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| Vol. 48 - No. 23 | Thursday, June 6, 1996 | San Angelo, Texas |
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Lamb Meat Makes $199 On East
Coast
With a $10 jump last week, lamb carcasses moved up to $199
on the East Coast. That is a $20-28 increase in four weeks. Last week
also recorded the lowest weekly sheep and lamb kill on record at
54,000 head.
Feedlots, Packers At
Standoff Through Midweek On Fat Cattle
Presstime Wednesday came and went with virtually no live trades on
Plains fed cattle. Packers and feeders were two dollars apart, the
former offering $60 and the latter asking $62.
Cape Mohair Sale Up 18-26%,
Clears 99%
South Africa’s Cape mohair sale Tuesday offered 77,700
pounds and sold 99 percent at prices 21 percent higher on average.
Adult hair was around 18 percent up, young goat up 20 percent and kid
hair up 26 percent. The next Cape sale will be June 18.
Like Any Tense Human Athlete, Horses
Sometimes Need Rubdown
What could be better than a good massage after a workout?
Shirley Newcomb is there just for that — to work out the knotted
muscles and soreness and release the tension of her clients. The
slender Midland, Texas, resident is a massage therapist. Her clients
are all horses.
Washington Lawyer Crusading
To End All Checkoff Programs
"Checkoff programs raise close to a billion dollars a
year, and I have yet to see a program that helps producers."
That’s the opinion of Jim Moody, a Washington-based lawyer
representing the interests of the newly organized United Sheep
Producers. Moody has strong feelings not only about the sheep checkoff
program but checkoff programs in general.
Revote On Sheep Referendum
To Be On Or Before Oct. 1
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman has announced
that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will conduct a second
referendum on the Sheep and Wool Promotion, Research Education and
Information Order no later than October 1.
Ecos File Suit Forcing BLM To
Defend Riparian Grazing
A federal lawsuit filed by an environmental activist group
would force the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to study how grazing
affects supposedly "endangered" fish and birds living along
New Mexico's rivers.
Budgeteers Back To
Tinkering With Payments Under Farm Bill
Breaking from the farm bill enacted this spring, House
budget writers want to cut payments to farmers by two percent next
year and deny checks to landowners who don't plant crops.
"Tasty Animals"
Web Site Gets PETA’s Goat
PETA can dish it out, but it can’t take even a little bit in return.
The radical animal rights/vegetarian group, "People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals," has become notorious for
outrageous, tasteless, infuriating and illegal stunts designed to
attract attention and funding. From burning cattlemen in effigy and
parading nude to vandalizing stores and offices and splashing
fur-wearers with paint, blood or urine, PETA recognizes no limits on
its own behavior.
Texas Lawmakers Want More
Help From USDA For Relief In Drouth
As drouth squeezes more and more of the economic life out of
Texas farmers and ranchers, the state's politicians are putting
pressure on Washington for help like that which showered down on
Midwest farmers after last year’s flooding.
Bill Would Defer Some Ag
Income Tax
Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., said last week he plans to
introduce the Agriculture Market Transition Reserve Act of 1996,
legislation allowing farmers to set aside money in tax-deferred
accounts as a safeguard against future losses.
Funding For Oversite Panel
May Be Slashed
An expert oversite panel designed to temper the politics of
meat and poultry inspection with factual science may lose its funding.
Grain Planting Making
Progress
Corn growers have made strides getting their seeds in the
ground, says USDA, with 78 percent of the crop planted by Memorial
Day.
Calf Roper Rusty Sewalt Edges
Up In Crown Royal Standings
Calf roper Rusty Sewalt, Del Rio, won the calf roping title
at the recent PRCA Memorial Weekend Rodeo in Bandera, Texas, and the
Festival of Flags in Killeen. The winnings moved him from 14th in the
Crown Royal world calf roping standings to 11th. Sewalt’s total
earnings to date are $18,149.
Feeder Cattle Prices
Improve As Grain Cost Falls Sharply
Feeder steer and heifer prices moved steady to $2 higher
across the country last week except in the Southeast, where prices
were steady to $2 lower. Sharp price losses for grains encouraged
feeder buyers.
Domestic Wool Moving But
Soft, Aussie Wools Mixed, Mostly Off
Trading on domestic wool was generally slow last week except
in Texas, where activity was moderate. Prices were steady to five
cents lower, demand generally light. The spotlight for the week was on
the PMCI and USWMA wool that did not sell the previous week but has
now been mostly sold. Details were not available.
Texas Fed Cattle Prices
Trade Upward, Most Sales Wednesday
Slaughter steers and heifers closed $1 higher in Texas
Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading last week. Trade was
slow except on Wednesday, sales confirmed on 79,000 head including
11,300 formulated and 1600 contracted cattle.
Angelo Feeder Lambs, Cattle
Trade Higher
Feeder lambs sold $2-3 higher this week, slaughter lambs too
limited for a test; slaughter ewes were uneven, good and choice $2-5
higher, cull and utility steady. Receipts totaled 13,029 head.
U.S. Meat Production 2.2%
Below A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection last week
was estimated at 719.8 million pounds 12.4 percent less than the
previous week and 2.2 percent less than the same holiday week a year
ago. Cumulative meat production for the year to date was two percent
more than the same period last year.
WTRC Lamb, Meat Goat Sale
June 15
The Wylie FFA showbarn here will the host the West Texas
Rehabilitation Center’s club lamb and meat goat sale Saturday, June
15.
Heavy Cuero Feeder Steer
Prices Higher
Heavyweight feeder steers sold higher, as much as $3-4
higher on 600-900 pound offerings, lightweights weak, packer cows and
bulls about steady except fat cows a little lower. Receipts totaled
3270 head.
Most Fredericksburg Cattle
Prices Higher
Feeder steers and heifers sold $2-4 higher, slaughter cows
and bulls $2-4 higher. Receipts totaled 1660 head.
Kansas Direct Feeder Cattle
Sell Stronger
Feeder steers sold firm to $1 higher in Kansas direct trade
last week, heifers too limited for a test. Most of the area received
2-8 inches of rain. Sales were confirmed on 4236 head.
El Reno Feeder Lamb Prices Up
Last Week
Feeder lambs sold $5-8 higher, slaughter lambs scarce but
strong, slaughter ewes $2-3 higher. Receipts totaled 1500 head.
Most Lampasas Cattle Prices
Off Last Week
Feeder steers sold $3-4 lower, heifers $2-3 lower, slaughter
cows and bulls $2-3 lower, cows with calves $20-30 lower. Receipts
totaled 1800 head.
Brownwood, San Saba Feeder
Cattle Higher
Better quality steer and heifer calves sold steady to higher
in Brownwood and San Saba last week, plainer kinds steady to lower,
steer yearlings $1-1.50 higher, heifers $1 higher, slaughter cows and
bulls $2-3 lower, stock cows and pairs steady. Receipts totaled 2731
head at the two sales.
Goldthwaite Feeder Lamb
Prices Decline
Feeder lambs sold $1-3 lower, slaughter ewes and bucks $2-3
lower; stock Angora goats generally steady, slaughter nannies and
muttons $3-5 lower; Spanish goats $3-5 lower. Receipts totaled 6500
head.
Unregistered Bull
in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of
Unregistered Bull.
John sat in the lobby wearing an expression of deepest pain.
"What now?" I asked. "Your gall bladder on the blink
again, or are you taking up some more of those cheap steers you bought
just before the rollback?"
On The Edge Of
Common Sense
By Baxter Black
Several years ago this month, I was invited to the 75th annual
Southwestern Saskatchewan Sheep and Wool Growers Convention/Stockdog
Trials in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan.
Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
I am told that this story is true. A fellow in South Texas had
a remote, rugged, large ranch with lots of ravines and javelinas. These
little native hogs look fierce and rumor has it that they are, pound for
pound, the most dangerous wild animal in the brush when cornered.
Normally they're not aggressive, but if they or their herd are attacked
suddenly they have been known to inflict heavy casualties.
Shortgrass
Country
By Monte Noelke
Leave it to a big northeastern financial journal to start
blowing it around about an Irish sheep farmer finding a stash of old
cigars worth a million bucks. Just as we woolie operators over here are
so down on our luck that if we so much as found one stogie, it'd be
loaded in gunpowder, we have to hear of the lucky Irish. The Wall
Street Journal made it worse by adding it was one was of our
countrymen who had the coin to give $2000 for a cigar.
Wildlife By Design
By Dale Rollins, Ph.D.
May has come and gone, and its abnormally high temperatures and
dryness proffer a long, hot summer ahead. And what about the wind? If
the winds of '96 had been rain, West Texas would be having floods of
biblical proportions.
On Matters...Equine
By Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall
It is not totally coincidental that certain areas of the United
States have acquired distinction for the production of high quality
"sound" horses. Areas such as Hartford County, Maryland;
Lexington, Kentucky; Ocala, Florida; and North Central Texas have
historically been recognized as centers for equine breeding farms. Is
there something that each of these geographical locations has in
common that helps to create a better horse?
