Winters Livestock - Enid, Oklahoma

[Glenn]

Winter Livestock-Enid

Is the fall run happening or is it over? What will the next “fall” run look like? Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and parts of Kansas have already seen a large part of their normal October and November runs. This summer has seen one of the biggest and nicest selection of light weight calves in the last 50 years! How many calves weighing under 500 are usually available each year? Not many!

Compensatory gains are fairly common during a drought, but what about the compensatory value of those young cows and pairs? There are still many of those calf factories being destroyed, with no rebuilding in sight! For every young cow that goes to the packing plant, there is a pretty good chance that there will be 10 less calves in the world.

The market may already be reflecting the herd dispersal. It is a fantastic market! Even with grains historically high, expenses historically high and fewer players on the field, we continue to have a great market! It sure seems like $1000.00 doesn’t buy what it used to!

Of course, in this country money seems to be no object! We’re already trillions of dollars in debt, and now the “leaders” say lets get more so! It sure seems like being in the middle of the ocean and shooting holes in your boat! At some point, the politicians need to get a clue and start spending less not more!

There has been a little rain in places, and what a difference it makes! It may not last long, but it sure is nice for a little while! It has been a very hot and dry summer in the center of the nation, with 100 degree days being the norm for this year. Maybe we will make up for it this winter with plenty of moisture and cooler temperature. Somehow, we will probably get our average moisture and temperature for the year!

There are still a lot of opportunities in the cattle business! It may look different than what we’re used to, but they are still there! Maybe we should all just try to help the situation and buy the cattle that need bought and sell the ones that need sold! We cannot build up our cowherd buy putting all the heifers in the feedyard or sending all the bred cows to the packing plant!

Opportunities are knocking! Get in the action at the auction! Raise some beef!

[Glenn]

It’s hard to understand the volatility of todays market! Up, then down, then back around and it seems like we’re back at square one. Of course, square one is at a definitely higher level than it used to be!

Whether it’s good or bad, both agriculture markets and financial markets seem to be working the same direction. and of course, since when did higher cost of gains make cattle get higher?

The drought has made some pretty big changes in the markets, and probably many we haven’t seen yet. It is not funny at all when our government talks about transparency and helping everyone, yet the USDA gets nothing but budget cuts and less people, and most of the cattle settlements off of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are being determine by probably less than 30% of the cattle being sold in an open market!

How can someone trying to start out in our business get unbiased information? How do they start out when the input costs are 30% higher than a year ago? Where can they get a long term low cost loan if only the big guys are able to get a loan? Maybe it’s a sign of the times, but the margins seem to be about the same and there are already a lot less people in the cattle business to actually do the business.

There are going to be some very large opportunities coming up in the next several years. Less cattle, more people, more exports, bigger demand and higher costs might all be working to let folks make some big plays.

Even though there is a severe drought in much of the country, there are also many places that are having their best grass years ever! We used to trail cattle from Texas to Montana, it probably wasn’t free then and it certainly isn’t now! But, moving cattle from one point to another has been the norm for over a century, so why should that change now? Take advantage of the opportunities being presented!

Everyone is out looking for those fancy three and four year old bred cows! They are worth something, but the plainer cows are worth something too! One cow usually produces one calf, maybe two on a regular basis, but how many of those plainer cows will one good bull affect? there are plenty of high quality products produced at lower quality places or even out of the country, so when numbers are scarce, shouldn’t we all just be producing beef?


Get in the action! Go to the auction! Produce some beef!
Raise some calves, own some factories!