My November Column

Every month I write a column for the Dakota Farmer magazine.  I've really enjoyed writing it over the last couple years.  Last months column was pretty special for me.  I've had several people tell me that this has been their favorite article I've written.  Take a look and tell me what you think.


Click here to see the magazine article.

The cable news channel CNN ran a story on their website this summer that raised the question “Does 4-H desensitizes kids to killing?”.  As a former 4-H member for 13 years and the parent of a first year 4-H member this certainly caught my attention.  Over the course of those 13 years I spent countless hours leading, washing, combing and clipping on calves.  I did everything I could to make them as comfortable and healthy as possible.  So how could anyone ever believe that this somehow desensitizes kids?  

According to the story, some believe that 4-H helps desensitize youngsters into having no emotional attachment to animals raised for food.  A few of the commenters even tried to claim that this was some grand conspiracy by the meat industry to keep them in business.  Apparently by forcing these kids to sell their livestock to be processed somehow turns them into greedy, uncaring people and will lead to a life of mistreating the animals in their care.  

The truth of the matter is that it teaches kids about responsibility and how life works and is sustained.  We just capped off our 4-H year with a trip to Rapid City, SD for the Western Junior Livestock Show.  It’s a tremendous show that our son was very excited to be part of.  For his first year in 4-H he decided to show a bred heifer named Morgan.  All summer and through the fall he learned how to care for his calf.  He probably put a hundred miles on his bike just going back and forth to the barn to check on her.  In the end his hard work paid off when he proudly marched his well-behaved heifer into that show ring with a grin on his face.  

While we were at the show I tried to figure out how all of the hard work each one of those kids had put in that summer could somehow be a bad thing?  I didn’t see any desensitized kids.  What I saw were hard working, polite young people, working with their families and their fellow 4-Her’s to learn responsibility and proper livestock care.  

I also couldn’t help but think what a better place our world may be if every kid had a “Morgan” in their life for just one summer.  Morgan will be in our herd for the next several years but like every cow on the ranch her time will come to an end.  However, the lessons she taught our son will last forever and for that I’m grateful.  

Animal Rights Group Allowed Abuse to Continue

Games over Indonesian animal cruelty videos cost animals' lives

EXCLUSIVE by Simon Benson

From: The Daily Telegraph

June 17, 2011

ANIMAL rights groups withheld film evidence of shocking animal cruelty in Indonesian slaughterhouses from the government for three months - before launching a major publicity campaign.

The RSPCA said it had considered the "ethical" dilemma of refusing the government access to the footage until the ABC's Four Corners highlighted the abuse two weeks ago, and admitted its actions meant thousands of animals would continue to be slaughtered between the time it discovered the brutal killings and when the footage was finally made public.

But the RSPCA said it feared the government would have done nothing had it been shown the footage earlier.    Read More

As has been the case with so many undercover videos filmed by animal rights activists, their political motivations were more important than actually stopping the abuse.  For months they were aware of this cruelty yet refused to inform authorities about it.  And now their solution is to end live exports, not how to improve facilities that handle the cattle or better training for those that work in them.  This is like ending the production of cars to prevent traffic accidents.  Their true motivation is to eliminate animal agriculture which explains their actions.  -TH

Proposed GIPSA Rule Could Reduce Welfare

NCBA Echoes Temple Grandin’s Animal Welfare Concerns
10/04/2010 03:40PM
CattleNetwork.com

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration’s (GIPSA) proposed rule on livestock marketing poses concerns to animal welfare, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The Obama Administration's proposed rule would ban packer-to-packers sales of livestock causing many to question the impact to the welfare of livestock. Colin Woodall, NCBA vice president of government affairs, said eliminating packer-to-packer sales would have several unintended consequences such as animal welfare.

“Let’s say that there is a beef packer located in the Pacific Northwest that also owns a feedlot in Southwest Kansas. Under this proposal, that company would be required to ship all of its Kansas feedlot cattle to Washington State for processing, which subjects those cattle to an additional 1,600 miles of travel,” said Woodall

Woodall also said the packer-to-packer ban would especially hurt smaller producers, dealers and packers. He said the ban would encourage consolidation and displace producer livestock.

“In addition, those cattle that traveled from Kansas to Washington State would displace the local cattle that typically supply that plant,” said Woodall. “The proposal would add inefficiencies for the feedlot through added transportation costs, which could result in the sale or liquidation of that feedlot, thereby driving consolidation and less competition.”

Colorado State University professor and world renowned animal welfare expert, Temple Grandin, wrote USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack offering her concerns about the well-being of livestock if the proposed rule requires packers to market and sell livestock through dealers is implemented. Beyond stress to livestock that would occur if this rule is implemented, Grandin is also concerned that the proposed rule would complicate and compromise the effectiveness of many established animal welfare-certification programs by requiring another level of paperwork and recordkeeping to track the additional transactions.

“As a scientist who has dedicated her life to improving livestock welfare, I am extremely alarmed that although this rule is concerned with marketing and competition, the department ultimately responsible for it – USDA – is also charged with enforcing the Humane Slaughter Act and apparently has paid so little attention to the animal welfare implications of this proposal,” Grandin stated in the letter.     Link

The GIPSA rule proposal has certainly been cussed and discussed throughout the beef industry.  The unintended consequences of this proposal seem to be mounting though.  Temple Grandin has now added her welfare concerns to the mix.  The last thing we need in animal agriculture is the federal government forcing new regulations on us that actually limit our ability to properly handle cattle. 

EPA's Anti-Ag Agenda

NCBA Blasts EPA for Anti-Agriculture Agenda


09/30/2010

by Gary Truitt

The National Cattleman’s Beef Association has launched a series of blistering allegations against the Environmental Protection Agency. Last week EPA administrator Lisa Jackson testified before the Senate Ag Committee that her agency is not out to get American agriculture. But, this week National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Chief Environmental Counsel Tamara Thies accused the agency of trying to put the cattle industry out of business, “It is ironic that as we strive to become less dependent on imported oil the policies of the Obama administration are likely to make us more dependent on imported beef.” She accused the EPA of waging a war to bring an end to production agriculture, “EPA exhibits reckless indifference to scientific fact, and instead imposes stringent regulations based on nothing more than its biased, anti-animal agriculture agenda that will leave many cattle operations with no recourse but to shut down.”

Speaking on Wednesday at a forum focused on the impact of EPA regulations on job creation and economic growth in the nation’s rural communities, Thies told members of the Rural America Solutions Group that EPA’s regulations will result in a loss of jobs, just the opposite of what the White House says they want to do. She said EPA regulations are causing economic uncertainty in the cattle industry and throughout rural American because they are “vague, overreaching, costly, unnecessarily burdensome, ludicrous, and sometimes illegal.”     Read More

The mentality at the EPA is that everything humans do is inherently damaging to the environment and that their job is to continually come up with more “solutions” to these problems.  It’s beginning to look like the EPA is more of a threat to the people of this country than people are to the environment.  This has never been more apparent that it is now with their goals of regulating dust. 

More Fake Water Statistics About Beef

More water lies from a 'nutty vegan chef'


Commentary by Greg Henderson
Thursday, September 09, 2010

For more than a quarter of a century PETA has been campaigning to end animal use in America. They’ve utilized some aggressive and controversial tactics to convince people to become vegetarians. Yet, consumer research suggests only about four percent of Americans are practicing vegetarians, and that number has not changed much over the decades.

But PETA is not about to give up, and they’ve embarked on a relatively new strategy to tie vegetarianism to the growing Green Movement. Their recent campaigns target beef production as an environmental evil, a claim they make based on some outrageous propaganda. (I guess expecting the truth in their campaigns is asking too much.)

Specifically, PETA is working to convince Americans that “meat’s not green.” On street corners in major cities they orchestrate publicity stunts with naked girls showering behind short curtains emblazoned with the claim “1 lb. of meat equals 2,463 gallons of water.” Such stunts make for good photo opportunities for newspapers and local television stations.

The stunts also provide fodder for the journalist wanna-bes known as bloggers. Take the vegetarian chef for an online Houston magazine called culturemap Houston. Joel Luks is a Canadian-born chef who describes himself as an “intellectually curious arts advocate. Design junkie & blogger. Nutty vegan chef loving ethnic foods. Classical flutist.”    Read More

Using fake statistics about the amount of water it takes to raise cattle has become a favorite past time for animal rights groups that are trying to eliminate animal agriculture in this country. Like Mr. Henderson’s comments imply, we have groups with the mentality that if lies further their agenda then that justifies their use. To make matter worse, even institutions that most people respect as unbiased have fallen for these lies. If you remember, last July I was in Chicago when I saw an exhibit about water. A portion of the exhibit stated many things about raising cattle that weren’t true. After working with that museum as well as the American Museum of Natural History in New York, I was able to get it changed. Unfortunately there are many places where we see these claims. Every time one of us does, we need to have the courage to do something about it.

R-CALF Joins with Meatless Monday, Meatrix Creators

NCBA questions R-CALF's partnership with animal rights group

By Drovers news source
Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Representatives of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association questions the affiliation of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) with the animal rights and environmental activist group Food and Water Watch.

According to separate news releases issued by the two groups, R-CALF and Food and Water Watch are joining forces on the campaign to support the USDA Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard Administration’s (GIPSA) proposed rule on livestock marketing. NCBA President Steve Foglesong said well-funded activist groups, like Food and Water Watch, are working to obstruct the success of U.S. agriculture and its efforts to feed a growing global population. He said Food and Water Watch, a lobbyist group full of “career activists,” has a longstanding history of lobbying for stringed agricultural regulations that are devoid of science.

Food and Water Watch on its Web site defines factory farms as an agribusiness-controlled operation where “tens of thousands of animals are raised in crowded facilities.” In an attempt to portray the livestock industry as factories, Food and Water Watch sponsored an animated video called The Meatrix, which Foglesong calls a “strong manipulation of reality preying on consumers removed from production agriculture.” The Monday Campaigns, Inc. (Meatless Monday) is also associated with the film, according to the Web site for the video.     Read More

Normally I don’t dive into inter-industry politics on my blog but this needs to be brought to light. Why on earth would any group in the beef industry team up with the people who created the anti-meat movie “Meatrix”. I don’t care how desperate you are for money or to push your causes, there is no excuse for sleeping with the enemy. Frankly it’s embarrassing for them and damaging to everyone in the beef business. (For the record, I called R-Calf to get their side of the story.  No one was in their office on Thursday morning when I called so I left a message.  I look forward to hearing their side of the story.)

El Paso Corp Helping End Public Grazing

El Paso cuts deal with Western Watersheds

ADELLA HARDING Free Press Staff Writer
Posted: Friday, July 16, 2010 11:11 pm

ELKO — El Paso Corp. has reached a precedent-setting, $20 million arrangement for habitat protection with two environmental organizations that protested the company’s planned Ruby Pipeline that will extend from Wyoming to Oregon.

The company will set up conservation funds with the Western Watersheds Project and the Oregon Natural Desert Association, and the organizations in turn are dropping objections to the natural gas pipeline.

“It’s something we didn’t have to do. We chose to do it,” El Paso spokesman Richard Wheatley said Friday. “The bottom line is we think it’s a preferable approach than being involved in litigation.”

Establishment of the funds also is in line with the company’s outreach efforts to be good stewards of the land, he said.

“There is the potential to do really good work,” Wheatley said.

“We agreed not to try to delay or litigate Ruby Pipeline,” confirmed Western Watersheds Project Executive Director Jon Marvel.

He said El Paso will set up a $15 million conservation fund for Idaho-based Western Watersheds and a $5 million fund with the Oregon organization.

“The money also can be used to purchase private property or conservation easements, but our priority is grazing permits,” he said. “It’s time to end public lands grazing.”    Read More

After learning more about this deal yesterday it becomes a very scary thing. Basically El Paso bribed their opposition to the pipeline with $20 million dollars so they could go after ranchers rather than the energy company. Also keep in mind that most of the pipeline in question is going through ranchland with the permission of the very ranchers who could now be put out of business. This just goes to show that neither El Paso or Western Watersheds have anyone with principals involved in their groups. Ending public grazing will negatively affect the rangeland that has been meticulously cared for by generations of ranching families. Stay tuned to this story because I’m not convinced it’s over yet.

Study Shows Grain Fed Beef Healthier Than Grass Fed

Study Shows Ground Beef From Grain-Fed Cattle Healthier Than Grass-Fed
05/27/2010 10:49AM

COLLEGE STATION – Grass-fed beef may not have as many healthful traits as some perceive, according to results from a recent Texas AgriLife Research study.

Dr. Stephen Smith, an AgriLife Research meat scientist, and a team of researchers have found that contrary to popular perception, ground beef from pasture-fed cattle had no beneficial effects on plasma lipid.

However, high monounsaturated fat ground beef from grain-fed cattle increased HDL cholesterol, increased LDL particle diameters, and decreased insulin, suggesting that ground beef produced by intensive production practices provides “a healthful, high-quality source of protein.”

"We wanted to see from this study if product from pasture-fed and corn-fed cattle had different effects on LDL or HDL cholesterol," Smith said. "We looked at the scientific literature and could not find any justifications for the statement that pasture-fed beef is better for you. All we found were rat studies in which they were fed omega-3 fatty acids, so we wanted to know if this applied to beef from grass-fed cattle."

"There really were no negative effects of feeding ground beef from the pasture-fed cattle," Smith said. "We did see many positive effects in men that consumed ground beef from corn-fed cattle. The ground beef from the USDA Prime cattle increased HDL cholesterol and LDL particle diameter. Both effects are protective against cardiovascular disease. The Prime ground beef also decreased insulin, so it may have some protective effect against type II diabetes." Read More

The biggest thing this study should provide for us is the fact that all beef is healthy for us. It doesn’t do anyone any good to vilify the type of beef our neighbor raises. It doesn’t matter what type of food you are raising, if you have to make up scary stories and spew misinformation about other products in order to promote your own, then you have a problem. All of us have preferences about what we like and don’t like but in the end we have a huge responsibility to provide food and fiber for the planet.

Black Cows on Green Grass

It's that time of year when winter finally seems to be over, the grass is growing and the cows are itching to get a taste. Yesterday we got one bunch of cows and calves vaccinated and put out to pasture and another bunch is on deck today.

I don't know if there is any better remedy to make you forget a long, cold winter than to swing open a gate and watch the back end of the herd as you trail them out to grass.

Stop back tomorrow for more updates on how to be an advocate for agriculture.

Running On Cow Power

Cattle-based fuel runs Okla.-Texas passenger train
By KELLY P. KISSEL (AP) – 21 hours ago

ABOARD THE HEARTLAND FLYER — Amtrak began an experiment Tuesday to let cows produce horsepower.

Officials from the railroad and the Oklahoma and Texas transportation departments launched a yearlong test to see whether beef-based biodiesel can efficiently run the Heartland Flyer passenger train between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, Texas, and also reduce emissions.

"We can join energy (and) agriculture and protect the environment," Oklahoma Agriculture Secretary Terry Peach said.

Tallow from Texas cattle — fat often used in soap or animal feed — is supplying 20 percent of the fuel for the 3,200-horsepower engine, the rest is standard diesel. Previous engine tests showed that those running the B20 mixture produced less carbon monoxide and fewer particulates and sulfates. Read More

So many times, consumers forget about all of the products we are able to make from livestock. Beyond the food we produce, there are many co-products that most people never think of or even realize they depend on. We continue to find even more uses for livestock products, including energy. Feeding and fueling this country, another reason to support America’s farmers and ranchers.

Ranching A Green Profession

Cattle Ranching a Green Profession, Survey Finds



America's Cattle Farmers and Ranchers Highlight 40 Ways They Protect the Environment in Honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day



DENVER, April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- When your office is the great outdoors and your commute is on horseback, preserving and protecting the Earth is part of the job description. This Earth Day, America's 1 million cattle farmers and ranchers are being recognized as having one of the greenest jobs.



In a new national survey of American beef eaters, cattle ranchers and farmers were selected as the third greenest profession from a diverse list of jobs, with park rangers topping the list. This survey was conducted by IPSOS Public Affairs for The Beef Checkoff Program.



Generations of Earth Day Values



It's no surprise to Gary Teague, a Colo. cattle rancher and environmentalist: "We work every day to teach our three children what it means to be truly passionate about the land and the animals. Preserving natural resources is how we make our living and how we secure our family business for our children and grandchildren."



Two-thirds of US cattle farms and ranches have been in the same family for two generations or more (Aspen Media & Market Research, 2008). American cattle farmers and ranchers have embraced the values of Earth Day for generations, and Americans recognize that commitment. Eighty-six percent of Americans surveyed think cattle farmers and ranchers are committed to environmental preservation. Read More



For those that only celebrate Earth Day once a year it may be hard to comprehend that it’s second nature for farmers and ranchers. Long before Earth Day became trendy, they were taking care of the land, air and water. It was in their best interest to do so then and it still is today.

Who Do We Trust?

Who do you trust to tell you the truth about food safety?
Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010, at 2:00 PM
By Marcia Gorrell

Is our food safe or not?

Are today's farmers feeding and taking care of their animals properly?

It seems to come down to who you trust.

Do you believe the family farmers who have spent their whole lives producing food? The farmers who have built modern farming techniques, step by step, generation by generation -- building on the lessons, failures and successes of those who farmed before them?

Do you believe the scientists or researchers who have spent their entire careers studying animals, nutrition and food safety? Do you believe the USDA or the FDA who are tasked with making our food supply safe?

I have as much suspicion as anyone when it comes to the government, but in the case of food safety, I can't argue with the results.

Of course, if you don't believe those people -- or me -- you can believe the reports like the one recently by Katie Couric of CBS News. It blamed antibiotic use in animals for the rise of antibiotic resistance in humans.

If she would have contacted farmers and veterinarians, as I did, she might have found out there are two sides to every story.

Again, if you don't believe me, you might believe Michael Pollan, the journalism professor from the University of California-Berkeley, who has become a self-appointed "food expert" but has never spent time actually raising food or feeding an animal day after day.

Recently Pollan was on Oprah, spouting his oft-repeated line that corn is not a natural food source for cows (and ruminants) and that we are force-feeding the foodstuff causing them to become sick.

According to Pollan, in order to feed cattle corn, we have to also feed them antibiotics.
For most farmers, that statement is so laughable they can't believe someone would actually believe it. In fact, most don't think it is worth a response. Read More

As we travel the country and share the experience we had with Pollan, I continually remind our audiences that they are the experts in the discussion of food production. Pollan is a journalism teacher. Unfortunately, he has discovered that he can make himself quite wealthy by trying to frighten people about our food supply and demonizing the farmers and ranchers who raise it. For some reason, people would rather be scared about our food rather than hear the truth. Nice job of sharing this story with your readers Marcia.

Making Beef Even Safer

New methods aim to keep E. coli in beef lower all year
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

The dead of winter may not be the time when most people's thoughts turn toward the allure of a hamburger on the grill. But from a food safety standpoint, it's probably the safest time there is to eat ground beef.

"The theory is that animals are carrying higher levels of E. coli during the summer months, and sometimes they may overwhelm the systems in place to control pathogen contamination in (processing) plants," says James Marsden, a professor of food safety and security at Kansas State University.

Research has been focusing "on how to level out that curve," says Marsden, also senior science adviser to the North American Meat Processors Association.

So industry and researchers are turning their sights to new technologies being deployed on the farm, the feedlot and at the slaughterhouse to knock E. coli O157:H7 down to winter levels all year round.

There's an unconventional mix at the forefront of this fight: bacteria-eating viruses, a paper-bleaching chemical, vaccines and a kind of yogurt for cattle. Read More

I am proud of the fact that I am in involved in the first step of getting high quality beef to the consumer’s plate. Along with that, I am also concerned about keeping our food supply as safe as possible. No matter what type of food you are talking about, all of us need to take precautions to ensure it’s safe to eat. Farmers and ranchers who raise cattle have contributed tens of millions of dollars of their own money over that last several years to find even better ways to ensure beef is safe to eat. We have the safest food supply in the world, but that’s not good enough for us, we want to make it even better. I want to thank this reporter for providing a straight-forward, informational piece highlighting these efforts. It just goes to show that it is possible for reporters to educate people about agriculture and food production without having to scare them out of eating.

Cattle Blood To Save Soldiers Lives

Cattle blood used in treatment experiments
By Jeff Martin - (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader via Gannett News Service
Posted : Sunday Jan 31, 2010 14:14:52 EST

A South Dakota bio-tech firm is using blood byproducts from cattle to develop new ways of treating injured soldiers on the battlefield.

The technology could also save lives after natural disasters such as the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, company executives say.

"It could help a lot of people in mass casualty situations where blood loss and wounds that need to get healed are a problem," says Steve Tye, vice president of operations for IKOR Inc. "This is a drug that can be stored for years so it can be delivered on the first flights out there."

IKOR aims to use hemoglobin from cattle as its raw material to develop blood replacement products for injured soldiers, Tye says. The goal is to heal their wounds more quickly and effectively, partly because the products can help deliver oxygen to the wound. Read More

I always enjoy sharing stories such as these that show just how much animal agriculture continues to improve the human condition. The edible product we get is just part of benefit we receive. Pharmaceuticals derived from livestock play a very important role in improving human health. Especially when it comes to providing our soldiers with the very best medical care, we need to utilize resources such as this. I would much rather see cattle being used to feed and heal people than seeing those same people die. Unfortunately, the life of an animal is more important to some than the life of an American soldier. ~Troy

I Am Angus Rounds Up 100K Views

Angus YouTube Channel Views Hit 100,000
Growing online video channel advocates Angus and agriculture

The American Angus Association®’s YouTube.com channel achieved a significant milestone this week, charting 108,000-plus video views since the page was introduced 17 months ago. More than 75 percent of those views have taken place during the last six months.

“This is a significant milestone in terms of online viewership,” says Crystal Young, Association assistant director of public relations. “This many video views in such a relatively short period of time is something we’re really excited to see. Today, we are averaging about 500 views per day – and our viewership continues to grow each month.”

Currently, the video channel contains 120 videos – all of which were produced in-house by Association staff.Young attributes the site’s growing popularity to an eager audience, strategic placement and — most importantly — fresh, positive content about agriculture. Many of these videos can be viewed by visiting www.angus.org and clicking on the “videos” button on the site’s navigation bar. In addition, these videos or links may be posted by outside parties directly to their own web sites.

“Association members and our viewers are telling us the videos hit home in an environment dominated by anti-agriculture messages,” she says. “Whether you’re an Angus producer or a consumer, there’s something here for everyone.”

“Online media is the fastest, cheapest way to communicate a message in today’s fast-paced market,” says Young. “Our YouTube channel and increasing online presence allow us to better serve our members and their customers as well as advance a positive message about agriculture to the mainstream public.”

Here's a link to their latest YouTube video that highlights two ranching families in Oregon.

It’s great to see agriculture having an ever-increasing presence online. Congratulations to the members of the American Angus Association for achieving a great milestone with their videos. They have done a great job of focusing on the people and families that raise cattle in their videos. The link provided will take you to one video that shows how a ranching family has helped restore wildlife in their area through careful land management. That is what we need to continue doing. As I mentioned yesterday, one of the biggest issues we have to overcome is the fact that millions of people in this country don’t know a farmer or rancher. Introducing ourselves and breaking the myth that food somehow magically appears is the goal we need to keep striving for.

Feral Horses Damaging Rangelands

December 26, 2009
Ranchers, activists at odds over mustang roundup
By Frank X. Mullen Jr.
fmullen@rgj.com
RGJ.com


Bob Depauli, whose family has been ranching in Nevada for four generations, remembers a wild horse he saw in the Nevada desert one drought-parched year in the late 1970s.

“The herds were really poor that year, starved,” he said. “I saw (a mustang carcass) whose two hind legs had quit working and it had use of only its forelegs. It had walked in circles and dug a hole in the ground with its hindquarters.”

It dug its own grave.

Depauli runs cattle on federal allotments, including one about 30 miles north of Gerlach in the area where the federal government plans to start Monday rounding up 2,500 wild horses of the more than 3,000 in the area.

The government says the roundup is necessary to check overpopulation. Opponents say the land mangers exaggerate the number of mustangs and the damage they do to the range and that gathering horses using helicopters traumatizes, injures or kills the animals.

About 32,000 wild horses are in government holding pens waiting for adoptions that, for most, will never come. Range managers plan to remove another 10,000 from ranges in Nevada and elsewhere in the West next year.

The government, Depauli and others see the wild horse gathers as necessary to ensure the health of the rangeland, water supplies and native species. Opponents say the horses are a symbol of America and are being swept aside for the benefit of cattlemen like Depauli.

“I’m basing my position on years of experience,” said Depauli, who runs about 300 head a year.

“I’m in business to stay in business, not to overgraze. I move my cattle around. Horses stay in the same areas 24, seven, 365 days a year. Right now, we’ve got four to five times the number of wild horses that the land can support. Cattle are manageable. We need to manage the horses, too.

“Overpopulation of horses impacts everything: cows, wildlife, the horses themselves, everything. If this continues, we’ll all be in a mess.” Read More

The destruction being caused by the overpopulation of feral horses is significant to say the least. It’s interesting that they debate turns basically turns into those who are stewards of the rangeland versus those who want an unchecked population of horses. When activists do simple comparisons of the numbers of cattle versus horses and use that as their reasoning to stop the roundups, they show their ignorance of the issue. There is so much more to the issue. Ranchers spend a lifetime caring for the land, it’s unfortunate that more people don’t care as much.

Be Ready to Educate About Ag

Cattle producers told to fight myths
By Lori Potter World-Herald News Service

KEARNEY, Neb. — Lana Slaten is proud that her Cullman County is Alabama’s top cattle producer. The registered nurse and cow-calf producer was thrilled to recently read in Beef magazine that it also ranks as the 130th largest U.S. beef county.

“Yet I have friends who actually believe beef is not safe to eat,” said Slaten, who is president-elect of American National Cattlewomen.

Slaten and Tom Field, executive director of producer education for the Denver office of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, were featured speakers this week at the opening session of the 2009 Nebraska Cattlemen and Cattlewomen Convention in Kearney.

Both talked about the mission to fight myths and misconceptions used to attack the cattle industry on such issues as hormone and antibiotic use, global warming and animal welfare.

Misinformation is spread person-to-person by schoolchildren, adult consumers and some of the media’s biggest stars. Slaten said one negative comment about beef from Oprah Winfrey can send markets down in just one afternoon.

“Our job is to arm ourselves with facts, science-based facts, and educate those who blindly believe what they hear in a 30-second sound bite on the news,” she said. “We have to tell the rest of the story.” Read More

It’s easy to know when and where you should be educating people about agriculture. You should be doing it everywhere all the time. Seeking opportunities to tell your story and educate about what you do on your farm or ranch needs to be on your chore list. The best place to start doing it is right in your hometown. Even if you live in a rural community, not everyone there understands what it takes for you to get food on their table. The things you do off the farm and ranch to promote and educate can and will have as much impact on your ability to continue in agriculture as the things you do on the place.

Making Electricity From Manure

Project in southwest Kansas will turn cattle manure into electricity by early next year
By Associated Press
8:53 AM CST, December 9, 2009

ANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The cattle manure in a feedlot in southwest Kansas may soon be providing electricity to nearby homes.

Gene Pflughoft is the economic development director for Grant County. He says that early next year, equipment at a cattle feedlot will begin turning manure into fuel that could make electricity for 30 homes.

If the project is successful, larger units could be placed at other feedlots to start making use of the ample supply of cattle manure in Kansas.

A Bipartisan Policy Conference in Washington recently issued a study that said 50,000 cows could provide enough dung to power 24,000 homes.

The report said Kansas, which has two cows for every human, could use more cattle manure by mixing it with coal. Link

Too many times I see people refer to manure as a waste product. Some even refer to it as toxic waste. If you hear those things, you can feel free to assume that whoever said it doesn’t know anything about the subject. It’s not a waste product, it’s a valuable nutrient. It can be used for organic fertilizer, thus reducing the need for fossil fuel based fertilizers. And, it can also be used to generate energy. Manure gets a bad rap when in fact we couldn’t do well without it.

Cattlemen Dealing With Many Issues

WINDMILL: Cattlemen bristle at EPA, USDA rules
By Jerry Lackey
Saturday, November 21, 2009

SAN ANGELO, Texas — An unbelievable number of issues confront not only the cattle business but agriculture as a whole, says Colin Woodall, vice president of government affairs for National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in Washington, D.C. But one of the biggest concerns is the Environmental Protection Agency’s dust rule.

“The EPA is proposing a tenfold reduction in the thresholds of what they call coarse particle matter, which is EPA talk for agricultural dust,” Woodall said in a recent interview during the 65th annual National Association of Farm Broadcasters convention.

“We’re talking about everything that comes out of the back of a cotton stripper or a combine (dust, leaves and harvest debris), cows that are milling around in the lot, even dust kicked up from pickup tires while driving down the ranch road,” Woodall said. “They would all be in violation of EPA’s clean air rules.” Read More

There certainly are many issues facing agriculture, and animal agriculture in particular. In my mind it highlights the need for producers to become involved in helping shape the solutions to these problems. It’s more important than ever to be active in an agriculture organization that represents your views. Your involvement can’t end there though, you need to be politically active as well by contacting your elected officials to share your thoughts and let them know how pending legislation might affect your ability to produce food and fiber. I was reminded again this weekend that politics is a contact sport. If you have been sitting on the sidelines, please suit up and get on the field!

YPC Cattle Call Blog

Cattle producers take their thoughts to the Web
Young Producers' Council wants to energize the emerging generation
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press

The emerging generation of cattle producers is bringing the beef industry into the digital age.
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association's Young Producers' Council has launched a blog and Facebook page to get people from college to their mid-30s more involved in industry issues.

Cari Rincker, 29 and a Shelbyville, Ill., cattle producer and agriculture attorney who leads the council's public relations committee, said there are already more than 1,000 people linked to the Facebook page and a dozen contributors have signed up to blog.

"NCBA has more than 30,000 members and the average NCBA member is about 60 years old," Rincker said. "The goal of YPC is ultimately to get more young people involved with NCBA so they can help shape NCBA policies.

"Young people are certainly a big part of the beef industry, yet they seem to not have a lot of a voice right now," she said. "We're quickly becoming a social media world. The blogosphere is a great way for young beef producers to get their stories out to the public." Read More

It’s really exciting to see so more farmers and ranchers that realize the importance of taking the time to tell their story. Congratulations to Cari Rincker and the rest of YPC for putting this blog together. Not only is it good for our consumers to learn more about the beef industry, but it’s also good for those folks who are in the beef business to be reminded that there are young, passionate ranchers out there who are ready to take on the challenges of raising cattle and promoting their product in the 21st century.