Fat, Feeder Lambs Find Lower Trends
Fat and feeder lamb prices were generally lower throughout the country this week. The fat lamb trade is burdened by a continuing oversupply of weighty offerings, and that is pulling the entire market down with it.

Fed Cattle Still In Pattern; Giving Up Ground Every Week
The dollar-a-week discount trend held true again this week on Plains fed cattle. Texas Panhandle feedyards entered the week with a moderate 80,000 head showlist and seemed determined to give it away if they couldn’t sell it. Packers had only to name their price, and they did — $1 lower at $63.

Plains Feedlot Sales

Range Sales

Expert Contends Yellowstone’s Problem Is Politics, Not Bangs
The problem with bison at Yellowstone National Park is not brucellosis. "We can eradicate brucellosis in bison," says Dr. Jim Knight, a wildlife specialist in the range science department at Montana State University. "That's a fact. But given the social and political constraints, we have not been able to even attempt to eradicate brucellosis in bison."

Pilot Project Seeks To Send Montana Cattle Into Canada
His ranch sits only about 50 miles south of Montana's border with Canada. But Lynn Cornwell, who runs cattle just northwest of Glasgow, is a world away in his business dealings.

Hutchison Urges USDA To Maintain Texas CRP
U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers have called on Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman to continue to maintain the current Conservation Reserve Program acreage in Texas.

Everyone Is Equal Under ESA; Some Just More So Than Others
The federal Endangered Species Act doesn’t apply to everyone after all. The ESA has never really applied to the federal agencies that enforce it, of course, and now the same agencies that threatened Central Texas landowners with fines and imprisonment for maintaining the roads to their own homes has announced that it is exempting a privileged class other than bureaucrats — Indians.

Clinton Vetoes Disaster Relief Bill, Then Blames Republicans
As he threatened, President Clinton on Monday vetoed a comprehensive disaster relief bill. And as widely predicted, he and his allies in the dominant media blamed Clinton’s veto on the legislators who worked for weeks to write and pass the bill.

Sheep Industry Serious Again About Eradication Of Scrapie
Scrapie is an old story in the sheep industry, but it’s gained renewed attention of late.

Sheep Breeders Form Seedstock Alliance
A national alliance was recently organized to provide a voice and address the needs of the 17,000 U.S. sheep seedstock producers. The United States Sheep Seedstock Alliance, officed here, will provide a national forum to coordinate input on special issues, sponsor educational programs and maintain domestic and international marketing activities.

Ethanol Subsidies In Spotlight As Congress Tackles Fed Budget
It's praised as a billion-dollar-plus bonanza for Midwestern farmers. But ethanol, the alternate motor fuel made from the corn that blankets the nation's midsection, is also under fire as an extravagant drain on American taxpayers.

Feds Shun Bush Call For Disaster Relief
The presidential disaster assistance Gov. George W. Bush requested to help rebuild Jarrell and neighboring areas of Central Texas in the aftermath of killer tornadoes won’t be coming.

Motley County Horse Events Honor Long-Ago Endurance Race
Perhaps you never heard of Shannon Davidson or the source of his fame. If not, may I offer the following bit of history?

Lawsuit Claims Milk Warning Label Needed
First there were "copycat killers;" now, apparently, the "copycat suer" has arrived. Clearly inspired by the rash of lawsuits against tobacco companies, (or maybe spoofing them? — Ed.) a self-described "milk-a-holic" is suing the dairy industry, claiming that a lifetime of drinking whole milk contributed to his clogged arteries and a minor stroke.

Ecos In Uproar As Oil Company Plans To Drill Within Monument
Conoco is proceeding with plans to drill an exploratory oil well on lands within the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

NCBA Supports Efforts To Guard Against BSE
Science-based action is necessary to ensure that bovine spongiform encephalopathy never occurs in the United States. That's what Connie Greig, Estherville, Iowa, chairman of the Cattle Health and Well-being Committee for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, told the Food and Drug Administration about its draft rule which would ban specified mammalian proteins in ruminant feeds.

Study Says Deli Meat Big Market For Beef
A recent study of consumer buying habits has revealed a market for beef products that is much larger than many in the industry had expected. The survey, funded in part through the beef checkoff program, shows consumers buy well over a billion dollars worth of processed beef deli meats annually.

Forest Service, ADC Strike Predator Deal
Killing predators to protect livestock grazing on 1.7 million acres of federal wilderness in New Mexico and Arizona now requires less paperwork.

Netsurfing Seen As Next Big Revolution In Agriculture
Tractors revolutionized farming. Then came combines, pesticides and hybrid crops. And now it's happening again. The latest technological development — the Internet — could thrust down-to-earth farmers into the nebulous realm of cyberspace.

Canadian Jumps To Third Slot In PRCA Bull Riding Standings
Canadian bull rider Wayde Joyal leapfrogged from 17th to third place in the Crown Royal world standings with his recent win at the Old Fort Days rodeo in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The two-time Canadian Professional Rodeo Association bull riding champion recently returned to competition following surgery to repair a broken jaw he suffered at a bull riding event in Tucson, Ariz.

Review Of Texas Water Law Covers Recent Developments
The Water Rights Adjudication Act, enacted in 1967, provided Texas for the first time an orderly structure and procedure for the determination and administration of surface water rights.

USDA Seeking More Authority Under Packers And Stockyards
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is asking Congress for more enforcement tools to ensure fair competition in livestock markets.

Range Management Society Urges Yellowstone Reform
Yellowstone National Park and the areas surrounding it need to turn to a kind of cooperative range management to ease grazing pressures, according to members of a natural resource group.

New Trial Granted For Tyson Lobbyist
A federal judge last week overruled a jury verdict and granted a new trial to a Tyson Foods Inc. lobbyist convicted of lying in the government's probe of favors allegedly received by former Clinton administration Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.

Wolf Pack Targeted For Stock Killing
Federal agents will kill the remaining adults in the Boulder wolf pack next week because they have returned to killing cattle, but the pack's pups will be moved to Idaho.

Strong U.S. Trade Stance Critical To Export Growth
The international market is the fastest growing segment of demand for U.S. beef. To maintain this growth, the United States needs to continue to challenge non-tariff trade barriers as well as maintain export program funding for U.S. agriculture, says Mark Armentrout, Alpharetta, Ga., chairman of the International Markets Committee for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Angelo Lambs Sharply Lower, Cattle Steady
Feeder lambs sold $5-7 lower this week, slaughter lambs poorly tested, slaughter ewes sold firm to $1 higher. Receipts totaled 10,286 head.

San Saba Feeders Sell On Strong Side
Choice feeder steers and heifers sold steady to strong, instances $1-2 higher on yearlings, slaughter cows and bulls $1-3 lower, stock cows and pairs steady. Receipts at Mason, Brownwood and San Saba totaled 2765 head.

Unser To Get Day In Court This Week
Race-car legend Bobby Unser was scheduled to fight a ticket Wednesday in Denver for allegedly snowmobiling into a wilderness area.

Is A Maiden A Maiden By Any Other Moniker?
How about "Indigenous Native American Person Creek?" The federal government says it wants the Squaw Creek Wildlife Refuge to change its name in deference to American Indians.

On The Edge Of Common Sense
By Baxter Black
"Continued pointless killing (of buffalo) by the state of Montana is threatening the future of this magnificent symbol of our nation's commitment to conservation." Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby
Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull.
"The trouble with you hombres," said John, "is you don’t have any imagination. You’re prisoners of your environment. You’re so bogged down in your own business you can’t think of anything to do except ride it up and down, regardless of how rough the bumps get.

The Computer & The Cowboy
By C.A. Rodenberger, Ph.D
What do you use your computer for? I found how one Rondenberger family uses one when my grandnephew, Cody, spent the weekend visiting. Cody is a high school junior interested in engineering and Texas A&M, so naturally he contacted me. He is from the cattleman side of the Rodenbergers. His dad, Bob, runs two sale barns at Oklahoma City and Apache. He and his wife Karen also run 300 mother cows and 1000 or so stockers each year.

It's The Pitts
By Lee Pitts
Here's something I bet you thought you'd never hear me say... "I miss my banker." If you thought surviving in this world was tough WITH a cold-hearted banker who never smiled, you ought to try it WITHOUT one.

Pokin' Fun
By Doc Blakely
The National Cotton Ginners Association had a meeting recently where I was invited to speak. I suspect they have been such a bright spot on the agricultural scene because of new developments in the cotton gin business. From the looks of things, they have learned how to take cotton and make gin out of it. Who would have thought of a fluffy martini?

Shortgrass Country
By Monte Noelke
To go to my granddaughter's graduation at Texas Tech in Lubbock meant staying in Lamesa, some 90 miles away. Local hotels booked up early for the many graduates finishing on the same day. Timing to be on campus, however, was good.