Queen in Mississippi  – John Queen, President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is in the state today through Wednesday visiting with cattlemen about issues important to the beef business. Stops planned are:

Monday Evening, Dinner Meeting in Oxford
Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. Glenwild Stockyard, Grenada
Tuesday Afternoon, West Point Stockyard
Tuesday Evening, Dinner Meeting in West Point
Wednesday Morning, Coffee at the Agri-Center, Verona
Wednesday Evening, Lipscomb Livestock Market, Como

 BCIA Bull Sale – Nominations for the fall bull sale will be taken until September 1. The sale will be held November 8th at Hinds Community College. Contact your county Extension office for details.

National Boards Meet – Voting delegates to the Cattle Industry Summer Meeting were Larry Jefcoat, Clifford Dance, and Charlie Hull. The Cattlemen’s Beef Board, Federation of State Beef Councils, and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association met last week in Denver.

 Cattle Market Notes, Friday, July 20, 2007, Dr. John Anderson, Mississippi State University – Last week, feeders in the South held out until Friday, finally receiving prices steady to $1 higher than the prior week.  Slaughter this week is estimated at 678,000 head compared to 672,000 head last week and 662,000 head a year ago. 
Calf prices around the country appeared to be generally steady or better this week.  At Oklahoma City, feeder cattle prices were steady to $1 lower, and stocker cattle prices were mostly steady.  At Lexington, Kentucky, feeder prices were steady to $2 higher.  Stocker cattle prices were $1 to $3 higher.  At Arkansas auctions this week, prices on steers were called $1 to $4 higher, and prices on heifers were called firm to $3 higher. 
At Mississippi auctions this week, steer prices were $5 higher compared to last week.  Heifer prices were steady.  Steer prices at Mississippi auctions this week were reported as follows: 250-300 pounds, $145-$150; 300-350 pounds, $135-$145; 350-400 pounds, $125-$135; 400-500 pounds, $115-$125; 500-600 pounds, $105-$115; 600-700 pounds, $96-$105; 700-800 pounds, not reported.  Slaughter cow prices were $1 to $2 higher this week.  For the week: breakers, not reported; boners, $45-$50; lean (850-1,200 pounds), $43-$48.
Nearby Live Cattle futures slipped lower this week as expectations for cash prices shifted from steady or better to steady or worse.  Live Cattle futures closing prices on Friday (with change from last Friday’s close in parentheses) were as follows: August $90.82 (-0.80); October $96.60 (+0.30); December $98.67 (+0.82); February $98.90 (+0.53); April $98.90 (-0.10).
Feeder cattle futures started the week higher in response to lower corn futures on Monday.  Subsequent trading was mostly uneventful, but all contracts ended the week sitting at or pretty close to contract highs.  Feeder Cattle futures closing prices on Friday (with change from last Friday’s close in parentheses): August $115.50 (+1.65); September $116.67 (+2.00); October $116.92 (+2.05); November $116.40 114.52 (+1.88).
Corn futures fell dramatically on Monday and Tuesday in response to weather forecasts that were perceived to be a good deal more favorable than those from late last week.  This week’s trading in corn provided a good illustration of the remarkably volatile character of that market right now.  This is a critical point in the growing season for much of the crop nationally, and with the feeling that every bushel counts this year, the market is (and will continue to be for another three or four weeks) hypersensitive to any changes in crop ratings or in growing conditions that will affect crop ratings.  September Corn closed on Friday at $3.18 ¼, down 37 ¼ cents from last week’s close.  Soybean futures also dropped sharply early in the week on changing weather expectations.  August soybeans closed on Friday at $850 ¼, down 71 ½ cents from last Friday’s close.  Dr. Anderson’s complete report can be accessed from www.mscattlemen.org

 

Ryan Promotes U.S. Beef in Japan - U.S. beef producer and former baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan closed out a week in Japan last Friday (July 20) at the Foreign Correspondents Club talking about how U.S. beef can meet Japanese consumers’ needs for consistent, high quality products.
Ryan talked with 25 international and domestic media from news services such as the Associated Press, Reuters and Kyodo, resulting in more than 20 stories appearing in Japanese and U.S. newspapers during the weekend alone.
Media were interested in Ryan’s involvement in the U.S. beef industry as a producer and how the same product he serves to his children and grandchildren is exported for sale to meticulous consumers in Japan.
Ryan was in Japan to participate in American Meat Month events designed by USMEF to assure Japanese consumers and overseers that U.S. beef is safe and urged them to expand imports of the product. from U. S. Meat Export Federation

House Ag panel approves COOL - The House Agriculture Committee voted last Thursday night to require country-of-origin labels on meat product beginning next year, finally allowing full implementation of the rule provided in the 2002 Farm Bill.
Following days of debate, as well as media reports about food scares emanating from China, the committee compromised by agreeing to require the labels, but ease penalties and tedious record-keeping requirements opposed by many food retailers and meatpackers.
"Our top priority from the beginning has been that the benefits of COOL must outweigh the costs for cattle producers," Jay Truitt, vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said in a statement. "We took some major steps in that direction last night."
The measure creates three categories of labeling: one that indicates product was born, raised and slaughtered in the United States; one that indicates product was not exclusively born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S.; and one that includes products entirely derived from foreign countries. Ground meat product can be labeled with a list of countries where product may have originated.
The law is set to take effect in September of 2008.

China Gets Dead Serious About Food Safety - In perhaps a demonstration of how serious China is about shoring up the safety of its food products, Beijing executed the former head of its State Food and Drug Administration, the official Xinhua press agency reported.
Zheng Xiaoyu was sentenced to death May 29 for accepting bribes to approve untested medicine reportedly blamed for at least 10 deaths. A court carried out the execution after China's Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, the International Herald Tribune reported.
Xinhua did not disclose how Zheng was killed, though IHT reported that the court police typically execute prisoners by shooting them in the back of the head, or in some cases by using lethal injections.
Zheng's execution was concurrent with a press conference at which China's top food and drug regulatory agencies vowed to crack down on counterfeit food and medicine. Beijing has been pressured to make vast improvements after a spate of health scares tied to sub-par products, including exports of tainted food and fake drugs.
"Corruption in the food and drug authority has brought shame to the nation," Yan Jiangying, deputy policy director of the State Food and Drug Administration, told reporters. "What we will have to learn from the experience is to improve our work and emphasize public safety." from Meatingplace.com  

Illinois horse slaughterhouse back in business — at least for now - After being forced to close twice in the last two months, the last U.S. horse slaughter plant will be allowed to reopen while it challenges the state law that shuttered it, a federal appeals court ruled last week.
The general manager of Cavel International in DeKalb, Ill., says the facility "will be up and running soon."
A state law banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption first closed the plant almost two months ago, and while it reopened briefly while appealing the law, it closed again in early July after a judge refused to extend the order allowing the facility to operate during the appeal process.
Last Wednesday, however, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled that "irreparable harm" would come to Cavel if it were not allowed to resume operation while the appeal is pending, and granted the processor's request for an injunction barring officials from enforcing the state law. from Meatingplace.com  .  

House Ag Committee Compromise Improves COOL Law for Cattlemen - Last week, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee advanced a compromise provision that addresses the mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) requirements for beef and many other meat products, set to take effect in September of 2008. While it will not repair all shortcomings in the COOL law, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) says the compromise measure makes many improvements for the nation’s cattlemen.
“We support the concept of country-of-origin labeling, but NCBA has contended for many years that a poorly written COOL law will be harmful to the U.S. cattle industry,” says Jay Truitt, NCBA vice president of government affairs. “While others were content to let a flawed law take its toll on cattlemen, we kept working for improvements. Last night, those efforts paid off to some degree.”
The version of COOL approved by the House Ag Committee will distinguish beef from cattle exclusively of U.S. origin from imported beef, as well as from domestic beef that is blended with imported product and beef from cattle born in another country but fed and processed in the United States. But the measure greatly eases U.S. cattlemen’s concern that proving the origin of their cattle would require burdensome record-keeping.
“Our top priority from the beginning has been that the benefits of COOL must outweigh the costs for cattle producers,” said Truitt. “We took some major steps in that direction last night.”
He cautioned, however, that the latest version of COOL is far from perfect. Poultry is still completely exempt from all requirements imposed on beef, pork and lamb. This is a major disappointment for cattlemen, because poultry is beef’s primary protein competitor in the consumer marketplace.
“Perhaps when COOL takes effect, consumers will wonder why beef is labeled, but not chicken. Cattlemen have been wondering that same thing throughout this process,” Truitt said.
Cattlemen’s final objection to the COOL law is the misconception that it will address food safety issues. NCBA President John Queen, a North Carolina cattle producer, said labeling is not a solution to recent safety problems with imported foods.
“Any product that does not meet the health and safety standards of the United States should not be sold here – period,” Queen said. “Don’t put an ‘eat-at-your-own-risk’ label on it. It has no place on our stores shelves. Turn it away at the border, or throw it out.”

Don't Miss NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen - On this week’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen, beginning at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 24^th, we will discuss the value of preconditioning your cattle, plus highlights from the 2007 NCBA Summer Conference in Denver.
The show will be rebroadcast Wednesday at 3:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and Saturdays at 9 a.m. Make sure YOU tune into NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen on channel RFD-TV. For more information or to check out past episodes, visit www.cattlementocattlemen.org.

July 23-25                              NCBA President John Queen’s Visit
July 26                                   Holmes CCA
July 30                                   Jasper CCA
July 31                                   Nutrition Shortcourse, Distance Ed Sites
Aug 2                                     Marshall CCA