Cowboy Up

Cowboy up In the words of some of my team roping comrades, the dairy guy is going to need to "cowboy up". When the U.S. senate resoundingly confirmed Mike Johanns as secretary of agriculture a couple of weeks ago, Johanns, who has roots in the dairy industry said he was more than ready to go to work, and the bulk of that work will be dealing with problems in the beef industry. For starters Johanns is causing grins on a lot cattlemen's faces by making the reopening of Japanese market to US Beef one of his top priorities. Reopening the U.S, Japanese market, given that Japan has traditionally been one of Americas largest beef buyers will be key in regaining world wide confidence for our meat. Japan banned US Beef after one dairy cow with Mad Cow disease was discovered in Washington State . On the other side of the coin Johanns is being urged by Democratic senators to stop USDA plans to resume importing Canadian cattle after a third case of mad cow disease, was recently discovered in a Canadian cow. Johanns will need to in cowboy lingo have his "irons in the fire" and we aren't talking branding irons to confront the tough issues facing the Beef Industry.