What the he!@ is going on here

[plbcattle]

This is bugging me so I got to get it off my chest. I feed around 200 head of registered Brangus. Bulls on test,heifers,cows,recips, everything we do at the farm. My feed bill is crazy. this isnt about if feeding is the thing to do or not, if your in the registered business, your feeding or your getting left behind. My gripe is feed goes up every stinking month. The fertilizer,desiel,corn, grain spike seems to have stabalized. My feed per ton has almost doubled since last year. I could see the price adjust when all these commodities went up. But the feed keeps going up and those prices seem to stabalize since they started going up. Nothing that goes into making the product has gone up enough to warrant my feed going up 50%. i know eggs,milk,and meat went up a little but only once and it is fairly stable. What the heck gives. Its like the feed stores bring it up every month to see what price we will pay. I know danm good and well that there production cost have not doubled but my feed sure has. why does it continue to rise when the other inputs havent. You cant keep paying double your feed bill when the price of cattle hasnt doubled or even gone up much. We also have to pay the high fuel,fertilizer,feed prices and then were also getting it double by the feed companies.

Surely im not the only one to gripe and notice this.

 

[TexasBred]

Pb...I'll list you some current feed ingredient prices compared to say a year ago.

2006 ............................... 2007-08

Corn 110.00 ton ................................ 188.00 ton
DDG 145.00 " ................................. 200.00 "
Milo 90.00 " ................................. 175.00 "
C/Seed Meal 162.00 " ................................ 350.00 "
Soybean Meal 300.00 " ................................ 415.00 "
Wheat Middlings 100.00 " ................................ 200.00 "
Rice Bran 112.00 " ................................ 160.00 "
Vitamin E-50 2.28 lb ................................ 12.50 lb.
Vitamin A-1000 6.00 lb ................................ 16.00 lb.
Copper and other minerals ... up 300% or more
Filler (rice hulls etc) 22.00 ton ................................. 60.00 ton

These will vary some from place to place but should give you an idea of what your feed store is dealing with as well. I doubt he's making as much today as he was last year. :cry2:

 

[backhoeboogie]

I doubt he's making as much today as he was last year. :cry2:

Some maw and pop feed stores tell me there are times they buy sacked feed on pallets, sell it, then turn around and buy replacement stock for more than what they sold this week's feed. Essentially they are selling it this week for below cost for next week.

 

[Brute 23]

Yup... its a mo-fo.

I would like Texas A&M and all these other peoples to start putting prices what it costs to do all the "reccomended" ways to raise beef cattle they say are necessary and then put how much they predict you can make off of doing it there way... but that would be like putting a politicain on a lie detector test. :roll:

 

[backhoeboogie]

For the most part, my cattle don't get sack feed. They get occasionally cubes so that I can change pastures or coax them into the working pens. That is pretty much it other than loose minerals.

When I am feeding out steers for slaughter for myself or for customers, I buy a lot of feed.

Right now I am pen feeding some feral hogs that I trapped and I am also buying corn to bait traps with. That throws me in the feed store talking to those folks a bit more often. They're good folks and I enjoy seeing them.

 

[john250]

PLB, you say stable several times in your post. No offense, but nothing is stable. I just went to town and gasoline has jumped $.20 since yesterday. The CBOT has expanded wheat trading limits to $.60/day. Corn and Beans are slightly less volatile, but that may change tomorrow. Unless you mean stable in the sense that "gas prices will rarely be less than $3 and corn will rarely be less than $5.
The chart TexasBred put up had a shocker for me--vitamins. Vitamin E is up 448%! Vitamin A 166%!
Where is that increase coming from? Not oil, and not grain prices. I don't know how vitamins are produced. Maybe someone else does??
Cattlemen are getting the shaft in all this. Stuck with cattle prices lower than two years ago and no improvement seen, in the short term. And, a likely recession to check consumers ability to buy steaks.
There is a real war going on--the fight for acres. Cows aren't winning that fight.

 

[TexasBred]

John, like so many other things much of the vitamins for cattle feeds come from our dear friends over in communist China. A recent explosion in one of the plants was the justification to ram those huge increases down everyone's throats.

 

[john250]

John, like so many other things much of the vitamins for cattle feeds come from our dear friends over in communist China. A recent explosion in one of the plants was the justification to ram those huge increases down everyone's throats.

An explosion in a vitamin plant??? I'm going to go clean out the medicine cabinet.

 

[dun]

John, like so many other things much of the vitamins for cattle feeds come from our dear friends over in communist China. A recent explosion in one of the plants was the justification to ram those huge increases down everyone's throats.

An explosion in a vitamin plant??? I'm going to go clean out the medicine cabinet.

Probably hadn;t put enough lead in the pills

 

[GMN]

Yep last month in January our cow grain went up over $100, and its still on the move, but not near as bad as January. I think its the darn ethanol thing, pushing the price of corn out of this world.

I agree with you something will have to give, I know we sure can't afford to pay several hindred dollars a more a month for grain, when milk prices have gone down. Its a viscious cycle, and one the farmers will not be able to win.

GMN

 

[TexasBred]

GMN are you a dairyman? If so then you do have a nice feed bill every month. And yes it looks like milk is coming down as well. Nice to have a price for a few month that will allow you take the family out to eat occasionally but you always know it won't last long. People don't understand that when milk prices go down a couple of dollars a hundred you're in the hole cause seldom if ever do you make a couple dollars a hundred profit. Young dairymen with debt for livestock and facilities don't have a chance.

 

[MikeC]

We ain't seen nothing for feed prices yet.

Just wait till next year. :roll:

 

[backhoeboogie]

We ain't seen nothing for feed prices yet.

Just wait till next year. :roll:

Mike if that is true, I think we'll see some maw and paw feed stores go under. If they are paying more for next week's feed than what they sold this week's for, they'll go broke in a hurry.

 

[MikeC]

We ain't seen nothing for feed prices yet.

Just wait till next year. :roll:

Mike if that is true, I think we'll see some maw and paw feed stores go under. If they are paying more for next week's feed than what they sold this week's for, they'll go broke in a hurry.

You'll see some empty pastures too.

Wouldn't it be nice to be in Central America where the seasons don't change and the grass grows year round? I just danged well believe that I could turn a profit there! :lol:

 

[TexasBred]

Just a shot in the dark but I think feed will go up $30-40 a ton April 1st when all those feed companies contracts run out. Don't see anything going down for sure. And if it's dry again we may see that $80-100 roll of hay again. I may have to see if I can get my old job back singing the national anthem at the cock fights. :lol2:

 

[Brute 23]

We ain't seen nothing for feed prices yet.

Just wait till next year. :roll:

Mike if that is true, I think we'll see some maw and paw feed stores go under. If they are paying more for next week's feed than what they sold this week's for, they'll go broke in a hurry.

You'll see some empty pastures too.

Wouldn't it be nice to be in Central America where the seasons don't change and the grass grows year round? I just danged well believe that I could turn a profit there! :lol:

I know of a couple people who manage ranch properties and they have gone with their investors and purchased places like 350,000 in Argentina. :nod: I bet you can get things done alot cheaper down there.

I am all for free enterprise but the gov. needs to take control of these oil companys and cap what they can charge. They already do it to untility companies because it is a necessity. Gasoline is a necessity also. IF it shoots sky high its going to put people out of business and trickle down into American homes.

 

[larryshoat]

Everything runs in cycles . When corn was $1.80 we knew that could not last, you sure can't raise it for less than $2.00 .If you want to see something real ugly look at the hog business right now . At least the cattle can eat some cheaper feeds . Markets always move from being overbought to being oversold or, vice versa .

Larry

 

[JMichal]

I read an article last week that claimed the Big Oil companies were buying up alot of the corn. One reason was it is cheaper now than will be next year, another is they want to use it for their ethanol and force the small time ethanol producers out. They can do it. Especially when they keep reporting record profits. I don't get it. When JR took office we all should have sold our cows and invested in the oil companies and Halliburton. Thats where their money is. If Hillary gets in we need to invest in Latex. Protection with condoms. What do we invest in if Osama gets in.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Looks like your are going to have to start selecting for cattle that can perform on grass only. I think this is going to become more apparent to the new cattleman with rising cost. Have to go back to the old fashion way, cattle that perform on grass and hay only.

 

[onecowfarms1]

I read an article last week that claimed the Big Oil companies were buying up alot of the corn. One reason was it is cheaper now than will be next year, another is they want to use it for their ethanol and force the small time ethanol producers out. They can do it. Especially when they keep reporting record profits. I don't get it. When JR took office we all should have sold our cows and invested in the oil companies and Halliburton. Thats where their money is. If Hillary gets in we need to invest in Latex. Protection with condoms. What do we invest in if Osama gets in.

jerry-gel and chickens