With salmonella-tainted ground turkey sickening more than 100 people and listeria-contaminated cantaloupes killing 15 this year, the ability to detect outbreaks of food-borne illness and determine their sources has become a top public health priority.

Sixty percent of the ecosystem services that all life depends on are being degraded and used in ways that cannot be sustained. This is the conclusion of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a scientific report about human interaction with the lands and waters of our world.

Livestock producers won a major court victory last week over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, LA. EPA had been seeking to require livestock operations which had the potential to discharge waste into waters of the U.S. to obtain a

One fundamental point often is overlooked among all the charts, trends and rhetoric about the beef business. The beef business does not exist without the business of the cow. The cow business is the foundation of the beef business. Without cows, there is no beef or beef business.

Sept. 27, Taylor, NE 13 Spring heifer calves .....$7,012 1 Flush ..................................7,500 2 Fall bred heifers ................8,000 28 Bred heifers ....................3,743 Auctioneer: Seth Weishaar.

Cattle producers from 29 states consigned over 148,000 head of stockers, feeders and bred stock to the Superior Livestock satellite video auction. The auction was held in and broadcast live from the Holiday Inn in Sheridan, WY. Due to the rise in market demand, all classes of cattle were $3-10 higher.

Taiwan health authorities will approve the application from a local beef importer to buy 453 kilograms (998.7 pounds) of U.S. beef offal as long as high-risk internal organs are not included in the shipment, the authorities said last week.

Black-and-white AG stickers are showing up on agricultural diesel vehicles around the state as farmers and ranchers take steps to comply with a new regulation by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to reduce emissions from diesel vehicles operating on California roadways.

Chandra Devine, a high school senior at Macksville High School in Seward, KS, has been named winner of the 2010 National Beef Industry Scholarship sponsored by CME Group and the National Cattlemens Foundation (NCF). Ten outstanding students pursuing careers in the beef industry have each been awarded $1,500 scholarships in the program.

These are not easy times for cattle feeders. A little extra information may be just whats needed to keep ahead of the feeding curve.