Cattle Headlines – Week of February 14, 2014

Cattle Headlines – Week of February 14, 2014

Popular photo of the week: Young Stockgrowers member, Travis Brown participated in the The King Ranch Institute leadership program. View all our photos from Cattle Industry Convention on Facebook.

Here’s a quick look at your headlines from the cattle community this week. Montana Stockgrowers members, check your email for a more extensive list of weekly headlines in your Weekly Stockgrowers Update.

Administrative rule on fees open for comment: The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) is proposing to increase fees on some supplies such as health certificates and establish fees on some special programs that are offered by the DOL. These proposals have been under consideration for a couple years. Fees on health certificates were last revised in 2003 while fees on special programs (seasonal grazer, 6 month horse passports, etc..) would be entirely new. The proposed rule was published in early February, and is open for public comment through March 31. It is available on their website here. For more information, contact the DOL.

Over 9 million pounds of beef recalled: On Saturday, February 8^th the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a Class I recall of more than 8.7 million pounds of beef because the facility, Rancho Feeding Corporation, “…processed diseased and unsound animals and carried out these activities without the benefit or full benefit of federal inspection,” according to the FSIS recall announcement. So far, USDA has only confirmed the retail locations in California. Read more from Beef Producer.

Get BQA Certified For Free Until April 15: For the second year, Boehringer Ingelheim is partnering with the checkoff-funded Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program to sponsor certification for all producers who enroll from February 3 through April 15. Take advantage of the open certification period here. BQA is important to the cattle industry as it gives producers a set of best practices for producing a safe and high-quality beef product. It also gives consumers the assurance that the beef they eat is both healthy and wholesome. Read more from BEEF.

Gold Medalist discusses journey from Idaho cattle ranch to Sochi Olympics: Snowboarders like Shaun White can command millions of dollars in endorsements, but Kaitlyn Farrington from Sunny Valley, Idaho had to make do with more modest means when she set out on the path to Olympic gold. Read more from Reuters and NBC Olympics.

Be sure to follow Montana Stockgrowers throughout the week as we provide continual updates on Association Events and Industry News through our Facebook and Twitter (@MTStockgrowers) accounts, as well as here on our blog. Have story we need to share? Send us a message through any of these accounts or our Contact page.