Riding Herd “The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.” – JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
April 15, 2020 • www.aaalivestock.com
Volume 62 • No. 4
And In Flew Enza BY LEE PITTS
A
mericans have had to learn how to socially distance themselves, practice proper toilet paper management and determine if they really were an “essential employee”. We’ve had to learn an all new vocabulary as “shelter in place” and “hunker in your bunker” became part of the American lexicon. With lots of extra time on their hands it seems some people used it to dream up all sorts of crazy theories as to how the Chinese let this nasty genie out of the bottle.
The Perfect Weapon
NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
One of the first rumors was that the Chinese had developed this virus as part of their biological warfare arsenal and it had somehow accidentally escaped the labs at Wuhan. I surmise this idea was helped along by a novel written by Dean Koontz in 1981 called The Eyes of Darkness. Koontz was clairvoyant when he wrote nearly 40 years ago, “They call the stuff Wuhab-400 because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan, and it was the 400th viable strain of manmade microorganisms created at that research center.” Koontz also wrote that it was a “perfect weapon” in that it only killed human beings. Kristian Andersen, PhD, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research quickly shot down the rumor that COVID 19 was created in a Chinese laboratory when he wrote, “By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 (COVID 19) originated through natural processes.” In other words, the virus was
If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around. not cooked up by genetic engineers or Communist Generals.
Raising The White Flag Another theory, that the virus was brought to Wuhan by an American soldier, must have come from a Chinaman trying to shed some of the blame. To find the root of this idiotic idea we have to go back over 100 years to the terrible days of the Spanish Flu, although the Spanish had nothing to do with it. It was the deadliest flu epidemic this country had ever seen and 500 million people, one-third of the world’s population, became infected. The number of deaths worldwide was at least 50 million with 675,000 occurring in this country. According to a documentary I watched on public television while I was sheltering in place, the 1918 flu epidemic got its start when a big pile of dried cattle manure was burned at
Fort Riley, Kansas. For days a black cloud enveloped the area and sickened many soldiers on the Army base. Then these soldiers were sent on crowded troop carriers to Europe to engage the enemy in World War I. Perhaps the deadliest weapon the American G.I.’s brought with them wasn’t their guns and grenades but the deadly virus that so weakened the German Army they had no alternative but to surrender. It would be many decades later that scientists would be able to isolate the virus and read its genetic code to determine that the Spanish Flu, the most severe pandemic in recent history, was of avian origin, probably a Kansas chicken farm. Which just goes to show you shouldn’t believe everything you hear on public television. We can hardly blame the scientists back in 1918 for not knowing much about this flu be-
cause their microscopes weren’t good enough to even see the virus. With no vaccine to protect against this flu bug and no antibiotics to treat any secondary bacterial infections, efforts to control the worldwide epidemic were limited to home brews, quarantine, disinfectants, and limiting the size of public gatherings. (Sound familiar?) I remember my grandmother telling me she wore a little bag tied around her neck for protection with something inside called asafoetida. No wonder people could be well at breakfast and dead by dinner. This flu was so easy to catch young girls jumped rope to this little ditty: Had a bird, it’s name was Enza. Opened the the window, And influenza. Perhaps there is some comfort to be taken in the fact that the deadly flu that was wiping out people right and left in October just seemed to disappear on its own in November.
It’s All Our Fault The next rumor I heard was that COVID 19 was a cattle virus. It was later determined that users of Facebook spread this outlandish rumor. While hunkering in my bunker I did something I hadn’t continued on page two
A State Tries to Chart its Economic Rebound From a Pandemic BY BILL LUCIA, SENIOR REPORTER ROUTEFIFTY.COM
L
ooking beyond the immediate public health crisis the coronavirus is now causing, a pressing issue for many state governments across the U.S. is what they can do to help get their economies up to full speed again when the disease outbreak finally abates. To this end, Utah last week released a threestage plan that’s meant to serve as sort of a roadmap for economic recovery over the next six to nine months. It begins with an eight to 12-week “urgent” phase that is focused heavily on stopping the disease from spreading. The plan then transitions into a new 10- to 14-week “stabilization” stage where the hope is that public health and economic relief measures take hold. Finally, there is an eight to 10-week “recovery” period, where the goal is to have the virus reined in and to see revived job growth. The state is issuing the blueprint at a time when there is a huge degree of uncertainty over how the public health crisis will play out and how long it will cast a pall over the nation’s economy. In other words, even for the most adept planners, it’s a hard time to plan. But Val Hale, director of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, said Utah has a tradition of being “a little bit pro-
active” about doing something like crafting an economic recovery blueprint. “We wanted to be able to come through this by protecting the citizens’ health and at the same time protecting the economy,” Hale added. To date, Utah has not seen the explosive case counts that some other states are enduring with Covid-19, the highly contagious respiratory illness that the new coronavirus causes. Figures the state issued for Tuesday show 887 cases in Utah, with 73 people hospitalized from Covid-19, and five deaths due to the disease. New York state, in contrast, has upwards of 75,000 cases and over 1,500 deaths. But while Utah so far may have been spared from the worst of the outbreak, it is still disrupting life there, as it is in much of America. Gov. Gary Herbert issued a directive on Friday calling on residents to stay home as much as possible, and to avoid non-essential travel. The state earlier in the month ordered restaurants and bars to stop dine-in service. Salt Lake County over the weekend instructed business such as movie theaters, gyms and performance venues to close. Hale pointed out that with five marquee national parks, Utah is a major destination for outdoor enthusiasts and other travelers. Tourcontinued on page four
by LEE PITTS
Fancy Foo Foo Food
I
’ve always loved being able to identity things. Whether it was guessing state license plates from afar, parts of dead frogs in zoology, breeds of dogs, Democrats or Republicans, makes of cars, kinds of cattle or cats, and crops growing along the road. It’s one reason why I enjoy grocery shopping so much which I’ve done religiously with my wife for 46 years. We’re lucky to live in an area where hundreds of crops are grown and I love being able to identify all the different fruits and vegetables, as well as the cuts of meat. From yards away I can identify Chinese artichokes, bok choy, white asparagus, purple sweet potatoes, purple carrots, kumquats, calabash, fiddleheads, daikon radishes, rutabagas, Hass avocados, kohlrabi, jackfruit, star fruit, tomatillo, tripe, top sirloins and tiger nuts (Insert snarky comment here). My wife was a cashier in a grocery store for over 30 years and when grocery stores made the switch to scanners she had to learn to identify every single fruit or vegetable in the store and its corresponding number code so when it was weighed all she had to do was punch in its code and the computer did the rest. I remember quizzing her in the produce aisle and in the process I learned all the names of vegetables too. My wife became so good at this that she became the go-to authority in the store. For example, another checker would hold up a fruit and yell out, “Diane, what is this?” “It’s an ugli fruit,” she’d reply. “I know it’s ugly, but what is it.” “I’m telling you it’s an ugli fruit.” Eventually my wife would just yell out its code and the other checker would find out it truly was called an ugli fruit. You should have heard the exchange when my wife informed them the name of a vegetable was “yardlong”. “No it’s not, it’s only eight inches,” another checker would reply. “It may be two inches but it’s still yardlong, also known as asparagus bean, number 345.” I tell you, it was like the old Laurel and Hardy routine Hardy routine of Who’s on First.
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Livestock Market Digest
April 15, 2020
ENZA done in years, I read a USA TODAY newspaper. According to a story in mid-March I learned that a vegan gentleman by the name of Ed Winters, who calls himself “Earthling Ed”, posted on his Instagram account that “COVID 19 was caused by eating animals.” Winters wrote, “The new coronavirus pandemic would not have started if we didn’t farm and eat animals. COVID-19 would not exist if the world was vegan,” proclaimed Earthling Ed. Ed listed other diseases that reached pandemic proportions and stated that “the one thing they all have in common is that they started because of our exploitation of animals.” Earthling Ed’s post was reposted to another Instagram account called @cowspiracy that advocates for veganism and has about 475,000 followers. Winters’ has about 387,000 followers on his Instagram account and 247,000 on his YouTube channel.
Pointing The Finger
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Where do people get such ideas that farm animals are to blame for deadly flu viruses? The sad fact is that animals and birds are to blame... but unless you’re a camel rancher, they aren’t the kind of animals grazing in your pastures. Coronaviruses are “zoonotic”, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. To give you some perspective about COVID 19, here are some of the most memorable flu epidemics caused by viruses in the last 50 years and the animal or bird that was the responsible party. • 1967 MARBURG virus: According to the World Health Organization, the Marburg virus, formerly known as Marburg haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. Fruit bats are considered to be natural hosts of the Marburg virus. There is no licensed treatment to neutralize this virus but immune and drug therapies are currently under development. The Marburg virus was initially detected in 1967 after simultaneous outbreaks in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany and in Belgrade, Serbia. The outbreak was associated with laboratory work using African green monkeys imported from Uganda. The average fatality rate is around 50% but in the 1967 outbreak 590 people were infected with 478 dead, which computes to a startling high 81% kill rate. • 1976 Ebola: Ebola hemorrhagic fever was first recognized in Africa in 1976. In some cases, up to 90% of people who are infected with Ebola die from it, according to the National Institutes of Health. Outbreaks have occurred in African countries and animals that are reported to have spread the disease to humans include chimpanzees, gorillas, forest antelopes and monkeys. According to the CDC, Ebola is most often spread in health care settings by workers who do not wear protective clothing or masks and then have contact with Ebola patients. In the 1976 outbreak 33,697 people were infected with 14,693 dead equating to a 44% mortality rate. • 2002 SARS: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome started in China where 8,098 people were infected leaving 774 people dead. That’s a 10% kill rate. Interestingly, SARS was the first
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of what were to be called coronaviruses. SARS was thought to be an animal virus from an as-yet-uncertain animal reservoir, perhaps bats, that spread to other animals (civet cats) and first infected humans in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002. Since the end of the global epidemic in July 2003, SARS has reappeared four times, three times from laboratory accidents in Singapore, Chinese Taipei, and southern China. • 2003 H1N1 bird flu: This new H1N1 virus was different than the virus that struck in 1918 and contained a unique combination of influenza genes not previously identified in animals or people. The virus would revisit the world many times and by April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there had been 60.8 million cases, 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths in the United States due to this virus. Since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, this virus has circulated seasonally in the U.S. Globally, 80% of H1N1 virus-related deaths were estimated to have occurred in people younger than 65 years of age. This differs from typical influenza epidemics, during which about 70 to 90% of deaths occur in people 65 years and older. 2009 Hong Kong Flu or Swine Flu: The swine flu is another H1N1 virus, this one popping up in the spring of 2009 and lasting until the following spring. Worldwide, the virus killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people with over 12,000 of those deaths occurring in the United States. That virus appears to have originated in pig herds, with a so-called reassortment of influenza viruses — when the viruses swap genetic information — occurring naturally in North American and Eurasian pig herds. Scientists believe the virus jumped to humans in 2008. In 2009, American agricultural officials speculated that contrary to the assumption that this swine flu pandemic arose on factory farms in Mexico, the virus most likely emerged in Asian pigs, then traveled to North America in a human. Clouding the issue further, researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2016 found that the 2009 H1N1 virus likely originated from pigs in a very small region of central Mexico. Despite being called “swine flu”, this flu virus cannot be spread by eating pork and a study done in September 2010 showed that the risk of serious illness resulting from the swine flu was no higher than that of the yearly seasonal flu. Critics claimed the World Health Organization had exaggerated the danger, spreading fear and confusion rather than useful information. To give you some perspective, seasonal flu infects one billion people annually leaving between 290,000 and 650-000 people dead every year. That’s below a .01% mortality rate. • 2012 MERS: Also known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). This flu epidemic first appeared in camels in Saudi Arabia. It infected 2,494 people in the mideast leaving 858 dead. A 35% kill rate. There have been other serious flu outbreaks during the past 50 years but they were just continued on page four
April 15, 2020
Livestock Market Digest
ENZA different versions of the bird and swine flu viruses. (We haven’t mentioned hanta viruses, HIV or mad cow disease because we’ve limited the scope of this story to influenza.)
You May Wonder Has there ever been a flu epidemic caused by beef cattle, you might ask? The closest disease we could find was a disease called Rinderpest which was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including large antelope, deer, giraffes, wildebeests, and warthogs. Death rates during outbreaks were usually extremely high, approaching 100% in immunologically naïve populations. After a global eradication campaign the last confirmed case of rinderpest was diagnosed in 2001 and the United Nations now considers it totally eradicated. Rinderpest is believed to have originated in Asia and then spread in the transport of cattle. The measles virus emerged from rinderpest as a zoonotic disease between 1000 and 1100 AD.
Pangolin The Middleman Researchers now say bats are the most likely reservoir for COVID 19. There are no documented cases of direct bat to human transmission, suggesting that an intermediate host is involved. A possible animal that could’ve acted as a middleman is the pangolin (a scaly anteater), which is considered a delicacy in Asian countries. A coronavirus from a pangolin could possibly have been transmitted to a human, either directly or through an intermediary host such as ferrets. If this is the case it raises the probability of future COVID 19 outbreaks. A long shot possibility is that COVID 19 started when a performance monkey climbed on a tourist’s head and spread the virus that way. But now the most widely accepted belief
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among experts is that COVID 19 had its origin in a “wet market” in Wuhan, China. Wet markets are places where people can buy a variety of live and dead animals. Carcasses of many different species can often be seen stacked right on top each other which is conducive to cross-species disease transfer. What makes the flu so dangerous is that microbes from two different species can mix in your stomach or intestines, do some viral swapping and trading, and then turn humans into a contagious host. A Typhoid Mary, so to speak. Just in case you’re wondering, it can also work the other way around and human viruses can turn around and decimate animal populations from such well-meaning activities as ecotourism.
Takeaways When all is said and done there will be several takeaways from this current disaster, and no we’re not talking about coffins being taken away. After this crises is over and we can look back and reflect we’ll probably realize that we shouldn’t be getting most of our pills and essential medicines from China. And I’m betting that after this disaster decimates our economy globalism will have lost a lot of its luster. And it probably wasn’t the smartest thing we ever did to build the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas, right smack dab in the middle of the country and close to feedlots full of cattle. Although it probably is a better choice than building it in the Manhattan that’s in New York, where people are stacked on top each other like dead animals in a Chinese wet market. As we continue to pile into huge cities and breed ourselves past earth’s carrying capacity, we should expect that this won’t be the last time a virus like COVID 19 “goes viral”, exploding faster than some idiotic idea on Facebook.
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RIDING HERD In the good old days when I was a kid we didn’t have to learn all these foo foo foods like Napa cabbage, sea chokes, sea beans, lichis, paw paw, and jicama. (No, that wasn’t a hiccup.) A paw paw is also known as a yam bean. I wish they’d make up their mind, is it a yam or is it a bean? In my youth you went to a barbecue and it was beef steaks, potatoes, French bread drenched in real butter, iceberg lettuce, green beans and homemade vanilla ice cream. If you got real daring it was a green Jello salad instead of a red one. But now it’s empenadas with goat cheese, pomelos with soapberry dressing, Brussel sprouts with Fava beans and onion seeds, a salad made from four different kinds of leafy greens, roasted leeks and rhubarb. Speaking of rhubarb, anyone who has ever raised the stuff, like me, knows that dogs like to pee on it, so I’d stay away from the rhubarb pie if I were you. The outbreak of fancy foo foo food has gotten so bad that at the last branding we attended someone brought their own fake meat because their teenage daughter was going through the mandatory vegetarian phase all young girls go through. As usual, my buddy fed the congregation of dogs who worshipped at the barbecue pit little pieces of meat. When he fed a pinch of the fake beef burger to a Dachshund it gagged it back up and started barking at it. It wouldn’t stop barking until the
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offensive burger was wrapped in newspaper and thrown in the trash can. Even then the Dachshund with extremely good taste kept snarling at it. This gave me a great idea. I’m sure you’ve seen “service dogs” in the grocery store? I told my buddy he could get rich by developing a strain of Beyond Meat® sniffing dogs and selling them as service dogs so that whenever a sensitive shopper came across fake, or other fancy foo foo food, their service dog would sniff it out and start yapping so incessantly at the disgusting feedstuff that every shopper in the store would know to stay away. www.LeePittsbooks.com
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Livestock Market Digest
April 15, 2020
U.S. DOT & EPA Put Safety & American Families First with Final Rule on Fuel Economy Standards
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he U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released the final Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule setting corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) and CO2 emissions standards for model years 2021-2026 passenger cars and light trucks. “This rule reflects the Department’s #1 priority-safety-by making newer, safer, cleaner vehicles more accessible for Americans who are, on average, driving 12-year old cars. By making newer, safer, and cleaner vehicles more accessible for American families, more lives will be saved and more jobs will be created,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao. “Today, President Trump is keeping his promise to autoworkers made three years ago that he would reinvigorate American auto manufacturing by updating costly, increasingly unachievable fuel economy and vehicle CO2 emissions standards, and that is what the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule accomplishes.” “We are delivering on President Trump’s promise to correct the current fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Our final rule puts in place a sensible one national program that strikes the right regulatory balance that
protects our environment, and sets reasonable targets for the auto industry. This rule supports our economy, and the safety of American families.” The final rule will increase stringency of CAFE and CO2 emissions standards by 1.5% each year through model year 2026, as compared with the standards issued in 2012, which would have required about 5% annual increases. This is a change from the proposal issued in 2018. The majority of automakers are not meeting the 2012 standard without resorting to the use of credits. The final rule can be found here: https:// www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/ s a f e r- a f f o r d a b l e - f u e l - e f f i cient-safe-vehicles-final-rule. NHTSA is required by Federal law to set fuel economy standards at the maximum feasible level for both passenger cars and light trucks, for every model year. If NHTSA determines that standards previously set are no longer maximum feasible, NHTSA can amend them. In determining what levels of CAFE standards would be maximum feasible, the law directs NHTSA to consider four specific factors: technological feasibility; economic practicability; the effect of other motor vehicle standards of the Government on fuel economy; and the Nation’s need to conserve energy. On April 2, 2018, the EPA issued the Mid-Term Evaluation Final Determination that
found that the MY 2022-2025 CO2 emissions standards are not appropriate and should be revised. For nearly two years, the agencies worked together to extensively analyze current automotive and fuel technologies, reviewed economic conditions and projections, and consulted with other Federal agency partners to ensure the most reliable and accurate analysis possible. The agencies also evaluated more than 750,000 public comments and held three public meetings. The SAFE Vehicles Rule reflects the realities of today’s markets, including substantially lower oil prices than in the original 2012 projection, significant increases in U.S. oil production, and growing consumer demand for larger vehicles. The SAFE Vehicles Rule increases U.S. competitiveness by reducing regulatory costs by as much as $100 billion through model year 2029. According to NHTSA/EPA projections, it will also boost new vehicle sales through model year 2029 by up to 2.7 million vehicles. At a time of sudden economic uncertainty, the SAFE Vehicles Rule provides help for millions of American workers and thousands of businesses in the auto sector and related industries by cutting costs and increasing sales of safe new vehicles. By reducing the average price of a new vehicle by about $1,000, this right-sized rule will make it easier for Americans to afford to buy newer, cleaner, and safer vehicles. The SAFE Rule will also help more Americans afford newer vehicles, which NHTSA’s research shows are safer than ever.
About 3,300 fewer crash fatalities, 397,000 fewer injuries, and more than 1.8 million fewer vehicles damaged in crashes are projected over the lifetimes of vehicles built according to these new standards. At the same time, the SAFE Rule continues to protect the environment by increasing stringency of CAFE and CO2 emissions standards over the next five years, ensuring that Americans will have a wide range of affordable, safe, and fuel-efficient vehicles to choose from. Under the SAFE Rule, the projected overall industry average required fuel economy in MYs 2021-2026 is 40.4 miles per gallon, compared to 46.7 mpg projected requirement in MY 2025 under the 2012 standards, and the new rule reduces the number of credits that are not associated with improved fuel economy. This rule is the largest deregulatory initiative of this administration. The agencies project that under these final standards, required technology costs would be reduced by $86 to $126 billion over the lifetimes of vehicles through MY 2029. At the same time, the SAFE Vehicles Rule provides regulatory certainty by establishing one set of national fuel economy and CO2 emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks. Under the rule, new vehicles will continue to be required to meet the Clean Air Act’s strict pollution standards, ensuring that air quality will be protected from smog-forming emissions. The rule will also see CO2 reductions year over year. SAFE Vehicles Rule: By the Numbers The final rule will increase
PANDEMIC ism, he said, generates about $9.5 billion of commerce in the state annually, along with roughly $1.3 billion in state and local tax revenue. The tourism and hospitality sectors are among those in line to endure major blows as the coronavirus crisis causes people to postpone and call off their travel plans. “That has just been decimated,” Hale said. “There are hotels out there with 10% occupancy, if even that.” For Utah’s famous red rock country, with its desert climate, spring is a popular time for visitors. But health authorities in southeast Utah in mid-March halted dine-in restaurant service and ordered other businesses to close across a three-county area that includes the city of Moab, a gateway to places like Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park. The public health mandate also placed restrictions on overnight lodging, limiting bookings to certain essential visitors and residents. “This is prime time for them. This is normally when they’re booked solid,” Hale said, referring to the Moab area. “It’s money that’s not going to be recouped.” Ski resorts across the state have also closed in response to the virus outbreak. Officials in Summit County, Utah, home to the ski mecca of Park City, issued a stay at home order last week for residents and asked visitors to leave as soon as possible. The county has become one of Utah’s hotspots for the virus, with at least 172 cases. The fallout for the tourism sector is just one example of the economic damage that the state is looking to mitigate and bounce back from with its recovery plan. Herbert appointed Salt Lake Chamber president and CEO Derek Miller to chair a task force that developed the plan. As described in a 16-page document, each stage features certain public health and economic “characteristics and practices,” as well as “public and private solutions” the state will pursue. Examples of public health characteristics and
stringency of CAFE and CO2 emissions standards by 1.5% each yearthrough model year 2026, as compared with the CO2 standards issued in 2012, which would have required increases of about 5% per year. Overall Impact: • Lower costs, thousands of lives saved, and minimal impact to fuel consumption and the environment. • $200 billion reduction in total costs over the lifetimes of vehicles through MY 2029, including the value of increased safety • $100 billion reduction in regulatory costs • $1,400 reduction of total consumer cost of ownership per new vehicle • More than $1,000 reduction in sales price per new vehicle • 2.7 million additional new vehicles sold (because new vehicles are more affordable) Safety: • 3,300 fewer crash fatalities • 46,000 fewer hospitalizations after serious crashes projected over the lifetimes of vehicles built through MY 2029 • 397,000 fewer injuries • 1.8 million fewer vehicles damaged in crashes Environment: All new vehicles will continue to be subject to the strict pollution standards of the Clean Air Act and new vehicles will be subject to higher pollution standards than the older vehicles that will be retired because of this rule 40.4 mpg projected overall industry average required fuel economy in MY 2026, compared to 46.7 mpg projected requirement under the 2012 standards. continued from page one
practices during the stabilization phase, which could begin in May or June, include people continuing to stay home if they fall into groups considered to be more vulnerable to the disease and softer limitations on group gatherings. The economic section in that phase suggests, among other things, that many people could begin returning to offices. It projects that shortterm layoffs and furloughs would continue, but at a slower pace. As for the possible solutions the plan identifies for this stage: the most distressed industries will receive government aid and safety net programs provide a boost to those residents who need it. At the same time, state rainy day funds and other budget reserves flow to safety net initiatives and to “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects. The plan identifies measures for the Covid-19 transmission rate between people and job losses, or growth, as two metrics officials will track during each phase of the plan to see how the state is performing. Hale said he and his staff would work to connect businesses with the funding and other resources that the federal government is making available under the massive relief packages that congressional lawmakers have approved in recent weeks. The state has a web page that’s designed to be a one-stop shop for businesses looking for help. The economic development office on Monday announced the launch of a “bridge loan” program that will offer $5,000 to $20,000 loans with 0% interest to Utah-based small businesses with 50 or fewer employees that are struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “Most of our economy really rides on small businesses,” Hale said. “We want to keep as many of those intact and functioning as we can.” “Our philosophy is that the economy in Utah was structurally sound beforehand,” he added. “If we can weather the storm for a few months, we’ll come back out on top again.”
April 15, 2020
Livestock Market Digest
Collectors Corner
BY JIM OLSON
The Importantance of Provenance
O
ne picture of Billy the Kid is worth over 2 million dollars. Another is hardly worth anything. The difference—provenance! According to the dictionary, the word Provenance is a noun which means: 1. ORIGIN or SOURCE; 2. The history of ownership of a valued object or work of art or literature. Why is provenance important to collectors? First and foremost, it is the act of being reasonably assured we know the origins of something in a recognized and generally accepted manner. Basically, being comfortable with the authenticity of an item. The more we are assured it is authentic, the more value the marketplace will allow for the item. So authenticity, which of course leads to value, are great reasons provenance is important to collectors. A fine example of just how important provenance is — is the Billy the Kid photo example. There was an authenticated photo (the one and only) which sold at auction in 2011 for 2.3 million dollars! It had solid provenance. There was a chain of ownership established back to the time it was taken. A copy of the photograph appeared publicly on Jan. 8, 1881, in the Boston Illustrated Police News. Sheriff Pat Garrett used the image twice in his book, “The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid.” The provenance was accepted as iron clad by the collecting world. On the other hand, there have been a number of other photographs which some claim are also of Billy the Kid. Some, even had pretty convincing circumstantial evidence they were Billy. But just because an old photo looks like him, does not convince the marketplace that it is him. Circumstantial evidence and looking similar to the authenticated photo is a good story, but a long way from convincing the marketplace to shell out big money for it. In this example, solid provenance is about a 2 million dollar difference of the value placed upon the items by the marketplace. Hallmarked vs. unsigned vintage and antique Native American jewelry is another great example. Most collectors of Native American silver know that much of it was not signed in the early days. As a matter of fact,
from the 1970s to current, most Native jewelry is hallmarked, but before that, the opposite was true. Collectors still pay good money for the old, unsigned pieces though. The value is just based on the quality of a piece. However, there were a few people hallmarking early on. And those pieces now bring a premium because there is a form of provenance. For example, you can take two bracelets that look almost identical and both are quality work. However, one is signed by the Hopi silversmith Morris Robinson (one of the few guys who signed his work) and the other has no hallmarks. The signed one will bring at least twice as much in today’s market. The reason, we know who made it. We can tie it to a certain person in history. The other item may be just as good of quality as far as workmanship goes, but it is speculatory as to who made it. We can say it was most likely Native made based on the construction and style, but there is no where near the degree of certainty you get with the hallmarked piece. Old bits and spurs are another prime example. There were a lot of old, handmade bits and spurs from the late 1800s and early 1900s that were not hallmarked. However, some were. Even though there are those who can identify (with a fair amount of accuracy) who a particular spur maker was by the style and engraving, items made by guys who were hallmarking back then will realize a premium in today’s marketplace. G.S. Garcia is a prime example. Most of the items produced in his shop were marked with the hallmark of his shop and they bring top dollar today because we know where they came from. We know he hired the best bit and spur makers available and they put the G.S. Garcia brand on the items. However, there were makers who produced just as nice of items, but unless those items were marked, the ones made and marked by the G.S. Garcia shop will bring more. Much more! The reason? There is provenance (a hallmark) tying the Garcia items to a certain point and place in history. It is not just speculation or an, “it sure looks like so-anso’s work,” type of situation. The
market responds accordingly. Besides the importance of provenance with regards to who made a particular item, historical event provenance is also very important. An item that can be tied to a certain event in history will always bring more than a like-kind item with no story behind it. But again, provenance is extremely important. Just because it has a good story, or the seller says it was used in a certain historical event, does not necessarily make it more valuable. The more evidence you have tying it to a particular event, the better the marketplace will respond with regards to value. A good example of this is a Colt Single Action Army revolver that had provenance tying it to the battle of the Little Big Horn. One with such provenance sold at auction a few years back for $460,000! Meanwhile, a like-kind Colt SAA with U.S. markings and unknown historical ties will generally bring not more than $10,000 (depending on condition that number can vary greatly). It is easy to understand the importance of provenance as to the authenticity and value of a piece, but there is another question. Is the provenance real? Any time money is involved, especially when the amounts can be significant, there are people who try to manipulate the system. Fake hallmarks, fake documents, conjured up stories, hearsay, and much more is often passed off as potential provenance. So buyers/collectors should beware and do your due diligence. Educate yourself on the items you intend to collect. When possible, deal with reputable dealers, auctions and sellers. We always advise buyers/collectors to keep as much information with the piece as possible. At the very least, get a written receipt with a basic description and the amount paid. If possible, write down the history that came with it or print out any research you find on the item. It may help tremendously at some point in the future. Remember, don’t just buy the story, buy the item based on its provenance. With any type of collectible or historical item, the more iron clad the provenance, the more substantial value the marketplace will allow for it.
Page 5
Cattle Market Responses to Recent Market Turmoil BY DERRELL S. PEEL, OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION LIVESTOCK MARKETING SPECIALIST
E
conomists often say that market prices are determined by demand and supply. What they really mean is more correctly stated as “market prices are determined by expectations of demand and supply”. Under more stable and normal circumstances, this distinction is not particularly significant. However, the current market situation creates significant disparities between the current supply and demand situation and expectations for coming supply and demand conditions. The result is a number of seeming paradoxes between different cash cattle and beef markets and between cash and futures markets. Fed and feeder cattle markets have exhibited extreme volatility while balancing current market conditions and expectations for the future. As the Dow Jones fell from over 29,000 in the third week of February to less than 19,000 one month later, Live cattle futures fell from about $112/cwt. to $86/cwt. (June contract) over the same period. The markets reflect the ongoing concern about the weakening U.S. and global macroeconomic conditions resulting from COVID-19. June Live cattle futures recovered to $97/cwt. before dropping again late last week to $89/cwt. Live cattle futures have also reflected the risk that labor disruptions could disrupt packing plant operations. Cash fed cattle prices declined from nearly $120/cwt. in mid-February to a low around $106/cwt. in mid-March. Cash fed prices declined on broader concerns reflected in the Live futures as well as the supply pressure of increased beef production. Year to date beef production is up 6.3 percent through mid-March. In the past two weeks, cash fed cattle prices rebounded to about $119/cwt. as packers increased beef production in response to
the sharp demand increase for retail beef. Beef production is estimated to be up over 11 percent the last two weeks of March. Saturday cattle slaughter the past two weeks is estimated to be up 90 percent year over year and contribute to a 5.9 percent year over year increase in total cattle slaughter for the two-week period. Carcass weight continue well above year ago levels. Feeder cattle futures markets also reflected the macroeconomic uncertainty and declined from over $143/cwt. in mid-February to a low of about $109/cwt. by mid-March (May contract). Feeder futures continues to exhibit tremendous volatility trying to balance the longer-term macroeconomic concerns with short-term market conditions. Cash feeder cattle prices followed futures with the Oklahoma combined auction prices for 500-550 lb. No. 1 steer prices dropping from about $184/cwt. in the third week of February to a low near $152/cwt. one month later. Prices for 750-800 lb. No. 1 steers declined from about $139/cwt. to $117/cwt. over the same period. The sharp drop in cash prices resulted in a sharp drop in feeder cattle marketings. Combined auction totals for Oklahoma declined 59 percent year over year in the last three weeks of March. Nationally, total feeder and stocker receipts are down 56 percent in the last three weeks of March. The squeeze on available feeder supplies pushed feeder prices sharply higher last week by 10 to 12 percent over the previous week. Ripple effects will likely impact feeder cattle markets in the coming weeks. The different patterns of boxed beef, fed and feeder cattle prices in the past six weeks illustrates vividly the fact that these markets operate with very distinct dynamics. These dynamics have become very apparent as the distinction between the current market situation and expectations for future supply and demand conditions has widened.
Jim Olson © 2020, Western Trading Post
Joe Vieira
209-531-4156
Michael Machado 209-495-9208 Thomas Bert
209-605-3866
CJ Brantley
209-596-0139
Tony Luis
209-609-6455
Page 6
Livestock Market Digest
Jaguar habitat virus There are all types of virus out there.
I
n 2014 the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) designated 764,287 acres in Arizona and New Mexico as critical habitat for the jaguar. The area designated was divided into six units, with units 5 and 6 affecting New Mexico. The Peloncillo Unit (Unit 5) covers 102,724 acres in Cochise County, Arizona and Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Unit 6 covers 7,714 acres in the San Luis Mountains in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. What is the cure for this virus? The New Mexico Cattle Growers, the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau and the New Mexico Federal Lands Council filed a lawsuit against the USFWS’s designation of Unit 5 and Unit 6. In their lawsuit against this particular virus, the industry (represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation) argued that since Units 5 and 6 are “secondary”, “marginal” habitat and make up only a small portion of the jaguar’s range, they cannot be considered essential for the conservation of the species. And
they lost on this issue. The industry also argued the USFWS failed to include a “point” where the methods and procedures employed “are no longer necessary.” And they lost. However, the Tenth Circuit ruled the agency did not comply with its obligation to designate unoccupied critical habitat “only when a designation limited to its present range would be inadequate to ensure the conservation of the species.” By not following their own regulations, the court ruled the designation of Units 5 and 6 was “arbitrary and capricious” and thus illegal. Let’s consider this a temporary cure for the Jaguar habitat virus.
Climate Change virus. The airlines industry is reportedly requesting $50 billion in federal assistance to help it recover from damage caused by the coronavirus. Writing in The Hill, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund has recommended that any such assistance should require the airlines to cut their greenhouse
gas emissions by fifty percent by 2050. The author also writes that one way for Congress “to enforce this commitment would be for Congress to require that airlines accessing bailout funds file and maintain plans for how to achieve these commitments — and really achieve them — as a condition of receiving and maintaining their air carrier and operating certificates from the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).” Both the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and R-Calf have called for federal assistance to livestock producers. What if the enviros lobby for requirements that every grazing permittee must reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their allotment by fifty percent, and that Congress should enforce this by requiring those who receive these funds prepare and follow a plan to accomplish this, and make this a requirement for receiving their permits from BLM or the Forest Service? You better watch out for this virus. You may have more in common with Southwest, Delta and American Airlines than you thought.
Recreation economy virus Some states will be hit harder than others in the economic chaos being caused by the coronavirus. The Economic Policy Institute recently prepared an analysis predicting job losses in each state by this summer. And guess what? New Mexico made the top ten, with an estimated 29,016 jobs lost. Why this high a figure? Because 28.2 percent of our jobs are in the leisure, hos-
April 15, 2020 pitality and other tourist-associated industries. Those are the areas that will be hardest hit. One reason New Mexico is so vulnerable is because of its support for Senator Martin Heinrich’s continuous calls for a transition to a recreation economy. The Senator has successfully pushed legislation that either prevents or severely limits the ability to mine for minerals, harvest timber or graze livestock. Heinrich insists these job losses will be replaced by jobs in the outdoor recreation industry. New Mexico is now paying the cost of following Heinrich’s prescriptions.
H2A virus On March 18th the U.S. Embassy in Mexico announced all U.S. consulates in Mexico will suspend routine immigrant and non-immigrant visa services. For those ag producers utilizing the H2A program to bring in farmworkers, the announcement is devastating. Last year, the H-2A program brought in more than 200,000 guest workers. Shay Myers, CEO of Owyhee Produce in Nyssa, Ore., says the delays in processing H-2A workers will cost him the company’s asparagus and sweet potato crops. AG WEB reports the company was planning to bring in 48 H-2A workers from Mexico to harvest the firm’s asparagus crop and then help plant the sweet potato crop. However, State Department officials told him they could only deliver five workers to his farm when harvest begins in early April. “We will lose our entire asparagus crop,” and won’t be able to plant sweet potatoes, said Myers. There also is (or was) an H2A program for “Range
Herding or the Production of Livestock”.
Plastic bag virus Our friend at the Rio Grande Foundation, Paul Gessing, is a talented virus hunter. This time he is stalking the bans on plastic bags. Gessing has donned his most famous hunting cap, the one that says RESEARCH across the front, and explains why the reusable cloth bags are so unsafe. In 2018 Loma Linda University conducted an experiment whereby a reusable bag was “contaminated” with a harmless virus. The researches then tracked the virus while a single shopper went through a grocery store. Here is what they found: “The data show that MS2 spread to all surfaces touched by the shopper; the highest concentration occurred on the shopper’s hands, the checkout stand, and the clerk’s hands.” Gessing also cites a peer reviewed study in Oregon that documented a reusable grocery bag was the point source in an actual virus outbreak in the Pacific Northwest. No wonder he thinks there should at least be a temporary waiver of the bans on plastic bags! I’ve run out of time and space to diagnose the Red Tape Virus and the Deficit Virus, but rest assured your favorite cowboy physician will bring to light these and other threats to our wellbeing. Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch. Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot. com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation
Beyond Meat Class Action Filed Over PETA Texts BY STEVEN COHEN TOPCLASSACTIONS.COM
A
class action lawsuit has been waged against Beyond Meat and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) by an individual who claims that the companies are sending out unsolicited text messages in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Plaintiff Nazrin Massaro
says that the defendants sent an unsolicited text to her cell phone with the following message: “DYK Beyond Meat is available at all On The Border locations? Yum! Be sure to order it at your local restaurant. <3 Melissa from PETA.” The plaintiff argues that the text messages were sent by PETA at the direction or under the control of Beyond Meat. The Beyond Meat class action claims that prior to sending
out the text messages, PETA consulted with Beyond Meat about the content of the messages and received final approval to send them out. While PETA was responsible for sending out the text messages, Beyond Meat maintained the right to change or add anything to the content of the messages, according to the Beyond Meat class action lawsuit. Massaro claims that Beyond Meat authorized PETA to promote its products using unsolicited text messaging services. In addition, the plaintiff states that Beyond Meat was aware that the unsolicited texts were in violation of the TCPA but chose to authorize them anyways. According to the Beyond Meat class action, the purpose of the unsolicited text messages was to promote the defendants’ products, which is plainly evident from the content of the messages. The plaintiff states that even if a text message is not deemed as telemarketing, the defendant still must obtain the plaintiff’s prior written consent. “While Defendant PETA, as a non-profit organization, would typically not be subject to the FCC’s express written consent rule, it is in this case because it was acting as a conduit for Defendant Beyond Meat, a for profit corporation, and because it was engaged in marketing,” argues Massaro. The TCPA class action lawsuit notes that at no time did the plaintiff provide consent to be contacted by the defendants using automated text messages. Despite the alleged lack of consent, the defendant reportedly used an Automated Tele-
phone Dialing System (ATDS) to send the unsolicited texts to the plaintiff. The plaintiff says that her number was retrieved from a list of numbers in the sequential order in which the numbers were listed and then the defendant used an ATDS to send out the text messages. The Beyond Meat class action claims that the system is capable of sending out thousands of text messages in a matter of minutes, if not less. The TCPA prohibits anyone from calling a cell phone number using an ATDS or an artificial or prerecorded voice without consent from the recipient, the plaintiff argues. In addition, the federal law prohibits anyone from initiating a call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or recorded voice without prior consent from the recipient, the Beyond Meat class action lawsuit alleges. Massaro says that the number used by the defendants (738-22) to transmit the unsolicited text messages is known as a “short code” which is used by Multimedia Messaging Systems to send texts to individuals. Only computers can send text messages using short codes, according to the plaintiff. “Defendants’ unsolicited text messages caused Plaintiff actual harm, including invasion of her privacy, aggravation, annoyance, intrusion on seclusion, trespass, and conversion. Defendants’ text messages also inconvenienced Plaintiff and caused disruption to her daily life,” according to the Beyond Meat TCPA class action law-
suit. According to the FCC, calls in violation of the TCPA are prohibited because automated and pre-recorded telephone calls are “a greater nuisance and invasion of privacy than live solicitation calls, and such calls can be costly and inconvenient.” In addition, the plaintiff notes that the FCC recognized that wireless consumers are charged for incoming calls even if they pay in advance or after minutes are used. By filing this Beyond Meat class action lawsuit, the plaintiff is seeking injunctive relief to stop the defendants’ allegedly unlawful conduct. Massaro also seeks statutory damages on behalf of herself and Class Members as well as any other legal remedies resulting from the defendants’ illegal actions. Prospective Class Members in this class action lawsuit are: “All persons within the United States who, within the four years prior to the filing of this Complaint, were sent a text message using the same type of equipment used to text message Plaintiff, promoting Defendant Beyond Meat’s goods, from Defendants or anyone on Defendants’ behalf, to said person’s cellular telephone number.” The plaintiff is represented by Craig M. Nicholas and Alex Tomasevic of Nicholas and Tomasevic LLP, Manuel S. Hiraldo of Hiraldo PA and Jonathan M. Kirkland of Kirkland Law LLC. The Beyond Meat TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Massaro v. Beyond Meat Inc., et al., Case No. 3:20-cv-00510, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
April 15, 2020
Livestock Market Digest
Page 7 521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130
REAL ESTATE GUIDE Scott Land co.
1301 Front Street, Dimmitt, TX 79027 Ben G. Scott – Broker Krystal M Nelson –CO/NM QB#15892 800-933-9698 day/eve. www.scottlandcompany.com
Ranch & Farm Real Estate
WE NEED LISTINGS ON ALL TYPES OF AG PROPERTIES LARGE OR SMALL!
■ BLANCA CREEK RANCH – Quay/Guadalupe Cos., NM – 10,191.44 Deeded ac. + 1,640 State ac. – Well improved ranch with excellent access. Level to gently rolling with some arroyos. Located along I40 between Albuquerque, NM and Amarillo, TX. A beautiful, new, custom built home is situated at the headquarters along with a wellbuilt 150 X 115 shop (80 x 150 enclosed and heated), outdoor arena, horse barns, pens & other improvements. The ranch is well watered and has very good to excellent fence. ■ WEST HAYDEN RANCH – Union/Harding Counties, NM – 9,670.76 ac. +/- (8,350.76 ac. +/- Deeded, 1,000 lease/purchase acres, 320 ac. +/- NM State Lease) of really good ranch land, well watered by a large spring, mills & subs, on pvmt., home, barns & 2 sets of pens.
■ ELK CANYON RANCH – Harding County, NM - Another “hunter’s paradise” listed by Scott Land Company, LLC along w/the Elk Ridge Ranch, great opportunity for livestock/hunting/recreation, 2,240 ac. +/-, well watered w/good fences. Located just west of the West Hayden Ranch. ■ ELK RIDGE RANCH – Capulin, NM area, 100hd. +/- herd of Elk seen on property from time-to-time, 5,520 ac. +/- w/nice home, barns & pens, watered by wells & live water, no outside access through the property. Brochure being prepared! ■ COLFAX CO., NM – 7402.09 ac. +/- (4,789.69 Deeded – 2,612.4 State Lease) w/historic “POINT OF ROCKS” monument on the Santa Fe Trail, attractive improvements, all weather access!
Please view our website for details on these properties, choice TX, NM & CO ranches (large & small), choice ranches in the high rainfall areas of OK, irr./dryland/CRP & commercial properties. We need your listings on any types of ag properties in TX., NM, OK & CO.
SUMNER LAKE, State Road 203, River Ranches Estates, River Ranch Road lots (at intersection with 203) $18,900 each. State Road 203 frontage lot. $25,000 SAN ANTONIO, Zanja Road, 4.66 acres farmland with Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District water rights. $69,000 PIE TOWN, 142 Webb Ranch Road, Corner lot at just over 20 acres in Wild Horse Subdivision North of Pie town. Electricity, well, small cabin & horse corrals. $75,000
TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES 208 AC #) MILES OUT OF DALLAS High traffic count, long frontage on US Hwy ready for a developer. $14,000 per ac, 25 ac $700. Ready to develop. 230 AC GAME & RETREAT that is a dream. Lakes, woods, meadows, game galore, 35 miles out of Dallas, Kaufman Co.
Joe Priest Real Estate
1-800/671-4548
MAGDALENA, 47 Angus Loop, 3bd/2ba home on 11.04 acres. Horse barn and corral. Beautiful views of Magdalena Mountain. $180,000
Qualifying Broker: A.H. (Jack) Merrick 575-760-7521 www.buenavista-nm.com
521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130
SOCORRO 575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax PLAZA REALTY On the Vista PlazaRealty Buena
Selling residential, farm, ranch, commercial and relocating properties.
Qualifying Broker: 505-507-2915 cell A.H. (Jack) Merrick 575-760-7521 505-838-0095 fax www.buenavista-nm.com 116 Plaza Donald Brown
Qualifying Broker
COLETTA RAY
Pioneer Realty 1304 Pile Street, Clovis, NM 88101
575-799-9600 Direct 575.935.9680 Office 575.935.9680 Fax coletta@plateautel.net www.clovisrealestatesales.com
PO Box 1903 Socorro, NM 87801 www.socorroplazarealty.com dbrown@socorroplazarealty.com
Bottari Realty
Bar M Real Estate
Paul Bottari, Broker
775/752-3040
SCOTT MCNALLY
Nevada Farms & raNch PrOPerTY
Ranch Sales & Appraisals
www.bottarirealty.com
www.ranchesnm.com 575/622-5867 575/420-1237
AG LOANS AGLAND LAND LOANS AsLow LowAsAs 3% As 4.5% OPWKCAP 2.9% OPWKCAP 2.9%
INTEREST RATESAS AS LOW 3% INTEREST RATES LOW ASAS 4.5% Payments Scheduledon on2525 Years Payments Scheduled Years
Paul Stout, Broker
575-760-5461 cell 575-456-2000 office officeoffice
Joe Stubblefield & Associates 13830 Western St., Amarillo, TX 806/622-3482 • cell 806/674-2062 joes3@suddenlink.net Michael Perez Associates Nara Visa, NM • 575/403-7970
NMREL 17843
www.bigmesarealty.com
521 West Second St., Portales, NM 88130
575-226-0671 www.buenavista-nm.com
1421 N. Ave O, Portales, NM Nice comfortable 3 bedroom, 3 bath country home on 17.9 acres with city water and sewer, lays next to the Portales city limits. HVAC plus pellet stove in living room, garage has space for woodworking or craft hobbies. Horse friendly, show animals, get the pasture established and the sky is the limit on the great things that can be done with this 17.9 acres with irrigation side roll. Barn for horses as is, portable panels for a variety of other animals.
FENCE LAKE, 295 Pine Hill Road, 2bd/3ba home on 60 acres, corrals, outbuildings. $295,000
CUERVO, 1130 Aguila Road. 3bd/1ba home with corral on 56.6 acres at the foot of Cuervo Mesa. $85,000
Buena Vista Realty
joepriestre.net • joepriestre@earthlink.com
CUERVO, Mesita Pass Road, 148.13 acres of land in Mesita Ranch Subdivision. Perfect for a new home site, hunting or grazing. $85,000
RIBERA,340 CR B41E 32.6 acres with 3bd/2ba home on Pecos River, Hay Barn and outbuildings. Just over 20 acres in alfalfa and grass hay production. $695,000
575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax
See these and other properties at www.buenavista-nm.com
WANTED: Farms and Ranches — Broker has over 45 years experience working on and operating a family farm and has been a farm owner since 1988.
Call Buena Vista Realty at 575-226-0671 or the listing agent Lori Bohm 575-760-9847, or Melody Sandberg 575-825-1291. Many good pictures on MLS or www.buenavista-nm.com
BAR M M REAL REAL ESTATE ESTATE BAR
M U R N E Y , ASSOCIATES, REALTORS® 1625 E. Primrose • Springfield, MO 65804 • murney.com • 823-2300
See all my listings at: paulmcgilliard.murney.com Paul McGilliard - Cell: 417/839-5096 • 1-800/743-0336
Missouri Land Sales • A STUNNING HORSE FACILITY. Situated in a desirable area, Rogersville schools, beautiful 4,139 sq.ft home. 4 bdrms and 4 baths, a 7,200 sq. ft. indoor riding arena, 5 horse stalls expandable to 7 (12 x 12), a 72 x 12 walkway, 36 x 12 tack room, feed room, 72 x 24 hay loft, outdoor wash rack, 120 x 12 outside overhangs, individual fenced horse runs from stalls. Entire property is fenced annd cross fenced, 5 pastures and acreage for hay. This home has geo-thermal heating and cooling, as well as a full Generac backup generator, all set up. Also included is a full sprinkler system on all floors of this home. Three fireplaces (one on each level). So much to offer, and quite unique to find something this well-built. A must-see property. MLS#60148628 • GREENFIELD TRADING POST. Available for sale at the corner of Hwy. 160 (Grand) & H Hwy. Newer tile floors, ADA bathrooms, outside storage tanks, 4 double side gas pumps. Owner reports a brisk business with sales around $1m last year. Store features a bait room for fishing at nearby Stockton Lake. Property has roll up garage door for easy storage of equipment and inventory. Vendor for popular Hunt Pizza with small eat-in area. Multiple coolers, coffee makers and shelving are included in sale. 2080 sf in store, 1120 sf for storage of inventory. This is an unbranded station. MLS# 80140975.
NewMexico MexicoProperties PropertiesFor ForSale... Sale... New
THE 100 RANCH Iflooking you are a quality ranchthe then theRanch 100iscattle Ranch is just you The 100 THE 100 RANCH – If– you are looking for a for quality cattle cattle ranchsuitable then 100 just what youwhat need. Theneed. 100 include Ranch is THE 100 RANCH – If you are for looking a quality cattle ranch for a registered operation. Improvements iswell aRanch scenic, improved cattleThe ranch stunning views of the nearby Sacramento and Jicarilla Mountains. Located aRanch scenic, improved ranch with stunning views of Sacramento and Jicarilla Mountains. 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Watered with six imately 30is miles northwest Carrizozo, Mexico onno theoperational, The ranch is fully ready The toNew turn out iswith start up costs. Watered with wells pipeline system. located just minutes downtown Roswell, NMwith wells big andMesa. an extensive system. Ample deeded big on the ranchoryx. to 15 include elk, mule deer,land antelope and oryx. Chupadera The ranchpipeline of 15,931 Ample game hunting onis comprised the ranch to include elk,game mule hunting deer,property antelope and Access to from the public is limited along and U.S.vehicles Highway 70/380. Improvements include Access to the public land limited with approximately acres of south private land gated and locked. The The 100100 Ranch has acres, 30,680 federal BLM lease acres and 9,208 NM approximately 7,000 acres ofis private land gated andState locked.7,000 The price includes all ofranch and equipment. Ranch a customwith designed home, guest house, Quonset Barn, LLC. hadhad justjust two owners 1940s. isisone Oak Properties NM Ranch Ranch Luxury, LLC. lease acres. The maximum grazing capacity ofIt Itthe ranch is alisted has two ownerssince sincethethe 1940s. oneofof a kind. kind. Co-listed Co-listed Mossyrock Oak Properties NM &&Luxury, barns, and a good set of pipe pens. Partitioned into two larger atPrice: 1,200$11,000,000 A.U.Y.L. The ranch is fully operational, ready turnwebsite: out Price: $9,995,000 Call for a brochure or view ontomy www.ranchesnm.com pastures and two smaller pastures. Acreage includes 2,185 with no start up costs. Watered with six wells and an extensive COCHISE RANCH – Ranch property located just west of Roswell, NMalong along and adjacent toU.S. U.S. Highway 70/380 Ruidoso, COCHISE RANCH – Ranch property located just west of Roswell, NM Highway 70/380 totoRuidoso, deeded acresand andadjacent 320 NMtoState Lease acres. The Blackwater pipeline system. Ample big game hunting on the ranch to include NM.Comprised Comprisedofof6,607 6,607deeded deededacres acresand and80 80acres acresofofNM NMState StateLease Lease acres. Water is provided by three solar wells and pipelines. NM. acres. Water is provided by three solar wells and pipelines. Draw Ranch is adjacent to the Cochise Ranch, the two may be elk,Fenced mule deer, antelope and oryx.and Access the public landfor is registered intoseveral severalpastures pastures smallto traps suitable cattle operation. Improvements include two setsofofpens, Fenced into and small traps suitable for a aregistered cattle operation. Improvements sets $1,350,000include Call fortwo a brochure orpens, combined very easily. Price: limited with approximately 7,000$2,500,000 acres of private land gated and or view shop, and hay barn. Price: Call for a brochure my website: www.ranchesnm.com shop, and hay barn. Price: $2,500,000 Call for a brochure or view onon my website: www.ranchesnm.com view on my website: www.ranchesnm.com locked. The price includes all ranch vehicles and equipment. BLACKWATER DRAW RANCH Nicethe well improved ranchproperty propertylocated locatedjust just1515minutes minutesfrom fromdowntown downtownRoswell, Roswell,NM NM BLACKWATER Nice well improved The 100 Ranch hasDRAW had just RANCH two owners–– since 1940s. It is ranch KELLEY PECAN ORCHARD – 10.2guest acres with over 230 Barn, along andsouth south U.S. Highway 70/380. Improvements include custom designed rockhome, home, guesthouse, house, Quonset Barn, along ofofU.S. 70/380. Improvements a acustom designed rock Quonset one of aand kind. Co-listed withHighway Mossy Oak Properties NM Ranch &include matureand producing pecanpastures. trees located just west of Roswell, barns,LLC. andaPrice: agood good$11,000,000 setofofpipe pipepens. pens. Partitioned into twolarger largerpastures pastures twosmaller smaller Acreage includes 2,185deeded deeded barns, and set Partitioned into and two pastures. Acreage includes 2,185 Call for a brochure or two view on Luxury, NM.isArtesian water rights with one wellthe supplies irrigation acres and 320 NM State Lease acres. The Blackwater Draw Ranch adjacent to the Cochise Ranch, two may combined acres and 320 NM State Lease acres. The Blackwater Draw Ranch is adjacent to the Cochise Ranch, the two may bebecombined my website: www.ranchesnm.com water through a newly installed sprinkler system to the orchard. veryeasily. easily.Price: Price:$1,350,000 $1,350,000Call Callforfora abrochure brochureororview viewononmy my website: www.ranchesnm.com very website: www.ranchesnm.com include a large 5,400 square foot two story coloCOCHISE RANCH – Ranch property located justacres westwith of over 230Improvements KELLEY PECAN ORCHARD – 10.2 mature producing pecan treeslocated locatedjust westofof Roswell, KELLEY PECAN ORCHARD – 10.2 acres with over 230 nial mature pecan west Roswell, style producing residence that hastrees been featured injust Southern Living Roswell, NM along and adjacent to U.S. Highway 70/380 to NM. Artesian Artesian water water rights rights with with one one well well supplies supplies irrigation irrigation water through a newly installed sprinkler system tothe the NM. water through a newly installed sprinkler system to Magazine. This property is one of a kind. Call for an appointment Ruidoso, Comprised of include 6,607 deeded acres and 80square acres foot two orchard.NM. Improvements large 5,400 story colonial style residence that has beenfeatured featured orchard. Improvements include a alarge 5,400 square foot two story colonial style residence that has been inin Price: $975,000 Call for a to take a look or for a color brochure. of Southern NM State Lease acres. WaterThis is provided solar LivingMagazine. Magazine. propertybyisisthree oneof ofa awells kind.Call Callbrochure totake takea www.ranchesnm.com alook lookororforfora acolor colorbrochure. brochure. Southern Living This property one kind. forforananappointment orappointment view on mytowebsite: andPrice: pipelines. FencedCall into several pastures and small traps $975,000 brochure view my website:www.ranchesnm.com www.ranchesnm.com Price: $975,000 Call forfora abrochure ororview ononmy website: CONTACT CONTACT
BarEstate M Bar M RealEstate Real
Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker ScottMcNally, McNally, Qualifying Broker Scott Qualifying Broker Bar M Real Estate, LLC P.O. Box 428, Roswell, NM 88202 Roswell, NM 88202 Roswell, NM 88202 Office: 575-622-5867 Cell: 575-420-1237 Office:575-622-5867 575-622-5867 • Cell: 575-420-1237 Office: • Cell: 575-420-1237 www.ranchesnm.com
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O’NEILL O’NEILL LAND, LAND,llc llc P.O. P.O. BoxBox 145, Cimarron, Fax: 575/376-2347 145, Cimarron,NM NM87714 87714 •• 575/376-2341 575/376-2341 • •Fax: 575/376-2347 land@swranches.com land@swranches.com •• www.swranches.com www.swranches.com
WAGON MOUND MOUND RANCH, RANCH, Mora/ Mora/ Harding Counties, Counties, NM. 8,880.80 8,880.80 +/+/Harding Total Acres, Acres, aasubstantial substantial holding holding with with Total good good mix mix of of grazing grazing land land and andbroken broken country offrim riminto into Canadian River. country off Canadian River. Has Has modern water system located modern water system located 17 miles 17 east ofMound WagonoffMound off eastmiles of Wagon pavement pavement 3 miles onTwo county then 3 milesthen on county road. bedroad. Two bedroom historic house, room historic house, once a stage stop. once a stage Wildlife include Wildlife includestop. antelope, mule deer antelope, mule deer and some elk. and some elk. $2,710,000 $2,440,000 $2,710,000 $2,440,000 FRENCH TRACT FARM, 491.55 +/FRENCH TRACT FARM, 491.55 deeded acres, Colfax County, NM +/two deeded acres,gated Colfax County, NM two pivots, some pipe, 371 irrigation pivots, some shares in AVID,gated House,pipe, barn,371 closeirrito gation barn, exit 419shares off I25inonAVID, HWYHouse, 58. All in one close to exitparcel 419 offwith I25 access on HWY contiguous on58. all All in$700,000 one contiguous parcel with sides. access on all sides. $700,000 RATON MILLION DOLLAR VIEW, RATON MILLION DOLLAR VIEW, Colfax County, NM. 97.68 +/- deeded Colfax NM. 97.68 +/- deedacres inCounty, 2 parcels with excellent home, ed 2 parcels withmillion excellent big acres shop,inwildlife, a true dol-
$489,000. Also listed witha true the house home, big shop, wildlife, million dollar view at the of a private road. and one parcel for end $375,000 $489,000. listed with the house MIAMI 20 Also ACRES, Colfax County, NM and one2,715 parcelsqft for $375,000 quality adobe home, barn, MIAMI ACRES, Colfax County, NM grounds,20 fruit trees and mature trees. quality 2,715 sqft adobe barn, Extremely private setting. home, REDUCED grounds, andsee. mature trees. $355,000.fruit This trees is a must Also listed Extremely privatewith setting. with same house 10 +/-REDUCED deeded $355,000. This is a must see. Also listed acres for $310,000 with same house with 10 +/- deeded MAXWELL 19.50 ACRES, Colfax acres for $310,000 County, NM quality extensive remodMAXWELL 19.50 one ACRES, Colfax eled two bedroom, bathroom County, NM quality extensive remodhome with water rights, outbuildings eled two bedroom, one bathroom home for livestock in NE NM. Great south with water rights, outbuildings forfacliveing porch iced tea cooling stock in NE for NM.sipping Great south facing porch off sipping at 6,000iced ft elevation. Would for tea cooling off atmake 6,000 summer getaway winter ski ftgreat elevation. Would makeand great summer getaway and winter ski base. $270,000 base. $270,000
C O N TR A C TT C AG T RIN ND ON PCE
P E N D IN G
MORA +/- ACRES, ACRES, 12 12miles miles MORACOUNTY COUNTY160 160 +/south WagonMound, Mound,remote, remote, excelsoutheast east of of Wagon excellent good mix mixofofsub subirrigated irrigated lent solar solar well well good cabin.$154,000 $154,000 lar view at the end of a private road. and andrange. range. Small Small cabin.
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Livestock Market Digest
The Porsche of Beef “Consumers are willing to pay a high price for beef if it’s worth it every time” BY MORGAN MARLEY
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f USDA Choice were a basic Volkswagen, U.S. cattlemen should be producing the Audis and Porsches made by the same company. That’s according to Robbi Pritchard, speaking at the recent Midwest American Society of Animal Scientists’ Harlan Ritchie Symposium in Omaha. He was one of five who presented on evolving cattle production to align with consumer demands. Superior products require superior attention to detail, including shifting demand signals. “Those consumer preferences seem to be focused on the increased demand we’ve seen for the higher quality products,” Pritchard said. “And the wellbeing of the animals—which gets around to animal husbandry, our environmental impact and how well we manage though the entire supply chain.” Consumers have proven they’re willing to pay the “Porsche price,” but if the eating experience doesn’t match, then that brand of beef will get scratched off the buy-again list, he said. Generic cattle have limited potential in today’s branded and specialized marketplace, where the average load is 75 percent Choice or higher. That’s also the threshold for reward premiums.
Borrowed approach Learning from others can save a lot of time, worry and money. Take notes from hog farmers on replacement females, Pritchard suggested. “In the ’80s, swine producers started to receive letters from packers that their hogs no longer met market specs and they would not buy their hogs anymore,” he said. The problem? Lack of uniformity and quality in the sow herd. The quickest and most efficient way to make a turnaround was to buy commercial F1 females with a proven record of consistency. “We can do that in the cattle industry if we’re willing to take that step,” he said. Leading beef producers are there now, but many more would benefit by following
their lead. Maternal function and carcass quality can be delivered in one package with focused selection. But it doesn’t work if half of your steer calves have maternal sires and half have terminal sires. Humans have a competitive nature that drives toward “best,” whether that’s luxury cars or premium beef production. “If we’re building a Porsche, do we buy the cheapest brakes to put in it?” Pritchard asked. Unintended consequences proliferate when losing sight of the end goal. Cattlemen have built highly efficient cows. Commercial producers should focus on improving the bottom end of the herd for the fastest results. There are different ways to evaluate efficiency. Some compare weaning weights as a percent of cow weights. Others optimize carrying capacity, which keeps downward pressure on frame size. “Both of these select for smaller cows,” Pritchard said. “But in the end, we’re still trying to see how many servings of beef we can produce per cow per year.” That’s why he prefers to compare cows on their progeny’s hot carcass weight, times age at harvest, divided by cow body weight. Efficiency benefits the environment, too. Cattle used to enter the feedyard at 15 to 18 months of age, but today most Northern Plains cattle are harvested by then. “When feeder cattle go to the feedyard sooner and are harvested sooner, there’s less carbon footprint,” he said. Some consumers want grass-fed cattle and decreased greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously, Pritchard noted. But the longer an animal walks the earth, the larger its carbon footprint. “It just doesn’t fit,” he said, while allowing, “We still have to work on finding sustainable solutions.”
Breaking old habits As for the next challenge, Pritchard asked, “How can you build an entire pen of uniform feeder calves?” Start with how you want to market them and plan backward from there. Nothing holds more value
than a relationship with a cattle feeder to gauge genetic improvement needs in successive calf crops. “Having that relationship is when you get rewarded for it,” he said. All of it, starting with those first investments leading up to a breeding season that may include artificial insemination (AI). “If the AI sires have superior genetics and your cleanup bulls don’t, then you no longer have a uniform, superior calf crop,” Pritchard said. All bulls used have to meet at least average specs. The payback for that comes when the calves sell, whether at weaning, after backgrounding or through retained ownership. If we can break some old habits, he said, a uniform calf crop decreases the need for sorting and mixing into shared pens at the feedyard; if we do less of that, we will use less antibiotics. “When we co-mingle, it’s like daycare,” Pritchard said. No amount of vaccinations and health precautions can prevent disease in every animal. Technology has provided assistance in monitoring animals and streamlining chores, but he said it’s increasingly used as a substitute for choices and husbandry skills. Those require persistent practice. “Husbandry is kind of like marriage,” he said. Everyone has their own opinion on what makes a successful marriage, so “it’s really hard to define the good ones.” Animal welfare is the biggest concern from consumers, and husbandry is a key component. Technology and husbandry intermix during heat detection, Pritchard said. He noted a commonly listed advantage of timed AI is that it eliminates the need to identify which cows are in heat. “But,” he asked, “if we are challenged to find help that can recognize estrus, how capable are we of identifying early signs of illness in feeder cattle? There’s more to raising a good steak than what meets the eye. It has to have superior attention from first plans to the dinner table.
April 15, 2020
Farm Credit of NM to Distribute $11.8 Million Dollars to Customers
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s a farmer-owned cooperative, we know that a little extra capital can make a big difference in operations of New Mexico’s farmers and ranchers. Patronage allows us to give back a portion of what we earn directly to those who deserve it most. Farm Credit of New Mexico, is pleased to announce the distribution of $11.8 million dollars in cash patronage to be paid to Stockholders by March 31, 2020. The patronage payment is based on each Stockholder’s average loan balance during 2019. This cash distribution effectively reduces member interest rates by approximately 0.75%. Patronage is one of the unique benefits of being a Farm Credit of New Mexico customer. Farm Credit of New Mexico is farmer and rancher owned since 1916, as a customer, you are an owner, and owners get their share of the profits. Since
the inception of the Patronage Program in 2005, $119.5 million dollars has been given back by Farm Credit of New Mexico. Alan Feit, Farm Credit of New Mexico’s President/CEO stated, “As a cooperative, our patronage program is something we are very proud of.” He continued saying “Our focus remains on the success of New Mexico Agriculture. In these challenging times, the longevity and consistency in our patronage program shows the strength and dedication of the Association.” About Farm Credit of New Mexico: Farm Credit of New Mexico is a full service Ag lender, providing agricultural real estate loans, operating loans, equipment and livestock loans, rural home loans, and crop hail and multi-peril insurance to New Mexico farmers and ranchers. Visit us online at www.farmcreditnm.com.
Cattle U Comes to Dodge City, Kansas July 29 & 30
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he High Plains Journal is once again hosting a twoday learning opportunity, Cattle U & Trade Show, July 29 and 30 at the United Wireless Arena, Dodge City, Kansas. The event will feature keynote sessions and breakouts aimed at cow-calf, stocker and feeder producers. Sessions will provide practical, actionable, information on topics such as: animal health, genetics, marketing, nutrition, reproduction, forage and range management, finance and more. One of the first confirmed speakers is Brandi Buzzard Frobose, a Kansas rancher, blogger and communications professional who was named National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s 2019 Advocate of the Year. Frobose writes about her family and their Kansas ranch on her blog, “Buzzard’s Beat.” She connects with readers by sharing stories about raising cattle and starting a ranch with her husband, raising their young daughter, and more. Frobose will keynote the first day of Cattle U, as well as conduct a breakout session on advocacy methods for today’s cattlemen. Another confirmed speaker will be Dave Nichols, owner of Nichols Farms in southwest Iowa. The Nichols family markets bulls, semen and embryos
throughout the world. Dave Nichols will speak to the importance of using every tool available to today’s cattle producers in order to make the best herds even better. The two-day program will feature keynote speakers each day, breakout sessions, a trade show, and a special social event planned exclusively for Cattle U attendees July 29 at the Dodge City Roundup Arena prior to the Roundup Rodeo performance. Rodeo tickets are available as an add-on to registration for $19 for adults 13 and older and $10.25 for children 12 and under. Attendee registration is now open at www.cattleu.net. An Early Bird Discount rate of $85 is good through April 30. Regular registration price starting May 1 will be $135 per person. Cattle U Trade Show space is currently available, but filling up quickly. Exhibitors have the opportunity to save 20 percent on booth space rates until April 30 as well. To inquire about how your company can exhibit at this premier educational event for cattle producers, contact Zac Stuckey at 316-516-3670 or zstuckey@hpj.com. For more event information and to see the general schedule at a glance, visit www.cattleu. net.
Texas Supreme Court Ruling in Spider Bite Case Important for Rural Landowners BY TIFFANY DOWELL LASHMET / TEXAS AGRICULTURE LAW BLOG/ FACEBOOKTWITTEREMAIL
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he Texas Supreme Court recently issued an opinion in a case involving a spider bite. That may sound strange, but it is an important case for rural landowners when it comes to liability for injuries caused by wild animals.
Background Mr. Hillis owns a bed and breakfast in Fredericksburg that he uses mostly for weekend rentals. He also owns a cabin on the property. Hillis leased the cabin to Mr. McCall and McCall offered to “open up” the bed and breakfast building for guests and others needing access such as maintenance workers. On December 12, 2014, McCall went continued on page nine
April 15, 2020
Livestock Market Digest
Baxter BLACK ON THE EDGE OF COMMON SENSE www.baxterblack.com
Brushes With Fame
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ver the years I have gotten to know, or meet or hang out with, what I call ‘famous people’. From movie stars, politicians, world champions, athletes, writers and moguls. Often it was just circumstance. Other times it was an intentional connection. Like being invited to be on ABC’s first DOLLY PARTON SHOW. What I remember is how small she was in person and how she could play guitar with such long fingernails. She was also very kind to Little Richard, who couldn’t get his song right
after 25 takes! Or when I sent the manuscript of my first novel, “HEY COWBOY, WANNA GET LUCKY?” to five authors I most admired’ Tom Robbins, Thomas McGuane, Hunter S. Thompson, Dan Jenkins and John Nichols. I didn’t realize the disposition of unsolicited manuscripts…the trash can! But…Tom Robbins (“EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES”) wrote me back, quoted me to myself and gave me his agent! I took a shot in the dark and gave the Sunbeam Clipper salesman a cas-
sette of songs I’d written because he claimed he knew Lynn Anderson. Months later, Red Steagall…the real Red Steagall, called me and said he liked one of my songs. He didn’t know about Lynn Anderson but he said the Sunbeam clipper salesman gave it to him. Red has become one of my best friends. He introduced me to Reba McEntire when she was driving a Chevy van with a pick-up band. They did a show together in Ft. Worth Stockyard. I held her horse. Jack, Red’s bus driver, got to hold Red’s horse. Jack claimed to be the cowboy in Gordon Snidow’s Coors painting. Gordon denied it. Ed Bruce (wrote “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys”), took pity on me. He got me on the Ralph Emery Show. After the show we went to dinner. They asked if there’s anything else that could make it better. I said it would be nice if somebody famous would record one of my songs. His wife said, “Every poet thinks he’s a songwriter, every songwriter thinks he’s a singer, ever singer thinks he’s an actor…why can’t you just be
Page 9
happy with what you’re good at!” I walked into a restaurant in Denver, and saw Denny Gentry, the man who literally made team roping the most popular rodeo sport in the world! He drew out his plan for the USTRC on an envelope. “Whattya think?” he asked. I said that I didn’t think any two team ropers could ever agree on something that good and walked off. He sold it for multiple millions 20 years later. So…when Patrick Gottsch (inventor of the RFDtv empire) called me up and described his vision for an all agriculture/rural television network, I listened. He told me what he needed from me. I asked if this was a payin’ job. He said, “No, but it will be good for your career!” I said, “Sign me up.” RFDtv has changed agricultural marketing and become the ‘party line” for ag neighbors across the country and I’m a part of it! Walt Garrison, Dallas Cowboy professional football player and rodeo champion, does my poetry. According to his daughter, Slim Pickens reads my column, Ty Murray did one of my
poems at Freckles Brown’s funeral, Senator Conrad (ND) read one into the Congressional Record, Tom Daschle (SD) Speaker of the US House of Representatives, asked me to do public service spots after the blizzard of ’97. I’ve changed John Malone’s tire on his ranch in Raton, NM. He’s the biggest landholder in the U.S., I made Johnny Carson laugh, roped with Fred Whitfield (he laughed!), I get my blood sugar evaluations from Wilfred Brimley, I’ve traded horses with Larry Mahan, been recorded by Ian Tyson, been quoted by Sandra Day O’Connor, Paul Harvey and Charles Krauthamer (in his last book) and shared a champagne glass with Casey Tibbs sittin’ by a campfire at two o’clock in the morning…just me and him. Those of you who have watched the movie “Forrest Gump” remember him as a just a regular guy who seemed to pop up in photos with presidents, performers and kings at hangings, earthquakes and county fairs. I really liked that movie, I can relate to ol’ Forrest.
SPIDER BITE into the bed and breakfast building for Hillis to check the dishwasher and to determine if the sink was leaking. While doing so, McCall was bitten by a brown recluse spider. McCall has previously noted spiders in the house and reported this to Hillis. Hillis, in turn, passed this information along to the housekeeper who prepared the bed and breakfast for guests and she would set off a “bug bomb” to deal with any insects when prepping the bed and breakfast for guests. No guest had ever complained of insects in their reviews of the bed and breakfast. Neither Hillis nor McCall knew of any brown recluse spiders on the property.
Litigation McCall filed a premises liability suit against Hillis. McCall argued that the spider was an unreasonably dangerous condition, that Hillis knew or should have known of the spider, that Hillis owed a duty to McCall to warn or make safe the dangerous condition, that Hillis failed to do so, and that McCall suffered damages as a result. The trial court granted Hillis’ motion for summary judgment and dismissed the case based on the doctrine of ferae naturae finding that Hillis owed no duty to McCall with respect to wild animals he had neither introduced to nor harbored on the property. McCall appealed. The San Antonio Court of Appeals reversed, concluding that “McCall was bitten by a spider in an artificial structure and Hillis knew or should have known of an unreasonable risk of harm posed by spiders inside the bed and breakfast.” Hillis appealed.
Applicable Law When someone files suit against a property owner for injury caused by a condition on the land, the available legal claim is premises liability. The threshold question in any premises liability case is whether the landowner owed a duty to the injured person and, if so, what duty was
continued from page eight
owed. When the injured party is an invitee (a person entering the property for mutual benefit of themselves and the landowner), the landowner’s duty is to “make safe or warn against any concealed, unreasonably dangerous conditions of which the landowner is, or reasonably should be, aware but the invitee is not.” The duty does not include warning the invitee of hazards that are open and obvious. There is, however, an exception to this duty in situations involving wild animals. The doctrine of ferae naturae provides that “with certain exceptions, a premises owner generally owes no duty to protect invitees from wild animals on the owner’s property.” In these circumstances, a duty arises only if the landowner either (1) introduced non-indigenous animals to the area or affirmatively attracted the animals to the area; or (2) actually reduced indigenous wild animals to his or her possession or control. Lastly, there one additional exception to the doctrine of ferae naturae when artificial structures are involved. A landowner can be liable for wild animals found in structures or places where they are not normally found such as stores, hotels, apartments, or billboards, if the landowner knows or should have known of the unreasonable risk of harm posed by the animal on the premises and cannot expect patrons to realize the danger or guard against it. Essentially, this makes the ferae naturae doctrine inapplicable when the wild animals located inside an artificial structure and, instead, the general duty for invitees is applicable.
Texas Supreme Court Opinion The Texas Supreme Court reversed the San Antonio Court of Appeals decision and dismissed the case. [Read full opinion here.] Applying the law laid out above to the facts of this case, the Texas Supreme Court held that Hillis owed no duty to McCall. First, the general, intermittent presence of spiders did not
amount to Hillis having knowledge of an unreasonable risk of harm. Further, he had no reason to know that brown recluses, or any other venomous spiders, were inside his property. Although Hillis knew that brown recluses were indigenous to Texas, he did not know of any on his property or inside the house. Thus, he did not have knowledge of the brown recluse spiders, nor should he have had such knowledge under these facts. Second, the evidence shows that McCall and Hillis had identical knowledge of the presence of spiders on the property, both knowing that they had been seen inside the bed and breakfast periodically and neither knowing that the spiders present were venomous. The court stated that, even with regard to animals inside an artificial structure, it will “not impose a duty on a landowner to warn an invitee about something he already knows.” Based on this, the court reversed the Court of Appeals, and ordered judgment be entered in favor of Hillis.
Key Takaways First, this case illustrates the concept that a landowner is always at risk for lawsuit if someone is injured on the landowner’s property. This is why I always advise all landowners to carry liability insurance for all property. Liability insurance not only provides coverage for injuries falling under the policy terms, but also provides a defense to a landowner if a claim is made. This means that the insurance company would hire an attorney to represent the landowner in this type of litigation, in the insurance company’s own dime. This is extremely important and is a step that landowners should not overlook. Second, landowners should be aware of the duty owed to persons on their property, especially to invitees like Mr. McCall. A landowner has a duty to warn of unreasonable dangers that the landowner knows of or should know of with a reasonable inspection that would not be ob-
vious to the plaintiff. Thus, it is prudent to think about any potentially hidden dangerous conditions on one’s property and be sure to warn people about them or make them safe. Third, landowners should breathe easier knowing that there is generally no liability for wild animals on their property. Cases have applied this rule in cases involving spiders, snakes, wasps, ants, and scorpions, for example. Unless one of the exceptions above apply, landowners will generally not be liable for injuries caused by these animals. That said, however, landowners need to understand this doctrine is likely not applicable where the wild animal injures someone inside of an artificial structure. As noted above, the general duty would apply in that situation. Thus, if there are any artificial structures on a landowner’s property, the landowner should
be aware that he or she may be liable for wild animals found inside the structure and take proper precautions to ensure such animals are not present or, if they are present, to warn visitors about such animals. About the Texas Agriculture Law Blog: Welcome to the Texas Ag Law Blog! This blog is an outreach project of the Texas Agrilife Extension Service. The goal of this blog is to keep you up to date on various legal issues impacting Texas agriculture. We are specifically focused on water law, oil and gas law, leasing, property rights, right to farm statutes, and landowner liability. We hope to provide a variety of information from current news stories, to recent legal opinions, to the basics of various legal topics. This blog has been named one of the American Bar Association Top 100 “Blawgs” three years (2014, 2015, 2016).
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Livestock Market Digest
The View FROM THE BACK SIDE
Bartender, Another Corona Please BY BARRY DENTON
(The views expressed here are not necessarily the views of this publication.)
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uddenly, I find myself living in a world of chaos. We have a nationwide alert about the Coronavirus. Our government already has a good handle on it here, and is working all the time to take every precaution. They have given us some basic guidelines to keep it from
spreading and most sensible people have acted responsibly. Like any minor crisis some folks try hard to make it a major crisis. In Tucson, there was an incident of shoppers at night, carrying in suit cases at WalMart filling them with toilet paper, and running out without paying for them. You could then find the same toilet paper the next day at the local swap meet for $50 to $60 per package. Needless to say profiteering from a crisis is illegal and so is stealing. At that price, crime just
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might pay? Of course, what I want to know is how much toilet paper is actually being bought up by tree huggers? Do they really think that toilet paper will save them from the Coronavirus? Boy, I sure hope this virus is over by Halloween or we won’t have anything to throw in the trees, especially at these prices. Then the tree huggers will have a new campaign to complain that only the rich will be able to celebrate Halloween. They may be canceling flights, sporting events, cruises, and concerts, but I know of no cowboy, ranch, or farmer that has shut down. Can you imagine that? It just goes to show who is truly important in this country and who isn’t. Stop and think of Hollywood, and the sports players. They are pretty useless entities right now, so why pay them? I’m just wondering why ranchers, cowboys, farmers, doctors, and nurses aren’t making the big bucks instead. Maybe it’s time that we rethought our system and who makes what? Oh, and lets not forget the lumberman and paper mill workers that bring us toilet paper. Pretty soon, maybe by next week, you will see toilet paper listed right up there with gold and silver. I guess the good thing about being involved with agriculture is that you are probably not located in a heavily populated area. Because of that, you just don’t have the logistics for a lot of socializing. Many of your city dwelling acquaintances think you are
April 15, 2020 non-social to begin with. It’s just not an inconvenience, not to go to a big gathering of people. My nearest neighbor is three miles away and that’s close enough. I never understood folks that wanted to live close enough that they could look into their neighbor’s window. Just notice what happens when you put a bunch of cattle in a small corral. They just start to fuss and fight with each other. Put them in a big pasture and they become the best of friends. I have never seen cattle in a big pasture fight over hoof sanitizer. I was reading an article in “The Daily Tennessean” about a guy that made a 1000 mile road trip buying up toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I think he spent about $17,000 on these two supplies. Then he came home and listed these items for sale at huge prices on eBay and Amazon. The companies were sharp enough to shut him down. I guess now he has to sell out of his home. Profiteering is nothing new, and many a fortune has been made. However, he should have known better. The latest political trends are pretty interesting and politicians seem to have it in for the rural folks. Number one, I think rural folks should get an entirely different set of rules to live by in the first place. Almost nothing that happens on a regular basis in town ever applies to rural areas and vice versa. Yet, these city slicker politicians just want to control everyone. I’m convinced that when they raise taxes they don’t have a clue that they just raised
taxes on themselves as well. For instance, in our county the have been pushing for a tax to pay for a new jail here in our city of Prescott, Arizona. They put it on the ballot twice, and twice it was voted down handily. Then the county board of supervisors took it upon themselves to get the money for the new jail by raising everyone’s property tax by 18.7 percent. Talk about outrageous! Basically the supervisors who are supposed to work for the tax payers, just kicked them all in the teeth and said, “We know better than you stupid tax payers.” Keep in mind these were alleged REPUBLICAN supervisors. The denigration of our political parties is very evident here in Arizona and across the United States. In my book the Democrat Party have become the Communist Party, the Republican Party has become the Liberal Party, and Conservatives are the only ones staying back on the ranch and actually working to improve the agricultural way of life. In Arizona we have a Republican Legislature & Governor that a short time ago voted for the agenda of the teacher’s union, and now are trying to push through a huge fuel tax. Can you think of one way that a fuel tax will help ranchers and farmers? I can’t. Maybe the good thing that will come out of the Coronavirus is it will delay that vote. However, I did hear that politicians are hoarding more toilet paper than anyone. How’s it going in your area?
DEP Denies Permit Critical to Ellsworth Dam License Renewal BY STEPHEN RAPPAPORT / WWW. ELLSWORTHAMERICAN.COM
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he Maine Department of Environmental Protection last Friday denied the application by Black Bear Hydro Partners for a Water Quality Certification required for the relicensing and continued operation of its dams on the Union River. DEP’s denial was based on results of water tests submitted to DEP by Brookfield as part of its application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for renewal of the licenses for dams on Graham Lake and Leonard Lake. According to the DEP decision, the application was denied “because there is a reasonable assurance” that continued operation of the dams “will violate applicable state water quality standards” in both Graham Lake and in the Union River above the Ellsworth dam. Among its findings, DEP determined that the fluctuation in water levels in Graham Lake was too large “to support the structure and function of the residential biological community” not just the fish that inhabit the lake but also insects and other elements of the aquatic habitat. The state’s action may delay Brookfield’s application to FERC, but the company isn’t folding its tent and going away. “Black Bear Hydro, a subsidiary of Brookfield Renewable, is actively evaluating the
best path forward in obtaining a Water Quality Certification for the Ellsworth Project,” Miranda Kessel, the company’s manager for stakeholder relations, said in an email Monday morning. “While we recognize this is a temporary setback, we will continue working to reach the end goal of renewing Ellsworth’s FERC license.” One way the company may try to accomplish that end is through the courts. In a statement released last week, Dwayne Shaw, executive director of the Downeast Salmon Federation said, “Sadly, we can expect Brookfield to appeal this decision in state court, and potentially ask FERC to intervene to allow Brookfield to prolong the process and delay the time when Brookfield must stop status quo operations.” In reaching its decision, DEP noted several deficiencies in the way Black Bear/ Brookfield has operated the Ellsworth hydroelectric project and its plans for continued operation. The so-called “Ellsworth Project” has an enormous environmental footprint, with a drainage area of about 547 square miles. The dam impounds a small portion of the Union River, forming the milelong Leonard Lake, which has a surface area of 90 acres at its normal maximum elevation with about 4.4 miles of shoreline. Ten-mile-long Graham Lake has a normal maximum surface area of approximately
10,000 acres and 80 miles of shoreline, excluding islands. According to the Brookfield application, Graham Lake stores about 5.4 billion cubic feet of water. Brookfield keeps water levels in the lake between 93.4 feet and 104.2 feet above sea level with water drawn down in summer and fall, and sometimes more extensively in winter months, to power the hydroelectric turbines at the Ellsworth dam as well as providing significant flood control benefits. State law requires that the waters of Graham Lake and the Union River meet certain standards necessary to support a wide variety of aquatic life and human usage. DEP has established a number of measurable scientific criteria to determine whether those requirements are met. “We as a state and a society determined these standards are necessary,” Brett Ciccotelli, a biologist for the Downeast Salmon Federation, said Monday. “The vital signs aren’t being met because of the two dams and the way they’re operated.” “Maine DEP did the right thing here,” Shaw said. “The DEP should be applauded for scrupulously following Maine law to ensure that our rivers and lakes are protected. Brookfield left DEP no choice but to deny certification, since Brookfield’s own tests and our documentation demonstrated these water quality violations.”
April 15, 2020
Livestock Market Digest
EIA Releases April’s U.S. Short-Term Energy Outlook US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Administrator, Dr. Linda Capuano, issued the following comments about the April 2020 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).
Global liquid fuels “Significant disruptions to the global economy and reduced travel related to COVID-19 led EIA to lower expected demand growth for 2020. EIA estimates that consumption of global petroleum and liquid fuels in the first quarter fell by 5.6 million barrels per day compared with the same period last year. We forecast liquid fuels demand will decrease by 5.2 million barrels per day in 2020 before increasing by 6.4 million barrels per day in 2021.” “EIA expects global liquid fuels inventories to grow by an average 3.9 million barrels per day in 2020 as a result of widespread travel limitations and sharp reductions in economic activity. EIA estimates that global petroleum inventories will increase an average of 11.4 million barrels per day during the second quarter of 2020, which would be the largest rate of inventory increases on record.” “EIA expects large stock builds will put downward price pressure on crude oil prices for several months. Brent crude oil prices averaged $32 dollars per barrel in March, the lowest monthly average since January 2016. We expect prices will fall further during the second quarter before increasing to $30 per barrel in the second half of 2020.”
U.S. liquid fuels “EIA forecasts that the United States will again become a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products during the third quarter of 2020 and in most months through 2021. We expect net crude oil imports to increase as U.S. crude oil production declines and fewer barrels are available for export. Net exports of petroleum products are expected to be lowest in the third quarter of 2020, when
U.S. refinery runs decline in response to lower demand for refined products.” “We expect the biggest effect of COVID-19 related restrictions on U.S. liquid fuels demand will occur in the second quarter of 2020 before gradually dissipating over the next year and a half as normal travel and business activity slowly recover. U.S. motor gasoline consumption will reach some of the lowest levels in 20 years in the second quarter of 2020. Diesel fuel consumption should only see minor decreases as long-haul trucking and last-mile delivery demand rise in the near term.” “Significant reductions in personal travel, both for normal commuting and vacation travel typical for the summer driving season, will cause gasoline prices to decrease more dramatically than diesel fuel prices. U.S. regular gasoline retail prices will average $1.86 per gallon and gasoline retail prices for all grades will average $1.97 per gallon in 2020. Diesel fuel prices should only see minor decreases as long-haul trucking and last-mile delivery demand rise in the near term.” “The EIA April forecast of U.S. crude oil production is lower than the March forecast as a result of lower crude oil prices. We forecast U.S. crude oil production will be 0.5 million barrels per day lower in 2020 compared with 2019, and we expect a further decline in 2021.”
Natural gas “Warmer-than-normal March temperatures reduced demand for space heating in the United States, keeping natural gas prices at historically low levels. We expect prices to rise in the second quarter of 2020. As a result of the warmer weather and a weaker economic outlook, we expect residential and commercial consumption of natural gas in 2020 to fall six and seven percent, respectively, from 2019.” “We estimate that U.S. working natural gas storage ended March 17% higher than
the previous five-year average (2015–2019).”
Coal “In the April outlook, we forecast that U.S. coal production in 2020 will decrease 22 percent from 2019 as a result of less demand for coal in the electric power sector, less demand for U.S. coal exports, and a reduced number of operating coal mines because many have idled as a result of COVID-19 related slowdowns. Consumption will decrease by 19 percent in 2020, driven primarily by a forecast 20% decrease in electric power sector demand.”
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nvironmental and animal rights-oriented investment network FAIRR (Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return) has created what it says is a financial tool for measuring the costs of climate change, and predicts the meat industry could lose “billions,” the organization said in a news release posted on its website. The Coller FAIRR Climate Risk Tool is designed to quantify potential downside risks and upside opportunities for meat companies in a scenario of 2°C of global warming. The tool is based on scenario analysis aligned with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The model finds that the likely physical im-
Rep. Smith Urges USDA to Act Quickly to Help Struggling Cattle Producers BY ROBERT PORE / THEINDEPENDENT.COM/REP. ADRIAN SMITH, R-NEB., 3RD DISTRICT
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epresentative Adrian Smith, Nebraska’s 3rd District, has joined with the rest of the Nebraska delegation and more than 100 other members of Congress in urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement assistance as soon as possible to help cattle producers affected by the coronavirus outbreak. “During the COVID-19 outbreak, we have seen firsthand the importance of food
production and how much we rely on our producers,” Smith said. Cattle producers play a critical role in feeding our nation, he said, but are now having to weather low prices and market volatility, among other constraints. “We owe a great deal of thanks to our producers for feeding America,” Smith said. “It is now our turn to provide the assistance they need during this unprecedented time.” He said Phase III of the fedcontinued on page twelve
Electricity generation “The economic slowdown and stay-at-home orders will likely affect U.S. electricity consumption over the next few months, with the largest impact occurring in the commercial sector because of business closures. We also estimate that sales of electricity to industry will fall as factories cut back production. In the residential sector, reduced power usage resulting from milder winter and summer weather will offset increased household electricity consumption as people stay at home.” “EIA forecasts that total U.S. generation will decline by three percent in 2020. EIA expects renewable generation will account for most new generating capacity in 2020. Renewable generation will grow by 11 percent in 2020 as fossil fuel generation declines.” “The resulting economic slowdown related to COVID-19 will likely impact new renewable generating capacity builds in the short term. We have lowered our 2020 estimates for annual wind and solar capacity additions by 5 and 10%, respectively, from last month’s forecast.”
Emissions “EIA forecasts that energy-related CO2 emissions will decrease by 7.5 percent in 2020 as the result of the slowing economy and restrictions related to COVID-19.”
Financial Tool Predicts Billions in Losses for Meat Industry. NOT! MEATINGPLACE, BY LISA M. KEEFE
Page 11
pacts of climate change and rapid growth of alternative proteins will put billions of dollars at risk for current food sector giants such as Tyson Foods and JBS, suppliers to household names such as McDonald’s, Walmart, Burger King and Marks & Spencer, the release said. The model identifies seven key risks to meat sector profitability, including the increased cost of electricity due to carbon pricing, higher costs of feed due to poor crop yields and increased livestock mortality due to heat stress. It forecasts that, by 2050, alternative proteins such as plantbased burgers will command at least 16% of the current meat market, rising to a projected 62 percent, based on technology adoption rates, consumer trends and a carbon tax on meat, among others.
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Livestock Market Digest
April 15, 2020
Value-Based Marketing Comes to Feeder Cattle BY MARK MCCULLY/ AMERICAN ANGUS ASSOCIATION
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here was a time in our industry when all beef was valued at the same price. Then along came the USDA grading system. It was originally developed to make sure our troops were getting high-quality meat, but it has evolved into a system of grades and brands that predict yield, consistency and consumer eating satisfaction. The marketplace has adjusted. Today the value of a 900-pound (lb.) USDA Prime carcass can easily bring $400 more than a similar carcass grading USDA Select. That difference in beef value has driven the change in how packers buy cattle. At one time all fed cattle were valued at the same live price per pound. Today we predominantly see value-based systems and grids that reflect real
carcass value spreads, and that price cattle accordingly. The evolution of value-based marketing is now more prominent with feeder cattle. Applying an individual animal pricing system based on meat price is fairly simple for finished cattle. The cattle are harvested, individually graded and value is assigned. For feeder cattle, it’s not quite that simple. A 500-lb. steer is 200 to 300 days away from being finished. A lot can happen in that time to affect carcass value. One thing we do know is 30 to 40 percent of the variation we see in carcass value is due to genetics. By knowing both the breed and the genetic merit for carcass traits, cattle feeders can have a much better idea of how a set of feeder cattle will grade in the end. Beyond carcass merit, knowledge about performance and feed efficiency has incredible value to a feeder. Again, those traits that
are highly heritable and, therefore, highly influenced by genetics. As more genetic information on sets of feeder cattle is made available, we see more value-based pricing in the market. Historically, feeder-calf values have been based on a host of factors — weight, freight, gender, health and vaccinations, weaned status, flesh, breed, and hide color — to name a few. Those factors will continue to be important, but we now see significant premiums being paid for documentation of genetics, source, age, breed and management practices like no use of antibiotics or hormones. With this changing marketplace, programs have emerged that document and communicate this value to take the guesswork out of predicting the genetic merit of feeder cattle. Buyers are responding accordingly and are able to more accurately value the
cattle they want and, on the flip side, those they don’t. Taking advantage of programs that provide documentation allows commercial cattlemen to separate their calves from the commodity mix. To meet this evolving market dynamic and help producers get paid for the value they’ve added, the American Angus Association provides AngusLinkSM. AngusLink is a USDA Process Verified Program (PVP) that can verify age and source, Angus-sired genetics (ASG), non-hormone treated cattle (NHTC), never-ever 3 (NE3) for natural programs, cattle care and handling, and calf management. In addition to the PVPs, AngusLink has an optional Genetic Merit Scorecard® that producers can use in marketing or to benchmark the genetic progress of their herd. Most recently, AngusLink has entered into a service partnership with EarthClaims LLC to be able to
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add GAP (Global Animal Partnership) certification in a convenient and cost-effective way. A changing marketplace calls for a change in mindset. More than ever, documenting the genetics you have and verifying management practices pays off. AngusLink is a program that enables cattlemen to advance their marketing and elevate their cattle above the commodity mix while reaching an expanded buyer base and attracting more bids. The AngusLink team consists of cattle people who understand your business, speak your language and are there to answer your questions and help you be more successful. The marketplace is changing. Don’t get left behind.
USDA continued from page eleven eral government’s COVID-19 response, known as the CARES Act, which was recently signed into law by President Trump, provides $9.5 billion in emergency funding and replenishes the Commodity Credit Corp. for agricultural producers impacted by COVID-19, including livestock producers.In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Smith and the other representatives said producers are facing market volatility. ”While we do not know what the full market impact will be for the various commodities produced in our states, we recognize that there is an immediate need for assistance for our cattle producers,” Smith and the others wrote. Smith’s Congressional District is the largest cattle-producing, cattle-feeding and processing district in the country. Nebraska’s cattle complex is a $12 billion annual industry. According to CoBank, a member of the Farm Credit System, the U.S. cattle industry has seen a swift and sharp decline in the last month following the drop in global equities and oil prices. CoBank reports that since mid-January, April live cattle futures have fallen by approximately 25 percent. “The beef complex profit pool is shifting in favor of packers at the cost of lower feeding margins. The loss of restaurant and food service customers due to COVID-19 will test beef prices this spring,” CoBank wrote. Smith and the others are requesting the USDA consider data and estimates available from the Office of the Chief Economist and implement a program that would directly respond to the negative effect on producers. “This program should deliver targeted, temporary, equitable relief to cattle producers in a manner that limits market distortions and negative effects on price discovery,” Smith and the others told Purdue. The representatives said that the COVID-19 outbreak has “demonstrated the need for domestic food security.“ “All farmers and ranchers are vital to our country’s ability to keep food on the table in a future pandemic or related crisis, and many producers, including young producers, are often highly leveraged and cannot fall back on years of equity in a time of crisis,” they wrote. ”As such, we urge you to quickly deliver relief to producers as we work to lessen the economic impact of this pandemic.”