A judge placed a limit on the slaughter of cattle.

U.S. District Judge Halbert O. Woodward, ruling in a suit brought by beef producers, issued a preliminary injunction and said the Agriculture Department must prepare regulations that will limit the total dairy cattle marked for slaughter to no more than 7% of the national dairy herd per year. “The regulation shall further provide for feasible steps to minimize the adverse effect of the marketing of the dairy cattle in the program on contracts on beef, pork and poultry producers,” the judge said in Dallas. On April 1, the government began the program to slaughter 1 million dairy cattle over an 18-month period.