Recovery

[cowman]

Will the cattle business ever be back to "normal"? Or profitable? I keep hearing that we had this incredible 10 year run of huge profits before this Mad cow thing came along. I guess I must have been on another planet because quite frankly I didn't think it was all that great! I doubt the bottom line kept up with inflation. Seemed like we were keeping more and more cows just to make the same amount of income(which bought less and less).
We sold 760 lb. steer calves in 1992 for $1.22 which equals $927. I don't have the figures for last year but I know we sure never got no $927! In 1992 we bought a new 4x4 for $20,000...this year we're looking at $40,000 .
Personally I'm pretty sick of the economics of the cow/calf business. I like owning cows but I sure hate to pay to keep them! Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong or something. My son calls it a damned expensive hobby and I think he's right.
Right now we have quite a few bred heifers...we got caught May 20th! He's saying we should unload them now because they will never be worth more! I suspect he's entirely right but I sure hate to do it. I get quite upset with myself because I know I'm not being very rational. This damned cow business that gets into your heart and soul!

[kato]

We're in the same heifer boat. We kept 50 of them, and 20 were supposed to be for our son to get a cow herd started with. We're not quite sure what to do with them, we sure don't want to stick the son with a big debt at this time.

I think one big problem is that we just like our cows too much.

[ValueChainFX]

I hear you guys! I guess I'm an optimist since I think the guys that have the business in the heart and souls will figure out a way to make it pay. The ones that are in in for "JUST" the money will probably bail!!!

Is this good, I guess history will show us, but history has already told us that people that went before us had challenges as well!

How we handle our challenges will determine where we end up down the road. All we can all do is move forward one step at a time.

[rsomer]

cowman: I like the topic name "Recovery" because I think we are already on that road, although the end is a long way off yet. I can’t help noticing that if your bred heifers had been heifers in a feedlot you would have been taken care of by the government deficiency payments, instead of having to unload them.

My feeling is that there is still a future in cattle and now may be the time to buy heifers instead of selling them. Rather than being sick of the economics of the cattle business I feel challenged by cattle economics and believe I will meet those challenges that are ahead. The penciling I have done has always suggested the time to expand is when things look bleakest, that just about describes the situation we find ourselves in now.

[cowman]

You know rsomer I have a niggling hunch you just might be right! Now it's just "niggling"!!! All my life I've tried to be a "rational" person but sometimes I just ride that "hunch"!!! sometimes I win and sometimes I lose! I guess I've mostly won?
My son is "ratioanal". I blame it on his mother's genetics...and maybe that's not a bad thing!
I've owned cattle all my life, literally, and it would be a sad old day when I didn't have any!

[cowman]

You know rsomer I have a niggling hunch you just might be right! Now it's just "niggling"!!! All my life I've tried to be a "rational" person but sometimes I just ride that "hunch"!!! sometimes I win and sometimes I lose! I guess I've mostly won?
My son is "ratioanal". I blame it on his mother's genetics...and maybe that's not a bad thing!
I've owned cattle all my life, literally, and it would be a sad old day when I didn't have any!