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Texas Agriculture Archive

November 21, 2003

"How 'bout them cow prices?" Mel commented recently.

"I'm surprised you haven't wanted to buy some. What are you waiting on—the prices to get higher? Seems like we always follow a 'buy high, sell low' strategy..."

My husband glared at me and said, "Doggone it, why'd you have to go an' say that?"

"Well, would you rather I say we didn't have a strategy at all?"

Mel bristled and his voice got a little more shrill.

"Ever'body in the cow bidness fer any laingth of tahm is gonna hit a down cycle oncet in awhile."

"Well, we're mighty consistent. I don't think we ever missed a one of them," I remarked.

We hashed and rehashed our experiences in the cow/calf business and shed a few tears. We recalled a standard joke, when prices were in the tank, that suggested folks were afraid to attend any of the co-op or industry meetings because they were giving away bred heifers as door prizes.

"Now that wouldn't be too bad uva proposition raht now," Mel noted.

I agreed.

"Funny thang about cowmen. Cain't ever second guess 'em. I wuz jawin' with a fellar at the salebarn the other day who wuz gittin' shed uva bull he couldn't keep hemmed up. I asked him if he'd been sellin' any cows lately. He said no. I asked him why not, with prices bein' where they were. He proceeded to explain to me that he liked to hold on to his cow herd, kiney lahk a savin's account. He said he didn't figger on drawin' much interest, but he lahked havin' 'em so when he needed a li'l money, he could go out in the pasture, round up one er two, an' take 'em to the auction barn and cash 'em in lahk a CD. I asked him if he calculated how much it wuz costin' him to provide room an' board fer them ol' cows. Said they wuz savin' him money, helped keep his pasture eat down so he didn't have to buy a new shredder."

"Sounds like some of the excuses you've made when you didn't want to get rid of cows that needed to be hauled."

Mel grunted.

"I wonder if that's where the term 'cash cow' came from?" I pondered aloud. "Obviously, Jasper has another revenue stream or he would have cashed in all his cows long ago."

"Well, he's got his place paid off, so he jist needs a li'l money fer gasoline and taxes," Mel said.

Mel began discussing how much more sophisticated the cow business has become in recent years.

"You cain't jist turn 'em loose out in a pasture to fend fer thurselves," he said. "An' you got to set yore goals higher'n jist producin' hamburger bulls. Cattle cain't jist be a sideline, although most ever'body in agriculture's got a few. You gotta put a lot of plannin' an' effort into makin' a go of it nowadays."

"Well, we've got the effort part down pat," I commented.

"Jasper said he wuz hangin' onto his cows an' planned to focus on raisin' nice replacement heifers, since thur predictin' a shortage of those jist aroun' the corner."

"Hmm. Wonder if he thought about that before he got rid of his bull?"