Lamb Meat Off $15-20 In Two Weeks
Lamb carcasses on the East Coast lost another $5-10 last week to bring the decline to as much as $20 over a two week period. The full slide was on weights under 55 pounds while heavier weights lost only $5. Prices late last week were $186 on 55 pounds and up, $181-186 on weights 55 pounds and down.

Fed Cattle Back On Old Track; Trade In Old Midweek Standoff
For those in the cattle business who can’t abide change, this must be a comforting week. After one whole disorienting week of prompt and expeditious fed cattle sales, this week saw a reversion to the familiar; only a few thousand head of live sales were consummated before packers cut their bids and went home.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

Proposal To Scrap Grading Leads NCBA To Further Study
Loss of market share was a recurring topic here recently throughout the first summer meeting of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, but it was a proposal to eliminate the federal beef grading system which sparked most of the discussion in the live cattle marketing committee meeting.

New Mexico’s Apaches Moving Toward Integrated Beef Plan
The Apaches are on the warpath, and riding with them is an Indaa, an Anglo, named Jim Bremer.

Drouth Too Bad For Most Toxic Plants, But Some Still Remain
Many people commonly associate poisonous plants with drouth conditions. The current drouth, however, has been so severe and so widespread that even most unwanted poisonous plants lacked sufficient moisture last fall to germinate. That’s not to say there aren’t problems out there.

Sleeping Sickness Outbreak Stops Mexican Horse Imports
Mexican horses are being stopped at the U.S. border after a highly contagious disease that can kill humans has been reported in the state of Oaxaca.

House Ag Chairman Position Clouded By Oregon Politics
By right of seniority, Texan Larry Combest should be the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee next year if he wins re-election and Republicans retain control of the House.

Propane Good Tire Inflator, But Not On Pear Burning Rig
Well folks, I done it again. Yep, I got involved in a situation that not only caused the world to get hotter, I helped make the skies a little more murky. And I didn't even have to buy a diesel pickup to do it.

Most Large Packers Agreeable To New Meat Inspection Rules
New federal inspection regulations have come as no surprise for meatpacking companies, and most packers say they are ready to comply.

New Pesticide Law Only Start; Courts Will Be Busy For Years
Consumers, especially children, will be getting fresh assurances about the safety of their fruits, vegetables and other crop foods because of pesticide legislation that Congress passed recently.

Chance Encounter On Internet Resurrects Old List Of "Isms"
Dallas-area Extension agent Jeff Goodwin pens a weekly column entitled "People Say the Darndest Things." In it he cites both wise and foolish comments, many of which we’ve all heard at one time or another. Goodwin uses those comments as a springboard for placing a variety of agricultural issues into proper context, particularly for a non-agricultural audience that often hasn’t the foggiest notion what that context should be.

Drouth Clinics Set In Texas, Elsewhere
The Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association and Southwestern Livestock Mineral Co. are helping sponsor a series of upcoming drouth clinics featuring noted consultant Dr. Stan Parsons.

Old Matador Hands To Gather Aug. 24
The third annual Matador Cowboy Reunion is set for Saturday, Aug. 24 at 11 a.m. on the south bank of Dutchman Creek near here.

Midwest Beef Co-Op Given Encouragement
Members of a beef producer cooperative trying to open its own packing plant said they are encouraged after meeting last week with business and government leaders in Des Moines.

Theriot Leads In All-Around PRCA Competition With $94,068
Calf roper Herbert Theriot, Poplarville, Miss., continues to outdistance his closest competitor in the all-around competition. Theriot leads with $94,068 to date. He is followed by the 1995 all-around champion, Joe Beaver, Huntsville, Texas, with $65,784. Beaver is followed by Chad Klein, Jackson, La., $64,117; Tee Woolman, Llano, Texas, $56,904; and Roy Cooper, Childress, Texas, $52,731.

Feeder Cattle, Calf Prices Continue To Spiral Upward
Feeder cattle and calf prices were $1-3 higher around the country last week, continuing their upward spiral. Sharp price gains on fed cattle, both live and on the futures board, fueled the feeder market.

Texas Fed Cattle Much Higher Last Week In Heavy Movement
Slaughter steers and heifers were mostly $3 higher last week in Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading.

Angelo Feeder Lambs Firm, Cattle Steady
Feeder lambs sold firm this week, slaughter lambs untested, slaughter ewes firm to $4 higher. Trading was active and demand good. Two day receipts totaled 15,785 head.

Junction Lambs, Stock Angora Goats Steady
Feeder lambs sold steady, slaughter ewes steady; all classes of stock Angora goats steady, slaughter muttons and billies $3-4 lower, nannies $1-2 lower, kids and yearlings $3-4 lower; Spanish slaughter kids steady, nannies steady to $2 lower, muttons and billies $3-4 higher, stock nannies $3-4 higher. Receipts totaled 11,500 head.

New Zealand Beef Export Prices Up
Agri-Fax of New Zealand reported a slight increase in New Zealand export beef prices the last two weeks. Price strength was noted on steer, bull meat and manufacturing cow beef. "Bobby" or veal calf kill is 33 percent less than a year ago, due in part to a slightly later calving season.

San Saba Feeder Steer, Heifer Prices Higher
Heifer yearlings sold $2-4 higher, lightweight steers and heifers $1-4 higher, packer cows and bulls steady. Receipts at Mason, Brownwood and San Saba totaled 2922 head.

Kansas Direct Feeder Cattle Firm To Higher
Feeder steers and heifers sold firm to $2 higher in Kansas direct trade last week. The weather in western Kansas was cloudy and damp most of the week; parts of the state had rains of as much as five inches. Sales were confirmed on 13,894 head.

Goldthwaite Feeder Lambs Fully Steady
Feeder lambs sold fully steady, slaughter ewes steady to $1 lower; slaughter Angora nannies and muttons $1-3 lower; Spanish kids mostly $1-2 higher, stock and slaughter nannies steady, muttons and billies generally steady.

Cuero Cattle Sale Totals 3152 Head
Trading was active, smooth fat cows selling steady and low grading cows lower. Receipts totaled 3152 head.

Hill Country Fair Billy Average $376
The champion Angora billy at the annual Hill Country Fair Association sale brought $900. The billy was consigned by Roy and Lisa Sanders, Harper, and bought by Triple S Angoras, Kenneth Charles Smith, Evant.

Most Lampasas Cattle Active On 2284 Head
Trading was active, but no comparison on trends was available. Receipts totaled 2284 head.

Junction High-Dollar Calf Sale Prices Up
Trading was termed active in the special High Dollar calf and yearling sale at Junction Stockyards. Choice heifer calves sold mostly $2 higher, steers $2-4 higher, choice yearling heifers $2-3 higher, plain calves steady to $1 higher.

U.S. Meat Production 1.4% Below A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection last week was estimated at 811.7 million pounds, 3.7 percent more than a week earlier and 1.4 percent less than a year ago. Cumulative meat production for the year to date was up .6 percent 25.849 billion pounds.

Domestic Wool Slow, Foreign Wools Mixed
Trading on domestic wool was at a standstill last week under light demand. No new sales were confirmed.

Hindsight

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull. 
"The thing that keeps me from getting ahead in the world," said John, "is trying to get ahead. If I hadn’t spent so much money on get-rich ideas, I’d already be rich.

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
They were just words.
"Tear down the Berlin Wall!" Reagan to Gorbachev at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987.
"Chance of rain." Weatherman in Iowa during the '93 flood.
"Give me liberty or give me death." Patrick Henry, 1775.

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
It has come to my attention that many readers of this column are young people of high school and college age. Hard to believe that it is almost time for classes to start in both of those categories, and nobody is ready except the old teachers who have spent all summer trying to figure out how to maintain an adequate level of poison in their system to sting a freshman into submission with a well-placed tongue-lashing.

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
I was halfway up the coast of Maine before the message hit me: "Maine has been wet. This is July. Rainy summers mean hordes of black flies and swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitoes!"

Wildlife By Design
By Dale Rollins, Ph.D.
Vince and Larry, the two crash test dummies, have made quite an impression on me. Their proclamation that "you can learn a lot from a dummy" has become one of my mottoes. Just as auto crash dynamics and seatbelt effectiveness are difficult to evaluate under "actual" conditions with human subjects, Vince and Larry's videotaped collisions and the vivid scenes of human missiles have done a lot to increase seatbelt use.

On Matters... Equine
By Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall
Early one morning while riding along a West Coast beach, we came upon on some defrocked folks facing east with their arms stretched out, welcoming the unseen. Bewildered, we politely rode on, trying to create as little diversion as possible.

The Computer & The Cowboy
By C. A. Rodenberger, PhD.
At midnight August 11, I was cut off of the toll-free number to the Internet. It was great while it lasted. I can see why computers will be the communication system of the future. They are still in the Model-T stage, but they are approaching self-starters and automatic transmissions. There is a glimmer of hope for me, and maybe down the line for you.