Background on Livestock Feed Cost Increases.

Hi all,
One of the various things I do is monitor the economy. If some
ranchers in your area have been impacted by unusual increases in feed
costs it is probably related to the strength or weakness of the
dollar.

Back in June or so when Gasoline costs were skyrocketing, the dollar
was weakening and as oil products are priced in dollars, prices rose
to offset the dollars fall. If that wasn't bad enough, a lot of Wall
Street hedge funds and other large investment speculators piled money
into commodity futures as a hedge against this dollar decline.

I noticed it when gas prices begin to drop faster than would be the
case if it were merely reduced demand. Sure enough, the speculators
added between 20 and 30 dollars to the per barrel price of oil during
this time and as the dollar strengthened all that money went somewhere
else.

This had two impacts on food and energy costs. The weaker dollar made
both more expensive and the speculation piled the expense higher.

In the supply chain for livestock feed, it probably took a while for
these big picture elements to hit the end user prices but when it did,
I imagine the increases were painful and, probably, unlike gas,
ranchers did not see downward feed price adjustments follow the basic
commodity price adjustments. There is probably a bit of price gouging
going on.

As the economy goes through more churning turmoil, your will probably
experience this again.

My sense is your best defense would be to focus on rangeland
restoration. If the rangelands are fairly healthy with lots of the
original plants that fed livestock, then all is to the good.

But, if the rangelands have been overgrazed and the edible fodder has
been replaced by cheat grass and loco weed, you will have lost the
original advantages for grazing that were present before settlement.

I hope this is helpful. Questions welcome and may you all be well.
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[Judy Powers]

Now there's a concept- create a healthy planet and stop abusing
everything we can... Judy

[hidden email] wrote:

>Hi all,
>One of the various things I do is monitor the economy. If some
>ranchers in your area have been impacted by unusual increases in feed
>costs it is probably related to the strength or weakness of the
>dollar.
>
>Back in June or so when Gasoline costs were skyrocketing, the dollar
>was weakening and as oil products are priced in dollars, prices rose
>to offset the dollars fall. If that wasn't bad enough, a lot of Wall
>Street hedge funds and other large investment speculators piled money
>into commodity futures as a hedge against this dollar decline.
>
>I noticed it when gas prices begin to drop faster than would be the
>case if it were merely reduced demand. Sure enough, the speculators
>added between 20 and 30 dollars to the per barrel price of oil during
>this time and as the dollar strengthened all that money went somewhere
>else.
>
>This had two impacts on food and energy costs. The weaker dollar made
>both more expensive and the speculation piled the expense higher.
>
>In the supply chain for livestock feed, it probably took a while for
>these big picture elements to hit the end user prices but when it did,
>I imagine the increases were painful and, probably, unlike gas,
>ranchers did not see downward feed price adjustments follow the basic
>commodity price adjustments. There is probably a bit of price gouging
>going on.
>
>As the economy goes through more churning turmoil, your will probably
>experience this again.
>
>My sense is your best defense would be to focus on rangeland
>restoration. If the rangelands are fairly healthy with lots of the
>original plants that fed livestock, then all is to the good.
>
>But, if the rangelands have been overgrazed and the edible fodder has
>been replaced by cheat grass and loco weed, you will have lost the
>original advantages for grazing that were present before settlement.
>
>I hope this is helpful. Questions welcome and may you all be well.
>>
>
>
>
>  
>

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I highly recommend you all go out and get yourselves "A Sand Country
Almanac" by the amazing, long dead Aldo Leopold. Aside from the utter
beauty of his writing, he was the founder of modern game management
science and many other things. He saw what was happening to arid land
ranges when your grandparents were kids, like in the 1930's. An
important aspect is 'carrying capacity'. H ow many cows can a range
handle before it crashes? One of the most ridiculous aspects of
ranching is the point where cows are fed corn. They are unequipped to
digest it so we end up with insane modifications of said cow to get
them to eat cheap feed.

I'd suggest raise chickens instead for a local market and then use the
chicken poop to restore range fertility and do whatever you can to
make the forage come back. I also was delighted to see some member
describe the flavor cooking aspects of "Old School" beef. Yes it seems
tough and grainy compared with cardboard supermarket tenderloin but
the flavor can be amazing when you rediscover old school prep methods
like braising or thin slicing stuff that the Mexicans well know. They
have an 'accordion' method of cutting meat very thin to make it
perfect for Tejano Barbecue. They are deep people, full of fun in
their way and do add to the quality of our lives.

On Sep 24, 6:35 pm, Judy Powers <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Now there's a concept- create a healthy planet and stop abusing
> everything we can... Judy
>
> [hidden email] wrote:
> >Hi all,
> >One of the various things I do is monitor the economy. If some
> >ranchers in your area have been impacted by unusual increases in feed
> >costs it is probably related to the strength or weakness of the
> >dollar.
>
> >Back in June or so when Gasoline costs were skyrocketing, the dollar
> >was weakening and as oil products are priced in dollars, prices rose
> >to offset the dollars fall. If that wasn't bad enough, a lot of Wall
> >Street hedge funds and other large investment speculators piled money
> >into commodity futures as a hedge against this dollar decline.
>
> >I noticed it when gas prices begin to drop faster than would be the
> >case if it were merely reduced demand. Sure enough, the speculators
> >added between 20 and 30 dollars to the per barrel price of oil during
> >this time and as the dollar strengthened all that money went somewhere
> >else.
>
> >This had two impacts on food and energy costs. The weaker dollar made
> >both more expensive and the speculation piled the expense higher.
>
> >In the supply chain for livestock feed, it probably took a while for
> >these big picture elements to hit the end user prices but when it did,
> >I imagine the increases were painful and, probably, unlike gas,
> >ranchers did not see downward feed price adjustments follow the basic
> >commodity price adjustments. There is probably a bit of price gouging
> >going on.
>
> >As the economy goes through more churning turmoil, your will probably
> >experience this again.
>
> >My sense is your best defense would be to focus on rangeland
> >restoration. If the rangelands are fairly healthy with lots of the
> >original plants that fed livestock, then all is to the good.
>
> >But, if the rangelands have been overgrazed and the edible fodder has
> >been replaced by cheat grass and loco weed, you will have lost the
> >original advantages for grazing that were present before settlement.
>
> >I hope this is helpful. Questions welcome and may you all be well.

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