I am tired of scrolling down and I sense a new thread in the post below this one.
To me it appears there is genuine consensus that we need more money for our calves. Things start to seperate when we move into how to get that done.
The current market is prety tough to predict. The dollar and barley are both down (which should bring up the price). COOL and transportation are up (which should bring down prices). The economy is roiling which may restrict access to credit, create aversion to risk and reduce demand for beef or not (yet another thread?).
Overall it is not a clear picture. I personally still do not believe that the AB gov program will produce more $ for me. I say this from the perspective of an operation that has sold weaned calves, backgrounded calves, invested in a processor and pursued a wide variety of marketing and food safety initiatives. We are currently investigating/pursuing some additional value based markets.
Any of the value above average price that we recieve is due to our efforts on product quality and our own marketing initiative. In the new ALMS era the bar will be raised on production criteria but I don't see anyone talking about quality or how the government is going to assist in putting more $ in my neighbour's pocket. (My pocket is my own concern).
I agree we need to pursue markets and change the structure of the industry, but i still can't see where the extra $ comes from without the self motivation and extra effort by the individual. You can't teach a stick to fetch a dog.
To me it appears there is genuine consensus that we need more money for our calves. Things start to seperate when we move into how to get that done.
The current market is prety tough to predict. The dollar and barley are both down (which should bring up the price). COOL and transportation are up (which should bring down prices). The economy is roiling which may restrict access to credit, create aversion to risk and reduce demand for beef or not (yet another thread?).
Overall it is not a clear picture. I personally still do not believe that the AB gov program will produce more $ for me. I say this from the perspective of an operation that has sold weaned calves, backgrounded calves, invested in a processor and pursued a wide variety of marketing and food safety initiatives. We are currently investigating/pursuing some additional value based markets.
Any of the value above average price that we recieve is due to our efforts on product quality and our own marketing initiative. In the new ALMS era the bar will be raised on production criteria but I don't see anyone talking about quality or how the government is going to assist in putting more $ in my neighbour's pocket. (My pocket is my own concern).
I agree we need to pursue markets and change the structure of the industry, but i still can't see where the extra $ comes from without the self motivation and extra effort by the individual. You can't teach a stick to fetch a dog.
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