I heard where one cattle market forecaster was predicting that we would see $400 per hundredweight on 500-pound steers or $4 per pound. Any way you figure that it is $2,000 per head.
I personally am not very fond of that prediction. I guess anything is possible but that very well might get some people in trouble if they believe that will happen. And if it does then I suggest you run as fast as you can to the bank and cash it and while you are driving perhaps say a little prayer for the guy or gal that bought them. I would a lot rather cattlemen stay in the middle of the road on expectations and if you get a better deal, just be thankful and not expect it to happen the next year.
Rightfully in comparison to what a new pickup cost they should be $4 per pound. Now it takes $70,000 to buy a new feed pick up. You wait and I bet in the next few years they will cost $100,000 as long as we keep buying them.
I saw where it was said that interest rates will probably go up again. I have a question, do the ones in power to regulate the industry borrow any money? Perhaps not. Probably those multi-millionaires are thinking, “Good now I’ll get more for my CDs.”
I hear a lot of stocker buyers are having health trouble with the calves they have been buying. And often we are always looking for a better way or new vaccine.
I wanted to buy some steers that were long weaned so I could turn directly out. So I saw a set that weighed 343 pounds that I ran to $390 per hundredweight and didn’t get them. Then their bigger brothers sold weighing 422 pounds and brought $328 per hundredweight. Hopefully my banker doesn’t read this or he may have me committed. That was $1,334 and $1,385 per head.
I said to one of the buyers at the sale this morning that perhaps he should go on the same diet that another buyer had gone on, because that guy has gotten very thin. Then the fleshy one said, “I have noticed that fat covers up a lot on a cow and makes the cow look better.” I said, “I don’t think it is working on you.”
I had a young veterinarian come to my ranch to preg some cows. He had somewhat of a nervous look on his face when I said, “I just have one question to ask you.” He said, “OK, what?” I said, “How much do you still owe on your student loan?”
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.
