Heifers average $1150 – Cattlemen attending the Southern Producers Replacement Heifer Sale in Hattiesburg Saturday bid an average of $1150 on 232 bred heifers. The top selling pen at $1500 was consigned by Jerry Hinton. This was the sixth year for the “Source Verified” sale. 

Junior Field Day – Tanner Farms invites all junior cattlemen to attend a field day on Saturday, September 8 at their farm in Shuqualak. Activities include judging contest, grooming demonstration, showmanship clinic, farm tour, sale bull preview, and a Skillathon. Prizes will be awarded for both juniors and seniors, so y’all come! For details, call 601-477-2202.

Last Chance – This is the last week to submit BCIA Bull Sale nominations - due Sept 1. The all-breed auction will be held November 8 at Hinds Community College. Contact Dr. Jane Parish at 662-325-7466 or jparish@ext.msstate.edu

Leader Training - Our thanks go out to the county officers and Extension agents from 31 associations who attended the Leaders’ Training sessions using the Distance Learning Network in county Extension offices.  We appreciate Mississippi State University and its staff for making this innovative and convenient service available to us.

Jones Blood Drive – Congratulation to Jones County Cattlemen’s association on a record-breaking blood drive. Working with United Blood Services, cattlemen served beef meals to 420 blood donors during the four-day event.

 Master Stockman - The 2007 Mississippi Master Stockman Program will be held at the Mississippi Horse Park and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station campus beef cattle and horse units on September 14-15. This day and a half long educational program features Curt Pate demonstrating low-stress cattle handling on horseback and includes Master Cattle Producer and Master Horseman certification opportunities. Participants choose from the following options: Basic Cow-Calf Track, Advanced Cow-Calf Track, or Stocker Cattle Track. Two horseman options will also be offered. For more information, go to: http://msucares.com/livestock/beef/masterstockman.pdf

Cattle Market Notes, Friday, August 24, 2007, Dr. John Anderson, Mississippi State University - Last week, cash prices basically held steady with the week before at $90 to $90.50.  On Thursday, packers raised bids to about $1 over last week’s trade, but prices quickly moved up from there to as much as $3 over last week.  Prices ranged from $93 - $93.50 live in Kansas and Texas to $91-$92 in the Western Corn Belt. 
Calf prices were mixed this week, with prices higher in some markets, lower in other.  Extreme heat remains a challenge over much of the country.  Also, the return of dry conditions to many areas has pastures looking pretty bad again across much of the Southeast.  At Oklahoma City, feeder steer and heifer prices were steady to $1 higher.  Calves were mostly $1 to $3 lower.  At Lexington, Kentucky, feeder steer and heifer prices were steady.  Stocker calf prices were steady to $3 higher.  At Arkansas auctions, prices on steers were $1 to $3 lower. 
At Mississippi auctions this week, steer prices were steady, and heifer prices were $1 to $3 lower.  Steer prices at Mississippi auctions this week were reported as follows: 250-300 pounds, $145-$155; 300-350 pounds, $135-$145; 350-400 pounds, $128-$135; 400-500 pounds, $115-$128; 500-600 pounds, $105-$115; 600-700 pounds, $100-$108; 700-800 pounds, not reported.  Slaughter cow prices were $1 to $3 lower this week.  
Live Cattle futures moved sharply higher this week.  December through April contracts broke the $100 mark for the first time since the first of the month.  February and April reached new life-of-contract highs on Friday,
and December is flirting with contract highs as well.  Live Cattle futures closing prices on Friday (with change from last Friday’s close in parentheses) were as follows: August $94.37 (+2.42); October $97.82 (+2.35); December $100.72 (+2.85); February $100.92 (+2.12); April $100.50 (+1.45).
As with Live Cattle, most feeder contracts finished the week at or very near contract highs. Feeder Cattle futures closing prices on Friday (with change from last Friday’s close in parentheses): August $117.57 (+1.15); September $118.05 (+1.18); October $118.30 (+1.08); November $118.42 (+1.10).
Corn futures bounced back from last week’s lows.  September Corn closed on Friday at $3.41 ½, up 13 cents from last week’s close.  September beans closed on Friday at $8.49, up 37 ½ cents from last Friday’s close. Dr. Anderson’s complete report can be accessed from www.mscattlemen.org

VOTE TOMORROW!

Beef to Begin Moving Again - South Korea will resume quarantine inspections of U.S. beef exports today, the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (MAF) said in a statement.
The decision means nearly 7,000 tons of product will be released into commerce after being held since earlier this month due to discovery of vertebral column in a Seoul-bound shipment.
"This would be excellent news," U.S. Meat Export Federation spokesman Lynn Heinze said "We're still seeing some protests in Korea, though they're mostly aimed at the free-trade agreement. Nevertheless, consumers are still anxious to buy U.S. beef, and we're anxious to get it to them." from meatingplace.com

To Gain Muscle and Lose Fat, Drink Milk - A study conducted by researchers at McMaster University took three groups of young men 18 to 30 years of age – 56 in total – and put them through a rigorous, five-day-per-week weightlifting program over a 12-week period. Following their workouts, study participants drank either two cups of skim milk, a soy beverage with equivalent amounts of protein and energy, or a carbohydrate beverage with an equivalent amount of energy, which was roughly the same as drinking 600 to 700 milliliters of a typical sports drink.
Upon the study’s conclusion, researchers found that the milk drinking group had lost nearly twice as much fat - two pounds - while the carbohydrate beverage group lost one pound of fat. Those drinking soy lost no fat. At the same time, the gain in muscle was much greater among the milk drinkers than either the soy or carbohydrate beverage study participants.
 “I think the evidence is beginning to mount,” says Professor Phillips. “Milk may be best known for its calcium content in supporting bone health, but our research, and that of others, continually supports milk’s ability to aid in muscle growth and also promote body fat loss. To my mind – with milk being a source of nine essential nutrients – it’s a no brainer: milk is the ideal post-workout drink for recreational exercisers and athletes alike.”

COOL Comments - NCBA submitted comments last week to USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) on the mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law due to be implemented September 30, 2008.  In its comments, NCBA:
- reinforces producers’ belief that, as a marketing program, COOL should be producer-driven and not mandated by the government;
- takes issue with the misconception that COOL can somehow offer the consumer extra assurances of food safety;
- points out the disparity of exempting food service, processed foods and poultry from complying with mandatory COOL; and
- suggests that COOL labels be more visually appealing and recognizable to the consumer as part of the effort to “brand” our product.
“NCBA producers work everyday to supply the United States – and the world – with our safe, nutritious, delicious, and affordable beef,” says NCBA President and North Carolina Cattleman John Queen in NCBA’s comments. “We support the promotion of our high quality beef and support consumers having the best information about our products. We do not support misleading Federal mandates. We do not support inefficient and ineffective regulatory burdens that provide little to no benefit. We strongly urge USDA to adopt practical and workable rules that give consumers usable information.”
NCBA is supportive of the compromise language developed by the House Agriculture Committee as part of the 2007 Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) to address recordkeeping concerns for producers.  “While not ideal,” says Queen, “the compromise language is an improvement over the current law.”

Russian Trade Audits in September - Russian officials are expected to visit the United States in early September to conduct a series of audits that would finally lead to the resumption of beef trade with Russia. Ongoing discussions between the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), USDA and Russian officials have provided very significant breakthroughs regarding U.S. efforts to get our beef back into Russia.
In November 2006, Russia agreed to resume imports of U.S. beef, but there has been no movement since then. In fact, at that time, Russia agreed that it would accept an import protocol that included no age or product restrictions upon U.S. receipt of its OIE “controlled risk” status. The hold-up for the past nine months has simply been the inability to get Russian veterinary officials to the United States to conduct a series of audits that would lead to the resumption of trade.
NCBA is encouraged by the fact that this recent dialogue between government officials may finally facilitate the last step in this process toward regaining access for U.S. beef in the Russian market.  In 2003, Russia was the fifth largest market for U.S. beef and beef product exports in terms of quantity, and the seventh largest in terms of value at $53 million. At present, Russia is the second largest beef importing nation in the world, behind the United States and ahead of Japan, and is forecast to import more than 900,000 metric tons in 2007.

Farm Bill – NCBA views the Farm Bill that was approved in the House as a good start.  Of issue for cattlemen are the payment caps and limitations on Farm Bill conservation programs.  An Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) cap of $1 million was established for participation in all programs.  Any producer having an AGI more than $1 million will be ruled ineligible for program participation.  Also, a payment limitation of $60,000 per program, per year, was placed on all Farm Bill programs.  NCBA believes that these caps and limitations compromise the goals of voluntary conservation programs and should be removed from the bill.

Energy – The House and Senate have taken different approaches to expanding renewable energy policy.  The Senate bill includes an increase in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) to 36 billion gallons by 2022, setting a defacto mandate for feedgrain-based ethanol of 15 billion gallons by 2012.  The House bill does not include an increase to the current RFS.  These two bills are expected to be worked out in conference following the August recess.  As the conference committee meets, NCBA will urge committee members to oppose the inclusion of any increase in the RFS for feedgrain-based ethanol in the conference report.  

Expansion of the Clean Water Act – Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) has introduced H.R. 2421, the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act (CWARA), which will significantly expand federal jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act.  Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) recently introduced companion legislation (S.1870) in the Senate.  These bills will redefine “Waters of the United States” by doing away with the requirement that such waters be “navigable” in order to be regulated.  Changing this definition will allow every pond, stream, creek bed, drainage ditch, prairie pot hole, drain tile or any other wet spot on your property that might contain water at some point in time within the year to fall under federal jurisdiction.  NCBA is working with a large coalition of agriculture groups to defeat this legislation.  ***See our new full-color fact sheet on this issue at www.beefusa.org!

Aug 28                    Nutrition Shortcourse, Distance Ed Sites
Aug 30                    Jones CCA
Sept 6                    Scott CCA
Sept 7-8                 Jones Steak Sale
Sept 8                    Tanner Farms Junior Field Day, Shuqualak
Sept 14-15              Master Stockman Program
Sept 20                  Webster CCA
Sept 20                  Neshoba CCA
Sept 25                  Nutrition Shortcourse, Distance Ed Sites