Category: Cattle Buisness

<blockquote>Wisconsin meat processor Emmpak Foods Inc. voluntarily recalled 123,000 pounds of ground beef sent to retailers in 10 states because it may be contaminated with hydraulic oil, the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service said on Tuesday.<br />n<br />nFSIS said the problem was discovered after it received a consumer complaint. Emmpak is based in Milwaukee.…

It seems like no matter where you go in the world some of the problems remain the same. I discovered these two stories from Australia.<br />n<br />nFirst there is a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/stories/s1303109.htm" target="_new">story about a drought</a>.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>A lack of rain has forced one of Australia's biggest pastoral leaseholders to dramatically slash its cattle numbers.<br…

I see we are maybe a little closer to resuming <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=ajmNrQOgBQ9w&refer=asia" target="_new">beef trade with Japan</a>. There has been some contrevorsy over the way to age the cattle and now it seems like Japan is going to accept the way the US does it. I hope we can get this trade opened up again. It…

The latest <a href="http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=3779" target="_new">cattle inventory numbers</a> for the US are out. They show the herd size bottomed out last year and is showing small gains in numbers this year.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Total cattle inventories on January 1, 2005 were 95.8 million head, up one percent from 2004. This is still the lowest total U.S. cattle…

Today's the big day for the <a href="http://www.beefboard.org/dsp/dsp_locationContent.cfm?locationId=1055" target="_blank">beef checkoff program</a>. Today the Supreme Court is going to <a title="Next on Supreme Court menu: beef and free speech" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1208/p03s01-usju.html" target="_blank">hear the case</a> on the constitutionality of the program. The particular article I linked I found humourous on many levels.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>For years, beef was considered…

I wish I understood the intricacies of the currency markets. They talk about the dollar rising or falling and I have a real hard time wrapping my pea brain around what they are talking about and the concequences of it. I do know that a falling dollar makes our exports cheaper worldwide and imports more…

I would really be curious to know where this timid attitude being shown in Asian countries come from. <a title="Despite low risks, Asians cautious about U.S. beef" href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/11/22/build/world/65-asians-beef-cautious.inc" target="_blank">This attitude</a> is what the cattle industry needs to address to open up markets again and get people buying again.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>"Anybody who works in the beef…

A couple of notes of interest out there for the cattle industry today.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>An effort to reverse mandatory country-of-origin labeling, or <acronym title="Country of Origin Labeling">COOL</acronym>, also failed Saturday; <acronym title="Country of Origin Labeling">COOL</acronym> is scheduled to become mandatory in September 2006. The mandatory labeling provisions require that U.S. consumers be notified of the…

Very interesting dueling commentaries, at least if you're a cattle producer, were published in the Gazette this morning. First you have the American Meat Institute (AMI) President saying the US and Canadian <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/11/06/build/opinion/40-guest-op.inc" target="_blank">cattle herds are integrated</a> and R-Calf USA refuting this statement and saying <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/11/06/build/opinion/42-guest-op2.inc" target="_blank">there is no such integrtation</a>. I find…