Many Texas ranchers won’t
survive multibillion-dollar
financial hit from coronavirus
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
by
Kristian Hernandez
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
5/10/2020 10:27:35 AM
The spring pastures perfect for grazing cattle on Marisue Potts’ ranch have begun to dry. That means it’s time to sell.
Potts owns a ranch near Matador, Texas, where she keeps a herd of about 35 cattle. In a few weeks she’ll take her yearlings and full-grown steers to the nearest auction in Floydada. She expects to make less per head than she’s made in at least a decade.
“I’m going to take whatever hit I’m going to take financially,” Potts said. “There are ranchers who can hold on until this bottleneck is fixed and the markets stabilize but I can’t do that.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
TJ54 5/10/2020 11:32:57 AM (No. 406998)
Trump has a program to purchase meat, etc. I know this will give this "journalist" the sads
4 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Howard Adams 5/10/2020 11:40:36 AM (No. 407013)
Let's give proper attribution where it belongs... more consequences of the "Fauci-Birx Mitigation" economic shutdown.
6 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 5/10/2020 12:05:25 PM (No. 407041)
Lots of very small businesses are running right on the edge, and have no plan for 'a rainy day', and like people with the same non-existent plan - unforseen problems can sink them.
This isn't anyone's problem except those people who failed to plan for hard times, didn't put aside funds to help them over a hump, or some sort of other temporary measures to get them past a difficult situation. And I wonder if a "ranch" with 35 head is anything other than a part time hobby, anyway. I have had friends over the years who were "farmers" who grew corn and wheat on 100 or 200 acres. And they were ACTUALLY computer programmers or engineers who played at being a farmer in their spare time, had nowhere near enough land, skills or other things to be an actual farmer who made their living only from farming. It was a nice hobby for them, a bit of extra income, but not their primary livelihood.
I wonder if a lot of these "small ranches" aren't much the same. A friend, who worked in a factory used to have about 25 head of cattle, has a lot of land he inherited, just under 1,000 acres. He worked in a small factory, but kept the cattle for years after his father died. Eventually, he tired of dealing with them, and the small income, and sold them off and never had cattle again, it was really his father's hobby. He has an agreement with a REAL farmer who farms his land and a LOT more besides, and my friend gets a share of the crop earnings.
6 people like this.
Rush had a rancher on his show on Thursday. With the slaughterhouses closing because there is a risk of getting Covid-19 there is less places available to market their cattle. The big slaughterhouses like Smithfield are foreign owned and are limiting the number of local cattle in favor of importing more cattle from Brazil and China.
There many local slaughterhouses available ready to ramp up production and willing to do more to increase the production of beef processing. They are being hampered by excess regulations.
A solution would be for President Trump to remove the regulatory roadblocks to ease the beef, pork and chicken shortages.
Let's help those ranchers and maybe we would not have to buy so much food just to give it away.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
StormCnter 5/10/2020 2:15:44 PM (No. 407196)
Texas ramchers and farmers are accustomed to wild swings in market prices, droughts, wildfires, illegal transients, wildlife poachers, livestock rustling. We have survived them and will survive the downturn in 2020. It's too easy to brush off the small guys, poster, but many of the small guys live season to season with few opportunities for rainy day set-aside. Your paintbrush is too wide.
2 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
TJ54 5/10/2020 3:03:08 PM (No. 407240)
Isn’t this “newspaper” a Commie/Dem rag aka Fake News?
0 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Proud Texan 5/10/2020 4:09:32 PM (No. 407307)
DVC really has a lot to learn about reality. The same size farm may be a tiny farm in one part of the country and a huge one in another part of the country. I learned that lesson myself when I used to farm and was almost embarassed when talking about the amount od acres I farmed when talking to farmers 400 miles away from me. Turned out they though I was big.
another thing, my mom is in same shape as the lady in this story. She wasn't able to save up because ot medical bills for her and Dad for the last several years resulting in his death. Here I am trying to help her and the oil prices have slammed me since I do machine work for the oil industry. We tried to save up for a rainy day, but sometimes the flood is a little too big.
I guess I get more ticked off than I should when someone's comments just automatically blame someone losing their livelyhood from circumstances they couldn't avoid without realizing that the people involved may have a great effort but sometimes things just don't work out. It IS a problem for people that save up, also.
2 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
DVC 5/10/2020 7:56:51 PM (No. 407437)
#7, I know a number of farmers. The biggest farmed 80,000 acres dry land wheat in west KS and eastern Colorado, that's 125 square miles, (he retired a few years ago) the smallest about 70 acres. WAY different outlooks, needs, crops and views. But both were farmers. The smaller guy worked part time computer programming, too, but still considered himself a farmer.
1 person likes this.
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Our area of Texas ranching produces mainly sheep and goats and our industry hasn't been hit quite so hard. Now if oil and gas prices could rebound!