Steer Planet - Show Steers and Club Calves Forum

Is the enviroment changing? Will there be a point where red cattle may gain favor over black cattle because of the heat issue? Also.....ground that used to be worthless......that cattle and sheep used to be run on is apparently worth alot of human dollars....because of urban sprawl and hunting interests. Pature prices seem to be rising higher than it makes sense....to run livestock on. Less acres for ruminants.

I think AJ is on the right track.  The average age of a rancher is something like 58 years old.  With the cost of land, equipment, and the cattle themselves, it is pretty much impossible for a young person to start up, unless they inherit the land/money from their family, or have outside income.  The value of land in our area ranges from $3,000-25,000 per acre.  Running cows or haying the land at those prices will NEVER pencil out.

Another issue to the beef industry is perception.  The perception that beef is not healthy for you and that it is the least healthy of the other meat choices out there, i.e. chicken, turkey, and even pork.  I do not believe this, but I am not the one that needs convinced of this.

This should be an interesting topic.

I think we have two problems one is how much money cattlemen are going to lose when they are on the wrong end of the correction of this cattle market because it wil happen.

Second is the inflated cost of production and land that keeps many younger generations from the oppurtunity to ranch for a living. I will tell you the problem we are facing. My wife and I live on her uncle's ranch. It is 4 sections in eastern NM. Stocking rate is 1AU per 40 acres. It has a 4200 sq ft 4br 3bth house built in the 30s and added on to in the 70s plus all the land is state lease which is $5200 per year. We think it is worth between $490000 to $600000. I have a good job that pays around $75k but I think there isno way to make this work. Wht do you guys think? Bythe way its 27 miles from town.     

The bad news:  Everything you are all saying about land prices and lack of young people interested in doing it is exactly correct.  Price of land exceeding its value for agriculture - particularly cattle ranching - has always been an issue.  If you look at the history, the ranch landowners (the big operations) have always been people that made that money doing something else.  Now its doctors/lawyers interested in hunting - it used to be railroad officials, Eastern U.S./European investors, etc.  

As morbid as this sounds, the current generation of agricultural landowners (essentially people in their 60s to 80s) are living significantly longer than their parents did and the next generation is not inheriting the land young enough to make a career of agriculture.  Current landowners tend to be either unwilling to or financially unable to pass control of the operations to the younger generation that is now responsible and capable of doing the work.  They want/need to hire low cost labor or rely on free help from family so that the true cost of owning/operating it is hidden in some ways.  Basically, our parents got control of the assets much younger than we are.

The good news:  Hardly any young people are interested in doing it.  Which means someday those of us that are will have access to land through leases, etc. I don't think there will be that much competition for it 20-30 years from now, at least if you live farther than reasonable commuting distance from cities.  Even though the land may be broken into smaller and smaller parcels through inheritance, landowners have to do something with it, for tax purposes if nothing else.  Even if you are only interested in hunting, you've got to control the vegetation growth through grazing at least.

and if this global warming is real, we are in big trouble..

John Coleman slams global warming (1 of 4)

Biggest problem facing the cattle industry's future?  Ourselves!

Almost all of these posts have excellent points. Chambero's post is on target. So many older people are collecting an oil/gas check and not raising nor letting another family member raise cattle in my area. I am currently in the oilfield services industry in my home county after being away for 20 years. I see 1/5 of the cattle that were here 20 years ago and most of the places have grown up in mesquite and/or cedar. It is sad IMO. I hope to be one of the ones picking up on these I have to lease the place to keep our ag exemption soon....