I currently have snow piled up in every spot I have available on my small ranch, but the problem now is that it looks to warm up with rain showers expected all this coming week. Better yet—calving season is just starting. I know many of you reading this are in the same boat as I a
This past week saw just about everything Mother Nature had been sitting on. A daily email I subscribe to quoted that the second week in January didn’t have a single safe place in the U.S. to run to. There were huge weather patterns in the Southeast and tornados across the South. Snow squalls in the upper Northeast had Buffalo Bills fans shoveling feet of snow off their seats for the Bills wildcard game. Across the Northwest into the Midwest saw blizzards, winds and plummeting temperatures that had everyone in lockdown.
The cattle markets clearly showed the impact with two separate plants shutting down multiple shifts due to travel conditions and power shortages, but the market stayed resilient, and cattle prices continued to improve slightly. We will see a big impact in the short term on carcass weights, but with the largest carcass weights on record happening recently, there is some room to give here. As this publication goes to print, the following day will have the first Cattle on Feed report for the year and give a little bit of a clearer picture of where we stand on inventory.
We will also be able to see how inventory slaughter numbers adjusted coming out of these drastic weather patterns and how carcass weights and quality were affected. It’s only mid-January, and we still have a lot of winter left.
During the National Western Stock Show (NWSS), temperatures fell well below 0 F with high winds, proving difficult for travel in and out of Denver, but overall it was another exceptional week for the 118-year-old event. Entries were well above the previous year as the show is still gaining traction from the pandemic-induced shutdown of 2020. Anyone in attendance couldn’t help but notice the monster-sized building currently under construction with anticipation of being one of the world’s best places to show livestock.
Sales in the two major events, Cattlemen’s Congress in Oklahoma City and NWSS in Denver, had seedstock cattle trading hands at exceptional levels, which should drive even bigger success moving forward for both shows.
While much of the nation is thawing out, a really neat story happened on the West Coast that can’t go without mentioning. I’m proud of our industry.
San Diego held the first ever San Diego Rodeo in Petco Park where the San Diego Padres play baseball. In front of sold-out crowds with some of the biggest names in rodeo and judges who donned Padres jerseys as their official dress, the rodeo went off without a hitch. Clearly this rodeo met resistance leading up to the event with two activist groups filing petitions to stop any event from happening. Luckily, a judge who supported the event denied the petitions and upheld the event’s desire to bring rodeo to a new audience in San Diego.
With names like Tuf Cooper winning the tie down roping, Kelsie Domer winning breakaway and Trey Benton winning bull riding, an event of this magnitude can’t see success without the best in the business coming forward to support. Coverage from media outlets likeSports Illustratedcarried enormous pressure for the event to go well, and it surely did. Congrats to C5 Rodeo and the Padres organization for staying steadfast in their goal to bring the western event to San Diego.
To me, it shows the resiliency we all carry in agriculture. Whether it’s a stock contractor teaming up with an MLB organization to host a rodeo in an area that could see more resistance than support, and the event is a huge success. Or maybe it’s the rancher in a remote area dealing with a blizzard while heifers are starting to calve, the passion for the Western way of life continues to display itself.
Sometimes it’s in front of a roaring crowd, but more often than not, it’s when the chore clothes are stripped off, a fire is started and that feeling of peace for a job well done overcomes you as your body tries to refuel itself for the day. Sometimes it’s overcoming the feeling of defeat while other times it’s reflecting on success.
Resiliency is so important to us all, especially during times like this. Like a weather pattern that comes raging in, we all fight through it protecting our interests and battling our adversaries. So, when the storm passes, we can look across our field of work and appreciate all we endured. — LOGAN IPSEN
