Fat, Feeder Lamb Prices Struggling
Fat and feeder lamb price trends were highly variable this week, with sharp changes both up and down. With Easter just around the corner, seasonal demand for lightweight carcasses will end abruptly and prices will tumble. Some lightweight lambs this week fell fully $30 but remained at a respectable price.

Fed Cattle Trade Biding Time, Opposing Sides At Arm’s Length
Plains fed cattle trade appeared perched on the edge at presstime Wednesday, like a ski jumper rocking in the gate.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

Changes In CME Cattle Futures Contract Turn Some Buyers Off
Live cattle futures, traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange since November 1964, have become one of the primary tools for risk management in the beef industry. Packers and feeders alike use the futures as an information source for developing and assessing bids. Even those who are philosophically opposed to the futures contract admit to using it as a pricing mechanism.

Auction Operator, Cow-Calf Man Puts Research To Work
Burt Richards' family came to Texas in the 1850s. They built the first mill between Dallas and Houston and used the boxed end of a mill wrench as a branding iron.

Conagra To Pay $8.3M For Cheating Farmers
ConAgra Inc. will pay $8.3 million in fines and penalties as part of a plea agreement to federal charges that farmers were cheated at its grain elevators in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

Water & Tax Issues Discussed In Length At TSCRA Convention
Water policy, tax revisions and packer concentration were on ranchers’ minds at the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Convention here this week.

Tyson Lobbyist Found Guilty In Espy Payoff Scandal Probe
A lobbyist for Tyson Foods Inc., the nation's largest poultry producer was convicted late last week of lying twice to investigators about providing favors to former Clinton administration Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.

Clinton Buyout Of Gold Mine Would Cost CRP Program $65M
The Clinton administration’s controversial buyout of a gold mine near Yellowstone National Park last summer drew fire from productive sector advocates who identified it as an election-year ploy to firm up environmental activist votes.

Little Support Seen For User Fees On Ag Sought By Clinton
The Clinton administration wants food processors to pay for government inspections of their meat, poultry and egg products, but the idea's having a tough time finding any support.

February Beef Price Average Down A Penny
Average retail beef prices remained relatively low during February, says the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

Babbitt Still Blaming Montana For Federals’ Buffalo Problem
U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt continues to castigate the state of Montana for its efforts to deal with brucellosis-infected buffalo that are his agency’s responsibility.

Wyoming Dodges Bangs Bullet By Accepting Program Review
A compromise aimed at heading off sanctions against Wyoming cattle because of brucellosis concerns paid off as Oregon dropped its sanction against Wyoming cattle.

Report Says Ethanol Subsidy Doesn’t Do What Was Claimed
The tax break for ethanol, the corn-based alcohol fuel, has cost a federal highway trust fund $7.1 billion since 1979, but ethanol has done little to reduce air pollution or enhance the nation's energy security, according to a recent government report.

Eco-Activists Seem To Believe "Good" End Justifies Bad Means
Have you ever been told you were wrong when you knew you were right? Sure, it happens all the time. You say the keys are on the counter; someone else says they're not. But there they are, on the counter where you left them.

High Court Rules Species Act Not The Private Tool Of Ecos
In what may prove one of the landmark cases in environmental law, the U.S. Supreme Court late last week ruled unanimously that the federal Endangered Species Act is not a one-way ratchet.

USDA Hearings Planned In June On State-Inspected Meat Sales
The U.S. Agriculture Department will hold hearings in June on whether state-inspected meat and poultry products should be permitted to cross state lines without separate federal examinations.

Dakota Winter-Kill Cattle Deaths Rise
The state Farm Service Agency says nearly 13,000 cattle deaths have resulted from North Dakota's brutal winter weather. And with the calving season starting, the number will grow.

Nevada Elk Releases Causing Feed Worries
The addition of elk into the mix of cattle and wild horses on the range in northern Nevada is costing stockmen scare feed and forage reserves, and they aren’t happy about it.

Angelo Feeder Lambs Lower, Cattle Higher
Feeder lambs sold $5-10 lower this week, slaughter lambs weak to $2 lower and slaughter ewes $2-4 lower. Receipts totaled 10,119 head.

Stamford Bull Sale Averages $965 Each
In special replacement trading, Stamford Farmers and Ranchers Auction offered 83 bulls that sold from $600 to $1950 and averaged $965 per head. One hundred cow-calf pairs ranged from $710 to $1980 and averaged $860, 123 long bred females brought $700-910 and averaged $810, 12 medium bred females ranged $600-860 and averaged $765, 14 short bred females were $500-610 and averaged $535, 108 exposed heifers made $485-625 and averaged $525, and 538 open heifers brought $430-690 for a $560 average.

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull.
John was accosted the other day by one of his best friends and severest critics, an oldtimer who spent as much time in the lobby as John except when his rheumatism kept him at home.

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
• Let's say you were an arctic explorer and you suddenly got cold feet.
• If you can get snowed in during winter can you get winded in during spring?
• When you put hot water in a thermos, it keeps it hot. If you put cold water in a thermos, it keeps it cold. How does it know?

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
Byron Nelson is a name readily recognized in the golfing world. Many have described him as a "machine" when it comes to cow pasture pool. Although I don't play the game very well, I developed a respect for Byron many years ago. Fate deemed that our paths should cross, and unlike many well-known names, Byron and wife Louise were not machines who shun the public but just nice folks.

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
The country west of San Angelo received over five inches of rainfall in February. Such grand amounts exceed the normal inch for the month. It had been a long-reaching drouth. The natural garden around the ranch house, for example, went 2.5 years, or a full six months longer than usual, without being touched by a mower. Rare has so much time passed without having to at least trim the hoarhound and broomweeds back from the gates and doorways.

On Matters of ... Equine
By Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall
The recent explosive advance of medical science permeates our everyday lives. Today, we can walk into the grocery store, buy a kit, and in the privacy of our own homes, add a little urine and, magically, determine a women's reproductive status. Those of us over 30 remember the day when these immunological tests were not available; when a woman who wanted a second opinion about being with child had to go the doctor who would perform a rabbit test, or one of the other pregnancy tests known as biological tests.

Wildlife By Design
By Dale Rollins, Ph.D.
I reckon it was destiny. Couple my penchant for cultivating a sense of "appreciation" of some heretofore unsavory critters (e.g., coyotes, juniper) with a groundswell of support for feral hogs (aka "the poor man’s grizzly"), and it was inevitable there would be a "Feral Hog Appreciation Day." And so, on March 8, Jacksboro earned its berth in the annals of hog history. About 90 people braved the locker plant-like chill in the fairgrounds building to hear the good, the bad and the ugly of Texas’ adopted porkers.