Fat, Feeder Lambs, Ewes Sell Higher
Good demand was noted in the sheep and lamb trade this week, all classes tending to move upward. Slaughter lambs sold steady to a couple of dollars higher, feeder lambs were steady to as much as $5 higher, and slaughter ewes found strength in most places.

Fed Cattle Bring Steady Money As Tight Supplies Sell Freely
Texas feedlots sold their limited showlists for steady $72 money this week, apparently willing to lock in a substantial profit instead of squeezing for a more substantial one.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

Lawyering Doesn’t Get In Way Of Ken Spann’s Cow Business
A lot of lawyers are part-time ranchers, but Ken Spann is a rancher who is a part-time lawyer.

Head Of National Beef Sees Future In Segmented Industry
The head of National Beef Packing Company is excited about the future of beef and the changes he sees in the industry.

Feds Extend Olive Branch To Utah, But Not Very Far
Federal land managers want to kiss and make up with southern Utah after angering area residents with the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah earlier this year.

Spokesman For McDonald’s Chain Stresses Reliance On Suppliers
Back in 1979, a financial analyst said America was moving away from beef — a trend that supposedly signaled a death knell for the McDonald's fast-food chain.

Non-Fed Packer Concentration Termed Significant Regionally
Packer concentration continues to be a hot topic for beef producers. Most of the focus has been on the fed rather than the non-fed sector of the industry, but the latter category is drawing attention as well.

Environment Played Big Role In ‘96 Election, Or Did It?
Environmental activists — the "green" lobby — had predicted for months that their pet causes would play a decisive role in this year’s elections.

Victims Of Clinton’s Land Grab Worried About Future Prospects
Anger runs deep among some southern Utah ranchers who believe they'll be squeezed off the land seized by President Clinton for a new national monument.

If Feds Want Wolves, Wyoming Thinks They Should Foot Bills
The federal government should pay for Wyoming's management of wolves in the state's northwestern corner, according to state game officials.

NCBA Says Election Preserved Status Quo, Plus Small Gains
Last week’s elections essentially preserved the status quo, says the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and meanwhile delivered some good news for the cattle industry. 

Record Low Lamb Numbers Force Packer To Fill In With Imports
The lamb industry has long been associated with peaks and valleys, and this year was certainly one for the record books.

Coalition Sues Government Over Monument Declaration
A federal judge has been asked by a conservative states' rights advocacy group to overturn President Clinton's Sept. 18 delcaration of a 1.7 million-acre national monument in southern Utah.

Earth First Vandals Ordered To Pay Million-Plus Damages
The owner of road building equipment that was wrecked in the Nez Perce National Forest has won more than $1 million in damages from 12 Earth First! activists he accused of vandalism.

U.S. Meat Safety Seminars Seen As Positive In Japan
The U.S. Meat Export Federation launched the trade portion of a major meat safety campaign in Japan recently with the first in a series of meat safety seminars in Tokyo and Osaka. It was standing room only, said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng, with more than 200 representatives from leading retail, distribution, food service and processing companies attending each seminar.

Red River Boundary Agreement Looked Likely But Hit A Snag
A lawyer for the Oklahoma state Senate says a proposed agreement to redefine the Texas-Oklahoma border along the Red River has hit a snag.

Slaughter Cattle Supplies To Build In Coming Months
USDA’s October cattle on feed report suggests that fed cattle supplies will build in the next three to four months, as many analysts expected.

Wool Group Announces New Shearing Method
Wool Market Review newsletter reports that the International Wool Secretariat is introducing a new shearing system "that promises to revolutionize sheep shearing."

KLA Schedules Estate Planning Workshop
The Kansas Livestock Association will sponsor an estate and business planning seminar Friday, Nov. 22 in Salina. The seven-hour workshop is designed to address situations faced primarily by agricultural operations and businesses.

Poll Finds Multi-Use Of Land Is Workable
Recreation, wildlife and commodity uses of public lands can co-exist in Wyoming, according to results of a poll commissioned by the Wyoming Heritage Foundation.

Audubon Chapter Evicts Animals
A local advisory and fund-raising board has lost a court bid to prevent the Massachusetts Audubon Society from evicting Reddy Fox, Old Man Coyote and other injured animals from a wildlife sanctuary.

USDA Crop Production Forecast Higher Again
Corn production nationwide is forecast at 9.27 billion bushels in USDA’s latest estimate, three percent above the Oct. 1 forecast and up 26 percent from 1995. It would be the third largest production on record, behind 1994 and 1992.

Forage Management Session Set Dec. 4
Basic principles of high-quality and efficient forage production will be the focus of an afternoon Forage Management College Dec. 4 in Stillwater.

Coyotes Kill Up To 95% Of Pronghorns
Coyotes are killing most of the antelope fawns on the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, according to a new report.

Feeder Cattle Prices Higher Across Nation Again Last Week
Feeder cattle prices, both calves and yearlings, sold steady to $2 higher last week with some calves posting advances of $3-4.

Texas Fed Cattle Prices Move Higher As Numbers Remain Tight
Slaughter steers and heifers sold $1 higher in Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading last week.

Angelo Feeder Lamb, Cattle Prices Higher
Feeder lambs sold firm to $1 higher this week, slaughter lambs were steady, slaughter ewes firm to $2 higher. Trading was active and demand good on receipts of 10,634.

Kansas Direct Feeder Cattle Movement Slow
Feeder steer and heifer sales were too limited for a test, the weather dry and unseasonably warm. Confirmed sales totaled 4469 head.

Milano Feeder Steers, Heifers Sell Higher
Feeder steers under 500 pounds sold $2-5 higher, over 500 pounds steady, heifers steady to $1 higher, slaughter cows steady to weak, bulls steady. Receipts totaled 1781 head.

Hill Country Brangus Bulls Average $1115
Sixty bulls averaged $1115 per head at the 21st annual Hill Country Brangus sale here at Producers Livestock Auction, bringing a total of $66,900.

Llano Feeder Steer, Heifer Prices Higher
Feeder steers sold $2-4 higher, heifers $1-3 higher, slaughter cows steady to $1 lower, bulls steady. Receipts totaled 1015 head.

Most Cuero Cattle Prices Move Higher
Better grading feeder steers and heifers sold higher in active trading, slaughter cows strong. Receipts totaled 2205 head.

Fredericksburg Feeder Cattle Prices Higher
Feeder steers and heifers sold $2-3 higher, slaughter cows and bulls $1 lower. Receipts totaled 1929 head.

Most Lampasas Feeder Cattle Prices Higher
Feeder steers sold $3-5 higher, heifers $2-3 higher, slaughter cows and bulls $1-2 lower. Receipts totaled 1321 head.

San Saba, Brownwood, Mason Feeders Higher
Feeder steers sold $2-5 higher in Mason, Brownwood and San Saba last week, heifers $2-4 higher, plainer kinds in fair demand. Slaughter cows sold steady to $1 lower, bulls steady, stock cows and pairs steady to $25 higher. Receipts totaled 2395 head at the three sales.

Most Junction Sheep, Goat Prices Move Up
Feeder lambs sold $7-8 higher, slaughter ewes $2-3 higher; stock Angora nannies $3-4 higher, muttons, kids and yearlings fully steady, slaughter muttons and billies fully steady, nannies mostly steady, kids and yearlings $5-6 higher, thin nannies and muttons $4-5 higher; stock Spanish nannies steady; slaughter nannies steady, muttons and billies fully steady, kids and yearlings $4-5 higher. Receipts totaled 6000 head.

U.S. Meat Production 3.4% Below A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection last week was estimated at 833.7 million pounds, one percent more than a week earlier and 3.4 percent less than a year ago. Cumulative meat production for the year to date was .9 percent less than the previous year at 36.6 billion pounds.

White, Sons Bulls Average $2028 Each
A total of 64 bulls averaged $2028 at the first J.E. White Jr. & Sons Certified Horned Hereford Sale here recently.

Most Giddings Cattle Prices Trended Steady
Choice feeder steers and heifers sold steady with the previous week’s sharp increases, high yielding slaughter cows and bulls steady, low yielding kinds weak to $2 lower, stock cows steady. Receipts totaled 598 head.

Domestic Wool Slow, Aussie Wools Lower
Trading on domestic wool was rather slow last week under light demand.

Hindsight

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull. 
"If that’s the way I look," he said, "it’s only because that’s the way I feel. I just got back from my outfit over in Pecos County yesterday. My belly is about to get straightened out after a week of straight tortillas and frijole beans. Now, I’ve gotta get back. The things us pore agricultural producers have to go through to make a living! Look at this communiqué from my cowboy Jose."

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
Yeah, he wished he was a cowboy, but just at times like this
(Yup, he's glad that he's a cowboy, but there's times on days like this)

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
The Boating Trades Association of Texas had its annual shipwrecking bash by the edge of the water this year, as usual. That seems to be a real functional place to draw your ration of grog and do your imitation walk of a drunken sailor.

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
Timex travel watches count hours, not the days. While I was in Costa Rica in September, it could have been July or January. Morning or night felt the same. The curse of tropical paradises is the absence of distinct seasons. Old sailors break down to become rum-sodden wretches from the tedium of never-ending gentle sea breezes and light tropical showers, moistening the sands of coral beaches and dampening the skins of copper colored girls.

The Computer & The Cowboy
By C.A. Rodenberger, PhD.
Kenneth F. Shilkun, Riley Ranch, near the little community of Eckert, has finally gotten on the Internet and has E-mail. I asked him if I could share some of his comments on his use of computers and he graciously gave me permission. It makes my work easier. I just cut and paste his messages, and I have a column. I have edited what he sent me to reduce it to column size. The following are Ken's comments.

Wildlife By Design 
By Dale Rollins, Ph.D.
If you stood tall in the saddle at six inches, weighed in at six ounces, and were tasty to just about anybody or anything, maybe you could better appreciate a quail's daily dilemma: to avoid becoming supper for someone else! Woody Allan perhaps personified a bobwhite's psyche when he proclaimed "you'd be paranoid, too, if someone was out to get you!"

It's The Pitts
By Lee Pitts
I find it frightening that baby boomers may be the first generation in our nation’s history who have collectively never milked a cow. That fact alone is responsible for a culture of milquetoast handshakes, spoiled kids, and consumers who have no idea where their food comes from. Sadly, we live in a society that criticizes the cow while cutting the cheese.