lmd march 2010

LivestockDigest

LivestockMARCH 15, 2010 • www. aaalivestock . com Volume 52 • No. 3

“The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.”

– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Better Off Dead

It is said that the only twosure things in life aredeath and taxes. Towhich I would add a

third certainty: that the gov-ernment will use your deathas an excuse to increaseyour taxes. Here’s an install-ment of “Ask The Tax Man”that might help your heirskeep some of your cashwhen you keel over.

Q: My ungrateful sonjust informed me that 2010is a great year to die. Howso?

A: If you die in 2010your child will inherit 100percent of your estatewhereas if you wait to dieuntil 2011 the governmentwill grab 55 percent of it. I’dwatch my back if I were you.Accidents will happen, youknow what I mean?

Q: Doesn’t this create anincentive for people to diethis year?

A: Of course. Thousandsof wealthy people on lifesupport will be unpluggedthis year by their kids, sui-cide hot lines will heat up,charities will spring up tofind a cure for metabolism,and Oprah will do a showon the best ways to off your-self.

Q: I’m a 92 year-oldfemale worth in excess of100 million dollars that myfour husbands worked veryhard to amass. I would liketo leave my spoiled stepkidsall my money but I don’tbelieve in suicide. Isn’t theresome way around thisridiculous rule?

A: Start living danger-ously. Take up skydiving,trade in your Rolls for amurder-cycle, start smokingfour packs of cigarettes aday and don’t get a flu shot.In the past I would havesuggested committing acrime so bad that you’d endup sharing a prison cell withDr. Kervorkian, but I thinkhe’s out on bail now.Besides, if your crime wasn’theinous enough you couldjust end up doing 500 hoursof community service.

Q: I love my kids but Iworry that all the money inmy estate is just too tempt-ing. Are there any precau-tions I should take?

A: Absolutely. Trade inyour Chihuahua for a bomb

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by LEE PITTS

MARKET

DigestRiding Herd

by Lee Pitts

After wasting $142 millionover six years and onlygetting a third of thisnation’s ranchers to reg-ister their premises, the

USDA finally threw in the towelon its mandatory national animalidentification program. Or sothey say. Pardon us for being abit skeptical but this is, after all,the same agency that first said itwas a voluntary program to aidin disease control and then mor-phed it into a mandatory pro-gram in which health and welfareseemed to be almost an after-thought.Much to his credit, USDA

Secretary Vilsack did somethinghis predecessor never did. Headmitted that the USDA earned“a failing grade” in trying toimplement NAIS. Depending on how much you

trust the USDA and the politi-cians in Washington, DC, Vil-sack’s waving of the white flagcould either be total capitulationand the death of a mandatorynational ID system for livestock,or it could be just anothersmokescreen. It could be thatthe meatpackers, and the politi-cians they have in their pocket,will try to get what they wantthrough even more sinistermethods than they used in tryingto implement NAIS in the firstplace. Knowing the USDA like

NAIS? They also stay in the data-base. What about the “840” tagsthemselves? Well, the USDA andstates will keep using them. Arethey going to halt further regis-trations into the NAIS database?Heck no! They’ll keep registeringproperties and will also be usinga ‘unique location identifier’ forthis kinder, gentler NAIS thatthe States will run for us.” As opponents of NAIS cele-

brate what they see as a majorvictory, Hannes asks the naggingquestion, “If NAIS is dead, whynot allow the database to beannihilated?”

Good question.Ever since NAIS was first

introduced during the Presidency

of George Bush, the NAIS wassold as a way to track every headof livestock in this country using a15-digit number. Gadget geeks,technology buffs and bureaucratswanting to expand their turf,envisioned a world in which allyour livestock would be implant-ed with an electronic chip andtheir every move would be kepttrack of in a huge database run bythe USDA, that would enable itto immediately track down poten-tially diseased animals within 48hours. Cynics suggested it couldalso do other, more sinisterthings. It could also serve as aninventory control tool by advo-cates of captive supply, or by theIRS to nail a rancher in tax court.Of course, the USDA said they’dnever allow such abuse, but thiscomes from the same agency thatfirst U.S. Supreme Court.NAIS forged feelings of fear,

loathing and even laughteramongst ranchers who only knewtheir government as one thatcan’t even use its own databaseto keep known-terrorists off air-planes. And the bumbling andfumbling USDA was going tokeep track of every cow, horse,pig and sheep in this country?That’s a real leg slapper!Besides, hadn’t the USDA

ever heard the old bromide thatyou never ask a rancher how

we do, on this the 100th anniver-sary of Mark Twain’s death, weare reminded of his words whencontemplating the supposed endof NAIS: “The rumors of mydeath have been greatly exagger-ated.”

If It’s Dead, Why Not Bury It?Amidst all the whooping and

hollering and back-patting fol-lowing the alleged end to NAIS,cynics like Doreen Hannes smella rat. “What about all the peoplewho are in the Premises Data-base with PIN’s already? Theystay in that database,” said theactivist for small scale and tradi-tional farming rights. “Howabout animals that are alreadyidentified with the “840” tags for

Crying Uncle

by KAREN BUDD-FALEN, Attorney, Cheyenne, Wyo.

This is an installment of a multi-part series of articlesregarding the attorney fees litigation gravy train per-petrated by the environmental groups using taxpayerdollars. In addition to uncovering more fees paid forenvironmental litigation, this memorandum exposesthe fallacy between “non-profit” and “for-profit”attorney fee requesters. I have joined forces with West-ern Legacy Alliance (WLA) to continue this researchand to find solutions to these astronomical abuses.Western Legacy Alliance can be reached at P.O.Box 162, Moreland, ID 83256, www.westernlega-cyalliance.org; e-mail: [email protected]; phone: 208/206-7309. The research inthis and other stories is open to anyone seeking asolution to this abuse of the system.

It is not only western based environmentalgroups that have found litigation against thefederal government to be a profitable sourceof funding. Consider that the Friends of the

Earth filed 113 district court cases against thefederal government in the last approximately tenyears and the Environmental Defense Fundfiled 67. Even greater is The Wilderness Societywith 150 cases, the National Wildlife Federationwith 233 cases, the Natural Resources DefenseCouncil with 488 cases and topping the list isthe Sierra Club. Between 1989 and 2009, theSierra Club filed 983 cases against the federalgovernment. All totaled, these five groups havefiled 2,034 cases. If you add the “western envi-

“The best sermons

are lived, not preached.”

continued on page four

continued on page four

Environmental Litigation Abuse A Nationwide Problem

www.LeePittsbooks.com

Livestock Market Digest March 15, 2010

many acres he owns or head ofcattle he runs? Apparently not.

Waving The White FlagWhen the USDA said the

program would be voluntary,some well meaning ranchers will-ingly signed up their premises,but when the USDA startedtalking about making the pro-gram mandatory, groups asdiverse as R-CALF and theAmish joined forces to exposethe program for what it reallywas: a tool for the big packers tofurther industrialize and global-ize the American beef businessand to wipe out the smaller cat-tlemen. After all, Mom and Popwould be forced to register everyanimal, while the big boys wouldonly have to keep track of groupsof animals. It never was a fair fight. The

USDA handed out big grants toat least one breed association,Indian tribes and the NationalCattlemen’s Foundation, part ofthe NCBA, who received over$2.1 million from the federalgovernment in 2008 to promoteNAIS. But Goliath was broughtdown by an army of relentlessopponents who shivered at thethought of the feds knowingtheir every move.At first glance it looked like

the freedom-lovers were victori-ous when Agriculture SecretaryVilsack waved the flag of surren-der in February and announcedhe was going to pursue a newapproach to animal traceback.Going even further, the Ag Sec-retary added a big bright bow tohis package of good news by alsoannouncing that the U.S. “muststrengthen its import controls toprevent the introduction of ani-mal diseases at our borders. Thisis a high priority for independentcattle producers who intrinsicallyunderstand that we cannot con-tinue importing diseases likeBSE, bovine tuberculosis andbrucellosis if we desire to main-tain our industry’s reputation ofproducing the healthiest cattle inthe world.”Wow, a bad idea is buried and

we finally have an Ag Secretarywho understands?It may be too good to be true.

At the same time he buriedNAIS, Vilsack spoke of a new IDprogram and of starting all overagain. Vilsack said the USDA “isrefocusing its efforts on a new,flexible framework that will applyonly to animals moved in inter-state commerce and encouragethe use of “lower-cost” technolo-gy. He also said the new pro-gram would “be implemented“transparently” through federalregulations and the full rulemak-ing process.”This was music to the ears of

R-CALF who has been lobbyingfor such changes. It may alsoconfirm our suspicion that R-CALF has more sway inWashington and in the Obamaadministration than does theNCBA, who was pushing for anational ID program.“The Secretary has signaled

he is going back to the drawingboard to develop a new system

that does not infringe upon therights and privileges of U.S. cat-tle farmers and ranchers as didNAIS,” said Dr. Max Thornsber-ry, R-CALF’s President. “This isexactly what we’ve been urgingUSDA to do for the past fiveyears. Our organization hasexpended considerable resourcestrying to put a halt to NAIS, andwe’re pleased that our members’efforts have finally come tofruition.”Thornsberry said NAIS was

conceived and supported byinternational trade organiza-tions, ear tag manufacturers andmultinational meatpackers, andwas all about controlling cattlefarmers and ranchers and cattlemarkets, not about controllingand preventing animal diseases.“This announcement is a

major victory for independentcattle producers, as it marks thefirst time in a very long time thatUSDA did not suppress theinterests of cattle producers inorder to accommodate the self-interests of the dominant meat-packers and their allies,” con-cluded Thornsberry.

Devil In The DetailsWhile we believe Vilsack

means well, the devil will be inthe details. The Ag Secretarysaid that he has no intention oftrying to implement the old pro-gram “through the back door”and we believe he means whathe says. Vilsack shows every signof being a man of integrity. Onthe other hand, he said that theUSDA would convene a forum“to initiate dialogue” about howto develop a new system. A pro-gram which, by the way, will bemandatory. USDA plans to havea proposed rule published bynext year at this time, with a 90-day comment period to follow. Doreen Hannes asks, “If

NAIS is no more then why arethey re-using the first two prongsof NAIS? Aside from the unstat-ed fact that they are using thembecause they have to use them tobe compliant with OIE (WorldOrganization for Animal Health)guidelines, they say it’s becauseof the tremendous amount ofmoney spent developing NAISalready, even though it is uncon-stitutional.“Why couldn’t the USDA do

the only truly Constitutionalthing with this international-trade driven program and letthose who want to deal in inter-national markets do this tothemselves through the ExportVerification Services departmentof the USDA?” asks Hannes. The answer to Hannes rhetor-

ical question is that if the USDAdid that, not only would theyhave to be fully open and trans-parent, they would need to letthe public in on the big secretthat the United States is nolonger in charge of its own poli-cies, rather they are obligated tofollow the directives of the WorldTrade Organization (WTO).“And why has the USDA tak-

en to calling it ‘disease traceabil-

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Crying Uncle continued from page one

continued on page three

March 15, 2010 “America’s Favorite Livestock Newspaper”

ity’ instead of animal identifica-tion?” asks Hannes. “Becausethey only have authority over thediseases! The FDA has authorityover live animals on the farm,even though the majority of peo-ple don’t know this, and it is avery useful poker chip in theglobalization game. It is calledmisdirection, and those of uswho have been deeply involvedin the fight against the NAIS arevery aware of this agency’s use ofmisinformation, disinformation,subterfuge and general sneaki-ness in foisting upon us theirWTO driven desire that will cre-ate captive supply for export ofthe entire domestic livestockpopulation.”Hannes concludes, “They

should tend the borders, controland actually inspect the imports,run the disease programs thatworked and were not massiveconsolidations of power in feder-al hands, and for cryin’ out loudINSPECT the packing plantsand stop trying to make con-sumers believe that farmers andranchers are responsible for slop-py slaughtering!”If the USDA did all that, now

that would really be somethingto get excited about!

Moving Out Of The Global VillageJust as they were successful in

gutting COOL legislation, themeatpackers have already startedjockeying for yet another nation-al ID system that may be differ-ent from the last one in nameonly. After Vilsack’s announce-ment regarding the scuttling ofNAIS, the Big Three unleashedtheir talking-heads who said Vil-sack’s actions would cripple theU.S. cattle industry. They saidthat without a national animal

ID program importing countrieswill be quick to stop beefimports from the U.S. when ani-mal diseases erupt in the U.S.They say that if livestock ID isleft up to the states, as Vilsackwants, the process will becometoo cumbersome. But USDA’sBruce Knight slipped up andsaid what really is behind themove for a national ID system:“We want NAIS in the UnitedStates so the U.S. will be in com-pliance with OIE (World Organ-ization for Animal Health)export regulations by 2010.” In other words, we must jump

through all these hoops and fol-low the lead of the meatpackersor else we won’t be able sell ourbeef in the global marketplace.Darol Dickinson, who probablydid more than any other singleindividual to stop NAIS, isn’tbuying it. He recalls that in Janu-ary 2006 Japan said it wouldrefuse to resume beef purchasesfrom the U.S. until the NAISsystem was 100 percent opera-tional. Japan later resumed tradewith U.S. beef processing plantswithout such a system in place.“South Korea also resumed beeftrade without any NAIS manda-tory requirement,” says Dickin-son. “During the same periodAustralia lost 17 percent of theirKorean beef market while havinga fully operational animal ID sys-tem called NLIS. The two largestpurchasing countries of U.S.beef are Mexico and Canadaand they do not require NAIS. Itnow appears certain that NAISis not, and has never been a fac-tor in U.S. beef export require-ments,” says Dickinson. As usual, Dickinson gets right

to the heart of the matter by ask-ing, “Why are we basing our beefbusiness on the global model in

the first place?” Ken Stielow,Chairman of the Cattleman’sBeef Board, has said, “Exportsare key to the future of the USbeef industry.” NCBA feels thesame way. Yet according to thegovernment’s own figures, in2009 we imported live beef andmeat worth $4,016,508,132 andwe exported $2,625,467,545worth. In other words, if we justtook care of our customers athome and said to heck with theglobal market we’d be better off.The NASS data shows that

the average price per pound inU.S. dollars paid for importedbeef, live and processed, is$2.39. The average pricereceived for each exportedpound of beef, live andprocessed, is $1.60. So eachexchange of a pound of beef pro-duces a net 79 cent loss, accord-ing to Dickinson. “As beef cownumbers annually decrease inthe USA the need will increasefor more imported beef. During2009, for every $1 increase inbeef exports, the US consumerwill require $3 worth of beef tobe imported from a country withlower quality beef, less herdhealth and lower inspection stan-dards than USA. This factor willincrease in 2010 and even morein 2011. Billions have been spenton U.S. beef export promotion,”Dickinson says, “yet seldom, ifever, has anyone considered thecost or return on this investment. As globalization gets more of

the blame with each passing dayfor causing our current world-wide recession, maybe the timehas come to be less concernedwith jumping through all thehoops to export our product and,instead, spend more time andmoney protecting the best beefmarket in the world - our own.Perhaps the time has come to

move out of the global village.

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Arizona Game & Fish corrects inaccuracies in NPR jaguar story

Arizonans may have heard a story onNational Public Radio in mid Feburarythat includes some factual errors regard-ing a recent U.S. Department of the

Interior (DOI) Inspector General (IG) reportabout the capture and han-dling of the jaguar known asMacho B.“If you listened to this

morning’s NPR report andyou think you know the sto-ry of Macho B, you’ve beenmisled,” said Gary Hovatter,deputy director of the Ari-zona Game & Fish Depart-ment (Department).As part of a larger story

about jaguar conservation, the reporter makesthis inaccurate statement: “A recent congres-sional investigation concluded [the capture]wasn’t incidental at all, but a bungled intention-al operation.”The Department would like to correct the

factual errors in this statement by noting thefollowing:The report NPR refers to was issued by the

U.S. Department of the Interior Inspector Gen-eral — it is not a “congressional report” at all.Nowhere in the IG report does it state that

the capture was a “bungled intentional opera-tion.” The Department believes the IG report is

inaccurate and draws conclusions from unsub-stantiated allegations and hearsay statements of

unidentified persons. It isimportant (and disappoint-ing) to note that the IG’soffice never contacted theArizona Game and FishDepartment during the IGinvestigation. No Depart-ment employees were inter-viewed and no Departmentdocumentation was request-ed by IG investigators dur-ing the course of their inves-

tigation.The Department continues to cooperate in

an ongoing Federal law enforcement investiga-tion and is conducting its own internal adminis-trative investigation. The Department stands byits previous statements that it did not direct anyDepartment employee to capture a jaguar.Should the outcome of the ongoing Federal orDepartment investigations demonstrate thatany employee acted contrary to the Depart-ment’s understanding of the facts, the Depart-ment will take appropriate disciplinary action.

It is important (and disappointing) to note that

the IG’s office never contacted the Arizona Game and Fish Department during

the IG investigation.


ronmental organizations” of Ore-gon Natural Desert Association,Western Watersheds Project,Center for Biological Diversity,Southern Utah WildernessAlliance, and Forest (or nowWildEarth) Guardians, that num-ber rises to some 2,875 caseshave been filed against the feder-al government for “enforcement”of environmental statutes. Thisdoes not include appeals to thecircuit courts or cases where envi-ronmental groups intervene. The location of the litigation is

also interesting. The obvious“winner” in the eastern UnitedStates is the Federal DistrictCourt for the District of Colum-bia with 589 cases filed againstthe federal government by majorenvironmental groups. The nextstates, in order, are Florida, NewYork, Texas, Minnesota, Ken-tucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan,Louisiana, Maine and Illinois. Even though the state loca-

tions are different, the result isstill the same. Compare the litiga-tion filed by the Center for Bio-logical Diversity (“CBD”) in theState of Washington Federal Dis-trict Courts and in the FederalDistrict Court for the District ofColumbia in Washington, D.C. Inthe Eastern and Western DistrictCourts in Washington State,CBD has filed 12 cases. Thesecases include challenges underthe ESA for failure to timelyrespond to petitions to list thegiant Palouse earthworm, thekiller whale, a butterfly speciesand the woodland caribou; chal-lenges against the EPA’s ESA sec-tion 7 consultation with regard tocertain pesticide and fungicideuse on crops (although interest-ingly home lawn use was exempt-ed from the injunction); a chal-lenge to soft wood tradeagreement between U.S. andCanada; a challenge for violationsof Clean Water Act, specificallyto protect ocean waters fromthreat of acidification, and others.Of the 12 cases filed, four are stillpending, and of the completedeight cases, no attorneys feeswere paid in two cases. The totalamount of attorneys fees paid forthe six cases is $941,332. In the Federal District Court

for the District of Columbia, theCBD has filed 50 total cases andhas received attorneys fees in 32of those cases. There was onlyone case where the federal gov-ernment opposed the payment offees — all other fee requests weresettled. In five cases, the courtdocuments show that attorneysfees were paid, but no amountwas disclosed to the public. Inother words, even though taxpay-er money was used to pay theCBD’s attorney fees, the taxpay-ers do not know how much of ourmoney was used. The greatmajority of these cases dealt withthe process required by theEndangered Species Act such asresponding to petitions to list ordesignate critical habitat for abutterfly species in New Mexico,a dragon fly, several plants, somepenguin species, polar bears, greywolves, the Canadian lynx, a

Montana bird, a Puerto Ricanfrog, and many other species,none of whom reside in Washing-ton, D.C. The total attorneys feespaid in the 32 cases was$1,043,454.

Through Western LegacyAlliance, we have been workingon other attorneys fees analysesas well. In the Federal DistrictCourt for the District of Mon-tana, the Alliance for the WildRockies has been awarded$220,700, and the Defenders ofWildlife for that same court hasreceived $350,164. Oregon Natu-ral Desert Association in the Ore-gon Federal District Court hasreceived $519,258.00. In the U.S.District Court in Arizona, theCBD has received $865,015.Thus, adding CBD’s “winnings”in Washington State, the Districtof Columbia and Arizona, CBDhas been funded at a total of$2,849,801 in those three courtsalone. While the environmental

groups are claiming that if the fed-eral government “did its job,”there would be less litigation, I donot believe this claim. I believethat environmental litigation isbig, profitable business, pure andsimple. Consider this: under theEqual Access to Justice Act (oneof the favorite fee shifting statutes

in these kinds of cases), a for-prof-it company with a net worth over$7,000,000 is ineligible to recoverattorney fees for litigation againstthe federal government. However,a group that has been tagged as a“non-profit” by the IRS is notbound by this restriction. Thus,even though tax documents show

that these groups are worth far inexcess of $7,000,000, they canreceive attorney fees. For exam-ple, the IRS 2007 non-profit taxreturn for the Sierra Club showedits net worth to be $56,527,055.Yet the Sierra Club, because it is“non-profit” receives attorneysfees from the federal governmentin environmental cases. That issimply unfair.The news programs entitled

“Fleecing of America,” “That’sOutrageous” and other programsthat expose millions and billionsof unaccounted American taxpay-er dollars have nothing on the tax-payer dollars being paid by thefederal government to environ-mental groups to sue the federalgovernment. In other memoran-dums, I have opined that I haveonly found that an iceberg existswith regard to the payment of liti-gation fees; but with the mostrecent research, the size of thaticeberg is starting to grow. I hopeyou will join with Western LegacyAlliance in spreading thisresearch, looking for solutionsand in fighting back.

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sniffing dog. Have your butler, maid or hired hand start yourcar for you, and stay away from family gatherings. Don’t eatcookies sent to you in the mail, don’t let your children pickyour Doctors for you, don’t have any elective surgeries, andhire a bodyguard immediately.

Q: 55 percent! To heck with growing old gracefully!What’s the best way to die now?

A: Normally I don’t think much of dying but in this casethere’s something to be said for it. I’d suggest going to meetSaint Peter with a smile on your face by dying at the hands ofa jealous spouse.

Q: Shame on you for making fun of a ridiculous situation.This isn’t funny!

A: I agree. There’s nothing funny about working all yourlife to save up something for your kids and then having to sellthe ranch just to pay death taxes. I know you can’t take itwith you but at least you ought to be able to give it to yourkids. Just think, you worked all those years just to pay out-landish pensions for politicians, build bridges to nowhere,and buy preserves for fairy shrimp and three legged salaman-ders.

Q: Surely Congress will fix this idiotic law. Do you expectthem to take action before the end of this year?

A: I sure do. I expect them to keep the death taxes at 55percent in 2011, EXCEPT for all government employees andCongressmen who will, of course, be exempt.

Q: You’re passing out lots of advice. Are you a CPA?A:No, but I am a CPA-LITE . . . Citizen Paying A Lot In

Taxes Endlessly.Q: I’m not about to kill myself just to make my spoiled

kids rich. But isn’t there something else I can do to make surethe government doesn’t get all my money?

A: Start living extravagantly now so that when you go onyour last journey there won’t be anything left to pack. Pay yourlast income taxes with a check that bounces, and since breath-ing produces carbon dioxide, and you won’t be breathing anymore, sell your carbon credits to Al Gore before you go.

Riding Herd CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

. . . even though tax documents show that these groups are worth far in excess of

$7,000,000, they can receive attorney fees.


by GENI WREN, DROVERS

In mid February the CBSEvening News with KatieCouric aired a two-part serieson antibiotics in animal agri-

culture (view Segment One —http://tinyurl.com/ydluceu; SegmentTwo http://tinyurl.com/yac93k2).According to livestock industry,

veterinary and scientific experts,the information presented aboutthe use of antibiotics in livestockwas fraught with misinformation,speculation, and inaccuracies.“The CBS report was rather shorton facts and science and long onspeculation,” said Dr. RichardCarnevale, veterinarian and vicepresident, Regulatory, Scientificand International Affairs, AnimalHealth Institute, in a media con-ference call on Feb. 11.“The segment failed to portray

that antibiotics used in livestockare FDA approved and monitoredfor residues and bacterial resist-ance,” Carnevale explained. “Theyundergo a rigorous approvalprocess and all are subject to sur-veillance. The implication wasthat antibiotic-resistant bacteriafreely flow between people andanimals, but there are numerouslayers of protection. Bacteria donot fly and cause human infectiondespite what the PEW spokesmansaid in the CBS interview. I amdismayed the FDA commissionerdid not discuss this.”Carnevale noted that the CBS

segment did not differentiatebetween the methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA)infections that can occur in peo-ple and animals. “The CDC and

FDA have recognized they aretwo different strains,” he said,“and that hospital-acquired andhuman MRSA infections have noanimal connection. MRSAs inanimals are not the same as inhospital infections, but that’swhat CBS focused on. The storywas short on these key facts.”On the media call, Dr. Scott

Hurd, senior epidemiologist, Col-lege of Veterinary Medicine, IowaState University and formerDeputy Undersecretary for FoodSafety, USDA, spoke about riskassessments for antibiotic resist-ance. “The actual risk assessmentsthat have been and quantified thesteps in the causal chain to getfrom on-farm to sick humans saythere is virtually no risk at all. Youare more likely to die from a beesting than have a few extra days ofillness from products that are usedon the farm.” Hurd noted thatthere are so many steps betweenthe farm and the fork, that by thetime you get meat products in thekitchen, there are very few patho-genic bacteria and very, very feware resistant bacteria.Banning antibiotics for use in

food animals can also lead to oth-er unwanted problems. “If youban the antibiotics there won’t beany improvement in publichealth,” Hurd stated. “Researchand published papers show that ifantibiotics are not used in animalsat all, there are small changes inanimal health, a few more subclin-ically infected animals go to mar-ket, and there’s an increase inpathogen load, which means theyprobably will have Salmonella orCampylobacter on the carcass.

Hurd noted that this has beenmodeled out in poultry and theend result would be more humanillness days when you ban antibi-otics than you have now. “TheDanes have shown that Salmo-nella rates in humans have notgone down after antibiotics werebanned,” he said. “The WorldHealth Organization concludedthere was no benefit in publichealth and there was an increasedcost of pig production.”Hurd has posted a point-by-

point response to Segment Oneof the CBS show at: http://

tinyurl.com/yfz3mux. He is cur-rently working on his response toSegment Two (find it atwww.vetmed.iastate.edu ).Dr. Liz Wagstrom, assistant

vice president of science andtechnology for the National PorkBoard was interviewed by Couricfor the CBS show. “Pork produc-ers have a closer relationship withtheir veterinarians to strategicallyplace antibiotics at a time in theanimals’ life when they may be atrisk,” she said on the media call.“For over 20 years with the PorkQuality Assurance Program wehave focused on responsible useand residue avoidance. A transi-tion to the PQA-Plus program

now also looks at regulationsregarding residues and also theresponsible use of antibiotics toprotect animal and humanhealth.”Wagstrom explained that the

on-farm assessment for producersrequires them to show they havea valid veterinarian-client-patient-relationship, records and deci-sion-making strategies. “It’s justone tool they use to protect ani-mals and produce safe food. Oth-er tools include hygiene, vaccina-tion, ventilation, and keepingthem warm, clean, dry and safe.All of these are part of a continu-ous process to raise healthy ani-mals and produce safe food.”

��

“Green jobs” have become a central underpin-ning of the Obama Administration’srationale to promote clean energy. Conse-

quently, the President has taken nearly $4 billion infunding from the American Recovery and Rein-vestment Act to build the smart grid, with much ofthis to be spent installing close to 20 million digital“smart meters” over the next five years, says SunilSharan, a director of the Smart Grid Initiative atGE from 2008 to 2009. Nearly 40 million smart meters have been

deployed worldwide, mostly in Europe. Jobs createdin this industry can be broadly classified into fourcategories: installation, manufacturing, research anddevelopment, and IT services, says Sharan. How many installation jobs will be created? It typically takes a team of two certified electri-

cians half an hour to replace the old, spinning meter.In one day, two people can install about 15 new

meters, or about 5,000 in a year.Were a million smart meters to be installed in a

year, 400 installation jobs would be created.It follows that the planned U.S. deployment of

20 million smart meters over five years, or 4 millionper year, should create 1,600 installation jobs.Unless more meters are added to the annual

deployment schedule, this workforce of 1,600should cover installation needs for the next fiveyears. How many other jobs will be created? Although a surge of new digital meters will be

produced, the manufacturing process is highlyautomated.And with much of it accomplished overseas, net

creation in domestic manufacturing jobs is expect-ed to be only in the hundreds.In R&D and IT services, high-paying white-col-

lar jobs are on the horizon, but as with manufac-turing, the number of jobs created is forecast to bein the hundreds or low thousands. Now let’s consider job losses: In five years, 20

million manually read meters are expected to dis-appear, taking with them some 28,000 meter-read-ing jobs, says Sharan. Instead of creating jobs, smart metering will

probably result in net job destruction. This shouldnot be surprising because the main method ofmaking the electrical grid “smart” is by automatingits functions. Automation by definition obviatesthe need for people, says Sharan.

Source: Sunil Sharan, “The green jobs myth,” Washington Post, Feb. 26, 2010.

The green jobs myth

Bee sting more deadly than antibiotic risk


by Ben Webster, Environment Editor,TIMESONLINE

Becoming a vegetarian cando more harm to the envi-ronment than continuingto eat red meat, according

to a study of the impacts of meatsubstitutes such as tofu.The findings undermine

claims by vegetarians that givingup meat automatically results inlower emissions and that lessland is needed to produce food.The study by Cranfield Uni-

versity, located in the UnitedKingdom, commissioned by theenvironmental group WWF(World Wildlife Fund), found

that many meat substitutes wereproduced from soy, chickpeasand lentils that were grown over-seas and imported into Britain.It found that switching from

beef and lamb reared in Britainto meat substitutes would resultin more foreign land being culti-vated and raise the risk of forestsbeing destroyed to create farm-land. Meat substitutes also tend-ed to be highly processed andinvolved energy-intensive pro-duction methods.Lord Stern of Brentford, one

of the world’s leading climatechange economists, causeduproar among Britain’s livestockfarmers last October when he

claimed that a vegetarian dietwas better for the planet. Hetold The Times: “Meat is a waste-ful use of water and creates a lotof greenhouse gases. It puts

enormous pressure on theworld’s resources. A vegetariandiet is better.”However, the Cranfield study

found that the environmentalbenefits of vegetarianismdepended heavily on the type offood consumed as an alternativeto meat. It concluded: “A switchfrom beef and milk to highlyrefined livestock product ana-logues such as tofu could actual-ly increase the quantity of arableland needed to supply the UK.”A significant increase in vege-

tarianism in Britain could causethe collapse of the country’s live-stock industry and result in pro-duction of meat shifting overseasto countries with few regulationsto protect forests and otheruncultivated land, it added.Donal Murphy-Bokern, one

of the study authors and the for-mer farming and food science

co-ordinator at the Departmentfor Environment, Food andRural Affairs, said: “For somepeople, tofu and other meat sub-stitutes symbolise environmental

friendliness but they are not nec-essarily the badge of merit peo-ple claim. Simply eating morebread, pasta and potatoesinstead of meat is more environ-mentally friendly.”Liz O’Neill, spokeswoman for

the Vegetarian Society, said:“The figures used in the reportare based on a number of ques-tionable assumptions about howvegetarians balance their dietand how the food industry mightrespond to increased demand.“If you’re aiming to reduce

your environmental impact bygoing vegetarian then it’s obvi-ously not a good idea to rely onhighly processed products, butthat doesn’t undermine the factthat the livestock industry causesenormous damage and that mov-ing towards a plant-based diet isgood for animals, human healthand the environment.”

The National Farmers’ Unionsaid the study showed that gen-eral statements about the envi-ronmental benefits of vegetari-anism were too simplistic.Jonathan Scurlock, the NFU’schief adviser for climate change,said: “The message is that nosingle option offers a panacea.The report rightly demonstratesthe many environment benefitsto be had from grazing pastureland with little or no other pro-ductive use.”The study also found that pre-

vious estimates of the total emis-sions of Britain’s food consump-tion had been flawed becausethey failed to take account of theimpact of changes to the use ofland overseas.

Salad days� About a quarter of the

world’s population eat a predom-inantly vegetarian diet

� There are 3.7 million vege-tarians in Britain

� Only 2 per cent of theFrench population don’t eatmeat

� There is a longstandingmyth that Adolf Hitler was vege-tarian but recent research sug-gests that he ate at least somemeat

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You may have missed Con-sumer Freedom’s NewYear’s Eve exposé coveringthe dismissal of a federal

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suit, filed more than nine yearsago, was based on informationprovided by a former Ringlingelephant “barn helper” namedTom Rider. After Rider left hiscircus job, he was paid by animalrights groups to testify about thesupposedly “bad” treatment ofelephants there. In all, the origi-nal lawsuit’s plaintiffs paid Ridermore than $190,000 — his solesource of income for years —while the litigation made its waythrough the court system.Sound a bit like pay-for-play?

As Judge Emmet Sullivan notedin his December ruling that dis-missed the animal rights groups’lawsuit: “The Court finds thatMr. Rider is essentially a paidplaintiff and fact witness who isnot credible, and thereforeaffords no weight to his testimo-ny . . . [T]he primary purpose[for the payments] is to keepMr. Rider involved with the liti-

gation . . .”Based on Judge Sullivan’s

finding, Feld is suing everyonewho played a part in this collabo-rative scheme (hence the “racke-teering” aspect). This includesRider and a nonprofit “WildlifeAdvocacy Project” charity thatthe Washington, DC law firm ofMeyer Glitzenstein & Crystalallegedly used to launder moneybetween their plaintiff clientsand Rider.One of these clients putting

up dough to support Rider wasthe Fund for Animals, whichmerged with HSUS in 2004.Feld is leveling bribery, fraud,

obstruction of justice, and mon-ey laundering charges againstHSUS and two of its corporateattorneys, three other animalrights groups, Meyer Glitzen-stein & Crystal, and all three ofthat firm’s named partners. It’san earth-shattering lawsuit.Today we’re telling the media:America’s farmers, ranchers,

hunters, fishermen, research sci-entists, fashion designers, andrestaurateurs have seen fordecades how the animal rightsmovement can behave like amobbed-up racket. But it’s stillshocking to see the evidence laidout on paper. In a treble-damagelawsuit like this, a jury couldactually do the humane thingand finally put HSUS out ofbusiness completely.Read the full, 135-page law-

suit over at HumaneWatch. Ifthese allegations are proven true,HSUS employees might be find-ing themselves walking the samebreadline they’ve tried to put somany others in.

Federal Racketeering Lawsuit Stuns HSUS

Tofu can harm environment more than meat, finds WWF study

The report rightly demonstrates the many environment benefits to be had from grazing pasture land with

little or no other productive use.


by CLIFFORD MITCHELL

Cattlemen have always beeninterested in one number; inparticular with their finan-cial reports, the bottom line.

Speculation quickly turns to factif it is in red or black ink, but howthat figure came to be has been amystery for some. Financialsoften tell a simple direct story,where the operation was success-ful and where the operationfailed. By nature, the word failureis not in most veteran cowboy’svocabulary. Sure most will acceptbumps in the road, but will notsettle for mediocrity.Studying these statements is

often the first step in the plan-ning process for the upcomingyear. These figures give way tothe preparation of a budget,which is nothing more than aplan as to how the operation isgoing to function. At the sametime, ranchers, through carefulevaluation, may find ways not tocut corners, but to invoke practi-cal management aspects to trim-ming the budget to add profit tothe bottom line.Bull power is often one of the

most debated topics a manage-ment team discusses. Each oper-ation has a certain amount ear-marked for purchase ormaintenance of herd bulls thatcan “walk the walk and talk thetalk.” For some, the plan is toreplace these calf producers at acertain age; others evaluate eachsire in hopes to extend the usefullife of top bulls.“The advantage to keeping a

mature bull rather than introduc-

ing a new sire is you’re dealingwith a known quantity. There is ahistory and you know he’s goingto produce good calves and beable to cover more cows than ayounger alternative,” says Dr.Matt Hersom, Beef CattleExtension Specialist, Universityof Florida.“Make sure your genetics are

good enough to extend his pro-ductive life. If he’s not meetingproduction goals, it’s definitelytime to trade him in. Data willhelp you decide how long to keepthose bulls,” says Dr. Jane Parish,Beef Cattle Extension Specialist,Mississippi State University.“A lot of people are keeping

some older bulls. If you are tryingto extend the productive lives ofthese bulls, they need to be takencare of in the off season,” saysEric Brast, Texas Christian Uni-versity Ranch Management Pro-gram.Many factors can fall into the

decision to keep or cull bull pow-er. Most operations have settledinto a specific system rather thantrying different breeds of bullsevery time new sires are pur-chased. Firm’s reactions totighter margins and specific goalswill also dictate when change isneeded. Weighing these advan-tages and disadvantages helpsthe decision-making process.“The main disadvantage for

producers extending the produc-tive life of a herd sire is you aredeferring the opportunity forgenetic progress for anotheryear,” Hersom says. “Anotheradvantage is you can afford tospend more on a bull if you can

spread it out over a longer usefullife. Mature bulls will servicemore cows. They already knowhow to go to work and get thejob done.”“If cows are getting settled

and he is of superior geneticsthen you should extend his usefullife,” Parish says. “There is noexcuse with all the tools we havetoday for producers to be turningout inferior bulls.”Much like it is for athletes in

any sport, the off-season is a crit-ical time for the ranch’s sire pow-er. Maintaining and preparingthe bull battery for the nextbreeding season correctly, willnot only increase useful life, butalso pay other dividends.“When you pull bulls at the

end of the season, it’s an excel-lent time for that first evaluationbecause you already have themup,” Parish says. “Go over thosebulls and eliminate the bulls withnoticeable injuries or problems.Preg check your cows within 30to 60 days, if a particular pastureor group has low conceptionrates, it’s time to get concerned.Some bulls just don’t have theneeded libido when they get old-er to get the job done.”“If you are considering retain-

ing that bull for another year ofservice, make sure he’s soundand there are no visible structuralproblems,” Hersom says. “Makesure he’s physically able to mountand service the cow herd.”Management will also dictate

that off-season conditioning pro-gram for this group of athletes.Additional supplementation maybe required to get bulls ready to

go to work and defined breedingseasons help plan this protocol.“For most producers bulls are

the most forgotten group from anutritional standpoint. Qualityforage, a little feed for a long timeand a defined breeding seasoncan help get them prepared forbreeding season,” Hersom says.“We have to equip bulls with thenecessary tools to be successful.Proper maintenance and spotevaluations need to be performedfar enough in advance. You won’thave a lot of feed issues withlonger periods of supplementa-

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continued on page eight

Extending productive life of bulls pays dividends

Genetically modified alfalfa held hostage

Protecting the environmentin the 21st century willrequire the adoption ofsophisticated agricultural

technologies including biotech-nology and genetically modifiedcrops, according to a study bythe Royal Society, England’smost prestigious scientific body. That’s welcome news for

America’s farmers and con-sumers. For most of the last twodecades the United States hasbeen the undisputed leader inthe development and adoption ofbiotech crops, says GregoryConko, a senior fellow with theCompetitive Enterprise Institute. Ironically, as an increasing

number of farmers in Europe,Asia, Africa and South Americatake up these innovative varieties,burdensome regulations here athome have raised developmentand approval costs and keptmany potentially important prod-ucts from reaching the market. Two years ago activists and

farmers sued the USDA, claimingthe department’s scientists didn’tfollow, the National Environmen-tal Policy Act (NEPA) when theyapproved a biotech crop calledRoundup Ready alfalfa.Roughly 5,500 farmers in 48

states have planted more than aquarter million acres of Roundup

Ready alfalfa, which has beenmodified to resist an herbicidecalled glyphosate.But a federal district judge in

San Francisco determined thatnew seeds can’t be sold untilUSDA completed an environ-mental impact assessment asrequired by NEPA. The USDA issued its environ-

mental impact statement (EIS) inDecember, and it states unequivo-cally that biotech and convention-al alfalfa can co-exist peacefully.Furthermore, because glypho -

sate is not harmful to anythingbut plants and biodegrades quick-ly once it’s sprayed, the Environ-mental Defense Fund calls itamong the most ecologicallybenign herbicides ever developed.Nonetheless, the Center for

Food Safety has launched a cam-paign to continue delaying theuse of Roundup Ready Alfalfa bysubmitting anti-biotech com-ments on the environmentalimpact statement to the USDA.It has become clear that cropbiotechnology holds substantialpromise for improving the foodswe eat and lightening agriculture’senvironmental footprint.

Source: Gregory Conko, “Use of GeneticallyModified Alfalfa Unnecessarily Held Hostage,”Genetic Engineering and Bio technology News,Feb. 9, 2010. National Center For Policy Analysis

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tion, rather than short periods ofa high energy ration.”“Spring calving herds should

think about supplementing bullswhen we have some green grassin the off-season. A little heaviersupplementation, earlier in theoff season, before we get too farinto winter will help add neededbody condition prior to trying tomaintain him in cold, wet weath-er,” Brast says. “Protein andenergy values are important, butproducers can get by with a fewpounds of supplement whilethere still is some green foragearound and save money longterm, if they are willing to sup-plement these bulls for longer

periods of time.”“Operations with a controlled

breeding and calving season havea better opportunity to get bullsconditioned and ready to work.Each bull has a minimum thresh-old from a condition and weightstandpoint. Know your targetweight and allow yourself enoughtime to reach that goal beforebreeding season,” Parish says.“Bulls need to be exercised and ingood condition for turn out. Sud-den diet shifts, a lot of feed inshort periods of time, could hurtthese bulls in the long run.”“Producers can’t skimp on

nutrition. High quality winterforages could be the answer to

adding weight and condition,”Parish says. “Find a feed resourcethat will fit your budget becausethere is some variation in price.Sometimes you can lock in aquality feed resource that willcarry these bulls through thedown time at a lower cost.”“We want bulls to be focused

on breeding cows when we turnhim out. Paying attention to thatbull and providing a long periodof nutrition gives you time toadjust the plan,” Hersom says. “Ifyou have access to high qualityforages the less alternative feedyou’ll need. You can achievegreat results with good qualityforage and low cost by productfeeds. We can ask bulls to workdual seasons, just realize you areworking him harder and moremaintenance is required.”Pre-planning has often been

associated with successful busi-nesses. Knowing a timetable forexact management procedureswill help map out the supervisoryprocess and position bulls forsuccess in the pasture.“When you pull bulls, if there

is a problem, evaluate each bulland make a decision beforeresources are wasted if he’s unfitfor service. Test bulls for venerealdiseases such as trich,” Brastsays. “A breeding soundnessexam at least 90 days beforebreeding season is a must. A bull

has to have a certain quality andquantity of semen to get the jobdone. This also gives us anotherchance at a physical evaluation tomake sure he’s okay.”“Producers have to realize

even though he had passed abreeding soundness exam at pur-chase, it’s not a one time deal.Invest money in your herd bullswith a breeding soundness examin the off-season, make sure he’sphysically sound from a repro-ductive standpoint and can settlecows,” Parish says. “Even with agood fertility exam, it’s no guar-antee. Observe those bulls; watchif cows are coming back in heat,because there’s always a risk. Hecould get hurt or have a repro-ductive injury that inhibits hisability to get cow bred. Go overthose bulls 45 to 60 days prior tobreeding season with a fine-toothcomb. There are some times ofthe year when more high qualitybulls are available and this willhelp producers find goodreplace ments.”Performing timely evaluations

and fertility tests could also bringother benefits to the operation.Observing bulls during breedingand the off-season can also pro-vide red flags for producers. Sal-vage value is often overlookedfrom a management standpoint,but increasing this value couldprovide a good nest egg for

future purchases.“If a bull has gotten to the

point where he can’t maintaincondition and weight during theoff-season it’s time for him to go.He’s not going to gain weightand condition when he’s work-ing,” Hersom says. “If he fails hisbreeding soundness exam andhe’s improved body condition,that bull will hopefully reward usfor preparing him for the breed-ing season with increased salvagevalue.”“If you can get through your

cows on a regular basis and a bullis lying under a tree, letting otherbulls do the work, he doesn'thave the needed libido or isinjured and probably needs to bereplaced,” Brast says. “There areopportunities to get into bettermarkets by doing tests and mak-ing culling decisions early. If youhave a problem there is also timeto go find replacements, getthem bought and acclimated tothe program.”“Anywhere from 15 to 20 per-

cent of a firm’s income may begenerated from salvage value ofcull cows and bulls. Conditionplays a role in market price andyou may be able to capture a lit-tle more with some addedweight,” Parish says. “These mar-kets usually follow a trend, but

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The federal government hasbailed out many industries,including banking, mort-gage lenders, insurers,

money market funds, automak-ers, credit card issuers, homebuilders, the states and so on.This invites ongoing gambling atpublic expense by any businessor entity that can reasonablyexpect a bailout. Moreover, thisis a prescription for fiscal insol-vency, which could culminate inhyperinflation, says Laurence J.Kotlikoff, an economics profes-sor at Boston University and asenior fellow with the NationalCenter for Policy Analysis. AIG was effectively national-

ized on September 16, 2008, at acost of $85 billion to taxpayers.Since AIG's nationalization, thegovernment has engaged in amassive and potentially moreexpensive policy. The policyentails providing systemic riskinsurance to the financial sector— that is, insurance against sys-tem-wide collapse. Indeed, thefederal government has alreadyhanded out, or publicly commit-ted to hand out, more than $12trillion to the financial sector,says Kotlikoff. Major components of the $12

trillion bailout include: � The Treasury's $700 billion

Troubled Asset Relief Program

(TARP).� The Treasury’s $400 billion

in actual plus potential pledgesof monies to cover Fannie Mae'sand Freddie Mac’s losses.

� The Federal Reserve’s $301billion guarantee of Citigroup’stroubled assets.

�Nearly $200 billion spent bythe Federal Reserve on AIG(with hundreds of billions morelikely to come).

� The $118 billion guaranteeof Bank of America’s poisonsecurities.

� The $29 billion spent by theFederal Reserve on Bear Stearns'toxic assets. The $12 trillion spent by the

federal government bailing outthe financial sector is close toone year’s gross domestic prod-uct — that is, the value of all thefinal goods and services pro-duced by over 130 million Amer-icans working an entire year,notes Kotlikoff. Systematic reform of the U.S.

financial sector is critical. Alongwith the financial market melt-down, trust in a system that rou-tinely borrows short and lendslong, guaranteeing repaymentyet investing at risk, has evapo-rated and will not be regained.What is needed is a system thatdoesn’t gamble with the taxpay-ers’ chips, but instead lets thepublic make their own risk-tak-ing decisions based on securitiesthat are transparent and whoseproperties are fully disclosed,says Kotlikoff.

Source: Laurence J. Kotlikoff, “Financial Crisis:The Fall of the House of Cards,” National Cen-ter for Policy Analysis, Brief Analysis No. 692,February 18, 2010. National Center For PolicyAnalysis

Financial crisis: the fall of the house of cards

continued on page thirteen


By GARY TRUITT, Hooser Ag Today

Irecently wrote a columnabout Yellow Tail wine, theAustralian wine that becamepublic enemy No. 1 overnight

after donating $100,000 to theHumane Society of the UnitedStates (HSUS). After a few lameefforts to defend themselves andto ignore the overwhelming criti-cism the company was receiving,it finally did the right thing andadmitted its mistake. The com-pany promised not to makefuture donations to the radicalanimal rights organization. Whatwas especially interesting is thatmuch of the condemnation camefrom the public and from peopleoutside of agriculture. Whilefarmers and farm groups were apart of the chorus, the depth ofdislike for HSUS to — say noth-ing of the sheer numbers of peo-ple enraged by the action — wasa major factor in the decision byYellow Tail to tuck its tailbetween its legs and run. As Iwrite, history looks to be repeat-ing itself as yet another corpora-tion seems to be committing sui-cide by donating to HSUS.In the wake of the Yellow Tail

incident, a web site was set up tomonitor the activities of HSUS.Created by the Center for Con-sumer Freedom, long time foe ofanimal extremist groups, the sitehas publicized a great deal ofinformation embarrassing toHSUS. They recently published alist of “corporate supporters” whohad contributed money toHSUS. This information wasobtained directly from the HSUS

web site. On the list were somefamiliar names including Xeroxand Microsoft, companies with along history of giving money tonutcase causes. One name, how-ever, that has generated a greatdeal of customer outrage is thatof Pilot Travel Centers.

According to its web site,“Pilot Travel Centers LLC(PTC) is the nation’s largestoperator of travel centers andlargest seller of over-the-roaddiesel fuel. It owns and operatesover 300 travel centers in 41states.” But within hours of theposting by Humane Watch, thePilot Facebook fan page wasslammed by irate customers.Comments like “So many betterways to help animals than donat-ing to H$U$ . . . guess I’ll haveto take my business elsewhereand inform all the truckers thathaul my livestock and feed to dothe same” and “when is the lasttime an H$U$ truck pulled intoa pilot versus livestock farmers. . .” and “I do a lot of interstatetraveling and have frequentlyused Pilot in the past. Thosedays are over. You folks won‘t begiving any of my money away toH$U$” became common.As with the Yellow Tail case,

many of those making commentsare farmers, but many are not. Inthe case of Pilot, many of thoseincensed by Pilot’s support of

HSUS are truckers, dog breed-ers, and just plain consumerswho are holding companiesresponsible for the charitabledonations they make. In the verycompetitive world of retail fuelsales, Pilot has put itself in a dif-ficult spot.

According to the Pilot website, “Pilot takes seriously itscommitment to its customers.”Time will tell if this includes lis-tening to their customers’ dissat-isfaction with their corporatedonations. Speaking of corporatedonations, Pilot states that “Pilothas a history of corporate citi-zenship and feels strongly that itis important to serve the com-munity philanthropically in timeand resources.” So, if this is itsphilosophy, why did Pilot donateto a group that spends less thanone half of one percent of theirfunds actually helping animalsbut instead engages in lobbyingand litigation?Ignorance — Pilot had no

idea what HSUS was really allabout. So they were caught total-ly unaware by the backlash oftheir customers. Recently thecompany issued this statement:“We sincerely regret any actionsthat led to the misperception ofour support of this organization.Pilot Travel Centers is a strongsupporter of agriculture interestsin our home state of Tennessee

and across the country.” Accord-ing to Pilot, the money they sentto HSUS was not a corporatedonation, but rather funds froma collection box placed in theirstores. “Since 2007, less than$52,000 in voluntary donationsfrom customers and employeeswere collected in stores as part ofan employee-driven charityevent. The money went to threespecific areas: rural animal vet-erinary care services, disasterrelief, and a foreclosure fund tohelp rescue animals left behindin homes during the foreclosurecrisis.” According to the state-ment, this program has beencanceled: “In order to avoid anyfurther misunderstandings,employees will immediatelycease collections of donations toHSUS. Pilot corporate has nevermatched a single dollar of thesedonations and will not supportany organization that has anagenda that works against agri-culture interests.”For the second time in as

many weeks, shining the spotlightof publicity on who gives moneyto HSUS has resulted in a changein policy by supporters of thisanti-animal agriculture group.Again, the rapid dissemination ofinformation via the social medianetworks has played a role. These small victories are not

going to put HSUS out of busi-ness, but it has shown how HSUScan be hurt and how individualscan have an impact. I truly hopethis becomes a trend and thatpeople, both inside and outside ofagriculture, will take an interest inwho supports radical activistgroups. I cannot say it enough:stay informed and get involved.You can make a difference.

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The Tale of Yellow Tail Gets Longer

. . . many of those incensed by Pilot’s support of HSUS are truckers,dog breeders, and just plain consumers who are holding

companies responsible for the charitable donations they make.


impact on our operations,” saidJim Cooper, NMWGI President,Arabela. “Our tax dollars fund thegovernment agencies and theirattorneys. To make sure ourrights as landowners and produc-ers are protected, we have tointervene in the lawsuit, spendingour own money on attorneys andcourt costs. Then, the govern-ment pays these groups’ attor-neys’ fees — using our tax dollarsagain — giving them money forthe next lawsuit.” New Mexicans have spent

hundreds of thousands of dollarsover the past 15 years in anattempt to protect naturalresources users who make up thecustom, culture and economy ofthe state, according to LouisePeterson, Hatchita, President ofthe Arizona/New Mexico Coali-tion of Counties.“On rare occasions we have

been reimbursed for some of theactual expenses incurred in pro-tecting New Mexico families,”she said. “But it is shocking tosee that $300,000 was paid on asingle case — that was not evendecided in favor of the ForestGuardians and the Center forBiological Diversity.”What the public doesn’t know

is that not only are these suitskeeping federal agencies fromdoing their jobs in terms of con-serving wildlife and lands, butthey are driving at the heart ofthe nation’s food supply, notesAl Squire, Hagerman, DPNMPresident.“Americans pay less than ten

percent of their disposableincome for the most abundantand safest food supply in theworld,” says Squire. “While weare producing that cheap andwholesome food under govern-ment controlled caps, so that wecannot pass along increased pro-duction costs, we are paying upto three times for litigation thatis aimed at eliminating us.”Congresswomen Lummis and

Herseth Sandlin and Congress-man Bishop deserve the support,praise and heartfelt appreciationof nature resources users —which includes every member ofthe public who eats, drives a car,and uses utilities like water andelectricity, points out Don L.“Bebo” Lee, Alamogordo,NMFLC President.“As a nation we have come to

expect that electricity is auto-matic when we flip a switch, thatwater is magically in the tapwhen we turn it and that our gro-cery stores will always be stockedwith all the food we want orneed,” Lee comments. “Manydon’t realize that the productionof these necessities of life are thefruits of the land — and thatsomeone has to have the abilityto work that land.”The DPNM, Coalition, NMC-

GA, NMFLC, and NMWGI areasking the New Mexico Con-gressmen Ben Lujan, HarryTeague and Martin Heinrich toco-sponsor and support H.B.4717. They are also asking forother groups and individuals tojoin with them in this effort.

For further information call 505/247-0584,575/622-1646, or 505/379-9243.

Legislation that would bringoversight and accountabili-ty to payments made underthe Equal Access to Justice

Act (EAJA) is gaining broad sup-port in New Mexico and acrossthe country. The New Mexico Cattle

Growers’ Association (NMC-GA), New Mexico Wool Grow-ers, Inc. (NMWGI), New Mexi-co Federal Lands Council(NMFLC), Dairy Producers ofNew Mexico (DPNM) andAZ/NM Coalition of Counties(Coalition) are joining producersnationwide in support of theOpen EAJA Act of 2010 (H.R.4717), introduced by Represen-tative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)and co-sponsored by Representa-

tives Stephanie Herseth Sandlin(D-SD) and Rob Bishop (R-UT).The EAJA was passed by

Congress in the 1980s as meansto protect the rights of non-prof-its, small businesses and individ-ual citizens from unreasonablegovernment actions. Along theway, however, it has been co-opted by special interest andenvironmental groups, who usethe law to get paid after suingthe federal government.“When the EAJA was passed, it

was meant to protect people likefamily ranchers and others fromthe federal government,” said BertAncell, NMCGA President, BellRanch. “Today, these activistgroups are using our tax dollars tosue the federal government and

try to put us out of business.According to the only research todate, activist environmentalgroups have gotten paid $42 mil-lion dollars to sue the federal gov-ernment in the last decade.”The Open EAJA Act of 2010,

brought about by the efforts ofthe Western Legacy Alliance,www.westernlegacyalliance.org ,and the research of attorneyKaren Budd-Falen, Cheyenne,Wyoming would bring accounta-bility and transparency to pay-ments made under the EAJA.Specifically, the bill requires anaccounting of how attorneys’fees are being awarded underEAJA, an annual report to Con-gress outlining the number,stature and amount of the

awards, and a GovernmentAccounting Office (GAO) auditof the uses of EAJA funds overthe past 15 years.Every year, activist groups file

thousands of motions and peti-tions with various governmentagencies across the country. Theresulting paperwork keeps theagencies from actually gettingany on the ground work done,and guarantees that a deadlinewill eventually be missed by theagency, opening the door for alawsuit. Rather than go to court,the federal agencies settle thesuit with the activist group, andtypically agree to pay them fortheir attorneys’ fees under EAJA.“These lawsuits keep the agen-

cies in turmoil, and have a big

EAJA Reform Welcome News for New Mexico Agriculture Groups


by CAROL WILSON

Soggy. No, it doesn’t mean awet calf. It is a term of appre-ciation, applied by a cowmanwhen a calf is a big-boned

scale popper. To a cowman, theword is also synonymous with“good”, “big” and “heavy”.It is a term often applied to

Charolais calves, whether the calfjust won the purple ribbon at thecounty fair or is seen out in thepasture. Cattlemen also use termslike “thrifty” and “good-doing”when they talk about Charolais.They like the fact that Charolaisbulls have lots of bone and lots ofmuscle and pass that trait on totheir offspring. They also appreci-ate the low maintenance of a herdof Charolais cattle, and the factthat Charolais cows almost alwaysproduce a good, thrifty calf thatweighs well.

In fact, some cowmen say thatby the time you figure the inputsand longevity of Charolais cattle,the Charolais crosses will put moremoney in your pocket than anyother type of cattle.One of those cowmen is Manny

Tarango. When he was just a lad,Manny knew that he wanted cows,and not just any cows. He wantedto own Charolais cows. The youngboy with a dream made it happenand at the ripe old age of 14, Man-ny became the proud owner of twocream colored cows and a horse.The son of a Pecos farmer,

Manny continued to prefer live-stock to raising crops. He marriedhis sweetheart, Margie, in 1967,and moved to Portales, where hehelped build a gymnasium. Hedecided he liked the constructionbusiness and soon found a hiddentalent for working cement. In1972, Manny quit his job andopened his own cement pouringbusiness. Margie went to work forthe Portales schools, where she hasbeen for 30 years and now servesas personnel coordinator.For years, the Tarango cows

were run on leased acreage justsouth of Portales. When the ownerof the land decided to move toTexas, Manny bought the land.Then he leased another quartersection. Now he has 45 purebredCharolais cows which he claims arejust “scattered all over the country.”The Tarangos thrived in Portales

and Manny and Margie’s fourdaughters grew up showing live-stock, playing baseball and volley-ball, and starring on the tenniscourts. All four girls went to college

at Eastern New Mexico Universityon tennis scholarships. One daugh-ter now teaches in Dallas, Texas;another teaches in Carlsbad; thethird is a psychology major in col-lege and the youngest also plans onbeing a teacher. “When they comehome, they like to help with thecattle,” Manny stated. “We just likebeing around them.”“We sure had fun when the girls

were growing up,” commentedManny. “They kept me prettybusy.” The eleven grandchildrennow growing up are also keepingManny and Margie active. Man-ny’s fondest dream that is thatsome of the newest generations of

the family will also want to showlivestock at the fairs. “I’d love tohelp them with show cattle,” hecommented. “The oldest is now13. We will see. Maybe some ofthem will want to show.”A select group of the Tarango

males are sold each year as bulls.Manny has also sold young heifersas replacement females andreports that his buyer is happy withthe resultant cows. “I’d say theCharolais are average mamas, butthe bulls are real gentle,” he noted.“All my cows and calves are gentle.Margie went with me out there toload up some calves and she wasimpressed that I could just push

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Cattlemen also use terms like “thrifty” and “good-doing” when they

talk about Charolais. They like the fact that

Charolais bulls have lots of bone and lots of muscle

and pass that trait on to their offspring.

Charolais: MANNY TARANGO MADE HIS DREAMS COME TRUE

the calves into a trailer. They didn’tkick or anything.”This year, Manny bred a por-

tion of his Charolais cows back toa Charolais bull and put anothergroup under a Maine Anjou bull.“The calves look good, so far,” hereported. “But right now, I’m justexperimenting.”Many southwestern cattlemen

who experimented with the Charo-lais have stayed with the breedbecause they like the way the cat-tle perform in the arid regions ofthe West. They say, also, that thewhite hided cattle that hustle formeals in the drought are truestandouts when they go to sell thecalves. And they keep Charolaisbecause, on New Mexico ranges,Charolais cattle have just becomeknown for functional, good-doingcattle that really perform.


ier than their British counter parts.Feed conversion for Charolaiswas slightly better while cost ofgain was virtually the same amongall steers. Carcass data collected on the

groups was equally as revealing.Quality grades did not differ sig-nificantly between the two siregroups. The Charolais steers hadslightly better dressing percent-ages. Carcass weight on theCharolais steers posted a markedimprovement of 80 pounds with.4 sq. in. larger ribeye areas.

Arecent study incorporatingCharolais genetics wasconducted by ColoradoState University at the

Eastern Colorado Research Cen-ter (ECRC) located at Akron,CO. The ECRC 250-cow herdcowherd consists of Angus,Polled Hereford, Red Angus andRed Angus crossbred genetics.These British-based females weremated to one of three Charolaissires or one of five Angus or RedAngus compos- ites. The femaleswere divided by sire groups intoterminal (Charolais) and mater-nal (British). Steer calves were

sorted off and the heifer mateswere retained in the herd asreplacements. The terminal vs.maternal study followed a totalof 80 steer calves from birth toharvest to compare the effects ofgrowth performance, carcasscharacteristics and net return perhead.The Charolais steers weighed

slightly more at birth, yet werestill considered to be moderatebirth weight calves.The Charolais steers had 86

more pounds of growth at wean-ing. Finish weights of the Charo-lais steers were 127 pounds heav-

TABLE 1. Least squares means for growth performance traits SOURCE: CSU

SIRE TYPE CHAROLAIS-SIRED BRITISH-SIRED

Bull Calf Birth weight (lbs.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84.1Steer Calf Weaning Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498Pre-weaning ADG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.24Weight at start of finishing period (lbs.) . . . . . . . 733 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648Final weight (lbs.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,442 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,315Finishing ADG (lbs.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.96Feed consumed during finishing (lbs.) . . . . . . . . 3,631 . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,348Feed conversion during finishing (F:G, lbs.) . . . 5.16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.02Cost of Gain during Finishing ($/cwt.) . . . . . . . . . . 50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

TABLE 2. Least squares means for carcass traits SOURCE: CSU

SIRE TYPE CHAROLAIS-SIRED BRITISH-SIRED

Adjusted Fat Thickness (inches) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.53. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.6Dressing Percentage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63.6Hot carcass wt (lbs.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813Ribeye Area (square inches) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.9Percentage Kidney, Pelvic, & Heart Fat . . . . . . . . 2.2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.24Percentage QG of Choice or Higher . . . . . . . . . . 60.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.5Percentage YG-1 and YG-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.5Percentage YG-4 and YG-5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.0

Charolais Advantage Evident in CSU Research Study

continued on page thirteen

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sometimes that trend can beaffected by some unusual hap-penings. Make sure you knowyour market. In our area, produc-ers are getting together and mar-keting loads of cows and bullsdirect, which will help increasesalvage value.”The most important evalua-

tion may not come at the end ofor during a bull’s career as a herdsire, but at time of purchase.Appraising not only the value thisgenetic package would bring tothe operation from a calf produc-ing stand point, but also estimatethe future benefits a sound rela-tionship with a seedstock suppli-er could bring to the table.“Buy bulls that have been

developed correctly. Make surethese bulls come with documen-tation of good herd health andtested free of diseases like trichand BVD. Insist on a fertility test.Bulls that are sound and havebeen managed correctly areworth the investment,” Parishsays. “Buy these bulls early to givethem time to acclimate to yourmanagement program before youturn them out. There is a lot ofdata available today to help pro-ducers find bulls that will work intheir herd and environment.”“Matching a bull to your envi-

ronment is paramount for longevi-ty in your program, no matterhow good you take care of him.Producers need to have someknowledge of the type and breedof bull that they’re using,” Brastsays. “Pay attention to things likehow much hair he’s carrying,libido and will he get out and trav-el, don’t just be color blind. Bullscan last a long time whenmatched to their environment.”“Some bulls are developed on

high-powered, fast gaining rations.If you take them home and turnthem out right away these bullsare going to look rough becausethey haven’t been conditioned tohandle nutritional changes andthe workload,” Hersom says.“Adapting young bulls off thathigh energy ration is a challengebecause you still have to give themenough energy to grow and main-tain. Bulls need to be successful in

Extending ProductiveLife of Bulls

continued from page eight


calves sold at weaning was$202.65 per head for the Charo-lais steers compared to $163.13per head for the British calves,yielding nearly a $40 per headadvantage for Charolais. Netreturn for the retained ownershipCharolais calves was $349.11 perhead compared to $265.45 perhead for the British steers,resulting in an $83.66 per headCharolais advantage.

After 52 Years of Raising Charolais Seedstock for Commercial Cattlemen,

a backward glance makes it clear that it’s the little things that count.

Little things like:• Structural soundness• Functional females• Customer service• Calving ease• Fertility

Annual Bull SaleTHURSDAY, APRIL 8TH, 2010

BELLE FOURCHE LIVESTOCK EXCHANGE, BELLE FOURCHE, SDSelling 75 Yearling Charolais Bulls

Many of the bulls are out of sons and grandsons of CigarFemales for sale privately anytime.

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There was a 20 percent differ-ence in the number of YG-1 andYG-2 steers, with 52.5 percent ofthe Charolais steers grading YG-1 and YG-2.

As always, getting to the bot-tom line tells the real story. Thestudy calculated the returns twoways: 1) returns if calves weresold at weaning and 2) returnsfor retained ownership throughfinishing. Net return for the

Carcass weight on theCharolais steers posted

a marked improvement of 80 pounds with .4 sq. in.

larger ribeye areas.

Net return for the calves sold at weaning was

$202.65 per head for theCharolais steers compared to $163.13 per head for the British calves . . .

a forage environment. Make sureyou give yourself enough time tochange their nutritional environ-ment and acclimate them to yourmanagement style.”Off-season maintenance for

the herd bull battery is not muchdifferent than maintaining equip-ment or other essentials neededto successfully operate. Tradition,lack of time or thought processcould explain some theories whybulls are often forgotten when thework is done. Genetic improve-ment has long been documentedand quality bulls help firmsaccomplish production goals.Taking care of this asset will helpproduce positive results on thatimportant figure most outfitscherish when financial statementsarrive, the bottom line.Extending the life of produc-

tive sires could be one answer tobudget concerns in times of tightmargins. One extra year of serv-ice could extend profitability fig-ures well into the future.“Most producers need to

change their mentality. If youhave 100 cows and two to fivebulls how much management willthose bulls need? Producers needto realize the value of that bullthrough his genetics,” Hersomsays. “Invest in multiple calf cropsthrough that herd sire. Youwouldn’t ignore the cow herd inthe off-season, you definitely can’tignore that bull and he’ll rewardyou for proper management.”“A lot of people kind of look

at bulls as being “bullet proof”and just assume he’s okay,” Brastsays. “We have to get away fromthe practice of just blooming himup right before we turn him out.Treat him on an animal unit basisand give him some groceriesthroughout the down time.”“Most producers have 20 to 30

times as many cows as bulls froma numbers standpoint. Some thinkselecting for longevity is lettinghim fend for himself and whichev-er ones survive we’ll turnout again.He’s like an athlete that has all thepotential in the world, but for himto reach it, he has to be managedand cared for,” Parish says. “Pro-ducers need to treat him as aninvestment in genetic improve-ment over the course of his pro-ductive life. If you do that, I thinkyou’ll take care of him.”

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tage of Charolais genetics showsup time and time again whethercalves are sold at weaning orretained through the feedlot.No doubt, the beef industry

will never be a “one size fits all”business model. Folks get in thecattle business for a variety ofreasons — some realistic, some,well not so much. For seriousbeef producers, the need to haveaccess to objective, reliablegenetic and economic informa-tion using a real world businessmodel is crucial. It is equallyimportant for those same beefproducers to have access to time-tested, proven genetics fromseedstock suppliers with theirbest interest in mind. When thathappens we all save money,make money and produce a bet-ter product.

There have been countlessresearch projects and studiesconducted throughout the histo-ry of the beef industry. Datacompiled in the last half centurythat considers the impact ofContinental genetics is com-pelling and constant regardless

of the cycle of the industry orother uncontrollable economicfactors. More recent data specif-ically analyzes Charolais’ influ-ence and the profit marginimproves even more. The advan-

No doubt, the beef industry will never be a “one size fits all” business model.

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by CALLIE GNATKOWSKI-GIBSON

For producers looking toincrease the fertility andmilking ability in their cat-tle, Gelbvieh genetics may

be the answer. Developed inGermany, Gelbvieh cattle firstcame to the United States in theearly 1970s. Gelbvieh and Bal-ancer genetics are proving to bevery effective for Southwesterncattle producers looking foroptions in today’s ever-tighten-ing economy. Bob and Judy Prosser have

raised Gelbvieh and Gelbviehcross cattle on the Bar T BarRanch in northern Arizona forover 25 years. The Prossers runregistered Gelbvieh, Angus andBalancers, a Gelbvieh/Anguscomposite breed, as well as com-mercial Gelbvieh/Angus crosscattle.

Data on the breed’s fertilityand growth from the Meat Ani-mal Research Center (MARC)first interested them in thebreed, Bob said. “We had tried anumber of different crosses onour Hereford cattle. After look-ing at that data, and our ownresults, we were sold.”“When Bob and I moved

back, Herefords were running onthe ranch,” Judy agreed. “Wehad good results crossbreedingwith Charolais, but decided weneeded to look for something alittle different — not quite sobig, a little more docile, a littlemore maternal. We tried Gelb-vieh, and really liked the cattle.The Hereford/Gelbvieh crossworked well, but we eventuallyphased out the Herefords.” When Judy’s father, Ernest

Chilson, decided to retire, Boband Judy came back to the ranchwith a handful of their own cat-tle. “Over time, we set about tobreed up the percentage of Gel-bvieh in the existing cattle herd,”she noted. “We got to where wehad a lot of half-blood Gelbvieh,then through artificial insemina-tion bred up to purebred status.Finally, we decided that a little

Angus would make the cattle justa little better.”Balancers combine the best of

both breeds, Judy said, the car-cass quality of Angus and themilk, fertility and disposition ofGelbvieh. “We are very selectiveabout the Angus we use, andmake sure they complement ourGelbvieh genetics,” sheexplained. “We focus on lowbirthweights, marbling and car-cass qualities, because if the Gel-bvieh do have a flaw it is on mar-bling.”The Prossers run their cattle

between Winslow and Flagstaff,wintering the cattle on StateTrust and private land in thehigh desert near Winslow. In thesummer, they move the cattle toa U.S. Forest Service (USFS)grazing allotment near Flagstaff,which is rougher, higher country.“Our summer country is hilly,

rocky country, there’s a rock onevery square foot,” Judy pointedout. “The cattle have to besound. If they have any structur-al issues, they just don’t make it.”Bob and Judy market their reg-

istered red and black Balancer,Gelbvieh and Angus bulls by pri-vate treaty. Commercial produc-ers across the Southwest and intoMexico make up the majority oftheir bull customers. The Prosserssell females as bred heifers, somethey raise themselves and someare bought back from bull cus-tomers, Bob explained.“We have a big customer base

for low birthweight cattle, espe-cially low birthweight bulls,” Judysaid. “Ours aren’t the highestperforming Gelbvieh but theywork well for us and for our cus-tomers. We select middle of theroad, optimum type cattle.” On the commercial side, they

sell calves to Caprock Feeders.“We have sold calves to Caprockfor the last ten years and areinvolved in their added valueprogram,” Bob said. “Caprocktracks calves’ growth and feedefficiency, and collects carcassdata. The top ten percent receivean additional check, and I don’tthink there has been a year thatwe haven’t been in that top 25percent.”The Prossers also market

calves through Country NaturalBeef, founded by Doc and Con-nie Hatfield in Oregon. The mar-keting cooperative has membersacross the country, and harvests60,000 head of cattle a year, hesaid. “It is a unique bunch ofpeople. They have an honestdedication to providing a qualityproduct to the public and do it ina manner that has sustained overtime. All of the other naturalbeef programs I’ve seen havebeen bought out by the big cor-porations, but Country NaturalBeef has stood the test of time.”You just can’t go wrong with

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The Gelbvieh Edge

continued on page fifteen

“The cattle have to be sound. If they have any structural issues, they just don’t make it.”


Gelbvieh, Bob said. “We chosethe breed based on profitability,on facts and figures from ourown ranch. We use those sameprocesses when we select andraise bulls to sell. They are aunique breed, it’s hard to beatthe fertility, marketability andgrowth of Gelbvieh and Gelb-vieh cross cattle. They increasethe milk production in your cat-tle without decreasing fertility. The Prossers place a big

emphasis on stewardship of theland, and have approached it in avery unique and successful way.In 1993, they and the Metzlerfamily, neighbors on the FlyingM Ranch, founded a collabora-tive land management groupcalled the Diablo Trust. Thegroup includes members fromagencies like the NaturalResources Conservation Service(NRCS) and the Arizona Game& Fish Department, academicrepresentatives and the environ-mental community. “Anyonewho is interested is welcome tocome and participate,” Judy said.The group developed the envi-

ronmental impact statement(EIS) for the ranches’ grazingpermits, and just finished a fireplan, which includes rangelandfire as a management tool. “Itwill be the first grassland burn inthe Coconino National Forest inalmost 60 years. It’s a slowprocess, but at the end of theday we have all of those groupson the same page to propose anaction, which is a pretty bigaccomplishment,” Bob noted.In 2006, the Trust received a

Regional Environmental Stew-ardship Award from the Nation-al Cattlemen’s Beef Association(NCBA) and the USFS NationalRangeland Management Award.It is also active in other commu-nity activities. “Our goal is toacquaint as many people as pos-sible with public lands ranching,and to remind them where theirfood comes from,” Judyexplained.Both Bob and Judy’s families

have been part of the agricultureindustry for generations. Judy’sgrandfathers were both ranchersin Arizona, and today’s Bar TBar is part of country they onceowned. Bob grew up in Col-orado, where his father importedthe first Limousin cattle into theUnited States. “We’re both ranchpeople and proud of it,” Judysaid. Bob and Judy’s two sons,Warren and Spencer, grew up onthe ranch. They both graduatedfrom Colorado State Universityand got married last year, andare off doing their own thing,Judy said.

International AppealPerformance was also the

deciding factor for RayRodriguez, PhD, who runs Gelb-vieh and Balancer cattle on tworanches in northern Sonora,Mexico. “Gelbvieh is one of thefew continental breeds that hasmanaged to excel in fertility,milk and meat,” Ray said. “Mostbreeds lack one or the other, to

keep all three traits together isvery hard to do.”A Puerto Rico native, Ray

received his doctorate in animalgenetics from the University ofFlorida at Gainesville. His careerin managing large, corporateranches brought him to Arizona.In 1982, he retired and startedhis own cattle import/exportbusiness, which brought him intocontact with Gelbviehs.

“I bought bulls to send toMexico, including some Gelb-viehs. At the end of the season, Itook the remaining bulls to myranch and used them on my owncattle, and was very impressedwith the results,” he explained.Ray and his partner Manuel

Molina Elias run purebred Gelb-vieh, Balancer and FleckviehSimmentals on the CieneguitaRanch across the border south ofSierra Vista, Arizona, named forthe headwaters of the San PedroRiver which are partly on theranch. Juan (Chapo) Varela andRay run a breeding up to Bal-ancer program, using bulls fromLa Cieneguita, at El Valle Ranch,just south of the Gray Ranch insouthwest New Mexico.

Rodriguez and Manuel Moli-na are working to get recognitionfor the Balancer breed in Mexi-co. “We are working with theMexican Gelbvieh Associationto be able to register the cattle,and are making good progress.The cattle are very well accepted,we just don’t have recognition ofBalancers as a breed, just yet.”Rodriguez and his partners

focus on producing quality bullsand females for commercial pro-ducers in Mexico, since intactbreeding animals cannot beimported into the United Statesdue to animal health concerns.The majority of customers useGelbvieh and Balancer bulls ontheir crossbred cattle to increasefertility, moderate frame size andadd color, Ray said.“Over time, the cattle in

Northern Mexico have becometoo large for the country. TheGelbvieh influence gives produc-ers a way to increase the fertilitywhich has been lost due to framesize. Our bulls have proven to bevery popular in improving thethings that the cattle were lack-ing,” he explained. “Now, we arebuilding a nucleus of otherbreeders in northern Mexicowho are breeding bulls for theirown customers.”The commercial calves, and

purebreds that aren’t sold forbreeding, are exported to theUnited States as steers andspayed heifers. “We send calvesto Red Rock Feeding in Arizonaevery year, and work closely with

them as our calves move throughthe process. The feedlot hasbeen very happy with the per-formance and carcass data. Thisyear, because of the drought, wesold our calves in October, abouta month earlier than usual. Wewere able to get ten cents morethan the average price at the bor-der because the buyer knewwhat he was getting.”Gelbvieh genetics have added

a year of productivity to hisfemales, Ray said. Because oftough range conditions, he hadalways bred heifers to have theirfirst calves as coming three yearolds. Three years ago, he bred 30heifers as yearlings. All calvedunassisted, and 75 percent bredback. “In the past four years, wehave started breeding yearlingheifers successfully, which wewere never able to do in the past.Fertility is one of the breed’s

biggest strengths, Ray noted.“Their fertility in range condi-tions is the best we have seen.Something else we have noticedis that they will breed with a low-er body condition score. Wehave had years that the cattledon’t look good at all in May,but when we palpate in Novem-ber, we have excellent fertility.” The credit for the breed’s

unique makeup goes to its devel-opers. “We have to thank theGermans for most of our suc-cess. Rather than single traitselection, they selected for threetraits — milk, fertility and meat— on an index with all threetraits weighted by different fac-tors,” he explained. “In most cas-es, when you select for one trait,you lose another. Using indexselection, they were able toimprove all three traits in thecattle simultaneously.”Ray likes Bar T Bar bulls

because they are raised in an envi-ronment similar to his. “I’ve beenimporting American cattle intoMexico since 1973. With otherbreeds, our main problem was thebulls would just melt under rangeconditions. We would have to buyenough bulls to rotate them onand off of the range to maintaintheir condition.”Gelbvieh and Balancers are a

different story, he said. “Webring them home, turn them outand they stay out. They live onthe range like the cows, we neverhave to bring them back in.Newer generations have taken tothe country even better and haveincreased the do ability of thecattle.”“The steer calves do well as

feeders, yet their sisters makereally good cows for our environ-ment which is a claim very fewbreeds can make. With Gelbviehand Balancers, we have femalesthat we can be proud of and thatdo well in Sonara’s range condi-tions. If you look at the combina-tion of moderate size and fertili-ty, plus their ability to breed backat a lower body condition score,that is what is selling them in thenorthern Mexico environment.”

Add Pounds.

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“I prefer to buy all Continental-British cross cattle. As I see cattle come in the feedlot, there is a big advantage to Gelbvieh cross cattle for their cutability and performance. Color doesn’t make as much of a difference in the feedyard, its conversion and average daily gain that drive price and Gelbvieh cross cattle are outstanding in that regard.”

Bill Sleigh, manager of Hays Feeders, Hays, Kan.

APou

dd Aunds

Pou dd A

unds. fitor P

t.

are outstanding in that regard.

” at regard. .”

oss.smartcrwwww.smartcr

Bill Sleigh, manager of Hays Feeders, Hays, Kan.

an Gelbvieh AssociationAmeric00 Dover Street910

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They increase the milk production in your cattle without decreasing fertility.

The Gelbvieh Edgecontinued from page foutreen

The credit for the breed’s unique makeupgoes to its developers.


Anew study published inEnvironment Science andTechnology analyzes theenvironmental impact of

school choice policies in St. Paul,Minn. The authors found thateliminating school choice wouldlower emissions rates 3 to 8times and curb the “significantenvironmental consequences” of

providing more educationalopportunities for children. The authors arrived at their

conclusion by analyzing the trav-el patterns for 803 surveyrespondents and then appliedthose findings to the entire St.Paul school district: Students attending the school

assigned to them by the state

were more likely to walk or havea short commute to school.Students participating in

schools of choice programs, how-ever, traveled on average alonger distance to school andthus contributed to the emissionof more pollutants into theatmosphere. Fortunately, school choice

programs can offset these “signif-icant environmental conse-quences” with significant educa-tional consequences, saysMichael Van Beek, director ofeducation policy with the Mack-

inac Center: Nine out of 10 scientific stud-

ies link school choice programsto higher student achievement.In fact, a brand new study of theMilwaukee voucher system,which operates on less than halfthe per-pupil funding of Milwau-kee Public Schools, found thatparticipating students are 12 per-cent more likely to graduate thannonparticipating ones.The study of St. Paul did not

analyze the environmentalimpact of homeschoolers.

Source: Michael Van Beek, “School Choice: Pol-luting Our Planet?” Mackinac Center, NationalCenter For Policy Analysis

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You know the inmates havetaken over the asylum whenyou’re turning to PETA asthe voice of reason! These

are the animal rights extremistswho compared eating chicken tothe Holocaust, compared themurdering cannibal JefferyDaumer to butchering hogs, andonce proclaimed that it would begreat if Foot and Mouth Diseaseinfected animals in the U.S.A sidebar to the Vancouver

Winter Olympics was the saga ofan American skater named John-ny Weir who wore fur during hisskating routine. According to hisagent he was harassed, receivedhate mail and death threats fromanimal rights activists. The “cor-porate factory animal rightsgroups” including PETA andFriends of Animals denied com-plicity, although they said theywere pleased with the result.Where were the CanadianMounties? Did the OlympicCommittee condemn thethreats? Did our State Depart-ment or President defend theircountryman’s right to wear fur?If the Aryan Nation had threat-ened him because of his race orAl Qaida had threatened himbecause of his religion, do youthink there would have been anoutrage on both sides of the bor-der? But animal rights terroriststhreatened to kill an athletebecause he wears fur. In Cana-da, no less! After they kill the furwearers in Vancouver, is the nextstep to move north and startkilling Eskimos?Picture an American skater

being attacked by lunatic animalrights extremists and nobodyraising a finger to help. Picturethe lone peasant in TiananmenSquare facing the CommunistChinese Army tank. Picture theAyatollah’s Revolutionary Guardsurrounding an Iranian protester.Picture Johnny Weir.My question is “how did we

let something like this happen?”Canada and the United Statesare the bastions of freedom in

the world. They are the brightlights that beckon people tocome and achieve their dreams.If this Olympic incident hadhappened in Columbia and theCocaine Mafia had threatenedan athlete, we would not beshocked. If the sons of Saddamhad attacked a visiting soccerplayer for displaying an Ameri-can flag, we would not be sur-prised. If North Korea had kid-napped American tourists . . .wait a minute . . . they did. Andif some penny-ante animal-rightsthugs had threatened to kill acontestant if he wore fur. . . ?The animal rights people had aparty. They think they won. Butwe as a country, both Canadaand the United States, as a peo-ple sit here uncomfortable in ourshame. We allowed our skater, afree man, one of us, to be verbal-ly attacked and coerced andthreatened and we stood by hop-ing it would go away.To our credit as a nation we

are finally seeing public figuresstand up to the animal rightsintimidation. Mike Rowe — starof Dirty Jobs, Dean Koontz — apopular novel author, and theZac Brown Band — 2010 BestNew Country Artist winners,have told the looneys to “take ahike.” We learned after 9/11 thatthe animal rights contention that“A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy”’is goofy. And those who preachthat philosophy that human lifehas no more value than the lifeof an animal, have a screw loose.Regarding Johnny Weir and

the Olympics, does anyone reallytake seriously that a group ofquasi-religious ideologues wouldreally kill him for wearing fur?Remember September 5, 1972?Five terrorists climbed the fencesurrounding the Olympic Villagein Munich, Germany, attackedand killed 11 Israeli athletes.Why? Because they did notbelieve the same thing the killersdid.

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School choice: polluting our planet?


by BRUCE B. CARPENTER, Livestock Specialist, Texas AgriLifeExtension, Ft. Stockton

Cattle people and cowboysare some of the mostaccomplished, talentedpeople I know. Hard workand modesty is the usual

rule. It is just not in their natureto “toot their own horn” — mostjust weren’t raised that way. It’s unfortunate that this qual-

ity we might call humility, couldprove to be a liability. In the ageof instant information, if wedon’t speak up for our product,and do it quickly, someone elsemost surely will. It might be anactivist group with a hard drivingagenda, like ending all animalagriculture, or it might be aninquisitive journalist simply try-ing to access the best informa-tion he or she can.Some of this really came into

focus for me recenty. A friendsent me a link to an electronicblog article at the New York Timeson fed beef production (just onetiny article). I took time to replyin the posts at the end, and indoing so, learned a lot more.First, the author was definitely

not “anti-beef”; he was just misin-formed when it came to how and

why cattle are fed. Intentional ornot, the result was pretty muchthe same: many of his readerswent away with an inaccuratepicture of our industry. This fur-ther set the stage for negative ormisunderstood information putforth by people posting com-ments at the end of the article. Injust one day, there were 128posts. They commented on eitherthe article, or the beef industry ingeneral. As near as I could tell,only about three or four of thecommenters had any agriculturalbackground at all. The majorityof the posts were negative andfilled with un-truths and misin-formation. The fact is, there arevastly more people with opinionsabout food than there are peoplewith knowledge about how it isproduced, cared for and market-ed. Still, opinions about food areunderstandable: we all eat.Those who actually know

about agriculture, how beef isproduced, the quality of theproduct, how cattle are caredfor, etc. — can make a difference— even if we sometimes have todo it one person at a time. Allthat is needed is the motivation,tools, and skills to effectivelypresent our message.One opportunity to be such a

spokesperson for the beef indus-try, and to learn more, is a newprogram called the Master ofBeef Advocacy (MBA). It isoffered through the NationalCattlemen’s Beef Associationand funded through the nationalbeef check-off. It is a self-direct-ed, online educational programthat teaches how to deliver con-sumer messages on modern beefproduction. You might learn howto give a speech to a local civic orconsumer group, give a mediainterview, post to online sites, orsimply to twitter or flicker fromyour cell phone. NCBA saysthere are about 700 graduatestoday who are active in the glob-al online community. And whilebeef producers are certainly key,not all MBA graduates are pro-ducers. Other stake holdersinclude chefs, veterinarians, foodcompanies and more. Currentlythere are about 1,700 studentsenrolled in the program. It con-sists of six, 1-hour core courses:beef safety, beef nutrition, ani-mal care, environmental steward-ship, modern beef productionand the beef check-off.MBA graduates have mobi-

lized with letters to the editor

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LIFESTYLE – 320 DEEDED ACRES (105 irrigated) - COMFORTABLE IMPROVEMENTS – SPECTACULAR VIEWS –

BORDERS FEDERAL LANDS – ELK, DEER, TURKEY – ONLY MINUTES TO SOME OF THE FINEST YEAR LONG FISHING IN THE NORTHWEST – STEELHEAD, STURGEN,TROUT, BASS, CRAPPY AND MORE - $690,000 – WANT OFFER – POSY -RAE @ 208-761-9553

LIFESTYLE/INCOME – POSSIBLY THE FINEST WILDLIFE VARIETY/QUANITY AVAILABLE – 1,160 DEEDED ACRES (180 irrigated) – 2-1/2 MILES RIVER – 2 BASS PONDS –PLENTIFUL QUAIL, CHUKAR, DOVE, PHEASANT, WATER-FOWL, DEER and AND VARMINTS - EXCELLENT IMPROVE-MENTS – COW/CALF AND/OR STOCKER OPERATION FORINCOME /TAX ADVANTAGE - $1,900,000 – LANDRETH

AGRILANDS Real Estatewww.agrilandsrealestate.com

Vale, Oregon • 541/473-3100 • [email protected]

“EAGER SELLERS”

D A N D E L A N E YR E A L E S T A T E , L L C

318 W. Amador Ave. • Las Cruces, N.M. 88005(O) 575/647-5041 • (C) 575/644-0776

[email protected] • www.zianet.com/nmlandman

WAHOO RANCH:– Approximately 39,976 acres: 10,600 deeded, 6,984 BLM, 912 state, 40 uncontrolledand 21,440 forest. Beautiful cattle ranch located on the east slope of the Black Range Mountains northof Winston, N.M., on State Road 52. Three hours from either Albuquerque or El Paso.The ranch isbounded on the east by the Alamosa Creek Valley and on the west by the Wahoo Mountains rangingin elevation from 6,000' to 8,796'. There are 5 houses/cabins, 3 sets of working corrals (2 with scales)and numerous shops and outbuildings. It is very well watered with many wells, springs, dirt tanksand pipelines. The topography and vegetation is a combination of grass covered hills (primarilygramma grasses), with many cedar, piñon and live oak covered canyons as well as the forested WahooMountains. There are plentiful elk and deer as well as antelope, turkey, bear, mountain lion and javelina(49 elk tags in 2008). Absolutely one of the nicest combination cattle/hunting ranches to be found inthe SW. Price reduced to $8,500,000.

SAN JUAN RANCH: Located 10 miles south of Deming off Hwy. 11 (Columbus Hwy) approximately26,964 total acres consisting of 3,964± deeded, 3,800± state lease, 14,360± BLM and 4,840± Uncontrolled.The allotment is for 216 head (AUYL). There are 278± acres of ground water irrigation rights (not cur-rently being farmed) as well as 9 solar powered stock wells and metal storage tanks and approx. 6½miles pipeline. The ranch begins on the north end at the beautiful Mahoney Park high up in the Floridamountains and runs 5½ miles down the mountains to their south end. It continues another 7½ milessouth across their foothills and onto the flats. The ranch has a very diverse landscape with plentifulwildlife including quail, dove, rabbits, deer and ibex. Lots of potential and a good buy at $1,200,000.

REDROCK CANYON RANCH: Located in Redrock, N.M. Approx. 7,268 total acres consisting of 1,908±private, 1,040± state, 4,320± BLM, 120-head grazing permit and 24 acres of farm land. 3½ miles of theGila river runs thru the middle of the ranch. Deer, javalina, quail and great fishing. Topography consistsof large hills and mesas, bi-sected by the cottonwood lined Gila River Valley. Very well fenced and wa-tered. Priced Reduced to $1,750,000

212 ACRE FARM BETWEEN LAS CRUCES, N.M. AND EL PASO, TEXAS:Hwy. 28 frontage with 132 acres ir-rigated, 80 acres sandhills, full EBID (surface water) plus a supplemental irrigation well, cement ditchesand large equipment warehouse. Reasonably priced at $2,000,000.

118.8 ACRE FARM: Located on Afton Road south of La Mesa, N.M. Paved road frontage, full EBID (sur-face water) plus 2 supplemental irrigation wells with cement ditches. Will divide into 2 tracts — 50.47acres and 68.32 acres. Priced at $14,500/acre — $1,722,600.

BEAUTIFUL 143.81-ACRE NORTH VALLEY FARM located in Las Cruces, N.M. next to the Rio GrandeRiver. Great views of the Organ Mountains. Cement ditches, 2 irrigation wells and EBID. Two olderhouses and shed sold “as is”. Priced at $13,212/acre — $1,900,000. Will consider dividing.

OTHER FARMS FOR SALE: In Doña Ana County. All located near Las Cruces, N.M. 8, 11, 14, and 27.5acres. $11,111/acre to $17,000/acre. All have EBID (surface water rights from the Rio Grande River)and several have supplemental irrigation wells. If you are interested in farm land in Doña Ana County,give me a call.

continued on page eighteen

Consider Getting an ‘MBA’ (Master of Beef Advocacy)

LOOKING TO SELL YOUR FARM, RANCH, OR RURAL HOME?Call me today. As a fellow farm owner and operator, I understand the unique challenges faced by agriculture and am here to help you in meeting your goals,

whether buying or selling.

PAUL STOUT, QUALIFYING BROKER 3352 State Road 209, Broadview, NM 88112

O: 575/357-2060 • C: 575/760-5461F: 575/357-2050 • [email protected]

www.firstalternativerealty.com

T H E L I V E S T O C K M A R K E T D I G E S T

Real EstateGUIDESee pages 17, 18 and 19 for this months’ Real Estate Listings

beef producers are doing to letconsumers know who they are.Ann, a Nebraska rancher andsmall feeder, uses YouTube toconnect with people all over thecountry and world to tell howshe — “a city kid from PalmBeach and a Dartmouth gradu-ate”— married a rancher, andnow helps raise a family, care foranimals, and produce wholesomebeef. See: http://www.youtube.com/beefpasturetoplate . Usinga blog spot, Kim Brackett showspictures and answer questionsfor some very interested readers.She illustrates her daily life on awestern ranch: helping newborncalves in the winter; her husbandin the shop, helping their kidsbuild a school project; picturesof elk and song birds along withsome information on how theysteward the habitat; and otheractivities. See: http://www.beef-matters.com/The next time you hear or see

something negative about ourindustry, think about how youcan prepare yourself to respondin a positive and helpful manner.To learn more about the MBAprogram, contact [email protected] or call the NCBA at303/850-3046 or see: http://www.beefboard.org/news/08_1010News_MBApressRelease.asp.


and online blogs when inaccu-rate information has been print-ed or aired. The example hasbeen given that if 40 studentstook 10 minutes a day to be anadvocate online or in othermedia, that is the equivalent of afull time staff person being anadvocate for the beef industry.The good news is that the vast

majority of consumers believe inthe quality and wholesomenessof beef. But, they also very muchwant to know YOU. They wantgood information about wheretheir beef comes from and whoraised it. In a recent survey 74percent indicated that they wereeither ‘very’, or ‘somewhat’ inter-

ested in knowing this. The badnews is that more and moreactivist groups, who count mil-lions of members, would likenothing more than to use eithertraditional or new media venuesto take these consumers andchange their minds. Thesegroups are vocal, passionate, andextremely well funded.Remember that only 3 percent

of American households deriveincome from producing food orfiber. Just 5 percent of Americanssay they’ve been on a farm orranch in the last five years. Only20 percent say they know the beefindustry well or somewhat well.It is exciting to see what some

��

TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES

Joe Priest Real Estate1205 N. Hwy 175, Seagoville, TX 75159

972/287-4548 • 214/676-69731-800/671-4548www.joepriest.com

[email protected]

• 503 Ac. So. Navarro Co., Texas. It’s got it all. $1,950/ac.

• 632-acre CATTLE and HUNTING,N.E. Texas ranch, elaboratehome, one-mile highway frontage.OWNER FINANCE at $2,200/ac.

• 274 acres in the shadow of Dallas.Secluded lakes, trees,excellent grass. Hunting and fishing, dream home sites.$3,850/ac.

• 126 ac. jewel on Red River,Tex. – Nice river frontage, irrigation well, excellent soils forcrops, nursery stock, cattle grazing, you name it! $3,250/ac.

• 1,700-acre classic N.E. Texascattle and hunting ranch. $2,750/ac. Some mineral production.

• Texas Jewel, 7,000 ac. –1,000 per ac., run cow to 10 ac.

• 126 ac. – Red River Co., Tex.Home, barns, pipe fence. $225,000.

NEVADA RANCHES and FARMS

Bottari RealtyPAUL D. BOTTARI, BROKER

www.bottarirealty.com • [email protected]

Ofc.: 775/752-3040Res: 775/752-3809 • Fax: 775/752-3021

Out West Realty Network Affiliate

This should be a great investment property ideal for a 1031 exchange!Deeded sheep base in Elko Co: 10,960 deeded acres plus a 29 percent publicBLM permit in the mountains just northeast of Elko. Fifty percent of the mineral rights in-cluded. Good summer spring and summer range for sheep or cattle. Annual lease income,plus inexpensive ag taxes. Price: $1,425,800.

Dawley Creek Ranch — located in one of the most beautiful ranchingvalleys of the West: Ruby Valley: Set at the foot of the majestic Ruby Mountainswith approx. 1,100 acres of lush meadows and good private pasture. This ranch has approx.6,000 deeded acres. Approx. 700 acres are currently being cut for meadow hay plus two110 acre piviots with alfalfa/orchard grass hay. This ranch runs approx. 500 pair plus heifersand bulls year long and around 30 head of horses. No water fights in this case as the waterdoesn’t run off the ranch but rather fills a snow water lake called Franklin Lake. This ranchhas been a target for conservation easements. Priced at $4,500,000. And contingent uponbeing able to complete a 1031 exchange into another acceptable property.

Waddy Creek Ranch: located in a remote Nevada ranching valley called Charlestonwhich sits at the foot of the Jarbidge Wilderness which is part of the Humboldt NationalForest. The ranch is bounded on two sides by forest. There is no power in the valley butthere is land line phone. Two creeks provide irrigation water for approx. 138 acres of his-toric meadow. This property has Quaken aspen groves and is quite beautiful. Access ison a county road. There is a BLM grazing permit attached to the ranch for 71 head. Price:$500,000. Terms considered.

Indian Creek Ranch:White Pine County, Nevada. This is a great property for a hunteras it is surrounded by public lands and has plentiful mule deer, antelope and elk. Thereis a large spring arising on high ground that could provide pressure for hydro power, orgravity flow domestic or irrigation water. This is an old historic ranch base and can providesummer pasture for cattle or horses and includes approx. 200 acres in three separateparcels. Piñon pine and Utah juniper plus some cottonwood, willows and Quaken aspen.Very scenic. Approx. ½ mile off county maintained road. Price: $425,000.

Crane Creek Ranch: Tehama County, 556 acres. Two smallhomes, winter range. West of Red Bluff.Priced at $975,000.Wilson Ranch: Modoc County, 487 acres, house, barn, summer range. Surprise Valley, Calif. Priced at$950,000.Willow Springs Ranch: Shasta County, 1,470 acres, barn, two homes, Cottonwood Creek frontage. Make offer.Pasture Ranch: Modoc County, 427 acres, nice home, 400 acres irrigated.2.5 miles Pit River frontage, priced at$1,600,000.Fisher Ranch: Modoc County, 2,808 acres, 465 irrigated, USFS andBLM permits, older nice home, 200 cowsincluded. Priced at 2,999,000.Hooker Creek Ranch: TehamaCounty, 1,023 acres, winter range, largeponds, recreation, electric, well, septic,telephone. Priced at $1,095,000.

Rubicon Ranch: Tehama County,2,082 acres, Hunting Ranch, pigs, deer,quail dove. Ponds and creek. Priced at$1,350,000.Spring Meadow Ranch: ShastaCounty, 160 acres, water rights, 50 acresirrigated, large home, swimming pool,barn, shop. Priced at $699,000.Trinity River Ranch: TrinityCounty, 117 acres, 5,000 ft. Trinity River frontage, excellent trout fishing.Priced at $665,000.Kelley Ranch: Modoc County, 658 acres, 156 acres irrigated, threehouses, barn, shop. Priced at $900,000Paskenta Ranch: Tehama County,487 acres, house, corrals, barns. Approx.200 acres, class one soil. New well, nursery-orchard. Priced at $1,795,000Horse Ranch: Tehama County. 26+acres, 14 acres irrigated, house, corrals,120x200 covered arena. 140 ft. cuttingarena, 16-stall barn, Cottonwood Creek frontage. Priced at $1,350,000

CALIFORNIA RANCHES FOR SALE R.G. DAVIS, BROKER

Properties and Equities

19855 S. Main St.P.O. Box 1020

Cottonwood, CA 96022Office: 530/347-9455

Fax: 530/[email protected]

1002 Koenigheim, San Angelo, TX 76903 • www.llptexasranchland.com • [email protected]

LEE, LEE & PUCKITTASSOCIATES INC.

KEVIN C. REED

Office: 325/655-6989Cell: 915/491-9053

RanchersServing

Ranchers

Texas andNew Mexico

RANCHSALES &APPRAISALS

SOLD

Wild West Properties, L.L.C.

THE GOLDEN RULE ISN’T JUST A RULE; IT’S A WAY OF LIFE.

Give me a call or see our website for the following properties:

RANDY J. WOOD, Qualifiying Broker • O: 505/980-8019 • F: 505/823-2262Email: [email protected] • www.wildwestproperties.com

Extraordinary 39,000Deeded Acre HuntingRanch 474-Acre Hunting Paradise near Luna, NM (under contract)66-Acre MRGCD irrigated farm south of Veguita, NM145-Head Cattle Ranch near Magdalena, NM2,800-Acre Cattle Ranchnear Quemado, NM(pending offer)

9,400-Acre Ranch next to Capitan, NM 14-Acre MRGCD irrigated farm near Las Nutrias, NM 190-Acre Irrigated Horse Ranch near Ruidoso, NM 500-Head Cattle Ranch near Trinidad, CO. 3,200-Acre Ranch near Marquez, New Mexico

7400 Gila Rd. NEAlbuquerque, NM 87109

KernLand, Inc.NEW LISTING: SANTA ROSA, N.M. – The beautiful 1,093-acre San Ignacio Ranch is 13 miles west of Santa Rosa in themesa country south of I-40. The ranch is a wide valley with300' mesas on 2 sides with piñon pine and juniper treesthroughout. Excellent recreational opportunities for the hiker,horseman and hunter. Recently surveyed and new boundaryfence in place.CLAYTON, N.M. – El Valle Escondido Ranch is 10,000 acreslocated in the gorgeous, rim-rock and canyon country of theCimarron River, 30 miles north of Clayton. Good mix of protec-tive canyon land with cottonwood bottoms and strong gramagrass country above the canyon rims. Has been running 190cow/calf pairs. Two small, but nice, homes and three sets ofgood pipe pens. Mule deer, elk, antelope and turkey live onthe ranch.SOLD: MOSQUERO CANYON RANCH – 2,600-acre cattleoperation in northeast New Mexico near the village ofMosquero — SOLD!!!

See Brochures at: www.kernranches.comBilly Howard

Cell: 575/799-2088 575/762-3707 Dave KernCell: 575/760-0161

Masters of Beef Advocacy continued from page seventeen

THE LIVESTOCK MARKET DIGEST

RealEstateGuide

Continued from page 17


In a memorandum sent Febru-ary 12 to the Office of theU.S. Trade Representative(USTR), R-CALF USA

explained that the U.S. DistrictCourt for the Eastern District ofWashington (Court) recentlyissued an order that addresses aprincipal argument contained inthe complaints filed at the WorldTrade Organization (WTO)against the U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law byCanada and Mexico. The orderstems from the lawsuit that East-erday Ranches Inc. (Easterday)

filed against the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture (USDA)regarding the U.S. COOL law.In that litigation, Easterday

argued that the U.S. Departmentof the Treasury’s marking rules,established to implement theNorth American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA), providethat beef derived from theslaughter of imported cattle inthe U.S. market is entitled to bedesignated as a product of theUSA. Easterday further arguedthat as a result of these preexist-ing marking rules (NAFTA mark-ing rules), the COOL lawimproperly requires beef fromsuch imported cattle to belabeled as a product of bothcountries — Canada and the US.The Court disagreed. In its

Feb. 5, 2010, order the Courtfound that the COOL law cancoexist with, and does not repeal,the preexisting NAFTA markingrules because these rules are forpurposes of tariff designation in acustoms setting, while theCOOL law applies to retail prod-ucts, and because the COOLstatute neither covers the wholesubject matter of the NAFTAmarking rules nor does theCOOL law present an irreconcil-able conflict with those rules.“We believe this U.S. Court

decision will help in the defense

of our COOL law against Cana-da’s and Mexico’s attack at theWTO,” said R-CALF USACOOL Committee Chair MikeSchultz.“Much like the Easterday

complaint filed in the U.S., bothCanada’s and Mexico’s com-plaints filed at the WTO areseeking the same protection,” hecontinued. “And like Easterday,Canada and Mexico want tocontinue hiding the true originsof their foreign beef in the U.S.marketplace.“The actions by Canada and

Mexico truly are repugnant toU.S. consumers who deserve toknow the origins of their food andwhose government — our U.S.government — has passed a lawunder our U.S. Constitution togive those consumers the right toknow where their food is grownand produced,” Schultz added.R-CALF USA’s memoran-

dum states the group is hopefulthat this Court decision will helpUSTR in its defense of COOL atthe WTO. The memorandumstates that the U.S. Court’ssound reasoning in opposition toEasterday’s argument, based onthe NAFTA marking rules,should likewise apply to anyinternational authority cited byCanada and Mexico “in theirongoing effort to mask the ori-gins beef derived from theirrespective country’s cattle.”“Canada and Mexico should

immediately drop their com-plaints at the WTO before theyfurther damage the integrity andreputation of their respectivecattle industries,” Schultz con-cluded. “It is indefensible forthese foreign countries’ cattleproducers to assert that U.S.consumers do not deserve toknow the true origins of the beefthat they feed their families.”

Cattle Ranch For Sale

Located in Southeastern New Mexico approximately25 miles west of Jal, N.M. along and on both sides

of N.M. State Hwy. 128 situated in both Eddy and LeaCounties. 28,666 total acres with 2,250 deeded. BLMgrazing permit for 370 AUYL. Eleven pastures andtraps. No cattle since March, excellent grass. Headquar-ters with residence, shop, hay barn and shipping penswith scales. Price: $985,000

Contact: Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker, 575/622-5867www.ranchesnm.com

Bar MREAL ESTATE

P.O. BOX 428 • ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO 88202

PAUL McGILLIARDCell: 417/839-5096 • 1-800/743-0336

MURNEY ASSOC., REALTORSSPRINGFIELD, MO 65804

5 Acres – Log home. Price Decrease: 3,800 sq. ft. loghome, 6 br, 4 BA on 6 acres m/l. 35 x 68 bunkhouse/class-room heated and 1 BA. 1/2 mile from Gasconade Riverand Wetstone Creek. Many possibilities for this property. Mountain Grove schools. Asking $170,000. MLS#814022

483 Acres, Hunter Mania: Nature at his best. Dont missout on this one. Live water (two creeks). 70+ acres open inbottom hayfields and upland grazing. Lots of timber (mar-ketable and young) for the best hunting and fishing (TableRock, Taney Como and Bull Shoals Lake) Really cute 3-bd.,1-ba stone home. Secluded yes, but easy access to Forsyth-Branson, Ozark and Springfield. Property joins National For-est. MLS#908571

90 Acres: Just north of Phillipsburg off I-44. 80 percentopen, pond and a well. Build your dream home and enjoy.MLS#910997

See all my listings at: pmcgilliard.murney.com

I have been advertising

with the Livestock

Market Digest for over

20 years. I continue

because I get return calls,

and a great investment

on my advertising

dollars. Prices are

reasonable.

Debbie Cisneros is

very personable. She

goes out of her way to

help me with my

advertising needs —

more than any other ad rep.

— Thank you —

PAUL McGILLIARD

This ad is just a small sample of the properties that we currently have for sale. Please check our website:

scottlandcompany.com and give us a call!

Scottand co.Ranch & Farm Real Estate

Ben G. Scott, Krystal M. Nelson–Brokers • 800/933-9698 day/night • www.scottlandcompany.com

L1301 Front St.Dimmitt, TX79027

We need your listings both large and small, all types of ag properties (ESPECIALLY CRP).

READY TO RANCH and DEVELOP (wind energy, comm., res.) Potter Co., TX – 4,872.8acres of beautiful ranch country four miles north of loop 335, Amarillo, TX, pavement on foursides. Well watered by pumps powered by solar energy (state-of-the- art). Deer, quail and dove.

EASTERN N.M.: Approx. 30 sections mostly deeded some BLM and State, employeehousing and two sets of steel pens, county maintained, all weather road. Your cows willthink they are in Florida!

PREMIER RANCH FOR SALE12,000 acres, Terrell County, Texas.

Southwest of Sheffield, southeast of FortStockton. Excellent hunting ranch, mainly deer(whitetail and mule) and turkey. New hunter’slodge and walk-in freezer. Surface rights only;no minerals. Principals only. $400/acre, cash.

[email protected] • 432/683-0990 • 432/349-8448

LAND AUCTION 7,320 ACRES

TUESDAY, MARCH 30 • 1PMNear Corona, NEW MEXICO

visit our website: www.westchester-auctions.com

Call For Auction Brochure 800-607-6888

• Excellent Hunting• Unlimited Recreational Opportunity• Beautiful Mountain Views• Hunting Lodge

6,880± Deeded Acres320± Leased Acres • 120± BLM Acres

JRL WILDLIFE RANCH • LINCOLN COUNTY

Schrader Real Estate & Auction Co., Inc. 260-244-7606in association with Exit Realty Southwest 505-898-8899

5 Tracts Ranging from 640 to 2,560 Acres

Auction Location: Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino 287 Carrizo Canyon Road, Mescalero, NM 88340 (just south of Ruidoso, NM)

Information Dates:Tuesday, March 2 – 12noon to 2:00pm Tuesday, March 16 – 12noon to 2:00pm

We invite you to meet a Westchester representative at the Cabin on Tract 1 to view the property and pick up additional information. A short informative presentation will begin at 1:00. We look forward to meeting with you to discuss any questions regarding the properties or the auction process. Lunch will be provided.

Idaho-OregonCall 208/345-3163 for catalog.

KNIPE

LAND CO.

RANCHESFARMSCOM’L.

Established1944

��

U.S. District Court Upholds COOL; Implications for Canada’s and Mexico’s WTO COOL Complaints

Qualified Broker: A.H. (Jack) MerrickSales Agents: Charles May, Koletta Hays, Kercida Merrick

GIVE US A CALL OR STOP BY. LET US WORK FOR YOU!

What a Place! Only 320 acres but really improved.2 brick homes, several large barns, well-wateredwith 2 wells. Excellent turf, very accessible. Horsefriendly.Very Nice Smaller Ranch – Has brick 3 bedroom,2 bath home plus a smaller hand house, shop build-ing, hay barn, livestock scales, large steel pens withsome feed bunks, working chutes, overhead bulkfeed storage, outside fencing (mostly new 5-wiresteel post), 1141 acres of excellent turf, and 2 pas-tures cross-fenced with drinkers. In all, this is a greatopportunity for someone.

Buena VistaREALTY521 W. 2nd, Portales, NM 88130 • 575/226-0671 • Fax 575/226-0672

VIEW THE WEBSITE FOR FULL PICTURESAND DETAILS ON THESE AND OTHER

LISTINGS: WWW.BUENAVISTA-NM.COM

To place your Real EstateGuide Lisings here, contact

Debbie Cisneros at505/332-3675, or email

[email protected].


Applications for the scholar-ships are available at www.short-horn.org or by contacting theASA at 877/272-0686 or [email protected]. Please sendcompleted applications to TheAmerican Shorthorn Associa-tion, Attn: Scholarship Applica-tion, 8288 Hascall Street, Oma-ha, NE 68124 by May 3, 2010.All scholarship recipients will beannounced during the 2010Shorthorn Junior National Show& Youth Conference, in EastLansing, Mich., June 25, 2010.

Each year, there are severalscholarships sponsored byThe Shorthorn Foundationas well as the American

Shorthorn Association (ASA)available to American JuniorShorthorn Association (AJSA)members. The ASA and theFoundation find offering collegesupport to the youth of the asso-ciation greatly important as theyare the future of the industry andthe Shorthorn breed.AJSA members are eligible to

apply for one of five differentcollege scholarships: Mike Dug-dale Memorial Scholarship, JohnC. “Jack” Ragsdale Scholarship,Don Longley Memorial Scholar-ships, Lyle and Katharyn DeWitt

Memorial Scholarship, and newin 2010 is the Jesse M. & JennieS. Duckett Memorial Scholar-ship.

� Mike Dugdale MemorialScholarship: The $1,000 Dug-dale Scholarship is awarded to acollegiate upperclassman who isan active AJSA member with asincere interest in bettering thebeef cattle industry after college.

� John C. “Jack” RagsdaleScholarship: The $1,000 JackRagsdale Scholarship is awardedto a high school senior or collegefreshman who is an active AJSAmember with a sincere interestin learning how to evaluate live-stock and an appreciation for thepurebred livestock industry.

� Don Longley MemorialScholarships — applicantsmay also apply for Lyle &Katharyn DeWitt MemorialScholarship: There are four$1,000 Longley Memorial Schol-arships awarded each year. Thescholarships are sponsored byThe Shorthorn Foundation andawarded to high school seniorsor college freshmen based uponShorthorn involvement, grades,need, and participation in otheractivities.

� Lyle and Katharyn DeWittMemorial Scholarship — appli-cants may also apply for DonLongley Memorial Scholar-ships: New this year is the one$1,000 Lyle and Katharyn DeWitt

Memorial Scholarship. The schol-arship is sponsored by The Short-horn Foundation and awarded tohigh school seniors or collegefreshmen based upon Shorthorninvolvement, grades, need, andparticipation in other activities.

� Jesse M. and Jennie S.Duckett Memorial Scholar-ship: New this year is the one$1,000 Jesse M. & Jennie S.Duckett Memorial Scholarship.The scholarship is sponsored byThe Shorthorn Foundation andawarded to high school seniors orcollege freshmen based upon theapplicants’ involvement in Agri-culture, educational background,ACT scores, and high schooland/or college GPA.

The Summit —National Shorthorn Sale

The American ShorthornAssociation’s (ASA) Nat -ional Shorthorn Sale — “TheSummit” was a success aver-

aging $4,324 and bringing in agross $198,900 on 48 lots includ-ing a donation lot to the Ameri-can Junior Shorthorn Association(AJSA). The sale took place dur-ing the National Western StockShow (NWSS), and included amixture of open and bredfemales, bulls, semen, embryos,pregnancies and flushes.The sale was kicked off with

the donation lot by Trans OvaGenetics for production andfreezing of ten units of sexedsemen. Jared Knock, Trans OvaGenetics Marketing Representa-tive, and the AJSA board ofdirectors were in attendance topresent the certificate to the pur-chaser. Robert Duis, Grant Park,Ill. purchased the sexed semenfor $2,250. The funds will godirectly to the AJSA to help pro-mote the youth of the Shorthornindustry.

Zac Brown RespondsTo PETA Challenge

The Zac Brown Band haveresponded to an email theyreceived from People forEthical Treatment of Ani-

mals. After being challenged bythe animal rights group toremove the animal productsfrom its pre-show menu, the“Chicken Fried” hit makersmade no apologies for their eat-ing habits. “Dear PETA, Plants are living

creatures too . . . Bacon had amother, but so did Pickle. Ittakes life to support life — wel-come to the planet,” the Gram-my-winning group wrote on theirTwitter page. The 2010 Best New Artist

winners apparently still plan onoffering animal products at theirpre-show rituals, where they wel-come lucky fans backstage to“eat and greet” with the band.The challenge from PETA

came in February when theorganization sent an open letterto country music website The-Boot.com that was addressed tothe band, saying, “If PETA hasits way, the ‘Chicken Fried’singers will be hosting an all-veg-an edition of their celebrated ‘eatand greets’ for fans.”

Scholarships available from the American Shorthorn Association

lmd march 2010

Documents

unpluggedthis year

diethis year

great year

usda earneda

usda likenais

usda andstates

yearoldfemale worth

voluntary program