cattle

The Obama administration is pushing back against critics of its plans to overhaul fair-play rules for livestock marketing, saying opposition to the rules "demonstrates a complete lack of concern for honest, hard-working families." Congress repeatedly blocked USDA from issuing the rules but USDA has a window of opportunity that may close at the end of September, says DTN.

Scientists say that antibiotics in cattle "boost methane production in cow pats — apparently by favoring antibiotic-resistant, methane-producing organisms in the gut," says the BBC. "The researchers say it’s proof that antibiotic use on farms has unintended, cascading effects on the environment."

Government scientists in India "are working hard to reduce carbon emissions by making cows less flatulant," says the New York Times. The second-most populous country in the world is home to 280 million head of cattle and 200 million other ruminants, such as sheep, goats, yaks and buffaloes, together emitting 13 tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, daily. "So reducing animal flatulence might actually do some good -- especially in India, where there is little chance of cutting back the use of fossil fuels anytime soon," says the Times.

Along with corn and hay, cattle at Iowa State University's Beef Nutrition Farm are consuming small doses of bacteria as part of their daily rations. It's part of research into alternatives to the antibiotics that are a common tool in livestock health, says Harvest Public Media.

One of the largest U.S. meat packers, privately owned Cargill, said it will reduce by 20 percent its use of "shared class" antibiotics on slaughter cattle in the four feed yards that it owns in the Great Plains and in four additional lots operated by a business partner, Friona Industries.

Much of central and southern Texas is abnormally dry following unusually warm weather and two months of scanty rainfall, reports the Drought Monitor.

Three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against 20 private dairy and beef farms in Northern California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, claiming they are destroying wildflowers, "eroding coastal bluffs and polluting creeks while the park stands littered with muddy feedlots, waste pits and trailers for ranch hands,” reports The San Francisco Chronicle.

Spurred by record-high cattle prices in 2014 and early 2015, U.S. ranchers are expanding their herds with plans to send more cattle to slaughter in coming months. The USDA says the number of calves is up 3 percent from a year ago and the number of beef cows is up 4 percent.

Cattle ranchers and feeders expanded their herds 3 percent in the past year, to 92 million head at the start of January, and cattle numbers, which generally declined since 1996, are up for the second year in a row, says the semi-annual Cattle inventory report.

The Australian government forecasting agency raised its estimate of beef exports in the trade year that ends next July 1 by 20 percent, as ranchers liquidate their herds in the face of drought worsened by El Niño, said Reuters.

Texas lost nearly two livestock auction markets a year over the past four decades, according to a study by Texas A&M economists.

A cattle rancher in central Washington State says he still believes his herd can co-exist with wolves despite losing a yearling Angus on state-owned grazing land, reports Capital Press.

After a wet and cold spring that delayed planting, the U.S. corn and soybean crops now are ahead of the usual pace for development, says the weekly Crop Progress report. Some 34 percent of the corn crop is silking, one point ahead of the five-year average and double the rating one year ago. And 41 percent of soybeans are blooming, 2 points ahead of average and 17 points ahead of the 2013 crop for the second week of July.

The U.S. cattle herd is rebuilding after years of shrinkage, said the USDA in the semi-annual Cattle report.

Cattle producers are keeping their stock on pasture, a signal that beef supplies will remain tight this year.