January 26 sale - The big news of the weekend was the blazing loose horse trade - right back on track and bucks better than it has been in three months - right here at Billings Livestock.

Our next loose horse offering is 9 a.m. Sunday, February 24.

LOOSE UPDATE - By Bill Parker, BLS Horse Sale Manager:

We at Billings Livestock Horse Sales promise to continue to work hard to ensure your horses bring the most dollars possible and look forward to your business in 2008. Call me with your marketing questions and - Come see us!

December 3, 2007

Jann, here could be answers you could give folks who might contact you wondering what to do. I’ve contacted Nancy Robinson at LMA and she’s going to find out if money could be sent into a fund to Rep. Stenholm, OK who is our counsel there in Washington, DC to see if he could get some extra pressure started getting this resolved.

As far as what these people could write to their Congressmen, a couple of points that are imperative to bear down on other than “what are we going to do with these horses” or “it’s totally unfair“. It is very, very necessary for them to pound home is this:

1. It flies in the face of First Amendment that any rule could make it impossible for people to sell their livestock as they see fit under constitutional law. It’s private property. Just as anyone who owns a horse has the right to bury that animal in the back yard or they can move it on at their discretion to slaughter channels. This is private property, they should have, under constitutional law, the privilege to do that.

2. There are three words in the law “FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION“. All this says, should this stay enacted is that these same vegetarians and free-wheelers could take after the beef cattle industry, the hog industry, the poultry industry, any item that the vegetarian movement sees fit not to eat as a human diet. This flies in the face of the first Amendment. What we’re dealing with here is a bonafide First Amendment situation and legally the industry across America can and should preside in any federal court in America with the above major arguments.

Don’t give up, we’re going to need your money, we are going to need your input. We need examples of losses.

Pat Goggins

Editorial by Pat Goggins, October 29, 2007

Horsemen, You Must Help!

“SO WHAT DO WE DO?  ANYTHING? SOMETHING? SO LONG AS WE JUST DON'T SIT THERE. IF WE SCREW IT UP, START OVER. TRY SOMETHING ELSE. IF WE WAIT UNTIL WE'VE SATISFIED ALL THE UNCERTAINTIES, IT MAY BE TOO LATE.”   Lee Iacocca

Our three day horse sale for October was a very good horse sale in most all respects. There were problems with the loose trade - there are problems nationally across America within the loose horse market.

The loose horse market situation is a First Amendment Right problem, and you folks who get this publication in more than 36 states must act. All of you have two Senators and some of you have several Representatives in Washington, DC. This is where the problem lies, and if we’re going to get this First Amendment Right settled, it has to be from you and me and all the other folks interested in our individual rights.                                                                        

I understand there are quite a few folks around the country who have a favorite horse or two, that they wouldn’t think of putting down in a slaughter situation. That is OK, that is your First Amendment right. You own the horse, you should be able to do with that horse what you see fit. If you want to put the horse down and bury him in the back yard, that’s sure fine, but there are many, many across America who are in the industry in a rather large way who must move the cull stock on.

This keeps a safety-net under your industry that is not going to help the total industry if we lose it. There is a huge demand for horse meat in much of the world.                                                                     

When I was a kid I rode in a wagon for quite a few falls helping during a roundup of some 15,000 yearlings in a huge, huge area. We are out on a wagon from daylight until dark for several weeks. The owner was very ‘frugal’ and he put down a two year old or so, a nice fat one and that is what we would have to eat. I liked it. I, for one, enjoy horse meat. A lot of folks don’t like to think about it but believe me folks, it’s very good.                                             

When you go to France or Belgium or Italy, and in many of the European countries, when you go to a fancy restaurant that will charge you high prices for food. If it’s meat, you can bet your bottom dollar that most of it is horse meat. It¹s very tasty, very tender, doesn’t have much fat in it and it is very much preferred by the great gourmet cooks around the world.                     

Be that as it may, it is a situation of free enterprise and First Amendment Rights for all of us. So, if you as a horseman chose to move your cull stock into the auction, that is your prerogative. If you own it you should be able to do with it what you care to.                                                 

But, here is the problem:This situation that we are into doesn’t have a lot to do with ‘slaughtering horses’, but it has everything to do with vegetarianism and folks with big, big dollars coming through the Humane Society, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Friends of the Earth and other organizations. Their main drive is to attempt to keep people from eating meat in their diet.                        

When vegetarianism becomes a religion, and it has, we must act.    We who demand First Amendment Rights, we who demand free enterprise, we can’t just stand back and talk to each other. We have got to put our money where our mouth is, we have got to get a hold of our Representatives and Senators and if necessary, put together a conclave on a given day and arrive on the steps of Washington, DC and make demands.               

This will require getting excellent counsel. Lawyers are not cheap but neither is your business. It is a very enterprising business. We, at BLS, have proven that and we want to continue.                                                

So, I’m telling you, you have got to help. You can not just talk to each other about it and make threats. That doesn’t do any good.

We had a great sale for October. For instance, our top 100 horses averaged $4446 compared to $3576 last year. And last year we had a top horse of $42,000 which made a difference in how the averages play out. This year, we had a top of $27,000 ­ very respectable, we thought. In the loose horse market we lost about $250 a head just because the horses had to be moved further, they had to be moved out of the borders of the United States. With the cost of moving stock and losing competition, the sale on loose horses acted accordingly.  

We must act and we must act now.

But I want all of you horsemen to understand that a young, thin, unattractive horse that doesn’t weigh much, doesn’t have much muscle yet, he will not bring very much money. He never has, you know, but if he’s a prospect and has some pedigree behind him, there are folks who are looking for this kind. It might be good for you to go ahead and feed out some of those young horses, those thin horses, get some weight on them and let this thing cool down a little because they are the horses that suffer. I think all you horsemen know that.

We must act. We¹ve got to protect this industry, one of the greatest free enterprise industries in America and we here at BLS, our horse sales are right at the top. And we propose to keep it there. We have got involved in making this a better business but we can’t do it alone. We’ve got to have you, the leading horse folks of this great country to help. You get this publication ­ you must act.

Thank you very much.  We'll see you at Billings Livestock for our next horse sale, November 24-25.

Pat Goggins

News!   September 25, 2007

BLS September loose market trumps Sept '06

Amazing - even with the unannounced closure (again) of the last U.S. processing plant on the Friday afternoon prior to the
September sale weekend, the BLS loose market maintained it's strength AND - was actually $126 per head BETTER on the top 100 than in September one year ago!!

How about that??!! The top 100 in September 2007 averaged $653 per head - the top 100 in September 2006 averaged $527 - the comparison on the top 50 is even more astounding - in September 2006 they averaged $643 per head, while September 2007 they brought $838 per head - now that's $195 MORE!!!Top market prices ARE paid at Billings Livestock - rhyme and reason - a full slate of buyers are in attendance at BLS - from top-end to bottom-end - from prospects to recipients - from riders to buckers - the buyers are on the seats to buy them "as is, how is". Your loose horse is marketed to a full sale arena.

Here are the stats for September 2007: 469 head offered loose; top five averaged $1,260; Top 10 came in at $1,003; Top 20 averaged $817; top 50 brought $643; and the top 100 averaged $527.

Next loose offering:  Sunday, October 28 at 9 a.m.

October 1 2007 - John Scott's Billings, Montana based

"S RANCH" wins AQHA Remuda of the Year Award!! 

John Scott Jr.’s father was raising “quarter” horses long before there was an American Quarter Horse Association. On September 25, Scott’s S Ranch, headquartered in Billings, MT, received the coveted AQHA/Bayer Best Remuda Award.

“The Quarter Horse is noted for its Western Heritage and preserving that heritage is what the John Scott Ranch is all about,” said Scott (pictured), who has registered more than 1,500 horses with AQHA. “Our goals are to raise quality horses to be used in competition, including cutting, rodeo, barrel racing, reining and, of course, for use on the ranch.”

Cattle and horses far outnumbered people when Scott’s great great-grandfather, a friend of Davy Crockett and a Mississippi Supreme Court judge, settled in the Republic of Texas.

“At that time, they didn’t work the country with a (chuck) wagon,” Scott pointed out. “They’d just take a pack horse and three or four of them would gather cattle. They called that a cow hunt.”

In 1925, John Scott Sr. purchased 10 daughters by the Hickory Bill son called San Antonio Sorrel to supply his Texas remuda with mounts. By the 1930’s he was raising his first crops by the Harmon Baker son Jazz.

After serving in World War II, John Scott Jr. moved to Montana to expand the family’s ranch holdings by 120,000 acres, in partnership with his brothers and father. In 1959, Scott acquired his own ranch and by the late 1960s employed 25 cowboys; owned a feedlot that held 30,000 head – 50 percent of which were S Ranch cattle; and ran 10,000 mother cows. In 1969, he held what was at the time the largest one-brand, one-owner cattle sale in U.S. history with 5,300 head selling for $1,001,035.

Today, the S Ranch is still owned and operated by the Scott family – John Scott Jr., John Scott III, Maggie Scott Brown and Sissy Scott Croft are all general partners of the 227,000-acre ranch operation. The Billings ranch has 58 mares, three stallions and 78 geldings; the 23,000-acre S Ranch keeps 4,000 head of cattle in its feedlot, runs 4,000 head in their cow/calf operation, and feeds about 1,600 head of stocker cattle.

“We always broke and rode the fillies and geldings,” said Scott of the S Ranch Quarter Horse program. “For years, we rode mares only on the Powder River ranch and geldings on the Billings ranches. We drew our replacements for the broodmare band from the better mares, as we needed them. We tried to breed the best of the mares to the best studs and over the years, I have added a few mares from the Burnett Ranches in Texas, the Ronald Mason (Cross J) Ranch in Nowata, Oklahoma, and the Gill Cattle Co. in Arizona and Montana.”

The S Ranch’s current remuda has been greatly influenced by Doc O Dynamite, who has sired the earners of more than $650,000 in NCHA competition, and Paddys Irish Whiskey, a Peppy San Badger son whose offspring have earned $800,000 in NCHA, NRHA and NRCHA events. Earlier sires of importance included One Eyed Hippy, Bill Van Vactor, Texas Gill, Desecho, and Eddie 40.

“I really feel that the Eddie 40 horses were the best that we ever raised,” noted Scott. “They had everything a cowboy could want - lots of cow, easy to ride, good balance, soft mouth, and heart that would not quit.”

S Ranch will be presented with the Best Remuda Award in November, at the Working Ranch Cowboys Association Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo, TX.

“Ranches such as S Ranch have contributed to our nation’s greatness and helped build the American Quarter Horse Association into what it is today,” said AQHA executive director Bill Brewer. “With this Award, we honor American Quarter Horse ranches that continue the traditions of the past.”

August 29, 2007 - NEW IMPORT LAWS FOR STALLIONS

STALLION OWNERS!!!

It's new, it's important, and it's the law!!

Editors Note: Consignors - please plan! The test takes a week or so to run and get the results back...We do have a listing of the labs that are approved to run the test here at BLS - just give us a call, we'll fax them to you or your veterinarian. Thanks!

July 25, 2007 - COURT RULES CAVEL CAN RE-OPEN

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday (July 18) that Cavel International can resume processing horses in it's Dekalb, Ill, facility while it awaits a final decision on it's appeal of a state law forbidding the practice.

Cavell attorney J. Philip Calabrese said an injunction was granted Wednesday that allows Belgium-based Cavel, which has been shuttered since June 28 to operate while the appeal is being heard.

"It allows Cavel to operate pending resolution of the appeal", he said.  "I imagine it's going to take a little bit of time to get everything together, but they'll reopen shortly".

The plant "will be operating soon", Cavel Manager Jim Tucker said Thursday.

Cavel's courtroom saga began May 25 when it challenged a new state law forbidding the processing of horses for human consumption.

Cavel ships most of the meat overseas to diners in Asia and western Europe ghough a small prition is sold to US zoos.

The company was granted two temporary restraining orders that allowed it to keep operating while the case was being heard in federal court, the last of which expired on June 28.

On July 5, U.S. District Judge Federick Kapala ruled that Cavel had failed to show the law was unconstitutional.

Cavel appealed the decision last Friday.   No court dates had been set in the appeal as of Thursday morning, Calabrese said.

reprinted from the Western Livestock Reporter, July 25, 2007

July 9, 2007 - CAVEL INTERNATIONAL TO REMAIN CLOSED

Cavel International, DeKalb, Ill, the last U.S. horse processing plant will remain closed. 

Last Thursday, July 5, a federal judge threw out the plant's latest challenge to the state law that shut it down. 

The judge sided with the state, saying it has a legitimate interest in regulating food for human consumption and ensuring the humane treatment of animals.  Cavel's attorneys reportedly are considering whether or not to continue the court battle.

May 10, 2007 - COURT GRANTS REPREIVE

The U.S, Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia decided 2-1 this week to grant an emergency request from Cavel International to resume its horse processing operations while the company considers an appeal of a lower court ruling that shut it doors March 28.

In that court case, a federal judge decided that an arrangement in which processing plants were paying USDA to cover inspection costs was illegal.  The suit was filed by the Humane Society of the US, an animal acitivist group. 

The two plants in Texas are currently closed as a result of an unrelated 1949 Texas law. 

CALL YOUR SENATORS!!!  This affects all of us in the horse business - all levels of quality - our government needs to hear from us.  S.311 is currently pending in the Senate.  Main Capitol switchboard 202-224-3121 ask for YOUR state's SENATORS!  Go, Go, Go!!

July 2006 - NEW HOST HOTEL!

With the closing and sale of the Howard Johnson's Inn, Billings Livestock is proud to announce that BILLINGS HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER will be the new host hotel offering a special "Horse Sale Rate" of $59.99.  Reservations can be made on-line www.billingshotel.net or call 406-248-7151.   They offer a full service restaurant, casino and lounge, indoor pool and waterslides, acres of parking, complimentary limo and shuttle.  EXIT 446.

BEST WESTERN CLOCKTOWER INN is located downtown at Exit 452.  They are a totally remodeled facility located in the heart of downtown Billings. It is very well done and first class.  "Stellas" restaurant and bakery is located on premise.  They offer complimentary shuttle service and special "Horse Sale" rate of $64.99.  406-259-5511.

A Celebration for a Champion - Clay Tryan

January 2006 - We're proud of Montana's first World Champion Team Roper, Clay Tryan! Billings Livestock hosted a reception in his honor on Thursday evening, December 29 attended by over 200 friends, fans, and family.

(Becky Tescher Robison contributed to this story)