At the 2025 Hemphill County Beef Conference, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, visited with the President of Certified Angus Beef, John Stika, about the importance of value and taste to consumers today.

According to Stika, the cattle business is all about how to satisfy consumers. “Customers deserve to be satisfied because we are asking them to pay almost record-high prices for beef today,” he said. “It continues to be more evident every time that it is price in relation to value, and consumers still value the taste of our product and the quality of our product to the point where even at near record prices, this past March, Certified Angus Beef had the highest volume selling month in our history with 117 million pounds of Certified Angus Beef sold.”

In addition to great-tasting products, a wide array of options is appealing to consumers. Stika shared, “In the Power of Meat study that is done by the American Meat Institute that just came out, we saw tremendous growth in the meat retail case for beef at both value and premium. We sold more steaks at higher prices than we have before. Still, it is those other lower-cost items that we can offer off of that beef carcass that allow us to continue to pull consumers, especially that millennial group that makes up a growing portion of our core customer base.”

Ground beef is not only one of the more affordable beef options, but it is also easy to cook and very versatile. Even still, Stika says that he gets more calls now than ever before from retailers, distributors, and restaurateurs wanting to add Certified Angus Beef Prime to their offerings.

“There are clearly customers that are looking for the entire mix of what comes off of a beef carcass, and it’s our job to make those available and make sure that they are high quality,” Stika asserted. “Whether they are buying ground beef or a T-bone, the product must never disappoint because even ground beef today is perhaps more expensive than the most expensive piece of pork in the meat case.”

Stika explained that both the brand and history of Certified Angus Beef are based on exceeding expectations, and while the meat case can seem somewhat complicated to consumers, he assured that looking for a Certified Angus Beef label is a good way to ensure that customers are getting a high-quality beef product.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post CAB’s John Stika Explains the Importance of Value and Taste in Today’s Beef Market first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the suspension of live cattle, horse, and bison imports through U.S. ports of entry along the southern border due to the continued and rapid northward spread of New World Screwworm (NWS) in Mexico.

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, spoke with Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ethan Lane, about border closure and its impact on the cattle industry.

NWS has been recently detected in remote farms with minimal cattle movement as far north as Oaxaca and Veracruz, about 700 miles away from the U.S. border. “That was the last, real, logical point, width-wise on the peninsula of Mexico to really mount a defense, given the amount of sterile flies we have to work with each week – about a hundred million,” Lane said.

Despite the efforts of the United States and Mexico, and the economic impact on both countries, there has been continued northward advancement of NWS, and additional action must be taken to slow the progression of this deadly parasitic fly.

“This is a continuation of that on-again, off-again dynamic we’ve seen with Mexico relating to the New World Screwworm and its incursion into Southern Mexico over the past few months,” Lane said. “We’ve been talking for weeks about that effort to stop the spread of screwworm using that sterile fly technique that requires dozens of overflights per week over that hot zone in Central Mexico.”

It is an involved process to get the flies from the breeding facility in Panama, fly them to Mexico, then land them and stage them. Several planes must land across the area and then be refueled before making their return trips.

“This really is a time for us to be looking at those controls in Mexico and what we have going on at our own border and continuing to engage with Congress to illustrate to them how pressing this issue is,” Lane said. “As part of the ongoing budget and funding discussions in D.C., we need to make sure they’re thinking about the fact that this is going to be an expensive fix and even more expensive if we end up with New World Screwworm here in the United States.”

He insisted upon the importance of ramping up sterile fly production in the U.S. to mount a defense against the parasitic flies and push them back into Central America, which he estimates to cost several hundred million dollars.

Lane understands how badly the U.S. cattle industry needs cattle from Mexico, but also that Secretary Rollins made the right decision. “The secretary deserves a lot of credit for taking decisive actions; it’s never an easy decision to make,” he said. “We have a lot of cattle feeders, and others, that are really in need of those cattle coming up from Mexico right now, and we appreciate that they are taking an approach to this at the USDA of continuing to monitor and check in. We believe there will be some off-ramps down the line if we see some benchmarks hit by the Mexicans as far as arresting the spread of this through Mexico.”

The import suspension will persist on a month-by-month basis, until a significant window of containment is achieved, but any livestock currently in holding for entry into the United States will be processed normally; This includes an APHIS port Veterinary Medical Officer inspection exam and treatment to ensure they are not carrying NWS.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post NCBA’s Ethan Lane on the Import Suspension of Mexican Cattle first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

During the issues forum of the National Farm Broadcasters Washington Watch, Oklahoma Farm Report’s Maci Carter had the opportunity to visit with Mary-Thomas Hart, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Chief Counsel, about many things, including EPA’s intent to revise WOTUS which was featured in yesterday’s BeefBuzz. In today’s BeefBuzz, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays highlights her comments from that conversation concerning telling consumers the beef industry’s sustainability story.

According to Hart, the conversation would have been more difficult about ten years ago. “We hadn’t coalesced around how to talk about climate sustainability in the beef industry. It was a conversation we were, quite frankly, scared to have.”

Prior to starting those conversations, NCBA visited cattle producers in other countries that were already dealing with regulatory environmental mandates. They were surprised to learn that the United States’ beef supply chain is the global blueprint for producing beef in an efficient and sustainable way.

“According to the United Nations, the U.S. beef supply chain has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per pound of beef of any beef-producing nation,” she said. “That’s not an accident. That is a product of the market telling our producers how they want their beef, producers answering those market demands, maximizing efficiency within the supply chain and our environmental sustainability, protecting those natural resources – our water, soil, and carbon resources and wildlife biodiversity.”

She described how an American consumer eating a hamburger can not only enjoy the burger, but also the industry and supply chain that they are supporting.

“I’m really excited about what we’ve done as an industry in the last sixty years, and the progress we’ve made,” she touted.

During the Biden administration, several climate-smart commodity programs were implemented to help cattle producers align with the climate sustainability discussion. “Those programs are being reconsidered by this administration,” Hart shared. “As they are being reconsidered, our primary goal is to make sure that programs grant research opportunities and pilot projects to the extent that those are available to cattle producers and that the USDA prioritizes retaining those and ensuring their continued availability.”

She cautioned that cattle producers do have a target on their backs in climate conversations despite their success thus far. “Any additional research or pilot projects that help cattle producers implement new, innovative practices or establish a market for some of those ecosystem services are really valuable, and are things that our producers are looking for.”

She established that whether it is done in a climate lens or a general improved efficiency lens, NCBA is going to be supportive of those programs. They work to highlight the benefits of those programs both in foreign and domestic markets.

“U.S. beef is in high demand around the world,” she said. “We want to make sure that not only the U.S consumer knows about the sustainability of our product, but that the global consumer understands the sustainability of our product. That comes with not only lobbying in D.C., but lobbying internationally, too.”

The team at NCBA frequently attends international climate discussions where they can highlight the positive story of U.S. beef production to be sure that the U.S. beef supply chain remains the example of sustainability for global beef production.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post Highlighting U.S. Beef Sustainability in a Global Context first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

During the issues forum of the National Farm Broadcasters Washington Watch, Oklahoma Farm Report’s Maci Carter had the opportunity to visit with Mary-Thomas Hart, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Chief Counsel, about the progress EPA is making to clarify the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) definition. In today’s BeefBuzz, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is featuring comments from that conversation.

The WOTUS definition has long been a source of ongoing contention, with shifting interpretations based on presidential administrations and congressional control. Prompted by the Supreme Court’s ruling on Sackett v. EPA, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers are collaborating to revise the definition of WOTUS. The revision aims to provide clarity and stability for landowners, particularly those in the agricultural sector, who have faced uncertainty due to fluctuating regulatory interpretations.

EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers have asked for input on the geographic scope of the relatively permanent waters, the meaning of continuous surface, and how to determine the jurisdictional status of ditches.

Hart, along with her team at NCBA, has been homing in on these issues and interacting with the administration. “NCBA has been pretty actively engaged, both in the comment period and in the listening sessions that EPA recently held in its request for recommendations.”

She explained further that it is a preliminary step prior to the EPA issuing a formal ruling or guidance document, but is confident that WOTUS is a priority for them. “We really appreciate that approach,” Hart shared. “We are really happy with the list of exclusions from the WOTUS definition, things like certain ditches, stock and watering ponds, and waste treatment systems. Those are really important to keep excluded from the WOTUS definition. We want a clear exclusion of all ephemeral features.”

Possibly a bigger ask, but high on NCBA’s list of importance is related to interstate water features. Previous administrations have regulated interstate water features in various ways. NCBA wants any interstate water features that don’t qualify as any other category of jurisdictional water, then it shouldn’t qualify just because it spans two or more states.

“That is a big ask for the agency, but overall, I think we are really happy with the direction the agency has taken thus far,” Hart stated.

She mentioned that several relics from the Biden administration were being rolled back by the Trump administration. She detailed listings under the ESA, broader ESA standards, and MIPA standards as rollbacks that will be good for producers.

“Those cases are being slowly rolled back, one by one,” she said. “We’ll still engage in WOTUS litigation until the EPA and this administration make any kind of formal action. I think we are also closely watching cases as they slowly trickle up toward the Supreme Court.”

She said that the Supreme Court has enjoyed a relatively light year, so far, but will likely experience a bigger case load next year.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post Mary-Thomas Hart Talks WOTUS Revisions and Agricultural Concerns first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to speak with the operator of the Ashland Veterinary Center, Dr. Randall Spare, at the recent Hemphill County Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas. In Tuesday’s BeefBuzz, they discussed the importance of maintaining a high-quality product for beef consumers. Today, in line with Dr. Randall’s presentation at the event titled “The Value of Artificial Insemination to a Commercial Cowherd,” they are discussing factors to consider when choosing a bull.

According to Dr. Spare, the right bull depends on the environment in which he and his calves will live. He said that a producer must consider his or her goals, how the cattle will be marketed and to whom, and what their purpose is.

“The right bull is the one that meets their needs to meet their goals,” he summarized. “My job, then, is to move their goals to something that they can create more value with.”

He emphasized the benefits of genomic testing on the cowherd to better understand their needs for choosing the right bull. “If we understand that genomic testing is involved in seedstock production, and those seedstock producers can genomically test and enhance their EPDs, why can’t we do that with commercial cattle? We can.”

Genomic testing can identify the top third of a cow herd or the bottom third, allowing a commercial producer to market the bottom end differently than the top end of the herd, or to eliminate the bottom end and increase the top end.

“There is a sentiment in production agriculture today, ‘Well, we’ve got enough choice cattle, and we don’t need any more marbling,’” Dr. Spare pointed out. “I would challenge producers who think that .65 percent marbling is good enough for CAB, when 2.5 is available. We can have marbling EPDs as high as 2.5 percent. One of the highest bulls in the Angus breed is a 2.7. If we can do that and be in the top one percent, why can’t we move it there? We have to be pioneers in this business.”

He highlighted how refusing to get the most out of one’s cattle reduces their value. He added, “It’s just like feeding $8 corn to our cattle. If they’re not efficient, and they’re not gaining four pounds per day, and they are not converting, we are making our corn worth less. The same thing with our grass. We’ve got to produce the best cattle to get the most value out of our forage.”

He expressed excitement about the number of young people attending the Hemphill County Beef Conference and emphasized the opportunity they present to bolster the trajectory of using genomic testing in commercial herds to produce the best cattle possible.

“It’s kind of like a mutual fund,” he said. “If we can make those things more valuable early on, they are really going to have something to sell, but they may have to be willing to do it a little differently than their father or grandfather.”

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post Dr. Randall Spare Encourages Using Genomic Testing in Commercial Cow Herds first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to speak with the operator of the Ashland Veterinary Center, Dr. Randall Spare, at the recent Hemphill County Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas. They discussed the importance of maintaining a high-quality product for beef consumers.

Hays pointed out a statement that Dr. Spare made during his presentation at the event titled “The Value of Artificial Insemination to a Commercial Cowherd,” in which Dr. Spare insisted that all beef producers are involved in the food production business. Such a statement might have been considered controversial in the past.

“As ranchers and cow calf producers, we are literally at the grass level and we are doing menial tasks every day, but when we are making genetic, health, or nutrition choices, we need to understand that somebody is going to buy our product. Somebody is going to eat that steak, and we want them to have the very best experience,” Dr. Spare compelled.

He emphasized the importance of ensuring that consumers enjoy their beef-eating experiences so that they will be willing to pay its higher price over and over again.

Utilizing the genomic information available today, producers can better understand the commercial cattle in their pastures and measure their value to the beef industry.

“Some of them might not be good, but the important thing is that we know,” he underscored. “We’ve got to know what is in our pasture, know what we are producing, and be able to objectively describe that to someone else.”

He highlighted the importance of teaching others how to succeed with genomics and considering the success of the next person down the line who buys a producer’s cattle, whether it be a stocker operator, a feedyard, or a consumer. “If we can describe those cattle to them before they buy them, we are going to realize their fullest value,” he insisted. “We have a tremendous opportunity today. There is a tremendous amount of money in our product, and we need to take advantage of that and invest it back in ourselves right now.”

He discussed how genomic testing can help previously unknowing producers understand what is underneath the hide of their cattle before they are harvested, and underlined the importance of purchasing good, tested bulls.

“We need to find the bull that does the best for us today,” he said. “A lot of these Angus bulls in 2025 are bringing ten to twelve thousand dollars, and that is a tremendous investment, but at the same time, we have fed cattle that are bringing thirty-eight to four thousand dollars. It doesn’t take us too long to pay for that bull. The more we make investments in those cattle while they are still on the cows, the more likely we are to realize that investment, the longer we own those animals. If our equity allows us to own them until harvest time, we are going to get that full investment out.”

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post Investing in Beef: Dr. Randall Spare’s Insights on Genomic Testing Benefits first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

At the Hemphill County Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to talk with National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall, who was speaking at the conference. Last week, the two men discussed the critical leadership of Secretary Rollins in the battle against the New World Screwworm. In today’s BeefBuzz, they are discussing the impacts of tariffs on the beef industry.

Woodall explained that the trade war caused a halt to trade with China, previously a top market for U.S. beef, among other things. “We believe in trade, but we also believe in fair trade,” Woodall said. “That’s what the president is trying to do with these tariffs.”

He described issues with other countries that are not conducting trade fairly. Some examples he listed were the United Kingdom, the European Union, Thailand, and Vietnam. He insisted that each of those countries enjoys access to the U.S. but doesn’t reciprocate by allowing access to their markets.

“We are very supportive of the way the president is using tariffs as a tool to try to fix all of this,” Woodall stated. “We believe that we need to give the president some time to continue his efforts.”

He underscored his trust in President Trump’s and Ag Secretary Rollins’s understanding of how the loss of trade with China, a billion dollar market due to the efforts of the first Trump administration, is affecting beef producers. He reminded listeners that discussions regarding China are much larger than beef, and compelled them to remain patient as the process works, but to continue to remind leaders of the impacts to the beef industry.

Australia is another big conversation regarding beef. “We have had a free trade agreement with Australia for over twenty years, but ever since BSE, we have been locked out of Australia, yet they have sold about thirty billion dollars’ worth of beef into our country,” Woodall emphasized.  “We need to make sure they are taking our product, and right now, they are not. I believe that this effort is one that will help us try to rectify that situation.”

The conversation turned to the elusive farm bill, and Woodall said, “It’s very important because we are going to see a lot of those tax provisions start to expire at the end of 2025, including the death tax provisions that we are benefiting from. This is a priority of both the House and the Senate; it is a priority of the President, and I have full faith that we will get it done before any of those programs expire on us.”

He admitted that making the bills permanent will be a hard lift, so he expects a ten-year extension to the provision. “It buys us some additional time,” he said. “We just need some certainty. That’s what we want before things start to expire at the end of this year.”

Woodall acknowledged that the farm bill may have to be grouped in a reconciliation bill and that both chairmen are examining the possibility. “Everyone knows that we need a farm bill, but right now, it is hard to tell when that is going to happen,” Woodall said.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post Trade Challenges and Farm Bill: Insights from Colin Woodall first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays is attending the 10th Annual Hemphill County Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas, and had the chance to speak with Atmospheric Scientist Matt Makens, who provided a weather outlook for attending producers. In this conversation, the two men are discussing the likelihood of either an El Niño or La Niña weather system dominating.

Makens advised attendees to enjoy the rain while it lasts because, despite it, they are already in a La Niña system. “It’s La Niña; she’s in charge, and she will be for the rest of the year,” he said.

According to Makens, if history repeats itself, La Niña will be in charge well into 2026, which means drought for agricultural producers in the South. He advised producers to appreciate the water they are receiving now because it is abnormal to the expected long-term trend.

“You are going to have to have precipitation timed out very well,” he said. “Rather than having plenty of it, it needs to come on the day you need it. That’s a La Niña.”

Makens examined the USDA’s pasture and range conditions index and compared this year with the previous five years. He determined that pastures and ranges are healthier now than they have been for the past five years and will likely remain healthier for some time.

“It’s a valuable tool to relate what La Niña means for the grass,” he said. “That is a better way to do it.”

Hays pointed out how critical this time of the year is to hay production for the next 12 months, and Makens broadened the scope. “On another token, look at your wheat,” he said. “If you didn’t have that early November water in Oklahoma, where would that wheat have been in January and February when you got the cold. What would it look like today? Now, you are getting another well-timed system for your hay. Somebody is praying in Oklahoma, and their prayers are very well-timed for wheat and hay. The outlook for the next four weeks is relatively favorable for hay producers across the region.”

He cautioned that May through September may be drier than average for most of the Southern Plains. Looking into fall wheat planting, Makens said, “When you have a La Niña coming back, that moisture you get – whether in late October or November – you dusted in your wheat, that timing has to be on, and in La Niña there is no guarantee that there is going to be that water.”

He advised producers to look for ongoing impacts late in the year and to consider their Pasture, Rangeland, Forage (PRF), and Annual Forage (AF) coverages, because drought is more prevalent in La Niña systems than moisture.

The Northern Plains are already in real trouble. The area including Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana is lacking soil moisture already and hasn’t received much rain so far this year. According to the USDA pasture and range conditions index, the region is likely in one of its worst outlooks for pasture and grass health this year. The drought is also impacting Southern Canada, and much further South, Mexico is also in the midst of a devastating drought.

“For the beef industry across North America, this is a drought headline kind of year,” Makens summarized.

Click here to listen to and read about Maken’s explanation of the significant amounts of rainfall currently falling on the Southern Plains at this time.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show, and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post La Niña’s Grip: What Farmers and Ranchers Need to Know first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

At the 10th Annual Hemphill County Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to visit with Troy Applehans, Market Specialist at CattleFax, who was speaking at the event.

Applehans discussed the red-hot cattle markets at the time of the conference. “We’re another year deeper into the cycle, and there is an expiration date to these cycles, but none of us know if it is going to be this year or next, but we simply see the market sustaining itself much longer than it did during the last cycle,” he stated.

He pointed out that even those with short memories will remember the 2014 – 2016 cycle and the detriments of prices seen during that period. He doesn’t anticipate the nation’s herd size returning to its previous glory this time, but does expect the higher prices to have a longer lifespan.

According to Applehans, the snail’s pace of herd rebuilding is directly related to the actions of Mother Nature. “There is an opportunity and a desire out there for people to want to restock and even expand their herds, but there’s no place to go with these cattle at this particular time,” he detailed. “It is just too dry around the country.”

He noted that about 60 percent of the nation’s cow herd resides in the area spanning from Montana, into the Dakotas, and south into Texas, and pointed out that all of those states have been pretty dry over the past several years.

He explained the unprecedented demand for beef and how the 26-to-27-pound increases to carcass weights seen last year made up for roughly a million head of fed cattle that didn’t have to be slaughtered without shorting the market.

Hays mentioned the near-record prices of fed cattle seen in the $2.15 to $2.16 range this week, and Applehans thinks they still may not have peaked yet. “Record territory isn’t unusual to see at a time like this in this cycle, but as I mentioned, there is an expiration date, and none of us know exactly where these highs will be. Certainly, there is a lot of data that would indicate that the market can reach that $2.25 or better level on the fed cattle side – none of us know for sure – but if we get to that level, you wonder about the consumer and are they still willing to accept the prices at the retail side.”

Applehans and his team at CattleFax closely examine the state of the economy through unemployment rates, equity markets, consumer psychology, and more, to try to determine where the breaking point will be. He knows pork and poultry are close competitors with beef and that beef is the protein most vulnerable to consumer pullback due to its higher prices, but says that so far, there has been no chinks in the armor regarding consumer demand.

Applehans believes that the constricted numbers of the cow herd, combined with high demand for beef, may mean that cow calf producers will remain in the driver’s seat for an extended period of time.

“We know that these cycles tend to last ten to eleven years in length between a high to a high or a low to a low, and quite frankly, we’re in about the fifth year of this upcycle that we’ve seen,” Applehans explained. “The message that we would like to portray is that we don’t see these prices just falling off. Does that mean that we can forego managing risks? Things can be really, really important to manage risks. Utilizing some form of risk management, whether that be through the LRP side or utilizing the options market or the futures, will be very important here over the next several years.”

He touted the user-friendly aspect of LRP programs and said that it is money well spent. He pointed out that although some producers have purchased it and didn’t need it because their cattle sold well, that is what they should be hoping for – that their insurance isn’t needed. He cautioned that, “going forward, there is a higher probability that it will pay.”

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show, and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post CattleFax’s Troy Applehans touts Cattle Market Strength & Warns of Elusive Expiration Date first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.

At the Hemphill County Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to talk with National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall, who was speaking at the conference. The two men discussed Secretary Rollins calling out the Mexican government for undermining American interests in the battle against the New World screwworm.

Woodall detailed the screwworm’s presence in Mexico and the bureaucratic red tape that previously hindered progress to prevent the insects’ continued Northward march.

“Fortunately, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has taken a significant leadership role here, and has reached out to the government of Mexico and told them what our expectations are, that they need to cooperate, that they need to coordinate,” Woodall detailed. “Not only is this an impact for us as U.S. cattle producers, but it is impacting their cattle producers, too. We cannot afford to have those critters come back North and affect us like they did back in the ‘60s – the last time we had a big outbreak, and that time, we were able to eradicate them.”

The NWS female fly only mates once in its lifetime. With this understanding, the sterile insect technique has been utilized for the eradication of the pest. The US and Panama operate the sterile male fly production facility in Panama through the US Commission for Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm. This facility has historically produced 100 million sterile flies per week. Male flies are irradiated at the facility and then released to mate with wild females.

Currently, more than 1,000 cases of NWS infections have been reported in Mexico, but so far, the flies are being kept just outside of the Yucatan Peninsula. Through his conversations with Secretary Rollins and her team at USDA, if the Mexican government cooperates, there are enough male screwworm flies in production – 100 million per week – that the line can be held. The prognosis is good because Secretary Rollins announced on X that the Mexicans are going to allow planes into the region where the sterile flies are needed. 

This eleventh-hour decision was made under the threat from Rollins to once again halt cattle from moving into the U.S. from Mexico at the end of April should they refuse.

“Yes, we do rely on Mexican feeder cattle coming in, and we have a great relationship, but we don’t have a relationship good enough to get over infection from New World Screwworms,” Woodall stated. “As far as NCBA has gone, we have made it very clear to the Secretary that we are going to support her decisions and her approach here because we have to keep this New World Screwworm from making it back into the United States.”

He clarified that the ultimate goal is to push the flies back into Central America and then into South America, where they have been, not just hold the line in Mexico. To do that, 200 million sterile male flies per week would need to be produced, and the singular facility in Panama cannot produce that many.

“NCBA is working with the Secretary to identify facilities in the U.S., specifically in Texas, that can be retrofitted to start producing the sterile males here in the U.S. as well,” Woodall shared.

He also told how the flies initially made it past the first barrier, the Darién Gap of the Panama Canal. “We found that the flies that we were manufacturing in this facility didn’t have a high libido, and we need them out there mating,” he said. “That is one of the problems that allowed them to get past the Isthmus of Panama and come up through Guatemala and ultimately into Mexico.”

He said the problem has been fixed in the sterile males currently being produced, and they are now doing their jobs.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

The post NCBA’s Colin Woodall discusses Secretary Rollins’ Leadership in the New World Screwworm Battle first appeared on Oklahoma Farm Report.