Monday, Jan. 28, U.S. government officials announced Japan would ease age restrictions on beef imports from the U.S. This move has been long anticipated and the possibility has circulated since 2011. As of Friday, Feb. 1, beef from animals 30 months or younger could be exported to Japan, this limit up from the prior 20-month maximum.

is down 6 percent compared to last year’s Jan. 1 on-feed population of 11.86 million. Pre-report estimates had anticipated an on-feed level 95.6 percent of last year’s. The unrounded results were 94.4 percent, which was just within the low end of the pre-report estimate range.

A story akin to the old western tales of cattle rustlers is playing out in Missouri. Apparently, traitorous cowboys are turning on their fellow cattlemen and using their ranching skills for the dark side, stealing the best calves out from under their owners’ noses.

Cash cattle trade was sporadic and unusually distributed throughout last week, but at least trade wasn’t put off until Friday like in the past few weeks. Showlists were larger last week given the week-on-week buying apathy of packers in earlier weeks..

In the “border war”—crossing the border, that is—between federal veterinarians and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), one side has relented. The agency will not force current veterinary employees to cross the Mexican border to staff a new inspection facility there.

It’s been said so many times and in so many ways: ranchers must tell their story. It’s a necessary part of the job these days. But simply being told “tell your story” and hearing the importance of doing so isn’t very helpful. So here’s a bit of Communication 101 that might help you in telling your ranching story.

Friday, Jan. 11, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) submitted a proposal to list the Gunnison sage grouse as endangered under the ESA. Along with this listing proposal comes an astounding 1.7 million acres in western Colorado and the eastern edge of Utah proposed as critical habitat for the bird.

The most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report was issued by USDA on Friday, Jan 11. The report showed several good things for beef, such as increased production estimates and reduced import projections, and also a number of surprising things for corn.

The interplay between technology and trust is a delicate and important relationship, and one that is too often off balance in the conversation about beef. Our technology can feed the world, but the issue of trust in that technology needs more attention.

The designated acres come from all types of land— public federal and state, tribal, and private—and well exceed earlier amounts of land earlier designated as critical habitat. This move comes following a lawsuit from the Center for Biologic Diversity (CBD) and years of legal battles.