Prime Time Summer 2018

IRONS IN THE FIRE Continued from page 16

1/4 Vertical, 4 color Prime Time Broken Winds Cattle Co. Summer 2018 First of all, don’t procrastinate. (Did I really need to mention that one?) More important, however, I believe my hour with the ropes led me to more meaningful introspection. No matter how hopeless a situation may seem, there is probably a solution and a way out. It most likely won’t be easy, and it won’t be the answer that you’d like. But, you have to start somewhere. You have to start with the first rope, or the first string or fiber, the first day or minute or sentence or word. You can do hard things. You can start with the problem that’s at your feet right now and you can follow it from one knot to the next. Eventu- ally, I promise, you’ll run out of rope. PT here. Beef producers have great opportu- nity in the future to increasingly solidify market share and drive revenue growth for the industry. Beef quality is the founda- tion to that occurrence. PT Registered Akaushi Cattle Percentage Blood and Purebred BROKEN WINDS CATTLE COMPANY discovering the light bulb or, at least, the invention of the Internet. The lessons here are blatantly obvious.

HIGH-QUALITY BEEF Continued from page 23 Prime product per week. The weekly aver- age didn’t surpass 50 loads consistently until late 2010. Starting in 2012, the beef industry started piling on. Since then, the momentum seems to be gaining speed. In fact, the last week of May set a new Prime record at 236 loads – and May averaged more than 210 loads on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, conventional wisdom would tell us the premium for Prime (versus Se- lect) would decline over time given the in- creased availability of product. That hasn’t occurred. In fact, the premium in May hovered around $27 per hundredweight – that’s $2 better versus May 2008, while selling more than five times the amount of product. The premium dynamic defies laws of quantity and price. In general, as a product (e.g., high-quality beef) becomes less scarce, it should be worth relatively less over time. But the industry continues to produce more high-end product – and premiums for that product have remained surprisingly stable- to-stronger. Demand is the differentiator. Consumers are sending the signal that they desire beef at the high end of the mar- ket. As a result, the beef industry is able to clear greater quantities of that product. That’s a trend that doesn’t need to stop After more than an hour – an hour that could have, and should have, been put to- ward more meaningful tasks, like finding the cure to shingles or cancer – I eventually reached the end of my rope, literally. And, as my brain was released from the mind- numbing tedium of the task, I felt as though I may have accomplished a feat as great as only option was to follow it to a knot, twist and turn it out of the first labyrinth, follow it to the next knot and repeat the process until finally I was able to free a single rope from the snarl. I then started the whole thing over again with the second rope and then the third and the fourth rope. It was an exercise that stretched my patience to its limits. But it had to be done.

Joe Beltz Canyon, Texas ● (806) 683-7329 cowhand@me.com

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www.akaushi.com • Summer 2018