By Chris McClure Contributing Editor
In January 1951, Chinese and North Korean forces captured Seoul for the second time during what has been called the Korean Conflict. In February, the U.N. General Assembly declared China an aggressor in that conflict. In March, the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg began, The King and I opened on Broadway, and the first Univac I computer was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In April, Douglas MacArthur was relieved of his Far East commands. May saw Operation Greenhouse in which thermonuclear weapons were tested on Enewetak in the Marshall Islands as British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean defected to the Soviet Union. The latter half of June saw thousands of acres of forest burned throughout the West.
July saw the invention of the electronic transistor and the assassination of King Abdullah I of Jordan by a Palestinian. In August, the Soviet Union launched the first two dogs into orbit around the earth. September saw the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco, which formally ended the war with Japan while China invaded Tibet.
In October, the first episode of I Love Lucy appeared on television, and war with Germany was declared to be officially at an end. In November, 6,000 British troops were transported to the Suez Canal to quell unrest while U.S. forces began training for thermonuclear war. The first direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began operation. December saw a state of emergency declared in Egypt over increasing unrest, and the first nuclear power plant began operation in Idaho.
1951 was also the last time cattle inventory was at the point it is today.
It seems the cycle of war never ends as we see escalating conflicts across many regions. Technology continues to advance from the beginning of the computer age to the ubiquitous presence known as the Internet of Things. Energy is still a driving force in economies and in conflicts across nations, while the political pendulum swings between extremes throughout the world.
Profit is necessary at every point in the production chain – seedstock, cow-calf, stocker, feeder and, yes, packer.
Times change, yet it seems that many themes remain constant throughout those changes. We adapt, we survive and hopefully we learn as each swing of the pendulum shifts the weight of decisions in one direction or another. It appears we may be looking at a seismic shift in the political realm with the new changes in Washington, D.C. Or it could be business-as-usual if power cannot be wrested from the “Administrative State,” which some refer to as the Fourth Branch of government.
Power has been accredited to the bureaucrats through every administration since our country was first formed from the ashes of revolution. It almost came to pieces when civil discourse gave way to armed conflict in the mid-1800s, but somehow, it held on. We must guard against those forces that seek to render and separate during times of conflicting philosophies.
Each of us has formed opinions on when the expansion of our cow herd will begin in earnest. I see signs of it every day as I also see signs that it has not yet begun. Optimism and pessimism pull us both ways as prices for fat cattle soar yet struggle against a seeming cap. Perhaps we are finding the point when consumers begin to shift their buying habits due to the economic realities of their budget. Is it a point at which expansion can truly begin despite inflated input costs? I don’t know if we have that answer yet.
Technology will aid us in doing more with less. Sustainability implies survivability. Profit is necessary to survive. Profit is necessary at every point in the production chain – seedstock, cow-calf, stocker, feeder and, yes, packer. Will new packing plants be able to survive the supply challenges long enough to thrive? Will there be more plants shuttering capacity to adjust to the economic realities of short supplies?
It appears the incoming administration will be friendly to our cause, but only time will tell. There continues to be global forces creating headwinds that thwart our advance. We must remember that the stage is global and how we “play” on that global stage may have greater impact on our businesses than we would recognize. Isolationist approaches to a global economy give me pause.
