Cattle

GRANADA, COLO. -- The snow curled up before the massive plow blade fitted to the front of one of John Duvall's tractors. The 58-year-old rancher clenched his jaw as the vehicle trembled and then stalled. There were still a hundred yards of snowed-in road he had to clear before he could haul hay to the starving herd of cattle clustered in a small clearing. "This is [what] you put up with every day," Duvall said. "You're working your butt off, and looking at your livelihood go down the drain."

Ralph Naill made two trips from his Frederick County farm to the Westminster Livestock Auction yesterday: once to buy straw -- at 12 times the price he paid two weeks earlier -- and later to sell three or four head of beef cattle he can't afford to feed in the driest summer he's seen in his 53 years.Other farmers were crowding their cattle into the stockyard yesterday, hoping to cut their losses by selling animals that are eating away at their income."The market is going to be flooded with cattle in the next few weeks," said Naill's daughter, Tammy Naill-Waddell, who helped him load bales onto a flatbed trailer while her 6-month-old son, Timothy, shifted around in his stroller.

Ralph Naill made two trips from his Frederick County farm to the Westminster Livestock Auction yesterday: once to buy straw -- at 12 times the price he paid two weeks earlier -- and later to sell three or four head of beef cattle he can't afford to feed in the driest summer he's seen in his 53 years.Other farmers were crowding their cattle into the stockyard yesterday, hoping to cut their losses by selling beasts that are eating away at their income."The market is going to be flooded with cattle in the next few weeks," said Naill's daughter, Tammy Naill-Waddell, who helped him load bales onto a flatbed trailer while her 6-month-old son, Timothy, shifted around in his stroller.

The plentiful rainfall of August could help Carroll County and Central Maryland farmers revive their pastures and get a better cutting of hay, but it comes too late to save the corn crop or undo other damage, farmers and agriculture officials say.Baltimore City and the surrounding counties received between .5 and 3.3 inches above the average rainfall for August.Carroll County received an average of 5.4 inches of rain this month, 2.2 inches above normal, according to the National Weather Service and Maryland Agricultural Statistics.

The cows are losing ground to dogs and cats as suburbia takes over farmland in Carroll County, but even rarer is the veterinarian who will see creatures great and small."

Have you heard the one about the Orthodox rabbi, the Mormon and the Latino cattle rancher?It's no joke, says the rabbi, Baltimore's Mayer Kurcfeld.It's the cast of characters in "Kosher Valley," a film chronicling Kurcfeld's journey to southern Colorado's San Luis Valley to teach kosher butchering to a group of mostly Latino ranchers who were looking for new markets for their meat.The film has its Baltimore premiere at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Park Heights Jewish Community Center. Admission is $4."

The plentiful rainfall of August could help Carroll County and Central Maryland farmers revive their pastures and get a better cutting of hay, but it comes too late to save the corn crop or undo other damage, farmers and agriculture officials say.Baltimore City and the surrounding counties received between .5 and 3.3 inches above the average rainfall for August.Carroll County received an average of 5.4 inches of rain this month, 2.2 inches above normal, according to the National Weather Service and Maryland Agricultural Statistics.

The cows are losing ground to dogs and cats as suburbia takes over farmland in Carroll County, but even rarer is the veterinarian who will see creatures great and small."

Bertha Spiess, a German immigrant who worked as a cook, seamstress, cattle farmer and dog breeder, died Friday of complications from an infection at Fairfield Nursing Home in Crownsville. She was 95.The former Bertha Baum was born in Wachenheim, Germany, and grew up in the town of Beiteigheim near the Alps. She attended secretarial college in Stuttgart and immigrated to the United States with her husband, Otto Spiess, in 1930.After living in Philadelphia for a few years, the couple moved to Maryland and lived in Anne Arundel County.

William Abram Hylton, 83, ran cattle brokerage businessWilliam Abram Hylton, a decorated World War II veteran who ran a successful cattle brokerage business in Baltimore, died Monday of lung cancer at his Columbia home. He was 83.Born in Laurel Fork, Va., Mr. Hylton grew up on a farm, where he learned the livestock business. He graduated from Hillsville High School and received a degree in animal husbandry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1938.During World War II, he was an infantry officer, leading troops into combat in Germany and France from shortly after D-Day to shortly before V-E Day. He fought in several major battles, including the Battle of the Bulge.

Nicholas Bosley Merryman, a farmer and Hereford cattle breeder who managed the historic Hayfields property in Cockeysville, died of Alzheimer's disease March 25 at his Parkton home. He was 96. He was born at Hayfields, where his family had resided for more than 200 years. To distinguish himself from other Merryman cousins, he used the name Nicholas Bosley Merryman of John. Family members said he thought of becoming an engineer. In 1930 he enrolled at the John Hopkins University but soon left school and became a seaman aboard the freighter Anniston City on a round-the-world voyage.

He has yet to hit his prime, but SSF Corks, 5J White Squall is already racking up awards and generating buzz in the cattle industry. The 1,700-pound bull, owned by a Harford County farmer, seems to have a shot at a national title starting today at a contest in Kentucky. Local experts say the bovine with the snow white coat can compete against the country's best. "He walked into the barn, and I was totally amazed," said Andy Cashman, assistant manager of the Maryland State Fair. "If you are into judging, he is one for the records with all the right points.

NEW DELHI - Brajveer Singh does not own a wide-brimmed hat, leather boots or a pair of jeans. He has never ridden a mechanical bull. But he can lay claim to being a real-life urban cowboy. Singh is among the dozens of men who spend their days roping cattle on the streets of this city as part of a long and frustrating battle to rid India's capital of stray cows. There is perhaps no more stereotypical image of India than that of a stray cow sauntering down the middle of a busy city street, seemingly oblivious to the traffic swerving around it. Hindus consider cows sacred animals, and their slaughter is banned throughout most of India.

MEROM GOLAN RANCH, Golan Heights -- Avshalom Ferstman certainly looks the part. Sporting an Australian-style bush hat, a gun in a holster, a big-buckled belt on his jeans and a plaid shirt, the man with the salt-and-pepper beard is a picture-perfect cowboy. Ferstman, 40, who herds cattle for a living, was featured in a recent Israeli advertising campaign in the United States inviting tourists to visit Israel on its 60th birthday this year. He was one of several Israelis from different walks of life profiled in the ads, intended to show that there is more to Israel than the Middle East conflict that often dominates news from this troubled region.

I know where beef comes from. The town where I grew up, St. Joseph, Mo., once had three major meatpacking operations - Swift, Armour and Dugdale. When I was a kid, my Cub Scout pack toured these plants, watching suspended cattle carcasses swing from chains. As a teenager, I tried but failed to get a summer job "in the yards" running livestock from the pens into the slaughterhouses. But even with my cow-town past, I had a hard time watching the footage of the downer cattle at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. in California.

We had been in the saddle for about an hour when we got our first glimpse of the object of our search. There, on the horizon, near Bill Moore Lake with its reflective view of puffy white clouds and blue sky, was a herd of about 165 cows, including some of the more ornery bulls seen on the professional rodeo circuit. We gave our horses free reins and with a kick of our heels and a shout of "Yeehaw!" we began our morning's work. This was a cattle drive. Our job was to move a herd of longhorns, Corrientes and Brahmas -- all bred for their bucking abilities -- from their current spot to another grazing area on the 10,000-acre ranch where the grass was greener.

Men whose mothers ate a lot of beef during their pregnancy have a sperm count about 25 percent below normal and three times the normal risk of fertility problems, researchers reported this week. The problem may be because of anabolic steroids used in the United States to fatten the cattle, Dr. Shanna H. Swan of the University of Rochester Medical Center reported in the journal Human Reproduction. It could also be because of pesticides and other environmental contaminants, she said. If the sperm deficit is related to the hormones in beef, Swan's findings may be "just the tip of the iceberg," wrote biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri- Columbia in an editorial accompanying the paper.

The warning to sausage-eaters, about not watching it be made, should also direct the gaze of other meat-eaters away from factory-style cattle, pig or poultry farms. Exposure to the cruel and cramped conditions in which the animals are kept as well as the poor quality of their feed might well upset lunch. But what's downright unconscionable is the use by farmers of powerful antibiotics, partly to combat the ill effects of the animals' living conditions. The practice poses the risk of negating the antibiotics' healing effects on humans.

GRANADA, COLO. -- The snow curled up before the massive plow blade fitted to the front of one of John Duvall's tractors. The 58-year-old rancher clenched his jaw as the vehicle trembled and then stalled. There were still a hundred yards of snowed-in road he had to clear before he could haul hay to the starving herd of cattle clustered in a small clearing. "This is [what] you put up with every day," Duvall said. "You're working your butt off, and looking at your livelihood go down the drain."

Good morning -- Cattle -- Tough break on that NBA ball decision.