(March 12)--Wheat continues to go higher pulling corn up some, also. A friend told me he was listening to a speaker--this speaker told them there are three things that are going to stay high for a while. He said gold, grains and gasoline. He was convinced that the government was going to keep pushing ethanol to eliminate some foreign dependency. If ethanol is so efficient, why do these ethanol plants not use ethanol to run these plants? Instead I am told they use a lot of coal. I am happy for farmers to finally see better prices for their grains. Naturally I hate to wreck the cattle market in order for farmers to do well.
There is a lot of talk about cost of gains being in the low 90s on the best feeding animals and over a dollar on the poorer ones. Cattlemen will survive at these levels; however I hear talk of the possibility of corn going to $6.50 to $7 per bushel. This could be right. I personally hope not as feeder cattle will definitely get cheaper if this happens. I find it very frustrating for fat cattle to stay at the $90 per cwt. level. We can make small rallies but inevitably fall back to these levels.
Grazing cattle prices remain strong. This should definitely be the last week of bigger numbers for feeder cattle the week of March 15. I personally thought our numbers of feeders this past week would be considerable less, however we are going to have one last big week as far as numbers. Then our numbers should drop considerably as most every farmer is going for a wheat crop. A lot of my dryland wheat is barely to where you can row it, as we were very dry early.
I asked a friend what his opinion was. He was talking about his wife and various differences of opinions they had. I asked, "How long do you think my marriage would last, if I was to get married," as I will be the first to say I am opinionated. He said, "I don't think you would get a divorce." He said I would bet you could probably still get an annulment.
Editor's Note: Jerry Nine, Woodward, Okla., is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family's ranch near Laverne, Okla.
3/24/08
6 Star Midwest Ag\21-B
Date: 3/19/08
Agriculture News from HPJ - Your Ag News Source
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