Welcome to the Friday edition of the HOT BARN REPORT
Heard ONLY on American radio stations across the nation and online at hotbarnreport.com!
Karina Jones, Field Director for R-Calf USA joins us each Friday from her ranch in the heart of Nebraska covering what’s new and important to the family farm and ranch.
Cows Build Towns!
Welcome to special Friday edition of Hot Barn Report!
I took a special trip this week to Hot Barn reporting market, North Platte Stockyards. As I was getting close to North Platte, I realized I really didn’t know where I was going. I imagined that it was somewhere along the railroad tracks that run parallel to I-80 because as a cattle producer born and raised in “The Beef State” you know that most auction markets were built along rail lines. Cows Build Towns.
Sure enough, as I got into the North Platte city limits I was able to follow the usual flow of cattle trailer traffic right down to North Platte Stockyards. It was everything I imagined it to be and I could see the history with out knowing the story. A historic brick stockyard building that had been restored and 50 yards away laid the Union Pacific rail line that still runs today and has ran for more than a century through that same path. Cows Build Towns.
Wow! I could see how the back pens and alleys had been rebuilt with pride and vision for withstanding the future. I overlooked pens of Herefords from the Monohan ranch and I couldn’t help but think that a hundred years ago, on this very real estate were pens of Herefords brought in from the surrounding Sandhills, to this very stockyard to be exchanged and put on rail cars. Cows Build Towns.
Once inside, I could appreciate the history that every brick and board held. But, what was present was stands full of cattle producers. Consignors hoping for the best and that the market would be kind, maybe even perhaps generous. Buyers who were optimistic that with tightening cattle market supplies would mean today’s purchases would be profitable when fed out. And just like I have witnessed every week, at barns are across the Midwest, the greatest business transaction in the American economy happened over and over again in that sale ring. Cows Build Towns.
For a short period of time, the sale was put on pause to raise money for R-CALF USA, the largest cattle producer only organization to continue the fight to reinstate mandatory country of origin labeling on beef and create fair and competitive fat cattle markets. Because without some drastic cattle industry reform that allows the independent cattle producer to not just break even to be profitable and build equity, rural America is in the cross hairs of a corporate take over. I know just how fragile this entire system is and so do all of the business and cattle producers that supported R-CALF that day. Cows Build Towns.
My friend Steve Stratford from Pratt Livestock is who I heard originally coin the phrase, “Cows Build Towns”, but once I heard it, it was burned into my bones. Infact, next week on my Your Ag Network program, Ranch Raised, I will talk deep dive into the America that the cattle industry has built! Thank you to the Hot Barn reporting barns who have played a part in building their town!
Thank you to the Hot Barns that have helped build their towns: Crawford Livestock, Lemmon Livestock, Mobridge Livestock, Stockmans Livestock, North Platte Stockyards, Creighton Livestock, Presho Livestock, Platte Livestock and Bassett Livestock!
See more at HOT BARN REPORT
Lemmon Livestock, INC.
Presho Livestock Auction
Mobridge Livestock
Platte Livestock Market
Stockmen’s Livestock
Crawford Livestock Market
North Platte Stockyards
Bassett Livestock Auction
