Prices not that great?

[ASRG]

Managed to stop in at my local auction barn this week.
700 lb heifers were $1.20 or $840. I sold 625 lb. heifers last fall for $885. I kept most of my heifers thinking I might make a few bucks keeping them over for the grass market...so now I'm going to have to grass them.

[gaucho]

Are you guys not watching how much money feedlots are loosing.... thats why the cattle are not giving you more... Packers cannot pass on the price of beef to the end users... so it gets pushed down the line... gotta love that commodity system

[ASRG]

Oh I understand the feeder isn't making any money. I also take a look in the supermarket and ask myself "why in the hell would anyone buy beef?"
The big question is "Why in the hell do I still have these cows?"
I suspect many are asking those same questions?

[InAHurry]

$17.97 for ONE t-bone steak maybe a 1/2"
thickness or little better (in our local
Co-op) ... seen that one last and it
made me forget the $ on a couple of
other cuts! Then I forgot to ask the
final price on 75# of inside round I'm
picking up next week.

Sure hope the replacement females are a
bit better than the price quoted - we've
got a bunch headed to town this
Thursday.

To those in the storm warning areas -
hope it isn't to hard on the calving!

[ASRG]

I think with a reasonable corn crop in the USA we might see lower feeding costs next winter, which should support higher calf prices. Also if the cattle states get some rain this year we might see a rebuilding of the American cow herd?
I believe there is a future for Canadian beef producers, but it is a different model than what it was? The grassfarmers, gauchos and Kaisers are the future.....raising and marketing a premium product from pasture to plate.
Canada doesn't seem to really want a cattle business anymore. Our government basically left us out to dry on the BSE gong show and COOL.....which makes you wonder if they really wish we would just dissappear?
Anyway.....hope you have a good sale on your replacements!

[ASRG]

I forgot to add: The average age of cattlemen (and farmers) keep creeping up? Generally they aren't being replaced?
When the numbers of cattle start to fall below a certain number, the infrastructure starts to break down. Some auction marts are approaching numbers where the owners are really questioning if it is profitable to keep operating. In addition quite often the location of the mart (due to urban growth) has made the property very valuable.....and often the owners are just like the farmers.....getting old and ready to retire and enjoy the fruits of their labour!

[smcgrath76]

I would add that right now the price of
LMB (lean manufacturing beef) or cull
cows is nearing the price of fat cattle,
and depending on size of the animal
approaching the same amount of cash.
There is actually a global shortage of
LMB. A lot of hopes for the grass and
fall feeder market are looking overly
optimistic at this point and I suspect
there will be more cows disappearing.
I am not sure at what point the
infrastructure takes a further hit in
this country, but we must be getting
reasonably close in the commodity
business at this point.
I think the long term model going
forward will involve producers at the
C/C level taking a larger share of the
existing retail pie, but that is not
going to come easily, as there are a lot
of folks in the middle who won't want to
give up anything.

[Horse]

ASRG As usual I must disagre to a point. Goucho with free grass and oil encentive to keep cattle can go on producing to infinity as the gov sure dont want to level the field for beef producers. Most of us are land owners and have seen the price increase to the piont it dosent make sence economicaly to keep cows. As I asked GF how many acres per cow, I expect your acerage per cow is a lot lower at RD than in the peace block but your land is probably a lot higher in value. But thier marketing costs are higher.
I dont think it will ever go back to a butcher in every town, as much as I would like to see that again. With wages what they are large scale makes sense but if we guit producing a steady stream for them they are screwed to. We will be eating dairy culls for beef pretty soon as no one can afford the real beef business anymore.

[ASRG]

Horse a lot of what you say is true (I'll reserve that on the gaucho grazing lease thing!). It's a different world than what you and I grew up with?
I guess my main comment would be I'm glad I was able to be a part of the times I grew up in. It was an exciting time to be in the cattle business.....at least for me! I loved it.

[Horse]

ASRG Im with you but its a little like the old dog we know he is dying but we still hate to see the day!!

[WiltonRanch]

What scares me is the US revision to COOL. It has
the makings to cripple sales to the US and create a
pissing match with the usa.

[sumdumguy]

We were just talking about this the other day.
Beef useage has really gone down in the stores.
We dont buy much beef anymore because the
selection in the store doesnt seem as enticing.

[kato]

WiltonRanch, I agree totally. That's the elephant in the room that no one seems to be talking about. This is a serious thing. IMHO it has the potential to knock the bottom right out of our prices.

The American's response to an unfavourable ruling on a bad law is to replace it with a worse law. These people are not to be trusted, and not to be believed. And the lying will never end, not when a dollar is involved.

Maybe this time around our numbers are small enough that we can just turn our eyes to other markets without the kind of damage that happened in 2003. The Americans are exporting a lot of what they take from us now, so I hope we have the smarts to just take those markets from them and sell our beef directly into them.

But first, there need to be tariffs slapped on US beef and pork that are so high nobody here will import it. They seem to think they can just walk all over everybody and there will be no consequences.

Personally I'm fed up with dealing with the U.S. There have to be more honest people to deal with out there somewhere.

[rkaiser]

I like your word enticing sumsmartguy.

Complaining about Americans will get us no where. Especially since "we" and I need to use that term loosely, Americanize our cattle and beef every day.

We can and will not only entice the consumer at the retail counter and in export markets including the USA, if we use our truly Canadian advantage and produce a truly Canadian branded product.

A product that does taste different due to feed.

A product that is easier to fatten due to our climate and the natural will of animals to create that fat in our Canadian environment.

A product that could include a consumer friendly "ask and you will receive". Leave the USA to sell the masses a product the is laced with antibiotics, beta agonists, and growth promotants.

A product that entices the consumer with size and the thing that made beef the ultimate unique protein that it is. A product that is healthy and tasty when eaten with the juices intact. A smaller thicker cut of magnificent succulent pleasure.

MMMM cant you just taste it...LMAO

Or we can just keep lap dogging to our American multinational packers and keep on complaining...

Hugz Randall

[wilagro]

rkaiser: You are absolutely right...keep up the efforts to promote our distinct quality beef.