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Just a scoop full
(June 27)--The fat cattle market keeps slipping. Every week I think the feeder cattle market will follow, but for the most part, it has stayed at a very good price. The week of June 28, most auctions stated the better quality feeder cattle sold well with the off-colored or plainer cattle selling a little cheaper. Feedlots in our area have several empty pens. I can't help but think when these feeder cattle get fat we should have a very good fat cattle market. But there will be a time before long that most of us will get tired of always betting on a better market. I hear a lot of customers commenting on the fact that their expenses for their operations are very high. One large operator stated they had a 2000-gallon fuel tank on the farm. He said when gas was a dollar a gallon it cost them $2,000 per month for fuel. When it went to $2 per gallon, it cost them $4,000 per month and lately $6,000 per month. It isn't just fuel that is high, fertilizer prices might scare you to death. Then add repair and labor plus interest. This doesn't allow for many mistakes. I do not like to concentrate on the negative, but we are going to have to have good cattle prices in order for survival. I still think there is good money to be made this year. Most have a tendency to get depressed and miss the next round of profit. A friend of mine found out that he only had 30 days to live. He told me he thought he would move his mother-in-law in, to live with them the last 30 days. I said, "You don't even like your mother-in-law." He said, "I know it--but that way it would be the longest 30 days of my life." Editor's note: Jerry Nine, Woodward, Okla., is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family's ranch near Laverne, Okla.
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