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Western Ag Reporter Podcast

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2:37

Wyoming Wool Initiative Launches Fourth Annual...

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

The Wyoming Wool Initiative, in partnership with the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources, is now accepting applications for its 2025-2026 Lamb-a-Year program. This flagship program, now in its fourth year, offers UW students valuable industry experience and provides regional sheep producers with individualized lamb quality data. “Lamb-a-Year is a value discovery program where producers donate lambs, we feed out those lambs here at the Laramie Rese...

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3:27

Ride Easy Pard - Bronc Stomper, Stomped

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

I was working for Nick, a local horse trainer. He had me start the gelding he named “High Pockets” the same day we began working the other horses that came from the same owner. High Pockets kicked, bit, struck, and spun away from whomever was working him and had a mean eye. Nick’s son, Craig, was five or six years old and wanted to be with his dad or me all the time. We warned him to never come to the corral unless we were with him. Craig told me, a couple years ago, that he decided to go to....

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4:08

Reality Check - Choose Your Words Wisely

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

“I’m sorry for what I said when we were working cattle.” Many of us working cows at one time or another know this phrase oh too well either as the one apologizing or as the recipient of such an apology in the heat of the moment when mean things can be said. In the rural farrier world, we have our own near equivalent, such as when a client begs and pleads with you to make the 200 mile roundtrip to shoe their half broke “prospect” that is filled to the brim with, let’s call it vim and vigor, wi...

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3:27

In the Swing of Things - It's Good to Be Back

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

Hello! I am so happy to be picking things back up here for “In the Swing of Things,” and I am really grateful to Terra, and the whole crew at the Western Ag Reporter, for asking me to do this. I hope there are some new WAR readers since my last column, so I wanted to give a very brief introduction. My husband, Sam, fronts a country-western band, and I play fiddle and handle most of the business. I am the Managing Editor for the American Simmental Association and also work as a freelance write...

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5:06

A Look Into the Markets - Balance Sheet for Soybeans...

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

Written on Friday, August 15 Soybeans ended significantly higher this week following through to the upside after bullish USDA numbers from the WASDE report released Tuesday. November beans moved slightly above the late early July gap on the charts. Yesterday’s report day trading volume was extremely high giving some credence to the upside breakout in my opinion. The Trade is still trying to adjust to different potentials on the balance sheet as harvested acres miss by 2.4 million acres per US...

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4:38

Agriculture Workforce Changes and Challenges

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

Robert Hagevoort, PhD, professor and extension dairy specialist at New Mexico State University, recently discussed opportunities and challenges in the agriculture workforce at the Canyon, Texas, Stockmanship and Stewardship event. As family farms have consolidated, workforce demand has shifted, and as deportations under the current administration have increased, those in agriculture are facing unique labor challenges. Workforce Changes. . . In recent years, specifically within the dairy secto...

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6:11

NCBA CEO Colin Woodall Addresses State of the Beef...

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

NCBA’s most recent Stockmanship and Stewardship event kicked off on August 13 at West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas. Tailored to producers, the Canyon program was the first of the Stockmanship and Stewardship events to be specific to the needs of feedyards. Industry leaders and professors from West Texas A&M and New Mexico State University spoke throughout the day, which concluded with a keynote presentation by Colin Woodall, CEO of NCBA. For NCBA, the Stockmanship and Stewardship event ...

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1:56

Comments by the Publisher 8.21.25

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

Cattle futures were up, down, and all around the entirety of last week. It is an understatement to say there has been unrest in the markets. We saw the .25 drop across the board on August 8. This slump continued another couple of dollars the following Monday, before eventually working back to the plus side for the day. We saw some nice gains the next few days, just to see it go away again later in the week. The markets were nervous as to what the big announcement was going to be on August 15 ...

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4:12

Editor's Perspective - Big Fall Changes

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/21

Technically, the first day of fall is September 22, but our summer slowdown here at the paper is officially over. In a lot of ways, that is a good thing. We get to see where this bull and heifer market is going to take us this fall, and space-wise in the paper, we have more room to reintroduce some of our columnists who took a pause during our slower season. If you’re new to the paper, or have been anxiously waiting like I have, I encourage you to take a read through all of our columns this w...

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1:21

WCA - WCW Convention - Tradeshow Vendor -...

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/20

The Washington Cattlemen’s Association (WCA) and the Washington CattleWomen’s Association (WCW) would like to formally invite you to the 100th Annual WCA/WCW Convention and Trade Show. The convention will be held at the Wenatchee Convention Center in Wenatchee, WA November 12-14, 2025 👉Completed forms may be returned via email, fax or mail. 👉Online registration is available! Register here: https://www.washingtoncattlemen.org/convention A packet will be provided at the Convention containing

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6:39

Mexican Ranchers Navigate New World Screwworm - Drought

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/19

Friday, August 8 brought news of .25 losses across all feeder cattle futures, and with it, confusion for those wondering “why?” The same day, live cattle markets saw historically high prices; according to the National Beef Wire, Burwell Livestock in Nebraska sold the highest 9- and 10-weight steers in United States history, for instance. Prior to this, a false report of a New World screwworm case on May 27 prompted a sharp selloff in live cattle futures. While the May rumor could be traced to...

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0:36

Antelope Buck Poached Near Alzada, Left to Waste

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/19

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks received a report Aug. 13 of a buck antelope found on private land off Highway 323 near Alzada with its head removed and the meat left to waste. The animal appears to have been dead for a week or two. Wildlife crimes like this are often solved with help from the public. Anyone with possible information about this incident is encouraged to contact game warden Kyle Queer at 406-853-7700 or visit https://fwp.mt.gov/enforcement/tipmont to report a violation. You...

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3:03

MT Rancher Adapts Management to the Environment

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/19

With more than 30 years of experience in the cattle business, Rusty Ellis has learned how to make the most of local resources on his backgrounding operation near Billings, Montana. His cattle can be found grazing near the Beartooth Mountains in the spring and summer and are transported to another ranch with milder weather just northeast of Billings each winter. His proximity to Billings enables Ellis to utilize byproducts as a cost-effective feed source for his cattle during the winter months...

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2:01

Applications Accepted for W.D. Farr Scholarship Program

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/18

Graduate students pursuing careers in meat science and animal science are encouraged to apply for the annual W.D. Farr Scholarship program. Established in 2007 by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation (NCF), the scholarship recognizes outstanding graduate students committed to advancing the beef industry. Two ,000 grants are awarded to graduate students who demonstrate superior achievement in academics and leadership. Previous scholarship recipients recognize that the program not only benefits ...

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2:03

SD FFA Foundation Welcomes Tracy Kaltvedt as New...

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/18

The SD FFA Foundation announces the appointment of Tracy Kaltvedt as the new SD FFA Foundation Executive Assistant. Kaltvedt follows Gretchen Sharp, who retired after serving the SD FFA Foundation for 24 years. Kaltvedt brings experience in project management, facilitating daily operations, implementing process improvements and maintaining data integrity, confidentiality and security. She also brings extensive computer, team building and problem-solving skills from industry. She se...

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3:28

Family Farmers - Ranchers Celebrated during 2025...

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/16

Family farmers and ranchers will be celebrated August 30, during South Dakota Farmers Union Day at the South Dakota State Fair. “Agriculture is the state’s No. 1 industry, so our organization works to ensure fairgoers have a chance to meet the families doing the work as well as gain a better understanding of the challenges these families face as they work to feed America,” explained Karla Hofhenke, Executive Director of South Dakota Farmers Union. To accomplish these goals, South Dakota Farme...

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1:01

Letter to the Editor

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/16

Dear Kellie, Thank you so much for the feature on the greenthread bloom. For our 65th anniversary, we took a few days to make a tour to Folsen, New Mexico, across Johnston’s Mesa. This was an early time for us to drive in the northeast part of New Mexico and southeast corner of Colorado. The spring flowers were all over covering the pastures. We visited a ranch family as they were unloading a semi of cattle on the Mesa. I took a few pictures, and in the lush green pastures is this long row of...

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3:16

It's the Pitts - The Eyes Have It

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/16

When pinkeye raged through my kindergarten class, we all looked like a bunch of crybabies who’d been ballin’ our eyes out because our class hamster, Hieronymus, died of suspicious causes. Mothers back then were pulling their kids out of class faster than an Arizona roadrunner with its tail-feathers on fire, and pretty soon the weepy-eyed teacher and I were the only ones who showed up for school. So, I know what the pinkeye calves are experiencing right now in my neck of the woods. We had a we...

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4:30

Reader Opinion - How Global Packers Gained Outsized...

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/01

United States cattle producers with an interest in strengthening the economic position of their individual farms and ranches and in ensuring the health and safety of the U.S. livestock herd would not knowingly support policies that conflict with their own interests and goals. For example, cattle producers wouldn’t support opening the U.S. border to a country not free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), especially when USDA forecasts that allowing beef from such a country would cause U.S. cattle ...

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6:36

Cooking - The Night Before Fair

Western Ag Reporter Podcast ·

2025/08/01

It is 4-H fair season, so parents, grandparents, and 4-H’ers are in or have been in or will be in a frantic mode of getting projects ready and putting aside several days to compete at the fair. It is an exciting yet stressful experience for all 4-H families. Tami Jo Blake, former Western Ag Reporter editor, wrote this essay about her recent experience getting ready for fair. Tami Jo, her husband Beau, and their four children live and work on the PV Ranch near Hysham, Montana. I have entitled ...

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