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cuRREnt local livEStock REpoRtS and nEwS junE 23, 2020

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by Brian D. YantaGoliad County CEA-Ag

Fortunately for many pro-ducers in the area, many round bales are now being stacked and hauled. Round bale safety is not too often thought of around the farm, but thinking and operating safely can save your life.

According to David Smith, Extension Safety Program Specialist, round bales are responsible for nu-merous serious injuries and deaths, but are most widely used today because of their relative ease of producing and feeding to livestock. Here are some items for your consideration.

Moving bales to the hay lot

Large round bales should only be handled by appropri-ately sized tractors and prop-erly designed lifting equip-ment. Set tractor wheels at maximum width to increase stability. Front-end attach-ments such as hay forks, spears, grapples and rear lift equipment should be in

good working condition and capable of moving heavy loads. Never move round bales in a front-end loader bucket. An unstable bale can roll off the front-end loader, down the front-end loader arms and onto the tractor operator.

Tractors used to handle round bales should be fit-ted with roll-over protective structures (ROPS). ROPS will help cushion the blow should a bale roll down the loader arms.

Loading bales onto trailers

Round bales are often loaded onto trailers for transport. To ensure your safety as well as the safety of other motorists, make sure the trailer is capable of handling the load. Park the trailer on level ground, away from trees, overhead power lines and ditches. Remember to set the parking brake on the vehicle or tractor pulling the trailer.

Approach the trailer with the bale lowered just above the ground. When you reach

the trailer, raise the bale to the appropriate height. Be careful when maneuvering the tractor with the raised bale, especially if the ground is uneven or wet. Avoid sud-den stops, starts or changes of direction. Be very cau-tious and travel at low speed when carrying a bale.

Transport All trailers used to trans-

port round bales should be equipped with trailer brakes, safety chains and lights. Ve-hicle drivers should allow extra time for braking and turning, and shift to a low gear when traveling down hills. This will use the ve-hicle’s transmission to con-trol downhill speed. Never

coast down hills when pull-ing heavy loads; this will in-crease speed.

Use an escort on narrow roads with bridges and low-hanging electric lines. This will warn oncoming motor-ists of a wide load. Only move hay during the day, when visibility is greatest.

Bales are sometimes po-sitioned two-wide down the length of a trailer, with

an additional row of hay stacked along the top-center.

This load can extend 12 feet wide and reach more than 15 feet high, depending on the height of the trailer.

These loads must be se-cured by chains or safety straps to keep the bales from rolling off into oncoming traffic.

When pulling the trailer with a tractor, mount a SMV

emblem on the back of the trailer near the center of the hay stack to warn motorists of your slow speed.

Many accidents occur as motorists traveling at high speed approach a slow-mov-ing vehicle with little time to react.

These safety recommen-dations could be costly but might be one of your best investments you ever made.

Page 2 • Tuesday, June 23, 2020 • MySouTex.com

Packer BullsAll Weights .............................80-99Packer cowsCanners & Cutters ..................45-74Poor & Weak ...........................30-40PalPated21 Bred ...................................81-94Pairs12 Pairs .............................900-1300steer calves (avG-HiGH)Under 200 lbs.......................... None200-249 lbs .........................150-170250-299 lbs .........................147-174300-350 lbs .........................142-164350-400 lbs .........................130-164400-450 lbs .........................141-163450-500 lbs .........................139-154500-550 lbs .........................131-148 550-600 lbs .........................131-139 600-700 lbs .........................123-137 700-800 lbs .........................113-128

Bull calves (avG- HiGH)Under 250 lbs......................147-176250-300 lbs .........................156-182300-350 lbs .........................148-170350-400 lbs .........................145-164400-450 lbs .........................142-166450-500 lbs .........................129-161500-550 lbs .........................126-143550-600 lbs .........................123-135600-700 lbs .........................115-131Over 700 lbs ........................106-120Heifers calves (avG-HiGH)Under 200 lbs......................160-178200-250 lbs .........................137-148250-300 lbs .........................139-161300-350 lbs .........................130-143350-400 lbs .........................119-150400-450 lbs .........................131-158450-500 lbs .........................127-176500-550 lbs .........................124-160550-600 lbs .........................117-160600-700 lbs .........................110-156Over 700 lbs ..........................96-111

friday, June 19, 2020Number of Head: 1337

SaleS every Friday @ 10 am

There were 267 cows and 19 bulls. The packer market continues to be very strong. Demand remains exceptional as economy reopens and the built-up demand is showing up in the market with new highs.

The calf market, despite the weakness in the live cattle market this week is remaining strong. Very active day in all weight classes. It was a good and solid day, as most of the tops were at least $1-$3/cwt higher. There is high demand for calves not only to go out on grass, but also the feedlot. Placements in feedlots from January to May were down 1 million head

from last year.NO SALE ON JULY 3RD, IN OBSERVANCE OF INDEPENDENCE DAY

Don’t bale on safety this hay hauling season

Hay bales await transport this week on property in Goliad County. Those hauling hay should take some extra precautions to keep you and others safe. (Photo by Jason Collins)

Cut hay sits ready for baling between Kenedy and Runge on State Highway 2. (File photo)

by Laura MunteanAgriLifeToday

COLLEGE STATION – For students studying ani-mal science, interactive gam-ing can now help introduce concepts of working with cattle before they’ve even stepped foot in a pen or pas-ture.

Nicholas Free, a senior studying animal science at Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, didn’t grow up handling cattle, but he created a simulation that may help others build and expand their cattle-working skills.

Free created an interactive simulation game to focus on the best techniques to handle cattle. It benefits the student and, in turn, benefits the an-imals as students learn how to keep cattle calm, cool and collected when moving from one place to another, Free said.

During the spring of 2019, Free attended a presentation by Ron Gill, Ph.D., Texas A&M professor and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service livestock specialist, about proper cattle handling methods and techniques. Free said he was surprised at how many questions the au-dience had about the meth-ods used.

Working cattle in a virtual world

“I didn’t have much ex-perience with livestock, but I understood the concepts immediately,” Free said. “I began thinking about how I could help people visualize the concepts without having hands-on experience.”

Free expanded on the idea by networking with Texas A&M faculty and research-ing how to create video games in augmented reality.

“I started reading the Un-

real Engine 4 manual,” Free said. The Unreal Engine 4 manual is an online intro-ductory tool for developers starting out on video game creation.

Everything started to progress even further after meeting with Luis Tedes-chi, Ph.D., associate profes-sor for animal nutrition and Texas A&M AgriLife Re-search Faculty Fellow.

“Everything changed when I met Dr. Tedeschi,” Free said. “He gave me the incentive and opportunity to create my first game simula-tion ever.”

Free imagined a virtual world in which he could teach students how to be-have in the presence of cattle. According to Tede-schi, all Free needed was for someone to listen to his ideas and challenge him to use the fundamentals he had learned.

“Free needed to talk to someone about his ideas,” Tedeschi said. “He needed some incentive and time to express himself. After some brainstorming and challeng-ing thoughts, he knew what to do.”

Free hit the ground run-ning designing the game’s layout. With a little help from Tedeschi, Free’s broth-er, Richard Toussaint III and fellow programmer Kazim Hasan, the game became a reality, and CowSim was born.

CowSim is separated into three parts; the first section is designated to teach the play-er how to behave in an open environment with cattle. In the second section, players learn the proper techniques needed for driving cattle in a production facility. In the last section, players apply their knowledge from the previous sections by leading the cattle through the facility with additional obstacles.

Engaging new audiences through augmented reality

According to Free, the main goal of this game is for players to learn how to handle livestock in the real world and feel comfortable doing so. This alternative teaching method can help provide sufficient knowl-edge for students who have trouble maintaining infor-mation from the traditional classroom or have never had the opportunity to learn from within the industry, Free said.

“Overall, I feel very com-fortable saying that if a per-son – who has never had any interaction with livestock – were to play this game, they would have sufficient knowl-edge on how to handle them by the end of the game,” Free said. “I hope we can start the process of interac-tive learning through simu-lation and games as a model to be used in the education system.”

Moving beyond traditional teaching methods

According to Tedeschi,

times have changed in aca-

demia, and certain students

may require a non-tradition-

al teaching method.

“Traditional teaching

methods may not be as ef-

fective as before, and given the media orientation of our clientele, video games pro-vide an exciting opportunity to catch their attention and deliver the desired informa-tion,” Tedeschi said.

“The combination of edu-cational gaming and virtual reality has the potential to attract a greater audience and deliver the same infor-mation through interactive gaming rather than the tra-ditional spoken, lectureship classes.”

Tedeschi said he believes this is only the beginning for Free and the start of the transition to alternative teaching methods through-out the Department of Ani-mal Science.

For more information about CowSim and Free’s future projects, email Free at free.nicholas@tamu.edu.

MySouTex.com • Tuesday, June 23, 2020 • Page 3

Nixon Livestock Commission, Inc.

1924 E. State Hwy 87 Nixon, TX 78140(830) 582-1561June 22, 2020

Volume: 587Cows: 101 Bulls: 16

SteerS200-300lbs. $123-133-155300-400lbs. $129-139-165400-500lbs. $122-132-161500-600lbs. $112-122-145600-700lbs. $104-114-129700-800lbs. $ 99-109-117

HeiferS200-300lbs. $118-128-149300-400lbs. $112-122-145400-500lbs. $113-123-135500-600lbs. $108-118-133600-700lbs. $ 97-107-119700-800lbs.$ 86 - 96 -104

USE TEXT STYLES

We will be closed July 6, 2020Sellers: 124 - Buyers: 43

Slaughter Cows .. $25-79Slaughter Bulls... $82-98Stocker Cows ...$500-950Pairs ...............$500-1450

A&M student develops video game for working cattle

CowSim helps educate those with little to no cattle experience understand the processes behind working cattle before stepping out into real-world scenarios. (Photo courtesy of the Department of Animal Science.)

by Oga KuchmentAgriLife Today

The prevalence of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses has steadily in-creased in the U.S. over the past 20 years. Now, an inaugural nationwide study of tick surveillance and control describes a clear need for more funding and coordination among programs across the country.

Among the coauthors is a Texas A&M AgriLife researcher, Pete Teel, Ph.D., a Re-gents professor in the Texas A&M Depart-ment of Entomol-ogy. Teel said that while Texas has monitored and controlled ticks since 1893, a nationwide database is needed.

The study’s authors surveyed 140 vector-borne disease profession-als working at state, county and local agencies in fall 2018. Reaching even that many respondents proved challeng-ing, the authors said. No central database of tick-management programs or contacts was available.

The survey’s aim was to learn about programs’ objec-tives and capabilities for tick sur-veillance and control. Re-

spondents were also asked whether they tested ticks for disease-causing germs and about barriers to success.

Nationwide, less than half of public health and vector-control agencies engage in active tick surveillance, according to the survey. Only 12% of the surveyed agencies directly conduct or otherwise support tick-control efforts.

The study appeared on June 17 in the Journal of Medical Entomology. In addi-tion to Teel, the authors were from Cornell University; University of Florida, Gaines-ville; University of California, Davis; University of Illinois; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. The authors are also affiliated with the CDC’s five Vector-

Borne Disease Regional Centers of Excellence.

“Ticks are responsible for the majority of our

vector-borne illness-

es in the U.S., and our programming does not adequately meet the need in its current form, for both surveillance and control,” said Emily Mader, public health researcher, lead author on the study and program man-ager at the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases, led by Cornell University.

Texas has a long history of tick surveillance

In Texas, early detection and control have led to discoveries of exotic ticks, Teel said. These efforts kept the ticks from be-coming established.

“These ticks could have introduced sev-eral devastating diseases with high risks for humans, livestock and wildlife,” he said. “National databases for the kinds of ticks that are present, and how those popula-tions change with time and space, would be hugely informative for public health and animal health needs.”

Texas has engaged in tick surveillance and control activities since 1893. At that time, the 23rd Texas Legislature established the Livestock Sanitary Commission, which

later became the Texas Animal Health Commission.

“I believe this to be the oldest and lon-

gest continuous tick surveillance program in North America,” said Teel. The com-mission’s aim was to protect livestock from

d a n g e r o u s

diseases such as cattle fever.The resulting state and federal cattle fe-

ver tick eradication program eliminated these ticks from 14 states by the 1940s. The program established a permanent quaran-tine zone along the Texas-Mexico border and has protected the U.S. cattle industry ever since. Statewide tick surveillance ac-tivities continue today.

“Today, the data from this program are becoming valuable and complimentary to public health needs,” Teel said. “Collabora-tions are growing in Texas to share infor-mation, improve surveillance and testing, train a new generation of vector biologists and improve best practices for tick control and tick-borne disease prevention.”

One such collaboration is the Western Gulf Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases, where AgriLife is a partner. Oth-er collaborators include academic institu-tions and public health and animal health agencies in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Led by the University of Texas Medical Branch, the center performs research to expand surveillance for ticks and tick-borne pathogens. The center also trains future scientists and public health

practitioners.

Page 4 • Tuesday, June 23, 2020 • MySouTex.com

First nationwide survey of tick-management programs shows clear public health gap

Highlights from the nationwide survey of tick-management programs

see Page 5

Two Asian longhorned ticks atop a dime. (Photo by CDC/James Gathany)

The Lyme disease bacterium is spread through the bite of infected deer ticks, or blacklegged ticks. (Photo courtesy of CDC)

MySouTex.com • Tuesday, June 23, 2020 • Page 5

by Oga KuchmentAgriLife Today

Less than half of tick-management programs proactively collect ticks in their area

About two-thirds of respondents, 65%, said their programs engage in passive tick surveillance, such as accepting tick samples submitted by the public. However, only 46% said their programs engage in routine active tick surveillance, such as focused collection of tick samples within their community.

Only a quarter of tick-management programs test ticks for disease-causing germs

Survey respondents from Texas are among the 26% nationwide who said their jurisdic-tion conducts or financially supports testing of tick samples for disease-causing patho-gens. Only 7% of respondents nationwide said their programs work to detect such pathogens in animal hosts, such as mice, that can pass the pathogens to ticks in their area.

“Pathogen testing is an essential compo-nent of surveillance and is needed in order to understand tick-borne disease risk to com-munities,” said Emily Mader, public health researcher. “There appears to be a significant barrier for many tick-surveillance programs across the country to access pathogen-testing services.”

Capacity for public tick-control efforts is low

Texas provides financial support for tick control. Yet nationwide, only 12% of respon-dents said their jurisdiction conducts or fi-nancially supports tick control. Those efforts primarily focused on reducing tick presence on animal hosts such as deer and rodents.

Mader said limited resources mean tick-management programs need reliable, proven control methods.

“They are not going to invest in a strategy unless it has been investigated and shown to make a difference in reducing the burden of ticks and tickborne diseases,” she said. “Right now, supporting this research is a major need. These kinds of evaluations of-ten take at least three years to complete and require a significant investment.”

Tick surveillance and control happen in a range of sectors

The most common employment sectors among respondents was public health, mos-quito control, cooperative extension and

agriculture. More than half of respondents, 57%, said their programs work with academ-ic partners such as Texas A&M AgriLife to conduct tick surveillance.

Info and data sharing on ticks and public health is lagging

Less than a quarter of respondents, 23%, said their tick-management programs dis-seminate information to local health depart-ments. Just 14% report data to the CDC.

Greater support for tick-management pro-grams is critical. Respondents commonly cited the need for stable funding, training for personnel, and standardized, research-based guidance and protocols.

Recent national efforts begin to improve the tick situation

In December 2019, the Kay Hagan Tick Act authorized $150 million to strengthen the nation’s efforts on vector-borne disease. The act included funding the CDC’s Vector-Borne Disease Regional Centers of Excel-lence for an additional five years, through 2026. In the past two years, the CDC also issued guidance on the best practices for sur-veillance of several tick species.

These steps address several needs that sur-vey responders had highlighted. The authors said the survey will serve as an important baseline from which to measure future prog-ress and improvement.

Highlights from the nationwide survey of tick-management programs

Dog ticks can transmit cattle fever and other animal and human diseases. (Photo by CDC/James Gathany)

Improved processing capacity could mean lower beef prices at grocersContributed information

Wholesale beef prices are dropping as the production logjam in processing plants created by COVID-19 con-tinues to loosen and return to normal, said a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert.

David Anderson, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension econo-mist, College Station, said wholesale beef prices were nearing last year’s lows.

Choice box beef cutout, which includes large cuts of beef that represent cuts like steaks, briskets, prime chuck and roasts, peaked at $4.59 per pound as CO-VID-19 began affecting the nation’s production capaci-ty. Last week, the wholesale price was $2.41 per pound and nearing the price for June 2019, $2.22 per pound.

“As packing capacity re-covered, the price has come back down to Earth,” he said. “Choice box beef cut-out is a good representation of the wholesale value of a carcass, and so it appears that prices are returning to normal.”

Anderson said individual wholesale cuts, rib-eyes for example, have also started to decline. They peaked at $11.62 per pound and have fallen to $9.52 compared to $7.83 a year ago. Chuck roasts were $6.29 per pound wholesale and have fallen to $2.57 per pound as produc-tion capacity returns.

Day-to-day beef produc-tion has surpassed 2019 numbers, which is another indication bottlenecks at processing facilities were opening, he said. But pro-cessing capacity remains

below 100%.“Prices are coming down

as packers return to capac-ity,” he said. “Beef produc-tion was larger than the same week a year ago, but it’s because feeder cattle weights are up due to good spring conditions and pro-ducers and feedlots hang-ing on to cattle longer than normal.”

Anderson suspects it’s only a matter of time before wholesale price declines translate into lower prices for consumers at grocery stores.

Retail prices were very high as the pandemic sent shockwaves throughout the market, he said. Rushes on meat products, restaurant closures and unemploy-ment are among the factors that contributed to a highly volatile beef market.

Last month, the U.S. De-partment of Agriculture reported retail prices for all quality cuts averaged $7.59 per pound compared to $6.17 per pound last May.

Anderson said he expects retail prices in June and July to reflect the drop in whole-sale prices.

“There’s always a lag to these price changes,” he said. “It will be interest-ing to see where wholesale prices end up and whether the prices at grocers will be as dramatic as what we’ve seen with wholesale.”

Despite being in the heart of grilling season with the Fourth of July holiday com-ing up, Anderson said the economy will be the wild-card that drives beef prices – especially for ground beef, steaks, briskets and the rest.

“We still have a recession, 40 million people unem-ployed, falling incomes, res-taurants at partial capacity and none of that is good for beef, especially high-value cuts,” he said. “What kind of economic recovery will we see? A V-shaped recov-ery is the best case, but if it’s not that means there are a lot of struggles, not just in the beef market.”

AgriLife Extension dis-trict reporters compiled the following summaries:

Coastal BendDays were very hot and

dry. Topsoil moisture lev-els were diminishing with breezy conditions and low humidity. Crops benefited from previous rains but needed more.

Corn was short with small ears and was denting and beginning to dry down. Grain sorghum was turning color.

Grain sorghum harvest may begin soon, but some unwanted tillering could set fields back.

Growth regulators were applied to cotton. Cotton fields benefited most from the recent rains and were setting bolls and blooming. Some cotton was irrigated where available.

Some bacterial blight in susceptible cotton varieties was reported.

Soybeans were bloom-ing. Rice fields were in flood stage. Hay was being cut and baled with produc-ers reporting some of the largest hay yields in recent years. Pastures needed more moisture to continue growth. Livestock were in good condition.