feedyard talk 6/24. ..........Is this fixable???

[sw363535]

Thanks......

So I think that all means    NO.  it is not fixable, with leaders who don't understand it or want too and a public that is a lot less educated.

almost sorry I asked.     

Time to draw new borders???

[k-289]

Packer  arrogance  of  $800. oo  +  margins ,   with  No Cow Boys Allowed  hit  the  mute  button ,  with  integration , slash  formulated ,  being  the  economic , last  option  available  -  -  -

Being  the  hired  man  for  some  one  in  China  or  Brazil , might  not  be  for  everyone  - just  saying  -  -  -

Reminds  me  of  those  Owner - Operator  ( drivers ) ,  latching  their  5th  wheel  to  a  MEGA  carrier trailer ,  that  arrive  home  every  few  weeks ,  much  less  figure  their  pay  scale  on  70  hour  weeks  -  -  -

That  is  marketing  at  it's  finest  - - -    

[Hobbyfarmer]

Can I play Devils Advocate here?

Lets do the get into the meat packing business .

Money to be made...

Of course eveeybody will want in on the profits.

Kinda like whats going on in farming.. They just want "their share"

Many of our inputs are priced accordinly to a % of the benifit of it's use not cost of manufacturing.

Only had one person tell me they were in farming to sell at a modest profit and would rather plod along at $4 corn and just not worry about getting a high price.

Stated that during the time of $7.50+ corn. 

Since I did sell a number of loads at $7.50 to $7.76 does that mean I should be fined, regulated, or bared from cashing the check?

That corn came from a farm that went 205bu/acre. The profit per acre on those acres those loads came from was over $1300 per acre.

Should the seed, fert, chem, tax assessor send me an additional you made too much bill?

Now they are in a slightly different business model that has been blessed with rules and regulations that has eliminated much competition. 

All blessed by some of the ones now raising the red flag.

Don't get your hopes up too high on a viable fix.

How many local 10 to 100 head a day butcher shops can we build?

[sw363535]

I am not sure I would word it as devils advocate. or maybe just tuning in the focus on the subject.

Your point on Profits is accurate, sort of, on the idea that profit is not bad.  Your right and we commonly state that the level of p-rofit is too high at $xxx per head ..... often sounding like we are advocating for soviet style wage controls, the stuff our ancestors left in Eastern Europe and Asia.  Most of Agriculture sounds like it wants government running everything and solving all problems while blindly ignoring any problems congress creates.  But this also misses the point.  Like many other times we don't understand what we are upset about.  

The amount of profit is not the issue, but the method of acquiring that profit.  Sweet deals with political leadership such as Labor(labor).... the one area that will keep us from investing in small packing plants.  Yet if your one of the mega packers the secretary of State will supply hundreds of refugee immigrants delivered to your door ready to work, paperwork expedited with UN approval,..... which you will accept for a lighter inspection of legality of the rest of your work force and facilities.  Knowing any new competition for meat will have a very lengthy approval process to hop the environmental hurdles the feds will place in their way and not in your "grandfathered" way.

That monopoly status is guaranteed by DC who loves the idea of a big budget and a small staff.  It takes far less inspections for the mega 4 than it does to check the thousands of small meat processors that existed 40 years ago and are history now.

How many local 10 to 100 head a day butcher shops can we build?   far more than we can get licensed.  Near every town over 800 pop. in sw ks had a processor 40 years ago.  Today there is one in Garden City.  A young man in Meade is reopening a former family owned packer and it took a year to get the license reinstated.

Technology..... we are sucking that bottle like Ernest T.  Drunk on the glow of the promise it brings.  Well we are not going to run small local packing with robotics.  It will take millions of animals to carry the burden of that investment.(just like it takes many thousands of acres to pay for that tractor that drives itself) but we are hell bent on doing it because human labor is too irresponsible, inconsistent and unhappy.

Lets get into the packing business. ------sounds good but we won't ---- it is not a good investment.    We all want to own stock in the big 4, not in anything local.  How many Ranchers want to sell direct to the housewife?  All below the age of 55.  But few have a place to process, package, store and ship to a large market.   And when we get there we have to compete, because in reality our product is just meat in a package.

Within 15 miles of my chair, there once was a fair sized ranch that decided selling direct was the way to go.  1940's they built a processing plant on their farm, fattening yard, cold storage and delivery trucks.  They ran it for several years until their children all moved on to better jobs and labor was hard to source.  Now there is a top notch National Beef Plant that employs thousands only 4 miles from their farm.  Their farm sold out years ago and all that investment was worthless.  A dozer buried it after most all of it did not bring a bid.  The folks who saw value in it were gone.  The grass and cattle brought good money.

It takes a lot of money to operate a business no one wants to work at.  And today you can sell your  cheap steer to National and buy the meat for less than doing it yourself if you figure all labor cost.    Like growing tomatoes and thinking your saving money?......

It aint the answer.   Responsible and honorable elected officials and federal employees is the answer.... folks who will enforce the law fairly and honorably...... and not bribe the people for votes.  A contribution to a political campaign over $50 should be considered a bribe and a felony, because we all expect to get the kickbacks.

Packers and our legislators are what we have asked them to be.  

I was upset by the discouragement in the responses we had but that is what we are .... discouraged.  We probably didn't need high prices for anything.  Maybe the best long term answers would come with hardships.

[k-289]

What  makes  a  better   '''  photo  op  '''   , hugging  the  flag ,  OR   a  bankruptcy  filing  - ? 

Irony  on  steroids'  seems  to  be  in  fashion  -  -  -     

[sdholloway56]

You’ll find more support for anti-trust in general on the other side of the aisle.

Just a fact.

Even though there aren’t a lot of beeves in MA, Sen. Warren is smart and tough and will take on any fight if she thinks it is right.

Corp money hates her, and has spent a lot of time programming dumb goobers to croak out Pocahontas when their string gets pulled.

[sdholloway56]

I do think the  Sens and Reps-who are recommended to spend at least 4 hours a day begging for cash on the phone- fear broad anti-trust precedents. Even if they’ll make a little fake noise on behalf of a particular constituency.

Even if someone worth asking for a big donation isn’t directly affected I think the Amazon analogy is sound.

Bezos’ 10% aside, 90% of the shares of Amazon are owned by the top 10%, easily.

Who’s going to pay a legal bribe to someone to make their net worth go down?

[sdholloway56]

In addition to the legal bribes, also very high ROI for spending to get The Folk stirred up over culture war issues while you pick their pockets.

[sw363535]

Thanks sd for that very good explanation of Critical Race Theory.... and the lefts storm troopers antifa----"very high ROI for spending to get The Folk stirred up over culture war issues while you pick their pockets."

Your comments are so telling of those who swallow the lies..... Bribery is illegal, there is no such thing as legal bribery yet you can't stop repeating the lie.

[k-289]

 Seems  the  Hatch  Auction  is becoming  more  of  a  normal  process , &  I  get  it ,  exit  strategy  -  -  -

The  Mega  operations  might  not  be  as  illustrious  as  they  appear  in  a  front  cover , written  by  a  non-participant  author  -  -  -

Every  year  we  have  numerous  examples ,  like  the  pathetic  Chapter  filing ,  Easter day , of  Columbia  River  Basin  out  Northwest way -  look  at  me deal  - - -

BOOK  LEARN'en  can  only  take US  so  far ,  cause  unless  the  wind  blows ,  Columbus would  have  never  left  Spain with  a  crew,  while  now,  the  import  container  vessels  continue  to  clog  Long  Beach  Calif  - with  not  a  word  being  said  on  the  subject  from  a  Florida  golf  course -  -  -

With  chickens  in  the  yard, watch  your  step ,  while  going  to  the  car , to  attend  church  - and  don't  forget  to  pay  your  check-off , even  though  the  pot  was  shorted in  Pasco  Washington -  maybe - - -