By Betty Jo Gigot Publisher
Well, it’s fall again and as we look down the road, it never seems to end. I know there have to be times when all is smooth and we know where we are headed in the industry, but I guess we tend to take them for granted. As Baxter Black always reminded us, the market goes up but it also goes down. I always think about his story about when he stopped for breakfast on his way to taking some day-old Holstein calves to auction. When he came out of the café after breakfast, there were three more calves in the pickup. Think what would happen now? Any critter is worth its weight in gold and a major source for U.S. beef has a spotted cow for a mom. There just aren’t enough to go around and the prices make my hair stand on end. As one person said, “Did you ever think a fat steer or a bred cow would be worth more than a semi-load of corn? We are there.”
The next question that comes up is, Where are the next calf crops coming from? It is really hard for the rancher to hold back replacement heifers with the price they sell for these days. But, as we all know, the cattle cycle is a long one. Much longer than any other meat supplier.
I don’t know about you, but 1,500-pound finished cattle blows my mind. Gary Smith explained to me a long time ago that we could not make cattle much bigger because it made the size of a ribeye too big. I suggested we could cut them in two, and he just laughed and said that was against the rules. When I asked him who made the rules, he said God.
How much of that 1,500-pound critter is fat I don’t know, but I also think about the strain in the processing plants. When I was in Australia I saw cattle, kangaroos and camels hung in the abattoir. The camels had to be hung with their legs tied up because their carcasses were too long. Fitting our new fat friends on the hook must be a sight.
And of course, there is always some health problem looming. New World screwworm certainly has us all on pins and needles daily. As much as we hope the government will just let us just do our business and make some money, this is certainly one of those places we can use all the help we can get.
So down the road, we still have all the challenges, old and new. Even though our reputation of producing a very healthy, nutritious product has finally become fashionable, as in the food pyramid, the price of buying beef is no small problem either. We will figure it out. We always do but there has never been a better time to swallow hard and keep on trucking.
Meanwhile, we have brought you a plethora of information and entertainment in our fall issue. From reporting on the popular Spicer Grippe Roping, the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Convention, and the recent American Association of Bovine Practitioners meeting, we have included coverage of the NCBA Stockmanship and Stewardship program and a report on the Oklahoma National Stockyards. There is a full story on the new Producer-Owned Beef processing plant in Texas, and Patti Wilson visited a saddle maker we all would like to know.
Along with our regular columns and cartoon and a poem from Chris McClure, we also are sending our best wishes for a safe fall run and a profitable future.
