Memorial Day is a sacred day of remembrance, reverence and gratitude for the brave patriots who have laid down their life in service of our great nation.
The White House called for a Prayer for Peace, on Memorial Day 2025. Three years after the Civil War ended on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of war dead with flowers.
Let us never forget the sacrifice of those who died and also those fortunate to live so that we can live in the greatest land of all.
A friend sent me a sale barn market report dated Tuesday Feb. 17, 1953. That day choice fed yearlings brought $24 per hundredweight. And a load of choice heavy steers sold at $22.75 per hundredweight with fair to medium kind at $15 to $18. Fat cows brought $15 to $16.50 with canners and cutters $10.00 to $13.25. Bull calves brought $22.00 to $23.00 per hundredweight.
I also remember somewhere around 1973 or 1974 my grandpa wanted me to go to Louisiana to buy him a load of calves. Everything was cheap from $17 to $26 per hundredweight and yes those locals could definitely spot an outsider. The first sale I went to sold chickens, goats and tack then sold cattle. What an experience. The following week a buyer from there sent my grandpa a load of bull and steer calves costing $86 per head delivered.
He kept them running them on grass and wheat and turning them in on a cane field. After pasturing the cane field, he brought them in to his pens at the house finishing them fat and selling to IBP. Grandpa said, “I have never sold a steer for $800 per head let alone $800 more than I gave for him.” That was at least a year and a half later.
I’m sure a lot of you are wondering how long it takes for eyes to be open after birth. On cattle it is immediately. On goats it normally takes two hours. On cats after six days. And on dogs after 10 days. And on humans they are finally open after marriage.
The fact that Willie Nelson has outlived Richard Simmons has me rethinking this whole eating right and exercise thing.
If you don’t stand behind our troops then feel free to stand in front of them.
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.
