HOT BARN REPORT: Friday with Karina Jones - What happened and what didn’t happen in 2022?

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HOT BARN REPORT: Friday with Karina Jones - What happened and what didn’t happen in 2022?

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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 new and important cattle industry news and policy.

What happened and what didn’t happen in 2022? Thanks for tuning in to the last Hot Barn Report of the year!

I think it is only fitting to do today’s HBR on a little wrap up of the 2022 year in the cattle industry. So let’s take a look in the rear view mirror.

We thought that 2021 could not be topped in the drought department, unfortunately Mother Nature really wanted to show off her cruelty to a whole new level. The drought deepened its grip into the plains states while continuing to stifle an allowance for moisture in the extreme west. This has led to a historical sell off of the nation’s cowherd that will be talked about for generations. The most tragic storyline of this scenario is not the cows that have departed, but the cattlemen and women who watched the gavel drop on their herd dispersals for the last time. The statistics will show the number of cattle operations that ended. I will only see the family legacies that were lost.

We all know that it will rain again, someday. I fear there will not be enough bravado, also known as equity, left in rural America to rebuild our cowherd to previous levels. But, people still gotta eat right? Absolutely! And 2022 saw us develop an alarming trend that is forecasted to work in Brazil’s favor in 2023! The USDA just released new data regarding imports share of red meat disappearance. Beef imports accounted for nearly 70 percent of total red meat imports. Import shares of red meat for domestic use have increased since 2019 on strong domestic demand. In 2023, the import share of domestic use will rise to its highest level since 2004 on higher expected imports and lower anticipated production, primarily of beef and pork. Imports of lamb meat will also rise to its highest recorded levels at almost 74 percent of domestic use. I feel like I am hearing earlier HBRs echoing back at me. Isn’t that exactly what I said would happen with a shrinking domestic cattle supply?

So that is what DID happen in 2022, but what did NOT happen? Well, we did not get The American Beef Labeling Act passed, so that means all of this imported beef gets passed off to the consumer, right alongside the beef that you and I raise. Isn’t it awesome that you and I work so incredibly hard to keep cattle alive & cared for in droughts and blizzards, while paying taxes, only for our own government to tell us that they place NO greater value on us compared to international cattle producers? And that is how the American cattle industry will fade into the horizon. Let’s see who really cares in the new year, which is coincidentally a Farm Bill year.

Look for these Diamond Dozen Hot Barns to serve your cattle marketing needs in 2023: Stockmens Livestock, Lemmon Livestock, North Platte Stockyards, St. Onge/Newell, Platte Livestock Market, Tri County Stockyards, Torrington Livestock, Creighton Livestock Market, Bassett Livestock Auction, Mobridge Livestock, Ogallala Livestock Auction Market, and Presho Livestock. Catch them all on CattleUSA.com.

Open the gate, boys, send 2022 down the alley! Next up, tag #2023!

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