According to the USDA, over 1000 cattle producers (ranchers) go broke every month. This is not new. It has been happening for dozens of years. Everyone with a $3 Chinese calculator knows that the sucking away of profits in multiple taxes continually eats away on every family in agriculture. But the giant government sucking-machine isn’t the only culprit. Other mistakes aid and abet in every rancher's demise
Sometimes bankers push borrowers to make quick sales at the wrong time. They may have never owned a single steer--but they can drop the hammer on a rancher and demand a pay back at absolutely the wrong time. Sometimes the profit would be much larger if the rancher held on until the perfect marketing time. Yet, the banker may be the boss.
A lot of other mistakes make 1000 good hard-working families go under every month. This article isn’t long enough to make a complete list. Let's deal with just one easy piece of a beef-eater’s pie.
All ranchers should feed-out their steers.
Most producers sell commercial beef calves in the Fall at auction and seldom know who the new buyer is. They don’t know if the steers were efficient, how they fed, or how they cut. The buyer doesn’t know where the good or bad steers came from in order to either go buy more or never buy there again. All forms of information die with each transfer of ownership. This disconnect for the beef industry costs millions. By contrast, the pork and poultry people are far wiser than cattle ranchers. When passing a truckload of chickens with feathers flying, the processor knows who the grower is and the grower knows where the hatchery is. Good or bad, they know “whodunnit.” That is big.
