle feeders showed their muscle again this week, shunning $60 opening bids and holding out for at least $62. Many tried to get $63, however, and that’s when the packers outflexed them.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

Alpheus Harral Believes In Hard Work, Good Accounting
Alpheus Harral is a firm believer in doing his own work — ranch work, that is. The 74 year-old native West Texan has been in the ranch business most all his life and he’s no stranger to hard work.

Historic Site Is A Headache, But Rancher Wouldn’t Trade It
While the government spends millions of dollars each year to erase graffiti from national monuments, a local rancher has joined with the National Park Service to preserve some graffiti in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

N.M. Farmers See Catron County Revolt As Minnow Battle Tactic
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official told Socorro County farmers the agency won't try to take their irrigation water to protect the officially endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow.

Montana Cattlemen Not Happy Being Only Losing Beef Sector
The price squeeze that has cattle producers wondering what happened to payday apparently has resulted in windfall profits for a select group of meatpackers, and retailers are still making money, an official of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said here recently.

Clinton USDA Hires Partisan Pollster To Conduct "Study"
House Republicans have demanded to know why the Agriculture Department hired a Democratic Party pollster to question focus groups in Kansas and Indiana about food stamp reform.

It’s Official: Birds And Bugs Have More Rights Than Citizens
In January 1993, New Republic commentator Fred Barnes explored the nature of the organized environmental movement in America. Following a discussion of Vice President Al Gore's book Earth in the Balance, and the startling opinions expressed therein (which Gore called "the real me"), Barnes likened the movement to a highly-structured religion; both had: high priests — Gore was one for the environmental movement; beliefs based on faith from which no amount of scientific evidence could dissuade believers; dogma from which no deviation was permitted; and sacred rites in which only believers could participate.

Angelo Feeder Lambs Firm, Cattle Higher
Feeder lambs sold firm this week, slaughter lambs too limited for a test and slaughter ewes $2-5 lower. Receipts totaled 14,135 head.

USDA Said Dragging Its Feet Over Drouth
Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas has asked the nation's agriculture secretary to make assistance available to drouth-stricken areas of northwestern Oklahoma.

Feds’ Predator Hearing Vents Frustrations
A Teton County rancher's complaints about the way the federal government handles predator control drew applause during a recent congressional field hearing.

Retailers Should Pass Cheap Beef Prices On
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is asking retailers to pass along to consumers the lower beef prices that have hit the nation's $40 billion cattle industry.

Joe Beaver Looking For Another Win In All-Around Competition
Two well-known calf ropers continue to battle it out for the lead in PRCA all-around standings. Joe Beaver, Huntsville, Texas, the 1995 all-around champion, is maintaining his lead with $54,407 in earnings to date. Close on his heels however, is Herbert Theriot, Poplarville, Miss., with $49,173. Theriot is followed by bareback rider Chad Klein, Jackson, La., with $34,196; J.D. Crouse, Yukon, Okla., $24,496; and Brian Fulton, Valentine, Neb., $24,302.

Feeder Cattle Prices Rebound, Reacting To Higher Fat Cattle
Feeder cattle prices were sharply higher across the country last week in reaction to big price gains for fed cattle.

Domestic Wool Steady To Weak, Aussie Finewool Prices Higher
Trading on domestic wool was slow to moderate at steady to weak prices last week. Late prices to growers in the Midwest were steady to 10 cents lower. Demand was generally light.

Superior Livestock Video Sale Offering Totaled 9000 Cattle
Superior Livestock Auction offered just over 9000 feeder cattle at their regular video auction here. Consignments were from 14 states. Trade was termed moderate to active and demand good. Delivery was mostly current to June.

Feedlots Hold The Line And Get Cattle Prices Mostly $5 Higher
Slaughter steers and heifers sold $5 higher in Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading last week. Movement was good late Wednesday and Thursday as most feedlots cleared their showlists.

NCBA Wants Deadline On Rails To Trails
The Department of Transportation's Surface Transportation Board must set a deadline to determine when jurisdiction of abandoned railroads is returned to property owners, says the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

PCA Reduces Borrower Stock Requirements
Texas Production Credit Association, the agricultural lending cooperative, has reduced its stock requirement for borrowers.

Most Lampasas Feeder Cattle Prices Steady
Feeder steers and heifers sold generally steady, slaughter cows and bulls $1-2 higher, stock cows and pairs fully steady. Receipts totaled 1200 head.

Budget Bill Limits Farm Loan Cutoffs
An amendment in the 1996 budget bill will restore government loans to farmers who abruptly lost their credit when the farm bill was signed.

Goldthwaite Feeder Lamb Prices Steady
Feeder lambs sold fully steady, a few slaughter lambs $2-4 higher, slaughter ewes and bucks $2-3 higher; Angora goats untested; Spanish goats steady. Receipts totaled 6500 head.

Brownwood, San Saba, Mason Feeders Higher
Feeder steer yearlings sold steady to $1 higher last week in Mason, Brownwood and San Saba, heifers steady to $3 higher, stocker steers $2-5 higher, heifers steady to $3 higher, slaughter cows steady to strong, bulls steady, stock cows and pairs steady. Receipts at the three sales totaled 4435 head.

U.S. Meat Production 1.5% Above A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection last week was estimated at 855.9 million pounds, .1 percent more than a week earlier and 1.5 percent more than the same week a year ago. Cumulative meat production for the year to date was 2.8 percent more than a year ago.

Cuero Cattle Prices Moved Up Last Week
All classes of feeder cattle and slaughter cows were $5-8 higher. Receipts totaled 2089 head including 800 stock cows and bulls.

Fredericksburg Better Feeder Cattle Higher
Choice feeder steers sold $1-2 higher, lower quality kinds in poor demand, slaughter cows and bulls strong. Receipts totaled 1362 head.

Hindsight

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull.
"From all the caterwauling around the country," said John, "it looks to me like DiSalle has goosed the cattle business in a very tender place."

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
"Pardon me ma'am, are you from here?" "Britain, ya mean? Ay, sir, born and bred." "Mind if I ask your age?" "Born in 1988, right 'ere on this farm. I've 'ad six calves since then."

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
Sarasota, Florida: A meeting here of a group of oil marketers included a young lawyer who was hired by the industry to watch over Washington and report anything sensible that came out of legislation. Every barrel of oil requires at least two lawyers to keep track of what Washington might do with it. One watches for constructive use by the government and never has anything to report. The other watches for inefficiency and couldn't see everything if he had three eyes. However, one lawyer's mouth can usually make up for the lack of that third eye.

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
"Must of been halfway on to Marfa, your grandpa had us rest his cattle with some folks across the Pecos. The ranch house sat down in a basin; the people had lived there long enough to grow some big shade trees. But when we rode up to unsaddle, we seen a man staked on a chain by his hindleg to a tree trunk. A wild-looking feller. Kept making whining sounds and slobbering like a dog.

On Matters Of Equine
By Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall
In spite of all the gossip and innuendoes associated with high profile legal cases, our society prides itself on the concept that a man is innocent until proven guilty. While this ideal may form the backbone of the legal system, the opinions of the "man on the street" are, unfortunately, often influenced by the speculations of others. Somewhere along the way, truth gets shoved into the backseat as sensationalism takes over; the tables turn and it becomes a case of proving innocence instead of guilt.

It's The Pitts
By Lee Pitts
Some had been tossed into heaven by bucking bulls and broncs and others by the bottle. It was simply their time to go, and being cowboys, they were well versed in leaving. One dubious looking cowboy arrived on a lathered horse, no doubt on the dodge from the law. How he ended up in heaven God only knew. One by one they had saddled a cloud and rode to the great beyond.

Wildlife By Design
By Dale Rollins, Ph.D
Sir Isaac Newton must have been a narrow-minded optimist. His Third Law of Motion — "to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" — may be all well and good for physics, but it's too simplistic for wildife management. In wildlife management, which is based on ecology, not physics, to every action there are many reactions, some very apparent, some quite transparent. At at a time when land values and bottom lines often hinge upon hunting lease revenues, it behooves land managers to have a working knowledge of wildlife physics.