Fat Lambs In Mixed Situation
Newcrop lambs are finding their way into meat channels in sufficient numbers now to make a difference in the price structure. Fat lamb prices across the country lost a couple of dollars this week, while newcrop offerings are still climbing.

Flurry Of Wednesday Trade Saw Fat Cattle Hold Ground
It was the same old story this week, but with a geographic twist.
As has become monotonously common, fed cattle trade through midweek came in a spurt on Wednesday; the twist was that the spurt came at different times in different areas. Packers began buying in Nebraska Wednesday morning, in Kansas shortly after noon, and in the northern Texas Panhandle sometime after that.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

New Lamb Plant Allows Restart Of Pasture To Packer Program
After a two-year absence, the Texas A&M Pasture to Packer program for lambs will be reinitiated in July. The closing of the Monfort lamb plant in San Angelo bought the program to an abrupt halt in 1993, but the opening of Ranchers’ Lamb of Texas will allow its resurrection.

Ram Performance Test Has Good Offering, Average Up Somewhat
Recent soaking rains throughout much of West and Central Texas, along with record high lamb prices and the approaching startup of the San Angelo lamb plant, seemed to spark some optimism at the annual Ram Performance Test field day and sale here.

Wyoming Cattle To Be Reduced Because Of Overgrazing By Elk
Fremont County ranchers and officials are criticizing a reduction in grazing on Shoshone National Forest land in the Dubois area because of overgrazing attributable to elk.

Farm Bureau President Backing Bush Property Tax Reform Plan
It's only natural, I suppose, that the debate over Governor Bush's property tax relief proposal is being framed in terms of "winners and losers." That, however, misses the point.

TB Rules Will Seal The Border To Many Mexican Feeder Cattle
Many Mexican feeder cattle will find a padlock on pastures and feedlots this spring in the border states of Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona, says the Texas Animal Health Commission.

Cattle Raisers To Celebrate 120th Anniversary In Cowtown
Texas actor Barry Corbin will lead off the entertainment marking the 120th anniversary convention of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.

Auditors Say P&S Antitrust Division Can’t Do The Job
USDA’s Packers and Stockyards Administration is incapable of policing anticompetitive practices in the packing industry, say the agency’s own auditors.

Nature Conservancy’s Tax-Free Status Ruled Unconstitutional
A 1969 law granting property tax exemptions to the Nature Conservancy of Texas is unconstitutional, says Texas Attorney General Dan Morales.

USDA Consolidating Many APHIS Offices
The U.S. Agriculture Department is consolidating its 13 Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service field offices into regional hubs at Raleigh, N.C., and Fort Collins, Colo., Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said last week.

Chad Hagan Takes Early Lead In PRCA All-Around Standings
The competition is already heating up in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association all-around standings. In the lead is Chad Hagan, Leesville, La., with $26,950 in season earnings. Following close on his heels is Joe Beaver, the reigning champion from Huntsville, Texas, with $25,508.

Angelo Feeder Steers Lower, Lambs Firmer
Feeder lambs sold firm this week, slaughter lambs weak to $2 lower and slaughter ewes $3-5 lower. Receipts totaled 9760 head.

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull.
"When I was a kid," said John, "I was told that when you have a string of fat years you’d better hold something back for the lean years to come, because the lean years would eat up the fat ones.

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
Imagine you were a livestock man in medieval England a thousand years ago. It's early spring. Snow on the ground, mud in the cow lot. You walk the small pasture where the heavy heifers are kept. It's hard to see much with just the moonlight. But you spot one that's down in a swale. She's on her side in the process of calving. One foot is showing.

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
I recently overheard some oldtimers talking about the old days and the tales worth recording. Although the drouth has been broken, there was a time when Western Oklahoma was so dry that there were reports of fire hydrants chasing dogs and tomcats that stopped spitting at local curs in favor of throwing rocks.

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
Angelo State University continues to fulfill the prophesy of a man who wielded a lot of his power to join the college to the University system in 1962. Houston Harte, co-founder of Harte Hanks Inc. and editor and publisher of the San Angelo Standard Times, said, "The new college will be the most important thing to ever hit San Angelo."

On Matters of ... Equine
By Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall
The mare about to foal is a very sensitive animal. Seven thousand years of domestication has not erased basic apprehension about being vulnerable during birthing. For millions of years, the mare and the newborn foal have been prey for the carnivores of the grasslands.

Letters To The Editor