Many ranchers are not pleased with former President Barack Obama after he declared two new monument designations in late December, expanding his environmental legacy to approximately 554 million acres of land and water over the course of his presidency.

With outdoor temperatures struggling to stay above 20ºF, the cold weather didn’t deter more than 140 beef cattle producers from hearing more about a modest cattle market outlook at the recent Central Texas Cow-Calf Clinic in Cameron.

One of the beauties of the beef cattle industry is the diversity among production systems. Each differs slightly in regard to environment, breeding objective and targeted market.

My head was spinning – such a new breakthrough, with implications that were overwhelming. I just had to share it. I walked down the street to the Confused Chromosome Club and pulled open the door.

There’s more to it than you might think As pasture becomes more scarce and land lease costs rise, cow-calf producers are evaluating alternative methods for producing beef.

When you visit any seedstock producer, be it in the Rockies, the Southern Plains or the Midwest, the conversation usually wanders into a friendly invitation. Will you be back for the upcoming production sale?

The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) and the United Stockgrowers of America have likely survived a motion to dismiss their case against USDA challenging the beef checkoff and obtained an injunction against the Montana Beef Council (MBC) to prevent it from spending money received from the federal beef checkoff board on promotion.

After several years of strong net farm income, the recent decline in commodity prices, slow-to-adjust input expenses and falling net farm income is uncomfortably similar to the conditions producers faced in the 1980s, a period often referred to as the “farm financial crisis.”

The Cattle on Feed report released by the USDA on Nov. 18, 2017 – reported 5 percent year-over-year lower cattle placements in October. The reduced pace of placements is likely to slow beef production increases in the first half of 2017.

Even though this year’s NFL draft is two months away, sports pages and sports talk shows are buzzing with speculation about draft choices. Why do NFL teams spend millions of dollars preparing for the draft and football fans become almost fanatical about it?