Demise of the Family Farm

[Lucky]

It’s interesting how the cost to run cattle vary across the country. I can definitely see how land lease prices would affect the bottom line. Next in line would be the length of grazing season and stocking rates. I haven’t leased any land in several years, it’s just to hard to find anything decent in my area. I doubt I’d mess with the cattle for $100 a head.

[hurleyjd]

I really tried to keep a family farm going and realized it was a lost cause. I am glad i realized it when I was younger. I could take a bunch of french curves and triangles and a mechanical drawing pencil and make over 50K back when I was younger and glad I did. That pension and SS check makes it possible for me to subsidize the beef industry. Where would the packers be if all of us top waters quit raising beef cows. They would be up the creek without a paddle. The big ranches would hold their feet to the fire.

[HDRider]

I really tried to keep a family farm going and realized it was a lost cause. I am glad i realized it when I was younger. I could take a bunch of french curves and triangles and a mechanical drawing pencil and make over 50K back when I was younger and glad I did. That pension and SS check makes it possible for me to subsidize the beef industry. Where would the packers be if all of us top waters quit raising beef cows. They would be up the creek without a paddle. The big ranches would hold their feet to the fire.

No, they would be right where they have positioned themselves to be, selling foreign beef into the US. The cherry on top is they can label it US beef. To add insult to injury, by law, we can't find a viable processor to take our beef directly for sale to retail customers.

The processors played chess while we took a nap.

[Stocker Steve]

So our future in USA is to export tasteless pork and chicken, but import grass fed beef?

[shaz]

sure looks like it

[HDRider]

So our future in USA is to export tasteless pork and chicken, but import grass fed beef?

Our cost structure has priced us out of the beef market

Other than niche market, I think we are marching to our demise.

[hurleyjd]

I actual have part of the family farm that my Grandfather bought on Nov. 8 1885. My Dad was born there in 1910 with 13 kids by Grandfather's second and 4 kids from his first wife with all of them at home at one time. My father bought out two brothers that sold him the farm with the stipulation that we would have to keep Grand Mother for the rest of her life. At Grand father's death the farm was divided by Grandmother and the kids with each getting 1/2. The two brothers were minors and the deed to her part of the farm went to them with the stipulation they would have to keep her for the rest of her life. So my Dad got the farm and we kept Grandmother for 14 years. The farm has 75 acres in it now. And at one time was over 200. The farm was bought from a man named I.M. Thorn from New York. Mr. Thorn was given a land grant for thousands of acres for financing the Texas Revolution before Texas become a state. So it has been in the family for 134 years.

[Stocker Steve]

So our future in USA is to export tasteless pork and chicken, but import grass fed beef?

Our cost structure has priced us out of the beef market

Other than niche market, I think we are marching to our demise.

Dammm rain forest.

[shaz]

I wonder what the actual beef capacity of Brazil is? Seems like if they and India could produce enough we would have been out of business a long time ago

[HDRider]

I wonder what the actual beef capacity of Brazil is? Seems like if they and India could produce enough we would have been out of business a long time ago

We did not get in this situation overnight. It took a little while to line up all the ducks.

They shipped 1.64 million tonnes of beef last year. 1.35 m tonnes in 2013. Beef exports for 2000 were equal to 650,000 metric tons, an increase of 18 percent from the 1999 export of 550,000 metric tons.

Between 1970 and 1991, Brazil's beef-cattle herd grew at a 3.1 percent average yearly rate, from 78.5 million to 152.1 million head.

Production costs in Brazil are estimated to be 60 percent lower than in Australia and 50 percent lower than in the United States

[Stocker Steve]

[quote=HDRider Production costs in Brazil are estimated to be 60 percent lower than in Australia and 50 percent lower than in the United States
[/quote]

I found the 2004 World Bank article you seem to have quoted. They showed very low Brazilian feed costs, and cow calf returns that were 38 to 51% of revenue. I also would expand rapidly in that situation.

A hundred fifty years ago there was alot of cheap land in the western US and Canada. Then much of it was converted to growing beef. Did we go wrong somewhere?

[gcreekrch]

Cows that raised heifer calves this year left $200 in our piggy bank. The cows that raised steer calves doubled that amount. Should we cull the poor producers carrying heifer calves in 2020?

Kids don’t want the place and it is for sale.

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

g - sorry to hear that. You have a beautiful farm/operation. Do you sex your pregnancies? Or do you mean the ones that calve a heifer? I guess that would be a wise choice, if you don't need replacements.

[Ebenezer]

So our future in USA is to export tasteless pork and chicken, but import grass fed beef?

China gets imports of US produced pork with different genetics than you and I see in the grocery store. Their pork is called "silky pork" and the same looking hogs in the same type commercial farms have different genetics to make their pork to be much more tasty due to the fat in the meat being almost like marbled beef. But here in the US, we want the healthy, tasteless, lean stuff or at least that must be assumed to give us that type product.

[Dave]

Cows that raised heifer calves this year left $200 in our piggy bank. The cows that raised steer calves doubled that amount. Should we cull the poor producers carrying heifer calves in 2020?

Kids don’t want the place and it is for sale.

I knew a guy who kept and bred all his heifers. Had them ultra sounded. He kept those that would calf first and have a bull calf. A management decision. So if you had a list of potential culls because of their performance. Have them ultra sounded and sold the ones carrying a heifer. A tool for management decision which could result in making more profit. However, I wouldn't want to attach my name to them when selling if selling as bred cows. The buyer might be disappointed when he got all heifer calves.