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.
Happy Friday! I feel like this week has me appreciating the history of the cattle industry more than ever before and what it did for America! On my other program, “Ranch Raised with Karina Jones”, I have been celebrating the iconic history of the Omaha Stockyards. You can catch all of the episodes on the Your Ag Network App or Website.
I am a complete sap for cattle industry history. Learning about the Omaha Stockyards just leaves me in complete awe! In 1883 Wyoming rancher Alexander Swan came to Nebraska to persuade investors to build a stockyard in Omaha which would save his cattle 70 hours on a train to the Chicago stockyards. Once the pens and stockyard were up, it didn’t take long for the meat packers and slaughterhouses to come and build right alongside. And then we would see banks, cafes, hotels and more businesses be built around the stockyards in South Omaha.
At its height, the Omaha stockyard covered almost 250 acres! The stockyard alone employed over 400 people. The surrounding 19 meat companies and auxiliary businesses employed half of the Omaha workforce! In 1910, 20,000 animals were arriving DAILY including cattle, sheep, hogs, and goats from all over the American west!
By the end of World War 2, they would move 7.7 million head of livestock in a year. They were now receiving cattle from 30 different states and Canada. On any given market day in the mid-50s, over $2.5 million dollars’ worth of livestock was handled – that’s over $18 million worth in today’s dollars.
Every day the Omaha meat packing companies and others competed for livestock in the greatest transaction in the American economy. Right there in a sale ring! If I could turn back time..
The truth is, THAT is what keeps me fighting so hard TODAY! What the American cattle industry used to have continues to erode, COMPETITION! And I won’t stand for it!
Meet me at the Black Hills Stockshow next week to talk about cattle industry issues and solutions! I will be at the R-CALF USA and South Dakota Stockgrowers booth all week! On Tuesday, February 1 come check out the cattle industry town hall meeting in the Barnett Arena at the Monument center. If you can’t make it, our Your Ag Network top hand, Jesse Stroud will be livestreaming the entire event on the Your Ag Network Facebook page and YouTube channel!
Talk about competing! Check out the competition at these Hot Barns next week! Presho Livestock, Stockman’s Livestock, Mobridge Livestock, Lemmon Livestock, Platte Livestock, Crawford Livestock, Bassett Livestock, North Platte Stockyards and Creighton 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
