Our area is going to need rain soon. The wheat got a pretty good start with a half of an inch of moisture, but that isn’t going to last long. Every day I keep looking at my phone to check the forecast, but I have to remind myself that the weatherman isn’t in control.
In fact the weatherman’s predictions and my predictions on the cattle market have about the same percentage of being right. Please pray for rain and not just for our own area, but for all who need it. God may be saying I was ready to send you moisture, but I wanted you to ask first.
The Cattle on Feed report showed on-feed at 98%, with placements at 82% and marketings at 91%. All those figures do reflect one more day in February last year. That placement figure looks very good for the possibility of fat cattle in six months, but we are already at levels on fat cattle that most of us thought was not possible. Feeders and calves are also at those same extreme levels.
With signs of a possible drought over a large area that could change the cost of gains fast thus changing feeder prices and then changing calf prices.
Never get in your head there is no way these cattle can lose. And never get to thinking just because we have gone higher for quite some time that we will continue to do that.
A young couple asked their preacher over for dinner. After the preacher left the wife said, “I think the preacher stole our spoon.” So about a month went by and they asked the preacher over for dinner again. The wife said, “Preacher I’m not accusing you, but the last time you were here I couldn’t find your spoon.” The preacher said, “I put it in your Bible.”
A man went to a barber and stuck his head in the door and asked— “How long before I can get a haircut?” The barber replied in about two hours. So, the man left and never came back. A week later the same man came back to the barber and again stuck his head in the door and said, “How long before I can get a haircut?” The barber replied in an hour and a half.
Again, the man left and never came back. So, the barber said to his friend in the barbershop, “That is strange. Follow that man and see where he goes.” His friend came back laughing. The barber said, “Where did he go?” His friend said, “To your house.”
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.
