Cattle futures fell during a tough week on several fronts

What a sad day when we heard the news of Charlie Kirk being shot. He was a conservative activist who founded Turning Point USA. I don’t care which side of the political arena you are on, but this kind of violence has engulfed Americas politics and is hideous.

Free speech is good, but there are rallies that promote hatred and there are paid protesters, which in turn can incite violence. So many people want to be offended now days if you don’t think like they think. I promise you Satan loves it and is working nonstop to promote hatred.

We had two days this past week when cattle futures fell hard with one of those days hitting the limit and on Friday feeder cattle were down more than $3 per hundredweight and fat cattle more than $2 per hundredweight.

They tell me there is lots of corn in the north and northern buyers are telling an order buyer that if you definitely like the cattle just buy them. This scenario works good particularly for the seller and even better if two northern buyers have said the same thing to two separate buyers on the same cattle.

I bought calves and feeder cattle for 21 years before buying the sale barn, and two different times I had an order to buy a load of steers. The first time I told the feedlot I didn’t get them because they were $5 per hundredweight higher than the day before. He was mad. He said, “I didn’t tell you to use your head I told you to buy them.” But a year later the same scenario he said, “Buy a load of 700-pound steers.” He called in the middle of the sale. I told him what they were bringing. Then he cussed and said, “I don’t want to give that much” so sometimes an order buyer has to be a mind reader.

A friend of mine went into a sports bar with his wife to get something to eat. His son and son’s best friend came in and sat at the bar. The dad ordered the two boys each a shot of water. Thinking it was a shot of whiskey both boys held their shot glass up and looked back at the dad as if saying thank you. Both downed the shot of water looking back with the dad laughing hysterically.

You know you are getting old when “Friends with Benefits” means having somebody who can drive at night.

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.