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I'm so old I remember $15 CWT. steers and 50 cent per bushel shelled corn!!
dreher
Member Posts: 8,883 ✭✭✭✭
I remembered this after making my post about livestock prices around the country. I didn't buy any at .15 cents per pound but in 1964 +/- a year my future father-in-law bought around 60 head of Hereford cross steers at that price. These were decent steers but not fancy. He thought the real good steers, those carrying lots of finish cost way to much. He thought that if you bought them just a little on the skinny side that when he was done they would have all the finish they needed because of how he fed them, to sell right at the top of the market the day he sold them.
Comments
That’s one way to flip burgers.
I’ll show myself out….
Don't have any experience with cattle or corn.
But I do remember a couple of items that show my age.
When working on the fishing boats we used to go to the fish coop in the morning to get bait and fuel.
One morning while I was getting the bait, Captain came out swearing up a storm. He was so mad that diesel fuel had gone up from 17 cents a gallon to 18 cents a gallon.
Also remember selling the large fish that the coop did not want to the fish market for 5 cents a pound.
I'm old enough to have had to shell the corn you speak of for seed with a hand crank sheller to save for seed the next year and picked cotton by hand while dragging a sack 🙁. Trust me, higher education pays off......big time 😊
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Junkballer: You picked cotton while dragging a sack? Good God! Where was that? And I thought I had some tough jobs, brick mason's helper, and loading hay bales. Hay bales in eastern Washington weighed 95 pounds, alfalfa. Twelve hours a day. It is possible that picking cotton is worse than either of those.
Did your daddy die young, working in a coal mine?
No coal mines in South Georgia 😄, I was the youngest of 4 boys ( we were considered free labor 🙄) and we all started work at an early age, me @ 10 yrs old, didn't have to stoop over too much at that age 😀 looking back not sure how much help I was though. Although we had plenty of field hands that lived on our farm we were put through the paces too. When each of us turned 14 we got a tractor which was considered our own and lots of times I got off the school bus and jumped on the tractor already knowing what I was supposed to do. Life was good, definitely no complaints and learned a lot about responsibility. Picking cotton alongside the workers was believe it or not fun despite what movies/TV portray, even the workers enjoyed it, singing soul and religious songs and doing foolish/playful things while working and earning pretty decent pay too. We didn't specialize like todays farmers, we raised various row crops, beef, pork and timber profitable, today's farmers want to specialize in one area only and go broke doing so and yet can't figure out why ?? Farming like we did when one crop failed (and one surely will fail ) the other crops usually picked up the slack enough to cover expenses and payments, without those back-up your doomed in a bad year.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Back in the early 70's, we sold 500# steer calves for $1/pound(7 good calves would buy a 3/4 ton 4wd pickup). The bred heifer market went wild and the cattle market responded 3-4 years later when cull cows brought $0.10/pound(an 800# weigh cow would buy 3 tanks of gas for a pickup).
I sold shelled corn across the scales for not much over $1/bu while paying over 20% interest on the money borrowed to plant the crop.
Junkballer, I've been there as farming diversification dwindled out. The 50s and 60s saw the end of the farmer
with 3 crops, chickens, and hogs or cattle. Most here now are strictly corn and soybeans. We still have a couple
dairy guys around but the income is from 2,000+ acres of those two rotated crops. A drought year like 1988
that ruins all crops seems to be forgotten. Specialization is leading the way to what is often called corporate farming.
Those who forget history are bound to repeat it. Sad.
I am 66 . Daddy was a full time farmer when I was growing up. Almost everyone in our area of the state was diversified . We grew hogs , raised broiler chickens under contract ,tobacco,wheat ,rye,corn and soybeans . Some years we had truck crops such as watermelons and cantaloupe. Many of the neighbors had sideline businesses such as carpentry and mechanics . Not many lazy folks round here . Several years ,one or the other crops would fail but we managed to pull thru cause we had more than one egg in the basket .
Diversification is great---IF YOU HAVE MARKETS FOR THE DIVERSIFIED CROPS. With current trucking costs, it's difficult to sell some crops that require long distance hauling.
Last month, I sold 3 semi -loads of hay and the trucking added 40% to the buyer's cost. He had a budget so where do you think that 40% came from? In order to make the sale, I had to cut the selling price. Now that $100/ton hay got me $60/ton. You can sell yourself into poverty real darned quick with those numbers. Currently dickering on sale of another 100 ton but buyer's trucking cost amounts to $1000 per load and he's balking.
Even high density crops like soybeans have that added cost. Make a choice: Sell locally and have the buyer deduct the cost of hauling 120 miles to the river terminal or pay a trucker to make the haul and hope he's available when you need him.
Mobuck, I understand your pain, I see it everyday but look at it like this......your contributing $40 per ton of your money to feed anther mans cattle with no possibility of a return for you ?? That's serious money being tossed out to someone else that needs your product 😮. I wasn't going to comment anymore but those numbers you put up has me buffaloed . Good luck to you Sir.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Lots of differences farming here on the east coast ,North Carolina ,and where you are Mobuck. 90 % of our corn and small grains are sold and consumed locally ,due to our livestock industry . Hogs ,turkeys and chicken. Domesticly ,our state grows enough grain to feed our industries for about 30 days ,the other 11 months feed supply come from you guys
"your contributing $40 per ton of your money to feed anther mans cattle with no possibility of a return for you ??"
Well, it's like this: I have limited access to load a semi so the hay that's on that spot has to go somewhere before the next batch can be loaded. The next thing is local buyers are hesitant to buy until they need it (like in December). Making a sale in August provides short term income that's needed for current operational expenses. Store owners can go broke with their shelves full of products that they have priced above the current market.
😉😆