Beef Industry Direction

The Good News - The Beef Industry Will Never Completely Fail
It is honestly to vast and inconceivable to believe that people will completely stop eating beef.
The Bad News - It will become so regulated and downsized that BEEF will become a "Delicacy"
A delicacy that will be raised under strict regulations & micro managed by government agencies.
It will become so expensive to make that only the highest end of the high end restaurants and richest persons would be able to afford.
Herds will be reduced down to "Family Sized Farms" of 50 head of less that are raised in small lush pastures. Each of these "Family Sized Farms" will have their own processing equipment on site and will process cattle 4 times a year. The cattle will grow while eating a special diet of grass and select grains with very limited use of medicines. Cattle that become sick will be destroyed immediately to make sure that no other animals will become infected.
Each animal will be worth the same because the price can go no higher and there are no other markets available to sell cattle at. Exports to foreign countries will consist of small packages of pre-cut beef destined for the highest end restaurants and customers.

This will not happen overnight. It will be a slow and painful death that will take about 150 to 200 years of bitter fighting and arguing for our industry to come to this point. A few of the "Cause Lawyers" and "Savvy Business Men" (Peta, HSUS, R-Calf, John Marvel & Western Watersheds) will become very rich by continuing to create "Drama" and "Conflict" over short sited & narrow minded issues that plague our industry today.
But for the most part, the typical middle to large sized, western states cattle ranches of yore, will no longer exist. They will be gobbled up by government entities, the "Savvy Business Men" & "Cause Lawyers" and will be placed in conservation easements and government parks. And in the middle of the best parts of these ranches, where the grass and water is the best, will be these little "Family Sized Farms" that the "Savvy Business Men" and "Cause Lawyers" will own and operate.
Kit

Heifers: Breed Not Feed

Breed Those Heifers - Build our Cow Herd.
I say OUR because we need to take ownership in what has become the determining factor as to where our industry will be in the future.

• Yes we are producing just as much beef as we always have
• Yes we have cut costs - become more efficient - Found ways to do more with less

But:

• Populations are increasing 
• Global demand is increasing
• Our competition can MEAT those demands much faster
• We CAN'T STOP BICKERING

Pull your heads out, put away your EGOS and get to work.
Build our COW Herd.
Get out of those meetings, go home,  get your work boots on, and Breed Your HEIFERS.
Breed Those Heifers and get our industry out of this whole we have placed ourselves in.
If we do not make this a number one priority - We will have nothing to fight about.
If our industry was sound and we needed to just tweek things here and there I would say put on your gloves and take it to them
BUT Our Industry is not well.
Our Market share is declining.
People are making a killing at Killing us because we are a weak industry.
That is why we have the Enviros and all their counterparts taking shots at us and making  money doing it.
Take ownership in our faults and fix them.
Kit West

A SALUTE TO THE TRADERS

Generally, the public’s perception of a trader is negative. Traders are the ones that cause all the turmoil in our lives. When prices move a certain direction unfriendly to our lives, it is thought to be the work of traders. Traders cause the stock market to go down when we need it to go up. Traders run up the price of oil and crash the prices of our bonds. Farmers blame Traders for driving down the price of their crops or running them up after they hedge. Cattle feeders question fair prices when they buy and sell futures because they are under the control of Traders. The Government vilified and prosecuted Goldman Sachs for behaving as a market maker in the middle of an over the counter product betting on mortgage yields. Basically, anyone making a living, betting on the price of anything, runs the risk of offending someone.

Traders fall into two categories. There are long term traders who make bets on price trends over an extended period of time. These traders take a view of a particular market and are willing to wait to exit the position for longer terms -- generally months before they see results. Traders forecasting inflation have been placing trades based on this forecast for over a year and to date there is no payoff. Then there are short term traders who are basically arbitrageurs. They see an offering at a price they feel is under or overvalued and purchase it hoping to turn around and flip it for a profit. 

Traders in both categories fall into several different types. Some are intuitive and gather information in unique methods and then feel a certain direction is right for the trade. Others are analytical pouring over mountains of facts and historical patterns arriving at a conclusion on the market direction. There are technical traders who watch the charts to detect pricing patterns for the future. Others look only to fundamental data on supply/demand relationships.

The function of a trader is to discover the price of a product or commodity. To this end they serve an invaluable benefit to markets. They send market signals to the producers of the product -- offering encouragement or discouragement in their production plans. The reaction of the producers determines the supply of the product for months to come based upon what a trader will give for future deliveries of the product.

It is only when moral terms become attached to the actions of Traders that our economic system suffers. Self interest is NOT bad. Accompanying every trader choice to buy or sell is a risk that the bet will be wrong. The person on the other side of the transaction is betting the opposite direction for prices. There is nothing “good” or “bad” about the bet unless the transaction violates a law or trading protocol. The fact that a Trader profited from his purchase or sale, is not wrong or bad. Frequently the press and public are alarmed by the fact of Traders making money in the marketplace.

It would be helpful to educate the public in the role and benefits a Trader offers to the marketplace. Academics and analysts offer their views every day and some of us listen, but traders place their money at risk and put their money where their mouth is.

Written By: The Ag Center