Farmer Focus: My costs are 30% higher and rising
© Kandace Griffin We are starting to see hints of autumn creeping into summer here in the Flint Hills. The days are a little shorter, the nights a little cooler, and the grass is starting to fade to brown.
The pastures that were full of several hundred thousand stockers (store cattle) are now mostly empty and will be until next May.
Most people hope cattle gain 1.13-1.3kg a head a day while turned out on grass. Most were 0.9kg or under this year due to the cold and wet conditions rapidly changing over to hot and dry.
We don’t have the luxury of completely destocking, of course, but are doing our own preparations for the change.
See also: Farmer Focus: Inputs and loans crushing cattle ranchers
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We have brought the yearling bulls off pasture a month early because of the drought, but we had pens ready. The autumn-calving cows have been brought off summer grass to pastures closer to home.
Next week, we will start the pre-weaning vaccines on spring-born calves.
We will be weaning them early as well to compensate for the drop in forage quality and give the mothers a break for several months before we head into winter.
The markets continue to be “interesting”. Cattle prices are exploding even higher, which is helping, but they are an exact result of some brutal supply and demand.
The low prices of Covid sparked a drop in cattle inventories as it was impossible to make any money. Now it is drought that is forcing downsizing of herds.
Producers are starting to price winter feed if they couldn’t make enough of their own (and most people weren’t able to). Shell-shocked is probably a fair term for it.
The targets are still moving, but I would guess our costs will be around 30% higher than a year ago.
We did what I thought was a good job locking in some input prices early, growing some extra hay, and adding another field of forage sorghum for silage.
I am escaping in September to visit Spain for a quick vacation. I am excited to get back to Europe after Covid. Hopefully, the timing is just right, and I will be able to dodge drunk-Brit season and the Russians.