Auctioneer, rancher, horse breeder, pilot, Dean Parker passed away peacefully at home August 20, 2009, due to heart failure at the age of 78. Mr. Parker served the Pacific Quarter Horse Association (PCQHA) for many years as a member of the board and as auctioneer for all the PCQHA auction sales for many years.

The market for yearling feeder cattle has stayed quite strong this summer and has appeared to trade without much of a freight basis. For example, 850-pound steers in Nevada are trading at or near the same price as they are in eastern Wyoming.

Most of tax law is in grey areas. For instance, reasonable people, including those within the IRS bureaucracy, will disagree on what constitutes an ordinary and necessary business expensea big area of tax deductions. Another area concerns whether litigation proceeds to compensate for damages to farm or ranch property constitute taxable income.

In food production, things are never the same because many variables come into play on a daily basis. The other day I noticed the raspberry bushes were full of raspberries. Most would say that they are supposed to be. However, the real answer is that the raspberries are not supposed to be there because the birds always eat them.

The Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is all of a sudden getting reacquainted with the cattle industry and has been very aggressive checking up on auction markets and cattle dealers. For many years, you could go on their Web.

If you make a living on a ranch, thats a success. Just living on a ranch is a success. Heck, just taking one more breath can be a victory. Everybody is a winner, at least in some small way.

Four things beef producers might want to think about are food safety, seamless regionalized calf-tofeedlot health connectivity, implementation of improved RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, and value capture for the producer. Realized or not, these four points have a significant impact on the beef industry.

Food safety has been getting a lot of attention lately. In response to the peanut butter, pistachio, and toll house cookie recalls, the House Energy and Safety Committee has approved the Food Safety Enforcement Act of 2009 to strengthen and expand the U.

The new scores for beef cattle performance have just arrived. The scores are the annual North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement Association (NDBCIA) benchmark values gathered from producers utilizing the CHAPS (Cow Herd Appraisal Performance System) program.

JBS has been on a tear, growing their global red meat operation. Five years ago, this global powerhouse didnt exist; JBS was just another beef processor in Brazil. In three short years, they have invested over $3 billion in just the U.S. beef industry alone, purchasing Swift, Smithfield Beef and Five Rivers Cattle Feeding.