News and Notes From Here, There and Everywhere

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• The Associated Press reports that shoppers are becoming more willing to spend money for clothing. The AP said better weather and an earlier Easter enticed Americans to shell out for spring clothes in March, the fourth straight month of gains for retail sales. Target, Macy’s, Gap and the parent of Victoria’s Secret all beat Wall Street expectations. “The gains offer strong evidence that people are feeling more confident in the economic recovery and are more willing to spend,” AP said. Target, Saks and Nordstrom reported spring clothing selling well, particularly shoes and women’s wear. Overall, sales in stores open at least a year rose 9 percent in March.

• Last week USDA released its U.S. and world cotton supply and demand estimates for the 2009/10 marketing year, with the U.S. projected to end lower with lower production and ending stocks. With domestic mill use and exports unchanged, the lower production is reflected in ending stocks of 3.0 million bales – lower than most analysts believe would be about 300,000 bales, but 200,000 below USDA’s report last month. The stocks-to-use ratio of 19.4 percent would be the smallest since 2003/04. The forecast range for the marketing-year average price received by producers of 61.5 to 65.5 cents per pound is raised 1 cent on the lower end of the range. The world cotton forecasts for 2009/10 include small revisions which result in slightly lower ending stocks compared with last month.

• And finally, The UK-based Telegraph has been out front in it criticism of those who perpetuate the global warming myth through bad data or outright fraud. The Telegraph reports that cows have now absolved of causing global warming. I’m not kidding – bovines have been accused of creating so much methane and expelling it into the air by … ah, you know … thus creating more greenhouse gases. However, a new study found that grazing cattle actually reduce another greenhouse gas – nitrous oxide. (Yup. Laughing gas. Which some of the global warming enthusiasts have OD’d on.) Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, carried out the study in Inner Mongolia in China. He found that grassland produced more nitrous oxide during the spring thaw when sheep or cattle have not been grazing. This is because the greenhouse gas is released by microbes in the soil. When the grass is long and snow settles, it keeps the microbes warm and provides moisture. However, Butterbach-Bahl’s study found that when the grass is kept short through grazing, the ground freezes and the microbes die. “It’s been generally assumed that if you increase livestock numbers you get a rise in emissions of nitrous oxide. This is not the case,” he said.

I wasn’t going to stop eating meat in the first place, so give me mine rare with French fries and a beer. And don’t forget that cottonseed is a major component of dairy feed.

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