Beef Producers Association

Will There Be Any Beef Next Spring?

From a cyber friend:

"I had to pop in and tell ya’ll what I see and hear from the cattle industry here in Okla. Ya’ll think the prices are high now, well you best be getting two or three freezers and fill up with meat and any veggies now. Come spring it will be out of sight if you can get it.!!!!!

Reason for that is simple but two-fold, at least in the beef cattle industry: Cattle producers here are dumping cattle at sales lot as fast as they can and have been since back in JUne. And I am not talking the normal feeder cattle you normally buy in grocery store( steers that feede/rancher buys cheap in spring, fattens all summer on his wheat pasture , then sales in fall to early winter) I am talking about guys who are hauling their prime breeding cattle to market and bawling like babies when they unload them, not because of price but because they are getting rid of their good moma cows. A lot of them are of cows like my old girls in my back yard but younger cows(5-9 yrs old).Cows that will come up and lick the guy’s hand and he can hand feed them. Stock he has named and he knows each one by it’s name and she knows her name when he calls her.Cows they have hand picked and bred the dam and sire to get the genetics to the point they have them now.

But these guys have no choice.They can’t afford to feed them or if they can manage to hang on to the cows a little longer thye can’t find hay. If they find hay they are being charged such out- rageous prices to just buy the hay. Then they can’t afford to haul it into Okla. from out of state. Then they have to worry about water…farm ponds around here and all over OKLa are drying up or are already dried up.(Dh’s little catfish pond is marginal on us having to harvest ALL[B] all the fish out of it if we do not get some run off rain in the next couple of weeks or sooner. He is starting to catch one to two fish a night just to save some of the fish. He is not being picky about the size he is keeping either. If it is barely pan size he is keeping it now.)

So right now you are finidng loads of beef in the shelves of our stores but come next spring when those feeder calves the guy was going to fatten and sell for slaughter aren’t going to be there. Why???? NO hay to feed them, no wheat pastures to graze them on. And buying grain to fed them, ha!!!! A 50 pound bag of feed in late May to early June cost me around $6.50 About two weeks ago when I got feed it was alost $10 for the same brand.

And all thosebaby calves that supposed to be born to the farmer/rancher I spoke of in the above paragraph, well he will not be having those adorable baby calves. The ones he weans and normally takes to market to sale to the guy who buys them to fatten for 6 to 10months and then sell to slaughter to fill the shelves of our grocery.That farmer/rancher sold his breeding stock as well as any feeders he had back in the summer of 2011 when Texas, Okla, New Mexico, Ariziona were having the massive heat wave and no rains.It is sad and not getting any better."

To be guaranteed a whole, half or quarter next spring, you must pay a $50 deposit now.