The end of an era

Ronnie and I spent part of our 2011 Memorial Day weekend at the Good Neighbor Farm Angus dispersal sale in Moultrie Georgia. This sale was the end of an era for the Chitty family. We met Horace and Brent Chitty many years ago while attending various Angus sales and events. In 2001 Ronnie became the chairman of the Florida Angus Association female sale, and Brent was one of the first breeders Ronnie called on to put cattle into the sale. Ronnie could always count on the Chitty family to bring high quality, functional cattle that would work in our environment. So attending this sale was bittersweet, it was great to see the Chitty’s but sad to see them leaving the industry. The Chitty’s will be missed, we wish them the very best.  They deserve it.

Graham Duchess 55
Registration #11359226

We knew the Chitty’s had built an excellent cow herd around their foundation cow Graham Duchess 55. Brent Chitty has said that this cow was the best he had ever purchased.
She is the kind of cow that we like deep, clean fronted, structurally correct with a beautiful udder. The mark of a great cow is no matter what bull you breed her to the mating works, Graham Duchess 55 is that kind of cow. Based on this we attended the sale in hopes of purchasing a daughter from this great cow. We were fortunate to purchase not one but two daughters GNF Duchess 856 700 NDay Registration # 16384055 and GNF Duchess 859 700 ND878 Registration # 16392475 we feel both these cows will be nice additions to our herd. Both of these purchases were AI'D to
S A V Final Answer.

S A V Final Answer 0035
Registration #13592905

It was a wonderful Memorial Day for us. I just have to say thank you to all the service men and women who make the ultimate sacrifice for this country, so that we can enjoy the freedoms, such as speaking our mind, picking our own religion and feeling safe every day.

As Tom Burke would say “Happy Days!”

Small Supplies and Record Prices

I was reading an article by Tod Kalous "Small Supplies and Record Prices" in my spring 2011 National Cattlemen. I was not surprised to read that the total U.S. cattle inventory decreased 1.3 million head in 2010 and totaled 92.6 million head on Jan. 1, 2011, which puts the total inventory back to levels not seen since the early 1950’s. I can’t say I am surprised by these numbers, I have been watching the national cattle inventory decrease for the last few years, and have been telling anyone that would listen that eventually it would mean more dollars for our product. The article goes on to say that numbers are estimated to decline another 1 to 1.5 percent during 2011. What does this mean to us as producers? The smaller beef supplies and stronger beef demand are expected to lead to record high prices for all classes of cattle in 2011 with continued increases in 2012…..can I get a big hallelujah and might I add it’s about time! Does this good news mean our struggle is over? Sadly the answer is no, we as producers are still going to have to deal with high feed prices, and for many of us drought is becoming a major issue. If drought conditions continue it could force many of us to sell cattle that we would prefer to retain. There are things we can do as producers to make our cow herds more profitable, however issues like drought our not something we can control, we just need to send up prayers for rain and hope the good Lord sees fit to send it.  I pray that he will send the rain soon, we would normally have already rolled up over 200 bales of hay, at this point we have only rolled 20, needless to say we are praying hard.