Here's a great story from The Kansas City Star that shows how cattle rustling is still happening in beef production states - and how those suspects are being caught.

USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service released its monthly Cattle on Feed report this Friday (July 19). The report revealed that 10.368 million head of cattle are in feedlots with a capacity of 1,000 head or more on July 1, 2013. The inventory of cattle on feed was a decrease of 3.2 percent from July 1, 2012, but a slight increase of 1.1 percent from the five-year average from 2008 to 2012. Analysts were expecting a drop of 3.0 percent from 2012's inventory, so the reported number is in-line with those expectations and well within the range of expectations.

The beef industry is about to reverse a downward trend in numbers, but expansion is expected to start slowly. The number of beef animals has been in a downward spiral since 2007 due to drought which has ravaged pastures and due to high prices of corn, soybean meal, and forages. Now, prospects are brightening for a renewal of pastures and for a welcomed reduction in feed prices.

Few beef packing plants have been through the kind of turmoil that the former XL Foods packing facility in Brooks, Alberta has seen in the past year.

The American Angus Association, St. Joseph, Missouri, has hired Lee Trade Shows Inc. to produce and manage the trade show portion of their 2014 National Angus Convention and Trade Show. This first-time association event will take place Nov. 4, 5 and 6, 2014, at the KCI Expo Center.

The stocks and flows of feedlot cattle that make up the cattle on feed report have a relatively straightforward interpretation when the underlying mix of cattle (sex, weight and age distribution) is relatively constant, at least on a seasonal basis. For several months, changes in these animal demographics have made it much harder to interpret the cattle on feed report and anticipate the implications for future feedlot marketings and cattle slaughter.  

Janeth Moreno of El Paso, Texas, is the grand-prize winner of the joint American National CattleWomen Inc. (ANCW) and Z Tags North America L.P. (ZTNA) video contest.

The USDA report for cattle on feed in July shows another drop in cattle on feed, down 3 percent over July 2012, while feedlot placements dropped 5 percent June from the year previous.

The national feeder cattle summary for July 19. The USDA-AMS Livestock Grain and Market News branch provides a weekly video providing timely market information and quotes pertaining to feeder cattle.