Cattle Ranching

Eased Trade Restrictions Good for Texas Cattlemen; Bad For Texas Fajitas?

A news release from the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association announced the recent lifting of restrictions on U.S. beef exports to Japan should be good for Texas cattlemen. According to the USDA, Japan will now allow imports of beef from cattle less than 30 months of age, as opposed to t ... More >>

Dallas Fed Looks Back on the Year in Drought, Beef and Black Gold

In '12, a parched Texas saw drought ease, but the cattle industry continues to reel from the hangover brought on by 2011, the driest year in its history. Meanwhile, oil! Dear Lord, he sent us another boom. The Dallas Fed describes what 2012 held for these iconic Lone Star pursuits. We're a farming ... More >>

Modern Prematurity

Seth Rogen takes his Centrum Silver in The Guilt Trip.

Meatless Mondays at USDA Out-and-Out "Treason," Ag Commish Staples Says

Imbroglios don't get more prosaic than this: A USDA newsletter suggests its employees practice "Meatless Mondays," thereby shrinking their ecological footprint. Skip the Salisbury steak at the cafeteria and eat a plant instead. Take into account the ever-swelling asses of the American public and th ... More >>

USDA Promotes Meatless Monday Before It Doesn't

See also, from Unfair Park: *Meatless Mondays at USDA Out-and-Out "Treason," Ag Commish Staples Says An internal USDA Newsletter has some Republican tweeps in an uproar. On July 23, the USDA posted a five-page newsletter for employees, offering tips and status updates on "greening efforts" includin ... More >>

Chef Brian Luscher of The Grape on the Kansas Beef Council's Bus Tour

Recently Sara Blakenship reported that chef Brian Luscher was embarking on summer camp tryst with the Kansas Beef Council. As proprietor and chef of The Grape on Greenville Avenue, undisputed burger master and barbecue pro, what better person to represent Texas out on the ranch? So, with permissio ... More >>

How Will Texas' Cattle Crisis and Rising Beef Prices Test Dallas' Love for Steak?

This January, the Houston Press ran a prophetic story about last summer's drought and its coming effects on beef prices. Katherine Shilcutt's story, like our own Brantley Hargrove's story did a few months before, described Texas ranchers who sold off their cattle when the costs associated with raisi ... More >>

Pink Slime Economics: A Local Cattleman on How Beef Prices will Rise, and Why That's OK

Yesterday the farming trade publication Farm Futures carried a story on the potential rise in beef prices after the recent uproar over pink slime, or LFTB (lean finely textured beef). CattleFax, a beef industry research group, estimates the pink slime news cycle "is costing the U.S. beef industry $1 ... More >>

Hammered by the Drought, Texas Ranchers Are Running Out of Cows to Send to Slaughter

Brandon Thibodeaux​Since we started catching rain in pans and writing down measurements, Texas has never gotten so little rainfall as we have this year. As we reported in our recent story on the cattle industry, we're in uncharted territory. That's why, in August, experts were anticipating ano ... More >>

The Long, Dry Fall of the Texas Rancher

Ranchers are struggling to hold on to their herds during the driest year in Texas history.

Lessons in Recessionomics: Beef Prices, a Historic Drought and Hamburger

As my grandfather would say, "It's drier than a popcorn fart." We're smack-dab in the middle of the worst one-year drought ever. The costliest too. Feed prices are nearly unaffordable. Stock tanks are drying up. But the final boot to the gut of the Texas rancher never came. It's the strange artifac ... More >>

Down On The Grass-Fed Farm: The Beef May Be Better, But It's Still Damn Hard Work

Jayme RutledgeMarguerite Robbins with her cattle.​ Sweat pours down Marguerite's sun-baked face. She feels briars scratching through her dusty jeans. The buzzing and biting of mosquitoes is maddening. So is the old fence lining one of the back pastures. It's broken again. Marguerite stops wha ... More >>

The Cows Come Home

How Now Mad Cow?

For Texas cattle ranchers, "What's for dinner?" is a touchy question

Kobe Spam?

The steak house is going Wagyu

Corraled

The USDA backs off its tough new meat-inspection standards. That's a good thing, beef producers say.

Off the Killing Floor

Dallas-based Supreme Beef wins a major round in its court battle with the USDA

Slaughterhouse Jive

Dallas-based Supreme Beef fought what it believes are unfair regulations, only to wind up on the USDA's killing floor

Best hamburger (tie)

Angry Dog & Jake's Old Fashioned Burgers and Beer

Bull--it's what's for dinner

The cows aren't the only ones pumping out manure in windy Amarillo, where Oprah is giving the cattlemen a lesson in steer wrestling