Last week, in a letter sent to National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) leaders, including President Steve Foglesong, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack expressed concerns over the proposed changes to NCBA’s governance structure and asked the group to

As the push for wind power has increased nationwide, windmills have become a common sight on western horizons. Ranchers in various regions throughout the West now find themselves carefully weighing the option of leasing their land for wind development in order to increase

Herd health is key to a successful cattle operation. Just ask any cattleman. Bobby North, owner of North Farms in Ennis, TX, takes effective measures to protect and continue the success of his herd. About four years ago North started testing his bulls for the venereal disease Trichomoniasis,

First-quarter 2010 exports of U.S. beef increased 25 percent from 2009. This growth largely stems from the increasing U.S. sales in several Asian markets, namely in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Firstquarter 2010 exports to Japan and South Korea improved 30 and 9 percent, respectively, above yearearlier levels.

Trying to spur some new blood in farming and ranching, USDA rolled out a program recently to encourage retiring landowners with land leaving the Conservation Reserve Program to sell or rent that land to a beginning or socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher.

Amanda Zamudio of Elfrida, AZ, was recently selected to serve as the 2011 Arizona National Livestock Show Ambassador. Zamudio begins her yearlong term in May. She is currently entering her senior year at the University of Arizona (UA) majoring in Animal Science with a minor in Agriculture Education.

Although the federal estate tax law is currently in congressional limbo, its still important to plan for your farms succession. For those who die in 2010, Congress has eliminated the federal estate taxjust for one year.

The federal TB program recently relaxed the rules for movement in a TB Modified Accredited Advanced Zone (MAAZ) to provide free-movement of unaffected cattle herds. Until this order was signed, a bovine TB test was required on all MAAZ cattle before crossing a federal zonal boundary, even if they were not near TB-infected wildlife.

The Choice-Select spread has been a leading indicator for decades, but a current analysis suggests it can mislead if taken at face value. A lot more commodity Choice came on just as the economy was closing the menu on middle-meat steaks cut from that commodity pool, which no longer represents much of an advantage over Select.

In a ruling last week, U.S. Federal District Court Judge Oliver Wanger, in Fresno, CA, found that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) restrictions on water pumping from the delta for irrigation and municipal water supplies was based on...