Have you been watching the video livestock market sales? It’s pretty amazing what calves and yearlings have been bringing, especially in light of the bad economy and unemployment. Even the cull market is at what has to be historic highs and remaining there. You can sell a cull bull or cow for close to what you bought them for. This has made me think about how times have changed.

Remember the first time calves brought a dollar a pound and we thought, “Man now we can make some real money, we can pay the bank and even have some money left over”? Twenty years ago if you weaned a 500 pound steer calf that was really something to brag about.  Today a 500 pound steer is knocking on the door of $2.00/lb and is considered on the small end. I also remember some of my rancher friends saying back then, “Man if cows reach a thousand dollars a head I’m selling every one of them!” Of course few really did, but it sure sounded like a plan at the time. This year I’ve heard of good bred commercial cows bringing $2000/hd.  

Remember those “country” buyers; most of them drove Cadillac’s or Lincoln Continentals, and smoked big cigars? You’d have to dicker price with him and argue about what the calves were going to weigh. Then you’d listen to him tell you how he had just bought some of the finest calves in the state of Nevada, if not the whole west, for a lot less than you were asking and besides, yours sure looked like they were getting sick and that meant he was going to have to think about the death loss, and it sure looked like they were getting pink eye too. Dealing with these guys was kind of an art that had to be passed down through generations. Someone new to the ranching business better be a quick learner or wanting to lose money for a tax write off. Those old cow buyers had no mercy for clueless greenhorns. In fact he’d have them convinced that by running the calves up and down the alley five times before they weighed them, why he was actually doing them a huge favor because these calves needed to be classed up better for the guy he was delivering them to. He’d tell the want-to-be rancher some cock and bull story like, by taking the time to shape them up for the guy he was delivering them to, that buyer was going to be so pleased he’d for sure be back next year wanting his calves again and again and would happily pay him whatever top market price was. Of course he’d just run ten pounds off each calf by chasing them up and down the alley and then took a four percent shrink on top of that.

 It used to be pretty difficult back then to get an accurate idea of what the real market price was. Ranchers for the most part have never been partial to sharing information like how much money they got for their calves, unless of course, they knew for sure it was more than you got for yours. Today a lot of ranchers sell on one of the video auctions or the internet. The market prices are there for everyone to see and the number of potential buyers is far greater than the list that we kept in our pocket books.  

Almost without exception those of us involved in agriculture need to count our blessings; things are actually pretty darn good. Sure, expenses have risen, but we could have high operating costs and cheap commodity prices. In the Intermountain West at least, we are not only receiving good prices for our products, but Mother Nature has blessed us with abundant moisture this year which in turn has led to a good to excellent hay crop and ranges so thick with grass that it’s scary. The down side being, not will it all burn but when and how big will it be? 

In closing this month I ask that rather than think of all the bad that is happening around us, we all take time to thank the Good Lord for the blessings he has bestowed on us.

In case you didn’t notice, I tried to be more upbeat this month and in case that’s not your thing, don’t give up on me—there’s always next month!

Quote of the month:

As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get one round.

Ben Hogan