That's gotta be either Terry or his son, checking on the cows. It's a family operation. They own a few hundred acres, and lease a few hundred more for the pasturing season, including mine.
The welfare of their cattle is their clock and their calendar.
If you added up the hours they work, and calculated the net profits from their 150 head cow-calf operation, neither of them are making minimum wage.
As for benefits... har dee har har!
No pension plan.
No dental plan.
No paid sick days.
No free prescription glasses every couple of years.
No nothing!
But they keep doing it!
That's coming to an end. The last generation of pasture-raised beef farmers is running on fumes. Absentee landlords can get ten times as much rent out of cash-croppers. A little capital investment in tile drainage and a generous dose of chemical fertilizer will render many grazing lands into cash-crop lands.
There's no way the beef farmers can compete.
Your rib-eye steak in a few years will come from the same place your chicken and pork already comes from.
An industrial scale feedlot where the cattle can go from feed trough to slaughterhouse without ever being trucked anywhere.
Enjoy your barbecue!
No comments:
Post a Comment