Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living A million calvs a lost in nebraska

Report says beef prices are going through the roof...
We had a lot of local guys loose more calvs than normal...feb and march was not good on calvs I got busy and didn't get my bull in till late so I just started having mine have 4 so far...but they are fighting a lot of mud..

Wintered all my calves.


Through the roof seldom is above the basement......

What many that aren’t immediately in the business don’t understand is probably the largest impactnwill be the crappy breed up this spring/summer. Lot of cows that calves during and after the storm didn’t clean very well and the level of stress involved will really hit prey rates.

So the effects of this will be felt for over a year b

While I'd love to see a rise in beef prices, my thoughts are that it will take more than that to cause it. My biggest problem with prices getting very high is that it will cause meat in the store to go up, and that could result in drop in demand for it, which will in turn cause prices to drop again. It'll never happen, but I'd much rather see prices hold at a point that gives you a set profit, rather than a roller coaster ride that we usually have to deal with.

But, this is the commodity market, and just like anything else, it is subject to many things beyond our control, all of which means that sometimes the markets make little sense.

The last time prices got really high it involved a very severe long term drought in which ranchers everywhere sold off all their stock.

That glutted the market, and dropped prices, then after the drought was over demand for beef was high as well as breeding stock.

It took several years to happen.

One local event won't impact the market to that same magnitude... At least I don't think it will.

I do look for grain prices to rise sharply PDQ though.

Grain prices do need to rise some. The thing is, they don't need to jump to record levels, which cause a ripple affect, then fall back down to current levels and leave farmers hanging. A few years ago when grain got so high, it caused land rent to practically double here, then when grain prices fell and farmers tried to renegotiate that rent, the landowners got all bent out of shape. High grain prices also cause farmland to go up, machinery prices to increase, and of course then seed, fertilizer, and chemicals all go up as well.

Farming is a beech any way you look at it, and often times, the farmer is own worst enemy. He spends like a drunken sailor when things are good, and lives on beans when they're not. The one thing here that's been so bad is the dairy industry. They're giving the milk away. A friend of mine who's been milking for years is being forced to sell next month. They were milking over 500 head, and have been holding out the hope that things would get better.

As someone who has beef cattle, I do like to get a good paycheck. But, I'd mush rather get a good return for my investment every year, rather than suffer the ups and downs that are usually the case.

Sonny Purdue report is what I was reading...if someone wants to google it..
More likely the store price will go up pretty high no doubt the middle men will get stinkin rich and we producers will see the least

I come from a long line of farmers. Brother still has a good sized wheat, milo and cattle operation.
Farmers bitch about prices, regardless, period.
And I tell him that, and he just smiles.