Word: cattlemen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Meanwhile, in the trading pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, there were further signs of trouble. The Merc is a forward market that allows cattlemen and feedlot owners to hedge the price they will get for their products and offset some of the normal business risks. The traders provide the liquidity for that risk. But mad cow is anything but normal. James Brooks, floor-operations manager for the nation's largest cattle-futures trader, R.J. O'Brien, says the atmosphere is tense. "People are stressed out. Tempers are short. Nerves are shot," says Brooks. "We're seeing small fights break...
...public copes with the news, the U.S.'s $40 billion cattle business is bracing for trouble. The industry, led by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in Denver, had originally fought the ban on downers as costly and unnecessary. But the losses caused by the BSE discovery in Washington State are likely to make those steps seem cheap by comparison. Big overseas customers like Japan and South Korea no longer want U.S. steaks; ships at sea packed with meat bound for Asia are turning back. Containers of frozen French fries cooked in beef tallow for the export market are idling...
...seven-year low. Short supply had run headlong into the popularity of high-protein diets like Atkins, which promote lots of meat on your plate. And then came Washington's decision last summer to stop importing live Canadian cattle, which accounted for 7% of U.S. beef consumption. Delighted cattlemen from Texas to Montana rushed to fill the void as prices went through the roof. Choice cuts became particularly pricey, in part because feedlots sent cattle to packers sooner than usual in order to meet demand. And skinnier cows meant fewer choice cuts for outlets ranging from Outback Steakhouse to Costco...
...prices do fall, cattlemen like Bill Murphy in Montana expect they can wait it out. The trick in this business, he notes, is timing. The 60-year-old rancher says a lot of cow-calf operators have played the market right so far. They sold this year's calf crop when prices were up and may find that the market for beef has recovered by the time they are ready to sell their herds again next fall. Out at Murphy's ranch, on the snowy prairie of southern Montana, his pregnant cows' offspring will not be ready for sale until...
...hope the 'Cool 2B Real' campaign helps girls make healthy decisions about food and exercise," says Mary Young, a registered dietician and Executive Director of Nutrition for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The NCBA, says Young, is concerned about the nutritional shortfalls of vegetarianism, which Young refers to as one of the "wacky eating behaviors" teenage girls tend to favor...