Livestock people

[childofthecorn]

Dose it bother anybody else that's a grain producer with this comment?  I was at the local co-op and the feed specialist said there is no reason for corn to be as high as it was.  This was on Thursday.  I asked him just how **bleep** cheap dose it need to be?  Is it ever cheap enough?  When it was $1.62 they were all crying because we were getting LDP's.  All it did was keep us alive to over produce again next year.  And they did have to deal with $7-$8 corn,  they joined arms with big oil and tree hugers to try to kill Ethanol.  Now that ground beef has been at $3.50 lb (new record) did we go and lobby for people to switch to Tofu?  "We're in this together pisses me off.  When corn was cheap corn board was helping to promote beef because it would help corn.  American Cattleman don't seem to be interested in paying us back with that though.

If corn was free they want still expect us to pay to haul it to there doorsteps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[bkadds]

The most prosperous farmers around here diversify to include cattle. It seems to help even out the wild swings the two sides tend to encounter.

[childofthecorn]

I was asking more about turning on your fellow producer, be it grain or livestock.  We raised hogs till the consolidation of the 90's did that in.  $1 a head for weened pigs did a lot in. I don't begrudge cattle people for $3.50 ground beef.  That's the way it is.  But trying to kill Ethanol (a long tern solution) for there own short term fix is unforgivable. 

[jrsiajdranch]

Yep we beat down the dollar increased oil production by introducing cracking. Changed national CAFE standards to use less fuel. It seems our diabolical scheme has worked. Now if we can just kill ya off with red meat and dairy products our plan will be complete.

[childofthecorn]

My point is that livestock people are a lot like people in town.  All they see is what is affecting them in the short term.  All you want is CHEAP grain.  Plenty of grain producers feel the same way I do.  I like red meat and dairy products jds but I don't like it when you people act like grain producers should never have a couple good years!!

[wrightcattle]

it's all just grass farming anyway.

why grow corn when  u can graze 20 to 30 tons of Japanese Millet off the same dirt...and the cattle do Most of the Work?

that's 300 to 800 lbs of cattle per acre at $2lb ( mostly NET $$$$), or $600 to $1,600 per acre grazing income per acre.

( most any grazer that Works, Rotates and Manages grazes 700 to 1,200 lbs of cattle gain per acre per season )

I like the looks of the 250ish numbers....say $2.50 corn and $250cwt cashfat cattle.

Uncle will bail the corn folks anyway.

l

[idalivered]

jr, you earn what ever you get and deserve it. I'm poisoning muyself , right now, with cream in my coffee.

[tree fmr]

If corn is too high, grow your own. If beef is to high, raise your own. Etc, etc, etc.

[BA Deere]

Will only "hamburger flipping jobs" available anymore, those the flipping the burgers can`t afford the burgers that they are flipping when hamburger is $4/lb.   For many years corn was below the cost of production, then in about 2007 raising corn started to get sustainable.  trouble is the input suppliers wanted their cut too.  Us farmers are generous, we shared...boy did we ever share! 🙂  

Now corn prices dropped in half and now the inputs are going to have to do the same to reflect that.  All that phoney bashing of ethanol with the "food vs fuel" nonsense has surely been blown out of the water...anyone still believe that we can`t produce food and fuel?  Movie theaters raised popcorn prices blaming the farmers, i`m too tigh to buy movie popcorn, but I`ll bet they never dropped their prices.

Cattlemen have had it tough many years, those that sold feeders got 60¢ on a 500lb calf ..$300 and that was what it took to carry a cow for a year...but they got to wear cowboy hats  🙂   Occasionally those feeding cattle got brunt, feeding cattle and selling the fats for the same as what they paid for the feeder.  So the cow/calf guys deserved the $3 calves, the feeder deserved and needed the $175 fat cattle..but it will all last about like the $8 corn did.

With these harsh boom and bust cycles in agriculture, when it`s your turn to be in the catbird seat, you`d better smell the roses, cause the poorhouse is always right around the corner.  And don`t get me started on the hog market, that is perpetually moving between screwed up and messed up.  The only way that hogs go up is if there`s a disease and if you somehow escape it...but wait 6 months and prices go back to the red anyway.

[jrsiajdranch]

Well human nature is to complain. Yea the fella I'm your example ( who was a livestock feed supplier) looks back and says historically corn and sbm should be cheaper. Well he might be right.

About a year ago a friend of ours was complaining about the price of butter. Her husband is one of the north Iowa BTO's. Did.not brother me cause I complained about 8$ corn.

We complain might be part of walking upright and taking nourishment.

Go to a local sporting event lots of grumbling there.

Maybe get a tougher skin?