As predicted, the Argentine government’s policy to expand grain farming in the Pampas region by moving from grass finishing to grain finishing is collapsing that country’s cattle production and is sending domestic meat prices soaring. Inflation is officially at 9.1% but rose by an annual rate of 14% in February due partially to soaring beef prices. The Argentines are the world’s largest beef consumers on a per capita basis. Argentine cattlemen say that the government has put a ban on beef exports to try to hold down domestic meat prices. The Argentine government denies this and blames a slow customs service for the lack of exports. Export taxes on grain are a major source of revenue for the government and it has tried to maximize grain exports by putting a price lid on domestic grassfed cattle to encourage the plowing up of permanent pastures and their conversion to grain production. Cattlemen warned that this policy would result in Argentina becoming a net importer of beef rather than a major exporter. They said the fall in domestic production due to the grassfed price controls will result in the loss of abattoirs and beef infrastructure that will take many years to rebuild. Beef cow numbers are expected to fall by four million head in 2010, a decrease of 30 percent!

The rising live cattle market is attracting speculators like flies to honey according to Cattle-Fax. Since the first of the year open interest has increased nearly 94,000 contracts. This has accelerated the recent uptrend and has spilled over into feeder cattle contracts as well. Due to the harsh winter, fat cattle supplies are currently very tight, export demand is rising and domestic demand has stabilized. These factors are providing the "story" speculators need to jump into the market. As long as nothing interrupts this tight supply story, speculators will probably continue to pile into the market. However, at some point the market will break and all of these speculators exiting the market will exaggerate the magnitude of the break. What goes up eventually goes down only it does so much, much faster.

Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have won a veterinary medicine prize for showing that giving dairy cows names and calling them by their correct name increased milk production yield by an average of 258 liters a year. The researchers said cows are very responsive to friendly milkers with a positive attitude.

The USDA has issued new rules that require Certified Organic dairy cows and other ruminants to be run on pasture for the entire green season, but not for less than 120 days. It also requires that the animals receive at least 30% of their feed, or dry matter intake from pasturing. In addition, organic livestock will be required to have access to the outdoors year-round with the exception of documentable environmental or health considerations. Currently according to the Cornucopia Institute, 30 to 40% of the nation’s supply of organic milk is coming from a handful of large scale confinement dairies largely found in the arid states. Under the Bush Administration, Aurora Dairy in Colorado was allowed to continue to operate even after career civil servants recommended its decertification due to its lack of pasturing. In addition to dairy cattle, the standards assure humane animal husbandry practices in eggs, poultry, beef and pork production. The USDA will be hosting a series of workshops around the country with the 50 or so organic certification agencies to clearly define the meaning and intent of the new rule so that certifirers will understand the new regulations and only approve management practices that stictly conform to it. The USDA is currently accepting comments as to whether or not beef cattle "finished" in confinement feedlots should be legal to sell under the USDA Organic label.

Gerald Fry, a popular speaker on animal genetic issues, and Teddy Gentry, a member of the country band Alabama, plan to start a vertically integrated grassfed beef company called American Prairie Beef. Other participants are Dr. Ronald Bolze, a seedstock producer, Tom German, a leading Iowa grassfed producer and Myron Wolff, a South Dakota seedstock producer. The company plans on using the correct grass genetics and extensive producer education to ensure that only tender and high quality grassfed meats are the end product. A vertically integrated marketing and production company is proposed with the meats sold under their own brand. The company is currently conducting an equity drive soliciting qualified investors via a Disclosure Statement.

After a 15 city listening tour across the country on the subject of animal disease traceability, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack has decided a State administered program would be better than one run out of Washington. In the future the USDA’s efforts will only apply to animals moved in interstate commerce and will be administered by the States and Tribal Nations. One of the USDA’s first steps will be to convene a forum with animal health leaders for the States and Tribal Nations to initiate a dialogue about the possible ways of achieving the flexible coordinated approach they envision. Additionally, the USDA will be revamping the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health to address specific issues, such as confidentiality and liability. Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute in Wisconsin said the USDA announcement is an "all too rare victory of the nation’s farmers over the political power of corporate agribusiness.