The thefts, including one high-profile case involving the ranch of baseball legend Nolan Ryan, are directly related to the rising cost of beef, said Larry Gray, enforcement chief with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA).

The TSCRA, which draws its members from Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, reported $6.2 million in livestock thefts — mostly cattle — in 2005, up from $4 million in 2004.

In the past three to four years, John McBride, a spokesman for the Livestock Marketing Association, said cattle prices have approached all-time highs. "As the cattle industry has escalated, so have the number of thefts," said Joyce English, vice president of the association's Livestock Board of Trade. "Everything follows the money."

Last fall, a flurry of calls from more than a dozen victims, including the foreman of Ryan's Texas ranch, reported 17 cows and 14 calves were missing. A couple of weeks later, an additional 16 calves were stolen from Ryan's spread.

Source: usatoday.com