In this heat the most important thing to consider with livestock is water. It is so easy to get busy and think, “I will do that tomorrow” and then the next day get sidetracked and then several days have gone by.
Most all of us have smart phones that we can’t operate, but we should all get our grandkids to set them as a reminder at least every other day. Never assume just because the blades are turning on a windmill that it is pumping water. And the same goes for electric or solar wells. Just because they have run for a year straight things can happen like lightning knocking out the power.
I hate to be thirsty and I definitely hate for livestock to run out of water.
In the last 10 days our area has really gotten dry again. I see a lot of dryland cane planted that looked good three weeks ago and is drying up and badly needs a rain.
Fat cattle trade was mostly at $248 per hundredweight with the previous week trading at $255. On a 1,500-pound steer that is $105 per head less. However, $248 is still a very good price—particularly coming from someone who doubted we would ever get to $2per pound. I do know for many bankers and cattlemen these cattle prices have definitely made financial statements look much better.
This past winter there was a man that fixed heaters for a living. He had gotten a call and showed up at the house and an elderly woman answered the door. He said inside her house it was 40 degrees and very cold inside.
He said, “I came to fix your heater.” She asked, “Did my daughter call you?” He said, ”No.” He fixed the relay switch and gave her the bill for $200. She said, “I am very sorry as I do not have the money to pay you.” She said, “This morning I prayed that God would send someone to fix my heater.” The repair man looked at the ticket and realized that he had accidentally went to the wrong house and the house that had a heater that needed fixed was four doors down.
The repair man said, “Have a good day this one is on me.” Sometimes things that happen accidentally are not always an accident.
I was in a restaurant last weekend. A young preppy looking guy said, “You shouldn’t eat red meat.” I said, “My Grandpa lived to be 96 years old.” He said, “Did he eat red meat?” “ I said no, but he minded his own business.”
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.
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