“Are you Kidding Me?”
By Dennis Kenning
I try to stay away from any political topics. The topic in this article is dear to my heart and is part of our livelihood, importing Argentina beef, and the use of tariffs. All of these years of producing beef and many years of struggling to raise cattle, now our President says we need to lower beef prices for consumers. This administration is attempting to increase the supply of beef by bringing outside beef into the country. “Are you kidding me”?
By definition this is a case of market manipulation. According to Wikipedia, “Market manipulation occurs when someone or an organization intentionally alters the supply or demand to influence the price.” Clearly bringing more beef into the country is increasing the supply, thus lowering the price for the producer. Does the government tell other companies or industries that they are making too much money? Look at the profitability of companies such as Wal-Mart, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, or Exxon Mobile. How about the companies a farmer or rancher must buy from for seed, fertilizer, and chemical, their making a huge profit. You know when a producer sells his commodities he’s at the mercy of market, there’s no price fixing.
We raise and sell feeder cattle and the market has reacted to this policy of importing foreign beef. The Manhattan Commission Company in Kansas reported on November 7, 570 pound steers at $4.22 and lighter calves in the $5.00 range. On November 21 they quoted those same weights at $3.75. If you do the math, that’s a difference of $267 dollars per animal. Thank you Mr. President, I now have less income and that will not make any difference in the grocery store. I have always found it interesting that even when live beef prices fall, the price at the grocery store never seems to go down.
I have always been around cattle all of my life, and there has been good and bad years. Some years you make a little, break even, or you’re in the red. Someone told me that if farming or ranching is so tuff, just get out of it. Agriculture doesn’t work that way, you can’t jump in and out of the farming or ranching business. You don’t just say, well I’m getting out of the business and I will go back into farming in a couple of years. Once you stop, you’re done and when you let go of the land and other resources, you’re not getting them back.
The part that bothers me, we hear that beef is too high and yet no one is talking about the costs of producing beef. None of the inputs to produce beef have gone down. Try factoring such inputs such as the costs of land, machinery, animal health, storage, transportation, and labor. When has your taxes, fuel, insurance, equipment repairs went down?
A lot of people don’t understand the beef industry. A cow produces one calf per year and this means one pay check per year. Actually, you don’t get one calf per year because even under the best management you will never have a 100% calf crop. The average US calf crop is 84-85% for a commercial herd. As a producer your goal is 100% calf crop but you’re going to have some loss from such things as weather, disease, abortion, acts of nature, or other factors. So that means about 15% of the cows will lose their calf, which means if it’s a good female you’ll keep her, and feed her for another year. This just means added expense with no income from that cow.
And then, some people say we just need younger people to expand the beef industry. That would be great! Keep in mind that more land continues to be lost to urban sprawl, green energy initiatives, transportation roadways and industrial development. At the same time, a young person starting out with nothing and no family help doesn’t have a chance. I’m sorry but unless you have a rich relative that’s not going to happen. It’s a long time for a return on your investment. Keep in mind that it takes two years to produce offspring if you start with a heifer calf. So increasing the supply doesn’t happen overnight, it will take 2 to 3 years. The bottom line is that if you want to get into the cattle business you’ve got to want it, make scarifies, work your tail off, and never mind that beef manure on your boots.
There are just a lot of other issues that go along with this idea of importing beef from Argentina. One issue is labeling those products with the country of origin, so consumers know. Then how will the beef come into this country, will it be boxed beef already processed or live on the hoof? It should make consumers nervous if the beef is processed in a foreign country without USDA inspection. If live cattle come into this country for processing, what safe guards are in place for the spread of disease and parasites like the most serious “New World Screw Worm”. I’ll be honest I’m a little nervous, with the cattle market reacting to foreign beef coming into the country. Adding to this is Tyson Meat Packing House in Lexington is closing, what will that mean to our local markets?
And then we have all this talk about tariffs and China not buying US soybeans. I don’t think that people understand that agriculture is getting hooked both directions when it comes to tariffs. For example, I picked-up parts needed for a repair, examining one of the parts it read; “Made in China”. As you know, the US placed tariffs on our soybeans thus making grain unaffordable for China. So as a farmer, I’m paying tariffs for products coming into the country and then taking a hit with tariffs on commodities going out to China.
It’s tuff enough to make a buck in farming and ranching. The President keeps telling us that he is going to have a bailout for the farmers and ranchers. “Are you kidding me?” I don’t want a bailout I just need the government to stop all this market interference. You can agree or disagree, that’s just how I see it from, “My Side of the Fence”.
Around the Farm
Harvest was good; it’s a lot more fun harvesting when you have a good crop. Like another farmer told me, you don’t mind having harvest an extra week or two, because that means there is a lot more grain. After two years of drought it’s such a blessing from above to have good yields. Don’t get me wrong we had our share of hiccups along the way. We blew out a combine tire, and sheared off a drawbar on a tractor with the grain cart. So then we needed to get the grain off the cart and brought in the straight truck and proceeded to break the rear differential in that truck. We had an old grain trailer that we had to retire because the fifth wheel plate was breaking away from the main frame. I still think it was a good harvest with no major break-downs, no one got hurt, and we are still talking to one another.
Cattle did well in the pasture this summer with rainfall, and the calves look great. What a difference rainfall can make for forage. Cattle are in the corn stocks and the stover is much better than previous years, once again because of the moisture. Calves are weaned and in the feedlot.
Lots of work to do this winter with equipment to repair, fence to fix, making plans for next year, and taking care of cattle. Before you know it will be calving season. I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and please remember the reason for this season.
From My Side of the Fence Fall 2025
4-H, A Journey with a Little Surprise
By Dennis Kenning
4-H is a great program for youth teaching them responsibility, sportsmanship, hard work, dedication, and team work. I guess I owe a lot to 4-H, as it gave me a start in agriculture which lead me to FFA while in high school, and then finally to become an FFA Advisor.
This year was my granddaughter’s first year in 4-H and she selected projects for the fair with a Cat, Poultry, and Horse. Thank goodness she has an interest in horses. Nothing is better than grandkids and horses in my world. And that’s the cool part about 4-H, there is so many project areas, for kids. It truly has something for everyone. Now my granddaughter has been riding a horse since she was 5 and could actually ride on her own at age 6. If you don’t know in order to ride a 4-H horse at the county fair you must provide a demonstration, pass a written exam, and show you’re capable of riding. That’s a lot when you’re 9 years old, so this horse project has kind of been a journey for her.
So my granddaughter has been riding a paint mare for the past two years. So I’m thinking this won’t be a big deal. Her first ride this spring was a big deal when that paint mare bucked the granddaughter off. Well that’s kind of my fault you see the horse sits all winter and I fed the animal well to keep weight on the horse. The horse needed to be warmed up and had a little too much energy. Anyway, the granddaughter cried and I cried with her, and we decided to look for another horse. After days of searching, I found a roan mare from a Kansas Rescue Center. You buy these horses by video over Facebook, so you don’t get to see these horses ahead of time. We got the mare home and found out the mare could use some groceries on her, but she was not skin and bones.
My granddaughter really took to the mare and she got along great with this horse. She would ride this horse everyday if I would let her. So I had our Vet give all the necessary vaccinations and had the horse’s dental work done. I’m trying to shovel the feed to this mare and it seems like she is losing weight. Eight days later I find after-birth next to the gate. I immediately think the worst, do we have a down mare or a dead foal. So going to look for the mare, I find this mare in the middle of the pasture, when out of nowhere pops–up this new born foal. The foal has some wobbly legs but looks just fine for 12 hours old. What a “Surprise”. We had no idea that she was that far along, what a blessing from above.
So now we are all excited about the new addition, but the reality sets in that you can’t take this mare and foal to the fair. So now granddaughter starts working with the first horse that bucked her off. She takes it slow and I make sure there is no excess energy. She uses the paint horse at the fair and does really well, we were all so proud of her. Then another surprise was my granddaughter’s reaction after the 4-H Horse Show, because she is upset that this journey has ended for the year. The granddaughter is going to miss her 4-H Horse coaches that helped her each night of practice. Granddaughter will miss our trips to town to use the arena, which ended up with stops on the way home for a burger, pop, ice cream or all of the above. I’m going to miss that time I had with my granddaughter. You see, my granddaughter had been on this difficult journey, from getting bucked off, taking exams, riding a lot and time together with others. And I was the lucky one because I took this journey with her and enjoyed every minute. You see 4-H has given us this journey together. That may be the best part of 4-H, the time you spend with others and family.
Finally, what about that rescue mare and foal. The mare has been putting on some good weight and the colt’s body is filling out and he is growing like a weed. With cooler weather its fun to watch the colt gallop, jump, buck, run, and be playful. It takes me back in time, some 50 plus years ago when my Dad raised foals on our farm. The biggest issue is what do we name this new addition? The grandson calls him Oscar because when you’re six you name all your pets Oscar. The Granddaughter calls him Harry because of his very thick hair coat. For me, I just call the foal the way I see it. It’s one of those blessing and a surprise from the Lord, so I call the foal “Surprise”.
Around the Farm
What a difference one year makes in the way of precipitation. A year ago in July we were putting up hay as fast as possible, to avoid grass shrinking. This summer has been the challenge of putting up hay between rains, but hey I’m not complaining at all. If everything holds up the harvest should be good. You never count your chickens before they hatch. With all the rainfall we decided to spray our grain corn with a fungicide and I’m really glad we did so. Our silage corn had a lot of rust on it which covered the machinery. This fall we have been putting up the last of the hay and chopping silage for feed. This may be the most silage we have had in quite some time. Cattle have been doing well with plenty of grass in the pastures. This summer our battle continues with fly control and some pinkeye problems. Using GPS tags in our bulls has worked pretty well. I hope to discuss the cattle GPS in my future column. Thanks to the Lord for the rainfall. I hope everyone has a bountiful and most of all, have a safe harvest.