Bred Cow Prices

[grefer]

For many in this business we have seen many bad times in agriculture. For those farming less than ten years not so much. It is difficult for me to accept that govt help is needed already after many good years of prices and strong yields. In my part of Saskachewan,the farmers that have survived,have enjoyed profitability not seen before in my farming lifetime. I know for other areas production issues haven't allowed them to enjoy as much profit as others. Such is farming. The one consistent through all the years is that the suppliers of goods or services get paid first. Farmers can't hug their suppliers one year then curse them the next. Business is business. If you have been smooshed into thinking that you are special in some way to them, sorry. As soon as you can't make ends meet or move your business somewhere else, it's over.
I think our time is better spent preparing for some rough times as Kato described in that post. If the poor prices are short lived that is good. If they aren't then those who have prepared will fare much better and those who refuse to adjust will fail. It's happened many times before.

[freewheat]

Kato, you are making WAY too much sense! We would have a good time over coffee by the sounds of it. It is frustrating having so little in common with neighbors. They are all waiting for folks like me to fail, to lap up our land. I always like looking at the half ton trucks, combines, semis, and what have you that some of the loudest whiners have sitting in their immaculate, hopper bin filled yard, with 7000 yards of crushed gravel, a 100 by 140 foot shop and twin tracked tractors.

It is less about being shafted by the middle men, and more about lifestyle choices. Differentiating between needs and wants. Doing things differently and diversifying.

Honestly, the young guys here at least are plain and simply lazy, I have no idea how else to put it. And the worst thing is, their daddys are enabling this laziness, by selling cows left and right, and buying their sons their every hearts desires, using land equity that had up till now been untapped.

"But dad, you should sell you cows, and put up more hopper bins so I don't have to shovel grain. Put gps in everything so that I can pick my nose, eat it mind you, and play games on my phone."

It is plain madness. We as farmers have failed IMO, as we have jumped on the bandwagon that half million dollar combines are somehow normal. That if it is not a paralink drill of some kind, we are failures, and can not grow a proper crop. That we actually should get two or three of everything, and hire help so we can farm that section or three down the road, so that Steve and his boys don't get that land, cuz well, we would HATE to see that.

Farming has ebbs and flows. So stop buying so much iron! Stop fighting for more, more more.

IMO, that is the answer to what ails us.

I have ZERO iron payments. It is what allows me to squeak by through the lean times. I do not spray everything thirteen times. It is un-necessary, IMO. Yet so many of the folks who think we should produce less, shoot for coffee shop yields, heck with the MARGIN involved...

The amount of pressure out there from un-necessary iron payments, has got to be intense. When a guy puts up 21 big bins in the same year he buys two new combines, rents 2000 more acres, and buys a second seeding outfit, down the road from me two miles, one has to wonder and marvel. I know for a fact that in our area which has been hammered by weather for almost a decade, they have made diddly for equity progress. Except for daddys land.

But I forgot, they sold their cows. And now they have a bunch of zero return steel, but still they complain. If I had hundreds of thousands of payments to make, I would too be hyperventilating, no doubt!

Look inwardly guys. Some need to stare in the mirror more than others, obviously, but we all need to pull up our socks, get a grip on spending, and chill out a bit.

[kato]

Now you are the one making too much sense! Well said.

[oneoff]

All that needs to be said is

How has the current system worked to agriculture's sustainable benefit. So why not try some different ideas. That includes farmer market dicipline; and maybe cutting those with big appetites some slack to also downsize and/or fail.

Insanity has already been defined as repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results.

And governments should do things like seeing transportation monopolies deliver a satisfactory level of service.... but funding programs that do as much harm as good; just might be causing negative net benefits

[bucket]

You guys see hamburger in the stores at 4 bucks a pound and steak double that. The cost to slaughter has been reduced with these big plants and you guys don't want a bigger piece of returns and are satisfied knowing your the lowest cost producer?

I have to ask wtf is wrong with you? I get the using the iron until it's worn out but you guys deserve more. When the down turn comes like in grains prices at the grocery store are not going down.

over on newagtalk they are wondering why there are news clips about food prices and the lower grain prices. There was plenty of talk when corn was 8 bucks about food inflation but not a blip about it now. Why?

[bucket]

BTW I just wanted a better insurance plan. The existing one sucks.

Cattle guys finally got something.

Everything needs tweeking as things change.

[grassfarmer]

Why should bred cows be $1000 above cull price when culls are this high? They were at little or no premium when culls were lower priced.

[freewheat]

You don't buy high priced, gross store meats. You hunt them, (my moose last year cost around 10 cents a lb.), grow them yourself, (My lamb and chicken for less than a dollar a lb, and eggs at a dollar for 18, are dang cheap), or trade with neighbors who think like you! Much better meat anyway than store bought carp.

It is a state of mind. A state of mind that as a farmer, I do not feel I "deserve" new machinery. I could care less about STUFF. I know this is abnormal in today's world, but contentedness is a great thing, but oh so elusive to most.

While my neighbor is freaking out to get more land, more stuff, I am out collecting eggs with my girls, hunting with my boys, feeding the various critters on this ranch!

I realize I have a strange state of mind. I should have been born in the 1920's in many ways. But I enjoy it...

And I do not run my machinery until it dies: I maintain it so it lasts. And when something needs replacing, I trade up to something 10 or 15 years old again.

[cottonpicken]

Everyone should remember we are all playing a different ball game and are just playing the cards delt to us and the sacifice of success at farming can also lead to a break down in other areas of ones life.

balance,balance,balance,not that i have it.

[freewheat]

Very good point, cotton. I have no doubt if dealt a different hand, I would have been a different kind of farmer.

[Mufferaw]

Regardless of where the cull market or feeder markets at can't see a bunch of people getting excited about buying into a market for 2,500 -based on the changes we've seen in the grain market people may be gun shy about buying in at the high end of the cycle.

[farmaholic]

To each their own....

I don't care but somewhat admire how you choose to live your life and run your farm. But if you think "WE" deserve less than the other Industry players that is where you and I will have to agree to disagree. When inland terminals do back to wooden houses and annexes and railways start using coal to power their locomotives and every other supplier of goods and services takes afew steps back or
stops progressing with new technology that will be the day I won't expect anything better for "US" either.

[sumdumguy]

Good for you Freewheat, I know exactly how you feel. And when your children move on, they will have fond memories of their home. Until age 11, I lived near Mikado and experienced life as you describe and now my grandchildren listen with awe to the stories. There were mushrooms, animals, baling small squares, crows feet, gopher hunting, fishing, saskatoons, hazelnuts. Can't say any one of them can even relate, but do they love the stories. Haven't eaten moose though. Is it good as beef?

[perfecho]

Hauling some animals to the auction for friends....(no charge..;-) )
The are not getting prey checked, cull price is as strong or better than breeds.
They are getting out while the getting is good!

[freewheat]

Moose IMO is better than beef. Lean, tender, delicious! But moose meat needs a good and proper preparation and cooking, because of the lean issue.

I think I am misunderstood a little bit. I am not all completely backwards: My farm is a blend of new and older, animals and gardens, and technology and painful labor. lol!

I am no Weibo Ludwig, or THAT kind of thing. I just live a simpler life. Not saying it is right, but it is who I am. Some born of necessity in the cards dealt, some just because gosh darn, I enjoy good meat, fresh eggs, etc..

I do not mean we do not deserve a reasonable living at all. I think everyone does. But does 9000 acres and 5 million in machinery mean a decent living? Do we all "deserve" whatever our hearts desire? Or can we reign in some spending, and live simpler?

Don't get me wrong, I put up new bins like everyone else when justified. I like gadgetry to an extent. I prefer a 1990's tractor cab to a 1970's one. I would like to buy certain pieces of land if possible over time. But keeping costs down is the one thing we can all control to a great extent.