Last Thursday with the extreme heat and no wind and extreme high humidity the Weather Channel compared Oklahoma to Death Valley.
I sorted cattle all day in the heat on Wednesday and, yes, it was hot. But there was something different about the humidity that made it worse on Thursday. Even though after the sale on Thursday we went and helped move cattle around to better pens with more feed and water. There still was something about the weather on Thursday making it worse even though to me it felt the same. My advice to everyone whether driving on the highway or out farming or checking cattle—take a lot of drinking water with you. You never know when you might get stranded. That’s ironic cause when bottled water first came out, I refused to buy water but I realize I drink a lot more water if it is with me.
At least at my cattle auction, the cattle are insured for the heat but, to my knowledge, in the feedlot you will simply get a piece of paper that is called a dead slip. I’m not much of a worrier but I am at least hoping for a little wind. ’Cause I know it is going to be hot.
I thought the Farm Service Agency said there is a program or payment for cattle that died in the heat. If you lost several, you might want to check and see.
Last week, we sold a string of black steers that weighed 1,088 pounds at $124.60 per hundredweight, which figured to $1,355 per head. And quite a few feeder steers weighing between 800 and 850 pounds brought $1,200 per head. In our area, there still are not many good young bred cows and pairs moving.
This past week our killing cow numbers were about one third of what we have been running. I’m not sure if that was from being so hot in the temperature last week or whether the numbers are going to get less. The price on killing cows seems to have been under pressure with the drought in several other areas.
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra than on Alzheimer’s research. Which means by 2040 the women will be big up top and the men constantly excited and no idea why.
There was an ole cowboy who was overweight. His wife was always nagging to him to lose weight. So early one morning, he steps on the scales and sucks his stomach in. She says holding your stomach in isn’t going to do any good. He said, “Yes, it will. It’s the only way I can see the scales.”
Editor’s note: Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
