Last week a few customers to the south of Woodward—about 60 miles away—got a half inch of rain. It was not a very big area that got rain but was very welcomed for them and also hoping that it might break the drought cycle for this very large area.
In the fall there was lots of hay around but about a month ago a scramble for hay started.
Just today a feedlot manager said to me, “One out of every five head sold at Woodward Livestock Auction will be exported overseas.” And I assure you he was saying that simply 20 percent of our fat cattle are being exported. That is great news. I said to him, “Weren’t you a little surprised that we sold fat cattle for $130 per hundredweight last week?” He said, “Yes, a little, because overall I was a little more bearish than that but with our demand here and our export demand that makes a lot of difference.”
I can’t help but think with all the cattle that have gone into the feedlot earlier than normal that makes for a very good market toward the end of the year. For the past two months a lot of 500- to 600-pound cattle have gone to feedlots and even if it started raining today not many will come back outside. And by October, 240 days from now, I would think all of those would be dead. There aren’t many heifers being saved for replacements in our area so there will be a few more of those in the feedlot but then they won’t be raising eight or 10 calves either.
A blonde was bragging to me about her knowledge of the state capitals of the United States. She proudly announced—“Go ahead; ask me any of the capitals, I know all of them.” A redheaded lady was standing close by so she said, “Ok, what’s the capital of Wyoming?” The blonde replied, “Oh, that’s easy, it’s W.”
An older man went to the doctor with a terrible cough. The nurse couldn’t find any cough syrup so she gave him a box of ExLax. The doctor came back and she told him.
He said, “You can’t give him ExLax for a cough.” She said, “Yes you can. Look at him now. He’s too scared to cough.”
Editor’s note: Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
