The NILE Stock Show and Rodeo Foundation will host its annual Stetsons and Stilettos gala on Saturday, May 4 at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. The event helps raise funds for items like college scholarships and the promotion of agriculture education.
“As luck would have it, we have placed the event on the same day as the Kentucky Derby,” NILE general manager Jennifer Boka said. “It’s a day to support the Run for Roses and people can come to Stetsons and Stilettos and watch the derby broadcast prior to the event. The whole goal for the night is to raise scholarship funds, honor our scholarship recipient and to raise dollars.”
The event’s main entertainment is Cara Bout Ag, a musical comedy performed by Cara Aryes. Cara writes and performs custom-made musical entertainment for agricultural audiences.
“She will be here with us doing a phenomenal show talking about education and agriculture,” Boka said. “Of course, the Running for the Roses while we are there. We invite people to dress up in their finest derby attire if they so choose. What other opportunity do people have to dress up like they are going to the Kentucky Derby wearing a big hat and drinking mint juleps? It’s all about raising money for kids.”
Click here for tickets or more information about the 2019 Stetsons and Stilettos gala.
In other news, a new study shows tariffs are impacting U.S. equipment manufacturers and it will cost the U.S. GDP $29 billion a year for 10 years, or $290 billion total, if continued.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers funded and coordinated the release this week of a new report showing the impact of tariffs on the equipment manufacturing industry and the broader U.S. economy.
In additional farm news, feeder cattle prices are off this early in 2019.
The Daily Livestock Report notes feeder cattle prices so far this year have averaged below year ago levels. This has been the case for both cash and futures markets, with cash 700- to 800-pound steers generally averaging close to $10 per hundredweight below a year ago.
Feeder cattle futures prices have not been down as much as cash prices with the average decline of only five dollars. The lower prices can be rationalized from the supply side of the market by more calves born last year than in prior years.
The Daily Livestock Report said from the demand side, slaughter cattle prices this quarter will be similar to what they were a year ago while the cost of feed, mostly corn and hay, is more expensive.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is updating its scrapie regulations and program standards.
The updates include several major changes, which are needed to continue the fight to eradicate scrapie from American sheep flocks and goat herds.
Scrapie is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy disease that affects the central nervous system in sheep and goats, and is eventually fatal. Sheep producers can find the updated information here.
-Reported by Lane Nordlund/MTN News
