Cattle

Would it surprise you to learn that Maryland cattlemen produced 84 million pounds of beef in 2000? That wasn't even a banner year. In 1999, they produced 95.9 million pounds. OK, so the state will never be called "Little Texas." For that, you'd be talking more than 7.7 billion pounds a year. Still, it's an impressive showing for a small mid-Atlantic state. Where does the beef go? Most of it is sold wholesale to regional meatpackers, where it might become, say, part of a McDonald's hamburger served somewhere around the world.

A contest among young cattle-showers became a battle between girl and beast yesterday at the Carroll County 4-H/FFA Fair in Westminster.Jill Harrison was pushed around the ring by a black Angus steer several times her size during the junior class competition for 9- and 10-year-olds. But next year, Jill will be able to manage the steer, judge Erskine Cash predicted."This little lady is going to whip you all next year," Mr. Cash said as he awarded Jill fourth place. "That steer has a big weight advantage, but she's determined.

Every Tuesday afternoon, the calves begin arriving for the weekly sale at the Westminster Livestock Auction -- six or eight at a time delivered by livestock haulers or a lone calf secured in the back of a pickup.Some of the animals scamper into the receiving pens, kicking and bawling as if to announce their arrival. Others -- just a few days old -- have trouble finding their legs and must be coaxed and prodded from the trucks. Most are black-and-white Holstein bull calves sold for veal because they can't contribute milk.

THOMAS COUNTY, Neb. - Stan Pettit bounces his converted 1972 International firetruck over a sandy track past the ruins of a homestead, its remains partly hidden by trees that once sheltered it from the prairie wind. Pettit calls this piece of ground "the Garsky," after the family that lived here decades ago. Touring the Pettits' 11,000-acre ranch, past "the Garsky" or "the Kermit" or "the Ed," is a little like walking through a graveyard, recalling the names of the people who worked these sandy hills before.

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.

CHICAGO - Cattle futures in Chicago had their biggest decline in six months yesterday in the wake of a government announcement late Friday that a mad-cow screening test may have indicated the second case of the disease since December. The test has yet to be confirmed. The Department of Agriculture said an animal tested "inconclusive" for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, under an expanded screening program that began June 1. The carcass was sent to the department's National Veterinary Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for additional tests.

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.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For a short course in the history of Kansas City's stockyards, stand in Jim Runyan's office in the Livestock Exchange building. On his walls hang vintage black-and-white photographs showing the great bawling herds, the cattle that made fortunes for this city in the 1900s and landed it a reputation as a cowtown. From his sixth-floor office windows, Runyan looks down on the red bricks that once provided stable footing for the 10,000 cattle that passed through the yards daily.

WASHINGTON - Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman told a House committee yesterday that the government has responded effectively to an outbreak of mad cow disease and is working hard to persuade trading partners to reopen markets to U.S. beef. "U.S. beef is safe for consumers in the United States and around the world, and we are urging our trading partners to base their decisions on science," Veneman told the House Agriculture Committee. At the same time, congressional critics prepared legislation that would prohibit lame or injured cattle from being slaughtered for human consumption.

TUSCOLA, Texas -- Even if you've never seen him before, Amigo Yates looks familiar. Reddish hair. Big brown eyes. He's 11 years old, weighs maybe 1,300 pounds. His horns measure 103 inches from tip to tip and spiral outward in what old-time cowmen call a "Texas twist."Amigo Yates is a longhorn steer, a champion of his kind, a classic. He could be the model for the longhorn that shows up everywhere in Texas on signs, billboards, TV commercials, menus, company stationery, business cards, calendars.