We are definitely selling cattle a little earlier than usual with the drought. A week ago, we received a couple of inches of snow but most of the wheat fields didn’t keep much snow on them as the wind put most of it in the bar ditch.
I should have been a weatherman cause several days ago they were predicting moisture then two days later they said our area was not going to get any. Now I see they are predicting moisture again. And some of those weathermen get paid quite well for that. And being a cattleman, I have never got paid well when I guess wrong.
Whatever the case, please pray for rain. We have been through a drought before, and it is always very challenging. However, this is the first drought I have been through where our feeder futures are very high for several months out. I am very thankful for that cause otherwise our calves would be very cheap, particularly with high grain and hay prices.
It is going be a very interesting year with all that is going on with the government and what we have going on. The influx of illegals coming across the border plus our questions of what Russia might do makes you wonder whether the cattle market can be that stable.
In the banking industry many banks look at credit scores and cash flow. They might care less how much you are worth. If you happen to have lost money for a couple of years, then tell me how do you establish the ability to have cash flow?
Last week we had a very good market selling a string of black steers weighing 623 pounds at $2 per pound. Also, a string of steers at 565 pounds for $210 per hundredweight and a string of 475-pound steers at $233 per hundredweight. And our heifers weighing 500 pounds stopped at $182 per hundredweight.
They tell me getting old should require thinking but I bought a new stick of deodorant today. And the instructions said, “remove cap and push up bottom.” I’m telling you it hurts to walk but the room smells better.
I am so single if I win a trip for two then I am going twice.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
