reopening

Here we go, embarking on another week. The sun has been out in most places, making people happy. I know in Western NE they received 2" of rain the past couple days, so did we here in Craig, CO. Green grass and sunshine, does a person good. 

The word is the economy is starting to open back up. Restaurants are starting to serve people, beauty shops,beauty salons, etc.. The regulations on how we go about our lives is still a little unclear to me. I mean, they have rules on how far you can go, or how many people can go in a certain place at one time. All a little confusing to me. I think you need to open it all the way or not at all, but that is  just me. The reason I think that is because it is hard to run a business profitably, at half capacity.  On the subject of opening back up, many of the pork and beef processors are starting to slaughter again. Not all of them, some are still dark, the ones that are coming back on, are only processing about half of their capabilities. This is backing up cattle everyday. Placements are still falling, daily placements into feedlots showing a 42% decline from the year prior, so far this month, granted we are only a few days in. The rate of decline in placements isn't enough to make up for the rate of decline in marketing/Slaughter numbers, which are down 65% from this time last year. Here lies our biggest problem to work through. 

Solutions to this problem are very hard to come by, one of the solutions I have heard of is a bill brought forward by Rep. Massey. It is called the Prime Act. Look it up. It is a proposal to reduce the regulations on smaller, local, and more regional plants. This is a great way to help the smaller processors, which in turn will get more activity in the cash negotiated market. Good for everybody, less regulations not more. All good things.

Thanks again for reading. We hope to see you at the sale tomorrow 5/6/2020.

Below is a snap shot of global commodity prices, as of 535 am MST. 5/5/2020