November Big Month For Lambs
The last few days of November were good days for the lamb market. If fact, the entire month of November is something lamb producers can feel good about.

Plains Fed Cattle Movement Nil On $3-4 Gulf At Midweek
Plains feedlots had moved only a handful of cattle through midweek as buyers and sellers pondered a $3-4 price differential.

PLAINS FEEDLOT SALES

RANGE SALES

Comfort Rancher Juggles Three Species And Variety Of Goals
Tell Robin and Carol Giles that something can't be done and their reply will be, "There's always a way, even when it doesn't seem there's a way."

TCFA's Schwertner Says Change Needed In Fed Cattle Marketing
A lot of things have changed over the last millennium, says out-going Texas Cattle Feeders Association chairman Jim Schwertner. Things have changed over the last century, and things are about to change again.

Mexico Shuts Out U.S. Beef, Poultry For "Health" Reasons
Mexico is at it again. USDA on Tuesday officially confirmed that Mexico has de-certified 17 U.S. beef and poultry processing plants for alleged "health" reasons.

Farmland, Cenex Bid For Merger Voted Down By Latter's Members
Members of Cenex Harvest States rejected a proposed merger with Farmland Industries Inc. that would have been the biggest merger of farm cooperatives ever.

Court Gives Federals, Tribes More Water Rights Than Others
Indian tribes and federal agencies won a major but partial victory in an Arizona Supreme Court ruling that reservations and some federal sites are entitled to extra protection from neighbors' pumping of groundwater.

Denny McLanahan Voted Rodeo Fans' Favorite; NFR Next Week
Texas bareback rider Denny McLanahan has been voted professional rodeo fans' favorite cowboy for the first time. He beat out 1998 favorite Stran Smith for the 1999 title. Coors annually holds the contest to recognize cowboys who have made an impact on rodeo fans. McLanahan, at 5-5 and 150 pounds, will compete in his eighth NFR in December.

Cynical Clinton Lawyers Hold Property Hostage Seven Years
In 1995, Assistant Attorney General Lois Schiffer, the highest-ranking environmental lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice, spoke in Denver, Colorado. Remarkably, given the topics she might have addressed, she spent an hour attacking Congressional proposals to expedite the time-consuming (often a decade or more) process by which landowners seek just compensations when the government "takes" their property. There was no need for legislation, she said, because her office quickly pays all takings claims.

Impact Of Government Payments Should Be Carefully Considered
The income tax implications of government payments should be carefully taken into account during income tax planning. Over one-third of this year's U.S. net farm income is coming in the form of government payments.

Combs To Monitor Seattle Trade Talks With Agriculture In Mind
When other countries want to shut U.S. products out of their markets, agriculture is an easy target, and that is why reform of agricultural trade is a focus of World Trade Organization negotiations that started Tuesday in Seattle.

Battle Over Elko Road Likened To Boston Tea Party By Locals
Comparing their cause to the Boston Tea Party, leaders of a rebellion against federal protection of an officially "threatened" fish urged Congress last month to recognize local control of a road they say was theirs before the government established a national forest.

High Court's Move On Water Act Issue Seen As Ranching Victory
In a move largely ignored by the popular press, the U.S. Supreme Court last month left intact an appeals court ruling that could scuttle a Clinton administration scheme to extend Clean Water Act regulations to cover grazing.

N.Dakota Ranchers Want To Know When They Can Return To Range
Ranchers who lost grazing land to prairie fires want the U.S. Forest Service to provide better information about when cattle can return to damaged grasslands.

Clinton's Forest Decree Needs More Comment, Senators Insist
The Clinton administration should delay by four months an effort to ban roads in more than 50 million acres of federal forests so the public has more time to comment on the plan, according to 33 senators.

Quest To Save West's Heritage Consumes Free-Spirited Editor
Life's been a wild ride for C.J. Hadley. Deemed ``uneducable'' at 15, this British-born renegade who traveled the globe and tasted success now finds herself a struggling magazine editor and defender of a tradition in the American West.

FDA Hearing On Modified Food Crops Hears From Both Sides
As Scott Fritz sees it, growing genetically modified corn and soybeans on his northern Indiana farm is a good thing. He says he needs fewer insecticides to protect the heartier plants and he's able to produce more on the same amount of land.

Feds' Takeover Of New Mexico's Baca Ranch Pleases Green Types
A golden eagle preens in the dazzling autumn light. Elk graze damp meadows. Fiery aspens fleck slopes carpeted with spruce, fir and ponderosa pine. In remote canyons, bears and mountain lions stalk their prey.

New Studies Put Plains Indians In Forefront Of Buffalo Demise
A new buffalo war is shaping up on the Great Plains. For decades, historians with a romantic view of the West blamed greedy white hunters for the near extinction of that noble beast, the American bison. Now revisionist historians are shifting at least some of the blame to drouth and the plains Indians.

Farm Bureau Says Feds Should Keep Own
The Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation opposes expanding the area set aside to protect grizzly bears.

ALF Implicated In Lab Break-in
Animal rights activists are suspected of vandalizing a research lab at Washington State University.

Lamb-Only Checkoff Proposal Is Pending
U.S. sheep industry leaders met here last week to work out several major points of a draft lamb-only checkoff plan created by USDA's Sheep Industry Checkoff Exploration Team.

NM Governor Seeking Taskforce On Grazing
The governor of New Mexico is asking the state's agriculture secretary to make recommendations concerning problems faced by ranchers grazing public lands.

Officials Taking Potential For Ag Terrorism Seriously
Terrorists who want to create economic chaos in the United States could sneak hoof and mouth disease into the nation's livestock herds or bomb corn fields with blight instead of using car bombs to inflict human carnage.

Bangs Vaccine Tests Underway On Wildlife
Wildlife biologists plan to study whether a brucellosis vaccine is safe for elk, buffalo and pronghorn antelope in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Mexico Cattle Imports Higher, Exports Down
Year to date cattle exports to Mexico are down 30 percent from a year ago while cattle imports are up 30 percent. Total livestock exports to Mexico were down four percent at 690,642 head.

Limited Trading Thanksgiving Week Found Feeder Cattle Firm
Feeder steers and heifers sold steady to firm across the country on a limited test Thanksgiving week with calves in the mountain states $1-5 higher.

Texas Fed Cattle Steady Last Week In Wednesday-Only Trade
Slaughter steers and heifers sold steady in Texas Panhandle and Western Oklahoma feedlot trading last week. All trade took place late Wednesday, barely ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Angelo Lambs, Ewes Move To Higher Levels
Feeder lambs sold $1-3 higher this week, slaughter lambs $3-5 higher and slaughter ewes steady to $3 higher. Two day receipts totaled 13,800 head, including around 10 percent feeder lambs, 10 percent slaughter lambs, 50 percent slaughter ewes and 30 percent goats.

U.S. Meat Production 2.3% Below A Year Ago
Total red meat production under federal inspection Thanksgiving week was estimated at 775.6 million pounds, 13 percent less than a week earlier and 2.3 percent less than a year ago. Cumulative meat production for the year to date was up 2.2 percent at 41.3 billion pounds.

Domestic Wool Slow, Aussie Wools Firm
Wool trading during last week’s holiday-shortened period remained nearly at a standstill.

Hill Country Brangus Bulls Average $2040
The Hill Country Brangus bull and commercial female sale offered 70 registered Brangus bulls that averaged $2040 per head, and 409 commercial Brangus females averaging $611.

Pick Of Texas Bulls Averaged $1495 Each
The Pick of Texas Partners in Progress Cattleman’s Kind bull sale sold 85 bulls to average $1495 per head.

Abilene Feeder Steer, Heifer Prices Higher
Feeder steers and heifers sold $2 higher, slaughter cows and bulls $1-3 higher, stock cows steady to $20 higher. Receipts totaled 1616 head.

San Saba, Brownwood, Mason Sell 8159 Head
Receipts at the Mason, Brownwood and San Saba sales last week totaled 8159 head, including more than 5000 head of weaned, coded and eartagged calves at the premium sale in San Saba.

Kansas Direct Feeder Cattle Prices Steady
Feeder steers and heifers sold steady during last week's lightly tested Thanksgiving holiday period. Weather conditions remain dry. Sales were confirmed on 2267 head.

Milano Feeder Steers, Heifers Move Higher
Feeder steers sold $3-5 higher, heifers $2-3 higher, slaughter cows and bulls steady. Receipts totaled 1140 head.

Most Llano Cattle Prices Termed Higher
Feeder steers weighing less than 500 pounds sold $3-6 higher, heavier weights $1-3 higher, lightweight heifers $2-5 higher, heavies $1-3 higher, slaughter cows $2 higher, bulls steady. Receipts totaled 552 head.

Loose Ends

Coming Up...
December 3-4 — Spring Horse Sale, Roswell Livestock Auction, Roswell, New Mexico. December 3 — Superior Livestock Auction’s Video Sale, Fort Worth, Texas. December 4 — Special Replacement Female Sale, Jordan Cattle Auction, San Saba, Texas.