News Update
Nov. 16, 2010

Delegates Elect Angus Board Members

American Angus Association delegates elected five members to its Board of Directors Monday, Nov. 15 at the 127th Annual Convention of Delegates in Louisville, Ky.

Newly elected Board Directors include: Leo McDonnell Jr., Columbus, Mont.; John Pfeiffer, Orlando, Okla.; Kevin Yon, Ridge Spring, S.C; and John Harrell, Opelika, Ala. Jim Rentz, Coldwater, Ohio, was elected to a second term on the Board.

Joe Hampton, Mount Ulla, N.C., was elected the American Angus Association president and chairman of the board. He succeeds Bill Davis, Sidney, Mont.

Jarold Callahan, Edmond, Okla., was chosen by delegates to serve as vice president and vice chairman of the board. Phil Trowbridge, Ghent, N.Y., will serve as treasurer for the year.

More than 350 elected delegates from 43 states and Canada represented American Angus Association members and conducted the business of the Association during the annual meeting and election. The meeting was at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in conjunction with the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) Super-Point Roll of Victory (ROV) Angus Show. Read more.

Live Call-In Show on GIPSA Rule to be Featured on RFD-TV

Discussion on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) proposed rule on livestock and poultry marketing has created controversy in the agricultural industry. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) television program, Cattlemen to Cattlemen, is hosting a live episode Tues., Nov. 16, featuring numerous experts explaining the impact of the rule, proposed June 22 by USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), on the cattle industry. The show will provide an opportunity for viewers to ask questions and express their own opinions.

Panelists for the live call-in show, to be broadcast on RFD-TV from the NCBA’S Cattlemen to Cattlemen studios in Denver starting at 8:30 p.m. EST, will include Allie Devine, vice president and general counsel for the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA); Stephen Koontz, associate professor at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Colorado State University; David Hunt, a Colorado feedyard operator; Robbie LeValley, president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and co-owner of Homestead Meats; and Colin Woodall, NCBA vice president of government affairs. Viewers can ask questions to these panelists live on the air by calling: 1-888-824-6688.

Among the program’s specific topics will be studies that outline the economic impact on the beef industry if the rule is implemented.

“Because the USDA has refused to conduct an economic impact study, it has been left to industry to determine what kinds of costs this rule might have,” says Steve Foglesong, an Illinois beef producer and president of the NCBA. “Producers have a right to know what these studies show.”

The comment period on the proposed USDA rule, which has the potential to significantly change the way cattle are marketed in this country, ends Nov. 22. Foglesong said the live broadcast will go beyond the rhetoric to provide details about what the regulation means.

The live program will be re broadcast on RFD-TV Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 10:30 a.m. EST and Saturday, Nov. 20, at 9 a.m. EST. In addition, all episodes of NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen are available on the program’s website at www.cattlementocattlemen.org. The program is also on Facebook and can be followed on Twitter.

— Release by NCBA.

K-State to Host Eight Agricultural Land Lease Workshops

Agricultural price volatility and other factors can make negotiating land lease agreements difficult. Kansas State University (K-State) Research and Extension will host eight workshops around the state to help landlords and tenants manage risks associated with negotiating such agreements.

The 2010-2011 Lease Workshop dates, locations and contacts include:

• Dec. 1, 2010 – Goodland – Dana Belshe (785-890-488 or dbelshe@ksu.edu) or Clint Milliman (785-460-4582 or milliman@ksu.edu );
• Dec. 2, 2010 – Scott City – John Beckman (620-872-2930 or jbeckman@ksu.edu);
• Dec. 8, 2010 – Hesston – Jonie James (316-284-6930 or jjames@ksu.edu);
• Dec. 9, 2010 – El Dorado – David Kehler (316-321-9660 or dkehler@ksu.edu);
• Dec. 16, 2010 – Clay Center – John Forshee (785-632-5335 or jforshee@ksu.edu);
• Jan. 12, 2011 – Winfield – Jill Zimmerman (620-221-5450 or jazimmer@ksu.edu);
• Jan. 20, 2011 – Great Bend – Rick Snell (620-793-1910 or rsnell@ksu.edu); and
• Feb. 9, 2011 – Hutchinson – Zach Langford (620-662-2371 or zachlang@ksu.edu.

Each workshop begins with registration from 9-9:30 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m.

K-State Research and Extension agricultural economists will provide information on such topics as types of leases; ethics; learning to use Excel spreadsheets and how to use lease decision tools to assist in formulating an equitable lease. Participants will be introduced to a decision-making tool, KSU-Lease.

The North-Central Risk Management Education Center in Lincoln, Neb., is sponsoring the workshops through a grant program to provide risk-management education to producers and agricultural stakeholders. 

More information about the workshops, including downloadable brochures for each location, is available on the website at www.agmanager.info. Information is also available by contacting Rich Llewelyn at 785-532-1504 or rvl@ksu.edu.

— Release by K-State. Research and Extension.

Beef Cattle Numbers Causing Concern

Declining beef inventories are causing some in the U.S. cattle industry to wonder how beef production can be maintained.

“The numbers tell the tale, which is that America’s cattle industry has effectively been turning fewer cattle into more pounds of beef,” said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University (OSU) Cooperative Extension livestock marketing specialist.

The U.S. beef cow herd has decreased 12 of the last 14 years, dropping from a cyclical peak of 35.3 million head in 1996 to the January 2010 level of 31.3 million head. This represents the smallest beef cow herd since 1963.

Combined with smaller dairy cow numbers, Peel said the 2010 calf crop is expected to be 35.4 million head, the smallest U.S. calf crop since 1950. Total U.S. cattle inventory has decreased by almost 10 million head since 1996 to the January 2010 level of 93.7 million head, the smallest cattle inventory since 1959.

In contrast, total beef production has not changed accordingly. In fact, 2010 beef production is projected at 25.9 billion pounds (lb.), slightly higher than the 1996 level of 25.4 billion lb.

“We have maintained production thus far in two primary ways,” Peel said. “First, decreasing inventories allows the industry to utilize that inventory as production while numbers are declining.”

Second, between 1996 and 2006, cheap corn allowed the industry to feed animals to ever-increasing carcass weights and to feed lightweight calves for many days in feedlots. Feedlot inventories have thus been maintained by a slower rate of turnover.

“In effect, the U.S. cattle industry has been able to effectively turn fewer cattle into more pounds of beef,” Peel said. “However, the situation is now different.”

Expensive corn forces the industry to feed heavy yearlings and move them through the feedlot faster. Carcass weights in 2010 have been below year-ago levels almost all year and high feed costs likely limits carcass weights to little or no trend in coming years. A faster feedlot turnover rate exposes the shortage of cattle quickly as feedlots scramble to find sufficient supplies of feeder cattle to place on feed and maintain feedlot inventories.

“So far, we appear to have been able to do that,” Peel said. “Total cattle slaughter for 2010 is running almost 2% above 2009 levels. Steer slaughter is up less than 1% this year. By contrast, heifer slaughter is up nearly 3% and cow slaughter is up 4%. It is clear that we are maintaining slaughter rates, in the short run, with our females.”

Peel cautions this is not sustainable without accelerating herd liquidation. At some point, the U.S. cattle industry will try to stabilize the herd size and then expand a bit.

“Given the current situation this implies a significant reduction in cattle slaughter in the short-term just to hold the cow herd size steady,” he said. “It seems likely this process will start in 2011.”

— Release by OSU Cooperative Extension.

— Compiled by Mathew Elliott, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc.