Econ101 said:
HAY MAKER said:
cattle men aint gonna see any of the money,and while I like to see the exports resuming,it will make little to no difference in price of cattle to the cattle man.
"It's pretty simple, really; through international trade agreements, the packers and processors are able to get much cheaper cattle and beef from other countries.
Sell it with a USDA grade stamp to U.S. consumers for huge mark-ups. "Then, they use the highest quality beef, born and raised right here in the USA, and send it to Japan for huge markups again,pocket the money as usual.........................good luck
It is really for those cattlemen who are under the mistaken assumption that increased beef consumption brings more money to cattlemen. The fact that you have to go through the packers to get that benefit totally destroys this idea. Cattlemen and feeders sell cattle. Packers sell beef. They are two different entities altogether. Packers don't "give" anything to cattlemen or feeders, they buy it. If they could buy it for less they would and do. They were able to manipulate the cattle markets down to the tune of over 2 billion dollars via the Pickett frauds. They then substituted pork and chicken for beef (4 lbs. per capita consumption diffence in poultry over beef for years 2001 and 2003) and make a killing. They also do it by importing foreign beef.
Haymaker, on this one, you are right. There is a possible benefit by "tightening" supplies on the domestic market through exports. The packers make all the real money sending meat to Japan though.
Maybe you two don't know as much as you think you do about the benefits of exporting beef to Japan.
The farmer-feeder who bought some of our yearlings a few years ago and fed them to extremely high finished weight said he was making a bundle on them going to Japan.
I'm pretty sure Harris Ranch and others selling there are not doing it just for their entertainment!
And if the packers are as manipulative as you say, why are feeder prices and fat cattle prices going higher at all?
Are you guys in the Callicrate camp where he says packers set the prices arbitrarily at whatever they choose to pay for fed cattle?
MRJ