Live cattle saw some pushback in short-term contracts, but deferred contracts were slightly higher. Feeder cattle were higher as corn was down double digits. The Crop Progress report as of Sunday showed 72 percent of the corn crop was planted nationwide. Read more
Darrell Anderson of West Lafayette, IN, has been named the newest inductee of the prestigious Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Gallery. Anderson’s portrait will be hung in the historic gallery during the North American International Livestock Exposition on Nov. 13, 2022, in Louisville, KY. Read more
Whether Bermuda grass should be fertilized this year has been a frequently asked question over the past few months as we have seen fertilizer prices skyrocket to unprecedented levels. Read more
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said May 16 he is “more concerned” about what happens to this year’s grain crop in Ukraine than he is about whether the remainder of last year’s crop gets shipped out of the country. Read more
Jenny Ifft has a keen eye for the changing landscape in agricultural finance. An agricultural economist at Kansas State (K-State) University, Ifft is watching as nontraditional forms of lending slowly gain market share, increasing the options available for financing agriculture. Read more
The May USDA Crop Production report included hay stocks for the beginning of the hay crop year (May 1). Total U.S. hay stocks were down 6.9 percent year over year and are 15.1 percent below the 2012-21 average. Read more
Failure to take preventative action and plan ahead at early signs of drought can result in overgrazing damage to pastures, excessive feeding and herd liquidation. Read more
Kansas State (K-State) University veterinarian Gregg Hanzlicek said that a bacterial infection that causes lameness in calves could be decreasing the breeding effectiveness of the cow herd and costing producers profits. Read more
Kansas State (K-State) University fisheries and aquaculture specialist Joe Gerken said dead fish in a pond could be a result of algae that rob the pond of oxygen. Read more
Texas wildfires that ravaged the Eastland Complex, parts of the Panhandle and regions of Coryell County, encompassing 433,000 acres, have resulted in $23.1 million in preliminary agricultural loss estimates, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economists. Read more
A total of 17 state attorneys general from Republican states announced a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allowing California to set its own vehicle emissions standards. Read more
In early May, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) signed into law Senate Bill 261, which would prohibit the use of meat terms on “fake meat” products when the labels do not properly indicate that the product does not contain meat. Read more
A proposed 500,000-square-foot beef processing plant in Warren County, MO, has faced setbacks from residents who have raised concerns about negative impacts on the area. Read more
The California Coastal Commission has rejected Poseidon Water’s plans to build a seawater desalination plant in Huntington Beach, CA. Read more
Colorado producers may no longer utilize rubber bullets as a hazing measure against wolves in the state. Read more
It was a difficult decision, but it had to be made. After 100 years of publishing the Western Livestock Journal and turning 65, I made the decision to sell WLJ. It took me a long time to rationalize this decision, but I’m good with it in my heart and soul.
I spent some time in Arizona recently trying to gain a little knowledge at the Arizona Cattle Industry Research and Education Foundation symposium. This was the third symposium the group has hosted to teach ranchers about herd improvement and bull selection. In other words, how to turn rocks into greenbacks.
