Post-Holiday Lamb Trade Boosts Values
Fat and feeder lambs found better market prices this week, though Sioux Falls lost most of its advance on Wednesday. Numbers continued to fall much shorter than a year ago. Feeder lambs were in good demand, not only from feedlots, which are mostly less than half full, but also small grain fields are either ready for lambs or fast approaching that point.

Fed Cattle Prices Steady, Post-Holiday Trade Early
Plains fed cattle prices held steady this week after two weeks of declines that sliced four dollars off the market.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

Max Evans’ Second Cowboy Book Set For Filming After 36 Years
On a small rise near this community lie the graves of Cain and Able, separated for eternity by their mother.

Concerned Vets Form Marketing Alliance With Beef Producers
A group of veterinarians is now doing more than just doctoring sick cattle. They’re taking an active role and working cooperatively with beef producers to help them produce quality beef at the ranch level. Moreover, they’re in the business of helping ranchers secure a profit for the production of that quality beef.

Property Message Missing Mark; Needs Plain Talk, Less Jargon
If farmers and ranchers are going to get their concerns over property rights across to city folk, they're going to have to junk the jargon.

20 States Want USDA To Require Disclosure Of Price By Packers
The federal government should require meatpackers to say how much they pay for livestock, according to the attorneys general of 20 states.

Judge Says Babbitt Attempted End-Run In Wilderness Scheme
A federal judge stopped a re-inventory of potential federal "wilderness" in Utah because Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was relying on a statute that has expired.

Jeep’s Replacement In Battle Is Fine Firefighter On Range
The combat vehicle known as the Humvee has gone from fighting bad guys to fighting fires in the small town of Worden.

Environment Played Little Part In Election Outcomes
If the oft-repeated litany of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore is any indication, "the environment" was to have been a winning issue for Democrats during the 1996 election. Since December 1995, Clinton had been proclaiming his support for "medicare, medicaid, education and the environment," as if the phrase were a mantra, the mere intoning of which guaranteed his reelection. Al Gore's robot-like recitation of that incantation in his debate with Jack Kemp showed he was programmed similarly.

Usual Suspects Oppose Cattle On New "Tallgrass Preserve"
Buffalo and elk will roam eastern Kansas' new "Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve," but they will have to share it with cattle. And that is drawing predictable fire from the usual suspects.

Cattle-Fax Offers Cautions On Retained Ownership Plans
Low calf prices have stimulated interest among many cow-calf operators in retaining ownership of calves after weaning. However, success with retained ownership depends on several factors that require a producer's attention. This point is made in a special report for cow-calf members by Cattle-Fax, an industry market information and analysis service.

Cattle Conference Tickets All Taken
All 1000 tickets to the governor's Dec. 12 Cattle Conference in Pierre have been sold.

Sierra Club’s Latest Utah Slap Is Scheme To Drain Lake Powell
Just when you think you’ve heard it all — from importing wolves to shutting down logging, to capturing control of Texas’ Edwards Aquifer — the eco-radicals hatch another scheme even more outrageous than the last.

NCBA Finds Consumers, Opinion Molders Favorable To Cattlemen
The beef industry continues to be viewed favorably by consumers and opinion leaders, a study has found.

Yellowstone Elk, Buffalo Pose Sticky Problems For Stockmen
Buffalo and elk from Yellowstone National Park have never been particularly welcome on surrounding rangeland, but a tangle of disease, federal rules and environmental protection laws have made a tarbaby of them. The more they try to free themselves from the mess, the more deeply neighboring stockmen find themselves mired.

Unsightly Spuds Find A Home In Ration For Feedlot Cattle
This year's low potato prices are bad news for growers, but the Circle 4 Cattle Co. feedlot is glad to take them off the market.

Colorado Amendments Draw Ire, Concern Of State’s Stockmen
Colorado ranchers say the recent passage of Amendments 14 and 16 provides an example of the urban majority determining what is best for the rural minority.

Townfolks Bent Out Of Shape Over Coyotes In The Suburbs
City officials have contracted to destroy the area's coyotes after more than 50 cats are believed to have been killed by the wild predators.

TSG Commodity Board Spending Outlined
The Texas Sheep and Goat Commodity Board collected $280,259.70 in 1996. Of that total $259,709.70 was spent for actual predator control, $10,000 on research and $10,550 on education.

Lawmakers Vow Bill To Counter IRS Rule
Thousands of farmers could be in for a surprise at tax time. The Internal Revenue Service has decided that farmers can no longer use commodity contracts to defer their taxes, a common practice among growers.

USDA Sets Workshop On Price Reporting
The U.S. Agriculture Department will conduct a public workshop on reporting of retail meat prices and farm-to-retail price spreads, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has announced. The workshop is scheduled for Dec. 18 in Kansas City, MO.

Aquifer Authority Changes Some Rules
The Edwards Aquifer Authority, in the countdown to regulation of pumping from the massive Central Texas aquifer, is finetuning is regulations. Of particular interest to stockmen and landowners over the Edwards, the authority has withdrawn a proposed rule which would have extended exemptions from well registration and regulation.

USDA Delays Sheep Vote Announcement
Once again, USDA has delayed announcement of results of the sheep and wool promotion referendum. The agency now says results will be released sometime after Christmas.

Protests Prompt BLM To Extend Comment
Strong criticism of plans for restricting use of federal land in Idaho’s Owyhee County has prompted the Bureau of Land Management to allow more time for public comment.

Thanksgiving Week Feeder Cattle Price Trends Off, Movement Down
Feeder steers and heifers sold steady to $1 lower last week, instances $2-3 off. Receipts in most market areas were light due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Texas Fed Cattle Prices Lower In Sluggish Holiday Movement
Slaughter steers and heifers sold $1 lower in Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading during the Thanksgiving holiday week.

Angelo Lambs, Ewes Seek Higher Levels
Feeder lambs sold firm to $2 higher, instances $3-5 higher, slaughter lambs not well tested, slaughter ewes firm to $2 higher. Receipts totaled 10,261 head.

U.S. Meat Production 16.4% Below A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection during last week’s holiday shortened period was estimated at 708.3 million pounds, down 14.2 percent from the previous week and 16.4 percent less than the comparable period a year ago. Cumulative meat production for the year to date was 1.2 percent less than a year ago at 38.9 billion pounds.

Kansas Direct Feeder Cattle Prices Steady
Kansas direct feeder steers and heifers sold steady in a light test last week. Weather was cold and mostly dry except for some snow flurries in the north central area and rain late. Sales were confirmed on 4264 head.

Most Giddings Cattle Higher After Holiday
All cattle prices were higher following the Thanksgiving holiday period, some weights of steers and heifers $2-5 higher, replacement cows and heifers $2-3 higher. Receipts totaled 807 head.

Camp Cooley Brangus Bulls Average $3045
A total of 241 bulls sold at the Camp Cooley Ranch Brangus sale for an average of $3045 per head, and 726 females averaged $1505.

Domestic Wool Slow, Aussie Wools Lower
Trading on domestic wool was slow last week with only occasional buyer inquiry.

Llano Cattle Prices Trend Mostly Higher
Feeder steers sold $2-4 higher, heifers $1-3 higher, fleshy offerings near steady, slaughter cows $1 higher, bulls $2 higher. Receipts totaled 817 head.

Most Milano Cattle Prices Move Upward
Feeder steers sold $2-3 higher, heifers $1-2 higher, slaughter cows $1-2 higher, bulls firm. Receipts totaled 1542 head.

Hindsight

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull. 
John was ready with a new communiqué to his congressman this week:
"Dear Duly Elected:
"I hope it won’t interfere with your poker game too much to read a little note from one of your cow country constituents. After all, it hurts me worse than it does you: I’m missing a chance to check the double six into some of the boys down at the domino hall while writing this, and I don’t have a highly polished secretary to do the writing like you have.

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
Grandpa Tommy's dad used to say, "A cowful is a substantial quantity." According to my research, the rumen on a mature cow can hold up to 300 pounds. And by anybody's standards that is quite a bit.

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
Every small town has a character similar to newscaster David Brinkley, who recently penned a new book, "Everybody is Entitled to My Opinion." These people are poolhall philosophers, Aristotles of the barnyard, and Platos of the plains. Our philosopher, Zeno Pfault, was interviewed recently and expressed his opinion on several wide-ranging subjects in response to the question, "Howdy." That's about as much of a question as Zeno needs to set him to philosophizing:

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
You couldn’t have been within earshot or postal range in the past 10 years without knowing or hearing of the time I rode the steam train from Beijing in the People’s Republic to the capital of Inner Mongolia all night without food or drink.