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The Beef Boycott of 1973

mrj

Well-known member
Can anyone find the facts on what percent of consumer income food purchases required AT THAT TIME?

It might be interesting to contrast it with the 9% or so required today in the USA to purchase our food.

Obviously, politics played a strong hand in the situation.

Nixon putting the ceiling on beef prices probably caused my Dad to have his first heart attack, though it was a 'silent' one, not known till some years later when the scars from a previous attack were observed after he had his second one. The very idea that a REPUBLICAN would do something so stupid was repugnant to him, to say the least.

MRJ
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
MRJ said:
Can anyone find the facts on what percent of consumer income food purchases required AT THAT TIME?

It might be interesting to contrast it with the 9% or so required today in the USA to purchase our food.

Obviously, politics played a strong hand in the situation.

Nixon putting the ceiling on beef prices probably caused my Dad to have his first heart attack, though it was a 'silent' one, not known till some years later when the scars from a previous attack were observed after he had his second one. The very idea that a REPUBLICAN would do something so stupid was repugnant to him, to say the least.

MRJ

Good thing he passed before George W. showed up!
 

mrj

Well-known member
Actually he lived on until 1986!

Unlike you, he would applaud the fact that GWB is doing his best, despite efforts of the liberals, Repub. and Dem. alike, to keep the terrorist backing Imams from establishing their power base in Iraq in order to control the oil to fund their take-over of the world and 'converting' everyone to their extremist version of Islam.

MRJ
 

Clarencen

Well-known member
I don't have the exact figures, but I believe the American consumer was paying about 14% of his earning for food in 1973.

The American people were complaing about the costs to the government for the storage cost of our surplus grain. Nixon and the sec. of agriculture, Earl Butz made arrangemnets to sell and dump our surplusses to Russia. It seems to me that corn and wheat prices reached an all time high then.

My brother and I were feeding cattle at the time. While we did not have large numbers, just what we had raised ourselves. Under pressure Nixon froze the cattle prices. Everyone thought when the freeze came off good prices would return so cattle were held over. Something similar to a black market developed, town people and others bought home freezers and bought and butchered cattle in the country to fill them.

We were buying corn, from what I remember we were paying somewhere near $4 a bushel for it. When the freeze was taken off there was a lot of cattle on the market, the expected higher prices did not come. About that time Earl Butz told farmers to farm fence row to fence row and foreign markets would be developed. We know what happened then.

I don't believe good cattle prices returned until about 1978. We may have still fed out cattle a year or two after that but we stoped about that time as returns were to small.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
About that time Earl Butz told farmers to farm fence row to fence row and foreign markets would be developed. We know what happened then.

He is a crook that should have stayed a college professor :( :mad:
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
MRJ said:
Actually he lived on until 1986!

Unlike you, he would applaud the fact that GWB is doing his best, despite efforts of the liberals, Repub. and Dem. alike, to keep the terrorist backing Imams from establishing their power base in Iraq in order to control the oil to fund their take-over of the world and 'converting' everyone to their extremist version of Islam.

MRJ

W. created the problem with the Imams in Iraq. They were minding their Ps & Qs under Saddam. Only when he went in and "did his best" did they become a problem. But, hey, that's another issue.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
MRJ said:
Actually he lived on until 1986!

Unlike you, he would applaud the fact that GWB is doing his best, despite efforts of the liberals, Repub. and Dem. alike, to keep the terrorist backing Imams from establishing their power base in Iraq in order to control the oil to fund their take-over of the world and 'converting' everyone to their extremist version of Islam.

MRJ

If you want to get technical, W. created the problem with the Imams in Iraq. They were minding their Ps & Qs under Saddam, only when he went in and "did his best" did they become a problem. But, hey, that's another issue.
 

agman

Well-known member
What you failed to cite Mike was the beef prices had advanced to record highs from 1969-1973, a result of rising beef demand. Demand from 1950-1968 was essentially static. The period from 1969-1973 was unique in that consumers ate more beef at higher prices. That is similar to what occurred recently from 1999-2004. Historically, such periods are short lived for any commodity or product, including beef.

Producers held cattle off the market expecting prices to rise even farther following the price freeze imposed by Nixon. The withholding of cattle resulted in the largest backlog on record. YG-4 and YG-5 cattle filled every feedyard. When the price freeze was lifted the glut of cattle hit the market and prices collapsed.

I remember the events of that period well as my parents got our family completely out of cattle business by the first week in August of 1973, including a purebred Charlois herd. The price collapse began during the third week of August. The lesson learned was that when profits are too easy to make, as they were then, and everyone wants in you should cash in. We remained out of the markets until the lows in 1976. The second lesson we were taught is that when a crash like this happens it does not come back immediately.
 

mrj

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
MRJ said:
Actually he lived on until 1986!

Unlike you, he would applaud the fact that GWB is doing his best, despite efforts of the liberals, Repub. and Dem. alike, to keep the terrorist backing Imams from establishing their power base in Iraq in order to control the oil to fund their take-over of the world and 'converting' everyone to their extremist version of Islam.

MRJ

W. created the problem with the Imams in Iraq. They were minding their Ps & Qs under Saddam. Only when he went in and "did his best" did they become a problem. But, hey, that's another issue.

Yes, it is another issue, and I'm sorry I did not make it clear enough for you that it was not Imams in Iraq only working to control/convert the worlds' population to Islam.

It was being discussed on late night radio long before 911. While I discount most of what I hear there, some things ring true, especially when history follows in the form of the 911 attacks. Leaders in several other Gulf nations were/are fearful of Saddam making a deal with those extremists and letting them have access to the oil, along with Irans' nukes, from what I've heard/read. Too bad you and too many others can only blame GWB instead of the real villians. I'm sure they have been gleeful over our Dem. politicians on the national media today!

But, as you said, that's another issue, and for another page on this site.

MRj
 

Clarencen

Well-known member
Oldtimer:

I don't think Earl Butz was so bad. He just should have been more careful who could overheard the things he said. Many of the farmers liked him. He asked them to do what they liked to do and could do best.

The problem was, it is fickle to rely to much on foreign markets. We can create them, then someone else who can produce cheaper will take them over.

The positive side of this was that the Russians found they needed us and wouldn't want to bury us. I think this is when they begain to think our system might be better than theirs.

The down side was, with low livestock prices and the expectation of good prices for grain, a lot of sod was turned over. Land was put into crop production that should never have been. Then we had to find a way to take it out of crop production again, and attempt to restore it.

It has been my observation through the years, that once our native grasslands have been plowed, we can never restore them exactly the way they were. There are many plants and other things out there that we hardly ever see or know how important they are. In my observations, I have found that there are rements of plants out there which lie dormant for years then with the right moisture and the right conditions they come
back .
 

Clarencen

Well-known member
Yes you are right! If you can't control people with word and common sense, use the stick. Of course that was not the whole deal, we wanted to thwart Russias invasion into Afganistan, but we see now where it led us.
We have to live with our political mistakes. I am not sure if we pick the smartest leaders.
 

agman

Well-known member
RobertMac said:
Clarencen said:
Then we had to find a way to take it out of crop production again,...

Jimmy Carter had no problem doing that with the Russian grain embargo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That embargo was the root cause of the U.S. loss of grain exports. Foregin countries poured millions of investment dollars to find and insure new supplies for the future. Does South America ring a bell?
 
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