This research, which is being conducted by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at the agency’s Agroecosystems Management Research Unit in Lincoln, NE, supports the USDA priority of ensuring food safety. ARS is USDA’s chief intramural scientific research agency.

“That makes hay and forage, the basic feed for cattle, more valuable today, whether it is standing in the pasture, rolled into a bale or packed into a bunker,” says John Dhuyvetter, area Extension livestock specialist at North Dakota State University’s North Central Research Extension Center near Minot.

He has served two threeyear terms and is not eligible for re-appointment. The term for current member Dianne Kirkbride, range cattle representative, also expires on June 30, 2012. Kirkbride has served one three-year term and is eligible for re-appointment.

According to the report, all sheep and lamb inventories in the U.S. on Jan. 1, 2013, totaled 5.34 million head, down just 0.6 percent, or 30,000 head, from a year ago.

“Miles has been an icon in the cattle industry for more than 40 years,” says Guy Colyer. “Both Kyle and Katie, our grown children, graduated from Kansas State and they thought very highly of him as a professor and a mentor. Thus we named the bull after him.

All cattle and calves in the U.S. and Canada combined totaled 101.6 million head on Jan. 1, 2013, down 1 percent from the 103 million on Jan.1, 2012, according to a March 6, 2013, release by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, Agricultural Statistics Board, USDA.

USDA announced an interim rule that sets thresholds on the interest rates charged by lenders on guaranteed farm ownership and operating loans. The changes will amend guidelines for interest rates and establish new policies that clearly set the maximum interest rate lenders may charge to borrowers.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the country’s oldest and largest organization representing the cattle industry, has a strong presence across the country and ensures the forceful, unified voice of America’s beef producers is heard.

The new Medicare Contribution Tax, which is a tax on unearned income such as capital gains, will burden farmers and ranchers more than many other taxpayers because farming and ranching is a capital-intensive business, AFBF noted in a statement submitted to the House Subcommittee on Oversight of the Ways and Means Committee.

As part of its effort to promote beef to healthconscious consumers in the highly populated northeast corridor, the beef checkoff, through the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative (NEBPI), will participate in its sixth annual John Hancock Sports & Fitness Expo leading up to the 117th Boston Marathon.