Don’t buy ‘em books about the cattle market
An education is not just in the books. The education is finding a way to make a profit in the market.
September 27, 2024
“Buy ‘em books and buy ‘em books. And they tear the pages out and use them for toilet paper.” One of my college instructors said that to us when he was frustrated with us. I never knew what he meant by it until this week.
I went to college because no other options were presented to me. I was told repeatedly when I was young to go to college, get the degree, and land the W-2 with benefits. Cattle will be something I do on evenings and weekends. Going to college became a paradigm, thank goodness the last part never did.
Employee training
The first semester and part of the second I was a model student. One night driving home from rodeos I woke up. At college they were training me to be an employee. It should’ve been obvious to see, but this is what a paradigm does to us. After that I began to challenge my instructors because I had a different vision for my life.
All of it came to a head one day. I was in this class where we were given a hypothetical that we came into a large amount of money and had to start a cattle business with it. We could pick what we wanted to do, be it cows and calves, feedlot, or stockers. We could pick if we would buy machinery and land or lease everything. We had to price all these things, come up with a marketing plan, and pay back the money that we fell into.
The final exam
In the end we were all going to be paid off and be millionaires in a couple decades. We were to bring our business plan and all our notes to take the final exam, which we were given two hours to complete. Everyone else was done in about an hour. I sat there for all two hours and never picked up my pencil. After time was up the instructor came to pick up my final, and noticing I didn’t touch it, he asked why. I told him it was all manure. If things really worked out like this, how come it’s not happening in the real world?
Break-even is not the goal
The last two weeks I’ve had conversations with parents whose kids are in college right now. The youngsters are being taught how to calculate break evens. People from different parts of the country that have never met each other told me the same thing. The instructors are telling the youngsters that there is no way possible we will make any money in this industry for the next three years. Imagine being the student and your instructor just told you that you’d be working for free for at least 30 percent of the next decade.
Another conversation I had this week was with a young cattleman, that attended one of my marketing schools. When he came to me, he was struggling and was teetering on accepting his operation may not make it. He had previously attended another marketing school, and nothing was working. He was also in a bad loan, bad meaning the lender dictated to him that he had to have so many cows of certain ages in his herd, and how he was going to manage and market the calves. This loan was structured to keep him dependent on the lender, and not to succeed.
It’s in the marketing
After attending my school, he went home and began to market the animals differently. When it was time for his annual review the lender was upset with him because his inventory was not what they dictated, and he sold pairs so he wouldn’t be marketing calves the way he should be either. He was instructed to “fix the problem,” despite the fact it was working. He then made a bold choice to ignore his lender’s instructions and kept doing trades the way I showed him how.
He also followed some other advice of mine, quit consuming the material the cozeners put out for at least six months. He informed me that during that time he had some mental break throughs. The break throughs lead him to finding better trades and managing his business better. Before his annual review this year he approached a different lender and showed them what he was doing and how well it was working. The lender was happy to work with him and he got out of his previous loan and now has someone he can work with.
Yesterday when I went for a run, I was thinking of all of this. My experience at college, these other parents who have a child there, and the guy who got himself into a better position. My mind was hyperactive, until the runner’s high kicked in and then my mind went completely blank. When I snapped out of it, things were so clear.
Self confidence
I grew up in an environment where we were told everything was against us. We are only going to win one football game a year, we have the highest teen pregnancy rate, and drug use, and the highest suicide rate in the state, coupled with the lowest test scores. We were being mentally programmed that we were losers. After my first semester at college, I received instruction on how to ride bulls from a past world champion. He also recommended I read a book on how to program my mind to win, which I did. Several months later I was covering my bulls and then I started pulling checks at rodeos. I developed self-confidence.
So, when one of my instructors would say the reason he doesn’t have any money, I rejected his statement, and eventually started questioning and challenging his teaching. You see, I was on a high frequency state, and he was on a low frequency state. These kids that are in college and being told cattle producers won’t make any money the next three years are being taught from a low frequency state, to perform at a low frequency state. The producer that blocked out the cozener’s material blocked out a low frequency state which allowed him the time needed to get on a high frequency state. That is why he had the mental break throughs and ended up getting quantum leap results.
Go for the results
I teach this high/low frequency material in my schools and try to illustrate how it affects the results we get in our business. I have known this stuff for years, even experiencing my own quantum leap after ghosting the cozener types. It wasn’t until I came out of that blank space while on my run that I understood it. There is a big difference between knowing and understanding.
These kinds of results are why I repeat to be careful of what you consume, because what you consume will consume you. Like causes produce like results. What we read, listen to and who we surround ourselves with, our environment, will have more to do with who we are than our DNA. I can warn people, buy ‘em books, and they won’t let it settle in, use the pages for toilet paper. I get it now.
Club calves
I used to think we only had an application issue and not an education issue. It is clear to me we have both. I told myself I was never going to mention clubbie calves on this blog, but after what I saw this week, I can’t ignore it and keep a good conscience. For those who don’t know what a clubbie is just imagine the fancy hair ball show calves.
First the show world evaluates cattle all wrong. The way those show winners are build and bred will not function in the real world. For this reason, they are heavily discounted at auction. The problem is kids get the idea that since they win shows they must be good. They also see the price tag that comes with those animals that are build right to be able to compete at prestigious shows and think they will make loads of cash breeding them.
Go for the plain cattle
At one sale I was at this week, I was making the market. They ran in a group and left the clubbies on them. I demanded they sort them off and I bought the plain cattle, and I refused to bid on the clubbies. this happened at two other sales I was at this week.
The clubbie sort offs sold on average $600 back of the plain cattle. If a breeder sells one $7,500 show animal the $600 roll back on twelve rejects consumed the entire value of the high-priced animal. And let’s not forget the added expenses of raising the clubbies, and extra labor, so now it will take less than twelve to consume the entire value of the $7,500 sale.
The added expenses and labor will also drive down the intrinsic value of the cows producing these calves. If this industry to go further, it will be up to these kids to carry the torch one day. It is our job to be sure they are properly equipped to do so. We must teach them the right things. Know and understand the difference between profitable functional real-world cattle and yard ornaments.
The opinions of Doug Ferguson are not necessarily those of beefproducer.com, beefmagazine.com or Farm Progress.
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