Latest News From rancher

A lone juror stood between rancher George Kelly and innocent. “It is what it is, and it will be what it will be. Let me go home, okay?”

There's a lot of rhetoric surrounding beef trade that we shouldn't accept at face value. A closer look at the data shows America’s ranchers are the direct beneficiaries of international trade.

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) participants can donate emergency grazing authority to ranchers in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas impacted by recent wildfires.

The Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City will honor the late Cliff Becker and Dr. Scott Brown with the group’s prestigious Jay B. Dillingham Award for Agricultural Leadership and Excellence.

The Ogallala Aquifer Summit brings diverse stakeholders and policy makers together to collaborate on how best to manage the High Plains’ precious water resources into the future.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension photographer Sam Craft was in the Texas Panhandle documenting the aftermath of the largest wildfire in Texas history, and the aid and support for fire victims.

Devastating wildfires are burning in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle region and the Smokehouse Creek Fire has already become the second largest in Texas history, consuming at least three-quarters of a million acres.

The January 1, 2024, beef cow herd inventory was 28.22 million head, down 2.5 percent year over year and a decrease of 3.47 million head or 10.9 percent lower, from the cyclical peak in 2019.

John Deere announces the release of its new 326 P-Tier telescopic compact wheel loader. The new telescopic loader offers 16-plus feet of reach while still being compact enough to work in barns or other tight spaces. 

Ag tech startup MyAnIML and USDA find first-of-its-kind facial recognition technology successfully analyzes cattle muzzles to predict illness.

While estimates suggest that black vultures are responsible for the loss of thousands of calves every year, as a protected species, the bird may not be killed without a permit.

CattleFax invites producers to participate in its annual Cow-Calf Survey, which provides participants and the rest of the industry with valuable data regarding industry benchmarks and trends.

Removal of the 84 turbines erected beginning 10 years ago without a mining permit from the Osage Nation ends a long legal battle and will cost the developers $300 million.

Oklahoma National Stockyards' owners and nearby businesses fear their livelihood could be infringed if Oklahoma County commissioners seek to use imminent domain to acquire land for the county's new jail site.

The gray wolves relocated from Oregon to Colorado have a lengthy rap sheet. Maybe the secret reintroduction ceremony included a secret clemency grant from the Governor.

The government seized control of John Yearwood’s ranchland in the name of a tiny bug. “There is no shame in Washington,” he says.

A large contract foodservice company claims the nation's largest beef packers conspired to fix prices and drive up profit margins from 2015 through 2021.

Beef’s critics see an industry that is corrupt and/or broken with NCBA and packers padding their pockets. The facts tell a different story. Beef is winning the marketplace…and it’s not even close.

Checkoff deniers would have you believe per capita consumption data indicate demand is in decline. That claim was debunked 25 years ago.

After the government twice flooded a farmer’s home and 900 acres, killed his cattle, and insisted he foot the bill, the Supreme Court will hear the case.

Working off a big trade the previous week and slowed production, packers were reluctant to purchase cattle but the futures market took a dip and buyers stepped in at steady money and gathered inventory. 

Cattle futures posted weekly losses including a technically bearish weekly low close in December live cattle. Cash markets were weaker, but strong cash fundamental remain in place.

Despite recent drought challenges, U.S. cattle producers remain optimistic and committed. Poised for growth and adaptation, producers seek understanding in consumer expectations and the complex marketplace.

Despite the misrepresentation from some groups, your beef checkoff has paid huge dividends. And given that producers fund the program, there’s an obligation to portray the program factually. Here are some facts.

Eight beef packing projects are in various stages of completion that could add 10% to total industry capacity; is it needed? What potential headwinds might these ventures face?

Sound management decisions that will impact future profit potential is based on facts arrived at through mathematical analysis. Decisions based on emotions and/or tradition seldom lead to success. 

Last week I learned I'm a 12-percenter, and if you're a Drovers reader it is likely you are a 12-percenter, too. That's not good, at least according to those who would regulate our dietary choices.

A Sept. 8 Farmer-Led Field Day in Nebraska will explore drought management strategies for moisture retention, tips for integrating cattle into row crop operations, and polycropping systems with area producers.

Cattle markets this summer have often provided a wide regional basis with cattle in the North trading well above futures. That's not to be misinterpreted as indicator of a broken market.

Are southern cattle feeders too passive when marketing cattle? Here’s what the data suggest.

Rancher doesn’t know whether it was rustler’s remorse or publicity that gave the bandits cold feet about trying to sell the sheep that prompted their return.

Beef consumption vs, beef demand, a topic that continues to generate confusion. But it should be clear, per-capita consumption, "independent of prices, provides no meaningful information about demand.”

A federal judge in Minnesota dismissed the claims filed by a putative class of cattle ranchers in a long-running case that alleged an industry-wide scheme to fix prices.

Gregg Doud, who led often-intense discussions with China between 2018 and 2020 as the chief agricultural negotiator for the U.S., will deliver the Henry C. Gardiner Global Food Systems lecture at Kansas State University.

Consumption data are often used to mislead and undermine the beef industry’s accomplishments and disparage the Checkoff. But such data in the absence of price data provides zero information about beef’s competitiveness.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated his fifth national monument in Arizona, an action embraced by Native American tribes in the area and opposed by mining companies and cattlemen.

The state's key witness in the trial of an Arizona rancher accused of killing a Mexican citizen trespassing on his property last January had previously served time in a federal prison for drug smuggling.

Through 30 weeks, the 2023 cattle and beef markets have exceeded even the most bullish of forecasts. How does this year’s cattle market compare to 2014? Price only tells part of the story.

Cattle feeders held firm to higher asking prices and packers continued to wave lower bids with only a few cattle trading hands. Leverage remains in the feeder’s hand as packers must begin filling Labor Day orders soon.

Whether futures markets are friend or foe often depends on our understanding of those markets and whether we can ignore the drama and use facts to make decisions.

Generally, a good week for agriculture with cattle steady to stronger despite a significant rally in the corn market. Packers try to hide their hand, but without inventory they must pay up to keep plants running.

Cattle industry leaders on Thursday (July 13) praised the introduction of a bipartisan congressional resolution recognizing the importance of commodity checkoff programs, including the Beef Checkoff.

Further discussion about cattle markets leads our columnist to conclude: producers are “prone to have high confidence in unfounded intuitions” and we often derive conclusions based on incomplete information.

Higher cattle prices have calmed much of the producer angst about the market not working. Now seems like a good time to analyze how we think about factors that drive prices.

Negotiated cattle traded lower for the second consecutive week and the Cattle on Feed report surprised with a placement total significantly higher than expected.

Successful ranchers learn to remove emotion from a situation.  They subsequently they double down on the cost management side while also becoming more focused on value-added marketing strategies.

Cash cattle prices retreated from the previous week's historic highs and a seasonal decline was to be expected. Analysts, however, believe another rally is brewing later in the season.

Solid prices gains are not new to cattle markets. Solid gains have been ongoing for several years and the fed market has roughly doubled over the past 35 months, a clear sign the market is not "broken."

A significant rally in fed cattle over the past three weeks confirms the front-end supply of cattle remains extremely current and cattle feeders have been willing sellers driven by good profits and a strong basis.

Markets may be higher, but there’s inherently more risk with each calf crop over time. That reality means ranchers must implement sound business strategies to ensure successful decision-making going forward.