Green Grass Gives Feeder Lambs Boost
Feeder lamb prices showed some improvement in most marketing areas around the country this week as good rains covered most of Texas and a large part of surrounding states. Short numbers still plague the industry, and that is helping to keep selling prices favorable.

Fed Cattle In Stop Mode Again After Last Week’s Heavy Trade
Like rush-hour traffic in the big city, the fed cattle trade lately has been in stop-and-go mode. Last week it was full ahead; this week it’s at full stop.

Cape Mohair Sale Clears 97 Percent
The first South African winter mohair sale of the season cleared 97 percent of approximately 970,000 pounds offered. Prices were steady with the last sale in June.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

Cattle Feeders Hear In-Depth Talk On Predicting End-Point
You’ve gotta’ know when to hold ‘em, and know when to sold ‘em. In plain — if fractured — English, that was the gist of a complex message delivered here recently to cattle feeders.

Producers Question Industry Leaders About Beef Checkoff
The beef checkoff, a producer self-help program initiated in 1986 to build demand and improve the overall marketing climate for beef, has generated some $80 to $81 million nationally. Texas collects about $12 million annually.

Packer, Retailer Say Alliances A Part Of Beef Industry Future
"Alliance" is a dirty word in some segments of the cattle business because of the potential some such arrangements have for abuse, captive supplies being a case in point.

Beef States Coalition Releases Recommendations From Beef Meet
A coalition of beef-producing states including Idaho is calling on the federal government to make meatpackers provide more information about how they decide what to pay for cattle.

Report From Scouts Finds Corn Progress At Variance With USDA
A crop scouting tour has estimated that corn yields in Ohio and Indiana will be less than federal government estimates, while the Illinois yield could exceed the government projection.

Mohair Council’s Anniversary Marred By Drouth, Bad Market
The Mohair Council of America is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, though "celebrating" might be a misleading term given the string of difficulties plaguing the industry today.

HRM Field Day Planned At Jacksboro Sept. 18
Holistic Resource Management of Texas Inc. has scheduled a field day for Sept. 18 at the E.C. Richards and Sons Ranch near here.

Sheep, Goat Field Day Set For September 5
The Texas A&M Research and Extension Center’s 23rd annual Sheep and Goat Field Day is set for Thursday, Sept. 5. This year’s event will focus on drouth management.

Coyotes Ferret Out Taxpayers’ Ferrets
ProRodeo Sports News, citing Range magazine, notes that coyotes dined on about half of 40 black-footed ferrets transplanted into Montana at great taxpayer expense.

Prison Pseudo-Meat Scandal Still Lives
Vitapro, the meat-replacement product that raised cattlemen’s ire when purchased en masse by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, has become a scandal with widespread implications for TDCJ.

Screwworm Program Not For Cowardly
Government employees who complain about working conditions in this country should consider themselves lucky. They could be working for the U.S.-supported screwworm eradication program in Nicaragua.

Texas Drouth Damage Down, But Not Much
Scattered rains have helped to slightly ease damage projected from the drouth. But Texas Agriculture Commissioner Rick Perry says Texas farmers and ranchers still will suffer more than $2 billion in losses this year.

Calf Roper Shawn McMullen Killed In Traffic Accident
Four-time National Finals Rodeo calf roping qualifier Shawn McMullan, 26, of Iraan, Texas, was killed recently in a head-on collision east of Portland, Ore. McMullan was enroute to a rodeo in Heppner, Ore., when his truck and trailer were reportedly hit by a 1984 Toyota station wagon driven the wrong way down a four-lane highway. McMullan died at the scene.

Feeder Cattle Prices Continue Upward Trend Behind Fat Trade
Feeder steers and heifers sold steady to $2 higher around the country last week, following a much-improved fed cattle trade.

Cattle On Feed Down 14 Percent Aug. 1 In Seven Leading States
Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter Aug. 1 in the seven leading feeding states totaled 6.34 million head, down 14 percent from Aug. 1 of last year and seven percent below the same date in 1994.

Texas Fed Cattle Trade Higher, New Record For One-Week Volume
Slaughter steers and heifers sold $2 higher in Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading last week. Trade was slow except for Tuesday. Confirmed sales of 155,700 head set a new weekly volume record. Clearance was complete in most feedlots. The week’s movement included 20,900 formulated, 1300 previously contracted and 1500 CME futures cattle.

Angelo Feeder Lamb, Cattle Prices Higher
Feeder lambs sold firm to $1 higher this week, slaughter lambs untested, slaughter ewes firm to instances $2 higher. Trading was active and demand good. Most offerings had wet fleeces from recent rains. Receipts totaled 9254 head.

Most Cuero Cattle Prices Turn Higher
Feeder steers and heifers sold higher, slaughter cows $1.50 higher. Rain-shortened receipts totaled 1569 head.

Goldthwaite Feeder Lamb Prices Steady
Feeder lambs sold mostly steady, slaughter ewes steady, bucks $1-2 higher, stock ewes steady; stock Angora goats steady, slaughter muttons and billies $2-3 higher, nannies fully steady; slaughter Spanish kids and yearlings $1-2 lower, muttons and billies $2-3 lower, stock nannies and billies $2-3 higher. Receipts totaled 5700 head.

U.S. Meat Production .1% Below A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection last week was estimated at 848.3 million pounds, 2.5 percent more than a week earlier and .1 percent less than a year ago. Cumulative meat production for the year to date was up .5 percent to 16.57 billion pounds.

Domestic Wool Slow, Aussie Wools Firm
Trading on domestic wool was slow as producers were reluctant to sell at this time. Demand was moderate.

Lampasas Feeder Steer, Heifer Prices Higher
Feeder steers sold steady to $3 higher, instances $5 higher, heifers $2-3 higher, slaughter cows and bulls steady to firm. Receipts totaled 1330 head.

Kansas Direct Feeder Cattle Prices Higher
Feeder steers sold firm to $2 higher in Kansas direct trade last week, the greatest advance on 800-950 pound offerings; heifers were firm to $2 higher, the advance on 800-900 pounds. The weather in Kansas was cool with some moisture from traces to five inches about every day. Sales were confirmed on 16,942 head.

Red Meat, Beef Set Record High In July
U.S. commercial red meat production in July totaled 3.58 billion pounds, four percent above the previous record high in July 1992.

Llano Feeder Steers, Heifers Sell Higher
Feeder steers sold steady to $2 higher, heifers $2-4 higher, slaughter cows and bulls $1 lower. Receipts totaled 663 head.

Most Giddings Cattle Prices Moved Upward
Feeder steers and heifers sold $2-3 higher, slaughter cows and bulls $2 higher, replacement pairs $10-20 higher. Receipts totaled 324 head.

Most San Saba Feeder Cattle Prices Steady
All classes of stocker and feeder calves and yearlings sold steady, slaughter cows and bulls steady to $1 higher. Receipts totaled 4068 head at Mason, Brownwood and San Saba.

Junction Stock Angora Goats Steady To Higher
Feeder lambs sold fully steady, slaughter ewes steady; stock Angora nannies fully steady, muttons steady to $2 higher, slaughter kids and yearlings $3-5 higher, muttons and billies $2-3 higher, nannies $3-4 lower; slaughter Spanish kids and yearlings steady to $2 higher, nannies $2-3 lower, muttons and billies $1-2 higher, stock nannies $2-3 lower. Receipts totaled 4400 head.

San Saba Replacement Sale Offers 3000 Head
Liberal rains over a multi-state region helped create good demand for nearly 3000 head of replacement females offered in special trading at Jordan Cattle Auction.

Hindsight

Letter To The Editor

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull. 
It was the Communists that had John worried this week. "They’ve nearly got me," he moaned. "If I don’t quit reading the papers and listening to the radio, they’re gonna wreck me without firing a shot.

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
There is a common belief among many urban folks that a cowboy rides around all day and sings to cows. John Wayne and Tom Mix added "Drifting Ranch Saver" to the resume. "Don't worry, Nell, Black Bart will never get your ranch as long as Silver and I remain compassionate!" Marlboro turned him into a person who chases horses all over the place and relaxes around the chuckwagon in a yellow slicker. We cowboy poets have augmented the picture of the cowboy as a Shakespearean throwback with green stuff wedged between his heel and sole.

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
Stillwater, Oklahoma. The administrators for the school system of Oklahoma were once schoolteachers before they quit working for a living and got paid to think. Now they manage things, but they still look back on how it used to be.

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
The company shooting a horror movie on Grand Manan Island moved out the end of July, leaving plenty of vacant rooms at the inns. I changed from Whale Cove over to the Marathon Inn to be more convenient to a whale watching trip and catching the ferry.

The Computer & The Cowboy
By C.A. Rodenberger, Ph.D
E-mail should be free. That is the slogan of Juno, software being distributed free by Blockbuster Video stores.

On Matters...Equine
By Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall
Our eyebrows invariably twitch every time we hear a horseman say, "I know my foals look a little rough and gawky right now, but it's just a stage they are going through. In a few months they'll grow out of it and look a whole lot better."

It's the Pitts     
By Lee Pitts
We are going broke in this country building prisons just because cuddly wild animals are eating higher up on the food chain.

Wildlife By Design
By Dale Rollins, Ph.D.
Probably the most enjoyable and personally rewarding project I’ve dealt with in 12 years of Extension work is a quail camp for youth called The Bobwhite Brigade. The five-day camp marries the energy of youth with the expectations and discipline of a boot camp to forge young leaders. In keeping with the bobwhite boot camp theme, it’s important to stress motivation and teamwork at every opportunity while learning the ecological lessons of life.