I know that I have at least one person reading this article. After putting in the article that I had a lot of grasshoppers on the farm so if anyone had a lot of chocolate maybe we could team up and make some money, I received a box of chocolatecovered grasshoppers in the mail this week, and it also had a chocolate covered scorpion.
So me—being the giving person that I am—I thought I should share them with my friends. I asked a friend if he wanted a chocolate. I said there are white and dark chocolates. He said, “Give me the dark.” I did good at keeping a straight face until I heard crunch crunch. Then I started smiling and soon was laughing. He said, “What? What!!” The second what was more demanding like “What did you do?” He started spitting like he had just had his first taste of tobacco as a child.
This morning I took the rest of these delicacies to breakfast as I was sure one of those cowboys would want to try them. I said to the waitress that I would give her $20, then $40 to try one. She said not even for $100. Then I told another guy I would do the same for him. I said, “Your wife would be proud of you if you made $40 this morning.” He said, “I have been married 36 years, and at this stage there’s not too much that will impress her.”
I texted my older sister this morning and said I bought you some chocolates for being so nice. She responded, “That’s scary. Is it cow poop?” She added, “I may be slow but not that slow.”
On Tuesday, October feeder futures were at $254.70. For a long time, October was the highest feeder future market, but now August, September and May 2025 are higher. Most sale barn prices for feeders and calves have not shown much decline in prices. I think most feedlots realize the feeder cattle numbers coming to the sale are limited, so prices have stayed strong.
Last Thursday morning I walked into the cafe at the sale barn before the auction started. There was another man facing the opposite direction who buys cattle there every week. I acted like I couldn’t see him and bumped into him on purpose and said, “Oh, sorry. I couldn’t see you.” This buyer is definitely confident to say the least on whatever he thinks. As I walked over to a table and sat down another comical man said, “If you couldn’t see his body, you ought to have been able to see his head.”
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.
