Beef for Bully
Mississippi State baseball fans attending Saturday's game in Starkville sampled Flat Iron steak and beef sausage, courtesy of Polk's Meats.
MCA President Jacob Megehee tempts Bully with a steak bite.
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Board Sale Results
The fifth annual "Cattlemen's Exchange Producer Sale" was held on April 2 in Winona. Beef cattle producers from across the state marketed farm-fresh and assembled stocker cattle in 11 truck-load lots. In this specific sale, more than 696 head of cattle were sold in thirty minutes. The receipts from the sales approached $700,000 and averaged well above market value for the week of the sale. Sale recap link
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Beef Council staff was on hand at two youth events last week to teach elementary students about their food. First at the Environmental Day activities in Copiah County and later in the week, the program was presented at Ag Day in Holmes County.
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Beef & Poultry Expo
The Magnolia Beef & Poultry Expo is slated for Thursday, April 11 at the Smith County Ag Complex in Raleigh. The trade show opens at 9:00 a.m. with speakers and door prizes throughout the day.
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Beef Cattle Boot Camp
Sign up today to attend one of the Beef Boot Camps to be held April 12th on the MSU campus in Starkville and April 19th at Brown Loam Experiment Station near Raymond.
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Leake Co. Field Day
Leake County cattlemen enjoyed a visit to Bell Farms Saturday. The program was sponsored by Southern AgCredit, Stockman's Supply and Performance Food Group.  | | Leake County Field Day 2013 |
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 Tickets are still available for this Dixie National steer, to be given to one lucky MCA member. Returned tickets must be postmarked by April 15th.
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Making Tracks 2013
Mississippi Junior Cattlemen's Association's Making Tracks Leadership Camp will be held June 17 - 19 on the Mississippi State University campus.
For the 21st consecutive year, the camp is sponsored by The Wax Company.
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The long-awaited OIG report is in and it has determined that the $52 million beef checkoff program is operating according to law and USDA regulations. Specifically addressing allegations that beef checkoff funds may have been misused, the authors of the report said, "We found no evidence to support that the board's activities... did not comply with legislation, and AMS guidelines and policies. Funds were collected, distributed and expended in accordance with the legislation." National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) Chief Executive Officer Forrest Roberts, issued the following statement regarding the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit of the Beef Checkoff Program for the years 2008-2010. The audit identified no issues and reported full compliance by the Beef Board and its contractors, including NCBA. "NCBA takes its role as a contractor to the Beef Checkoff Program very seriously and we have cooperated fully with the Cattlemen's Beef Board (CBB) and USDA throughout this audit. As part of an extensive investigation OIG examined the accounting, compliance and oversight procedures implemented by CBB and adhered to by contractors, including NCBA. The OIG audit found there have been 'no exceptions' to strict Government Accounting audit standards. The report also states that the relationships between CBB and other industry-related organizations, including NCBA, complied with the legislation and funds were collected, distributed and expended in accordance with the law. "Although the audit determined NCBA and CBB have been in compliance with the Act and Order, we continue to work on new ways to safeguard producer investments. NCBA has already strengthened our internal controls and implemented new standards that ensure compliance with the regulatory firewalls. NCBA is a proud contractor to the checkoff and is committed to the highest internal control standards. As a result, we will continue to work closely with USDA and CBB to implement any suggestions for improvement put forward in the OIG report." The full report is available online.
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School Food Service
Several new school foodservice recipes were presented last week on BeefFoodservice.com.
Encourage schools in your area to introduce these recipes into their menus as it can help them to meet the revised USDA guidelines. The recipes have received positive feedback from foodservice directors, staff and students in pilot tests across five states.
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Cattle Market
Notes
Dr. John Michael Riley
April 5, 2013
Cash Cattle:"Cash cattle in the Souther Plains (Texas, Oklahoma, and SW Kansas) were at $128/cwt on a live basis as of Wednesday. In Nebraska, live and dressed sales were at $129/cwt and $204-$205/cwt, respectively, on Wednesday as well. Western Cornbelt cattle were at $128-$129/cwt live and $204-$205/cwt on Thursday. Cattle were mostly steady with last week's trade and, collectively, the five-area live price finished the week at $128.29, up $0.53 versus last week. Cash feeders and calves benefitted from last week's bearish report for corn. In Oklahoma City, feeder steers under 850 pounds were $3-$6/cwt (those over 850 were $1-$3/cwt higher) and feeder heifers were $4-$8/cwt higher. Calves were $2-$4/cwt higher in OKC. In Mississippi auction markets feeder steers and heifers were $5-$10/cwt higher, while cull cows and bulls were steady. Futures:
Despite the exceptionally bearish Grain Stocks report from last Thursday ( link to my recap) live cattle futures managed to finish in the red this week. Keep in mind prices gained about $3/cwt in the final two trading days last week (markets were closed last Friday) and therefore this week is being compared to a recent high water mark. Still, it speaks to the struggles within the industry since the first of the year. Mother nature seems to really have it out for beef producers. First, a massive drought minimizes the nation's corn crop. Then a hurricane AND a snowstorm hits one of the largest populated areas in the U.S within a few months of each other. Finally, cold weather seems to be lingering around when many would be out grilling. Thus, the drop in prices this week appears to be linked to concerns about beef consumption in the short term. Corn futures finished lower this week but appear to have leveled out from the sharp drop following last week's bearish stocks report number. The market was caught off guard by the exceptionally high volume of corn in storage across the U.S. Many (myself included) point to the lower ethanol production.
Beef:
Wholesale boxed beef prices were mixed this week. After narrowing to a razor thin $0.39/cwt two weeks ago, the spread between Choice and Select carcasses increased to $3.01/cwt with Choice increasing and Select dropping. Choice finished with a weekly average of $191.29/cwt, up $1.48, and Select finished at $188.28/cwt, down $0.74.
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April
9 Scott CCA
11 Magnolia Beef &
Poultry Expo,
Raleigh
12 Boot Camp, MSU
15 Alcorn CCA
19 Boot Camp,
Brown Loam
20 Pike Field Day
22 George/Jackson
CCA 25 Neshoba CCA 30 Marshall CCA
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