I was talking to a young rancher who had lost his dad in a cattle accident two years ago. A cow hit a gate and drove it into his dad. His dad was a very smart rancher.
I said to his son, “What do you think your dad would think about this cattle market?” He said, “Dad would say sell don’t buy.”
It’s so easy to get caught up in the emotion of a market. I see that happen all the time at the auction where I know buyers don’t always realize how many dollars they were bidding until the word sold has been said and they get out their calculator. A few extra pounds in this high of a market doesn’t seem like much until it’s too late. However, all the time this market was going up it seemed too high to me and now that we have had fat cattle well over $2 per pound for quite a while it seems like the norm. And feeders way over $3 per pound seems normal too.
At the sale the other day I was sitting by a friend who buys a lot of cattle. There was a 400- pound heifer and I knew the auctioneer called out some type of blemish, but neither one of us heard what he had said. We both looked and both of us said, “I can’t see anything wrong with her.”
Well, the next day I texted my friend and said, “I bought you and I both a pair of glasses.” He said, “So you think I need glasses?” I said, “Well neither of us could see anything wrong, but that heifer had an old broken ankle which went out to the side a little.”
Oh well, give me another 50 years in the cattle auctions and maybe I’ll figure it out.
Last week 11 black steers weighing 504 pounds brought $2,671 and 11 black steers weighing 734 pounds brought $2,752. The bigger ones were only weaned 45 days and the smaller ones were only 75 days, but for $81 you got 230 more pounds.
Remember you can’t reach tomorrow’s promise while clinging to yesterday’s pain.
I went to Spain on vacation and I saw a sign that said “English speaking doctor.” I thought to myself that a great idea. We should have that in America.
I was in a sports bar the other night with a friend. I said to my friend, “Look that’s going to be us in 10 years.” He said, “That’s a mirror you idiot it is us.”
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.
