THEE Hot Barn Report!
Heard ONLY on American radio stations across the nation and online at hotbarnreport.com!!
Welcome to America’s Hot Barn Report now heard coast to coast and border to border
It is official, we have just confirmed our 12th reporting barn for the big fall run. We now blanket the great Northern beef belt from Motely, Minnesota to Torrington, Wyoming.
The Hot Barn Report is a fast paced and entertaining daily program covering the latest news and trends in the cattle industry, hosted by Monte James, a veteran rodeo announcer, radio host and industry expert! The Hot Barn Report features interviews with industry leaders, market analysts, producers and ranchers and features True Price Discovery from salebarns in Great Northern Beef Belt and across the nation.
I’m really about to date myself but do we have any Dan Seals fans listening? And if you don’t know who that is, your homework for the day is to google, “Meet Me in Montana.” Welcome to this specialg Friday edition of the Hot Barn Report.
There have been some absolute barn burner video sales taking place and the action happening live in the auction barns hasn’t been anything to look down your nose at. There is no doubt that this cattle market is exciting and exhilarating, especially if you are an analyst or commentator that doesn’t actually have to raise the cattle and pay the bills.
What no one seems to be connecting is the fact that inflation continues to outpace all livestock markets. The consumer price index was just released this week as rising 3.2% over last July.
So what does this mean for the men and women who work the land, tend to the herds and are trying to feed this country? It means tough times, beans and weenies. No matter how illustrious the calf check gets, there is still another side of the balance sheet that has to cash out at the end of the year.
Unfortunately, input costs only seem to be hardening and frozen at these elevated levels that producers haven’t bargained for. As analysts focus on only one side of the cattle cycle, the market side, producers struggle to balance these inflationary costs. Usually during times of high cattle markets, producers are looking to offset income with capital upgrades, a new baler for the wife, a new rake for the kids. But not this time around. Most are consumed by the day to day expenses to keep operations viable. Fence posts to fuel are all exponentially higher this time when the markets are high.
Who can forget that the fed has hiked the benchmark interest rates 11 times since March of 2022. Few in production agriculture are operating on their own money. So this variable alone, has left a mark on operations and their sit this round out approach to expansion.
I have no doubt for these reasons building the domestic herd will continue to be a spectator sport and not one thriving with participation. Young producers don’t have enough equity or bargaining power to walk into the bank. Mature producers have been through these high interest cycles and are ready to get off the spinning wheel and take the wife on a vacation.
The bigger question for me is what happens if nothing changes? Despite strong support from the countryside and urban consumers, Congress continues to be more interested in protecting their foreign interests in food supply. DC looks down at the idea of labeling beef with its country of origin in favor of live cattle imports from Mexico and beef imports from country with known history of cattle diseases. The US continues to elevate free trade opportunities for lamb from Australia and New Zealand, decimating our domestic sheep industry. And the betrayals to rural America, by our own government go on and on.
So while these cattle markets are bright and shiny, Dan Seals also wrote another one of my favorites, “Everything that glitters is not gold.”
Come back on Monday and Monte will fill you in on all the action at 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.
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