Something has to be done and it has to be done quick. We need petitions at every sale barn in the United States and every cooperative anywhere the cattlemen and ranchers do business. Banks as well should have petitions signed to send to every governor, every politician and cattle organizations.
And that petition is about the ripoff from the meatpackers or retailer. When Choice beef is quoted at $315.08 and Select at $297.16 and the packer paid $119 to $120 per hundredweight.
It is worse than a joke. It is a disgrace. So every fat steer or heifer that grades Choice should have brought $198.50 and Select $187.21. Then on average those fat cattle should have brought $192.85. So the packer made $990.22 per head. If that isn’t robbery I don’t know what is.
I think it is high time we refuse to sell them anything. Some of you will say, “You can’t do that.” If you don’t, you are history. You might as well go broke making a stance rather than go broke this way.
I am going to send out a letter to every major grocery chain and let them know they are getting cheated also.
I want the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and all 50 states cattle organizations to respond and I will print their response. When is enough enough? Or how much will the packers have to take before producers speak out. The organizations need to be working for us. The beef checkoff should be hollering, too.
I am sick of hearing what many say they are accomplishing for the cattlemen when the packer gets it all. Get mad if you want to get mad. The one you should be mad at is yourself.
Suzie Lee done fell in love and she planned to marry Joe. She was so happy about it all she told her pappy so. Pappy told her, “Suzie gal, you’ll have to find another. I don’t really want Ma to know but Joe is your half brother.”
So Suzie put aside Joe and planned to marry Will. But after telling pappy this, he said, “There’s trouble still. You can’t marry Will, my gal. And please don’t tell your mother, but Will and Joe and several more I know are you half brother.”
Suzie said her mother said, “My child just do what makes you happy. Just marry Will or Joe because you ain’t kin to pappy.”
One rat was talking to another rat and asked him if he had taken the COVID shot yet. And he said, “No, not yet. They are still testing it on humans.”
Editor’s note: Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
