CALF_News_October_November_2019

30 CALF News • October | November 2019 • www.calfnews.net By Patti Wilson Contributing Editor D errell Peel, Ph.D., has no pretentious ideas about his job; although he holds a doctorate in agricultural economics, he still finds it difficult to wrap his head around the enormity of the global cattle industry. Peel is a Breedlove professor of agri business and Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University (OSU). He grew up on a Montana ranch and headed to Mon- tana State University for his bachelor's and master’s degrees, then earned his Ph.D., at the University of Illinois in 1989. He went directly to his long-term employment at OSU. Along the way, Peel married and raised a family of three children with Pat, his wife of 39 years. They currently enjoy the company of a grandson. The marketer’s job has taken him around the globe, educating people across the United States and at least eight other countries. He is particularly fond of Mexico, where he’s spent signifi- cant time over the course of 26 years, and where he and his family once lived for a year. Peel says his success is a function of “getting around.” Travels enable him to better understand the global cattle industry, its intricacies and workings. Why cattle marketing? Peel’s ranch raising put agriculture in his blood; a love for cattle fueled a practical interest in market strategy. It seems his other love is one that would put many other folks into a dreary daze – Peel loves math and statistics. Not, he warns, for their own sake, but for “what math allows me to do.” Very comfortable with numbers, he is able to conjure up acres of useful infor- mation, then help the rest of us digest it in a classroom. When teaching, he tries to “understand his audience,” venue to venue. It is difficult to comprehend an individual’s role in a given setting. He speaks so people can take his message and sort out what they need.“Take it home and use it tomorrow,” Peel says. An immensely complex industry Peel first explains that the beef cattle business does not operate on a simple supply- and-demand model. The industry’s structure is complex because of multiple parts, wide variation in feedstuffs, climates, breeds of cattle and methods in which they are raised. Agriculture, so closely tied to climate, presents us with an infinite variety of scenarios across the world. In addition, cattle-raising is a slow biological process, with cows raising one calf at a time, perhaps even one every two years, in some parts of the world. The multi-stage-producer process fur- ther makes the business resemble a big funnel, with calves first being gathered by stocker and backgrounding opera- tions before reaching feedlots on their long path to the packing house. The variety of ways that cattle wind their way through these processes is nearly limitless. Imagine the flexibility of economics in least-cost rations as cattle make their way through various stages of growth. Peel has seen cattle grazing on many species of grasses, crop residues and at bunks filled with alternate feedstuffs. Vegetable peel- ings are commonly used inWest Coast bunks, and cattle located near industrial areas may be observed with fines and crumbles coming out of candy factories. It is simply difficult to comprehend how wide the industry operates. LEFT: OSU marketing specialist Derrell Peel travels extensively to educate cattle producers and to understand the workings of the global cattle industry. BELOW: An infinite variety of cattle, feedstuffs and management scenarios makes the United States and global cattle industry among the most complex business models imaginable. Continued on page 32  PRODUCER PROF I LE Darrell Peel, Ph.D. Understanding a Global Industry U U