Thursday, December 18, 1997

Beefing up school lunches is good news for cattlemen

By J.T. Smith / Abilene Reporter-News

Schools are big consumers of beef.

With cattle -- by far -- the No. 1 ag industry in Texas as well as the Abilene region, that's good news for ranchers.

The latest figures from the U.S. Agriculture Department show that USDA beef purchases for the School Lunch Program have increased significantly this decade.

USDA purchased 122 million pounds of frozen ground beef for the 1993-94 school year.

The amount jumped to 154 million pounds for the 1994-95 school year and went to 158 million pounds for '95-96.

For the past 1996-97 school year, the frozen ground beef purchases reached 171 million pounds.

If you don't think schools are a huge consumer -- consider that schools serve more than 26 million lunches every school day in 94,000 public and private schools.

It's a $10 billion industry.

Beef promotions in Mexico are big

Speaking of good news for beef, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) and a major Mexican supermarket chain recently held a theme promotion featuring U.S. beef at 13 supermarkets in Tijuana.

The theme was the celebration of the holiday for Mexico's revolution.

Mexican consumers were encouraged to buy U.S. beef for outdoor barbecues.

Just in time for Christmas, USMEF has a similar theme promotion for the holidays.

Six billboards in Tijuana currently display messages encouraging U.S. beef purchases.

Winona Brewer elected to FSA committee

The southern portion of Taylor County has completed its election for a Farm Service Agency (FSA) committee member.

Winona Brewer was elected to the county committee.

She will join Leland Robinson and Dink Whisenhunt for the 1998 FSA committee year.

FSA no longer involved in crop insurance

The USDA Farm Service Agency office is no longer involved in the crop insurance business, said Tim Hall, Taylor County FSA executive director.

Nevertheless, Hall said -- that as a "courtesy reminder" -- farmers should report their insured acres of small grain to their respective insurance agent by Dec. 31.

This past Monday was the final planting date in Taylor County that wheat could be recognized as "officially" planted (for crop insurance purposes).

New address of FSA office

Taylor County FSA staff remind producers that the new address for the office is: Taylor County FSA Office, 4400 Buffalo Gap Road, Suite 4300, Abilene, Texas 79606-2721.

But the phone number was not changed and remains (915) 695-0140.

By the way -- the Taylor County FSA office will be closed Dec. 25 and Dec. 26 for the Christmas holidays, and also shut down Jan. 1 for New Year's Day.