Mississippi Junior Cattlemen’s Association - MJCA directors met in Jackson on Saturday for their annual Christmas Party. This year the directors bought and delivered gifts for patients at the Mississippi State Hospital. Following the visit to the hospital the directors returned to the MCA office for a meeting to discuss upcoming events such as Dixie National, YBIC, Spokesperson Training, and Making Tracks. 

Cattlemen’s Company Store – Shop the Cattlemen’s Company Store for gifts for the cattlemen on your list. Caps, jackets, windbreakers, shirts and much more - all with the MCA or “Beef, It’s What’s For Dinner” logo.  Stop by the MCA office on Monroe Street during regular business hours and check it out. 

Beefing Up the Holidays – The beef checkoff’s food-communications team is promoting holiday roasts and recipes via an editorial color page partnership with Sutter Home wines and Colavita olive oil, as well as a food editor mailing and information for State Beef Council use. For access to holiday roast recipes and information, go to http://www.beef.org/uDocs/Beef%20Favorites...Holiday%20Roasts.pdf.

Last Call – Scholarship applications are due tomorrow for over $40,000 in college scholarships expected to be presented at the MCA Convention on February 2nd. Scholarships are presented by The Wax Company, Mississippi CattleWomen's Association, and Mississippi Cattlemen’s Foundation.

Wanted: Ralgro Wheels for “Wheels for Bucks” Program - From now until February 1, please make an effort to collect empty Ralgro wheels from your friends, neighbors, and business associates.  For every 10 empty Ralgro wheels and for every 5 empty magnum strips, we will receive one wheel of Ralgro to be auctioned at the “Taste of Beef” event during the MCA Convention.  This is a wonderful fundraising opportunity and it goes to benefit the CattleWomen’s Association, Junior Cattlemen’s Association and Cattlemen’s Foundation.
Wheels and strips can be brought to the MCA office prior to convention or directly to the convention. The Wheels for Bucks program is sponsored by Schering-Plough. 

It’s A Girl! – Congratulation to State Extension Beef Specialist Justin Rhinehart and his wife, Rachel, on the arrival of their third daughter, Emma Drew.

Cattle Market Notes, Friday, December 14, 2007, Dr. John Anderson, Mississippi State University – This week, cash business developed a bit unexpectedly on Wednesday at about $1 lower in all regions: $93-$93.50 in the South Plains, $91 to $93 in the Northern Plains and Western Corn Belt.  There were some clean-up sales on Thursday at $92.  Cattle slaughter this week was down following last week’s light sales week, and also likely reflecting some of the complications associated with the winter storm in the Plains this week. 
A number of major feeder cattle markets were disrupted this week by icy weather.  Even in markets not directly in the path of the storm, the inability (or at least the undesirability) of shipping cattle west took some starch out of prices.  At Oklahoma City, receipts numbered just 3,386 head this week compared to 13,534 a week ago and 11,637 a year ago.  In this very light test, feeder cattle prices were $3 to $5 lower, and stocker prices were $5 to $10 lower.  At Lexington, Kentucky, feeder steer prices were mostly steady on the heavy end, though a good number of 6- and 7-weight steers were called $1 to $5 lower.  Similarly sized heifers were $4 to $5 lower.  Stocker steer prices were $5 to $10 lower.
At Mississippi auctions this week, prices on all classes were called steady.  Steer prices at Mississippi auctions this week were reported as follows: 250-300 pounds, $130-$140; 300-400 pounds, $120-$130; 400-450 pounds, $110-$120; 450-500 pounds, $100-$110; 500-600 pounds, $90-$100; 600-700 pounds, $80-$90; 700-800 pounds, not reported.  Slaughter cow prices were $1 to $2 higher this week.  For the week: breakers, not reported; boners, $40-$48; lean (850-1,200 pounds), $40-$44.
Live Cattle futures suffered a pretty hard drop on Thursday following Wednesday afternoon’s lower cash business.  The sell off in the stock market earlier in the week and softer wholesale beef prices during the first part of the week added to the negative tone in the market.  Live Cattle futures closing prices on Friday (with change from last Friday’s close in parentheses) were as follows: December $92.60 (-1.42); February $95.47 (-1.28); April $97.50 (-0.60); June $93.65 (-0.40); August $94.75 (+0.28). 
Feeder cattle futures got beat up pretty badly on Wednesday and Thursday.  On Thursday, feeders were following live cattle lower in response to the week’s lower cash trade.  On Wednesday, feeders felt the familiar squeeze of higher grain prices.  Wheat moved limit up on Wednesday, and corn was pulled along for the ride.  Most feeder contracts beyond the nearby realized a positive day on Friday to cut the week’s losses back a bit.  Feeder Cattle futures closing prices on Friday (with change from last Friday’s close in parentheses): January $103.80 (-2.15); March $106.17 (-1.28); April $108.42 (-1.13); May $109.70 (-1.10).
Corn futures moved higher this week, posting big gains on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Wheat stocks are projected to reach a 60-year low by the end of this marketing year, at 280 million bushels.  Soybean ending stocks are projected to fall to 185 million bushels, a 68% drop from last year’s level.  December Corn closed on Friday at $4.20, up 20 ½ cents from last week’s close.  Soybean futures moved steadily higher this week, again extending contract highs.  January beans closed on Friday at $11.57, 19¾, up 37¼ cents from last Friday’s close.Dr. Anderson’s complete report can be accessed from www.mscattlemen.org

U.S. Beef Exports up 19 Percent from a Year Ago - U.S. beef exports (including variety meat) from January through October increased 19 percent in volume to 639,549 metric tons and 30 percent in value to $2.172 billion compare to a year ago, according to USDA statistics compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
Beef muscle cut exports increased 26 percent in volume over a year ago in the January-October period to 385,724 metric tons valued at $1.669 billion (up 34 percent).
Mexico is still the largest market for U.S. beef (including variety meat), despite a 3 percent decline in volume to 298,407 metric tons in the January-October period versus a year ago. The value of those exports rose 3 percent to $993.44 million.
Exports to Canada, the second largest market for all U.S. beef products, increased 34 percent to 106,353 metric tons valued at $486.53 million (up 37 percent) through October.
Japan remains the third largest market by value despite the 20-month age restriction, with exports of all beef products reaching 39,775 metric tons valued at $206.28 million.
Even though South Korea was only open to U.S. beef for a few intermittent months, it is currently the fifth largest market for beef product exports at 25,055 metric tons from January through October worth $118 million.  from meatingplace.com

BSE in Japan may be Linked to Milk - Some of the animals in Japan infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy may have contracted the disease from alternative milk containing Dutch-made fat, according to an investigation by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Kyodo News Service reported.
The investigations examined 32 of the 33 animals in Japan confirmed to be infected with BSE. The ministry said the disease found in 13 of those animals was highly attributed to alternative milk made from powdered animal fat produced by a feed plant in the Netherlands, according to Kyodo. The 13 cows were born in the Hokkaido or Kanto regions between 1995 and 1996.
Alternative milk, which uses mostly skim milk as its basic ingredient, is fed to baby cows up to seven weeks after they're born. from meatingplace.com

Senate Passes Farm Bill - The U.S. Senate passed its Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2007 (H.R. 2419) Friday by a vote of 79 to 14. 
Like the version passed by the House of Representatives earlier this summer, the Senate bill contains some improvements for cattlemen such as provisions allowing for interstate shipment of state-inspected meat.  NCBA staunchly supported this measure as a way for state-regulated businesses to compete in interstate commerce and enhance opportunities for cattle producers and small local businesses to market branded beef products.
The Senate Farm Bill also contains the House language making modest improvements to the country-of-origin labeling law (COOL) scheduled to become mandatory in September 2008. 
But for cattlemen, the Senate package is far from perfect.  Most notably, a ban on packer ownership of cattle would jeopardize many of the marketing alliances cattlemen have worked hard to build. 
“NCBA policy supports a competitive, free-enterprise market,” says NCBA’s Vice President of Government Affairs Jay Truitt.  “It is unfortunate that the Senate chose to include legislative language that limits cattlemen’s ability to market their cattle in ways that provide the best return on their investment.”
As the Farm Bill moves to conference, NCBA will urge the committee to strip out the packer ban language.
“This provision will hurt consumers, stifle the entrepreneurial spirit of cattle producers and put the government in charge of a rancher’s business decisions,” says Truitt. 
NCBA will also urge conferees to fix the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) cap and payment limitations for conservation that exist in the House Farm Bill.  This language makes many ranchers ineligible for Farm Bill conservation programs. 
“The goals of voluntary conservation programs are compromised when artificial caps and limits are applied,” says Truitt. “Cattlemen will urge the conference committee to exempt cost-share programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) from the AGI caps and payment limitations.”
In good news for cattle producers, many harmful amendments aimed at manipulating the business environment for cattle producers were either defeated or withdrawn from consideration. 
“We were fortunate to have a lot of our cattle producer-members weigh in on these issues with their Senators, and it paid off,” says Truitt.  “We’ve cleared some hurdles this week, but we still have a great deal of work to do as the bill moves through conference.”

Senate Passes Energy Bill that Boosts Ethanol Output - The Senate, by a vote of 86-8, Thursday night approved an energy bill with enough changes to the House version to win White House approval, but did not change the mandate that will likely divert more corn to fuel, according to media reports.
Unchanged from the House version, the Senate version mandates boosting use of renewable fuels like ethanol to 36 billion gallons by 2022, allowing up to 15 billion gallons of that to come from corn. Ethanol from non-corn inputs such as farm wastes or switchgrass would be expected to reach 3 billion gallons in 2016 and rise to 21 billion gallons by 2022.
By comparison, the 2005 energy bill requires refiners to use 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol by 2012, a target that will likely be reached this year or next.
The ethanol provision has drawn criticism from the U.S. meat industry, which would face higher feedgrain costs if more corn were diverted to ethanol.
To ensure White House approval, the Senate dropped controversial provisions in the House version, such as taxes on oil companies that would have allowed Congress to extend production and investment incentives for wind and solar power and a renewable electricity mandate.
The bill now goes back to the House, where easy approval is expected. The White House issued a statement saying President Bush would sign the legislation into law.

U.S. Resumes Beef Trade with Russia - National Cattlemen's Beef Association Chief Economist Gregg Doud wouldn't divulge his sources, but said reports that the United States has sold beef to Russia are "100 percent accurate."
Doud told Meatingplace.com U.S. processors have "recently" completed more than one transaction with Russia, including a $500,000 shipment involving whole-muscle cuts such as top round and outside round. Liver also has been shipped, he said.
This is the first time since the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy befell the United States in 2003 that the United States sold meat of any kind to Russia, and the first time since 1999 that it sold whole-muscle beef to Russia, Doud said.
The significance, says Doud, is that the United States is now on the map in Russia, which is the second largest beef importer in the world, where countries such as Brazil have until now dominated the market.
"What it says, at least with those cuts, is we're competitive with everyone on the world stage, including Brazil," Doud said. "Why would that be the case? It has everything to do with two words: exchange rate. The low U.S. dollar combined with the high [Brazilian] real, with the real going one way and the dollar going the other, independent of each other. Suddenly for Russia, we're in the hunt. We're in the game."
Doud said the recent transactions were completed under an interim trade agreement, but the two countries are working to write a final import protocol.
"Getting access back into that market is significant," he said. "Now there are only three major countries that don't provide full access to U.S. beef: Japan, Korea and China. Only three."

Take Advantage of your NCBA Member Benefit With Cabela’s -  Just in time for holiday gift shopping!  NCBA has announced a member benefit program with Cabela’s – the world’s foremost outfitter of hunting, fishing, and outdoor gear.  Exclusive to NCBA members, 15 percent off of Cabela’s gift cards from NCBA for your cattle business!  They can be purchased through NCBA’s Web site, www.beefusa.org. The gift cards are redeemable wherever Cabela’s conducts business - whether in-store, online, or through the Cabela’s catalog.

Don't Miss NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen - On this week’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen, beginning at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 11th, we'll showcase some of our favorite "Day In the Life" stories from 2007.  First, we'll visit Duane Martin's operation in California, then we'll head north to Montana, to the Cayuse Land and Cattle Company and the Bill Donald family.  In Tennessee, we'll visit Dell and Nancy King on their operation, and stop in on the Groseta's in Arizona, where Andy Groseta is teaching his daughter Anna how to work in the cattle industry.  Finally, we'll visit 2007 NCBA President John Queen at his beautiful farm in North Carolina.
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.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Mississippi Cattlemen's Association
680 Monroe Street, Suite A
Jackson, MS 39202
(601) 354-8951
missca1@bellsouth.net