Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced new flexibility and assistance in the USDA's major conservation programs to get much-needed help to livestock producers as the most wide-spread drought in seven decades intensifies in the U.S. Vilsack also announced plans to encourage crop insurance companies to provide a short grace period for farmers on unpaid insurance premiums, as some farming families can be expected to struggle to make ends meet at the close of the crop year.

The beef checkoff has continuous interest in conducting research among U.S. consumers to better understand preparation methods and flavors used in beef preparation. Given the changing nature of availability of foods and preferences, the beef checkoff has been tracking these consumption patterns. Research was conducted in 2002, 2005 and again in 2012.

A group of university department heads from across the nation has come together to establish an association focused on advocating increased federal investment in animal science.

The effects of heat stress on reproductive performance of beef cows has been discussed by many animal scientists in a variety of ways.

New research presented at the 2012 American Society of Animal Science meeting provided insight into the consequences if U.S. farmers and ranchers no longer used productivity-enhancing technologies to raise beef cattle.

The dry summer has many corn producers concerned that their corn crop may not meet their production expectations, according to Tim Schnakenberg, an agronomy specialist with University of Missouri Extension. “The corn crop is deteriorating rapidly in areas that have missed key rains and producers are looking at alternatives, especially for their later planted corn,” said Schnakenberg. Chopping the crop for silage is one way to retain some value of the crop before it wilts down in the drought, even though the dry matter tonnage produced may be 10-50 percent lower in a drought compared to normal corn silage.

In last week's In the Cattle Markets newsletter, John Michael Riley summarized the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report from USDA. Obviously, the highlight of that report was the deteriorating prospects for this year's corn crop.  The market has, of course, been monitoring crop prospects and updating expectations continuously all season long and has continued to do so since last week's report. The judgment of the market can be quickly assessed by looking at prices. Corn prices have posted an impressive run over the past month.

U.S. pork exports in May were up 3 percent in volume (186,809 metric tons) from a year ago and 9 percent higher in value ($524.3 million). Through the first five months of the year, pork exports exceeded last year’s record pace by 6 percent in volume (968,485 metric tons) and 15 percent in value ($2.7 billion). Although May was the strongest month so far this year for U.S. beef exports, volume (95,221 metric tons) was down 13 percent compared to May 2011 and stood 10 percent lower (456,343 metric tons) through the first five months of the year.

The Scoular Company has acquired two grain-handling facilities in Weiser, Idaho, from Weiser Feed and Storage, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not announced.Kevin Thompson, who oversees Scoular’s facilities in Idaho and Utah, says the goal is to make the transition from Weiser to Scoular as easy as possible.  “Operations in Weiser will be much the same as they were before. Most importantly, Kevin Jones will be staying on to manage the facility under Scoular ownership. We’re excited to welcome Kevin and the Weiser Feed employees to Scoular.”