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.
Walter Cronkite once said, “In seeking the truth you have to get both sides of the story.”
Thanks for tuning into this Friday edition of Hot Barn Report! If you have had any exposure to any big ag media sources this last week, I’m sure you’ve seen the same headlines that I have, cheering for beef exports.
To the unsuspecting, non-cattle owners, I’m sure it was easy to cheer along and maybe do a fist pump and say, “You go beef.” For myself, I think, “well that is weird, if exports are up and American beef is in such high demand, why is our fat cattle market so stagnant?”
As I wait by my mailbox wondering if I will ever get any return on all these beef exports that the media is touting, I decide surely, there has to be more to the story. I mean after all, always trust your gut instinct. You are not paranoid, wink, wink.
So, I key up that trusty USDA beef import and export data and there I discover THE REST OF THE STORY!
In January of 2021 the US imported 224,000,000 lbs of beef. In January 2022 we apparently wanted to start the year with bang by importing almost 352,000,000 lbs of beef for a 57% INCREASE over the previous January. That seems pretty notable. Like it should made some of these beef trade press releases, eh.
Let’s look a little further into imports. Where did all this beef come from in January, 2022? What a shocker! Remember how I have talked numerous times on Hot Barn Report about the Brazilian BSE issue last fall and how all of the major cattle organizations had urged the USDA to suspend beef imports from Brazil until they could prove themselves as a trustworthy source of beef? I think those of us who were raising a stink over Brazilian beef imports just got the proverbial “shove it” from the powers that be because in January of 2022 we imported almost 100,000,000 lbs of beef from Brazil which is almost as much as we imported from them in the combined first 5 months of 2021!
With a shrinking US cow herd and more cattle producers throwing in the towel every day, it is no wonder no one is coming to the rescue. The global packing conglomerates already have their supply chains wide open to ship in beef to replace and displace domestic supply. If the beef packing lobbyists can keep Washington DC fed with the status quo, they can continue to deceive the American consumer at the meat counter and suffocate the independent American cattle industry.
Just a word to my fellow cattle producers. The beef export market is not our news. You and I will never get that paycheck because we are not exporters, we are cattle producers. Keep your eye on the story no one is telling, beef imports! That data is updated every month on the USDA website and stay tuned in right here to Hot Barn Report for the WHOLE story!
Monte James will be right back here on Monday with all the action from the hottest barns in the nation:
Presho Livestock, Mobridge Livestock, North Platte Stockyards, Lemmon Livestock, Crawford Livestock, Stockman’s Livestock, Platte Livestock, Creighton Livestock, and Bassett Livestock!
The HOTTEST sale barns in America
See more at HOT BARN REPORT
As always buy ’em up online at CattleUSA.com
Creighton Livestock Market
Lemmon Livestock, INC.
Presho Livestock Auction
Mobridge Livestock
Platte Livestock Market
Stockmen’s Livestock
Crawford Livestock Market
North Platte Stockyards
Bassett Livestock Auction
