rising beef prices

[rancherman]

All over  Fox news this morning... and  the   lack of  beef  in  US.   Cow numbers  are  at  1951  levels.     

 

Ranchers  are   encouraged to  increase their  herd numbers..     But   I  gotta   ask:   Where?    I'd love to!

 

Blm  grazing in places  is   almost    non existent.     100's  of  thousands  of private   grassland  has  been   plowed up  to   grow corn...   

Pasture  and  rangeland  is   THE  most  efficient way to   feed  the mother cow...  any form of  confinement  is just asking for  problems  with  disease,  and   increased   costs  to   'carry every  scoop of  feed in,  and  poop out'...  Confinement  works  ok  with the  fattening of  the calf,  not the  daily lives of the mother cow.

 

Somebody  somewhere  decided that  'corn'  was  renewable,  and   can  supply  US   with  'clean' fuel.      They  never factored in the  butt loads  of    fertilizer,  additional fuel  to pump irrigation water ( ground water, heaven forbid  they  pump dirty river water!!! )   to  grow  this  miracle  plant  on   marginal  ground...  

Yes,  the  corn plant is   'renewable'...  But  the   materials  to grow the  stuff  sure isn't!

Don't even ask me   about the  release of  CO2  during the  fermentation process of  the corn...    yikes!

We  better  remember  about our  soil:   we  don't  own it today,  we are 'borrowing' it  from the  future.   Watching it  blow away  every spring  around here  is  sickening.

Keeping it  in  native grass (  and  mowed down  with  cows teeth)  is  the best  way to preserve  our  most  valuable resource...

 

 

 

 

[diesel4life]

I have always had the utmost respect for any man who makes his living off the land. I spent many summers on my grandfathers ranch in Wyoming. He certainly didn't lead an easy life, and made a marginal living at best. He worked the land until his body gave out and sold it off. I think he left a piece of himself behind when he drove down that long 1/2 mile drive from the ranch to the road for the final time...

My aunt and uncle run a large dairy farm out here. They have built their milking herd up to around 350 cows 3x a day. Up at 4am and work til dark seven days a week. They never take time off, never vacation anywhere. They eat sleep and breathe that farm. My aunt and my mother are twin sisters, yet my aunt looks at least 10 years older than my mother. Farm life is a hard one for sure. I can't imagine the stresses they deal with running a large operation like that and being at the mercy of the ever fluctuating milk prices. They are very frugal and have made it work, how I don't really know.

My hats off to you Rick.

[mopartechnician]

That october snowstorm out here had major effects on the market. Thousands of cattle were killed in wester nebrasks and south dakota. Now these guys have to buy replacement cow/calves. And, because of the drought, there isnt much to choose from. The government doesnt care and they would rather spend money on finding airplanes, over throwing governments, instead of helping the u.s. Its kinda like mowing other peoles grass but forgetting to mow your own lawn. My dad helped a guy and his wife run a cow/calf operation for 20+ years. They ran about 1500 pairs and dad decided to buy 100 head to run also. Well the drought hit in the early 2000's and dad ended up taking a huge loss and the guy he helped is now down to around 400 head.

I bought a beef last year and paid 2.99 a pound in my freezer. Dont think I will be able to come close to that the next time i buy

Edited April 14, 2014 by mopartechnician

[jlwelding]

I just came from the store, catfish 7.99 lb

[rancherman]

When I jumped into the ranch business in 1984, I got about 350 dollars for every calf I sold. They were just shy of being 1 year old. I 'made' about 100 dollars profit on each one. Anyone remember

how FAR 100 bucks stretched back then? That was at least 5 tanks of gasoline or 8 tanks of diesel.

(sure, the diesel pickup 'back then' wasn't worth driving home!) GM's attempt at converting a 350 gas.

Last month, I sold the same size calf, and they averaged just under 1100. Guess what? I still am making just a tad over 100 dollars per calf. Unfortunately 100 bucks don't go very far these days.

Now, to get this calf ready for the freezer, a person would need to feed them to grow and fatten..

probably need another 3-400 dollars for the corn and hay, 5-6 additional months on feed, and another 350-450 for the butchering.

That's about 1950 dollars for a 'finished' calf, ready for cooking. That figures right at 3 dollars a pound 'in the freezer'.

Ya know, I thought I'd never think I hear myself say this, but has this Country reached a point to where any additional population is going to change forever our 'way of life', and our wide open spaces will be just a fond memory? I heard the other day that when our pop in US reaches 1 BILLION... uggg.

[dorkweed]

All this "bio-fuels" push should be done with a native species like "switch grass" vs. a food stuff plant.  It'll keep food prices lower, refined btu's are way higher, it's better for wildlife, better for soil erosion control, multiple harvests during growing season, and can be burned off when needed......................there's no downside to it.........................except that farmers and bio refiners aren't set up for it now.

[dripley]

I used to be a big advocate of corn ethanol. Anything that got us off the Arab *** had to be a good thing. It did not take long to see that using a food source for fuel was bad thing. Anyone who thinks this has done any good for fuel prices does not pay any attention to what they are spending at the grocery store.  All of the other things yall have mentioned above just make it that much more of very fruitless endeavor to say the least.