Asking prices on fat cattle early this week were $115 with fewer cattle on the show list. But we would have to get a lot less fat cattle available to the packer for us to get in the driver’s seat.
Way too many are furnished to the packer that they do not have to compete for us to get in the driver’s seat with only a few less on the show list.
The inventory report showed beef cow at 31.16 million head, which is down 181,000 head from a year ago. In our area, beef cow numbers were up in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas with Colorado and out west less because of the drought.
With grains reaching a higher figure for the last several months several farmers are talking about planting for grain rather than pasture. The world is projected to produce 1.13 billion metric tons of corn, which is down 9.7 metric tons than predicted last month.
With the talk of higher corn it is hard for me to see why we would think feeders would get much higher. I realize we would like to feed them less days in the feedlot but it has been our choice. Prices have to go up.
We all knew a farmer in the old days who loved to farm as he would drive the tractor all day. Either he loved to farm or needed to get away from Grandma for a few hours. I have to laugh when I think about my grandpa when he was about 90 years old. And the lady who was helping clean their house was about 45 years old. Grandpa said, “Would you help me take out this trash?” After about five minutes Grandma decided Grandpa had been out there long enough so she opened the door and hollered as loud as she could, “Ben Nine, you get in here and I mean right now!”
You can never underestimate these 90-year-old men.
I had a businessman call me about a former employee. He said, “Tell me about this man.” I said, “OK, I will. He should go very far and the sooner he starts the better.”
Editor’s note: Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
