Interesting piece by the AP this week on the growing reliance feeders show with beta agonist use when finishing cattle.  

Just checked out Corbitt Wall's latest news market report from the Livestock Grain & Market News office of USDA. And the official word is looking good for many cattle feeders. The price of corn has taken a turn back to earth.

This week a photo ran in my local paper of an abandoned horse that local authorities want to auction off. But first, they're asking for the public's help in identifying the owner. Before it goes to sale, the sheriff wants to prosecute for animal abandonment.

Sometimes I think the U.S. consumer could learn a lot from international markets, especially in how we eat protein.

The identity of cattle production has long been attached to the iconic image of the rancher roaming the prairie on horseback. With today’s population of food consumers a few generations removed from the family farm, most of them likewise envision beef ranchers inspecting their herd while perched in a saddle. This raises the question of whether that image is based in reality among today’s beef production herds. The answer is yes – but perhaps not as much as we think.

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.

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 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.

Dry-aged beef. The term evokes a variety of responses -- for me they're the palatable kind. But how many of us have actually seen the process up close?