Our cattle business is very interesting to say the least. It has been a lot more interesting these past two or three years when most have experienced good cattle profits
It used to be for many years if you could keep a steer for a year and make $100 per head you felt very good about the cattle business. In these past two years for those that caught that swing upward in the market some advanced their cattle for $1,000 per head.
Along with that comes the vulnerability of the high cost of replacing these stocker cattle plus having to borrow a lot more money because of these higher costs. If you give $2,500 for a small steer and keep him a year at 7% the interest is $175 per head. Since I sold the sale barn I have been order buying and I hear cattlemen say all the time, “I am up to the limit of what I can borrow or I am out of money.” I have stayed that way most of my life.
We heard a lot of cattlemen speculate what would happen if the New World screwworm came across the border to the United States. There seemed to be a few days of shakiness, but so far it hasn’t affected it at all. In fact, fat cattle made new all-time highs this past week. Some feeder cattle were quoted $10to $15 per hundredweight higher.
This is July 4th week and 250 years as a country. I am very proud to be an American and I hope we leave our kids and grandkids the same America as we have known it. I’m afraid that is not the case, in my opinion. A few years ago if you said the word communism and socialism and announced that is what you stood for you would be ridiculed.
Now we have some in political office that proclaim that’s what they stand for. The left better be very careful and speak out against it. After a few got into office large amounts of money have been sent their way from people that hate America, in my opinion.
Then you have losers who think America is bad because they are spoiled and have no idea. This week be sure and tell all servicemen and women thank you and also families who have lost loves ones who sacrificed their life for our freedom.
If you believe in God. Stand up for Him. If you believe in America talk to the youth and tell them how fortunate we are to be born here. If we go the socialist or communist route everything you
and your fathers, mothers, granddads and grandmas and their families will all be gone. Thank you God for letting me be born in America.
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 and grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
