Dry conditions are affecting pastures and ranges in states from western Montana, across to eastern North Dakota, and south to the Mexico border, taking in the 12 central western states. The May 4th USDA Pasture and Range Conditions Report noted that Nebraska had just 4% of pasture and rangelands in good to excellent conditions, while Arizona and Colorado had from 8% to 10% of pastures with similar ratings, Both Utah and New Mexico range lands were rated at over 25% in the good to excellent category. By comparison, states in the middle of the country had much higher ratings for much of their grazing lands, While pastured lands in the southeast from Virginia to Florida were also very dry.
Farmers are watching U.S. diesel fuel flirting with all time high prices to start this week. At present, in some states, the price is just 20 cents away from reaching an all time high, while six states are already seeing the average price of diesel reach above $6.00 per gallon. These high fuel prices coupled with increasing fertilizer and repair equipment costs are leaving many farmers facing the possibility of not even financially breaking on most of their crops this year.
But beef producers are also watching what will happen with prices, while President Donald Trump is temporarily suspending tariffs on beef imports from all major exporting countries, while he attempts to lower retail prices for consumers. Monday, fed cattle prices for October delivery dropped $1.63 per cwt after Trump's plan was announced, while September feeder cattle prices dropped more than $2 per cwt. According to the Wall Street Journal, tariffs on beef products will be suspended for 200 days, which will likely encourage beef imports volumes to increase from Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and New Zealand. The group, Farm Action, noted that the White House's previous moves to reduce beef prices have failed, because previous increases in beef imports have not lowered the prices for American consumers. The organization blames consolidation in the meatpacking industry for at least part of the higher beef price problem for consumers. Based on USDA data, beef imports are steadily rising and make up about 18% of all beef consumption domestically. Removing tariffs for most of the year will likely push that volume higher the organization contends, but it likely won’t do much for lowering consumer beef prices, but could negatively affect U.S. beef producers profits this year, just when many producers were finally looking for some relief from lower crop prices and high input costs.
Recently, I mentioned livestock producers using virtual fencing to keep animals in areas where physical fences are difficult to put up and maintain. The system used a base station to communicate with the collars worn by livestock, giving them an electric shock when they began to move beyond the virtual fence boundaries. But they only worked when the collars could pick up a signal by line of sight, which makes the system questionable when cattle grazed in the bottom of canyons. Recently, The Global virtual fencing company, Halter, announced that they were launching a direct-to-satellite system for their smart cattle collars, connecting with Starlink. This system can be used anywhere, regardless of the terrain. The High Lonesome Ranch, located about 20 miles northeast of Grand Junction covers over 225,000 acres of rough terrain and is one of the first ranches to install this satellite-enabled system.
Author Walter Lippmann wrote, “You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steamroller will not plant flowers.
