OVER MY SHOULDER
2007 year of cattlemens' ups and downs
J.D. SARTWELLE

The almost do nothing month of December has brought an eventful 2007 to a close. In typical fashion, live markets made little movements, political or international talk was at a minimum and the main topic of conversation for the month was the weather and what Santa was going to bring.

December put down some needed moisture in some areas and forgot about others. The Panhandle, East, Central and the Piney Woods regions received a little moisture while most of South Texas continued to beg. End of month saw needed moisture in the Southeast.

December ended a year of ups and downs, good and bad, back and forth, and was typical in that it had a little bit of everything. The year was a good production year in our area, extremely dry in others, saw higher prices and lower prices, saw production costs go out the roof with high priced crude oil, and higher priced grains, and ended the year with unresolved questions as well as the continuing battles that will plague us over the long term.

In 2007, beef demand, expansion of the export trade, dealing with lower priced competitive meats, higher energy costs and negative margins plagued the packing segment of the industry. High priced grains and costs of gains and negative margins at times, plagued the feeding level; high costs of almost every input at the cow-calf level put the squeeze on the cowboys. The farm boys did alright unless they were on the Gulf Coast where they could grow it but couldn't get it harvested. The year 2007 was typical in that some did well, others didn't, there were winners and losers, and if you were one or the other, you only had to wait a little while and it would change.

The new year will bring fresh opportunities to resolve the things that didn't get resolved in the old year and identify what we need to work on next. On an industry basis, we'll need to fight for open, competitive, markets that embrace 21st Century marketing expertise, oppose those things such a mandatory COOL that places higher, un-needed costs on the industry with no real consumer benefit, continue efforts for export expansion (and stop shooting ourselves in the foot), effectively deal with continuing threats to production agriculture from animal activist groups and continue our effective programs of promoting our own product.

In the country, on our level, we can stand another moisture related, healing kind of year to grow our crops, hay, and grass for our cows. We can hope that the industry solves some of the problems mentioned above, that every calf born in 2008 lives and weans at 600-plus and brings more than he did in the previous year. Most of all, we welcome the opportunity to do it all over again. Come on New Year.