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Over My Shoulder

published: March 5th 2010
by: J.D. Sartwelle, Jr.

The short month of the year is now over and from the standpoint of weather, most want to see it over with.  From the markets standpoint most would like to see February prices hang around for a good while.  Meanwhile in Washington, the biggest news to us ag folks might be that USDA is back to the drawing board with a national ID system.
    February weather across the nation was harsh and helped to make this winter a very long one in most parts of the country.  It’s taken its toll on livestock from production areas to the feeding areas and has caused lots of losses in terms of lost animals, lost performance and monetary costs and losses.  Depending on where you were in the country, it was excessive snow, rain, mud, temperature or whatever, and generally made life with livestock miserable.  February is now over with and the first spring month is now on us.  More moderate temperatures are in the near future and it seems there will plenty of moisture in most places.  As usual though, there are a few areas particularly in far south Texas that haven’t received what they should to get spring off to a good start.
    The weather was cold on the East Coast, but hot in Washington as talk of another go round of health care debate heated up during the month.  Of interest to ag folks, Secretary of Agriculture, Vilsack, announced that USDA had listened to the industry during the fall in hearings around the country concerning NAIS (National Animal ID System) and was scrapping those plans.  He asked for industry help in establishing a trace back system beginning with livestock that entered interstate commerce.  We’ll have to see how all of this plays out.
    In the feedyards, where ever they are, snow and rain made for muddy, sloppy conditions that affected performance and yields and added days to feeding time.  As ready supplies of harvest ready cattle slowed down, packers hunted for supplies and fed prices jumped from the mid eighties to the low nineties.  Quality, yields, and carcass weight all took hits because of the weather.
    Meanwhile in the country, farmers twiddled their thumbs, unable to burn any diesel and work some land for the first time since the late harvests of last year.  Cowboys caught a little break from January weather and worked a few cattle and came to town with a large number of still big calves.  While they were able to work a few cattle, numbers were basically short and demand began to grow with the spring moisture prospects.  Slaughter cows and bulls took quantum leaps in prices as well as the feeder cattle.  The light weight calves jumped well over the dollar bill while the heavier steer and heifer calves sold high nineties to over the dollar.  Slaughter cows sold into the sixties while the best bulls sold into the seventies.
    The pork complex with slightly fewer numbers sold into the mid fifties and were affected with movement difficulties just like the fed cattle.
    Spring is around the corner for us in the southern areas and a little longer for those in the north.  Daylight hours are increasing and we’ll start to warm up.  When we dry up a little, we ought to jump start the planted green grazing, clover, and winter grasses before a full fledged spring.  It really needs to get here pretty quick because most folks are running out of hay.  Come on March.