Page 10 - Oct12020

2020 FALL CATTLE
continued from page 3
for fall marketing. So what’s
causing these higher prices?
SUPPLY
The supply of feeder cattle
into the market has remained
high due to the backlog of cat-
tle that were ready to head
into the feedyards when pro-
cessor shutdowns started
happening. Some of these cat-
tle were held during the sum-
mer in hopes that the market
would recover once processing
started back up. This will re-
sult in fewer cattle that would
normally have been ready.
That scenario seems to have
played out, with processors
back up and running, moving
those cattle through the sup-
ply chain.
DEMAND
As feeders moved through
their inventory that came in
this spring, the cattle that
were held by producers have
run the supply a little short,
CATTLE MIGHT BE SECRET WEAPON IN FIGHT AGAINST WILDFIRES…
Evidence shows that wild-
fires have become more wide-
spread and severe over the
years, with the ongoing West
Coast blazes bearing testament
to the worrying trend.
Firefighters and farmers
have tricks of their own to pre-
vent fires from sparking and to
contain them enough for suc-
cessful defeat. But there might
be a secret weapon that hasn’t
been getting the attention it de-
serves.
Cattle.
Researchers with the Uni-
versity of California Coop-
erative Extension set out to
evaluate how much fine fuel
— grasses and other plants
known to start fires — cattle
eat and how their feeding be-
havior affects flame activity.
The team concluded that
without cattle grazing, there
would be “hundreds to thou-
sands” of additional pounds
of fine fuels per acre of land,
which could lead to “larger and
more severe fires.”
The team’s study results
have yet to be published, but
they offered their preliminary
findings in a blog post pub-
lished Aug. 31.
“Reducing fire hazard is not
as simple as grazing range-
lands to bare soil or even to low
The Midwest Cattleman · October 1, 2020 · P10
any real certainty of what’s
to come. What are consum-
ers going to be doing? What is
the government going to put
into effect? How is our ability
to trade going to look? What
does the coronavirus look like
in the coming months?
BEST ADVICE FOR
UNCERTAINTY
It is difficult to know what
to expect for future markets,
but you can still be prepared
to make the most of your sit-
uation.
driving up demand for feeder for corn and soybeans. This The best advice I can give
cattle in the yards. will help in the feedyards as you right now is to:
it will help pull feeding costs • Know your breakevens.
WEATHER lower, allowing for better cat- • Know your cost of gain on
The drought monitor is tle prices. your calves.
showing drier conditions for So there is hope. The mar- • Look at what the market
many parts of the Southwest kets have come up, the feed is offering and when.
as we continue through the supply is looking strong, and • Consider some risk man-
year. These drier conditions
may become more influential there is potential for demand agement.
as we head into winter. for cattle from the feedyard.
But in a year where we’ve Noble Research Institute
FEED PRICES been a little off — I mean
Current estimates are way off — it’s hard to have
pointing toward record yields
By Katie Camero
posely leave dry leafy remains
on grazing lands to protect
other aspects of the environ-
ment, such as future forage
production, protection from soil
erosion, and defense against
certain weeds, the researchers
explained.
Generally, fine fuels should
be kept at or below 1,200 to
1,300 pounds per acre during
the spring and summer to en-
sure flames, if a fire starts, stay
levels of fuel,” the researchers they consumed 11.6 billion below four feet — the “critical
wrote in their blog post. “Wide- pounds of fuel and roamed threshold that allows firefight-
spread and severe wildfires are about 19.4 million acres of pri- ers to safely access an area
predicted to increase over time marily private rangeland. from the ground without heavy
in California. This ‘new real- The team’s data comes from equipment,” the team said.
ity’ requires that we take ad- county crop data, Agricultur- Conditions can differ de-
vantage of all the tools in our al Census data and their own pending on temperature, wind
management toolbox to protect that they’ve collected over the and humidity levels, they
public safety while meeting our years. But still, there are acres added.
broader rangeland manage- of grazable land untouched by “These fuel removal esti-
ment objectives.” cattle or very lightly exploited mates are based on the best
Planned fires, also called by the hungry animals, mean- available data, but this data
“controlled burns,” are often ing “there are opportunities does not describe the complex
used to reduce dry fuels that to improve fire safety,” the re- details and variation of cattle
can lead to destructive blaz- searchers wrote. grazing across the state,” the
es, according to the National There’s also room for more researchers wrote. “There is a
Park Service. These “prescribed cows to join the feast. The team need for more consistent and
fires” are also used to help en- learned that 1.8 million beef accurate accounting of cat-
dangered species recover and cattle grazed California lands tle numbers and grazed acres
clear land for animals. in 2017, yet the number of cows across the state to better un-
Beef cattle can be found graz- there today “are only about derstand grazing’s impact on
ing in every California county, 57% of their peak numbers in fire fuels.”
according to the researchers, the 1980s.” fresnobee.com
except San Francisco. In 2017, Sometimes, farmers pur-