Highland Cattle

[wedino]

Vader, Are you telling me the cwb has loosened it's strangle hold on off board wheat? I'm now free to export without purchasing an export licence?

You say "The last time I looked the cost of marketing through the CWB was about 1.5% of gross."

Are you telling me that the cwb consistently will get me 1.5% less than non board? I think not. Ask feed barley producers. Ask Mb wheat producers, a few years ago re: the problems with fusarium the cwb declared their wheat was worthless. I think "****" works no mater how strong you think it is. On my farm last crop year I sold feed wheat for 33% more than the cwb could get me. Your 1.5% just doesn't work, Vader.

You ask: "Are you opposed to ethanol? Are you opposed to value added. Are you opposed to new markets? Are you opposed to export development?"

No, No, No, No.

[charliep]

Just as a note, California is a good for the dried distillers grain by product of ethanol with a target the dairy market. Someone who is a nutrionist will a better handle but my understanding is that distillers grains have a fit into the dairy industry (by pass protein if I remember). The product could either be ethanol processed here or wheat sent to California. Don't know how DDG nutriant specifications compare between wheat and corn. The problem for both wheat and barley is an expensive frieght bill to get both wheat and DDG products there.

The thread started with a political story so have to highlight the optics of Canadian grain moving into their processing industry for bio fuel. No one has talked about the potential for canola to move into Velva N.D. bio plants and the US view.

[cowman]

Well so much for tolerating others views? No wonder grassfarmer got sick of this place.

[JD4ME]

I actually put the thread on here looking for that discussion also to see if anyone would talk about the need to look at developing an at home demand as well as infrastructure, it will be interesting and bears watching to see how the lawmakers react to this in the US, if energy needs suppplant the usual protectionist actions of the food industry if this was Brazilian soybeans coming in to the food industry and qualifying for the LDP we'd see how fast the door got slammed.
I feel the real underlying issue of this here to those of us in the agriculture business is that we do want to encourage development of any new usage of our product be it nutraceticals or bio energy or bioproducts, anything that widens our options of sales and or customers while creating a demand for what we grow is positive to our industry.
So keeping with that it may in fact be negative for us if this ruling deflates the American lawmakers desire to expand bioenergy usage in the US if they have to do it by giving subsidies to non-american producers and or corporations.

[JD4ME]

dang site needs a spell check, nutraceuticals not nutracuticles (nutritious fingernails)

[silverback]

Wow! Someone is a little sensitive this morning.

Is the sale ring a good judge of the current market or not? For the cow guy, it is the only indicator of how things are going. Things may change in the future, but I think cowman sounds like a good judge of what is happening in the market to me.

[rkaiser]

Well,,, when ya git a couple of fellas who shoot from the lip like cowman and purecountry, things are bound to heat up from time to time.

Are purecountrie's comments gonna stop you from running down cattle that the buyers use as scapegoats cowman. I doubt it.

Maybe those long toed highlands you saw were a result of an acreage guy who didn't pay attention to nutrition and had no room for his beasts to walk around. How many of your generally accepted Char or Simmi bulls have you looked closely at before a bull sale clippin cowman?

Some of the lesser numbered breeds may have a few problems with things like feet due to the desire of breeders to have a nice set of horns, or a nice color pattern, however many of the higher numbered breeds have obviously followed other traits like growth and size and forgot about sound structure and feet and legs as much as their lesser numbered cousins.

Highland cattle have a place, just like Charolais cattle do. The Highlands place may not be next to the char cross calf in the auction ring but as we have all proven, each and every breed has a place in this industry. Stop in at one of our meat shops in Calgary some time cowman and we'll dig you out a Highland steak.

And check in with some true gain and feed efficiency results to see where the hairy little bears shit in the buckwheat. OR just keep pouring out the feed bucket and bragging about the sheer size of your continental crossbred cow herd.

Hope you find what you are looking for pettie, and keep either purecountries name or mine when you have some feeder cattle for sale. rpkaiser@telusplanet.net

[rkaiser]

good response Randy. When the input costs are weighed out against the dollars earned per cow in a herd, I am willing to bet that the smaller breeds hold their own with the best of them.

[kpb]

Well you guys like purecountry can dream all you want but Highlands are absolutely infamous for their bad feet as cowman has said. And to compare them to any decent feeding animal is yet another journey into fantasyland. How long do they take to finish--a couple of years? So when you talk about input costs you better talk also how long it actually takes for the animal to get to the stage of finish that most consumers want.

As far as courtesy on this site or, in fact any informed comment is concerned, I've come to believe that grassfarmer was right a couple of months ago when he logged off. There's now way too many guys like purecountry who do not make their full-time living from cattle but have full-time opinions about how us full-time ranchers should think or act.

I don't always agree with cowman but he's one of the most informed and experienced ranchers on this site and it makes me sick to have some half-baked hobby farmer tell him to shut his mouth. This site is being taken over by part-timers and acreage owners who have lots of opinions about making a living in an industry that they know little or nothing about.

Like grassfarmer I'm signing out of here for good. One last comment, hey, purecountry, why not quit your job at the farm store and try to make a living in the business you think you know so much about. Or better still how about giving some respect to cowman, he's forgotten more about cattle than you know.

kpb

[wd9]

I believe BIOX is shipping south and picking up the US buck. Uses yellow fats. Voila, it's profitable.