Postmark Applications by Friday 
Scholarship applications must be mailed by December 16 to be eligible to compete for more than $45,000 in awards from The Wax Company, Mississippi CattleWomen's Association and Mississippi Cattlemen's Foundation.
Applicants are urged to read the checklist and fill out the form completely, being careful to include the required letters, essay and transcript..
Click for details.
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| Last Chance for Membership Drive
New and renewing membership applications must be postmarked by Friday to qualify for prizes in the recruitment contest.
Here are the top recruiters vying for the Brangus heifer to be given by Jacob and Martha Megehee.
Wayne Gentry 27
Tom Williams 18
Ricky Ferguson 15
Greta Thornton 14
Mary Craft 11
Roger Jefcoat 8
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Country Christmas with Beef
 
Over one thousand parents and children enjoyed beef sausage at the Mississippi Agriculture Museum's Christmas Nights program.
Mississippi CattleWomen's Association and Beef Council staff helped serve the breakfast sampler to families attending the two-night event.
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Marathoners competing in Saturday's Fit for Agriculture race learned more about the nutritional benefits as well as the great taste of beef for their training table.
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Bus Tour to Nashville
Attend the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show with the MCA Bus Tour. Ticket includes registration, admission to the trade show and dinner at the Grand Ole Opry.
Click for details.
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Save Those Ralgro Wheels
Again this year, Merck Animal Health, maker of Ralgro, is offering to contribute $1.00 to our association's education fund for every Ralgro wheel that is turned in at the MCA convention. Bring them with you on February 10 or give them to one of our officers. |
Dairy Protects Bones During Weight Loss
New research suggests that a calorie-restricted diet higher in protein -- mostly from dairy foods -- and lower in carbohydrates, coupled with daily exercise, has a major positive impact on bone health in overweight and obese young women.
The study, published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, found that bone health improvements were particularly evident due to the high density of bone-supporting nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D and dairy-based protein.
For 16 weeks, three groups of overweight and obese but otherwise healthy premenopausal women each consumed either low, medium or high amounts of dairy foods plus higher or lower amounts of protein and carbohydrates. Calcium and vitamin D levels were also graded from low to high across the groups in conjunction with the dairy foods they consumed.
"Our findings demonstrate the importance of diet composition to the maintenance of bone health status during weight loss," said lead author of the study Andrea Josse of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario. "Our data clearly show that dairy-sourced protein is important when aiming to avoid harmful consequences such as accelerated bone loss during weight loss. In our view, young women attempting to lose weight should consume a diet higher in dairy-sourced protein."
Subjects undergoing weight loss while consuming marginally adequate protein without dairy foods showed clearly elevated levels of markers for bone loss, indicating that following such a diet would weaken bones in the long run.
Maintaining or even improving bone health in young women, particularly in those trying to lose weight, is important for overall health and may have great implications for decreasing the risk of diseases like osteoporosis later in life, the researchers said. Source: Feedstuffs
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Cattlemen Score Victory on Dust Vote
All four of Mississippi's congressmen voted in favor of the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011, as the full House of Representative sent a clear signal to EPA regarding burdensome and scientifically unfounded regulations on U.S. farmers and ranchers.
In a bipartisan showing, the House voted 268 to 150 in favor of Congresswoman Kristi Noem's bill. National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) President Bill Donald calls the vote a win for regulatory certainty for cattlemen and women.
"Unfortunately, taking EPA's word that farm dust will not be further regulated provides absolutely no relief to those cattle producers already faced with dust regulations. We saw legislation as the only option to give all ranchers across the country any sort of peace of mind," said Donald, who is a rancher from Melville, Mont. "Cattlemen and women worried about being fined for moving cattle, tilling a field or even driving down a dirt road should rest assured knowing that will not be allowed to happen on our watch. The bill provides much-needed certainty for cattlemen."
Donald said the fact EPA was even considering regulating dust at levels that would push much of the country into non-compliance was reason enough to move forward with H.R. 1633. NCBA Deputy Environmental Counsel Ashley Lyon said the legislation recognizes that dust from agricultural activities has never been shown to have an adverse health impact at ambient levels. H.R. 1633 first gives states and localities the authority in regulating dust by preventing the federal standard from applying where states or localities already have dust measures in place. In places where there is no state or local control, the bill also would exempt farm dust from the Clean Air Act unless the EPA administrator can prove it is a significant health problem and that applying the standard is worth the costs.
Donald said it is because of commonsense policymakers like Congresswoman Noem and the original cosponsors Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa), Larry Kissell (D-N.C.) and Robert Hurt (R-Va.). He said agriculture rallied behind this bipartisan legislation. Specifically, NCBA orchestrated a letter signed by 194 agricultural organizations that was sent to every member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Donald said NCBA wanted to be clear that this legislation was supported across the board by all of agriculture.
"What we have found is when we need a solution to a problem; we simply find a bigger hammer. Rallying together and working directly with members of Congress allowed us to swing a bigger hammer and score a victory for the entire industry today but our efforts cannot stop now," said Donald. "The Senate will be a challenge. However, we are confident if agriculture continues to work together, we can expect this legislation to end up on the president's desk."
The legislation now moves to the Senate, where it was introduced by Senators Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and has support from 26 bipartisan senators.
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Find
Great Stocking
Stuffers
at the
MCA Office
Logo items from MCA, MJCA and Beef, It's What's for Dinner
Caps
Shirts
Books
Jackets
Beef Tags
Windshirts
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Market Notes
Dr. John Michael Riley
December 9, 2011
Cash Cattle:
Cash fed cattle lost steam this week and dropped anywhere from $3-10/cwt. Live cattle in the Southern Plains were called at $120/cwt on low to moderate demand across the region. Live and dressed cattle in Nebraska traded at $120-123/cwt -mostly $121/cwt- and $195/cwt, respectively. Feeders steers in Oklahoma City were steady to $2/cwt lower on a light test and feeder heifers were $2-3/cwt higher. Steer calves were steady to $3/cwt lower, while heifer calves were steady to $2/cwt lower. Feeders in Mississippi auctions were $2-$8/cwt higher and cull cows and bulls were $2-$5/cwt higher.
Futures: Live cattle futures were sharply lower this week. Boxed beef slipping late last week resonated with the market and prices took the biggest hit Monday. Feeder cattle were lower as well as the post Thanksgiving surge in the cash markets pulled back and brought futures with it. Corn was lower on the week but was mostly steady through Thursday. On Friday, USDA released their monthly supply and demand report, which revealed a tad more corn to carry-over than was projected last month. The biggest shock from the report was the projection of 35 million more bushels of soybeans due to lower crushings and exports. No huge changes were made to beef projections so there will be no devoted write up on the report this month, but tables recapping the report are below.
Beef:
Wholesale beef prices were much lower this week following a pull back that started late last week. The Choice price took a big hit Thursday and ended the week at $188.57/cwt, down $5.35 from last week. Select continued to drift lower and ended at $172.18/cwt, down $3.23, which narrowed the spread slightly to $16.39.
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SAVE THE DATE
February 1 - 4 |
Teach Free
Teachfree provides preschool through 12th grade educators with high-quality educational materials that supplement the curriculum. Resources can also be downloaded for use in the classroom.
This program is sponsored by the Beef Checkoff. |
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