Cattle Producers Gather For Va. Beef Expo

Gay Brownlee
Virginia Correspondent

HARRISONBURG, Va. — According to Bill McKinnon, manager of the Virginia Beef Exposition, “The best thing for beef producers is just to get together. We do like to commiserate a little bit,” he confessed, but said producers mainly share ideas.

And given the recent dry conditions along with the spiraling corn, fuel and fertilizer prices, sharing with each other what forages and feeds they use for their cattle is very helpful.

“A lot of folks in our trade show offer some solutions for some of the feed, some of the handling and health issues,” McKinnon said. “The Expo offers a good opportunity for those who need to, to sit one on one and discuss ‘can this product make my operation a little more profitable?’”

The Virginia Beef Exposition comes about a month into the spring season each year, but on Friday, April 18 the 2008 Expo opened with temperatures in the mid 80s. That in itself put folks in a good mood to stroll the Rockingham Country Fairgrounds where the Expo was conducted, but the day was so fine that some farmers stayed on the farm tending to springtime responsibilities.

McKinnon said more rain is needed because of the issue of surface water, creeks and springs. The talk is going around that if serious rain doesn’t come soon it will be the end for some producers, according to McKinnon.

“We are being hit from several sides given the fact that we haven’t really recovered from the drought last year. We used up all our hay supplies and grass is a little behind,” he said.

But farmers have a few alternatives. McKinnon said the beef industry leaders here are suggesting that instead of selling the 500 or 600 pound calf, producers might look for a way to put on 200 to 300 more pounds of gain, probably with forages.

“We’ve got really good grass if it will rain and we think that’s an alternative to put on some additional pounds at a relatively cheap cost We thinks that’s a really good alternative for us,” McKinnon said.

“We think corn is abnormally high,” he said, noting the effect of the ethanol industry.

“Our country has gotten used to grain-finished beef the last few hundred pounds,” the expo manager said. “We haven’t dramatically changed the cost of beef and so if the cost of feeding them goes up it cheapens the feeder cattle, the number one commodity we sell here in Virginia.”

McKinnon said that diesel fuel prices are also affecting the feeder cattle industry.

“A lot of cattle have traditionally gone to the other side of the Mississippi — Kansas and Nebraska — to be finished. Right now a steer may cost $70-75 a head just to ship him,” McKinnon said.

The folks who are not going out of business say they are cutting back, McKinnon said. Fertilizer costs are another part of the squeeze.

“(Producers) feel that if they cut their cow numbers back there won’t be quite as much pressure to produce hay and they can cut back on their fertilizer bill.”
Cash resources are difficult for those who had to use a lot of cash getting their cattle through the winter, McKinnon said. They feel they don’t have the cash to buy breeding stock this spring.

Marty Ropp from Bozeman, Montana, the director of field services for the American Simmental Association, said the beef industry issues are the same for all breeders who are concerned with input prices.

“Our producers make their money by selling genetics to commercial producers and they make their money by selling feeder cattle,” Ropp said.

“Drought is an issue,” Ropp said, “but competition for energy ... and fertilizer costs, those things long term are more of an issue for us than the drought. Droughts come and go and move across the country,” Ropp said, “but we think the cost of inputs is going to be a bigger issue.

“We are involved in feed efficiency research to lower costs of production to try to make genetics that don’t consume as much feed and still produce at the same or higher level to help try to address those challenges,” Ropp said.

Robert Tibbs from Havre de Grace, Md. said when he bought Shadow Springs Farm in the early 1970s he started raising Charolais cattle, but had already started crossbreeding Charolais in 1959.

“I like the way they grow,” Tibbs said.