at least as of today I tend to get a bit on the stressed-out, anxious, gotta-do-something! side...doesn't help in situations like this. I went to see a commodities broker this morning on the off chance that I could find some protection in a hedge. Day late and a dollar short. A put that would have cost $600 on Monday, cost $6000 today, but you couldn't get one anyways. I don't think that will change in the near future. Really kicking myself for putting off that visit to the commodity guy...never again! I did know better. After that, I started getting mad. I tried to guard against this. I switched to soybean meal only a long time ago. My cattle have not EVER eaten a bit of animal protein....well, some of my cows may have since I have not owned them all their life, but NONE of my calves have ever had it. The "market" doesn't care about that. We all know the "market" is Tyson and Cargill and I decided that they can just kiss my.....calf? hehehe. I REFUSE to take a beating on my calves. To someone who is afraid of eating beef or spooked by the mad cow (I do believe the supply is pretty darn safe and would not hesitate to eat a steak from wally world, except mine are so much better tasting) my cattle are more valuable. I took the initiative to do the right thing and I WILL be rewarded for that!!!! My plan is to find a buyer somewhere who appreciates what I've done. Whether I have to sell them all one at a time, or can find someone who is willing to pay for safe cattle in a lot...I will find those buyers. If I have to feed them out, I will. The bank will simply have to remain patient or I will offer to deliver straight to the lobby of the bank. I do think they will be understanding and I do think the government will step in, if necessary. Our government is much more sympathetic to farmers than Canada's (from what I've heard anyways). So that's my idea today. Since it's xmas eve and I REFUSE to let this stupid cow ruin my xmas...I'm going to quit thinking about it until the 26th, turn the news off and go spike the eggnog. Jena
Jena, I would pay extra for such beef. I LIKE beef, it just makes me nervous right now. It's a pity you live in Illinois.
Jena, try and place an ad in the nearest city paper and sell sides and advertise the beef as exactly what it is. Don't dawdle because the feedlot guys will sell cheaper than you can ever imagine in a very short while. Hang in there, and if you need a shoulder, I'd be glad to listen. I really don't think that yours is going to go on as long as ours has. We need the US and Japan for a major part of our exports and the US was bound but their BSE Free status and Japan was playing political games with the US and using us as their pawn. We're pretty well all on an even playing field now. Please, try and smile and take some pleasure from Christmas and realize that the investigation is going to be long and stressful but try really hard not to read anything into day to day information. There is no information till the whole thing is done and read as a whole story rather than bits and pieces. If I was able (feeding cattle and mares right now), I'd cross the border and have a big old steak in support of your industry, just as so many good folks from the US did for us.
Don't be too confident about recovery of export markets. Australia is a major beef producer and is BSE free. Come to that, so is New Zealand. We've always maintained a strict quarantine policy against scrapie, even before they knew what caused it, and hence we are free of that as well. Oh, yes - we don't have foot and mouth disease either. Now, while we wouldn't be so crass as to outright go out and revel in your predicament, the fact is that Australian meat producers, both domestic and export, have suffered a great deal from the policies of the USA and Canada (and the E.E.C. too). While our marketing people might not be too overt about it, they won't be cutting you any slack either - as I say, they've suffered from dumping and from market restrictions which are in direct contradiction to signed treaties. OK, that's a point for you to consider. Jena, when you're selling-off any stock ASAP, bear in mind that the European practices may become standard there as well. In particular, the one I'm thinking of is that they are not allowed to sell any cattle for beef which are over thirty months old. Now, you may be able to argue and even prove that all your herd is perfectly healthy, but in the face of an absolute law with no exceptions that wouldn't matter. If you're going to sell off stock in the immediate future, I'd make an effort to clear any aged stock before it becomes illegal.
Jena: If you have the capability to do so, load up a group of calves and take them to the sale without unloading them. See how the sale is going. If you can live with the price, unload them and perhaps go get another load. If not, bring them back home. Hey, they get a day off the farm, but will likely be set-back on growth for a couple of days. Ken S. in WC TN
Jena, I'm not a cattle farmer, very very far from it. Think *geek* stuck in the middle of a mess of cows and horses, and you'll get the picture. But I think it's important for people like me to let people like you know that I despise Tyson and the factory farmers with every fiber of my being. People like me have been waiting for something like this to happen, in part because we knew it would, but also because I hope there will be tremendous backlash now against the factory farmers and their grossly unethical practices. It's my own hope (and suspicion) that this will eventually work out to be very much in favor of producers like you. And I know there are plenty of people in your area who feel the way I do about Tyson, et al. We're sick of their nasty product. We're sick of their messing up the groundwater. We're sick of their disgusting practices. We're sick of just about everything about them. I know it's no comfort in the short term but it's my own hope for you, and people like you, that you hang on with everything you've got because (fingers and everything else crossed ) this might just turn out to be extraordinarily beneficial for producers like you, consumers like me and rural communities composed of cattle people utlizing ethical practices.
