MRJ said:
Econ, your claimed knowledge of the cattle/beef industry has failed you once again.
The fact is, between our Beef Checkoff activities and other cattle/beef industry efforts, Beef Demand increased 20% since 1998 which resulted in calf prices around $140/cwt (did anyone tell you what "cwt" means yet?), up from $90/cwt since '98.
There are continuing and changing updated plans to carry this forward for next five years with a goal of increasing Beef Demand an additional ten percent by 2010. Certainly, if we can raise it faster than that, we will be happy to accept that our plans work better than we had hoped!
We still produce too much fat, and there are quality problems in cattle that need improvement. Cattle producers willing to assess what they have and learn to produce beef the consumer wants will benefit from those plans. Those who simply choose to blame and whine abouy other segments of our industry may be left at the bottom of the commodity market.
MRJ
MRJ, the question of demand is not one you have enough intelligence to talk about. You don't even understand the points in the arguments I was having with Agman.
As for your little cwt question that Jason originally brought up, it is a kindergarten or a preschool question. As much as I have talked to you about your maturity of the discussion, you still don't get it. You want to hang on to thosse little questions because you have nothing else to offer except some BS that NCBA puts out. You can't think for yourself but you will be glad to speak out on behalf of the packers anytime.
You and Tam are truely amazing. It is like getting a cow stuck in a mudhole, calling all your neighbors over to help pull her out and you two are pushing her back in! You think you are helping with getting the cow out of the mud but you are just counterproductive. That is one of the reasons Tyson or any other big company NEVER has to worry about market power when it comes to a bunch of farmers. There are just too many dumb ones like you around to get anything done.
The reason that cattle prices have gone up has had nothing with a change in demand. It has everything to do with a decrease in supply. Agman's own numbers proved me right on that. He was too scared to bring up his demand numbers to take the point further.
This industry doesn't produce too much fat cattle. The market forces determine what is wanted and it is by price signals that come from packers. If it didn't pay to put fat on cattle, it wouldn't be done. I happen to like, and will pay for, a higher grade animal because I happen to know the difference. There are a lot of other people out there like me and that is what we call the "market". Tyson messed with that in the Pickett example to lower the cattle market so they could depress supply and in your idiotic reasoning "increase demand". They just made a bundle off of it in the poultry business. You can see it in their books.
Those who simply choose to be ignorant about other segments of the proteins industry may be left at the bottom of the profitability market.