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Just a scoop full
(Dec. 5)--It seems like a broken record, but it is still the same as far as moisture. There is a little wheat in our area with lots of fields needing one good rain. A lot of the wheat in the panhandle of Oklahoma looks terrible. Some, you cannot see down the rows--and you wonder if it is still alive--while other fields could provide a little pasture with that one good rain. We do have a good chance for moisture this weekend. Some say "if so, we will get ice with it." Right now we can't be that picky. The calf prices are still good, particularly with lots of area that does not have wheat pasture. A lot of calves have already gone to growing lots or feedlots. Some will come out, if it does rain soon, while a good share of them will stay in the feedlot. They keep hammering the cattle futures market, which is disgusting. The packers do an excellent job of manipulating the market. The packers do not have to know anything about cattle when they do that good of a job, as far as using strictly psychology. Right now, they have lots of fat cattle contracted that they can use to kill, in order to not be as aggressive in the live market. The huge amount of cattle that are provided to them, at slightly over the practical top, makes fat cattle selling very frustrating. Our cow numbers have fallen to more of a normal level. For two or three months, we sold a large number of cows which is very normal. It is easier for a rancher to cull those old cows when he weans his whole calf crop. A rancher can normally make it worth his while, if he will put those older cows in a separate pasture and sell them earlier in the summer. In the summer, we sold cows that brought over $60 per hundredweight. The same cow would bring somewhere in the $40 per hundredweight now. That cow would normally be a lot fleshier earlier. That calf might be smaller, but you could afford to take less for that calf, when you are talking about that much difference in cow prices. Every year in the fall, there are a lot of cows that get very thin. Most of these thin cows are nursing a calf and a lot of them have lost their teeth, making it impossible for a cow to maintain her flesh. This past summer calf prices were extremely strong as, through spring and early summer, the moisture level was very good. Most of us are winding down the year hoping that we have been good enough that Santa will still bring us a gift. Editor's Note: Jerry Nine, Woodward, Okla., is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family's ranch near Laverne, Okla. Date: 12/12/07
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