F&R Livestock Resource Fall 2020

F&R LivestockResource

Fall 2020 | Volume 4, Issue 1

Your direct source for livestock news and information

Published by Farmers & Ranchers Livestock, Salina, Kansas

In this Issue: 1 Rural America’s State of Mind (Part 2)

Recognizing unhealthy behaviors are often difficult to admit personally and even more difficult to address as a family member or friend. Part 2 of Paige Nelson’s series on addressing mental health problems in rural America is spot on. The individual effected and the entire support system each have a role to play.

10 Market Jolt!

By now, the cattle market rapid downturn as a result of the pandemic has been widely reported. Industry economists are conducting data-driven, economic-guided insights and recommending rigorous vetting and careful considerations to any changes to the current marketing structure.

14 Steady to Hopeful

Wes Ishmael reports cash markets will continue to struggle to stabilize until 2021.

With the backlog of finished cattle resulting from plant closures nearly erased, revised data indicated significant improvement for cattle prices beginning in 2021.

18 Winter Forage Management

It’s no secret, feed costs are the single most significant cost for cow-calf operations.

Opportunities to manage winter forage and hay costs are upon us and can be the difference between profit and loss.

20 Grackled!

If you haven’t experienced the frustrating nuisance of a flock of Grackles, consider yourself lucky. Hooter McCormick’s Aunt Pinky takes ’em on and we can all relate to her success (or lack of)!

Rural America’s State of Mind: Part Two Equipment breaks down, human beings do too.

By Paige Nelson

Hey farmer! “When the combine crashed in the field and you needed a new belt that was 70 miles away, what did you do?” asks Melba Sutton, a specialist clinical social worker licensed by the state of Kansas. Growing up on a farm in western Kansas, taught Sutton a thing or two about farm life and those she calls “nurturers of the land.”

So, what do you do when a belt breaks? Sutton asks, “You, the farmer rely on your strengths—you go to work to fix the problem,” is her answer.

When a mental health struggle or chronic stress is the problem, the answer is the same: Go. To. Work!

“Perhaps part of your work today is

Continued on page 4 ________________________________________

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F&R Livestock

From the Editor

Resource

Volume 4, Issue 1 Fall 2020 Published quarterly by

Farmers & Ranchers Livestock, Salina, Kansas 1500 W. Old Hwy 40 Salina, Kansas 67401 785-825-0211 • 785-826-1590 (fax) FandRLive.com

find us on Facebook

Facebook.com/FarmersAndRanchersLivestock/

Owner: Farmers & Ranchers Livestock, Mike Samples, Salina, Kansas (785) 826-7884 Editor: Deb Norton, Deb@CogentIdeasInc.com Production Coordinator: Julie Tucker Graphic Designer: Daric Wells Editorial Assistants: Dixie Russell, Dave Cumpton Contributing Editors: Wes Ishmael, Paige Nelson Contributing Artist: Ted Foulkes Sales Jay Carlson Carlson Media Group, LLC (913) 967-9085 Ben Gleason (785) 640-9390

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F&R Livestock Resource is published quarterly with mail dates of January 15, March 1, August 15 and October 1 by Farmers & Ranchers Livestock, Salina, Kansas.

Produced by

By Deb Norton

For more than 40 years, I’m grateful that my day job as a professional, involved in marketing cattle, has afforded me a lot of insight.

Living in the city and working in the country has helped me to view industry issues through the lens of a consumer. Not that I always agree with the consumer, but at the end of the day, the consumer sends an economic signal down the supply chain that we ignore at our own peril. If beef gets too expensive in the supermarket, the consumer will choose a less expensive meat protein and beef sales decline. A few decades ago, the consumer told us beef was too fat. The result of the consumer signal forced production, cattle feeding and processing to begin to look at genetics, fabrication, finishing—essentially reevaluating how cattle were raised, fed and processed. The result is beef that looks remarkably different in the meat case.

The past seven months have illustrated the precarious reality of our beef supply chain. In a matter of days, we went from business as usual to a sustained period of months where nothing is certain. A combination of restaurant closures, new health and safety protocols and COVID-19 infections in the packing plants are charting a new normal in the beef supply chain.

According to August 17, 2020, Business Insider, approximately 16,000 restaurants have permanent-

ly closed since the pandemic and their prediction is it’s only the beginning.

Before the pandemic began, statista.com reported more than 13.4 million people were employed in the restaurant industry and seven out of ten restaurants are independently owned. The National Restaurant Association predicts the restaurant industry will lose more than $240 billion by the end of 2020 and two-thirds of the workforce has been furloughed or terminated. Several chains have announced hundreds of restaurant closings or filed for bankruptcy.

One common thread that runs through most every successful business is the willingness to be flexible and the ability to think creatively. Some call it a survivor instinct. After being in business for several decades, survivor instinct is a perfect description! As independent restaurants closed, some entrepreneurial thinking owners have launched direct-to-consumer online sales. Offering the same white tablecloth cuts of beef, restauranteurs can continue to serve some of their same in-store customers, as well as sell high-valued beef, anywhere. Small meat processors and purveyors are doing the same with a fair amount of success. Established online beef sales are reporting significant sales increases.

Some beef producers have also ventured into direct beef sales which has resulted in many local processors being totally booked for several months.

Many producers will admit, prior to the pandemic, processing beef locally beyond what a family needed for personal consumption, was mostly the result of an animal that didn’t fit a load or conventional marketing. For most all producers, ranch direct marketing has a learning curve. Urban consumers typically perceive the value of beef directly off the ranch to be greater than beef purchased in the supermarket. The logistics of marketing and delivering a perishable product isn’t a problem most cow-calf producers have spent much time thinking about. Social media has proven to be an inexpensive and effective advertising medium. However, consumer insight is still a requirement for success.

A very nonscientific, anecdotal look at a couple of online farm-to-table upstarts indicate the average price for all cuts of beef offered to be in the neighborhood of $10-$12 a pound. Established online steak sites with a brand identity, average per pound steak price to run about $30-$40 on sale!

A box of “gourmet” burgers (patties) from a competing site averaged $13 per pound.

Hopefully, as we move into 2021, whatever our new normal is will begin to crystalize. For those taking a hard look at the beef supply chain, sales and consumer response, the future is still robust. Beef is still in demand and the pandemic has proven the consumer is willing to pay, whether the purchase

www.CogentIdeasInc.com

Continued on page 21 _______________________________________

Fall Classic Catalog Horse Sale

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Farmers & Ranchers Livestock Commission Co., Inc. Salina, Kansas • 785-825-0211 F&R Livestock Resource page 3

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Continued from page 1 ________________________________________

picking up the phone and saying, ‘Hey I just need to talk to somebody about living my life,’ suggests Sutton.

In Part Two, of our three-part series on mental health in rural America, we’re working to address mental health conditions—defining the problem, planning for it, getting help and offering help.

Bad Days Happen, Once In A While Some days you wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Some days the cows get out, twice. Some days the bank forecloses on the farm. Some days we lose a loved one.

But, “At midnight, even bad days come to an end,” says one, Ms. Moem.

On those days, Sutton’s advice is to take time to tell yourself “Gosh, this Earth School stuff really hurts.”

For some, those days are isolated events. Granted, they may be days wrought with pain, heartache, anxiety, loneliness, anger, even hopelessness because everyone, even the happiest person you know, has thoughts of hopelessness. Some of us can close the door, even slam the door, on those days and start afresh the next day. We can feel hope and energy to “work” to have a better future day.

Some of us, as hard as we may try, can’t shut that door and those feelings continue to cloud us. The toughest part about those feelings is that an arm sleeve or a blood test will not give us any answers.

Adrienne DeSutter, an advocate for mental health in the farming community and a farmer, says it’s key to understand the differences between bad days and chronic bad days. She knows because she saw it in her husband.

“We go through moments in our lives where we feel hopeless, especially in farming,” she says.

“That’s ok,” she explains, “and it’s normal. As long as those feelings of

Watch Dave’s recent CATTLEU seminar virtual presentation: https://bit.ly/32QvIHN (Dave starts at 1:40:50)

Bridgewater, Iowa • www.NicholsFarms.biz Bull Barn: (641) 369-2829 • Ross Cell: (641) 745-5241 Dave Home: (712) 762-3810 Cell: (641) 745-5730 page 4

Fall 2020

Drew and Adrienne DeSutter

hopelessness or even worthlessness are in check and we know that in a day or in a couple days they will fade and life will normalize.”

“When we have those moments of hopelessness or worthlessness happening for multiple days, multiple weeks, then we really just need to get to a point where we’re comfortable talking to someone or talking to our doctor and just making sure that we’re able to stay in control. When we aren’t taking care of ourselves, we lose that control and it’s harder to dig out of that hole,” Adrienne warns.

Adrienne’s husband, Drew, says she helped him to slowly recognize he was not in control of his own anxiety.

You have to address it first, yourself, and you’ve got to be honest about it first, he notes.

“I think the first step is to recognize, this isn’t normal or this isn’t good, and then I think when you recognize it, then you can keep track of it too and see it’s more than just a day thing or a week thing. It’s pretty frequent,” recalls Drew.

Be an advocate for your health, even when it’s difficult.

His advice: “If you think you’re overly anxious or overly depressed or have a mental health issue, start writing down your patterns. Start paying attention to your daily life and activity, and if you get to a point you need to have help, that’s what doctors are for and what [counselors] are for. Talk about those issues and come to a decision on whether medication or some other type of solution is warranted.”

It Comes With the Territory About two in five rural adults say stress and mental health have become more of a problem in their community in the past five years (41%) and in the past year (36%). Nearly half of rural adults (48%) say they are personally experiencing more mental health

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challenges than they were a year ago, that’s according to a rural stress poll sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation in 2019, a whole year before COVID-19, slaughtered the fed-cattle market and depressed every other ag commodity market in the country.

What do those numbers look like after an entire spring, summer and fall of quarantine and/or social distance, natural disasters and the general uncertainty of a presidential election year?

What makes America’s backbone so vulnerable to mental health conditions and chronic stress?

Well, for one, we rely heavily on the most unpredictable woman on Earth—Mother Nature. Enough said, but let us continue. Trade wars, changing markets, consumer preference, debt, the physicality of our work, family heritage, limited access to healthcare, limited access to broadband, etc., all contribute to 48% of us saying we are experiencing more mental health challenges today.

The kicker is, we signed up for it— all of it.

“In agriculture, we signed up for this. We signed up for the loss of control. We signed up for the uncertainty,” says Karen Eddington, a researcher and keynote speaker on overcoming pressure and stress.

Melba Sutton

Karen Eddington

Mentally signing up for uncertainty, she says, is the first step to riding life’s waves.

Expect the lows and get anchored before the storm hits, Eddington advises. Establish your life anchor points—those you are certain will pull you through the lowest of lows.

For Eddington, anchor points are family dinner time, putting on her wedding ring every morning, exercise, listening to music, having a spontaneous dance party.

For Drew, anchor points are going for a run, being involved in off-farm activities, taking a rare vacation and even managing his small cattle operation.

It’s personal and it requires focus to identify one’s own anchor points. But

it doesn’t have to be distant or elusive.

“Maybe it’s your actual work.

Maybe it’s what you’re actually doing out there that anchors you through the lows,” Eddington says.

While isolation and loneliness are symptoms of a mental health condition, and should be actively addressed, choosing to work alone and spend time with your thoughts can be healthful.

“Some people thrive working alone.

Some people are energized by being alone and that’s good and okay too,” acknowledges Eddington.

Sutton believes there’s a spiritual aspect of solitude that allows one to be present, in the moment. Sometimes it’s that solitude that a farmer, a nurturer of the land, needs most of all.

“There can be a tornado, the farms could be hailed out, but they don’t feel lonely because of the absolute positivity of having a place, a sacred space of solitude. Be still and know that all is well,” she says.

Whatever the anchor point, Eddington is passionate about this: An unsustainable agricultural operation doesn’t last long during upheaval.

The nature of farming and ranching requires such high-level physical, mental and spiritual work, that if you aren’t replenishing yourself equally as much as you are giving, you, yourself become unsustainable.

Fixing is Work When equipment breaks down, we order the parts; we watch YouTube until we know how to install the parts; we pay the bill at the parts store. It’s really a pay to play program. Life is like that, too.

When Drew made the decision to see a doctor about his chronic anxiety, it helped, but he had to be willing to pay the price of accepting the issue first.

“It’s not easy,” he says. “Having a conversation with a doctor was not easy. I was not proud of it, but it was affecting my life on a more frequent basis.

“I take some medication, and taking that medication has made a huge

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Fall 2020

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Fall Classic Catalog Horse Sale • Saturday, October 10 NEW THIS YEAR Ranch Horse Competition Rope Horse Preview Friday, October 9, 6:00 p.m.

Lot 17

Lot 20

Lot 26

Lot 29

Lot 32 Lot 230

Friday, October 9, 1:00-5:00 PM

n 15 sorrel gelding by Streaking Ta Fame—ranch team rope n 13 buckskin gelding grandson of Smart Chic Olena—ranch/rope n 15 chest mare granddaughter of One Time Pepto—started great n 07 brown mare granddaughter of Reckless Dash—ROM, SI 87 proven producer n 10 sorrel gelding grandson of Peptoboonsmal—ranch/rope n 15 palo gelding grandson CD Olena—started heeling & breakaway n 15 sorrel geld son of Rey Dual—cuts, heads, heels n 15 sorrel mare granddaughter of Playin Stylish—started heeling & breakaway n 14 chestnut gelding grandson of High Brow Cat—ranch/started roping n 13 APHA gelding—gentle family horse, parades, drill team n 13 chestnut gelding—son of PC Frenchman—all around gelding n 14 blue roan gelding grandson of Colonel Hotrodder—ranch/rope n 10 gray gelding by grandson of Dash For Cash-ranch n 13 chest gelding by Boonlight of Sensation—$ earner ranch horse competition n 08 dun gelding by Pretty Nifty Jack—team rope/ranch n 13 red roan gelding grandson of Peptos Stylish Oak-team rope/ranch n 12 blue roan gelding out of granddaughter of Wilywood—ranch n 16 buck gelding by grandson of Sun Frost—ranch n 08 gray gelding by grandson of Sun Frost—ranch/team rope n 14 sorrel gelding by grandson of Colonel Freckles—ranch n 16 palomino gelding by CRR Hurricane Cat—rope/cut n 17 bay gelding grandson of Docs Hickory—ranch n 08 red roan gelding Peppy San Badger X Poco Pine-team rope n 16 red roan gelding grandson of Smart Chic Olena—ranch n 14 APHA solid bay gelding Peppy San Badger X Grays Starlight—ranch, team rope n 09 sorrel gelding grandson of Peppy San Badger—ranch, team rope n 05 buckskin stallion by grandson of Bueno Chex—206 AQHA points roping, reining, cow horse, halter, barrels, many-time world show super horse qualifier, Reserve World Champion Working Cow horse, $7,572 NRHA

Lot 247

23RD ANNUAL Fall Colt & Yearling Catalog Sale

Lot 273

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Lot 288

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difference in my life. I deal with stress a lot differently today than I did when I started this process.”

Difficulty is ever present, but there is something freeing about verbalizing our feelings. Most of the time we are in our head, thinking thoughts that may or may not be true, says Sutton. There is healing to hear yourself say, “I have been living in this secret. I’m feeling shame. I’m feeling depressed.”

The good news for farmers and ranchers is that the process of reaching out for help, accepting help and making progress is not that different from fixing broken equipment, and you can do it. Simply put: Go to work.

“Work is good medicine,” says Sutton.

Farmers and ranchers are naturally talented workers, otherwise they wouldn’t be in an occupation that requires sunup to sundown hours.

Apply that same ethic and attitude to healing body and mind and see your results grow like field corn in July.

This is the work of realizing and accepting that everyone, including tough, independent, strong-willed farmers have weaknesses. This is the work of accepting that our industry throws wrenches at us that we can’t avoid—fire, flood, frost, a derecho in corn country. This is working to make that phone call that leads to a doctor or therapist’s office picking up on the other end. This is the work that means letting family members know

how you’re feeling. This is working for resolve about your own mental weaknesses.

Yes, even that “uncomfortable” work, “is good medicine.”

For those considering reaching out for professional help, Drew’s advice is, “Most physicians (and counselors, clergy, support groups) see a lot of people for mental health, especially in these rural communities. It shows up more than you would realize. You’re definitely not alone.”

Before the Crop Is Lost

In 2019, the entire Idaho potato crop was in jeopardy. One week into the annual October spud harvest, the National Weather Service issued a frost warning. Temperatures of below 15° F would strike two nights in a row throughout the region. The potatoes would be frozen in the ground and worthless. Yet, days before the fatal frost, communities surrounding these potato farms rallied. Farmers who

Just For Fun by Ted Foulkes

had finished digging their own spuds took entire crews to their neighbor’s fields—tractors, diggers, trucks and trained, on-the-clock personnel. City slickers even showed up, willing to help where they could. Twenty-fourhour potato digging commenced until the frost hit.

All of the sudden, what was runof-the-mill potato harvest in Idaho, was being covered by national media outlets.

There was a well-known toilet paper and meat shortage earlier this year, but potatoes have continued to grace grocery store shelves.

What saved the 2019 crop from disaster? Friends helped friends avoid catastrophe.

The principle is the same when it comes to mental health and helping those who are struggling.

First, know and recognize the signs of mental illness. Here are a few: • changes in behavior, attitude or reckless behavior • sense of hopelessness • decision fatigue • restless sleep • feeling lonely • feeling isolated • withdrawal • physical health complaints • change or loss of appetite Basically, pay attention to anything that seems different, in an unhealthy way, about your loved one. If you notice a pattern, start thinking about ways to help.

Start Slow and Easy In her TEDx talk, Eddington talks about using “shared laughter” as a way to connect with someone.

Laughter is connecting our truths mixed with surprise, explains Eddington. You can start, she says, by sharing truths. Talk about your flaws, your fears, your failures, your effort.

Framing them in a way you hadn’t thought of before can create that funny moment.

“Sometimes just sitting down with someone and saying, ‘Can you imagine all this effort I’ve put in?’ and the other person can say, ‘Hey me too!’ The line, ‘Hey me too!’ generates connection.”

Be Authentic, Persistent Adrienne is an advocate for farmers helping farmers. She says it starts with noticing what’s different and choosing the opportune time to talk about it.

She suggests lines like: • I noticed that when you come home from the farm you’re really on edge.

• I noticed you’re not showing up to church.

• I noticed I’m not seeing you as page 8

Fall 2020

much as normal.

Then follow up with: • Are you ok?

• I’m worried about you.

“It’s going to feel a little uncomfortable, but you don’t have to say it in an uncomfortable way. Say it in a way that works for you. If you need to say, ‘Hey what’s going on?’ say it in a way that is genuine to your personality,” she advises.

While it may be tempting to bring up issues or observances in the heat of the moment, that route is not effective, says Adrienne. Being loving and patient will always trump anger and coercion.

“As a counselor, I’m trained to have empathy and understanding and it still took me a full year of trying to say things the right way, just to get [Drew] to finally do something more than just trying new things at home.”

You are a Resource, Not the Only Resource According to Adrienne, studies have shown farmers want to speak with their physician about their struggles, but who they really need are their friends and family, with some conditions of course.

“We just have to remember that we

are a bigger resource than we think,” says Adrienne. “We need to know our limitations. Just like we wouldn’t be expected to cure someone’s health, we have to recognize that if there is a mental health condition going on, then professional help is definitely needed.”

Remember when you were growing up and your mom scheduled all your dentist and doctor appointments?

Then you hit that ripe old age when she made you do it? It was scary the first few times. Now, you barely even think about it.

Being a resource to a loved one means work. They may need help making that call to a counselor or doctor or clergy or support group or mental health advocate, says Sutton. It could also mean driving them to the appointment. It could mean taking every single step of the way with them.

It does mean being there for them.

Life is work. Weaknesses require work. Strengths are honed through work. Work for yourself. Work for your family. Work for your farm.

If you are experiencing mental health crisis and/or feeling suicidal please reach out and talk to someone.

Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 or chat online at CrisisChat.org.

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Market Jolt!

Cattle price reactions to the pandemic were ugly, but expected.

By Wes Ishmael

Monday, November 23, 2020 • 12 Noon

At the Henry & Nan Gardiner Marketing Center At the ranch near Ashland, Kansas

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Early Consignors to the Profit Proven Sale Giles Ranch Co. Ashland, Kansas Craige Means Dublin, Texas San Rafael Ranch Tucson, Arizona Dr. John Mazoch Bueche, Louisiana

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page 10

Fall 2020

Skelton Beef Company Texhoma, Oklahoma Randall Spare Ashland, Kansas Tipton Ranch Pocasset, Oklahoma

Zac Turner Sayre, Oklahoma Wharton Ranch Syracuse, Kansas Jeff Wilkerson Edmond, Oklahoma

9/14/20 4:40 PM

“In all the meat packing plant operations data that I have seen, I have never seen plant volumes decline so steadily to such low levels. In any other situation, plants would cease operations. The managing firms would have temporarily closed the plants rather than operate at such low levels,” explained Stephen Koontz, agricultural economist at Colorado State University. He’s referring to disruptions that left beef packing plants operating with 40% less effective capacity at one point during the pandemic.

In a late spring paper, “Economic Reasons for What was Observed in Fed Cattle and Beef Markets During the Spring of 2020”, Koontz provided insight to why and how dramatic increases to wholesale beef prices, in tandem with freefalling cattle prices, was consistent with economic theory; what should be expected rather than shocking.

“To expect historical relationships between meat price and livestock prices to persist when major facilities in the packing sector are at times closed and in others operating at reduced capacity has no economic foundation,” according to Koontz.

Record low livestock prices are also not a surprise. If packers cannot run or cannot run at typical throughput levels—especially if animal supplies are abundant—then the marginal value of that last group of animals that is not sold is close to zero. And, the last pen or truckload or group of animals is a perfect substitute for the first. It is the marginal value of the

last product that sets the market. This point is critical. In fact, that is what is communicated by economists when supply and demand curves are drawn.

The equilibrium quantity and price are what is traded at the lowest marginal value to buyers and the highest marginal value to sellers.”

Koontz’s observations came out several weeks before USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released the widely anticipated results of its investigation into cattle and beef price reactions following the peak of winter and spring COVID-19 disruptions, as well as following the Tyson plant fire in Kansas in August of 2019.

Anyone expecting the report to uncover price manipulation or other beef packer skullduggery was sorely disappointed.

“Findings thus far do not preclude the possibility that individual entities or groups of entities violated the Packers and Stockyards Act during the aftermath of the Tyson Holcomb fire and the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the report. “The investigation into potential violations under the Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA) is continuing.” More specifically, USDA is cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice, in that agency’s investigation into potential antitrust violations.

Instead, the USDA report, Boxed Beef & Fed Cattle Price Spread Investigation Report, provides documentation and context for price reactions in the wake of both events.

Hyper Price Volatility For reference, here’s a brief outline of price movements, outlined in the USDA report.

Following the Tyson plant fire August 9 last year, the spread between boxed beef values and fed cattle prices grew to $67.17/cwt. (week ending Aug. 24, 2019), which was record wide at the time. The spread for the same week averaged $27.66 for 2016-18.

Pandemic disruptions in beef production peaked the last week of April, when nearly 40% of the nation’s beef processing capacity was idled.

“Boxed beef cutout values peaked in the second week of May at $459/ cwt. but declined to $298 by the first week of June,” according to the USDA report. “Fed cattle prices rose from a 2020 low of $154/cwt. (dressed) in late April to $179 during the first week of June. The spread narrowed from $279/cwt. in the middle of May to $119/cwt. by the beginning of June.”

Understandably, plenty of cattle producers expressed disappointment, frustration and outrage as the margin between wholesale beef values and cash fed cattle prices grew historically and obscenely wide. But, that difference, often referred to as the gross packer margin, says nothing about profitability on either side of the trade.

“Occasionally, ‘gross margin’ is mistakenly substituted for price spread.

The two concepts are different. A gross margin is the difference between dollars paid and dollars received by a participant in the marketing system.

For example, a packer’s gross margin, on a per-head slaughtered basis, represents the value of the carcass plus the value of the by-products, less the value of the animal,” explain authors of Beef and Pork Marketing Margins and Price Spreads during COVID-19. The authors are agricultural economists Jayson Lusk at Purdue University, Glynn Tonsor at Kansas State University and Lee Schulz at Iowa State University.

“Because the gross margin only applies for one specific stage in marketing, e.g., meat packing, it does not

include costs, beyond the value of the animal, that are included in the price spread. The price spread essentially

lumps together costs for several segments, while gross margins apply only to costs for specific segments,” say the economists.

The stated goal of the effort by these economists is to provide data-driven, economic-guided insights to the situation.

“Even though we cannot observe an individual packers’ costs, we can observe the market’s perception of their profitability—at least for publicly traded firms,” according to Lusk, Tonsor and Schulz. “On balance, changes in the stock prices of companies with significant packing operations do not suggest substantial windfalls corresponding with COVID-19 driven developments, and indeed the performance of publicly traded

F&R Livestock Resource page 11

packing companies has lagged that of the overall market since the first of the year. Perhaps market developments are rationale responses to massive shocks from a common enemy to society, COVID-19.”

Along the way, they shatter a popular myth or two.

For instance, they document how little concentration has changed since 1998, when considering the largest federally inspected (FI) beef packing plants—those harvesting 1 million head or more of cattle annually.

“In 1998, FI packing plants that slaughtered more than 1 million cattle per year slaughtered 17.9 million head, or 51.7%, of the FI cattle slaughter.

More than 20 years later, in 2019, plants with over 1 million head per

2019, packing plants that slaughtered between 1 and 9,999 head slaughtered 424,700 head, or 1.3%, of the FI cattle slaughter annually, 3.3% for plants slaughtering between 10,000 and 99,999 head, and 43.1% for plants slaughtering between 100,000 and 999,999 head. This compares to 1.5%, 4.7% and 42.1%, respectively, in 1998.”

The trio of economists points out the number of FI beef packing plants is the most since 2004, albeit fewer than two decades ago. year capacity slaughtered 17.3 million head, or 52.4%, of the FI slaughter.

The total volume slaughtered by the largest plants is down, and it is a stretch to characterize a 0.7 percentage

point rise in slaughter market share over 22 years as a takeover,” they explain. “This suggests that smaller FI slaughter facilities, in aggregate, are maintaining market share. In

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page 12

Fall 2020

Price Aftermath Speaks to Broader Issues “The preceding summary of market conditions is only one component of a larger discussion within the cattle, beef, and related industries that share a common narrative about a highly concentrated meatpacking sector,” explain authors of the USDA report. “At the core of many of these discussions is the desire by many market participants for improved price discovery, reinvigorated competition, and a more transparent relationship between the prices for live cattle and the resulting products.”

An article in the last issue of F&R Livestock Resource (Baby, Bathwater and All) detailed some of the current industry and political efforts to deepen the pool of cash price transactions, as economics continue to favor alternative marketing arrangements.

Everything from seemingly simple changes to the current confidentiality requirements of Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) to legislation mandating packers procure specific percentages of their cattle each week in the spot cash market.

Along with the options mentioned in the previous F&R article, according to the USDA report, AMS has explored a 14-day slaughter scheduled delivery submission requirement through LMR, currently used for daily LMR swine reporting.

“Under this scenario, beef packers could report daily the number of cattle scheduled to be delivered for slaughter each day for the next 14 calendar days,” according to the USDA report.

“A 14-day cattle slaughter schedule exhibits two informative advantages over the current slaughter reports: the data is available several hours earlier each day; scheduled delivery figures are provided for well beyond just the current slaughter day.”

Further, the USDA report cites the possibility of increased access to risk management training, as well as potential changes to CME Cattle futures contracts, which would offer small and medium sized producers more flexibility in managing price risk.

“Beyond rulemaking, small and medium-sized producers could also

“The preceding summary of market conditions is only one component of a larger discussion within the cattle, beef, and related industries that share a common narrative about a highly concentrated meatpacking sector.” benefit from updates to the P&S Act designed to offset the impacts of operating in a concentrated industry, where the market power resides with large meatpackers,” say authors of the USDA report. “Smaller producers often find themselves to be price takers in the market for fed cattle and lack the volume of larger producers to negotiate unique and advantageous marketing agreements with large meatpackers.

“In efforts to address this imbalance, there has been discussion of creating a beef contract library similar to the swine contract library USDA currently maintains… Amending the P&S Act to develop a similar library for beef transactions could help increase price discovery in cattle markets and enhance access to market information for all market participants, regardless of size.”

With every reasoned discussion in the current debate, comes the suggestion for caution.

“It is important that any proposals aimed at addressing these complex issues and others associated with the market disruptions caused by the Holcomb fire and COVID-19 receive careful consideration and thorough vetting given their potential to affect everyone whose livelihood depends on the sale of cattle, beef, or related products,” say authors of the USDA report.

“Changes in industry structure, the nature of price discovery and public reporting, and economic signals to align production effort with consumer demand have long been core to the viability of the U.S. meat-livestock industry,” say Lusk, Tonsor and Schulz.

“The modern realities of pandemic response include multiple calls for government intervention and industry adjustment. The concepts of derived demand and supply for livestock and wholesale meat, as well as long-term implications of possibly adding costs to a sector that has evolved around efficiencies and economies of scale central to prepandemic operation, must be considered. There is a tradeoff between a system that provides efficiency and affordable meat for consumers in ‘normal times’ and the costs associated adding capacity, flexibility and resiliency to a sector for ‘abnormal’ times.”

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page 14

Fall 2020

PO Box 280 ▪ Mexico, MO 65265 www.sydgen.com Farm Office: (573) 581-1225 Ben Eggers: (573) 473-9202 eggers@socket.net

Cattle prices this fall are shaping up lower than expected when the year began, lots higher than imagined just a few months ago, and likely the least they will be for the next few years.

Depending on who’s running the pencil, projected feeder cattle prices in the fourth quarter are mired in the low to mid $140s/cwt., with fat cattle hovering at $110/cwt. or on either side.

As for calf prices, apparently bountiful corn supplies should offer support, but lighter-weight feedlot placements in recent months and potential competition for pen space could add pressure.

Recently, Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University considered the price outlook relative to winter grazing prospects.

“In the last week of August, the Oklahoma average auction price for 475 pound steers was $165.25/cwt. with 750 pound steers at $140.40/ cwt. This calculates to a value of gain of $0.97/pound for 275 pounds of gain,” Peel explained. “Across beginning weights of 450-600 pounds, the value of gain ranges from $0.90 to $1.00/pound, using current auction prices. Cost of production is likely less than $0.90/pound in many cases, suggesting potential positive returns for stocker production.”

According to Peel, a common wheat pasture grazing budget is based on October stocker purchases with feeders marketed in early March, including roughly 120 days of winter grazing.

Based on market conditions at the time, he projected the October price at $160-$165/cwt. for steers weighing 475 pounds. Across various budgets using a range of purchase prices, feed costs and average daily gain, March breakeven prices were projected at $129-$139/cwt., most likely $132$136. That’s for steers weighing about 750 pounds. Feeder Cattle futures for March, adjusted for Oklahoma basis, suggested a March price of about $140/cwt. at 750 pounds “General economic uncertainty and volatility will continue to be particularly important in cattle markets and risk management should be carefully

considered,” Peel said. “Futures markets may offer an opportunity to lock in a margin on winter grazing. However, risk management requires deliberate action to implement a plan. Market opportunities are often fleeting and producers may have to act quickly to take advantage of changing market conditions.”

Expanding drought and the U.S. presidential election provide plenty of uncertainty, overshadowed by lingering coronavirus impacts and potential further pandemic disruption.

“The response to COVID-19 has induced market disruptions and a sharp, but indeterminate, economic contraction that has affected the agricultural sector in disparate ways depending on the commodity,” say analysts with the Food and Agricultural Policy Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri.

“However, large carryout stocks and sizable 2020-21 production for many commodities, uncertainty regarding fulfillment of the Phase 1 trade agreement with China, and the timing of the rebound of the size of the Chinese hog herd have also significantly contributed to market conditions.” That’s from the organization’s “Baseline Update for U.S. Agricultural Markets” released in late August (more later).

Fundamental Challenges In the meantime, there are plenty of fundamental wonderments.

“One of the biggest concerns in fed cattle markets is the extent to which the backlog of fed cattle created in April and May still remains,” Peel explained in late August, following release of that month’s Cattle on Feed report. “Although June and July marketings were about equal to one year ago, a significant portion of those marketings were likely fed cattle that were carried over from April and May. Reductions in placements as far back as February have reduced the number of cattle finishing starting as early as June. Not only were total placements down in the February to July period, but more of the reduction was in heavyweight placements, further reducing the number of cattle finishing

now. In the last six months, feedlot placements under 700 pounds have made up a larger percentage of total placements, which further reduces the number of cattle finishing at this time.”

Add it all up and Peel said data and anecdotal indications suggested the backlog of fed cattle was rapidly diminishing and perhaps nearly erased.

Likewise, Elliot Dennis, Extension livestock economist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln pointed out the number of cattle on feed more than 90 days dipped below 2019 levels in August for the first time since April.

However, cattle on feed more than 120 days was still about 10% higher than 2019.

“The result of cattle being on feed longer is sustained record-level dressed weights for both steers and heifers,” Dennis explained in an August issue of “In the Cattle Markets.”

“Heavier carcasses led to higher beef production in recent months relative to 2019 putting downward pressure on cattle prices.”

For perspective, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), in the “August World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates,” projected beef production for this year at 27.03 billion pounds, which would be 127 million pounds less than last year (-0.47%). Beef production for next year was projected at 27.62 billion pounds, which would be 592 million pounds more (+2.19%) than this year.

Total red meat and poultry production for next year was forecast 1.41% higher than this year (+1.5 billion pounds) at 107.99 billion pounds On the other side of the ledger, domestic beef demand recovered significantly in June from pandemic disruptions, according to the most recent domestic demand indexes maintained

by Kansas State University.

The Choice retail beef demand index was 98.87 in June, which was 34.85% more than the previous month and 29.23% more than the previous year. The all fresh retail beef demand index was 40.98% higher month to month and 34.22% more than the previous year.

At the same time, although sales by food-at-home retailers increased year over year since the pandemic began, total food sales remain lower, due to the decline in away-from-home food purchases, according to ERS. “In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. consumers, businesses and government entities spent an average of $137.4 billion per month on food,” explain ERS analysts. “Normal seasonal variations were present, with total food spending being lowest in January and February and highest in May, August, and December. Early

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2020 followed the same pattern, with lower-than-average total food spending in January and February, but this trend continued into the spring with spending on food falling to $105 billion in April 2020, as spending at food-away-from-home establishments—restaurants, school cafeterias, sports venues and other eating places—dropped to $36 billion. Spending on food-away-from-home rebounded in May and June but remained below 2019 spending in those months. Total food sales rose in May and June 2020 but were still lower than a year ago.”

That was before the end of added federal stimulus to unemployment benefits.

“Up until July 31, somewhere between 25 and 30 million Americans were receiving Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation as part of the federal government’s CARES Act, which provided $600 a week of enhanced unemployment benefits,” explained David Portalatin, food industry advisor for the NPD Group, in early August. “These unemployment benefits translated to between $15-$18 billion per week being put into consumers’ bank accounts. For context, total restaurant industry sales right now are a bit less than $8 billion per week.”

Internationally, consumers also face the impact of the economic recession wrought by COVID-19.

“The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic is forecast to cause the world’s real gross domestic product (GDP) to decline in 2020 for the first time since 2009. While some economists believe the worst of the economic and public health shock has already been observed, with the GDP of many advanced economies falling at annualized nominal rates of greater than 30% during the second quarter of this year, there remains significant uncertainty as to the length and speed of the recovery,” say ERS analysts, in the most recent “Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade.” “Despite an anticipated recovery in the growth rate

for most economies in 2021, real GDP is expected to remain below levels seen before the global pandemic. The economic recovery will depend on public and private efforts to mitigate and contain the pandemic and to efficiently adapt economies to changing conditions.”

Supply disruptions, restrictions on foodservice and weakening economies in major import markets helped confound U.S. beef exports in June, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

June beef exports were close to the May lows, down 33% from a year ago to 79,013 metric tons (mt), with value falling 32% to $492.3 million. For January through June, beef exports fell 9% below last year’s pace in volume (591,609 mt) and were 10% lower in value ($3.63 billion).

Beef export value per head of fed slaughter averaged $219.53 in June, down 32% year over year. The firsthalf average was $300.43 per head, down 4%.

“We expected that the interruptions in red meat production would continue to weigh on June exports, but anticipated more of a rebound from the low May totals, particularly for beef,” said USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom. “But, it takes time for the entire chain to adjust to supply shocks, and thus it was another difficult month for exports.

However, weekly U.S. export data suggest an upward trend in demand in most markets, and with production recovering, the U.S. has regained its supply advantage. So, we expect beef and pork exports to regain momentum in the second half of the year.”

ERS projects total U.S. agricultural exports in fiscal year 2021 $5.5 billion more than this year at $140.5 billion, driven mostly by higher exports of soybeans and corn.

“With lower, but growing domestic demand and concerns about what a second government shutdown might do to domestic demand, beef export

POSITIVE PROJECTIONS CATTLE PRICES page 16

Fall 2020

demand is likely to play a larger and more prominent role in sustaining domestic cattle prices,” Dennis says.

Positive Prices Ahead The aforementioned FAPRI update provides revised five-year price projections, which suggest significant improvement for cattle prices beginning in 2021.

FAPRI projects the five-area direct average fed steer price at $113.15/ cwt. next year, compared to an estimated $109.84/cwt. this year.

After 2021, projected prices increase steadily from $119.94/cwt. in 2022 to $130.91/cwt. in 2025.

For feeder steers (600-650 pounds, Oklahoma City), the FAPRI forecast price for next year is $150.54/cwt., compared to an estimated $144.46/ cwt. for this year. After 2021, projected prices increase steadily from $164.43/ cwt. in 2022 to $179.03/cwt. in 2025.

That’s with the forecast beef cow inventory declining from 31.3 million head on Jan. 1 of this year to 30.0 million head in 2025.

Throughout the timeline, projected beef production hovers between 27.3 and 27.6 billion pounds “Supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 have increased the cost of processing livestock and dairy products. These impacts should moderate in 2021 but will still pressure the producer’s share of consumer expenditures,” say FAPRI analysts.

Among other highlights from the FAPRI report: “The total amount of beef, pork and poultry meat supplies to the domestic market in per-capita terms is projected to contract in 2021 and 2022 for the first time since 2014. Economic uncertainty will impede consumer spending for meat and dairy products.

“Consumer food price inflation is projected at 3.2% in 2020, the highest since 2011. As increased processing and marketing costs, due to COVID-19 ease in 2021, food inflation moderates to 1.4%.

“Corn planted acres for 2020 is projected at 92.0 million acres, in line with USDA estimates and a sharp decline from March intended acres. A modest downward adjustment in Iowa corn yields—give the derecho that occurred subsequent to the gathering of data for USDA’s estimate--pushes the production estimate 203 million bu. lower than USDA’s estimate to 15.075 billion bu., a record production volume.

Carryout stocks sharply increase and farm corn prices are projected to fall to $3.24/bu., growing modestly in subsequent years as area remains flat to modestly lower.”

GENEPLUS F&R Livestock Resource page 17

Winter Forage Management There’s still time to consider ways to decrease forage and hay costs.

By Wes Ishmael

Production and price impact profit, but much less than costs, when it comes to explaining differences between producers, according to the most recent analysis from the Kansas Farm Management Association (KFMA).

As you likely suspect, feed costs are far and away the single most significant cost for cow-calf enterprises in that analysis. They averaged $336.61 per cow for 2014-18. Measured by returns over variable costs, though, they were vastly different, from $281.70 for the top third operations, to $339.31 for the middle third of producers and $388.93 for the bottom third of producers.

“In the data analyzed here, economies of size exist such that larger operations tend to have lower costs.

However, it is important to point out that being a large operator does not guarantee low costs and high profits, as several mid-sized to smaller operations were cost competitive,” say

Kansas State University (K-State) authors of “Differences Between High, Medium, and Low-Profit Cow-Calf Producers: An Analysis of 2014-2018 Kansas Farm Management Association Cow-Calf Enterprise.”

“There is some indication that focused management efforts can lead to improved cost management as operations that specialized in the cow herd enterprise relative to crop enterprises (based on their labor allocation) tended to have lower costs,” say the authors.

“One factor that is always important regarding profit and cost differences between cow-calf producers is how well they manage their feed costs. It is important for a producer to know their total feed costs (purchased feed; raised feed; grazed crop residues, cover crops and temporary pasture; native and cool season pasture) and how they compare with others. This should include identifying where inefficiencies, including feed waste, might exist.”

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Fall 2020

With frost nigh on the proverbial pumpkin, some opportunities to manage winter forage and hay costs are in the rearview mirror, while others remain.

Those opportunities were the subject of a late-August K-State Beef Cattle Institute (BCI) Cattle Chat podcast, where experts shared their top five considerations for fall grazing plans: • Be open to trying new things and be sure to talk to others who’ve tried it.

• Consider grazing on cover crops or winter annuals.

• Remove cattle from forages if you plan to stockpile cattle on them in the fall.

• Determine the appropriate amounts and optimum timing for fertilizer applications.

• Develop a strategy to minimize storage forage to maximize the grazing days.

Winter Annuals and Stockpiling “Effective stockpiling means that cattle are removed from the pastures at the right time to allow for good regrowth and not just putting them out on old, nasty, tall dormant forage. For example, cool season grasses such a fescue work well for this,” explained Bob Larson, DVM, K-State veterinarian.

With the current calendar in mind, Phillip Lancaster, a research assistant professor and beef cattle nutritionist for the BCI pointed out that producers can stockpile winter annuals, as well as perennials.

For instance, in previous work, John Jennings, Extension forage specialist at the University of Arkansas explained that planting annuals after mid-October and into November will establish them, but forage production will be delayed for grazing until February to early March.

Think here of things like planted or overseeded winter wheat, annual ryegrass or fall oats.

“The benefit of overseeding with those types of plants is that cattle will get a small benefit from fall grazing,” said Brad White, DVM, BCI director.

“This strategy will also provide some early spring grazing opportunities for cows ahead of rebreeding.”

Lancaster added that rebreeding rates often increase with such management because cows can remain in positive body condition.

“Producers need to consider the nutritional requirements of the animal consuming the forage,” Lancaster explained “For example, if I am going to put spring calving cows in late gestation on a field, then a winter annual may not be the most cost effective. But if there are calves that are going to be weaned in the next month and backgrounded on my pastures, the winter annual may provide some high-quality forage and add weight to the calves.”

Of course, grazing management also demands consideration.

“Dr. Paul Beck’s work has shown that cows limit-grazed on winter annuals two days per week and fed hay the remaining time perform quite well,” according to Jennings. In that study, the grazing day was an eight-hour day and not a 24-hour period.

Incidentally, Paul Beck, an associate professor of animal science at Oklahoma State University (OSU) is noted for decades of research into integrated grazing systems for sustainable, economical, and environmentally sound forage and beef production. He spent much of his career at the University of Arkansas.

More specifically, in some of Beck’s research, “Winter-annual Pasture as a Supplement for Beef Cows,” he and fellow researchers explain, “Cows limit-grazed on wheat, rye, and annual ryegrass pasture two days per week maintained body weight and body condition score as well as cows supplemented with a concentrate-based supplement. Grazing pasture three days versus two days per week did not seem to improve the performance of cows or calves, and this increase in grazing may be deleterious to conception rates.”

“As forage growth increases during the early spring, cows can be allowed to graze more frequently,” Jennings said. “This is an effective way to match the increased nutrient requirements of spring calving cow herds and to supplement low quality hay. Some acres can be planted early for fall/winter and spring pasture and other acres can be planted in October for spring grazing to match herd needs.”

Dustin Pendell, K-State agricultural economist, emphasized during the BCI podcast the importance of assessing costs, as with any strategy.

In the case of stockpiling forage, for instance, he explained, “Think about the costs tied into feeding the harvest-

ed forages in the winter, not to mention the amount of time it takes to feed the cattle, and weigh that against the investment of letting the cattle graze late into the season. If you add on fertilizer, that is another expense to include in your calculations.”

Or, as Larson explained, “Producers need to look at all the costs, not just the cost of the calories but also the cost of getting those calories into the cows.”

While it comes with its own set of challenges, Lalman also points to another form of limit-feeding hay as an option for some. He emphasizes the practice only should be considered for mid-aged cows and good quality hay.

With those caveats in mind, for producers with mid-aged cows in a body condition score (BCS) of at least 4-5, limit-feeding hay offers similar

benefits associated with limit-feeding other rations to other classes of stock.

It improves feed efficiency, increases digestibility and decreases waste.

Based on previous research, Lalman says giving cows access to hay for six hours each day—fencing off hay feeders as an example—rather than unlimited access, reduces intake by 20%-25%.

If access can’t be restricted, Lalman suggests estimating the amount of hay cows require daily and then reducing it by 25%.

Across 85-90 days, Lalman says research indicates that cows limit-fed hay will lose 20-40 pounds or about half of a BCS. If it is a viable option, Lalman explains the strategy means the opportunity to reduce hay needs by 25%.

Extending Hay, Reducing Cost Avoiding waste is perhaps the easiest, most cost-effective way to improve utilization of harvested forage.

David Lalman, Extension beef cattle specialist with Oklahoma State University (OSU) points out any type of hay feeder is more efficient than using none at all, but different types of the common bale ring feeders yield dramatically different levels of waste.

For instance, in OSU research, an open-bottom bale ring—no sheeting around the bottom—meant about 21% of the hay was wasted.

Compare that to about 5% wasted with a modified cone feeder. Just adding sheeting to the bottom of an open-bottom bale ring reduces waste from 21% to about 13%, Lalman says.

Suppose you roll out large bales, though.

“Rolling hay out is a great way to distribute grazing and distribute hay feeding manure and hay waste,” Lalman explains. “It can also serve as a simple limit-feeding strategy by only putting out the amount of hay the cows will clean up.”

For instance, Lalman ran the numbers for rolling out bales to an 80-cow herd in February, March and half of April—150,000 pounds of hay fed, assuming 25 pounds per head per day. He calculated that leaves 31,500 pounds of hay waste and 57,000 pounds of manure generated. That makes for 51,000 pounds of organic matter from the manure and 21,825 pounds of organic matter from the wasted hay, assuming wastage is 15% of hay fed. So, that’s 72,825 pounds of organic matter available to distribute. Considering manure and hay waste together, Lalman says that offers 1,221 pounds of nitrogen and 768 pounds of phosphorous.

“If you’re going to have hay waste, consider it fertilizer and spread it in the pasture,” Lalman says.

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page 20

Fall 2020

“More ammo!” screamed Aunt Pinky when she heard Hooter and Cousin Charlie come up behind her.

There was no telling how long she’d been out of shells, but she continued to pump the shotgun mechanically, calmly drawing a bead where she saw birds or thought she saw them, squeezing the trigger, hearing the empty click, repeating.

She was sitting at her picnic table; two sacks of dog food stacked in front of her for a gun rest. There were at least three saddle blankets draped over her right shoulder to absorb the kick.

Hooter gently took the gun from her. It was the old Stevens 20 gauge pump-action he remembered as a kid. His late Uncle Franklin bought it mail-order through Sears and Roebuck way back when.

If memory served, the gun held five shells. Judging by the colorful assortment of hulls and boxes littering the immediate area, Aunt Pinky had been at it for a while.

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As Cousin Charlie led Aunt Pinky to the house, Hooter surveyed the carnage.

There’s something tragic about a ripe pumpkin—still on the vine— spilling its seedy guts from a jagged hole blown through its orange skin.

They were everywhere. The corn in Aunt Pinky’s garden hadn’t fared much better. Of course, her usually pristine garden was already looking ragged before the shooting spree.

Aunt Pinky’s young oak trees were riddled with shot, too. These were the ones planted to replace the old ones that died out after Aunt Pinkly peppered them relentlessly in order to get rid of a couple of woodpeckers.

Her prey this time around were the great-tailed grackles, pájaro diablo—devil bird. If you’ve ever experienced them, then you understand that they’re more than an irritating nuisance. They can cause a fair bit of damage to crops, never mind the deluge of excrement. They’ve got a bully’s attitude, too.

Some usually showed up in and around Apache Flats at the onset of fall for a week or two, then moved further east or south. The relative few that marauded Aunt Pinky’s trees always seemed to leave a few days after she hung some homemade contraptions in the trees that she called googeldy-eyed varmints. They were round, plywood cutouts painted to look like two giant,

scary eyes. Pinwheels were attached to each sinister orb, to spin in concert with the breeze. Aunt Pinky didn’t know whether it was the eyes or the sound of the pinwheels, but she was convinced that her varmints were doing the trick.

Until this year.

The more googeldy-eyed varmints she hung, the more winged rodents descended on her place like a plague of locusts. Thousands of them flew, dove, perched and harassed.

Hooter looked over at Aunt Pinky’s highly polished Lincoln, which had been pelted with a barrage of thick Grackle droppings. He knew that must have been the last proverbial straw, the final indignation that sent Aunt Pinky looking for Uncle Franklin’s gun.

Even as Hooter surveyed the damage—including too few grackle carcasses—flocks of the horrible creatures were already coming back, landing, strutting, puffing out their chests and fairly well thumbing their beaks at the world.

Bang, Bang Bang!

Hooter and Charlie had already tried the solutions they’d heard about.

They hung metal buckets in the lower branches of the trees, loaded them up with firecrackers and assembled a long fuse so that each bucket-load would go off one after the other— bang, bang, bang!

All that happened was that they blew the bottoms out of three good buckets and started one small grass fire; thankfully, contained in short order.

They’d heard that red and green laser lights confused the birds and made them want to leave. They didn’t have any laser lights. Instead they strung together some of Aunt Pinky’s Christmas wheels—basically spotlights with revolving multi-colored lens covers— that cast intermittent shades of red, blue and green. The birds seemed to enjoy the festive array.

They went as far as making a trip to Fort Worth for some grape seed extract. Supposedly, grackles disliked both the smell of the stuff and how it felt on their feet. The cousins loaded the soap tank of a power washer with the extract and sprayed the trees. If anything, it seemed to attract more birds.

Aunt Pinky was growing more impatient.

“I’m just about loaded back up,” she told the boys as they sipped tea at

her dinner table following their most recent failure. “You’ve got one more day, then it’s my turn again.”

“Huh?” Aunt Pinky swung open a cupboard door. The inside looked to be bulging at the seams with ammo.

“You boys likely don’t remember who did the reloading for Franklin,” she said. “I’m pretty good at it. Remember, one more day.”

All that was left in their bag of tricks was a propane cannon. Cousin Charlie researched them on the internet. The cheapest one they found cost hundreds of dollars.

That Thing About Combustion “I’ll bet half the cost in those storebought contraptions is for the regulator valve,” Hooter had reckoned.

Even if they were willing to spend the jingle, there was no time to order one. They knew that their “one more day” had begun as soon as Aunt Pinky told them.

“If we do it right, one big boom in each tree ought to do the trick. So, all we have to do is figure out how to seal up some propane in a tube, in which we can cause a spark,” Hooter explained as he and Charlie trudged to the shop.

They settled for a 3-foot section of 4 inch PVC pipe with caps on each end. They drilled a hole in one cap for an inlet valve and a larger hole in the center of the pipe for a spark plug.

“We hang this in the tree,” explained Hooter, holding up the empty pipe.

“We hang this old ignition coil near it, which we hook to the spark plug with a plug wire. Then we run the coil leads to a 12-volt battery. Touch the positive wire to the hot post and you’ve got yourself a spark inside that propane gas tube.”

The design was elegant, in a primitive kind of way.

It’s not that Hooter and his cousin doubted the likely success of their experiment. But, they did start with a tree in the grass trap near Aunt Pinky’s house rather than one right next to the house. They did use 50 feet of wire for the leads to the ignition coil. And, they did take time to dig a bunker several feet deep, from which they could ignite the tube.

All of their safeguards proved to be the smartest parts of the experiment.

Hooter held up the positive lead, peered through his chipped and scarred safety glasses at Cousin Charlie, “Ready?”

Charlie stared back through his own wrecked safety goggles and nodded.

Hooter touched the positive lead to the positive battery post.

KaaaaaaaBooooooooom!

The ground shook. Dirt, bark and leaves showered down on the occupants of the makeshift fox hole. They peered out. The tree was mostly gone.

“Maybe a little heavy on the gas,” Hooter muttered.

“Or the electricity,” Charlie said.

“Look,” said Hooter, pointing through the dust and smoke. The grackles flocked together and were heading north. Then, they circled around, came back and crowded into the trees close to Aunt Pinky’s house, cackling, chattering, scratching and pecking.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom Aunt Pinky waved.

Editor’s message continued Continued from page 3 _____________________________________

is in the store, online or venturing back to a restaurant patio to enjoy a meal while practicing social distance. We’ve come a long way from extra lean, slightly marbled and inconsistent eating experiences to the beef choices today.

Regardless of where a consumer purchases beef, the quality of the

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*Dr. Bob Hough, Western Livestock Journal, “Breed trends in feeder cattle,” January 2020.

Kansas State University Superior Livestock Auction data analysis, 35,483 lots of beef calves marketed via 211 video auctions, 2010-2018.

SIM 2020StatsAds_DemandDriver_8.125x10.875_r1v1.indd 1

5/12/20 8:21 AM

F&R Livestock Resource page 21

$Profit is making a big difference in our cow herd.

We are putting less feed into the cows and getting better production. The entire calf crop graded 93% Choice and over 50% CAB and higher. Out of our first calvers, 100% graded Choice or higher. That’s progress! ~ Eddie Clement, Manager Stirrup Bar Ranch Crawford, CO

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Updated Gator™ Utility Vehicles are Easier to Operate and Provide Improved Control

Utility vehicle owners need dependable, durable and easy-to-use vehicles to get the job done on the farm, ranch or yard. To address this need, John Deere is updating its legendary line of Gator™ Utility Vehicles(UVs).

Operators will find the updated units include new automotive-like features that make the vehicles easier to operate and provide improved control in a variety of terrain.

When operators take a seat in a new Model Year ’21 Gator Utility vehicle, the first thing they’ll notice is the improved instrument cluster on the dashboard. The new instrument cluster provides more information at a glance, including gear position, fuel level, differential lock, and on some models, an RPM readout and service interval indicator.

Updated John Deere Gator Utility Vehicles, including the HPX Work Series, Mid-Size XUVs, and FullSize XUVs, offer an integrated park position and improved shift pattern for easier operation and a more automotive-like feel. The updated units also feature instant four-wheel drive

that’s easily engaged with the flip of a switch to power through tough conditions and provide more control when going downhill.

Operators will also appreciate the upgraded automotive-style power steering on the Gator XUV M and R models, which provide smoother steering and better control on all terrains.

“For 2021, we took a look at our Gator line-up and made improvements to the transmission controls, digital displays, gear positions and power steering,” said Mark Davey, John Deere marketing manager.

“Customers will find that our updated units are easier to shift and control, provide instant engagement of 4-wheel drive and differential lock, and provide more information on the dashboard.”

The versatility of these vehicles is enhanced by a full range of over 100 attachments, including sprayers, snow blades and winches to help get any job done. The units are available in green, olive and new for model-year ’21, TrueTimber® camo.

Updated Gator™ Utility Vehicles are easier to operate and provide improved control.

The John Deere Gator™ XUV865R has a new instrument cluster that provides more information at a glance.

page 22

Fall 2020

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