Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

It appears that the South Korean government is a little out of touch with its people when it comes to US Beef. The Government has been fighting to keep US Beef out for a long time now but the door is finally cracked open and what has happened? The stores sold out of the US beef right away because it is cheap and tasty. Hell, US Beef even buoyed up sales of Australian beef because consumers decided to buy Australian once the US Beef was sold out. This really just shows what consumers want. If we get this market open it will really help the industry.

You have to demand things and believe you're worth more. And once you do demand them, you're usually going to get them. Sue Wicks

A little more information on the drought Down Under.

Cattle feed in crisis

AUSTRALIA could be importing food for cattle within weeks, as the crisis in the country's rural sector worsens, breaking more and more farmers' hearts.
Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said yesterday the "real problem" facing beef and dairy farmers across the country was the unprecedented lack of stock feed.

Unless there is substantial rainfall this weekend and over the next couple of weeks, Australia will have to look to our neighbours for help.

"The twin problems here with the fodder is it's increasingly scarce and at this rate will be totally unavailable, and secondly it's expensive – beyond the reach of most of livestock producers," Mr McGauran said.

It's getting really tough for the farmers and ranchers in Australia. Working the land is always tough but when Mother Nature doesn't cooperate it is heart breaking. My thoughts and prayers go out to these people. I would send them some rain if I could but I never know if I will have enough and it's not possible anyway.

I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us. Alice Hoffman

Drought scars Australia's land and farmers

Farmers battling Australia's worst drought on record are shooting cattle they can't feed, abandoning dustbowl farms to search for grass with hungry livestock and hand-feeding animals on moonscape paddocks.

The worst drought in 100 years has left farmers the length and breadth of Australia looking to the sky and praying for rain.

On the black soil plains near Walgett in the northwest of New South Wales state, diminutive May McKewon, 68, lives alone on her 6,000-acre (2,400-hectare) cattle property.

After seven years of drought, her son has left the family farm to earn some money, leaving her to run it on her own. Each day she hand-feeds her cattle, determined that her beloved Longview, owned by her family since the 1800s, will survive.

This is unbelievable. I sometimes wonder how healthy it is for me to obsess on drought so but I can't help myself. I read about this record drought in Australia and I wonder and worry. Will this be us next? Will I experience a drought like this? It's been dry around here, but has it been this bad? What would I do if a drought got this bad here?

Don't get me wrong, with the moisture that got put in the ground late last fall I can probably guarantee myself a half of grass crop so it won't take a lot more to limp through another year. I'm tired of limping through though. I want a wet, lush year for a change. What I want and what I get are two different things. I just don't want to see things as bad as in Australia right now.

I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us. Alice Hoffman

Cattle slaughter rate jumps as farmers battle drought

CATTLE are being slaughtered at rates not seen for 30 years, with almost three-quarters of a million killed a month as farmers battle the drought.

Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday reveal a rise in the number of cattle slaughtered for the fifth consecutive month, reaching 706,000 for November.

On some measures, the figures are reaching records not seen since the late 1970s, when farmers were reeling from a crash in the international beef price.

Industry insiders said they expected the next set of figures, which will include numbers for slaughters in December, to be even worse, and for pig and poultry numbers to be hit soon by high grain prices.

Drought affects all cultures and all areas of the world. I feel for these guys. Having to cut your herd for any reason hurts but to do it because of drought hurts twice. The endless days of waiting for rain and wondering what you are going to do for feed hurts in ways I can't explain.

I've been there, done that and I'm sure I will again. I do have to look at the up side of this though. Beef is a worldwide commodity so with fewer cattle in the system in Australia we might see the markets for calves hold up a little.

Plant diseases, drought, desolation, despair were recurrent catastrophes during the ages - and the ancient remedies: supplications to supernatural spirits or gods. Norman Borlaug

A tale of two cities for confused tourist

A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometres away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.

Dressed for the Australian summer in t-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany Saturday for a four-week holiday.

Instead of arriving "down under," Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.

It appears when this poor guy bought his ticket on line he bought a ticket for Sidney, which is in Montana, instead of Sydney, Australia where he wanted to go. The computers and web took his spelling as right and sold him the ticket he asked for.

Montana in the winter had to be a hell of a shock for him when he was expecting Australia in the summer. I bet I know somebody that will check his spelling a little more closely from now on, don't you?

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time. Winston Churchill

Farmers and Ranchers are the same all over the world when it comes to drought.

Drought, despair and the farmer

Behind us is a tin shed with bales of feed piled to the roof. There's little left for the stock, and he's forked out $8000 for the hay, the first time he's ever had to do this.

We're talking about the prospect he faces of having to start letting numbers of his cattle go, instead of continuing the job of building his own herd.

In common with most farmers, John is an optimist and, despite his worsening predicament, still has time to consider those worse off than him.

He tells me about a dairy farmer in the Western District who was obliged to sell off the herd his family had built up over generations, because he could no longer afford the spiralling price of feed.

It's amazing how continued drought on weigh in a person and drive them to despair. It gets so hard to make the tough decisions on how to cutback and where that you get tired after a while. Questions like, "Does it ever get easier?" come to mind. I'v all ready heard ranchers here lamenting that it's too dry and they will have to sell all their cows next year for lack of feed.

My sympathies and understanding go out to the farmers and ranchers of Australia. They are hurting right now in their drought and I completely understand the situation. Remember, next year will be better. You always have to believe next year will be better to keep going. That little bit of hope is sometimes all a person has.

But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of. Lord Byron

One of the things that always catches my eye is talk of a drought. I know and understand the problems this situation causes. Australia is experiencing one this year and it is pretty bad. How bad is it?

EMERGENCY supplies of grain will be imported to feed drought-stricken stock, as forecasts for Australia's winter crops and livestock are slashed by $6.2billion.

The downturn is so severe it could knock 0.7per cent off national economic growth. The Government's commodities forecaster yesterday issued its third downgrade of crop estimates in seven months.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Rural Economics predicted the smallest wheat crop in more than a decade and massive falls in barley and canola crops. Grazing stock will suffer "severe consequences".

This article from down under has the particulars but what strikes me is the .7% downturn in economic growth being forecasted. I bet it turns out to be even bigger than that. This just goes to show you how important agriculture can be to a country.

Weep not that the world changes - did it keep a stable, changeless state, it were a cause indeed to weep. William C. Bryant

Just a few different items from Australia that have caught my eye.

Drought hitting livestock prices

LIVESTOCK prices across NSW are in freefall, with farmers selling off record numbers of sheep and cattle as the drought worsens.

Meat processors say they cannot take any more livestock, and producers say they are concerned about how low prices could go.

Lately it seems like this is all a person hears about, drought, drought and more drought. Whether it's here in the US or elsewhere in the world. It sure makes life for farmers and ranchers of all types tough as the article points out. It's so dry they have to sell stock but there is nowhere for the stock to go so prices go down. Supply and demand, it can work for you, or against you.

US vows not to compete over Japanese beef market

The United States beef industry has pledged to try to expand the Japanese beef market, rather than take market share from Australia.

Australia is currently hosting beef producers from the United States, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand for the annual five nation beef talks.

If you believe this I have some swampland in Florida to sell you too. Of course we are in competition with each other for market share. That's the name of the game. Expanding the whole base is a great idea but there will be some poaching along the way. Deal with it, that's life.

Last, but not least, some notes on Australia's National Animal Identification Scheme (NLIS).

NLIS has been in effect here coming on two years. I haven’t registered my place, and I am selling cattle to a neighbor who also isn’t registered. There is one heck of an underground trade, making the whole thing pointless. I’ve always been opposed to it, but I can mount arguments for its implementation in the bigger picture. In theory it gives the customer what he wants, but in reality it has lots of big holes.

At the last bullocky [ox drover] meeting I raised the subject of just how ridiculous NLIS is, and plenty of people there were in total agreement. NLIS had just bogged them down in paperwork.

Our Patron is a retiring senator. His advise? “Just ignore it!” Which is what everybody who can already does. So it’s only those who put stock through the market that it affects. Hardly a watertight system!

“Just ignore it!” Not advice I recommend while we are trying to stop the NAIS program in the US. It might be the right move though if the system is put in place. The whole farm to factory aspect, don't believe the governments propaganda of farm to plate, the tracking stops at the slaughter house, of NAIS just gives a person a warm fuzzy felling of security doesn't it? Especially knowing that people are out there circumventing it. We in the US need to keep an eye on the Australian NLIS system and the flaws in it for ammunition to stop the movement here. Mandatory NAIS is wrong.

Australia has always been important to me. I'd love to get down there, but I'm not a booking agent. I'm not a promoter, so I haven't had control over that. Tom Cochrane

Australian Beef Producers Dread U.S. Re-entry Into Korea

Australian beef industry analyst Peter Weeks of Meat and Livestock Australia predicts that Australia's beef producers will lose 30 percent of their market in South Korea when the United States resumes beef shipments in October.

"We are looking at a 30 percent fall next year, from this year's likely 120,000 tons to about 85,000 tons," he told The Weekly Times. He said that in addition, margins will take a hit, making the business less profitable.

The impact in Korea will be far greater than the impact in Japan, he said, because Japan refuses to take beef from cattle over 20 months of age, while Korea will take beef from animals up to 30 months.

Running scared or healthy competition? All I know is that it's nice to have the opportunity to compete instead of being locked out.

Competition helps people figure it out. Brian McBride

Jolley: The Checkoff – Two Decades Of Sleeping At The Financial Switch

Beef industry leaders met in Kansas City this summer to take a fresh look at the Beef Checkoff program. The 17-member industry-wide Beef Checkoff Task Force established their mission this way: “to review, study and recommend enhancements to the Beef Act and Order for the purpose of strengthening the Checkoff for the common good of the beef industry.”

Noble charge.

One of the four points that came out of their meetings immediately stirred controversy. Although the decision to suggest an adjustment in the checkoff rate was long overdue, the size of their request was like a captive bolt to the forehead of an unsuspecting industry. Staggering to cattlemen everywhere.

The raising of the checkoff fee is very controversial to a lot of people. There are many cattle producers who disagree with the checkoff the way it is let alone if they raise the levy. The way I understand it the producers have to vote on this idea to raise the checkoff. I'm waiting for the vote so I can vote against it. How the vote will turn out I don't know. The northern states tend to oppose it more than the southern states who tend to like it. Since the producers in the south tend to be smaller than northern producers they tend to carry the day.

Of course the NCBA likes the idea and R-CALF hates the idea. I think the industry leaders are being a bunch of Lemmings. Yes Lemmings. Australia just implemented a raise in the Checkoff rate so they think we in the US need to do the same. This is the same logic the industry is using on NAIS, Australia has it so we need to.

I think we need leaders in our industry, not Lemmings that always want to do what the Australian community is doing. American cattle producers know what they are doing and raise some of the finest beef in the world. Why do we need to copy Australia? We don't, that's what our industry needs to think about and quit following Australia's example. I am not saying Australia is wrong for themselves, just that we don't need to follow them. Make our own way.

To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly. Benjamin Franklin

Australian cowboys learn once again how to ride a horse

What sort of self-respecting cowboy doesn't know how to ride a horse?

Apparently, the Australian kind. Many jackaroos and stockmen on the country's huge cattle ranches, or stations, have grown accustomed since the 1960s to rounding up herds with helicopters, motorbikes, and four-wheel drives.

That's beginning to change, however, as a growing number of ranches are getting their stockmen back in the saddle to improve the quality of the meat and to economize on fuel costs. In many cases that means sending staff back to Cowboy 101: How to handle a horse.

"The young generation have not grown up riding, as happened in the past," says Tim Gallagher, operations manager for one of the biggest cattle businesses, the Australian Agricultural Company. "We organize an induction week for all new staff, and a big part of that is teaching them how to ride, how to shoe a horse, how to fit the saddle.

Interesting story. I find the dichotomy of American way of doing things and the Australian way interesting. The Australians are going back to the horse and more and more it seems like Americans are going to four wheelers and bikes.

I know more and more places are going to a four wheeler and doing away with horses for cattle work. Probable the largest reason for this is that a person can cover a lot more country with a four wheeler over a horse so you can get more accomplished in a day. Between that and the price of a good horse the four wheeler is really attractive. I'm glad I have a hired man now to help with the riding because trying to do it myself is tough on horses. Too much country for a horse to cover with my fat body on it makes for not getting things done. I can't imagine going to four wheeler though for cow work. It just wouldn't be right.

I didn't realize that handling cattle horse back was a dying institution down under. I'm glad to hear that this is changing. That's only right.

The time is always right to do what is right. Martin Luther King, Jr.