As part of a statewide effort to stem the spread of invasive weeds, New Mexico State University's Cooperative Extension Service is distributing free copies of a pocket-sized identification guide, New Mexico's Invasive Weeds.

Copies of the guide are available at county Extension offices throughout the state or by calling (505) 646-3228.

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Former Texas Governor and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers past president Dolph Briscoe of Uvalde will bring a unique understanding of how government and regulatory decisions affect cattle producers to a panel taking "A Fond Look Back, A Hopeful Look Forward" during TSCRA's fall meeting Oct. 10-12 in San Angelo.

Joining Briscoe on the panel will be Martin Hubert, deputy commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture; John Howard, director for Natural Resources/Environmental, with the Texas Governor's office; Lee Haygood, Indian Mount Ranch, Briscoe, Texas; and Mary Lou Bradley, rancher and owner of B3R Meats, Childress, Texas.

Conservation easements will be the topic in the joint meeting of the Legislative, Tax/Natural Resources and Environment committees. Individual brand identification will be examined in the Brand Inspection Committee, and a perspective on antimicrobial resistance in the Agricultural Research Committee. The joint meeting of the Animal Health and Wildlife Committees will tackle problems with feral hogs and prairie dogs.

A detailed agenda is available from the TSCRA office at (800) 242-7820.

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On October 5 in Abilene, Alan Brugler, Commodities Technical Analyst for DTN, will present a training program on reading price charts. The workshop, to begin at 9 a.m., is being coordinated by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. The meeting will be conducted at the Taylor County Extension meeting room.

Registration is available through Brandon Anderson, Haskell County Extension agent, at (940) 864-2658; or Gary Bomer, Taylor County agent, at (915) 672-6048.

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Texas Cattle Feeders Association chairman Jim Schwertner is asking association members for their support in developing a marketing plan that includes value-based, negotiated pricing.

"It's time to act," Schwertner writes in a mailing to the membership. "If we don't start it — who will? It's time to gain control of selling fed cattle and push our product from a commodity to a consumer-friendly product."

Those comments, Schwertner writes, "summarize the feelings" at the recent TCFA board meeting, where board members "strongly agreed (one more time) that our current fed cattle marketing system isn't working — it's just plain broke.

"Independence is great," he continues, "but it can break us."

Schwertner writes that the industry "is at a crossroads. We can continue to be independent. Or we can ask the government to restrict certain methods of selling. Or we can work as a team to improve our marketing system."

Schwertner says the industry "must give up our independent thinking and misconception that we are marketing cattle by taking what we are offered within a 15-minute trade window."

The mailing, which went out late last week with TCFA's newsletter, included a reply card that members could use to express support for a marketing program.

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The Livestock Marketing Association is praising a federal judge's decision to block release of the identities of individuals who signed a petition calling for a referendum on the pork checkoff.

The National Pork Producers Council, which serves as the primary contractor for checkoff funding, had asked USDA to release the names of petition signers, ostensibly so the group could check their validity. Critics of the checkoff program immediately filed to block the release, contending that NPPC could use the list to retaliate against signers.

LMA, which is spearheading a similar referendum on the beef checkoff, filed a "friend of the court" brief opposing release and contending that allowing the names of signers to become public would have a "chilling effect" on other referendum efforts.

"There is simply no good reason why parties with vested interests in maintaining checkoffs should have the identities of persons who want to vote on whether to continue those checkoffs," says LMA president James Schaben Jr., adding that "the job of validating petition signatures belongs solely to USDA."

Some checkoff promoters had backed release for another reason, claiming backers should be given the names so they could try to "persuade" dissenters that they were wrong. That argument struck many checkoff critics as a thinly veiled threat to single out disgruntled producers with an "offer they couldn't refuse."

U.S. Federal Judge John Tunheim apparently agreed, issuing a temporary restraining order directing USDA not to reveal the identities of petition signers.

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Hurricane Floyd and a series of recurring follow-up rains in North Carolina have reportedly killed an estimated 100,000 hogs, 2.4 million chickens and 500,000 turkeys. The numbers are preliminary and may increase significantly if flooding continues and producers are unable to feed and care for surviving animals.

In addition to drownings and starvation, animals and their owners alike are subject to serious disease threats from sewage and carcasses that infest the persistent water. One state official described the region as "a 10,000 square-mile cesspool."

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Cow herd rebuilding may not be underway yet, after all. Some analysts recently began talking about tentative rebuilding, but the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver recently noted that federally inspected heifer slaughter in August was up 7.6 percent from the same period last year, and year-to-date heifer slaughter was up 3.6 percent through Sept. 4. The organization suggests some of the increase may be attributable to delayed marketing of heifers that producers had originally planned to retain as replacements.

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