Politics, Economics and the Weather
With less than two-tenths of an inch of rain in the past 50 days, we’re facing another short grass season. Temperature highs during the past two weeks have vacillated between the low-50s to the mid-90s with 36 degrees forecast for tomorrow morning – no rain on the horizon. The hills have turned three weeks early, but judging by how the cows and calves look, what feed we have is fairly strong.
One local impact of the Hallmark/Westland debacle has been the USDA’s recent enforcement of dairy milk quotas that has brought more (younger) slaughter dairy cows to town. Cow prices fell to $28 cwt. at one local auction yard last week. With alfalfa hay topping $300/ton and corn prices high, California beef cow operators will face a second summer of reducing numbers. Some nice, young bred cows sold for $600 - $750 in Visalia last week – a far cry from the $1,750 they brought two years ago.
Bill Maher slammed “meat” again last night, citing the misuse of grain for feeding livestock while the rest of the planet is rationing rice and other grain products for human consumption. His assumption that livestock are raised exclusively on grain misses how beef is produced by harvesting the renewable (though variable) resource of grass and converting it to protein; hopefully producing a calf to then ship to the feedlot. Typically, a 10-18-month old calf is finished on grain for 90 -110 days in the feedlot in order to grade USDA Choice or Prime, the cow remianing on grass. But is the American consumer ready for grass-fed beef? Amid political, economic and weather extremes, we cowmen must adapt.
Robbin and I have been busy planting vegetables, hoping to keep our trips to town this summer to a minimum. Though slow and methodical, we could be quite happy as gardeners for rich people if and when the cattle business goes to hell.