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It's about __________, stupid. Remember an unheard of Arkansas governor defeating a sitting U.S. president who had an 80+% job approval rating only months prior? Remember the slogan "Its about the economy, stupid"? George Bush (the elder) had defeated Iraq and liberated Kuwait with a minimum of American casualties. Generals Powell and Schwartzkopf came home to ticker tape parades not seen since Lindberg or Eisenhower. The country's faith in its military was restored; morale was high. If the economy was sluggish, perhaps even recessionary, there were certainly no bread or gas lines. Yet a fiery political hack names James Carville (the ragun' Cajun) simplified Governor Clinton's campaign as an attack on the upper class, wealth distribution, and the overall state of the American pocketbook with the simple slogan "Its about the economy, stupid". Perhaps politics is best summarized into sound bites like that one. With regard to feeding cattle or the beef industry in general, I have never thought so. Too often we look for silver bullet answers to complex problems. I think we as an industry sometimes err to the side of over simplification. We get the bit between our teeth, our eyes glaze over and off we run until we hit the wall. Remember the continental cross fad in the 70's and 80's that got some people's mother cows so tall they could look over the top of a stock trailer? Remember the "war on fat" that put a lot of low quality, tough, tasteless meat on the market? Soon to be followed by the success of the CAB brand that had some feeders over chasing quality grade at the expense of other attributes. The people I most admire in this business have achieved success by a broad spectrum management approach that balances production, stewardship, and business discipline to achieve an acceptable rate of return in tough times, while leaving the market open to reward those who are in the right place at the right time. Today we stand at a crossroads wondering about source and age verification, the all natural market, branded product lines, exports, and high grain prices. And it is that last little problem that has me second guessing what I discussed in paragraph #2. If we assume the price of corn is probably not going back to $2, and that increasing population, biofuels, and other uses for cereal grain and forage crops will keep competition fierce for feedstuffs, then we need to re-prioritize what we want in a feeder animal. The choice-select spread moves from 0 to $25. Age and source verification premiums appear and disappear with the whims of Japan and Korea. But the steer that requires fewer pounds of feed to produce a pound of beef is always a more profitable animal to own, be corn at $3 or $10. So with apologies to the Rajun' Cajun, "Its about feed efficiency, stupid." Happy Feeding, Eric Moore
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